What did people believe in the period between Paul & Reformation?

Question

My mother wants to know. She is a Baptist Fundamentalist.

Thanks everybody. Great answers! They all helped to give her some perspective. I can't choose a best answer!

Answer 1

About what? I'm not being sarcastic but there were a lot of beliefs about a lot of things between this time period. I can give you a list of creeds and catechisms written during this period of time that defined church doctrine but if its about something specific (like baptism or communion or whatever) we would need to know.

Answer 2

Paul? Do you mean St. Paul?

People believed many things.

If you mean Christians, then there are two main groups to consider. They were the sucessors to the apostles and believed in the Trinity, that Jesus was both man and God. The also believed in what is known now as the New and Old Testaments. But the New Testament was not written right away. At one of the Ecumemical Councils in Nicea a document was created that listed the beliefs. This became known as the Creed or Nicene Creed.

At this Council it was agreed that nothing could be added or taken away from the Creed unless it was at another Council of such magnitude . At some point in time, the West inserted something called the filioque. The West changed the part on beliefs on the Holy Spirit without benefit of a proper Ecumenical Council.

Although things were deteriorating before that , 1054 is the date recognized by most as the Great Schism between the East and West. If you are Eastern Orthodox you believe the Catholics broke off. If you are Roman Catholic you believe the Orthodox broke off.

Answer 3

They believed exactly what the Catholic church teaches today ... the same truth that was given to the apostles by Jesus and the Holy Spirit ... and the same truth that was faithfully handed down to us by the apostles and their duly ordained successors, who are the present day bishops of the Catholic church.

The 15th century reformers invented a whole new religion and called it Christianity.

Meanwhile, many of today's Baptists claim to trace their own spiritual "roots" all the way back to John the Baptist.

This would be great, but that would constitute "tradition" and Baptists (like other protestants) do not accept tradition.

Also, there is absolutely no historical confirmation, or any authentic theological connection, between those known today as Baptists (or anabaptists ... or rebaptizers) and John the Baptist ... unless you happen to be a Gnostic ... but then that creates a whole new set of problems.

Anyone can research and study this entire matter for themself, since the Catholic church maintains a complete collection of the best scholarly and theological works that the world has ever known, which span the last 2000 years of authentic world history, and which can be freely accessed by anyone.

Dare to compare. The truth will likely astound you ... as well as your mom.

To begin your research and exploration, try these two links:

http://www.newadvent.org

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/ccc_toc.htm

Answer 4

Depends where they lived. Many hundreds of millions of people in India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka believed in the Teachings of Lord Buddha, many did not.

Answer 5

The teaching of Jesus were limited to the Jewish people and if it had not been for Paul....Christianity would not have survived. Paul opened the door for all people to recognize Jesus and his teachings. He made it acceptable to the Roman leaders and enable it to survive as a religion.

Answer 6

Christians during that period followed the teachings of the Catholic Church. Catholic is Greek for universal - all of Christianity was Catholic in those years. Eastern Orthodox split in 1054, but it's beliefs are very similar to RCC.

Answer 7

Pastor Billy says: (Roman) Catholicism

Answer 8

About what specifically? This could warrant a novel.

Answer 9

that Jesus is King!!