Why do Non-Catholics think they have anything to do with the Church Christ founded. ?

Question

Seriously, no non Catholic Church can trace its roots through history to Christ.

LDS founded recently

Pentecostals - Azuza street

Baptists - Few hundred years.

JWS - Recently

Evangelicals - 20th century

Charismatics - Late 20th Century

I dont mean to sound disrespectful but how can groups like this think that they have the authority on truth.

Some people claim that there were "true christians" hiding out in, I dont know, Caves or hills for 1600 years till the little anti-semite luther showed up to save them.

Nonsense. The first Christians are documented in history as being called Catholic. The Catholic Church can document popes back to Peter. And for goodness sake even Peter is buried in the Vatican!!!!!!

I think people can be brainwashed but logic dictates that if you take a Catholic Book, that was written compiled and preserved for 1200 years by an apostolic church you should maybe ask that church to help you interpret what it says.

What happens if you dont and people interpret it themselves.

Well, people say the Holy spirit leads them into all truth.

Well then why are there 35,000 denominations in the world who all think they have the truth and everyone else is going to h**l

Answer 1

Jesus did not found a church and he was not catholic.  He was jewish.

Answer 2

Why do Catholics think that you can pray to a statue for protection, to find something etc.?  And why do they sometimes pray to Mary?

Do not the scriptures say that Christ is now our intercessor? And where is this place called "pergatory" ( may be spelled wrong, but you know what I mean) , found in scripture?

Answer 3

Outstanding question, can't wait for the answers.

If protestants knew the truth of the Catholic Church, they would be Catholics.

To my brothers and sisters in Christ.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=7gqDfrTq-C...

To Elegante below.......

Catholics will need to continue to teach history to our naive Protestant brothers, who are sheep without a shepherd. The scattered writings that became the New Testament weren't assembled by the Church into an authoritative canon for nearly 500 years.

The Protestants commit the same basic error as Jews and Muslims. They want a religion of the book. In fact, actual Christianity is a religion of the Word, and the Word is Jesus Christ, who lived the life rather than writing a book.

As Jews, Muslims, and Protestants have learned, people can read a book any way they please. The teachings of the Word of God were entrusted to a living Church, the faithful Christians who proclaim the Word in ever-new words, and who say no to the false teachings of the revisionists.

Being a women of your Word & Integrity.

Answer 4

First the word Catholic just means world wide,Its when you put Roman before it you change everything´Also when the RC church documents popes ,they rarely tell you of the occasions when there were 2 popes at the same time,also the popes who were excomunicated like the first pope called john23,check and you will find two of them..

Read the Bible and you will find no record of peter being in Rome Paul does not mention him of the people who met him while he was there,Peter also had the ministry to the Jews,while Paul ministered to the Gentiles(Romans)

this book was not a RC book the bible was written under the inspration of the Holy Spirit,Not the church

We do not belive that everybody else is going to h**l,your Church does.

Read this book and see if all you are told is written there ,or just in tradition and contridicts the Word Of God

Answer 5

*agrees with jm1970's*

The first and original church is mentioned in Acts in Antioch.They:

~covered their heads according to 1 Corinthians 11

~refrained from swearing oaths according to Matthew 5:32-34

~were pacifists according to Matthew 5:39 & Luke 6:29

~dressed plain according to 1 Timothy 2:9

~let God chose ordinary men as ministers according to Acts 1:23-26

~shared everything according to Acts 2:44-45 & Acts 3:32-25

~fellowshipped and had communion in members' homes according to Acts 2:46

The Catholic church instead:

~has men not chosen by God, who attend theologian colleges

~has very few women who cover their heads, never mind dress decent for mass

~worships dead christians and a dead woman by praying to them to influence God

~severely tithes people

~was and is plagued with nepotism and the selling of indulgences

~refuses to accept God's word as the sole truth, by adding in fake scriptures and man made traditions

~permits church members to go to war

In other words, the Catholic church is not and was not, the first church.

During the Reformation, for the first time ordinary people had access to the bible and saw how wrong the church was and decided to return to living like the first christians.These people became known as Anabaptists and whom you have refered to "hiding out in caves and hills", which is true, but that was from the persection of Catholic and Protestant churches. Anabaptists follow the bible the most accurately.

Just to clear things up for you:

~The Catholic church was founded 300 years AFTER Jesus's death and was adopted by Constantine.

~Nowhere in the bible does it say that Peter was a Pope and was buried in where the Vatican now is.In fact, the Vatican did not exist until the 1930's when the dictator Mussolini gave land to the Catholic church to shut up the pope, so how could Peter be buried there?

Before you jump to conclusions and accuse people on shaky grounds, consider how foolish it makes you look.

Answer 6

It's about time Catholic started hitting back, but you do realize that when you do, it tends to pack a pretty powerful punch, and it's almost no fair, but just to clarify things a tad further, the children of Protestants cannot be held responsible for their parents' mistakes, and we must extend our family to be included in God's fountain of mercy.  After all, heathens get as much or more of it, and Love should be our first consideration.  It is easy to love your family, friends and neighbors.  How hard is it to love your enemy?  Yet this is what Christ exhorts.

I understand how frustrated you are though.

Answer 7

The Apostolic(non-catholic) church is the original church of Jesus Christ. It can be traced back to the Apostles, not just Azusa St. or something else.

Answer 8

OK, please cite the Scripture in the Bible that says, "Thou shalt be Catholic and bow thyself to the Pope!"

No?  How about "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand."  Jesus did not say "The Catholic church give unto them eternal life... He said "I give".

Those who simply believed in Jesus Christ and have followed His commandments to be saved have existed since the thief on the cross did the same (especially what is now known as the Baptist belief).  It's the Bible - not a denomination.  It's Jesus, not man-made rituals or commandments.  Jesus, none other, nothing else!

Answer 9

Do you remember the movie "Braveheart," where William Wallace enters the room and sees all the Scottish nobles with their scrolls and lineages and what-not, quibbling over who gets to be the king?  That's what this looks like to me.  

There are far more pressing matters to be concerned with.

Answer 10

They think they are right, you think you are right, muslims think they are right, etc. etc.  WHO CARES?  Quit fighting about your dumb religions and get off your butt and do something to contribute to society instead of babble on about fairy tales and fight about who's fiction is wrong or right.  

Answer 11

Do you have any idea how tiresome this is?

Anyone who loves Christ, repents of sin and follows Him is "His church".

Enough!

Answer 12

I don't remember Jesus being elected Pope. Besides, Jesus was a Jewish rabbi. He was never a 'Christian'. Christianity was formed by Paul, not Jesus.

Answer 13

     If one believes in God and treats all as Jesus says we are to with love, then you are in Gods true church.  You need no religionist telling you what church to join because, They all follow false prophets, and understand the true God, they don't.

     The majority who join churches follow men and not God.  One must follow God and if their lives emulate the life of Christ, then they are of Gods true church which lies in the heart and mind of Gods people who he is raising unto himself, in these last days, before the return of the bridegroom.

    The Holy Spirit is Jesus Christ.  He had to ascend into heaven after making his resurrection known, and his teaching to his disciples.  Jesus knew in the flesh, that he had a special calling of the Father, and he gave his life for the world, so he is with us who follow the Father as he did.

     The narrow path, is to be as Christ, and follow the Father and not the ways of the world or follow false prophets.

     In short, all churches are wrong in the eyes of God. We are not to bow to any objects or any idols, of anything which is of the earth, under the earth, or in the sea, or in HEAVEN.

     When one bows to a cross, or a crucifixion of Christ on the cross, they are bowing to something in heaven.

     Christ himself said,   St. Matthews; 5; 17-18.  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:  I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.     For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fullfilled.

     The earth has not passed, and the law he spoke of is the ten commandments, which one I stated above,  "There shall be no other God before me."

     Read it and understand it, all religions become wrong in the eyes of God.

Answer 14

You know, I'm a Catholic and I find your rant....I mean question to be disrespectful, unChristian and unCatholic....

not to mention arrogant and ignorant.

Any church that can say the Niceen Creed and mean it is Christian.  We have no more right to own Christ that any other of our Christian brothers and sisters.

Also, LDS and JW are not Christian churches....you best read your Bible, your doctrine, and keep quiet with the arrogance...you know not of what you speak.

I think you'd best pray for a Christian spirit and some humility.

Answer 15

The true Church is certainly not limited to the RC denomination.

The behavior of the RCs has not engendered much confidence. When one attempts reasonable conversation, and the response is we don't have to listen to anything you say, one begins to think there might be a problem. The RCs have repeatedly screwed up opportunities to help people with legitimate questions stay in the RC communion. You mention Luther. You can't tie that guy's shoes, and you have the stupidity to spell his name with a small "L". This is the kind of arrogant smug self-righteousness I'm talking about. Luther had very legitimate questions,a nd instead of displaying a willingness to reason, the response was a resounding, You take what we say and that's that. Period. One wonders how the folks could say that with a straight face. Luther was, after all, questioning a very horrible breach of trust, the selling of entry into Heaven, among other things. He was absolutely right with respect to that. There are lots of other points one could argue, but that one will do fine. It is dannning information on the moral competence of the Church at that time. The only remedy for this is not to make stupid accusations against Luther that will never stick anyway (and you darn well know it) but admit that the Church administrators at the time were mistaken. As they transparently obviously were.

But will the RCs ever do that? Oh, noooo.

They have recently been silencing a lot of scholars who have questions about Church positions, and they ought to be in dialogue with those people to help themselves strengthen their own position, but they instead just say, You hsut up. Simply because they can.

It's a sham and a disgrace. I don't know how you can hold your head up, trying to defend these folks, but lots of folks have different priorities, I suppose......

Answer 16

Because the church is not identified by being traced through the passage of time, but it is rather identified by the doctrine it teaches, the way it is organized, the work it does and the way it worships.  If a church is the same in these ways as the original church, then they are the same church as that church.

The modern Catholic Church fails this test.  They no longer teach the same things, therefore, they are no longer the same church.  The Catholic Church has made many changes through time, many I have seen in my lifetime.

Answer 17

Your question has opened a hornets nest.

I can see from the answers that Protestants have no real answer to the historical position of the Catholic Church.  They are very selective in their quotes from scripture and always choose to ignore those parts of scripture which confirm the primacy of Peter and the Church that was founded upon him.

They choose to ignore "whatsoever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven" It couldn't be clearer than that, Jesus was talking about Peter and the Church.

He also promised to be with you (His Church) till the end of time, not just until the time of the Emperor Constantine, or until Luther or Henry VIII came along or any of the mutitude of latter day evangelists who apparently all know how to interpret the Bible correctly, yet all disagree with each other.

God is not a God of confusion, He certainly does not will all the confusion we have today in Christian teaching. That is why He made certain there would be an authoritive Church to decide on issues of dispute i.e "whatsoever you bind on Earth................."

The Church cannot be a complete democracy with everyone having their own interpretation of the 'truth' . We have recently seen the confusion in the Church of England over women priests and g*y clergy which is a result of no clear leadership and the rather silly belief that everyone can have a say on the issue according to their own interpretation of Scripture. Also I could mention the changes over the years in C of E teaching on artificial birth control, divorce and even the watering down of their opposition to abortion. (In 1990 the then Archbishop of Canterbury refused to advise the Queen not to sign the Embryo Bill because of his doubts about when an embryo becomes fully human!!!!!!)  He should have consulted the Catholic Church.

All these are the result of self interpretation which St. Paul warned about (another bit of scripture that Protestants choose to ignore).

Jesus also prayed that His Church would be one (united). So those who wilfully refuse to accept the authority of the Catholic Church, in spiritual matters, are deliberately going against the wishes of Jesus. How Christian is that?    

Answer 18

First of all, Christ did not establish a denomination. His word is for all mankind. Christ did not tell his disciples "Go and tell everyone to be Catholic." He said "Spread the gospel."  Jesus is the church head and we are all part of the body. We are not to believe in a religion or denomination but Christ and Christ alone. No Catholic or Protestant religion will get me to heaven. It is a personal relationship with Christ. " No one comes to the Father except by Me." Christ is not a liar. If he wanted us to go through a priest, or a dead saint, or even if baptism could be a way, he would have said so.

The Catholic church does believe in redemption and salvation through Christ.  The problem is that most Catholics believe that being a good Catholic (religious) will get them there. You show me where it says that in the Bible and I'll become Catholic.

Answer 19

Christ accepts all.  He is the way, the truth and the light.

Answer 20

Because today, most people in the Christain world can READ THE BIBLE OURSELVES and don't need appointed priests interceding.

Answer 21

because it was developed by the X-pagans (the Romans) and not exactly as Jesus requested.

Answer 22

Why do Catholics think they have anything to do with Christ?  I'm not a Christian, of any kind, but even I can see the gulf between Catholicism and Jesus's original teachings.  Jesus said nothing about eternal torment in h**l, babies going to purgatory, killing and forcefully converting non-Christians, opposing contraception that would prevent the spread of deadly diseases like HIV, etc. etc., all of which the Catholic Church has advocated.  Just because Catholics trace their ancestry to Peter doesn't mean they represent the real spirit of Jesus.  They have just built up a shell of dogma so thick that the original teachings are practically forgotten.

Answer 23

This argument FOR Catholicism is laughable.  The Catholic Church doesn't resemble anything LIKE the early church.  Instead of studying steady feast of dogma the Catholic Church feeds you, read the Bible.

Answer 24

The Eastern Orthodox church is just as valid as the Catholic church. In fact, the Catholic Church broke away from them, so the Orthodox are the true church of Christ.  

Answer 25

Well, ok, Peter was not a Pope, he may be buried there but he was never a pope. Before the Catholic church around the time of Jesus and thereafter, Christians met underground to hide because of their beliefs, They were not Catholics, they were believers in Jesus.  It doesn't matter what your religion it is what and who you believe in.