Which came first the RC Church or New Testament?

Question

It seems that the Catholic Church existed before the New Testament.
According to Acts 8:3
"Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment."
Paul wrote 13 letters of the New Testament. According to the Bible, the Catholic Church existed before Paul became a Christian.
How many agree with this?

Catholic has two meanings in greek. According to the whole and universal. The Church that Paul persecuted was the Catholic Church. It is the same Catholic Church that exists today. It is the New Testament Church.

Kujigafay is right. People are saying the Catholic Church existed but it is not the Catholic Church. Huh? The names hasn't changed in 2,000 years. They added Roman to diffrentiate between the schimatic grek Orthodox Church which broke away from the Original.

Answer 1

Jesus preceded them both....but honestly, RC's have nothing to do with the new testament. A lot of their practices are pagan and old testament rituals mixed up....result.....religion, not relationship with GOD.

Answer 2

The New Testament came first.

The New Testament between God and man was sealed at Calvary when the Lord Jesus Christ said, "It is finished."

No church, Catholic or otherwise, could exist without the testament of God Almighty. A testament only goes into effect with the death of the testator. It is thus legally, morally and spiritually impossible for the Roman church to come first.

In reference to the book of Acts you have your locations mixed up. Saul was entering houses around the Holy City delivering converts to Jewish authorities. These were Jewish converts, added to the Jerusalem Catholic Church, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit,

Certainly the Church existed before Saul became Paul; but it was not the First Church of Rome but the Church of the Living God.

Answer 3

CATHOLIC: Where did the word originate?
It comes from the Greek word Katholikos, which was later Latinized into Catholicus.

What is the meaning of the word?
It means 'Universal', which in itself means, 'of or relating to, or affecting the entire world and ALL peoples therein'. It means, ALL encompassing, comprehensibly broad, general, and containing ALL that is neccessary. In summation, it means ALL people in ALL places, having ALL that is necessary, and for ALL time.

But is it Biblical?

ANSWER: Yes it is. It is in Matthew 28:19-20, "Go, therefore and make disciples of ALL nations...teaching them to observe ALL that I have commanded you; And behold, I am with you ALL days, even unto the consummation of the world." That is a statement of Universality, Katholicos, Catholicus, Catholic.

I have heard that the word 'Catholic' did not come into use for hundreds of years after Jesus Christ founded His Church.

NOT TRUE. The first recorded use of the word is in St. Ignatius of Antioch's letter to the Smyrneans, paragraph 8, of 106 A.D., "Where the Bishop appears, there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." Undoubtedly the word was in use before the time of this writing.

Some say the Catholic Church ended with Constantine (285-337), with the "Edict of Milan" which he issued in 313, which allowed the Church to practice openly. Others say that is when the Church began. Who is right?

A. NEITHER IS RIGHT. The Catholic Church is the true Church founded by Jesus Christ and He guaranteed its perpetuality, Matthew 28:20, and its unfaltering truth, 1Timothy 3:15. Now if either of the arguments in the question were true, then don't you think the Church Fathers would have mentioned it somewhere? Instead, the Church Fathers mention the Catholic Church by Name in hundreds of their writings and spanning many centuries. Those who say these made-up things about Constantine have no documented proof, no reliable sources.

Answer 4

What does Saul dragging people and beating them have to do with the Catholic church. I'm not Catholic, but I know my Christian history...and the New Testament era by far came before the Catholic church. The word "catholic" means univsersal and was given to the church as a way to describe the church after the New Testament/Apostle era.
I think that your description and question is incoherent.

Answer 5

The roman catholic organization did not exist at the time, or before the time of Paul. RC doctrine so very contrary to the truth that if it did exist,it would have been one of those false teachers that Jesus and Paul and the other apostles warned us about.

Please...do not call the roman catholic organization a church. The true Church of Jesus Christ would never teach the lies that the rc organization teaches.

There is ONE Mediatior between God and man, that is the Man Christ Jesus.

Answer 6

All churches came into exsistance because of the New Testament church he started in the New Testament. Roman Catholicism is a branch off of the NT church. So how could the RC church exist before the New Testament was written?

the verse you wrote is speaking of the persecutio of the church started by Paul. The NT church. Followers of Jesus Christ.

Answer 7

The New testament is a product of the councils of Nicea and Hippo. A distinctly Catholic Document.

Answer 8

there is a difference between catholic church and roman catholic church. the catholic, universal church existed during Paul's time. but the roman catholic church existed sometime during constatine's regin or afterwards.

so the new testament existed before the roman catholic church.

Answer 9

The Catholic Church began when Jesus side was opened and his blood poured out. His bride was made at that time--The Catholic Church.

Answer 10

Yeah, you got your history mixed up a little. The Catholic church did not become official until after 600.

Answer 11

i do. catholic is latin for universal - thus encompassing all early christians; all of whom lived under the tyranny of ancient Rome.

edit- i dont understand this answer that everyone is giving: "the catholic church existed, yes; but not the catholic church....."

im sure some thumbs down are coming my way....