Who is responsible for the deaths of the early Christian martyrs? Please help me win an argument. See below.

Question

My step-father belongs to some cult, (Pentecostal I think), that believes that the Roman Catholic Church murdered the martyrs. He doesn't seem to know who "The Romans" were or what the Reformation was. If you describe the RC Church as the "mother church of Christianity", he denies it. If you repeat the Church teaching that St Peter is considered to be the first Pope, he says that, "Catholics killed Peter". Basically, I think he believes that it was Catholics versus Protestants pretty much about 15 minutes after Jesus ascended into heaven.
Is he right? Or if he is wrong, what is it that he read and misunderstood that gave him this opinion? Does his church teach this?
Help. Scholarly replies only, please.

Answer 1

Actually, the very first Christian martyrs were killed by the Jews. Think of Stephen, being stoned to death for his testimony. Think of James, the brother of John, who was killed by Herod.
The Romans got into it a bit later on...
The RC church, in my opinion, is not "the mother church of Christianity" but rather more of a political movement began by Constantine and his Mom. I do believe it got a bit out of control, and resulted in a very worldly organization, complete with money, power, and offices to be fought over, and that is a shame...it is not what Jesus intended for His church at all.
Nor can I see Peter dressed in those silly robes or that hat, or wearing such jewelry, much less allowing anyone to kneel at his feet and kiss his ring. Peter knew what true penitence was, since he denied Jesus three times. No, Peter was not ever a pope...in fact, both Peter and Paul deferred to the authority of the church in Jerusalem, which was led by James, the brother of Jesus. Now, seriously, wouldn't James have been a much better choice?
I do think that your Dad's church is probably laying an awful lot of sin at the RC's door that doesn't belong there. They probably are a part of the charismatic movement, and they believe that the Pope is the antichrist...not so. The antichrist has been around ever since Jesus' epiphany.

Don't argue with your Dad about these things. Rather, find some common ground in Christ that you can share with Him.
It is what Jesus would want, don't you think?

Answer 2

"My step-father belongs to some cult, (Pentecostal I think), that believes that the Roman Catholic Church murdered the martyrs"

I wouldn't call Pentecostals a cult,but in some cases,your step-father is right.There were quite a few Protestants martyred by the Roman Catholic Church.

"He doesn't seem to know who "The Romans" were or what the Reformation was. "

The Romans killed the early Christians.

"If you describe the RC Church as the "mother church of Christianity", he denies it"

Because the RCC isn't the mother church.

"he says that, "Catholics killed Peter"

That isn't true.

"Basically, I think he believes that it was Catholics versus Protestants pretty much about 15 minutes after Jesus ascended into heaven."

That's wrong as well.The RCC didn't develop until a few hundred years after Jesus,and denomainations didn't exist within the early followers of Jesus.

"Is he right? "

He's wrong about Peter and the speed in which Catholics and Protestants started being at odds.He is wrong with his claim that the Catholic Church killed the early martyrs.He is right in that the Roman Catholic Church did martyr Protestant Christians later on.

Answer 3

I'm not Pentecostal or RC. There were divisions in the church as early as Paul and Barnabus. But it didn't start getting ugly until several centuries later when it got to be Roman Catholics versus the Orthodox church. It wasn't until a few centuries after that Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation came along. I think your step-father's church is a little out there. (He might be confused because the ROMANS killed a bunch of martyrs, but that's VERRRRY different than the Roman Catholic Church.)

This probably isn't as scholarly as you'd hoped, but it's the best I can do right now. But above all remember, Never argue with a pig, you just get dirty and the pig likes it.

Answer 4

He's completely wrong, but the Protestant tradition is to blame all wrongs on Catholicism, going back to Martin Luther. The standard Protestant position is that the Catholic Church is not the true inheritor to Peter, and that it is a repressive institution which only came into being after supressing all non-Catholic sects. in this respect they are somewhat correct: look what happened to the Arians, the Gnostics, etc.

Of course, this contradicts the idea that Catholics were responsible for every martyr since Jesus. Point this out to your stepfather, and the argument should be won.

Answer 5

The very first Christian martyrs were killed by the Jews. Jewish leaders tried to eradicate Christianity, since it began as a Jewish sect. After Christianity began to accept Gentiles and began to spread across all sections of the Roman Empire, the Romans began to persecute the Christians. During the Reformation, Catholics did kill Protestants. But that was the Inquisition.

Answer 6

Many Catholics were killed for their faith by Rome under the Caesars. The Caesars were treated as gods and worshipped in Rome. Christians refused to kowtow to the Caesars, so they were considered to be part of an insurrection against Rome.

What your father is refering to, however, is a division within the Catholic Church later on.
There were those that adhered to the traditional view that the Pope is the head of the church. There were others that understood from scripture the Jesus was and is the head of His church.
Those in power (Rome, the Vatican) persecuted many of the Bible believing Christians, martyring thousands of them, because they would not recognize the authority of the Popes .

Answer 7

the roman catholic church did kill 68 million christians during the dark ages. they imposed their false doctrines on the whole world and those who would not bow to their teachings were killed. the foxes book of martyrs documents this

it was also with the blessing of the pope that hitler and mussolini did what they did. the only jews that escaped are those that were rich enough to buy their freedom from the pope. the pope is just as guilty for killing those 6 million jews

Answer 8

A quick check of wikipedia shows that Pentacostals arose from the Methodists who arose from the Catholics in the reformation (16th century?). Don't forget fourmore that there was the schism back around the 11th century wherein Greek and Eastern Orthodox churches split from Roman Catholicism.

Answer 9

Rome highjacked Christianity in about 300ce (common era), and the main split came about in about 1517 with Martin Luther's '95 thesis', questioning the legitamacy of the Catholic church. Soon after this new churches began to spring up. There were some other branches of Christianity about, such as the Orthadox church based in constantinople, but there wasn't much conflict as far as I'm aware. The Gnostics were stamped out early on, but they wouldn't be considered martyrs. Hope this helps.

Answer 10

The Catholics killed Saint Peter?! I'm a Catholic, that seems almost like an insult... Make him go to Wikipedia or read a history book! Here, I'll even post a few websites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_peter#Death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_reformation

Anything on Wikipedia's good...except when an article's trashed, of course.