How Did Catholicism Start?

The nearly 2,000-year-old Catholic church is one of the oldest institutions in the world. The Catholic tradition considers itself a continuation, not a branch or successor, of early Christianity. Still, some non-Catholic theologians and historians question this claim for the sake of this video. We will begin with the perceived beginning of Catholicism by its followers who lay in their messiah Jesus Christ. We will also explore the beginning of the Roman Catholic church, which many non-Catholic sects of Christianity claim to be the foundation of Catholicism according to Saint John Jesus Christ. He is the eternal son of the father because his nature is divine and his purpose is the preservation of the world but the son of God also has a human nature in which he is simply Jesus of Nazareth as such his purpose is to symbolize the religious growth of therefore , humanity Jesus has a dual nature, one divine and the other human, when unified in a single person, these natures create the perfect man, the ideal of virtue and piety, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea sometime between the 6th and 4 BC, it is widely believed that he was born during the reign of the first Roman emperor Caesar Augustus We know little or nothing about the childhood of Jesus Christ but there are apocryphal gospels that attempt to fill the gap Jesus began his public mission around the age of 30 and was inaugurated as the messiah through the baptism carried out by john the baptist but his public work lasted only about three years the deepest meaning of the history of the christian religion and later

catholicism

is condensed in these three years jesus was a jew and was introduced to jewish teachings his The teachings never left the sphere of Jewish beliefs, but he expanded them and gave them new meaning.

He chose 12 Jewish apostles and 70 sometimes 72 Gentile disciples. Gentiles do not practice the Jewish faith. They were all common people, illiterate fishermen and farm workers. He did not choose scholars and leaders nor did he preach primarily to rich and powerful individuals. His world revolved around low-born sinners, thieves and traitors. He traveled to Palestine in the towns and villages north of the Sea of ​​Galilee, teaching with power and authority that he gave to He had no prior training in how to teach and had to rely on his intuition and experience to mold the minds of his disciples. The culmination of Christ's mission came with his entry into the city of Jerusalem at that time.

At the time he had already had a reputation as a political and religious agitator, especially among the Romans, much of what we know about Jesus in his life comes from the gospels written by the four evangelists. Mark Matthew Luke and John The primary purpose of the Gospels was not to record a biographical and historically accurate account of the life of Jesus, but to persuade readers of his divine nature, the Gospels were written about 40 years ago, some even say 70. Years after the death of Jesus Christ, its authors never claimed to know the life of their messiah, they simply wrote. what remained in the collective memory of the christian communities is this collective memory that survived to form the catholic church the christian faith began with the act of the resurrection before jesus was considered the messiah of an already existing faith judaism but the Early Christianity was nothing like what we know today, it was still just a branch of Judaism and its followers were members of an apocalyptic messianic Jewish sect.

The resurrection was not a new concept in Judaism, since the first Christians did not see themselves as followers of a different faith, they only thought that the resurrection of Jesus gave new meaning and clarity to their religious feeling. It is essential to understand that At this point, Christianity was not yet a religion in itself, it was a sect within Judaism, therefore the apostles did not spread a new faith but rather a new thought within the already existing one. The apostles and their followers remained faithful to the temple and the law. judaica but not all Jewish leaders welcomed this new sect and the belief that Jesus was the promised messiah the spread of Christianity was not a Instead, the explosive event occurred gradually at first reached Jewish communities around the Mediterranean Sea when they began to fear persecution in Jerusalem.

The apostles spread their faith to other countries when the first Christians arrived in Antioch in the ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey. The church exploded and changed world history. This was one of the first places where Gentiles were baptized and the faith spread outside the closed Jewish communities. Paul is considered the most important individual of the apostolic era. The New Testament has 27 books. of which Paul authored 14. These are known as the Pauline epistles. Some of them were probably written by his students in his name, but at least seven of them have been authenticated as the work of Paul to appeal to non-Jews.

Paul stripped away the gospels. Paul saw Christianity as a liberation from the strict laws of the Jewish faith and believed that it was enough to have faith in Jesus to receive salvation around 50 AD. The Council of Jerusalem was convened. The main objective was to resolve the problem of the Gentiles once and for all. Surprisingly, Peter spoke positively about Gentiles and expressed his belief that both Jews and non-Jews were granted salvation through the grace of Jesus. Peter is an important figure in the Christian faith that Jesus granted. He has preeminence for what is seen as the basis of the Catholic institution; in fact, the bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope, is considered the apostolic successor of Peter.

The Council of Jerusalem decided to allow Gentiles exemption from some Jewish laws, but not others. Many traditionalists. They were happy but some refuted the decision the Roman tribune arrested Paul, thus saving his life from the conservative Jews Saint Paul appealed to the emperor Nero to transfer him to Rome pagan Rome could not allow the spread of a new uniform version of Judaism they perceived it As a threat not only to their religious values ​​but also to the status quo, Paul was eventually sentenced to death in Rome and beheaded; However, Christianity had continued to spread and by the end of the first century it was a well-established faith as to the exact date. of the catholic faith which remains a topic of controversy according to catholic tradition the catholic church was established exactly 50 days after the crucifixion at pentecost for the first 60 years or so it was known as the way, but at the beginning of the second century the word Catholic began to find its way into the zeitgeist one of the first uses of the word comes from a letter written by Saint Ignatius in 108 so they consider the apostolic era an area of ​​the Catholic church some historians suggest the opposite stating that Constantine founded the catholic church this school of thought believes that there is no clear lineage from the apostles to the pope and that the problem of the great apostasy that was emphasized in the lutheran reformation was present even during the first and second centuries, furthermore, the first catholic church Official was the Roman Catholic Church founded in the 4th century.

The expansion of Christianity among pagans, although it was persecuted during the previous three centuries, was quite a phenomenon. There are different theories about what contributed to this expansion. A popular claim is that its contempt for the status quo made him famous in other words Christianity owes its success to the love it preached Christians were dedicated not only to the rich but also to workers slaves sinners prisoners soldiers travelers orphans widows and anyone in danger in need Christianity had a morally higher ground but did not boast of it was a religion of peace and love many pagan converts among them the philosophers tatian and justin admitted that they were attracted to christianity because of its morals while there was a hierarchy of missionary apostles and other officials of the Christian church. it had become a well-defined system by the 2nd century with authorities such as bishops, priests and deacons.

This organization took the form of the monarchical episcopate shortly after the first epistle of clement the church built its structure on three doctrines the bishops who were the apostles direct successors of the canonical scriptures and the authoritative creed over the years, the church of Rome had risen above the other churches because it claimed to be the seed of Saints Paul and Peter. It became even more powerful when Christianity was adopted by the Roman emperors, especially Constantine. In 313 he met with Licinius, who ruled part of the empire, and pressured him to accept total religious tolerance. The edict of Milan that allowed Christians to be free, recover all their property and preach their religion as they saw fit, was gradually an important milestone.

Constantine began to suppress paganism in his early days, still acting as the high pontiff of the pagan religion and paying homage to the sun god, but later began publicly displaying Christian symbols and imposing various restrictions on pagan ceremonies and rituals according to tradition a the one who became Christianity in 312. Constance's genuine acceptance of Christians would only come once he began to identify the interests of the state as the same as the interests of the church; He hoped to achieve unity of state and church and would use his imperial power to meddle in religious affairs. affairs in 324 Constantine became the sole ruler of the entire empire in 325 the emperor gathered more than 200 bishops of the empire in the first general ecumenical council known as the first council of Nicea took a personal interest in the debate and even joined to the council on a few occasions, but it seemed that the matter would not be resolved easily and continued to create disunity in the church until Constantine's death in 337.

The answer to when Catholicism began will be different depending on who you ask. Some will point out. to Constantine's unification of the state into the church, while others draw a papal lineage from Peter and the church fathers, there is no simple answer and it is a multifaceted question that people have argued about for centuries, al Just like any other religion, there is no absolute common ground. Catholics believe that their church was founded by none other than Jesus Christ and draw their spirit from the ancient period and the tradition of the first centuries. The Popes felt it was their duty to preserve the purity of the faith.

The only way they knew how to do that was. preserving ancient doctrines, dogmas and traditions. Others claim that Catholicism as a branch may have arisen any time between the 1st and 4th centuries, but that it did not derive from the messiah himself. To learn more about how Catholicism began, check out our Catholic book. History A captivating guide to the history of the Catholic Church beginning with the teachings of Jesus Christ through the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages to the present. It is available as a paperback e-book and audiobook. Also get your free mythology ebook bundle while it's still available.

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