If Catholics did not exist would there been any other Christians?

Answer 1

Actually the early church, after Constantine, when it started to take official form was closer in nature to Orthodox religions, not Catholocism. One of the causes of the Great Schism, when they broke apart in the 11th century, was that the Eastern Christians felt the Western Ones, the Roman Catholics, were 'innovating'. So yes, without Catholics there would be other Christians. The very earliest Christianity took many forms, and if Catholocism hadn't prevailed in the West, some other form would have.

Answer 2

Catholics are taught that Paul was the first pope and that the first church was catholic, but there is no reference to this in Gods Word. The word catholic isnt even in the bible, and they just assume that when it talks about a church its automatically talking about catholic church. The catholic church didnt adopt the belief of the pope several hundred years after the catholic church started. However, the churches the disciples started were nothing like churches of today and even more nothing like catholisism teaches. For one they had church in homes, second their was no hierarchy, and second it certanly wasnt rich like the catholic church is today. Christ makes christians, not a religion, and as the disciples taught others and those taught other, and so on, things began to be perverted because man thought it knew better than God, and couldnt trust God enough through faith, so to fulfil this they added to Gods Word and somwhere along those lines catholic church began to take form and they adopted roserys, praying to the dead, and added infant baptism and so on. Its the oldest man made lorganized religion and on the outer surface its the same as "all christian religions" but once you get deeper into it, you see things and hear things that arent biblical. Its very easy, im sorry to say, to bend and streach the doctrine thats in Gods word to say what you want. Jesus isnt a catholic and neither were the disciples and even though catholic means universal, the name was adopted by a man, not God.

Answer 3

If your question is whether there are other equally ancient Churches with equal claims to authenticity and apostolicity, the answer is yes.

The first schism in Christian history occurred in 431, when the Church of the East and the rest of the Church split over Christological issues. The Church of the East was an enormous Church, covering Persia and everything to the east -- they had missionaries in central China in the 8th century. Today the Church of the East is quite small, but maintains that its faith is the apostolic faith. They are sometimes pejoratively called "Nestorians," although this designation is inaccurate. They live predominantly in Iraq and Iran, although their Patriarch resides now in the United States.

The Oriental Orthodox Churches also separated from the rest of Christendom over Christological issues, this time after the Council of Chalcedon in 451. These Churches of this communion maintain the same theology today, and believe that they are the authentic representatives of apostolic Christianity: the Ethiopian, Coptic, Armenian, Syrian, and Malankarese Orthodox Churches.

The Eastern Orthodox Churches -- whose communion includes the Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Antiochian, Romanian, Alexandrian, Serbian, and Albanian Churches, among others -- separated from the Roman Church in 1054 over the issue of Papal supremacy. These Churches maintain that the Church of Rome distorted and falsified its proper and ancient role in the Church, and subsequently fell into other doctrinal errors as well. They claim also to represent the authentic apostolic faith.

So in terms of Churches with direct, uninterrupted links to the apostolic church, the contestants are: the Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Roman Catholic Church (properly speaking, simply the Catholic Church, since the Roman Catholic Church is only one of many local Churches which make up this communion). If you want to decide which one is correct, you'd better be ready for some pretty serious study.

Answer 4

The Catholic Church was founded by Peter and the other disciples of Jesus - it was the first Christian church. I wonder many times why people refuse to call Catholics Christians, when they are the original followers of Christ. I don't understand how Catholics couldn't have existed when the disciples founded the Church and other Christians broke off to form their own separate church.

Answer 5

Yes. There were Christian sects besides Catholism. A little history of Christianity in Europe might help to answer this question.

Answer 6

That is a brilliant question! No, no other Christian would exist without Catholicism. Without the Catholic church Christianity would have fallen into obscurity.

Answer 7

Essentially, every current Christian denomination has spawned from the Roman Catholic Church. Christianity probably would still exist, but the separate religious denominations thereof would look drastically different.

Answer 8

Probably not, since Catholics are the first church Christians.

Answer 9

Before about the year 1520, the ONLY Christians were all Catholics!

That doesn't mean they were any more or less misguided than todays "Christians", of course!

Answer 10

No. Catholicism is the only reason Christianity managed to spread successfully. Without the Roman Empire's official mandate, the cult of Christianity would have died in its infancy.