God.

Sorry.. I try to post a site that seems to make sense...

Never mind... guess I won't use that anymore. Although I would like to know what was wrong with it.

SandMan wrote: Ejp414 wrote: Big Jim wrote: Actually that's exactly what my church is......Non-denominational and independant. And as for special ceremonies......we do communions every month, and baptismals when ever there is a need. Just to clerify there is a big difference between Cathlosism and Christianity. I'll let Sandman explain cause I'll admit I have'nt been too sharp with my wording today. I think Sandman realizes that Catholicism was the first religious organization to actually be considered "Christian". Every other Christian denomination roots from the Catholic Church, compliments of Calvinism and Martin Luther. And on a larger scale, Christianity came from Judaism, as did Islam. That's actually somewhat short sighted. The apostles and their followers were the first Christians. And, yes, they had their "churches", though they most often met in secret to escape persecution at the hands of the Romans. The Catholics came around far later when the Western world embraced this Eastern religion. They became the basis for the Western practice of Christianity. They were NOT the first organization to claim to be servants of the Christ. Judaism is the father of Christianity. As I understand it, the Jews (not the race, the religion) believe in the same God, but they believe His Messiah is yet to come. I'm no expert in their particular religion, but I believe that's the basis.

Peter was the first pope of the Catholic Church. He was an apostle. So I don't see where you're coming from with "The apostles and their followers were the first Christians."

Jesus Christ was a devout Jew, with interests in reforming the religion. When the Christians said that people could join their Church without being circumsized, they officially seperated themselves from Judaism in order to form the Catholic Church. I promise you I am not making this stuff up, it's in religious books and in history books.

The early followers you speak of considered themselves to be Jews. So, the first denomination was indeed the Catholic Church.

This doesn't disprove anything about Christianity, so I don't see why it's in your interest to argue against it? Unless you just really don't like Catholics and/or how history did indeed occur.


Edited by Ejp414

The modern Catholics bear no resemblance to the early churches. As far as I can tell, they only claim Peter (except I thought it was Paul) to validate themselves.

Big Jim wrote: Do you believe in God? Answer yes or no, and go on to explain why.

 

were here to talk about paintball

To clear something up, Buddha is not considered a god. I'm not sure who made that reference, but just letting ya know. He was actually a skinny, teacher/philosopher born in Nepal. Just a man, no special powers.

I still don't believe in god. Big Jim---King James version of the Bible?? I mean...that's like joining King Henry VIII's church and saying it was completely correct. I know that's the widely used version...but still. It's got many flaws.

I'm not sure, those could just be rumors. However, there have been circulated rumors that the man Jesus was a closet homosexual and had relations with many of his followers. However, those are just rumors, and can be quite untrue.

Dune wrote: I'm not sure, those could just be rumors. However, there have been circulated rumors that the man Jesus was a closet homosexual and had relations with many of his followers. However, those are just rumors, and can be quite untrue.

I've never even heard that. I'd bet money that He was probably either involved with or even married to Mary Magdeline though...

SandMan wrote: Ejp414 wrote: SandMan wrote: The modern Catholics bear no resemblance to the early churches. As far as I can tell, they only claim Peter (except I thought it was Paul) to validate themselves. I thought it was Paul too, but I double-checked. Now that I think of it, I remember that Paul was actually a Roman and not Jewish. He was extremely influential however. And plus, while both were executed, Paul was executed a good deal of time (relatively) before Peter was. Paul did not become Christian until after Jesus was already dead, and it was Jesus who said Paul was the "rock" of the Church. And honestly, if any of the Churches had stayed the same over 2000 years, I don't see them having many followers, everything changes over time in some ways, especially when there are many greedy humans in charge (indulgences in the Middle Ages, meh). Yeah, it appears to be a he-said, she-said issue with the origin of the Catholic church. Apparently you've been taught the Cathloic version and I've been taught the Protestant version, that modern Catholicism began with Constantine and you whatever-it-was-called edict. I don't recall. Both have fairly compelling arguments, and frankly... I think they're both out to justify their own existence. That's what you get when you turn religion into a business.

Yep, it doesn't matter anyway.

But just to clarify what I was taught (And it would make sense I was taught the Catholic version since I have gone to Catholic schools my entire life), the Edict of... was it Milan? Anyway, from what I was taught it was made legal then, and was made into a seperate religion as soon as it broke off from Judaism by allowing Gentiles to join.

Not important to really anything in this thread though.

Yes.