Were the Catholics the main sect of Christianity in the beginning ?

Answer 1

Yes.

The Church has referred to itself as the “Catholic Church” at least since 107 AD (about 10 years after the last book of the New Testament was written), 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

We do not know how long they had been using the term "Catholic" before it was included in this letter.

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."

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

I just want to correct a few errors stated so far. The name Catholic was first used by St. Ignatius around the year 110, hundreds of years before Constantine, in one of His seven epistles. This was the only Christian Church until 1054 when their was a separation of authority between the Eastern and Western Church dividing the Church into the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. then the Protestants split from the Catholic or Western Church in the sixteenth century and now consists of some 30,000+ exponentially increasing different denominations each claiming the truth in faith and doctrine.

In the first and the second century there were fringe groups around Christianity like the Gnostics which were sects within Judaism that adopted some Christian practices and beliefs but they can not be called Christian as they were not a part of that Church created by Christ and the apostles and continued by the succcessors of the apostles in apostolic succession, as was the practice of the Christian Church.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 3

In the beginning there were two main and dozens of alternate sects of Christians. The basic sides were the Literalists, ad the Gnostics. The Literalists are what would eventually evolve into the Holy Roman Church, the Gnostics are now all but extinct. The word Catholic is not one that came about untill much later in history. By the year 400 AD, there were no sects of Christianity, there were just Christians. Eventually when the Protestants split from the Church in 1517, the word Catholic came to describe those who stayed with the ancient Church. But in the beginning, there were no Catholics, everyone was just a Chrsitian.

Answer 4

No. And no Catholic argument to the contrary is credible.

Catholic essentially means "universal". But today it means almost entirely the Roman Catholic Sect centred in Rome and run by the Pope.

The dominant christian communities for the first few hundred years were centred around Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and a handful of other locations.

Rome did not have any christians on account of the capital crime for being christian and because it was largely the centre of Nazarene/Gnostic schools and beliefs from 100 CE onwards. Nazarene/Gnosticism is the true teachings of Jesus as opposed to the teachings of Paul of Tarsus who created christianity.

Rome only became a powerful centre from the 5th Century after the defeat of the Huns. Ever since they have been trying to recreate history and destroy any history in order to create an eleborate argument that they are the rightful church.

See The Almanac of Evil for the first few centuries on just how desperately the Popes and the vatican sought to create myths to claim they were first.
See:
http://one-faith-of-god.org/final_testament/end_of_darkness/evil/evil_0050.htm

Answer 5

Yes. She is the original set down by Christ.

The Catholic Church as been around since Christ founded her 2,000 years ago. She has preserved, taught, and protected His teachings from the beginning.

Most Christians - catholic and protestant - have the same basic beliefs: that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, in His life, death and resurrection, repentance and forgiveness of sins, and the hope of eternal life. After this, it's difficult to explain.

Protestantism is a break from the Catholic Church around the year 1500, and includes all non-Catholic Christian churches.

When one tries to understand what Protestants teach, they soon discover that there are as many different beliefs as there are protestants. The reason is that Protestantism fractures every time there is a difference of opinion about belief. This is why we have over 54,000 different protestant denominations. When faced with this daunting number, someone trying to find the true teachings of Christ would feel this is impossible. Ironically, while each denomination is different from the other, they each claim to have Christ's true teachings and each condemn the other. It's crazy.

For the fullness of Christ's teachings and to be part of the Church He originally set down, we must study and live our Catholic Christian faith.

God bless and take care.

Answer 6

Absolutely not!!
The Catholic church did not come into existence until the fifth century when the Roman Emperor Constantine gave it control over the christian churches.
Those who held to the teachings of Jesus the Christ and the Apostles were persecuted by the RC Church.
The RC Church 'claims' Saint Patrick of Ireland as one of their, but Patrick was never a member of the RC church. He was a member of Celtic church, which held to the original apostolic doctrine. He opposed the take-over of their churches by the RC Church.
Many people today believe the RC Church is the Whore of Babylon mentioned in the book of Revelation.

Answer 7

Yes but the term Catholic was not used until after Constantine,it means simply `Universal` or in Greek, Kath holos= belonging to the whole.
The infant church was first called by various names and this was part of it`s evolving into one church and one people, a rose is still a rose by any other name.
Without the Catholic church there would be no other denominations as the roots of Christianity come from it`s Apostolic authority.

Answer 8

According to the Bible Christianity began with the apostles & older men in Jerusalem making decisions. None were Catholic, they were originally Jewish.
The Catholic church came about when the Roman Emporer decided to make an Official State religion. Since Christianity was the youngest of the religions it was adopted by him and fused with other pagan religions to make it more acceptable to the masses.

Answer 9

Not the main the ONLY. There were several communities but they all identified themselves as one Church. Clement I from Rome issued his first epistle outlining the heirarchy to all Christian communities in 88 CE.

Until 1054 CE and the great schizm they were it.

Answer 10

If you want to get technical, the very VERY first people who followed Jesus and believed in the resurrection were Jews. They did not abandon their faith because they thought Jesus was the Messiah. After a while, they were more or less separated from their Jewish brethern. Then you had those who followed Peter more and those who followed Paul more.