If Catholicism is not biblical where did the truth led by the holy spirit reside before the refomation?

Question

So just when did it become a cult , because it shares doctrines with orthodox church although the schism occurred long before the reformation .

Answer 1

Check out 19jay63's post for a view of Protestant tradition, reminiscent of a Grimm's fairy tale!

What a cleverly crafted piece of work. People risking their lives to share the Bible!

The Bible was translated into the world's most popular common language (Latin) in the 4th century, so anyone in the world-wide Roman empire could read it.

Latin was also the accepted scholarly and scientific language of the time, along with Greek, so every priest, teacher, and scholar had free access to all the scriptures as well.

After the Roman empire collapsed, it is an accepted fact that Catholic monasteries kept the scriptures alive during some of the darkest times in human history.

I never heard about "heroic mountain people" doing it until today! They must have been very stealthy and secretive.

A bit later, when the printing press was invented, the first printed book was in fact, the Catholic Bible.

Popularly priced. Easily readable. Endorsed and encouraged by the Catholic Church. Available everywhere.

Tens of thousands were distributed throughout the world, so why would anyone have to hide out in the mountains, and risk their lives just to share scripture?

Let's dispense with the fairy tales, and admit that Jesus founded only one church, the Catholic Church, and that he promised to head his church, to guide it and to keep it, until the end of the age, when he also promised to return for it.

With Jesus and the Holy Spirit leading and guiding the Church, it is totally incapable of making even the slightest error when defining and teaching the truths which God has revealed for the purpose of our salvation.

And in spite of the obvious human failings and weaknesses of those men who lead and participate in governing the church, no such error has ever been introduced.

No other group or denomination ever received authority from God, from the Bible, or from anyone else, (certainly not the Protestant reformers) to usurp the authority that God reserved only for his Church.

It was God who preserved the sacred deposit of faith, which includes scripture, plus a whole lot more, through the good offices and sacraments of the only Church which Jesus ever founded, the holy Catholic Church.

And that's no fairy tale.

Answer 2

Hi there, I will give this one a shot, but understand that i am not taking a pop at anyone, just trying to give the truth.
Catholicism is New Testament based,or else the scriptures are wrong,thats the first point, when Jesus appointed Peter and gave him the symbolic keys i.e to symbolize Peters authority as the earthly head of his(Christs) church, this was the birth of the universal(Catholic) church, thou art Peter and upon this rock I shall build My Church.
Some people actually think that as Jesus said this to Peter he pointed to a lump of rock lying there(hmm)
This is the same infant church that the Holy Spirit set in motion on the day of Pentecost,.
Having said this do not think that the church was then frozen in time untill Martin Luther happened to be born, as if the Holy Spirit decided to take some time off, that would be totally silly.
Again although i`m catholic i think Luther`s complaints were sincere, and to the point about the Pope selling indulgences to get money, and i can understand how the reformation came about,
but the hard truth is that Jesus did not found two churches, and granted we have had some bad Popes,and no wonder people protested, the fact remains that even when Peter denied Jesus and ran away, the Lord did not divest him of his authority or take his Spirit away from him, it was Peter who dropped the ball and so have some Popes,but the promise still stands today.

Answer 3

apparently, there was no Christianity before the reformation some would be lead to believe. Catholicism isn't all about the warm fuzzies of faith, it's about reality. it takes from the bible and also tradition, for in the bible we are told to also adhere to traditions. it seems people fail to realize - in the past, expecially before the reformation - there were not books to the masses, education systems for all and most people could not read. does that mean that unless every person could read and actually own a bible themselves, they were unallowed to learn?! i think not. how did Jesus preach? how did HIs apostles and discilples preach - from a book, give hand outs, via a blog ; ) no, it was word of mouth, it was through tradtion of what they knew and learned.
God bless!

Scripture itself points out an authoritative church & tradition. St Paul points out in his second letter to the Thess – stand firm & hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or letter. Here are some scriptures to check out 2 Thess 2:15, 1 Cor 11:2, 2 Thess 3:6, 2 Tim 1:13-14 & 2:2. When the first Christians had disagreements they didn’t open their bibles – they didn’t exist – they held councils and held binding decrees – these councils were those who knew more then the others and they came to an agreement/understanding and thus made a binding decree (acts 15:1-29).

Answer 4

Catholicism is a mixture of truth and error. The Holy Spirit is active in every congregation as God has His people in every church. However, the errors in Catholicism greatly reduced the benefits the church could have received from the Holy Spirit. This is why it is called the dark ages. There were other Christian groups, not a part of the Catholic faith who were true to the gospel and followed the Holy Spirit's guidance. These groups were persecuted by the Papacy for their beliefs and their "unlawful" access to the Bible. The Waldensians lived high in the Alps and escaped persecution by fleeing to the mountains, using them for their refuge. They would come down out of the mountains, risking their lives, to give
copies of parts of the scriptures to seekers of truth. The Waldensians had copies of the scriptures in their native tongue hundreds of years prior to the reformation. There were other groups in Ethiopia, and the Armenians of Asia who were true to the gospel as revealed in the Bible. God did not rely solely on the Catholic church to keep truth alive in the world. Because of the great apostasy, and because the work of the Holy Spirit was hindered by this antiChrist power, God called out a people to rediscover doctrinal truth that had been lost in the great falling away.

Answer 5

Good question. Yes, the Catholic Church is the original Christian church. The others only came about after the Reformation and are watered-down versions of the truth. They left out the bits which they didn't like. The Catholic Church has always been biblical, but we have tradition too.

Answer 6

The roots of Catholicism is the old Mosaic laws. Before and during the time of Moses, a temple was used for communicating with God. It had a high Priest who, was the only one allowed into the most Holy of Hollies. People went to the Priest and he went to God in their behalf. When Jesus was crucified, the Val of the temple was torn from top to bottom, opening up God to all mankind.

Answer 7

You have to go way back to the time of adam and Eve they were told the truth and chose to disregard it and some of their children were very faithfull like Enoch and Noah , Abraham the Bible has a long list of faithfull one dating back some 6,000 yrs and if you cont his Son it could be trillions of millenia then in Isa 43:10-12 he told us who they would be today and back in time there was Abraham and other faithfull one in Jesus day there were His Apostles and other faithfull ones then there was the Christian Congregation that Jesus started that exhist down to our day if you need mor specific info you can E-Mail me Gorbalizer

Answer 8

In God's people?

Answer 9

For goodness sake it is all a myth, just stories made up using a few historic references by someone who had nor has any better idea of the truth than you or I.

Answer 10

first in Mary Christ's first disciple, then the apostles then the rest of us.