Where is the word Catholic in the Bible?

Question

Just for you Crusader, let me have it

Answer 1

I'm not a crusader, but the answer is...it's not in the Bible. And frankly what they practice isn't either.

Answer 2

there are many words that are not in the bible as they were not part of the language at the time. Catholic means universal church and the whole body of Christ. I'm an Anglican and yet I have a Catholic faith and so do many other Christians. The word Protestant is also not in the bible. You might be referring to Roman Catholicism but even then why would you find that in the Bible....the organized church didn't come until later.

remember the Bible passage regarding useless arguments.......if one devotes most of ones time trying to figure out what is wrong with another denomination then how much time is left over to devote to their personal relationship to Jesus Christ..

Answer 3

Catholic means universal. Universal occurs 42 times in the New American Bible: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/1/UE.HTM

However 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.

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

Many "Christian" words are not found in the Bible:

+ Adventist
+ Anglican
+ Beatitude
+ Catholic
+ Christmas
+ Easter
+ Congregational
+ Creed
+ Epiphany
+ Eucharist
+ Hell
+ Incarnation
+ Lutheran
+ Martyr
+ Mennonite
+ Methodist
+ Orthodox
+ Protestant
+ Pentateuch
+ Pope
+ Purgatory
+ Quakers
+ Sacrament
+ Sunday
+ Testament
+ Transfiguration
+ Trinity

This does not mean that these words have no meaning.

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

Jerry Lee has it right. The word "Catholic" was not used in regard to the Christian church until the 2nd century, and the word actually means "universal".

I've seen some Catholics on YA that are pretty dogmatic that Catholics were the first Christians, but this is nonsense. As we've seen, the word itself didn't even come into use until the 2nd century, and there was not even a unified church doctrine until the Council of Nicea in AD 325, when the Roman emperor Constantine got involved. That was the beginning of the unification of the Roman state and the Christian church, which resulted in the entity we now recognize as the Roman Catholic Church. Prior to that time, the churches scattered throughout the Roman world were largely independent of one another. Their only real unity lay in the teachings of Christ and the Apostles.

You can legitimately use the word "catholic/universal" in application to the entire body of Christ, but it should be recognized that the "catholic church" and the "Catholic Church" are two separate things.

Answer 5

I do not think the word "Catholic" is in the Bible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic
has that it comes from
A letter written by Ignatius to Christians in Smyrna [1] around 106 is the earliest surviving witness to the use of the term "Catholic Church" (Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 8). By it Ignatius designated the Christian Church in its universal aspect, excluding heretics, such as those who disavow "the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again

Answer 6

Don't forget me!

The word "catholic" means universal, just as "orthodox" means-traditional/normally accepted

Roman Catholic was chosen because of what it meant. We use Latin (Roman) as our official language and we are a universal church.

Answer 7

It's not. Neither is "non-denomination" or "methodist" or "lutheran" or "presbyterian" or "seventh-day adventist" or "Once Saved, Always Saved" or "Joyce Meyer" or "Chuck Swindoll" or "Oswald Chambers" or "Denny Hinn" or "David Cho" or "Pentecostal" or dozens and dozens of other words.

So?

Answer 8

Haha! I love the "war" that's started. :)

There is no "catholic" in the Bible. But it is the one true religion, since it was started by Jesus Christ. All other religions were started by man.

Answer 9

It's not on the bible! before the bible there wasn't catholicism.

Answer 10

Oh, easy!

Where is the word Catholic in the Bible?

The same section that says that the Pope is infallable, instructs us to pray to saints, worship Mary, and says that the blood of our Savior tastes like Manishewitz wine.

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Its not.

God Bless you.