Is Catholicism a sub-division of Christianity or vise versa or neither?

Answer 1

Catholicism is the root of Christianity. All other forms of christianity are branches of christianity that would not have existed without the Catholic Churches holding down the fort for 1500 years.

Answer 2

A little of both. Catholicism was the larger faction of the Christian faith when Eastern and Western Christianity split in 431. The church before that since the Roman conversion was called the Catholic Church but it's beliefs were very different from Catholicism today. The modern Catholic Church came about at that time with the Vatican and the line of Popes and all that good stuff.

Answer 3

FZ220,
What a question! I bet that you will get all kinds of answers.

Here's my take on it:
Roman Catholicism started when the Roman leader of his time became converted to Christianity. he did something very bad. He combined the Religion of Christianity with the state government. That means that there was no Separation of Church and State.

When people believed in Jesus without the errant rituals during that time, they became persecuted. And the Roman Catholic Church (The RCC), being the state church that had the laws of the land on their side, saw that those that were "Reformed" by the scriptures that made the rituals of the RCC false, the RCC decided that they must make it stop. After all, the money and 'Faithful' in the church might go elsewhere.

There was a time, hundreds of years later when the Reformed got a great set of leaders; Martin Luther, Tyndale, Wytcliff, etc. who made it so that the RCC could not keep up with the Reformed and their ways.

So to summate all this, the RCC is a form of Christianity, and not the Christianity that is in the Bible, though they would argue. Catholicism came AFTER Christianity, if you want to count it that way.

Answer 4

I would say the former. Quite early on, Christianity began to fragment into different sects and groups, some of them quite bizarre like the Gnostics. Catholicism for a long time was a dominant group that kept all of them smaller ones in subjection, especially during the Middle Ages. The Protestants, which came out of it in revolt, often take the position that Catholics are not true Christians, and some Catholics take the same position in reverse. So today we have all these different groups fighting and squabbling amongst themselves like so many little children. The history of Christianity is an interesting one, especially concerning the famous Council of Nicea.

Answer 5

More visa versa. Catholicism is what the early Christian church evolved into. It started out good but man really screwed it up. It was not until the reformation that real Christians were able to speak out without losing their heads. The Catholic church is very large today and all over the world. However, most born again Christians today do not consider the Catholic church part of Christianity.

Answer 6

Sociologically speaking, Christianity is a more general term than Catholicism. Historically, they were one and the same until the first division of the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches nd the latter multiple divisions or the Reformation.

Answer 7

To say that all churches evolved from the Catholic church is not quite accurate. It is the Catholic church that formed a union with paganism, thereby separating herself from true Christianity. This is referred to as the great apostasy, or falling away in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. From that point on Catholicism became antiChrist, usurping the authority of Christ. The pope even declared himself to be God on earth. Many former Catholics realized the error the church had fallen in to and separated themselves from her. Thus, the new reformed churches were made up of former Catholics.

It is true that the Catholic church started out as a Christian Church. However, Satan also started out as an angel. The Catholic system is not of Christ but of antiChrist. There can be no union between Christ and antiChrist.

Therefore, the Catholic church is no longer of the body of Christ, although many individual Catholics, who are sincerely living up to all the light that they have, belong to the body of Christ.

The root of Christianity is Judaism. I do not believe that most would consider Christianity to be a subdivision of Judaism. And Judaism is certainly not a subdivision of Christianity. Because Judaism rejected the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, some Jews separated themselves from a system that was rejecting present truth and Christianity was started. In like fashion, the reformers could no longer stay in a system that rejected the clear truths of the Bible regarding justification by faith alone, homage to saints and the virgin Mary, idols in the church, purgatory, indulgences, confession to priests etc.

Answer 8

Christianity and Catholicism is not the same. Catholicism is a system of religious works and they worship mary (a dead woman). True Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Answer 9

The Catholic Church possesses the fullness of all God's revealed truth.

The Church, which has been called Catholic, meaning universal, since the early 2nd century, is the original Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ, and is also the Church which testifies to the divine, inspired, and inerrant nature of the Bible.

The Protestant Christian denominations accept only various subsets of Catholic beliefs, primarily based on scripture, and date back to the 15th century, or later.

Any good history book will provide clear documentation for these statements.

Answer 10

Christianity is a big, umbrella term referring to several groups of people who believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Catholics, because they believe in the divinity of Christ, are Christians.

Protestant groups (e.g. Methodists, Lutherans, Calvinists, Episcopalians) believe in the divinity of Christ--they are Christians.

Mormons believe in the divnity of Christ--they are Christians.

Muslims believe that Jesus Christ was a prophet of God, but they do not believe in his divnity. Therefore, Muslims are not Christians.

Many people confuse the whole Christian/Catholic thing because they confuse "Protestant" with Christian. In Western culture, usually Christians are either Catholic or Protestant. However, those aren't the only major groups of Christians in the world. For instance, early off-shoots, predating the Reformation, include various groups like the Coptic Christians and the various Eastern Orthodox churches.

Hope this helps.