Early Christian History Points to Catholicism-Prove It!

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CatherineofA

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I’m Southern Baptist and also love history and am not anti-Catholic. I’ve heard of examples from history that point to early Catholicism.
  1. Prayers to the saints-Supposedly, the Catacombs of St. Sebastian are prayers for Peter and Paul that say “Paul and Peter, pray for Victor–Peter and Paul pray for Sozomenon”.
    At the entrance of the crypt of the popes in St. Callixtus, the wall is covered with prayers “O St. Sixtus, remember in your prayers Aurelius Repentinus”.
  2. Suposedly, the pagan Emperor of Rome told Pliny the Younger to check out what “those Christians were about”, He dutifully went to spy on them and came back to report:
“These Christians are very strange. They Drown their babies [Infant Baptism] and eat their God!” [Eucharistic Belief].

Can you think of others?
 
Marian doctrines:

The earliest recorded prayer to Mary, dating from the 250s, is the ‘Sub Tuum Praesidium’. It goes:

"We fly to thy patronage,
O holy Mother of God;
despise not our petitions
in our necessities,
but from all dangers
deliver us always,
O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen. "

It covers three Catholic doctrines:
  1. Intercessory prayer to departed saints
  2. Mary’s perpetual virginity and
  3. Mary being Mother of God.
 
CatherineofA said:
I’m Southern Baptist and also love history and am not anti-Catholic. I’ve heard of examples from history that point to early Catholicism.
  1. Prayers to the saints-Supposedly, the Catacombs of St. Sebastian are prayers for Peter and Paul that say “Paul and Peter, pray for Victor–Peter and Paul pray for Sozomenon”.
    At the entrance of the crypt of the popes in St. Callixtus, the wall is covered with prayers “O St. Sixtus, remember in your prayers Aurelius Repentinus”.
  2. Suposedly, the pagan Emperor of Rome told Pliny the Younger to check out what “those Christians were about”, He dutifully went to spy on them and came back to report:
“These Christians are very strange. They Drown their babies [Infant Baptism] and eat their God!” [Eucharistic Belief].

Can you think of others?
Click to expand...
St. Ignatius, writing to the Smyrnaeans in approximately 105 AD:

Chapter 8. Let nothing be done without the bishop
See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; **even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. **

About St. Ignatius:

St. Ignatius of Antioch
tt=23
Also called Theophorus (ho Theophoros); born in Syria, around the year 50; died at Rome between 98 and 117.

More than one of the earliest ecclesiastical writers have given credence, though apparently without good reason, to the legend that Ignatius was the child whom the Savior took up in His arms, as described in Mark 9:35. It is also believed, and with great probability, that, with his friend Polycarp, he was among the auditors of the Apostle St. John. If we include St. Peter, Ignatius was the third Bishop of Antioch and the immediate successor of Evodius (Eusebius, Church History II.3.22).

newadvent.org/cathen/07644a.htm
 
If you follow the lineage of Popes, Archbishops, Bishops and such as well as consider where the original manuscripts of the Bible were kept, maintained and protected over the centuries, and who it was that spent years and years copying by hand the manuscripts and compiling scriptures…it all leads back to the Catholic Church, and that includes not just the “Roman Rite”, but the “Eastern Rites” as well.
 
How about veneration of saints? Early Christians collected relics or remains of martyrs for veneration. (Letter of the Smyrnians.xvii)
These are great. As they post, please be specific as in time periods or dates.
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Ok… around 167 AD.
 
These are great. As they post, please be specific as in time periods or dates.
 
ferdie said:
How about veneration of saints? Early Christians collected relics or remains of martyrs for veneration. (Letter of the Smyrnians.xvii)

Ok… around 167 AD.
Click to expand...
I think you can push it back way earlier. St. Paul’s kerchief in Acts 19:11-12 were venerated for their healing powers.
 
Here’s some other great stuff from around 96 AD.

This letter from Clement to the Corinthians supports the Catholic Church’s position in several ways, but the two primary points in my opinion are that it is clear that the Corinthians sought Clement’s intervention and he in turn described apostolic succession just as it is understood today by the Catholic Church.

Clement is believed to be the fourth pope(it is possible he was the third). He was writing to the Corinthians regarding some Bishops who had been removed from authority without proper procedures. He instructed the Corinthians to leave them in power and we know from later writings that they complied and were pleased to receive his letter.

Chapter 42. The Order of Ministers in the Church.
The apostles have preached the gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first fruits [of their labours], having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe.

Chapter 44. The Ordinances of the Apostles, that There Might Be No Contention Respecting the Priestly Office.
Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry. We are of opinion, therefore, that those appointed by them, or afterwards by other eminent men, with the consent of the whole church, and who have blamelessly served the flock of Christ, in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested spirit, and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot be justly dismissed from the ministry. For our sin will not be small, if we eject from the episcopate those who have blamelessly and holily fulfilled its duties. Blessed are those presbyters who, having finished their course before now, have obtained a fruitful and perfect departure [from this world]; for they have no fear lest any one deprive them of the place now appointed them. But we see that you have removed some men of excellent behaviour from the ministry, which they fulfilled blamelessly and with honour.

More here:

newadvent.org/fathers/1010.htm
 
CatherineofA said:
I’m Southern Baptist and also love history and am not anti-Catholic. I’ve heard of examples from history that point to early Catholicism.
  1. Prayers to the saints-Supposedly, the Catacombs of St. Sebastian are prayers for Peter and Paul that say “Paul and Peter, pray for Victor–Peter and Paul pray for Sozomenon”.
    At the entrance of the crypt of the popes in St. Callixtus, the wall is covered with prayers “O St. Sixtus, remember in your prayers Aurelius Repentinus”.
  2. Suposedly, the pagan Emperor of Rome told Pliny the Younger to check out what “those Christians were about”, He dutifully went to spy on them and came back to report:
“These Christians are very strange. They Drown their babies [Infant Baptism] and eat their God!” [Eucharistic Belief].

Can you think of others?
Click to expand...
Haven’t read every response but here is my 2cents worth.
Early Christian History doesn’t “point to Catholicism” it IS Catholicism. The Catholic Church can easily demonstrate through numerous sources and writings that it carries the continuous lineage of Doctrine and Leadreship all the way back to Peter. No other Christian faith community in the west can make such a claim. The E.O.C. also carries a legitimate claim to apostolic succession but, as Pope John Paul II stated, the EOC is really a part of the Catholic Church - The right and Left lung as he called it.

I have a wonderful book called Four Witnesses by Rod Bennett. It uses the writings of four early Church Fathers, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons to demonstrate how the early Church was, in fact Catholic. I should add here that Mr. Bennett is himself a convert from “Bible Believing Evangelicalism”
Anyway there is this wonderful graph at the back of the book which clearly and visually demonstrates how the lives and leadership of the Early Church Fathers overlapped, not jsut each other but with the Apostles themselves. For instance Ignatius and Clement both came of age while Sts Peter and Paul as well as St John were still Alive!! Polycarp of Smyrna and Justin Martyr were came of age during the time of Clement and Ignatius. When we exptrapolate these few people across the thousands of converts, priests and bishops that the Apostles touched, it becomes clear that the Church is indeed a continuous line from Christ to us. And since Christ Promised to be with His Church and disciples forever, we can have confidence in Her doctrines and teachings as being faithfully transmitted from Christ to us.

I know this isn’t precisely what you asked for, but I did want to recommend this book for anyone who wishes to know more but doesn’t have the time to read volumes of ECF writings.
 
CatherineofA said:
I’m Southern Baptist and also love history and am not anti-Catholic. I’ve heard of examples from history that point to early Catholicism.
  1. Prayers to the saints-Supposedly, the Catacombs of St. Sebastian are prayers for Peter and Paul that say “Paul and Peter, pray for Victor–Peter and Paul pray for Sozomenon”.
    At the entrance of the crypt of the popes in St. Callixtus, the wall is covered with prayers “O St. Sixtus, remember in your prayers Aurelius Repentinus”.
  2. Suposedly, the pagan Emperor of Rome told Pliny the Younger to check out what “those Christians were about”, He dutifully went to spy on them and came back to report:
“These Christians are very strange. They Drown their babies [Infant Baptism] and eat their God!” [Eucharistic Belief].

Can you think of others?
Click to expand...
The "breaking of the bread"was the original term for the Holy Eucharist.
 
I cannot second “Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words” by Rod Bennett strongly enough! 👍
 
CHESTERTONRULES said:
St. Ignatius of Antioch
tt=23
Also called Theophorus (ho Theophoros); born in Syria, around the year 50; died at Rome between 98 and 117.

More than one of the earliest ecclesiastical writers have given credence, though apparently without good reason, to the legend that Ignatius was the child whom the Savior took up in His arms, as described in Mark 9:35. It is also believed, and with great probability, that, with his friend Polycarp, he was among the auditors of the Apostle St. John. If we include St. Peter, Ignatius was the third Bishop of Antioch and the immediate successor of Evodius (Eusebius, Church History II.3.22).

newadvent.org/cathen/07644a.htm
Click to expand...
The math here is not working for me. So Jesus was alive past 50 AD?
 
mfbukowski said:
The math here is not working for me. So Jesus was alive past 50 AD?
Click to expand...
Ignatius’ date of birth is not known.

This is just a legend that is not considered historical. The entry says as much.

I shouldn’t have left it in the account.

More than one of the earliest ecclesiastical writers have given credence, though apparently without good reason
 
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