Why do so many people respond that roman catholics were the 1st christians?

Question

Have you people read anything at all about the history of christianity? To call the first "pope" a "roman catholic" is ludicrous. The first followers of Jesus were following creeds that would be completely unrecognizable as "roman catholic". There were no priests, no vows of celibacy, bishops, etc.... The whole church heirarchy is a relic of European feudalism. The vows of celibacy came about to preserve church property from transfer through marriages, there was no limbo, purgatory, they didn't worship Mary as a divinity and intercessor, there was no immaculate conception... and on and on and on.

I don't doubt it was the 1st organzied church, but that hardly makes them "the 1st christians". I personally would consider the 1st people that followed his teachings even before they were all written down to be the 1st christians. Christian means "christ-like" not "in an organized church structure".

Frank R, you gave me a good chuckle, kthanxbye!!

And please understand, I'm not slamming catholicism in this post, just please take the question at face value.

Answer 1

I agree with you 100%. Any Catholic who is under the mistaken belief that the RCC is the oldest church has not read the writings of the early church fathers: http://www.ccel.org/fathers.html

Answer 2

The Roman Catholic Church is not the first church. Sadly, they broke away in the Great Schism in the 11th century. The Orthodox Church is the original church. That is a historically verifiable claim.

The first century Church did not even remotely resemble any Protestant denomination. Very shortly after the Church's initial founding, a hierarchal structure was established, liturgies were composed, and the ancient traditions that exist today in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church were common practice. This can be established by reading the ancient Church Fathers or any historical document from that period. There is historical documentation of the Ancient Church that goes back at least as far as the second century. In order for the Church to have fallen away or adopted pagan practices, it would have had to happen almost immediately after it was established. It would have had to happen even during the lifetime of the Apostles.

Answer 3

"The vows of celibacy came about to preserve church property from transfer through marriages"

Dude, that answers a long time question for me. It makes sence.

The only reason that the catholic church proclaims to be the church appoint by God Himself is so they could have an easier time misleading people into joining their "church.".

Answer 4

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that it is the original Christianity. Of course that is their own propaganda. The early church was made up of several congregations, many founded by Paul, other founded by other apostolic figures, and all varied widely in their teachings. Jesus as the Christ was taught primarily in the Pauline congregations. Remember that Christ is the Greek form of Messiah or anointed one. there were many Jewish sects that were waiting for a promised Messiah and if you were a Greek speaking person, you would call these Messiah believers, "Christ believers" whether they were connected with Jesus, Paul, or not. Paul's brand of Christianity grew very popular in the Greek and Roman world to the point that the Roman emperor Constantine, decided that Christianity could be the spiritual glue to hold his empire together. Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the empire, and he told all the different bishops of all the different sects of Christianity to get together, work out their differences and make one Universal or "Catholic" Church. He also directed them to prepare new scriptures to be used in all the churches so they got together and hashed out which books would go into the New Testament, editing many of the books along the way to suit the new dogma that was now official. In most cases the Pauline school won out over the other sects with comprimises being made all over the place. The Catholic Church was in fact a political creation of the Roman Empire to help keep the people in line. Of course it didn't work.

Answer 5

The first followers of Jesus were Jews.
All the Apostles were Jewish.
Israel was a country which at the time was populated mostly by Jews.
Jesus taught in the Temple(s) quite often.
In Acts, early Christians were considered to be a sect of the Jewish faith.
In Acts 11:26, the Apostles were first called "Christians" in the city of Antioch, about 44 C.E.

"Catholic" means universal.
"Roman Catholic" means Roman Universal (?). Sounds like an oxy-moron to me. One cannot be universal and regional at the same time.

Answer 6

+ Christian +

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

Is it also ludicrous to claim that everyone who believed in Jesus Christ before "the disciples were first called Christians" were Christians?

I do not think so. Mary and Joseph believed that Jesus was the Messiah even before He was born. They were the first Christians even it the word "Christian" was not yet used.

+ Catholic +

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" (meaning universal) 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/text/ignatius-smyrnaeans-hoole.html

We do not know how long they had been using the term "Catholic" before it was included in this letter but this is the same Christian Church that was born on Pentecost.

And this same Church has always been a universal (catholic) church in accordance to the command of Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:19-20:

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

All of this was long before the Council of Nicea and the Nicene Creed from 325 C.E. which states, "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07644a.htm

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 7

Jesus Christ was a great messenger of God and all Muslims love him and can't hear anything against him, including the fact that he never claimed to be God, and never asked trinity to exist. He was the way to God, the same way all other prophets were showing the way to God.
The hundreds of contradictions in bible and language itself clarifies that bible that exists today has many additions/ alterations by historians etc for different reasons.

Germine 8:8
How can you say, “we are wise, for we have the law of Lord,” when actually the pen of scribes has made it into a lie?
Bible is warning us don't take every word of bible as word of God, as scribes will turn it into a lie.
Ask any Bishop how we got today's bible, and the answer would be through scribes.

Jesus said:

A) Mark 12:29:
"the Lord our God, the lord is One"

B) Metthew: 26:39:
"He went a little farther and fell on His face and prayed"

Jesus prayed to one God

C) Matthew 4:10
"You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only you shall serve"

Trinity was invented by Paul, an evolved concept in christianity, 200 years after Jesus, and that's how confused and divided the concept that Jesus preached. Word "son" was used in bible for general human beings and other prophets also.

Answer 8

You are correct.
The Catholics put much emphasis on the interpretation of one verse in the Bible that says Jesus would build His church on Peter. They claim Peter is the first Pope.
The other interpretation, which I believe is correct, is that Jesus never said he would build His church on Peter, but upon Himself. That seems common sense anyway...He doesn't go through everything He did, then give it all off to a mere human, right?
Interestingly, Peter was NOT the first Christian in Rome, as they say. The church was already established by the time Peter was hauled off there to be crucified.

Answer 9

You're right! People should read the "Book of Acts" (written by Luke) and be informed about the 1st Christian Church! The way the apostles lived and preached!

Answer 10

Oh, sweetheart! Don't feel bad that you aren't a member of the first Christian Church--and the only Christian church for 1500 years! It's still possible to convert!

We don't worship Mary as divinity, either. We honor her as Jesus' mother. Don't you honor your mother? Why wouldn't we, then, honor Mary as Jesus' mother? Don't you ask people to pray for you? So we shouldn't ask the Mother of God to pray for us? Ours is a living Church that is in communion with those who have gone before us to heaven. We don't believe that life ends; we believe that it merely changes. So, why wouldn't we ask those who have gone before us to the place we hope to be someday as well to pray for us?

As for the Immaculate Conception, do you believe that Jesus is God? Do you believe that God is without sin? Do you believe, then, that God, who is sinless, could come from something or someone who is sinful? Doesn't follow, does it? THAT'S what the Immaculate Conception is about.

It has never been an official teaching of the Church that Limbo exists.

The first pope was Peter to whom Jesus gave the keys to his Church and said, "Upon this rock I will build my Church." Or don't you believe in Scripture? Perhaps you aren't bible based?

You are, indeed, correct that the first Christians were not Roman Catholics. They were Jews; something I'm sure you would deny as well. They did not become Christians until the Jews threw them out of the Synagogues around 76 AD. They were still not Roman Catholics since being a Christian was still outlaws until the Emperor of Rome, Constantine, became a Christian on his deathbed, and decreed that Christianity was the religion of Rome. THEN the first Christians became Roman Catholics. "Catholic" merely means "universal" since these Roman Christians were all over the know universe at the time. Still are, actually. They evolved, another word I'm sure you don't like, into the Roman Catholics of today, but the original Christians WERE those who are today Roman Catholics.

The first Protestant, or non-Catholic Christian denomination was the Church of England in 1533, more than 1500 years after Jesus and approximately 1200 years after the first Christians evolved into Roman Catholicism. Many of these groups who call themselves merely Christians, didn't start until the early 1990s.

I know it's hard to accept that Roman Catholics ARE the first Christians, but there is still time to convert. I'll pray that you see the light and come back to the one, true Church of Christ; the one HE established as it says in the bible.