PETER WAS THE ROCK WHICH THE CHURCH WAS BUILT ON.EVEN A FEW PENTECOSTALS KNOW JESUS WAS TALKING TO PETER.
LUTHER,CALVIN,ZWINGLI GOT THEIR FAITH FROM SOMEWHERE.IT WAS THE ORIGINAL CHURCH.
READ THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.IT IS VERY INFORMATIVE.
THE APOSTLES HAD FULL APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY OVER ALL THE CHURCHES.Ironman wrote:."If it were not for Rome and Constantinople there would be no CHURCH."
What makes you believe there was no church? There was a Church, Judaism, from which the early pagan Catholic Church took some of Judaism to form her ungodly system.
The Jews had many blessings above all other nations. In enumerating these many special privileges the Apostle Paul lays the principal stress upon their being favored with a divine revelation, the oracles of God, to guide them to present and everlasting happiness. But with the many incalculable advantages, their religion at the time of Christ was not much superior to the religion of the Gentiles. It is true they recognized only one God, but theirs was a religion primarily of ceremonies with a lacking of moral restraint.
The nature of the Jewish religion may be collected from the books of the Old Testament; but at the time of Christ’s appearance, it had lost much of its original beauty and excellence, and was corrupted by errors of the most flagrant kind, that had crept in from various sources. The public worship of God was indeed still continued in the temple of Jerusalem, with all the rites of the Mosaic institution; and their festivals never failed to draw together immense crowds of people at the stated seasons; nor did the Romans ever interfere to prevent those observances. In domestic life also, the ordinances of the law were in general punctually attended to; but it is manifest, from the evidence adduced by various learned men, that even in the service of the temple itself, numerous ceremonies, observances, drawn from the religious worship of heathen nations, had been introduced and blended with those of divine institution; and that in addition to superstitions like these of a public nature, many erroneous principles, brought from Babylon and Chaldea, by the ancestors of the people at their return from captivity, or adopted by the inconsiderate multitude, in conformity to the examples of their neighbors the Greeks, the Syrians, and the Egyptians, were cherished and acted on in private.
It was into a world permeated by Paganism and Judaism that Jesus came and established his church. As a tiny island is surrounded by the waters of an ocean so the first church was surrounded by the mighty forces of these two religious systems.
The rising tide of Paganism began early to seep into many of the churches. Even during the third century much of the religion of the times was little more than a compound of Paganism and Judaism with a slight seasoning of Christianity. THAT IS A REFORMER TALKING.I DONT BUY THAT.CHRISTIANS WERE DYING FOR THEIR FAITH.
What Church do you believe Paul wrote the book of Romans for? Was it the Catholic Church? YES THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH.
Rom 1:15, "So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also."
The churches in those Ancient times, were entirely independent; none of them subject to any foreign jurisdiction, but each governed by its own rules and its own laws. For though the churches founded by the apostles had their deference shown them, that they were consulted in different and doubtful cases; yet they had no judicial authority, no sort of supremacy over the others, nor the least right to enact laws for them. Nothing, on the contrary, is more evident than the perfect equality that reigned among the primitive churches. Many of the churches turned from a congregational rule to that of preacher rule. Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire wanted the powers of Christianity and (in name, at least) he became a Christian.
not from books with an axe to grind show that the teachings and creeds of the early fathers are believed by most Churches today.
