Which religion came first Christians or Catholics?

Answer 1

Both.

Just like the early Church was not called Christian until according to Acts 11:26 "it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians."

The same Church was soon called Catholic. In about 107 AD, 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

We do not know how long the term was used before it was written down in a letter that has survived for 1,900 years.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Christians

Answer 3

A: The term Jew is used in at least two senses in Scripture: to refer to those who are ethnically Jews and to those who are religiously Jews. Jesus was a Jew in both senses. In fact, he completed the Jewish religion by serving as the Messiah (Christ) whom the prophets had long foretold.

The completed form of the Jewish religion is known as Christianity, and its adherents are Christians or "followers of the Christ." Unfortunately, many people who were ethnically Jewish did not recognize Jesus’ role as Messiah and so did not accept Christianity, the completed form of Judaism. Instead, they stayed with a partial, incomplete form of Judaism. Other Jews (the apostles and their followers) did recognize that Jesus was the Messiah and embraced the new, completed form of Judaism.

Shortly thereafter it was recognized that one could be a follower of Christ even if one did not ethnically join the Jewish people. Thus the apostles began to make many Gentile converts to the Christian faith. It is thus possible for a person to be a Jew religiously (because he has accepted Christianity, the completed form of the Jewish faith) but not be a Jew ethnically. This is the case with most Christians today.

It is this difference between being a Jew ethnically and religiously that lies behind Paul’s statement in Romans 2:28–29: "For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal."

Christians are those who Paul refers to as being inwardly (religiously) Jewish, while non-Christian Jews are those who he refers to as being outwardly (ethnically) Jewish. The former condition, he stresses, is the more important.

Unfortunately, over the course of time some Christians broke away from the Church that Jesus founded, and so a name was needed to distinguish this Church from the ones that broke off from it. Because all the breakaways were particular, local groups, it was decided to call the Church Jesus founded the "universal" (Greek, kataholos = "according to the whole") Church, and thus the name Catholic was applied to it.

That is why Jesus was a Jew and we are Catholics: Jesus came to complete the Jewish religion by creating a Church that would serve as its fulfillment and be open to people of all races, not just ethnic Jews. As Catholics, we are those who have accepted the fulfillment of the Jewish faith by joining the Church that Jesus founded.

Answer 4

Catholics are Christians

Answer 5

Christians.

Answer 6

After Christ died his followers started meeting in small groups in homes. They shared the philosophy of Christ (love God, love your neighbor) with each other, and they shared a common meal of remembrance. Around 300AD the Roman Emperor Constantine had a vision of a burning cross the night before an epic battle, and declared that Christianity was now the official religion of the Roman Empire. Prior to that the Roman stance had been that the Christians were a threat to the stability of the government and had been persecuting and killing them. So, Christians came first - Catholicism was the first of the organized religions.

Answer 7

The Roman Catholic Church was the first Christian Religion and the only christian religion for the first 400 years after christ. Then everyone got sick of them and started splitting off to form different christian religions.

Answer 8

Catholics are christians, so I assume by christian you mean protestant. Catholics came first but then some people disagreed with how the church was run so the split off into other groups, like Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, and others.

Answer 9

The Roman Catholic Church as we know it today did not exist in Biblical times.It developed in the early few centuries after Christ.In the sixteenth century,the Reformation happened.The Reformation was an attempt to reform the Church,and to get away from unbiblical practices.Eventually,the Reformers broke away from the Church altogether and became Protestants (as in 'protesting' the Church).Since the time of Christ,there have been groups of Christians who were never part of the RCC,and could not be classified as Protestant,since they were never involved or a part of the RCC to begin with.

Answer 10

depends what you mean...

the term catholic is universal in several terms,
the universal collection of believers living today and who ever lived in time
it also means any part of the church has ALL of Christ

in this sense a presbyterian church is catholic or any other Bible believing group of chirstians

if you mean ROman Catholic there are a number of issues that would lead me to say Christian first

first, there are other denominations that can trace their leadership of bishops back to Jerusalem and saint Peter... such as Greek Orthodox, which may surprize 'Catholics' to learn

second, the foundation of the church is to an extent rightly the teaching of the aposltes and pictures such in Revelation as the 12 foundations of heaven ( not one for each pope) and the Catholic church tends to put the traditions of man above the Biblical teaching

the Biblical teaching comes first and Jesus soundly criticised replacing the word of God with the traditions of men