:whacky:
…in 340 A.D. which established the Catholic church"
Why do some protestant groups believe this? …can I find any sources that back this statement up. :
From his book “
Catholicsim and Fundamentalism: The Attack on Romanism By Bible Christians”, Karl Keating states,
"…they all seem to fall back on one source, Loraine Bottner’s Roman Catholicism, which might be called ‘The Bible’ of the anti-Catholic movement within Fundamentalism. It is in this book that the anti-Catholic position is most extensively expressed." In his book, Mr. Boettner (RIP) has a section where he details 45 supposed “Inventions” of the Catholic Church including the worship of crosses, images and relics “Imposed” on Christianity by the Pope in the year 786 and Transusbtantiation which was “Invented” by Pope Innocent III in 1215.
The most laughable claim is “Apocryphal books added to the Bible by the Coucil of Trent…1546”
The book has all of twelve footnotes and uses anti-Catholic sources exclusively. To say that it is poorly researched is an understatement as most of it is simply not researched at all. Boettner’s
Roman Catholicism is the anti-Catholic sourcebook for most of the anti-Catholic rhretoric you will hear including the charge that the Catholic Church was “Invented” in 325 or 340 or whatever date is used.
I hardly need to defend the charge that the Catholic Church was invented on this forum but it might help to provide a logical argument for other’s to use when confronted with such nonsense.
------FEEL FREE TO CUT AND PASTE INTO PROTESTANT WEBSITES------
The truth is that many of the Church’s institutions including buildings, lines of communication and administrative functions became
visible in the early fourth century when Christianity was legalized by Constantine. Before that time, you would have been killed if you were caught in the possession of a Christian paper or book, let alone participating in public worship. That is why Christians worshiped in catacombs and was the basis for home Churches. The Church was hidden because of persecution.
After Christianity was legalized, Christians were able to come out of hiding and build proper Churches and were able to establish the visible hierarchical administrative institutions which we still see today. Whatever date is used, 325 or 340 or whatever, the fact that the Church was not visible due to persection prior to that date and became visible after that date does not mean that it was “Invented.” The Catholic Church was
legalized and **became visible **in the early 300’s. The doctrines and forms of worship however, did not change. Mary was “Mother of God” and Christ was substantially present in the Eucharist before Constantine legalized Christianity and remained so after. If I remember correctly, Constantine called the Church leaders together for the Council of Nicea, facilitated it, and was physically present. Please correct me if I am wrong on this.
To argue that Catholicism was invented in the early 300’s is to use the same argument that the insane Iranian dictator Ahmadinejad uses to claim that the US “Invented” the idea of Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II. Nazi concentration camps were discovered - became visible - not invented.
Protestantism is what was invented, not Catholicism.
-Tim-
