Catholics are the original true Christians

[Valerie]

The "true religion" argument can be resolved rather easily: strength of numbers and caliber of weapons.

 

[Hollie]

The "true religion" argument can be resolved rather easily: strength of numbers and caliber of weapons.

sure, that is what the Bible advocates.

If you study history, it largely defines the behavior of religious folks, and not exclusively Christians.

 

[California Girl]

There's also the Gnostic Christians....which also pre-dates Catholicism.

It's tricky to 'pre-date' Catholicism... since we trace our history back to St Peter - and by him to Christ Himself... unless you're claiming Gnostic Christians pre-date Christ.

 

[Warrior102]

There's also the Gnostic Christians....which also pre-dates Catholicism.

It's tricky to 'pre-date' Catholicism... since we trace our history back to St Peter - and by him to Christ Himself... unless you're claiming Gnostic Christians pre-date Christ.

Right on !!

 

[del]

^

asswipe

 

[there4eyeM]

There's also the Gnostic Christians....which also pre-dates Catholicism.

It's tricky to 'pre-date' Catholicism... since we trace our history back to St Peter - and by him to Christ Himself... unless you're claiming Gnostic Christians pre-date Christ.

This misses a word....

...since we CLAIM to trace our history...

OK, two words!

"And you can believe me, because I'm always right, and I always tell the truth." (George Tirebiter, wasn't it?)

 

[Steelplate]

There's also the Gnostic Christians....which also pre-dates Catholicism.

It's tricky to 'pre-date' Catholicism... since we trace our history back to St Peter - and by him to Christ Himself... unless you're claiming Gnostic Christians pre-date Christ.

Perhaps I wrote that "sort of" wrong. Gnostics actually do pre-date Christianity...they go deep into the Jewish faith...But Gnostics also followed Christ's message and became Christians.....they just didn't adopt the Orthodox doctrine. They believed that spiritual knowledge....or "Gnosis" was the key to getting near to God, not so muc the rites and rituals that the Orthodox Church practice.

Just because The Roman Catholic Church CLAIMS that their particular version of Christianity goes all the way back to Christ himself, which...for all intents and purposes, I suppose it did....but not as the Roman Catholic Church. If you read the link I provided and see how convoluted the History of Christianity is....it's hard to say "who was first".....or if it really even matters.

Look, I am not putting down Catholicism....not in the least....so please don't take it that way. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ and I respect you as a Christian. But, it's bad enough that the world is so divided between non-Christian religions and ours.....let's not start a sectarian war between ourselves.

Here's that link...I know it's wiki...but it's well written and has a lot of historical references to it....http:// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Catholic_Church

 

[jtpr312]

There's also the Gnostic Christians....which also pre-dates Catholicism.

It's tricky to 'pre-date' Catholicism... since we trace our history back to St Peter - and by him to Christ Himself... unless you're claiming Gnostic Christians pre-date Christ.

Right on !!

Well yeah, Christianity can and does pre-date Catholicism seeing that Christianity can trace it's roots back to Adam and the garden of Eden, which was a long time before the Apostle Peter and the first roman pope st. Linus. Peter was never given any title of pope in the word of God, and that is the ONLY authoritive source on the matter.


c/p
The Apostle John, who outlived all the apostles, never mentions "pope" Peter's death, burial or even "succession."

Church "fathers" such as Irenaeus, Polycarp, Origen, Cyprian, Jerome, Hilary and Ambrose, never acknowledged or taught that Peter was the first Pope (A Handbook On The Papacy, Bishop William Kerr, pgs. 48, 49.)

James and John were given special places of position with Jesus in the future Kingdom, yet Peter wasn't consulted once nor did Jesus refer them to him. We also read in John's Gospel, how certain Greeks went to Philip to have him introduce them to Jesus. Philip then went to Andrew (not Peter) to speak with Jesus. And at the end of this Gospel, Peter is rebuked by Jesus again, but this time for asking what John's future fate would be. If anybody is to be considered as "Papal" material, it would not be Peter (a man who tried to kill Malchus; deny Jesus three times and preach a false gospel in Gal. 2, but Paul the Apostle. Yet even he was more modest and humble then most modern day preachers are, whether Protestant or Catholic.

 

[there4eyeM]

Where'd 'em pesky papists get off to?

 

[there4eyeM]

Ha, ha, reckon we scared 'em off!

 

[Moonglow]

Protestants are off shoots

Really? Funny I don't remeber reading anything about any "Catholics" in the book of Acts, which gives us the history of the Christian church, not to mention the fact that Catholic dogma, doctrine and theology is either directly contridicted by, or directly contridicts, the Word of God, which is the guide book for Christianity, more times than can be counted. The papist church of Rome was not just an offshoot, it was an aspostate offshoot, the reformation was a return to the truths of Christianity, it was taking back the Bride of Christ from the demons that had hijacked the Lord's simple messages of Sola scrpitura and Grace alone through faith alone. No need for some dude sitting in his magic chair and telling the world that because he sat in his magic chair his words supersede the Word of God.

True and since the Catholism were the creation of the Roman empire and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Papacy sought to control the practice and vernacular of the Bible to control those nations through religious edict instead of an empiracle contigious state

 

[The Irish Ram]

Christians were killed in droves before Peter and Paul debated just who "Christians" really were. The Christians after the death of Christ called themselves "The Way". They would put a candle in their window to let other Christians know it was a safe home to stop.
Peter felt that Christians needed to convert to Judaism in order to follow the teachings of Christ. Paul included Gentiles into Christianity because he felt that the Jewish laws had been fulfilled.
Constantine converted, and Christianity was allowed to flourish.

If Christ is the place where Christianity began, then His Jewish disciples, as well as His Jewish mother and brothers, were the ones to carry on His legacy. That didn't sit well with Catholics so they came up with "replacement theology", by adding to and taking away from God's Word at their leisure.