A question for Catholics- was Paul a christian according to catholicism?

Question

I often hear catholics holler 'protestants, protestants!', ok- so what was Paul? There was no catholicism at the time (just regular paganism)- so are you telling me he wasn't of Christ?

Do you see how ridiculous this sounds now?

No religions necessary, no titles, no man-made structures- just faith in Jesus and His word to be a christian.
.......

And to those who are struggling with comprehending this question- I am simply asking the structure that is Catholicism- was Paul, a believer in Christ- a christian? Because there was no way he was catholic.

It simply exposes how ridiculous it is to assume the catholic church as 'Christ's church', and no one else is christian.

Call Paul a protestant. Call James a protestant. Peter? Don't think a follower of Christ would have you pray to dead people and worship statues.

www.loveyouJesus.com

Answer 1

Yes, Paul was a Christian. A Catholic? Not a 'Roman Catholic' but a member of the body of Christ.

Answer 2

Yes.

According to Acts 11:26 "it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians."

Mary and Joseph believed that Jesus was the Messiah even before He was born. They were the first Christians even it the word had not been invented yet.

Paul was also a Christian even if it was before anyone preached in Antioch.

The same goes along with the word Catholic which is Greek for universal. The universal Christian Church has always been universal even if it took the early Church a while to learn that.

The three (non-Jewish) Magi visiting the baby Jesus was one of the first signs that Christianity would reach out to the entire world.

Later Jesus treated non-Jews like Romans and Samaritans with dignity and respect. In consequence, these Romans and Samaritans became some of the first Christians.

After Jesus' Resurrection, more and more Gentiles became believers and the Apostles decided under the influence of the Holy Spirit that they did not have to convert to Judaism to become Christians.

The Church has referred to itself as the “Catholic Church” at least since 107 C.E. (about 10 years after the last book of the New Testament was written), when the Greek term "Katholikos" 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/te...

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

All mainstream Christians were mainstream Catholics from Pentecost until 1054 when the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches split.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Actually if you belong to a church that accepts the Apostle's Creed-and very many do, you proclaim when you pray the creed that you believe in the holy catholic church. Catholic means Universal. That there is one Christian church throughout the world that believes in Jesus blood atonement for their sins.

When the Pope recently said that salvation comes through the catholic church he said catholic small c. meaning that if there were no Christian churches in the world to bring the faith of Christianity and its teachings and the bible then you would not now be saved-you would have no knowledge of God.

Paul was of course a member of the only church that there was at the time The Catholic church. Since then it has split first in 2 between the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics and later into many. But as the day of the Lord approaches we should be seeking unity-that does not mean that all the Baptists and Assembly of God members etc must become Roman Catholic, it means that Jesus expects us to work together for his kingdom instead of tearing each other down.

Those who tear down are causing the grievous error of causing their brothers and sisters to sin.

Answer 4

*Is Catholic*

St. Paul was and is a Catholic. He is listed amongst the Saints of Christ. He wears the red crown of martyrdom.

Here is what St. Paul looked like in his earthly body. Paul was short of stature, was broad-shouldered, somewhat bald, with slightly aquiline nose, closely-knit eyebrows, thick, grayish beard, fair complexion.

You are silly if you think there was no Catholicism. The universal faith which all men are called to worship the Triune God, receive remission of their sins, partake in the common life, the life of the sacraments, receive the Eucharist, and work out their salvation in fear and trembling of the Lord, that is Catholicism and that is the Gospel that St. Paul preached to the Gentiles as commanded by Christ.

Religion, by its definition, is those ties that bind us to God and if one does not have a religion then one is not binded to God and cannot worship. What is faith? It is a form of knowledge based on a relationship with the God who reveals himself.

There is no salvation in "faith alone". One must, by grace, enter into communion with God to approach salvation. Salvation is to live in God, to "put on Christ", and to be conformed to Christ. Anything else in one way or another denies the incarnation, that the Son became man and remained man and still is man. Being justified is not a magical pronouncement, it is rather a real entering into Christ's death, physically and spiritually. The justified human must be made anew and the Spirit must dwell within the body.

When we look at Christ and worship him, we do not simply think of his divinity, but we worship his flesh, the flesh of the living God, the total incarnation of the Son is worshiped. And this worship can only occur if we worship in the spirit AS WELL AS the flesh because humans are not only spirit and it is not only our spirit which is justified and saved but also our flesh.

Now it is completely laughable to say that Catholics pray to dead people. It shows a complete lack of understanding of what Catholics do and well as what it means to be dead. The saints are not dead. They live, even now.

Any criticism of prayers to the saints is a direct denial of the Creed of our Faith. We believe in the communion of saints. That is the Faith which has been passed down to us from Christ.

I know of no Catholic who "worships statues".

PAX CHRISTI TIBI


EDIT -- The answer below is actualy wrong (sorry friend!). Pope Benedict XVI ment Catholic with a C not c. Specificialy salvation comes through the Catholic Church alone and the Catholic Church is that Church which is united in faith and communion with the Pope of Rome.

Answer 5

Christ based his Church on St. Peter, who became the Bishop of Rome/The Pope. purely Roman Catholicism has apostolic succession or the potential to song its origins to the apostles themselves! Tertullian "became into something withheld from the understanding of Peter, who's suggested as 'the rock on which the Church would be geared up' [Matt. sixteen:18] with the potential of 'loosing and binding in heaven and on earth' [Matt. sixteen:19]?" (Demurrer against the Heretics 22 [A.D. 2 hundred]). 0.33 century the historian Caius wrote that Pope Victor became into ``the thirteenth Bishop of Rome from Peter.'' The words ``rock'' and ``shepherd'' would desire to be conscious to Peter, and that they'd desire to distinguish him with the aid of fact the top Apostle, in any different case Christ's statements are so ambiguous (obscure, uncertain) as to be meaningless