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Were the Early Christians Roman Catholic

Member
That is a half truth. Jesus is not in front of the church because he is sixth on a list. It is out of respect for Jesus / God 'ironically' that they would first pray to others for advice, help to reach God.
I think the heart of the statement rings true. My dad prayed to Saint Anthony to find my missing wallet. He found it in front of me in the kitchen cupboard - why I put it there? I don't remember and probably did no put it there. It is where the pots and pans were. He most likely set it up as he did when he tricked me into eating a worm, because, you know, of course he showed me he did it...by standing at an angle, holding it above his mouth and lowering it behind his face onto his shoulder.

My grandma would hold her rosary - keep it in a special place and that is how she prayed and taught her kids how to pray. I was taught to pray by remembering certain prayers and the rosary, and those prayers certainly do not flow from a penitent, grieving heart. This is nothing that I have ascribed to since and will stay far away from.
 
Active
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the OP. I agree with most of it.

The Catholic church has many faults. The OP is clear on that. But there are a lot of good things to say about it as well.

Outside of the reformation wars, the Catholic church kept Europe Christian and safe from Islam and pagan religions. God's hand was / is definitely on the Catholic church.
 
Loyal
@King J -- have you noticed that Islam is very strong and non-Christian. Only the blood of Christ on the cross that Jesus Christ gave His life on is Stronger.

And what would you say is Good about the RCC?
 
Active
The earliest Christians were not Roman. Many things contributed, along with time, that gave rise to the Roman Church obtaining control over the Catholic Church of Christ.

When I say 'Roman', I am talking about the church at Rome. When I say 'Catholic' I am talking about the all encompassing universal Church of Jesus Christ. The term, that everyone uses, 'Roman Catholic', is an oxymoron. Catholic speaks to universal. Roman speaks to a particular.

The truth is, every believer in Christ is part of the Catholic Church. Which means you can cite the Apostle's Creed in good faith when it says, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church; the communion of Saints...."

But not every believer is part of the Roman Church.

Because Rome did get power over the Catholic Church, after several hundred years, then if you were Christian, you were most likely in the West, part of the Roman Church. And of course that power was challenged and broken during the Reformation.

Quantrill
 
Loyal
Quantrill -- you're right -- the earliest Christians were follower's of Jesus Christ and followed His teachings -- being fishers of men. The were Jews. As was Jesus.

I've just been reading about Rome -that during Augustus' reign (31 B.C. to A.D. 14 was when Jesus was born and the New Testament era began ( Unger's Bible Dictionery). The ministry of John the Baptist and the missionary journeys of Paul. The establishment of the churches of Asia. After a while --Diocletian was the most intense persecution of Christians. He died and there was a great clash of power. Constantine the Great became sole ruler - 323 - 327 -- his conversion made Christianity a legal religion.

And, yes, Catholic Does mean universal. But it's Also true that most everyone associates being "Catholic" with being part of the Roman Catholic Church / RCC.

Terms need to be 'defined'. In the world of people who have accepted Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior -- universal refers to the entire world of born-again believers -- universal body of believers as compared to the local geographical area of believers. The protestant community uses the term 'universal' rather than 'catholic' to deferenciate between the RCC and the protestant community.

I, personally, have been in a conservative Baptist church all my life. Have never recited the Apostles' Creed. I Did visit a Lutheran Church and they recited it. The Holy Catholic Church Usually is referring To the RCC and not everyone Is a Saint.
A 'saint' is a born-again believer. In the RCC -- the 'church' infers 'sainthood' To particular people who They feel have attained 'sainthood'.

And, yes, the Reformation. At one time in history , only the rich / famous people had the luxury of learning To read,. And everyone else -- the common people were expected to listen to Them and they , in turn, had the ability to tell the non-readers anything they Wanted to. So - Some of the people chose to modify Scripture a little. And some people realized That and tried to reform the 'church' from within , but that didn't work, so the Reformation started. Martin Luther , Methodists, Presbyterians emerged.

Accepting that the shed blood of Christ on the cross is all that's needed For a person's salvation is enough. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Acknowledging on a Personal basis that 'we need a Savior and that Jesus Christ is the One and Only.
That 'good works' on our part are Not Needed. Our works are like filthy rags in God's Eyes. So says God's Word.
 
Loyal
Emperor Constantine followed one the most evil emperors of Rome who did everything he could to completely destroy the Church, and the scriptures they read from. The Church at that time "tore" out sections of the scriptures and had it's followers hide them from being destroyed. This is why many scriptures found today in different places of this part of the world are only partial pieces of the whole scriptures. Emperor Constantine knew he could NOT destroy the christian Church because his predecessor couldn't. He decided to take a different approach so he took all of the different religions in Rome, and combine them into one national religion. He renamed this new religion, "The Roman Catholic Church". The word, "catholic" simply means, "universal". The early true Church of Jesus Christ had come from the same universal belief system.

The early Church did not use images, candles, nor did any of the pastors wear fancy robes as the Roman Catholic Church does today. These all came from other false religions that used them in their ceremonies as a result of all religions of Rome being combined together under one name! Just another attempt of Satan to water down true Christianity!
 
Active
Quantrill -- you're right -- the earliest Christians were follower's of Jesus Christ and followed His teachings -- being fishers of men. The were Jews. As was Jesus.

I've just been reading about Rome -that during Augustus' reign (31 B.C. to A.D. 14 was when Jesus was born and the New Testament era began ( Unger's Bible Dictionery). The ministry of John the Baptist and the missionary journeys of Paul. The establishment of the churches of Asia. After a while --Diocletian was the most intense persecution of Christians. He died and there was a great clash of power. Constantine the Great became sole ruler - 323 - 327 -- his conversion made Christianity a legal religion.

And, yes, Catholic Does mean universal. But it's Also true that most everyone associates being "Catholic" with being part of the Roman Catholic Church / RCC.

Terms need to be 'defined'. In the world of people who have accepted Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior -- universal refers to the entire world of born-again believers -- universal body of believers as compared to the local geographical area of believers. The protestant community uses the term 'universal' rather than 'catholic' to deferenciate between the RCC and the protestant community.

I, personally, have been in a conservative Baptist church all my life. Have never recited the Apostles' Creed. I Did visit a Lutheran Church and they recited it. The Holy Catholic Church Usually is referring To the RCC and not everyone Is a Saint.
A 'saint' is a born-again believer. In the RCC -- the 'church' infers 'sainthood' To particular people who They feel have attained 'sainthood'.

And, yes, the Reformation. At one time in history , only the rich / famous people had the luxury of learning To read,. And everyone else -- the common people were expected to listen to Them and they , in turn, had the ability to tell the non-readers anything they Wanted to. So - Some of the people chose to modify Scripture a little. And some people realized That and tried to reform the 'church' from within , but that didn't work, so the Reformation started. Martin Luther , Methodists, Presbyterians emerged.

Accepting that the shed blood of Christ on the cross is all that's needed For a person's salvation is enough. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Acknowledging on a Personal basis that 'we need a Savior and that Jesus Christ is the One and Only.
That 'good works' on our part are Not Needed. Our works are like filthy rags in God's Eyes. So says God's Word.

Yes, most do associate the Roman Church as 'Roman Catholic'. But when you get into a debate with one in the Roman Church, who knows his doctrine, you will find they want only to identify themselves as the Catholic Church. As though they are the real universal Church of Jesus Christ.

I am not anti-Roman Catholic. I am against the errors in their doctrine, and the control the papacy has over their church, which goes back to Roman control. Their errors are many, yes. But they have been around a long time and satan has had more time to affect it.

I am sure there are many Christians in the Roman Church. If God can save some in the Protestant churches with their many strange doctrines now, He can certainly save some in the Roman Church. I like the Creeds. As I said, all believers are part of the Catholic Church, just not the Roman Church.

Quantrill
 
Loyal
Thank you Chad for this post, thank you also to Mary Ann Collins (A Former Catholic Nun)

This is NOT Catholic Bashing, just revealing the Truth, many times I have quoted, not mentioning Catholics, that the church today needs to look back to Acts and the Epistles for what the early church was like, it was not like it is today, that should raise warnings to all believers.

I have also quoted many items from church history, including around 300 AD Constantine era, but not in as much detail as Mary Ann Collins has done in the details we read in the first post of this thread.

When we compare the church today, with the first church and then question how it has changed over the years, we have to look at church history, which includes the Constantine era, the crusades, the reformation, etc. Understandably one of the first main changes we see is The Roman Catholic Church under Constantine.

The early church started by the saved believers meeting in their homes, these believers were the ekklesia, the True Church of Jesus Christ, God never asked for a building for worship but man cannot resist having to make one. The RCC arranged for everything to be read and sang in Latin, they controlled what the public was allowed to understand about scripture and brought in styles of worship similar to the Jewish rabbi's, the clothes they wore, the incense, a man created atmosphere for worship.

Church buildings were built throughout Europe and then to the UK, each getting grander as they progressed. The introduction of stained glass windows were brought in, to give pictures of Bible scenes, 'to help worship'.

Scripture was being changed to suit the RCC, as was mentioned earlier some parts of scripture were torn out to preserve them, why? Because the RCC was changing them, even though Scripture very clearly warns of changing any dot or tittle in The Word.

The RCC changed scripture to include the word kuriakon for church, ekklesia is the correct word for the Church, saved believers, the Body of Christ. The RCC introduced kuriakon of which the Greek meaning was church building. The word kuriakon is NOT in the original scriptures in was introduced by the RCC.

A month or so ago I included in another thread detail of changes of the 10 Commandments made by the RCC. Very cleverly adjusted, removing one commandment, adjusting others so it still ends up with 10 Commandments. What had been removed? The commandment regarding the not worshipping gravel images. In every Catholic church I have been in, there has always been a graven image of Christ, on the cross (He is Risen!), above the alter and usually at least twice the size of a human being. Congregants kneel looking up at the gravel image of Jesus worshipping! In every Catholic church I have been to, there has always been a graven image of Mary, the mother of Jesus, some inside the place of worship, and one in the garden where Mary is outside a tomb, these are graven images and people bow to her and worship the graven images

Recently the pope has stated that he suggests the Lord's Prayer be changed, to omit the words, 'lead us not into temptation'. His reason is God would not lead us into temptation. Scripture says....

Luke 22:31-32 (NKJV)
31 And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.
32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."

Matthew 5:17-20 (NKJV)
17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Catholic Church teach,
- they are the only ones who will go to Heaven - Not correct
- it is right to pray through the heart of the blessed virgin Mary who intercedes their prayers - Not correct
- They quote the early Father's, they call clergy members Father. Father this name, Father that name. - Read Matt 23:9
- The Catholic church is the one true church.- Not correct
- Only the Roman Catholic Church has authority to interpret Scripture.- Not correct
- The Pope is the head of the church and has the authority of Christ - Not correct
- Peter was the first Pope - Not correct
- The pope is in the line of Peter - Not correct
- Catholic mass, teaches when taking them they are actually eating Christ's body and drinking His blood.

When it comes to final authority, the Roman Catholic church teaches that three authorities exist.
- The 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church declares:


"It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls." (Pg. 34, #95)

So here we see, that along with Scripture, "tradition" (teachings handed down throughout the ages), and "magisterium" (the task of giving an authentic interpretation of the word of God) are associated so that one of them cannot stand without the others. In other words, "tradition" and "magisterium" are on equal grounds with the Scriptures. This is enforced by:

"Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit. And (Holy) Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit." (Pg. 31, #81)

And should these authorities disagree with each other the Catechism states:

"The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the Church alone. This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome." (Pg. 32, #85)

Thus, the final authority being the Roman Catholic Church! This too, is stated in the Catechism:

"For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God." (Pg. 39, #119)

Thus concluding that the Scriptures are not sufficient in itself.

>>>

Nowhere do we see that the Scriptures were given only to an elite group to explain it to others.

The errors in the RCC are many, the above are just a few, this is not RCC or CC bashing, this is just clearly stating some of their errors which are against scripture.

What we must remember is at the Reformation, although a massive amount of errors was noted
1 - the Catholic church continues to follow the Pope and what he decides, not Jesus and The Word which is Truth (unchanged Word)
2 - the Anglican church was created but, adopted many of the RCC errors.
3 - although many denominations came from this they were all influenced by the RCC.

We must repent for any errors in 'The Church', 'The Body of Christ' which we may not be aware of.

We must always and all times look to scripture and seek true meaning of the Greek and Hebrew words.

We must go back to Acts and the Epistles and see the first church, see what it was like, see what they did, then compare with the Church today.

In a few words it is simply... 'Getting right with God, being right with Jesus, understanding what the One True Church really is'

The One True Church is the 'ekklesia', saved believers worldwide, together as the Body of Christ, The Bride of Christ.

When Christ returns in Glory, He will not come for the RCC, Anglicans, Methodists, URC's, or any other denomination. He will Return in Glory to collect His Church, saved believers from the far ends of the earth, regardless of colour, age, sex, language or any other difference.

Thanks be to God, in Jesus Name. Amen
 
Moderator
Staff Member
"It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls." (Pg. 34, #95)

Hello Brother Paul,
Thanks for sharing your post on the RCC and some of their practices.

In this particular extract you shared, I find particularly egregious, as it should be to all who look to Jesus as their Savior. For it clearly shows that it is not just Grace, but apparently a myriad of other church determined "things" which are needed in order to be Saved! Anathema!

Thanks again for sharing. Having been RCC as a teenager, through the whole confirmation/baptism process. I'd almost forgotten how many shackles they put upon a person.

With the Love of Christ Jesus.
YBIC
Nick
<><
 
Loyal
You're right -- the one True church is the one instituted by Jesus Christ. The 'ekklesia' is the world-wide body of born-again believers.

The early church people met in people's homes cause that was the only safe place To worship.

"We" shouldn't feel a need to repent of any errors in any church that we go to. We repent of our own personal sins that the Holy Spirit convicts us of.

The RCC was / has been guilty of misrepresenting God's word for a Long time. But God's Word is Still God's Word and the Holy Spirit Does speak to people Through His Word.

Your comment about always taking time to make sure we have the Correct meanings is okay. But it isn't always necessary. Because each language has it's own vocabulary -- alphabet -- translators do the absolutely best they can to get the best translation into each language. That takes time/ effort. But it's mainly simply filling in connecting words to help sentences / paragraphs read smoothly. One language to another.

Yes, when Christ Does return -- He will get all the born-again believers from the world -- first those who've died and then the rest of those who are living at that time.
 
Loyal
Hello Brother Paul,
Thanks for sharing your post on the RCC and some of their practices.

In this particular extract you shared, I find particularly egregious, as it should be to all who look to Jesus as their Savior. For it clearly shows that it is not just Grace, but apparently a myriad of other church determined "things" which are needed in order to be Saved! Anathema!

Thanks again for sharing. Having been RCC as a teenager, through the whole confirmation/baptism process. I'd almost forgotten how many shackles they put upon a person.

With the Love of Christ Jesus.
YBIC
Nick
<><

The catholic church boast they are the largest christian church in the world, but so many of their members are not really members of the church (kuriakon) at all.
- for a child to be christened both parents have to be or the one that isn't has to become a catholic for the christening to be performed.
- when a catholic girl wants to get married in a catholic church, the future husband has to be a catholic or become a catholic.

It is all down to numbers not worshipping souls. But they are not the only ones that do this, the Anglicans do similar though the rules are not as stringent. I don't know but can image it was possible after the reformation that the two where aiming to look who was biggest. I don't know but I know someone who does brother ;o)

It is a crazy world, the devil is not all to blame, we may be tempted, we don't have to allow the temptation.

Over the years there has been so much wrong teaching, I know this is off topic but it just comes to mind so I will share it here. My wife's Nan died some years ago, her mother said do you want anything of your nan's, she was not sure what to do but chose some small trinkets and her small Bible. I flicked through the pages, until I got to the end of Revelation, to my amazement the last two words at the bottom of the page said... The End.

The publishers hadn't a clue. The End (of Revelation chapter 22) is just the beginning brother. Thanks be to God.In Jesus Name. Amen
 
Loyal
You're right -- the one True church is the one instituted by Jesus Christ. The 'ekklesia' is the world-wide body of born-again believers.

The early church people met in people's homes cause that was the only safe place To worship.

"We" shouldn't feel a need to repent of any errors in any church that we go to. We repent of our own personal sins that the Holy Spirit convicts us of.

The RCC was / has been guilty of misrepresenting God's word for a Long time. But God's Word is Still God's Word and the Holy Spirit Does speak to people Through His Word.

Your comment about always taking time to make sure we have the Correct meanings is okay. But it isn't always necessary. Because each language has it's own vocabulary -- alphabet -- translators do the absolutely best they can to get the best translation into each language. That takes time/ effort. But it's mainly simply filling in connecting words to help sentences / paragraphs read smoothly. One language to another.

Yes, when Christ Does return -- He will get all the born-again believers from the world -- first those who've died and then the rest of those who are living at that time.

Hello sister

Amen, we say again Amen.

I would disagree though with the next to the last paragraph, for several reasons
1- There is only one Bible, we have translations and translations cannot be fully accurate. Bible translations fall into two categories
a) The exegetic type that tries to get The Word right, verse my verse, word by word.
b) The easy readable type that are worded differently to be easy to understand, in theory. They change currency to our currency to be better understood, they may change birds and animals to suit the country, some items in Africa are different to China, USA may say things one way, Spain another, etc etc.

2 - But which ever type of translation we choose there could be errors, there are errors in some.

3 - Even more importantly is the actual translation itself, probably a month ago I posted on a thread about the word in the Bible 'LOVE', there are 7 or 9 different types of love in the Greek, but in the western world we use one word, LOVE, to cover love of holiday, love my hobby, love the sun, love of money, sex, etc, etc. In the passage I included the Greek word meaning for LOVE, for example the passages included the word Love many times, but in this section of scripture there were two meanings for Love 'agape' love in our Bible is Divine Love, the other meaning was a worldly love, but in English there was only one word Love. Also recently B-A-C posted in a thread, again I cannot remember which, but his post focused on the word 'Hell', again a single used word in English in a translation but the one word as we read it had two meanings in the verses quoted.

If we do not know the true meaning of key words that have been translated, with best intentions, we can easily miss what The Word is saying to us.

Even the LGBTQ+ quote God is Love, but do they know what love is. do they know which love God's Word is referring to? It is doubtful, many saved souls don't realise this? So many people understand love as liking something quite a lot, so you love it. What ever a person loves they consider that as love, they do not know there is different loves in God's Word, they only know what the world calls love.

I found the link regarding the meaning of the word LOVE - Post #266

Bless you
 
Loyal
Years ago -- as a pastor's wife, I gave a devotional on the three kinds of love found in Scripture. One is agape, and I forget the other two -- context is central. Like in English -- two, to, too. Context is the only way a person knows which one is the correct usage.

And 'love' - - a person loves their dog differently than their mother or grandma or ice cream or their husband / wife. Love can be shown in lots of ways that are Not physical in nature.

And, yes, verse by verse / word by word translations. And 'thought by thought'. The word by word is what can cause a problem. Because going from one language to another -- the exact word is possibly not 'there'.

I grew up with KJV -- back then it was either a black or navy blue cover and it was either with Dr. Scoffield's notes or none. And there were those who saw Dr. Scoffield's notes just as inspired as God's Word.

And there are those who are KJV onlyists and those who are NAV onlyists which I find humorous.

If a person wants to get technical -- all the books we have in a bound volume called the Holy Bible started out as manuscripts that were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. They varified the existance and accuracy of the book of Isaiah. As well as the existance of the Gnostic Gospels. Well -- there were the manuscripts first and then the existence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. At any rate. That which we have NOW is Not how the Scriptures started out. But we know that it's all God's Word and Jesus Christ tells us that " I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father, but by Me" Salvation comes no other way. We all come from different life styles, cultures, etc. but there is but One Way to God.
 
Loyal
1 Cor 15:45; So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
1 Cor 15:47; The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.
 
Loyal
The early Christian's were converted Jews.

Then came the Roman Catholics from the Constantine era around 300 AD.

A Christian is a follower of Christ.

Although Christ is in all scripture, I believe this is what the person was meaning when the thread was started.
 
Loyal
Although Christ is in all scripture, I believe this is what the person was meaning when the thread was started.

There are people who believe that the RCC was the "only" church before the reformation. But that was never true. There has always been the Various Orthodox churches. Some RCC say the Orthodox church branched off of the RCC.
Some Orthodox say the RCC branched off the various Orthodox branches. :) In any case there were also many independent churches that weren't affiliated with either of those churches. There are dozens of documents from well
before the reformation (even some before the 5th century) from churches that existed outside the Orthodox or RCC influence.
 
Loyal
@Beresheet -- WHERE Do you get your 'facts' from. Certainly not God's Word. Adam Was the 1st man created by God -- Every living being is a biological descendent from Adam and Eve. those genetics were passed along to Everyone. That is what continued through Noah and his family to all future generations. BUT being 'born' does Not make a person a child of God. A person Does become a Child of God when he/ she accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior. The Children of Israel were the 12 male descendants of Jacob and his four different wives. They were 'God's chosen people'.

All those various groups of people you named, they are Not all lumped into the same group -- You are lumping them all together, Not Scripture.

You are putting into Scripture 'stuff' that isn't there. And That gets you into doctrinal problems. Doctrine is simply what Scripture is saying in various subjects.

Reading God's Word is Wonderful, we Need to be in God's Word -- But , That alone does Not 'save' a person.

Actually -- only born-again believers will put on an incorruptable body. Non-believers will stay in Hades or whatever that portion of Abraham's bosom is called. They will stay in their torments. Until they are caste into the lake of fire and brimstone. That's what we are told in last couple of chapters in Revelation.

The millenium won't start until After the rapture takes place As well as the 7 yr tribulation. and Then, Jesus Christ Will come to earth in person in bodily form. Born-again believers Will be reigning With Him.

So - unfortunately the 1,000 reign of Christ ( millenium) is Not 'about to start'. Well -- maybe in the great scheme of events in world history -- it Is 'about to start', but not in 'our' eyes because 'we' have no clue as to when the rapture Will take place.

At the very end of time -- the great white throne judgement -- non-believers Will be acknowledging God and Will bow to Him, but -- it will be eternally too late for their salvation. As well as believers -- bowing in God's presence.
 
Loyal
There are people who believe that the RCC was the "only" church before the reformation. But that was never true. There has always been the Various Orthodox churches. Some RCC say the Orthodox church branched off of the RCC.
Some Orthodox say the RCC branched off the various Orthodox branches. :smile: In any case there were also many independent churches that weren't affiliated with either of those churches. There are dozens of documents from well
before the reformation (even some before the 5th century) from churches that existed outside the Orthodox or RCC influence.

And there were false religions even from the beginning. Paul quotes in Acts 17.23 to the people of Athens... that they must be very religious, as he had seen there an alter with the inscription To the unknown God!

There have always been false religions.
 
Loyal
In the Old Testament there are lots of 'gods' named. Which is why God tells us in the Ten Commandments that if we are going to worship a 'god' to make it the One True God -- the One who created everything in the 1st place.
 
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