I saw a fundamentalist post today that Constantine started the Catholic Church. This actually wasn't the first time I've seen someone say it. However, we know historically that the first mention of the Catholic Church was in approximately 107 A.D. and Constantine was born in approximately 280 A.D. How could he have started a Church that existed over 100 years before he was born? I must say I found it rather humorous.
So... are people just too lazy to research or are they purposely trying to pass off lifes as the truth?
2007-10-16 05:28:30 · 30 answers · asked by The Raven † 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
oops, pass off "lies", not "lifes".. excuse my typing! ha
2007-10-16 05:32:13 · update #1
Didn't you know? Christianity began in the 16th century. LOL
Jesus promised, "I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). This means that his Church will never be destroyed and will never fall away from him. His Church will survive until his return.
Among the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. (Most of today’s Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots.) Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. The line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken succession, to Peter himself. This is unequaled by any institution in history: Even the oldest government is new compared to the papacy.
The Catholic Church has existed for nearly 2,000 years, despite constant opposition from the world. This is testimony to the Church’s divine origin: Any merely human organization would have collapsed long ago. The Catholic Church is today the most vigorous church in the world (and the largest, with 1.3 billion members: one sixth of the human race), and that is testimony not to the cleverness of the Church’s leaders, but to the protection of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20). For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28). Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19). The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it went all the way back to the time of the apostles.
2007-10-16 05:38:27 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 12⤊ 1⤋
Constantine did not actually become a Christian until he was an old man on his death bed. That was when he was baptised and professed that Jesus is Lord. During his life he did not surrender to Christ. He simply changed the law so that is was no longer illegal to be Christian. Which was quite prudent of him given that Christianity was steadily growning and might have turned into an ugly rebellion against him.
Constantine's wife convinced him to preserve many historical sites that have, over the ages, enriched the lives of millions of Christians including Evangelicals who have journeyed to the Holy Land. Despite any personal defects we might attribute to Constantine, he performed one of the greatest feats of any man in history. He brought the Church out from under the yoke of oppression and allowed people to preach the gospel from the housetops
Constantine did not invent Catholicism, he simply recognized it and let people legally be Christian
The Catholic Church was started by Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew who was crucified by the Romans ca. 33 AD. The church says he was resurrected by God the Father. One of his followers, Saint Peter, became the first pope, or Bishop of Rome, soon after that. Today, the pope is Benedict XVI, who is the leader of the Church (like the male head of a family, or father). This is where the word pope comes from. That is why the pope is also called the Holy Father.
In 325, the First Council of Nicaea agreed on how to organise the church. The council said the Church had five patriarchs (patriarch also means a kind of father). They were the archbishops of Rome, Alexandria, Ephesus, and Antioch, each in charge of one fourth of the Christian world, with the Archbishop of Jerusalem at the center, as a fifth patriarch. The Patriarch of Rome, or "Pope", was honored as "first among equals" because the diocese of Rome was started by Saint Peter. The third patriarch later moved from Ephesus to Constantinople.
In time, the Church split apart with fights over who is right; these fights caused breaks in the Church called schisms. Most schisms happen because of people have different beliefs about what is true, but politics is often a big reason for these fights too.
In 451, a schism happened when the Pope (Patriarch of Rome) excommunicated (cut off) three of the other four patriarchs, the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, because they would not accept his idea that said Jesus' two natures were separated from each other. Of course, these three patriarchs did not accept being excommunicated either, so the Churches under them are still known today as Oriental Orthodox Churches. This left only one other patriarch (Constantinople) in communion with Rome.
The Catholic Church split into the Western (Roman) and Eastern (Orthodox) Churches in 1054. The Orthodox Church was later divided into national churches, making the Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, and so on. The Roman Catholic Church kept the idea of one united church with the pope as head. Some Orthodox Churches believe the emperor or king is the head of the Church as well as the country. In England, the Anglican Church is like the Orthodox about this
2007-10-16 05:37:50 · answer #2 · answered by bmdt07 4 · 10⤊ 0⤋
It could be that corruption started to get in the church when Constantine started to bring politics in, and the methods of the world; hence symbolic of the declined state that Catholicism fell to by the time of the Reformation. So before that churches weren't keen to control and dictate from on high to one-another - there was a christian measure of consultation, consensus etc. Those early 1-4th century christians would be appalled at the crusades, paying priests to pray for the souls of the deceased worldly rich, taking financial payments in exchange for supposed guarantees of salvation. Habeamus et habeant Christum.
2007-10-16 06:20:11 · answer #3 · answered by Cader and Glyder scrambler 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yeah, some of the alternative history that non-Catholic Christians (thank you for not using the "P" word) believe is pretty far out. I think Matt should start ghost writing for Dan Brown.
Maybe it is a case of when you deny one truth you must start denying even more truths in order to believe the first lie.
2007-10-16 08:22:23 · answer #4 · answered by Sldgman 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Nicer, more reasonable people seem to get along better in general . . . nicer, more reasonable atheists get along better with Christians than other atheists. Nicer more reasonable Muslims get along better with Hindus than other Muslims. It really doesn't matter the religion. It's a general thing. So yeah, I've noticed it in a lot more than Christians and Atheists. ^-^
2016-05-22 22:59:37 · answer #5 · answered by dona 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have often wondered the same thing. I never knew such ignorance existed in the christian faith, (namely, fundamentalist christians), who think they are the only one's entitled to the name christianity, before I came on Yahoo Answers!
The protestant faith, seems to have just claimed it existed 100's of years before the actual reformation. Talk about re-writing history!
I completely agree.
2007-10-16 05:49:04 · answer #6 · answered by Sapere Aude 5 · 6⤊ 0⤋
They need to believe in their misguided history. If they allow themselves to truly examine the truth that the Church brings to the world, their own fragile, man-made belief system would crumble, and that is a scary possibility for anybody.
We should remember to lift them up in prayer as often as possible, asking that the Holy Spirit take away the darkness from their hearts and give them the light of His truth.
2007-10-16 05:32:04 · answer #7 · answered by Acorn 7 · 11⤊ 1⤋
Blame not the people but the sad state of the teaching of History. Nobody learns enough history anymore.
2007-10-16 05:36:12 · answer #8 · answered by Sharon M 6 · 5⤊ 0⤋
I agree with you. Though the Catholics still do it occasionally too. I actually find the Catholics to be the least offensive of the Christian religions, even if their practices can be a little bizarre at times.
2007-10-16 05:36:28 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 1⤋
have to think most of it is laziness-they are passing on what they have heard and think it to be true-it is better to search out the truth or as much of it as you can find before talking------
better to keep ones mouth closed and be thought a fool-than to open it and remove all doubt----keep smiling and enjoy the day
2007-10-16 05:34:02 · answer #10 · answered by lazaruslong138 6 · 7⤊ 0⤋