When did Christianity begin?

Question

If Catholics aren't Christians* then is Christianity only as old as the Reformation?

Does that make Islam older than Christianity?

What was the "Christian" church before the Reformation if it wasn't Christian?

Were the people who built all those wonderful medieval cathedrals NOT Christians?

*If you believe Catholics ARE Christians, there's no need for your input - the question is posed to those who think that they are not.

Answer 1

I think Jesus Christ should get the credit for us being Christian. Not a religious organization that started in 300 AD, by a man named Constantine.

Answer 2

Christianity is older than the Roman Catholic church. It did not come into existence until its split with the Orthodox church in the late 11th century.

Christianity, which is not an organization or a specific church, but the following of Jesus Christ, as continued - often in spite of the church. It is found not in an organization or a building, but in the hearts of men who have trusted Christ. They form the true chruch, build on the rock of the revelation that Jesus is the Christ.

There have been Catholics who were Christians. There have been Orthodoxes who were Christans. There have been Protestants who have been Christians. But none of those groups or divisions are "Chrsitians". Only people can be that.

Many of the doctrines and practices currently governing the Catholic church stand in stare contract with the New Testament, especially in the area of salvation. This makes it difficult for those who have read the New Testament to see someone could remain within those teachings, and still come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Answer 3

1. The followers of Jesus were first called "Christians" in Antioch.
2. A Christian is someone who trusts their hope of salvation to Jesus Christ & also desires to obey Him (John 3:16-18; Eph. 2:8-10).
3. Catholic Theology today is far removed from biblical Christianity & is more of a tradition-based belief system.
Tradition + Papal authority > Scripture
4. I do beleive that there are many believers in Catholic churches (I know a few), as well as there are many believers in Baptist, E-Free, Methodist churches.
5. The biggest problem I have with Catholic Theology is that they now believe in a works based salvation, which is corrupt.
W+F=S (works + faith=salvation).
6. Martin Luther never intended to start the "protestant" church but wanted to reform the Catholic Church that had become very corrupt. The Catholic Church, instead of reforming, kicked Martin Luther out.

Hope this helps. Email me for further thoughts & discussions

Answer 4

Christianity began, as others have stated with the preaching of the full Gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the redemption of sin for mankind. They were first called "Christians" in Acts 11:26...."And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch". Notice that the "CHURCH" is of no particular denomination, but is of those who are followers and believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The CHURCH is not a building, but is an assembly of people who are redeemed and meet together "wherever"....."For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

Edit:
I just wanted to add that I was raised in the catholic church and never once was told the truth of the Gospel. They teach tradition, and man-made doctrines.....in other words, it's merely another religion.....it's not true Christianity.

Answer 5

The Christian Church began to be called Christian in the first century at Antioch (Acts 11:26) in southern Asia. But the church are those who call on the Name of the Lord and there isn't separation of the Jew nor the Gentile for all are one. We are the children of Promise. This Promise was given to Adam and Eve that a Messiah would come and save us from our sins and all who believed on this promise are those who call on the Name of the Lord form this time forward. Thus, the church really began with Adam and Eve.

Answer 6

Jesus did not bring any new religion.He preached only about ONE ALMIGHTY GOD.But when people started deviating from his real teaching a new religion was born that is Christianity.
"Christian" is "the name given to the disciples by pagan gentiles at Antioch" (A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, G. Abbott-Smith, 484). The name "Christian" was first given to the worshipers of Jesus by the Gentiles" (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Joseph Henry Thayer, 672). The name "Christian" was "coined by the pagan slang" of "the citizens of Antioch" (James Moffatt, A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, I, 316).
In the New Testament the name "Christian" first appears in Acts 11:26, where the KJV and the ASV say "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."

Answer 7

The New Testament records that the Apostles of Christ were the first to be called Christians as they were spreading the Gospel shortly after the Resurrection of Christ.

Belonging to one particular religious denomination is not what makes you a Christian. Being a part of the Body of Christ by believing in and accepting Him is what makes you a Christian.

Cheers.

Answer 8

Catholics sound either like Jews or muslims... There is not a single evidence to the effect that catholics are christians... So I am out of the game I guess..

Answer 9

They must say that the Catholic Church is wrong or else why are they Protestants? Yet they must also admit that not one of their denominations has any right to declare itself to be the one True Church. And that, for the simple reason that Christ did not estab­lish any institution which could be known by men to be His Church.


They are all brought up with that impression and so they continue in religious matters to wander where they will, like people in a forest, who follow any line of tracks without bothering to ask where it leads. And they so love the risky adventure of experi­menting for themselves that they search Scripture for every possible text which they think will support them.


All Christians admit that Christ intended a unity of some kind to prevail amongst His followers. But we cannot deny for ourselves what type of unity must prevail. The "all going the one way" type of unity, whilst each goes his own way, is useless if it be quite foreign to the mind of Christ. Who can accept the in­vention of Protestants who, noting the numberless ways in which they are divided, define the unity re­quired to suit themselves in their present circumstances and in such a way that they may remain where they are.


Those who believed all that He had taught would at least be one in faith. Again, He demanded unity in worship. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism," was to be the rule and baptism belongs to worship. The early Christians were told distinctly by St. Paul that participation in the same Eucharistic worship probably was essential to the unity. "We, being many, are one bread, one body; all that partake of one bread".
In other words, "The one Christ is to be found in Holy Communion, and we, however numerous we may be, are one in Him if we partake of the same Holy Communion."

Protestantism cannot preserve Christian standards in­tact. Articles of faith have gone overboard. Mortifi­cation and fasting are not required. The evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, with their consequent inspiration of monastic life are ig­nored. Protestant writings excuse, and even approve, laxity in moral practice. Protestantism has not pro­duced anything equivalent to the canonized Catholic Saint. Many of the Sacraments of Christ are not even acknowledged by Protestantism, whilst the heart has been torn out of its worship by the loss of Christ's presence in the Blessed Eucharist. Of spiritual author­ity there is scarcely a trace. The very clergy are not trained in moral law, and cannot advise the laity as they should, even were the laity willing to accept ad­vice. The prevalent notion, "Believe on Christ and be saved," tends of its very nature to lessen the sense of necessity of personal virtue.

Protestantism was a movement of heated dissent. Error and rebellion took the first Protestants from the Catholic Church, the various forms of error, or the various countries in which the rebellion occurred, giving rise to the various sects. But any goodness which the first Protestants took as doctrinal baggage with them was derived from the Church they left. And any apparent goodness in the teachings of Protestant­ism is still to be found in the Catholic Church. Where, in the Catholic Church, cockle sown by the enemy is found here and there amidst the wheat, Satan was wise enough to allow some wheat here and there to remain amidst the cockle of Protestantism. And it is the presence of this wheat which accounts for the con­tinued existence of Protestantism. But the wheat does not really belong to Protestantism. It is a relic of Catholicism growing in alien soil. A Catholic is good when he lives up to Catholic principles, refusing to depart from them. A Protestant is good when he unconsciously acts on Catholic principles, departing from those which are purely Protestant.

Answer 10

the name Christianity started during the time the apostles preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch as stated in Acts 11:26

Acts 11:26
and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch

Christianity is older than the Reformation and Islam.

The "Christian Church" is called the "Church of God"

Acts 20:28
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.[a] Be shepherds of the church of God,[b] which he bought with his own blood.

1 Corinthians 1:2
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

1 Timothy 3:15
if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

The people who built medieval cathedrals are catholics.

catholics are not Christians because their teachings originated from Rome.

Christians are those who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.