Religion..?

Question

Ive always thought that Catholisism came first, and any other Christian branched off and was a Protestant. I had people telling me the exact opposite the other day saying that Catholics were Protestants that branched of Christianity.

Now Ive always been tought that all of those people like Martin Luther went away from the Church and started their own, and thats how all of these different Christian churches formed? Can someone fill me in on what really happened?

Answer 1

Whoever told you the Protestants came first is distorting history. They may be suggesting that the first Christians were protesting against pagan Rome, and therefore the "first Protestants," but the term normally refers to those who, like Luther, protested against the Roman Catholic church.

Answer 2

The Catholic Church was first, but it was separated into five separate "popes" (called Patriarchs). The Pope of Rome broke off from the other four in 936 AD, and then another Pope reaffirmed that split in 1054. Today, these make up the two branches of the Catholic Church: Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. All Protestant Churches broke off from the Roman Catholic Church some 600 years later.

But some Baptists try to trace their origins back to the first century. Essentially, they just claim to have been every known heresy that ever existed (i.e. Anabaptist, Cathar, Gnostic, Donatist, Montanist, Arian, Sabellian, etc.). There is no evidence whatsoever for this view - all Baptists are descended from the Particular Baptists, who broke off from the Church of England in 1638.

Answer 3

The “first church” is the church that is recorded in the New Testament, especially in the Book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul. The New Testament church is the “original church” and the “one true church.” We can know this because it is described, in great detail, in Scripture. The church, as recorded in the New Testament, is God’s pattern and foundation for His church. On this basis, let’s examine the Roman Catholic claim that it is the “first church.” Nowhere in the New Testament will you find the “one true church” doing any of the following: praying to Mary, praying to the saints, venerating Mary, submitting to a pope, having a select priesthood, baptizing an infant, observing the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as sacraments, or passing on apostolic authority to successors of the apostles. All of these are core elements of the Roman Catholic faith. If most of the core elements of the Roman Catholic Church were not practiced by the New Testament Church (the first church and one true church), how then can the Roman Catholic Church be the first church? A study of the New Testament will clearly reveal that the Roman Catholic Church is not the same church as the church that is described in the New Testament.

For the first 280 years of Christian history, Christianity was banned by the Roman empire, and Christians were terribly persecuted. This changed after the “conversion” of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine “legalized” Christianity at the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313. Later, in A.D. 325, Constantine called together the Council of Nicea, in an attempt to unify Christianity. Constantine envisioned Christianity as a religion that could unite the Roman Empire, which at that time was beginning to fragment and divide. While this may have seemed to be a positive development for the Christian church, the results were anything but positive. Just as Constantine refused to fully embrace the Christian faith, but continued many of his pagan beliefs and practices, so the Christian church that Constantine promoted was a mixture of true Christianity and Roman paganism.

Constantine found that with the Roman Empire being so vast, expansive, and diverse – not everyone would agree to forsake their religious beliefs and instead embrace Christianity. So, Constantine allowed, and even promoted, the “Christianization” of pagan beliefs. Completely pagan and utterly unbiblical beliefs were given new “Christian” identities.

The opposition to the Roman Catholic Church and its false teaching came to a head in the sixteenth century, when a Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther posted his 95 propositions (or theses) against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on the Castle Church door at Wittenberg, Germany. Luther’s intention was to bring reform to the Roman Catholic Church, and in doing so was challenging the authority of the Pope. With the refusal of the Roman Catholic Church to heed Luther’s call to reformation and return to biblical doctrines and practices, the Protestant Reformation began out of which four major divisions or traditions of Protestantism would immerge: Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican. During this time God raised up godly men in different countries in order to once again restore churches throughout the world to their biblical roots and to biblical doctrines and practices.

Answer 4

By studying history, we know that for the first 1000 years of the Christian fiath, the only Christian faith was Roman Catholicism, then the east-west schism occured (1054 a.d.) which divided the Church into Roman Catholicism and Eastern orthodox, then finally around 1517, Luther started the protestants. And ever since then Protestantism had divided itself into 30,000 plus sects due to no central authority unlike catholicism (which has the Pope and the leaders of the church) and Orthodox christianity.

Answer 5

The early Christians were followers of Christ. The Church is not a building, it is a term for those who have been called out of Babylon. The Roman Catholic Church was created to aid in the rise of the Roman Empire.

Answer 6

Catholicism wasn't even called Catholicism until Martin Luther broke from the church and they had to give it a name to distinguish it from Lutheranism.

All other Protestant denominations came after that.

Answer 7

Two sorts of Religion in Bible(to compare):
- IMPure religion: Awful lawful
- "Pure religion": Grace us only

Two opposing Gods in the Bible (to compare):
- Law: God our Destroyer: destructive, not constructive.
- Grace: God our Saviour: constructive, not destructive.

Pst: it's not about Roman Catholics vs Protest-ants.
It's all about Law vs Grace, no matter how allegorized.

The end of the Law vs Grace matter is already written:

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.