What does everyone think of this statement? " Catholics INVENTED Christianity 2000 years ago". True or false?

Question

I just copied and pasted that statement from another question. I have seen this quoted much lately. This is not talking about the general meaning of the word "catholic" which means "universal", this is talking about the Catholic religion. In your opinion, is that a true statement or a false one? Please state why and tell your religion. No hate answers toward Catholics, please.

To Aries007 - I have seen it several times recently on this site. Here is the question that I got the statement from. I copied it word for word from the middle of Thin Aboutit's answer.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmhZyCMTcF4UnwtrJhMeij7sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071029143816AADTpFI

Just so everyone knows, I did not give anyone thumbs down.

Answer 1

Christianity to me sister, did not come OUT OF the Catholic Church. Until Martin Luther Protestantism didn't really come about.
The Catholic Chuch is actually the apostate Church. When you look at what this church is and what the early church was its like night and day. For them to say such a thing is to fool themselves.

At one point, during a very dark time sister.. all God had representing Him on the earth at the time was the Apostate Roman Catholic Church. In reaction to the decline God raised up Brother Martin Luther in order to show one of the basic foundations of our faith... Grace Through Faith. Since then a lot has happened and many denominations have arisen, each one according to a certain flavour or dogma and emphasis.

Good Q sis
good link too
ur sis
sandy

Answer 2

It is a false statement - Jesus Christ established the church by handing the keys to Peter who was Jesus Apostle and the First Pope, leader of the Catholic Church. Jesus told Peter to feed my sheep 3 times. It took many years for the bible to be written down but St. Jerome spent his life copying the bible so that others could read it. The Catholic Church has been in existence for over 2000 years as all other denominations of Christian faith has only been around for around 500 years. Jesus established the church and said the it would remain until His return and so it has.
Thanks be to God. I have been a Catholic since my early 20s, before that I was a Baptist

Answer 3

False

I didn't know Jesus, Paul, John, Matthew, etc were Catholic -- interesting notion! I thought the followers of Christ were Christians.

The foretold apostasy that Paul and John prophesied would happen did occur when the monotheistic God was accepted by what became the state church as the triune god.

This happened as a result of Constantine in 325 with the council of Nicea. (see Wikipedia quote below)

From that time on, many pagan concepts were introduced into the church.

As it was then, so it is today. All churches are created so as to control what dogma their believers must accept. It is relative unimportant to these all churches what the Bible says.

Oh, yes, all churches give lip service to the Bible, but human tradition, church history, and the need for money is what drives all the churches.

Not even one church follows the original pattern where the Bible's teaching is all important, where we obey the word, the command and teach the simple truth, where we take care of the poor in the faith, where we spread the gospel, where we are separate from the affairs of this Satanic world.

^^^^^^^^^
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity

Under: Etymology
"About a century later, in AD 325, the Council of Nicea established the doctrine of the Trinity as orthodoxy and adopted the Nicene Creed that described Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made,being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father.""
^^^^^^^^^

Religion: Christian. I profess the Christianity of the first Christians -- nothing else, no denomination, no church do I profess, except that one. Christians being divided into all the various denominations there are today is an abomination to God.

Answer 4

False. Prior to the time when Christ founded the Church, there was no group of people called "Catholics". We didn't identify ourselves as "Catholics" until a number of years after the time of Christ. It is more accurate to say that Jesus invented Christianity, and it was preserved and spread by what became the Catholic Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a custodianship which continues to this day.

We Catholics didn't invent anything; we have simply formalized what we learned from Christ, the Apostles, and their students.

(Since you asked, I'm a Roman Catholic Christian.)

Answer 5

At last a breath of common sense in this category.Morality has been a matter of conscience since day one. The invention of Christianity by Saul is just a small hiccup on mans ascent. Christianity gives people the chance to revert to a state of immorality, like invading other tribes, killing other tribes, stealing nations wealth and poisoning other peoples air and water. The human race will survive Christianity and other religions, it MUST do or perish !

Answer 6

False. The Church, also properly referred to as the Body of Christ, is the remnant of Believers. They make up the members of the Body. The Body of Christ is alive, joined together by the Holy Spirit. It is not as exclusive as many denominations would have us believe. God was not willing that any should perish, so He gave a plan of redemption so simple that even a child could understand. Man has complicated the "qualifications," and added traditions that were never meant to be, most of which glorify man, not God. Christ gave two commandments that He said if we obey them, we would fulfill the Law. Love God with all of your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Not necessarily easy, but very simple.

Edit: "Christian" was first used as a derogatory term, much as we would say "Branch Davidians." The first referance to Christians was Disciples or followers of Christ. The group of believers was then referred to as ones following "the Way." Obviously the believers did not feel insulted by the name "Christian," and began to refer to themselves as such.

Answer 7

The Catholic Church claims to have begun when Jesus looked at Peter and told him he would build his Church on this rock. It is argued to whether this comment was about Peter or about the revelation that Peter declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God , prompting this reaction by Jesus.
I believe that Jesus was commenting on the statement made by Peter since we know to receive salvation from the Lord we must first confess Jesus the Christ, believe in his death, resurrection, and assention into heaven and the power of his name. This is what Peter was doing when Jesus made the declaration.
Yet, the Catholic Church was the universal church at the beginning and so I believe they also have a point. Still we must let the Word of God declare who is the Church and we know that the Word tells us that his people are those who follow his Words and endear them in their hearts and obey them. Thus, many doctrines of the Catholics have went astray from this and today they are far from the truth.
I know because I was a Catholic for 30 years until I saw through all the false doctrine and converted into one who reads the Word of God and I follow it diligently. When I did this I was filled with his power and life has never been the same.
Let us let Jesus declare who is his Church in his own words. (look below)

Answer 8

False,Jesus founded His church on Peter and those who succeeded him i.e the Popes are the vicars of this one true church, the term Catholic comes from the Greek meaning `The Whole`` or universal, which in time became known as Catholic.

Answer 9

Uh .. no. No one "invented" Christianity. Jesus established his church; the body of believers fairly early on described their belief as "catholic" (universal) Christianity to distinguish the apostolic faith from heresies that were constantly springing up. As this became more established and formalized, so did the name.

Answer 10

I'd say Protestants better take the time to use logic. EVERY protestant sect broke off or was formulated from Catholicism. The 2 original branches of Christianty were the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. There WERE no Protestants in the beginning of christianity.