Catholics.....?

Question

Why do Catholics Actually believe that there church is the holy catholic church that jesus himself gave authority?

NEVER is there anything that Christ speaks about his church being named a Roman Universal...I mean Catholic Church. Why could it not just be the Roman Christian Church or Christ's Roman Church. Also, why are there understanding of the mysteries or doctrines of Christ so LAME.

One time in a chat room I asked catholics how would they explain the mysteries or nature of God, and some of them actually saide it is not in our right to try to ask such things leave it to God and the priests of God. Now that I can't seem to understand.

Ephesians 3: 1-9 Just as the mysteries were made known to God's chosen prophets and apostles, everyone now has access to the knowledge of these mysteries - the unsearchable riches of Christ

First off, what is the use of believeing in something so mysterious if your never in the mystery of it? You should not pray by repition of words to God, but by the Holy Spirit that magnifies the truth in God. But the real ? is, how do you magnify the Holy Spirit within? Faith alone to certain individual who believes in God actually thinks thats enough, but faith with understanding to become steadfast within your faith in Christ is the key. Understanding means seeking truth, so be part of the mysteries of Christ by reading precept by precept in his words for through his words are treasurs that needs to be cherished.

You people should change it than, because it does not sound right saying Universal church or catholics church. Why can't it be CHRIST'S UNIVERSAL CHURCH!!!

How canyou say holy when priests are molesting children, you should be ashamed of yourself.

There is only one church Ive seen that has already started to prove to me they are TRUTH and im goin to join it. The Latter Day Church or mormon.

Answer 1

+ The Church +

Matthew 16:17-19 states:

Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The Catholic Church believes the Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the "rock" of his Church. He gave him the keys of his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock.

The Pope is the senior pastor of 1.1 billion Catholics, the direct successor of Simon Peter.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p4.htm#880

+ The Catholic Church +

The Church has referred to itself as the “Catholic Church” at least since 107 AD, when the term appears in the Letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans:

"Wherever the bishop appear, there let the multitude be; even as wherever Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church."

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-smyrnaeans-hoole.html

All of this was long before the Council of Nicea and the Nicene Creed from 325 A.D. which states, "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."

+ The Roman Catholic Church +

The term "Roman" Catholic is rather recent.

The new Anglican Church in England started using the term “Roman” in the 1500s as one of many ways of demeaning and demonizing Catholics.

Catholics accepted this late coming adjective without too much protest. Today “Catholic” and “Roman Catholic” are interchangeable terms. Both terms are even used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

To add a little more confusion, some apply the term “Roman Catholic Church” only to the Latin Rite Catholic Church, excluding the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches that are in full communion with the Pope, and are part of the same Church, under the Pope.

The term “Roman” neither increases nor decreases the faith, hope and love of the Catholic Church.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13121a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

From: Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth

If we wish to locate the Church founded by Jesus, we need to locate the one that has the four chief marks or qualities of his Church. The Church we seek must be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

The Church Is One (Rom. 12:5, 1 Cor. 10:17, 12:13, CCC 813–822)
Jesus established only one Church, not a collection of differing churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and so on). The Bible says the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Jesus can have but one spouse, and his spouse is the Catholic Church.

His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).

Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant.

The Church Is Holy (Eph. 5:25–27, Rev. 19:7–8, CCC 823–829)
By his grace Jesus makes the Church holy, just as he is holy. This doesn’t mean that each member is always holy. Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the Church (John 6:70), and not all the members would go to heaven (Matt. 7:21–23).

But the Church itself is holy because it is the source of holiness and is the guardian of the special means of grace Jesus established, the sacraments (cf. Eph. 5:26).

The Church Is Catholic (Matt. 28:19–20, Rev. 5:9–10, CCC 830–856)
Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20).

For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28).

Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19).

The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it probably went all the way back to the time of the apostles.

The Church Is Apostolic (Eph. 2:19–20, CCC 857–865)
The Church Jesus founded is apostolic because he appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the Church, and their successors were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first bishops, and, since the first century, there has been an unbroken line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first Christians in Scripture and oral Tradition (2 Tim. 2:2).

These beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s special role, and much more —even the doctrine of apostolic succession itself.

Early Christian writings prove the first Christians were thoroughly Catholic in belief and practice and looked to the successors of the apostles as their leaders. What these first Christians believed is still believed by the Catholic Church. No other Church can make that claim.

Answer 3

If you really want to join a church that teaches Jesus is merely a sibling of Satan, that God used to be a man, before he was God, and that was built on a series of false prophets, than you have every right to do so.

You would be smart to learn everything there is to know about Catholicism first, though, because the Catholic Church was the only Christian Chruch in existence for the first 1500 years of modern history, and that would make it the original church that Jesus personally founded, authorized, empowered, and promised to be with, forever.

He never did that for any other group or church, especially the LDS Church.

Answer 4

Every demoninatoin of christianity (I'm including catholics in there) thinks that their doctrines and traditions are correct above all else. Well any demonination that accepts Jesus as God and follows the teachings of the Bible is part of the Holy Church or the Body of Christ regardless of whether they accept all the insignificat differences and stupid bickerings that amount to a waiste of time, when really all of Jesus' followers should get over themselves, accept their differences and unite!

Answer 5

I am not sure there is a real question here.
But in the Y!answers tradition, I will answer part of it anyway.

Quoted from Steve Ray "What Does the Word Catholic Mean"

"As a Protestant, I went to an Evangelical church that changed an important and historical word in the Apostles Creed. Instead of the “holy, catholic Church,” we were the “holy, Christian church.” At the time, I thought nothing of it. There was certainly no evil intent, just a loathing of the Catholic Church and a distinct desire to distance ourself from its heresy and man-made traditions. I assumed that early on Catholics deviated from “biblical Christianity” so they simply invented a new word to describe their new society. Since we Evangelicals were supposedly the ones faithful to the Bible we had no interest in the word catholic since it was found nowhere between the covers of the Bible. It was a biased word loaded with negative baggage so we removed it from the Creed.
The word catholic comes from the Greek katholikos, the combination of two words: kata- concerning, and holos- whole. Thus, concerning the whole. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, the word catholic comes from a Greek word meaning “regarding the whole,” or more simply, “universal” or “general.” Universal comes from two Greek words: uni- one, and vertere- turning. In other words, a “one turning”, “revolving around one,” or “turned into one”. # The word church comes from the Greek ecclesia which means “those called out,” as in those summoned out of the world at large to form a distinct society.
So the Catholic Church is made up of those called out and gathered into the universal visible society founded by Christ."

Interesting to me as a protestant!

Whoa! you are accusing the catholic church of not knowing what it believes and straying from the whole scripture and you are turning to the mormon church. OKAY, I think we all just wasted a whole lot of time here with this poor guy!

Answer 6

I believe that the Church is to be One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic as Jesus taught us in the Holy Bible. He said that His people would be One people, that they would be Holy, that they would be from all races and genders(catholic=universal), and that they would be lead by the Apostles. The only church that fits these teachings is the Catholic Church (and the Orthodox).

Protestants are scattered instead of One, and they are not Apostolic. While they are Holy and Catholic, they do not fulfill the other two requirements and thus cannot be the church that Christ gave us.

Answer 7

There things in life that you need to ask God, I mean if it is clear in the Bible and yet you don't understand, then I think you need the Holy Spirit, and the graces that God gives to those He has chosen. Maybe you should have kept reading till you arrive to Peter. 1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance." I Peter 1-2 The Catholic church was founded by Jesus or was Was Jesus a liar? "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven." God chose him, so we Catholics are following Gods' direct teachings. Or did the Church die when Peter die? There has always been a Pope(Peter). http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/popes.htm
That is a sign of the truth of Jesus Word,when He said to Peter, "and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

Answer 8

Roman Catholicism is #1 in the major branch of Christianity



Christianity began in the 1st century AD as a Jewish sect, and shares many religious texts with Judaism, specifically the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament (see Judeo-Christian).

There is a diversity of doctrines and practices among groups calling themselves Christian. These groups are sometimes classified under denominations, though for theological reasons many groups reject this classification system.Christianity may be broadly represented as being divided into three main groupings:

1) Roman Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Church, the largest single body, includes the Latin Rite and totals more than 1 billion baptized members.

2) Eastern Christianity: Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, the 100,000 member Assyrian Church of the East, and others with a combined membership of more than 300 million baptized members.

3) Protestantism: Groups such as Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed/Presbyterians, Congregational/United Church of Christ, Evangelical, Charismatic, Baptists, Methodists, Nazarenes, Anabaptists, Seventh-day Adventists and Pentecostals. The oldest of these separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century Protestant Reformation, followed in many cases by further divisions.

Estimates of the total number of
Protestants are very uncertain, partly because of the difficulty in determining which denominations should be placed in this category, but it seems to be unquestionable that Protestantism is the second major branch of Christianity (after Roman Catholicism) in number of followers.




Wikipedia:

Some Protestants identify themselves simply as Christian, or born-again Christian; they typically distance themselves from the confessionalism of other Protestant communities[11] by calling themselves "non-denominational" — often founded by individual pastors, they have little affiliation with historic denominations. Others, particularly some Anglicans, eschew the term Protestant and thus insist on being thought of as Catholic, adopting the name "Anglo-Catholic."[12] Finally, various small communities, such as the Old Catholic and Independent Catholic Churches, are similar in name to the Roman Catholic Church, but are not in communion with the See of Rome. The Roman Catholic Church was simply called the "Catholic Church" until other groups started considering themselves "Catholic." The term "Roman Catholic" was made to distinguish the Roman Catholics from other groups.[13][14]

Restorationists, are historically connected to the Protestant Reformation,[15] do not usually describe themselves as "reforming" a Christian Church continuously existing from the time of Jesus, but as restoring the Church that they believe was lost at some point. Restorationists include Churches of Christ with 2.6 million members, Disciples of Christ with 800,000 members,[16] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 12 million members,[3] and Jehovah’s Witnesses with 6.6 million members.[17] Though Restorationists have some basic similarities, their doctrine and practices vary significantly.

Answer 9

The Catholic Church has referred to itself as the “Catholic Church” at least since 107 AD, when the term appears in the Letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans


Irenaeous of Lyons wrote a historical document called, "Against Heresies" in 195 AD and St Justin Martyr wrote First Apologies in 150 AD as well.
Are these Catholics before Constantine?
Both of these writer wrote specifically about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist of the Catholic Church in the year 150
These are actual historical documents.

Answer 10

if you want truth learn about the catholic church and ask on a catholic q and a forum for better answers than a chat room will most times offer. take the quiz on fisheaters.com and then come back. it is easy to insult the church that jesus instituted but harder to understand it with a blind eye and closed heart.