kujo313:
The “Way” is Jesus. You mean that the other denominations have another “way”?
The word “Christian” was first used in Antioch. The Bishop of Antioch, Ignatius said around 107 A.D:
“See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Christ Jesus does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles. Do ye also reverence the deacons, as those that carry out the appointment 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 also be; by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it.
Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” *Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrneans, 8:2 (c. A.D. 110). *
Yes, Christianity was first called “The Way”. As a mocking term, I believe, the followers were first called Christians in Antioch. As you can see above from their Bishop those Christians belonged to the Catholic Church.
“[A]ll the people wondered that there should be such a difference between the unbelievers and the elect, of whom this most admirable Polycarp was one, having in our own times been an apostolic and prophetic teacher,** and bishop of the Catholic Church which is in Smyrna**. For every word that went out of his mouth either has been or shall yet be accomplished.” *Martyrdom of Polycarp, 16:2 (A.D. 155). *
“…to be in honour however** with the Catholic Church** for the ordering of ecclesiastical discipline…one to the Laodicenes, another to the Alexandrians, both forged in Paul’s name to suit the heresy of Marcion, and several others, which cannot be received into
the Catholic Church; for it is not fitting that gall be mixed with honey. The Epistle of Jude no doubt, and the couple bearing the name of John,
are accepted by the Catholic Church.…But of Arsinous, called also Valentinus, or of Militiades we receive nothing at all.” *The fragment of Muratori (A.D. 177). *
“[N]or does it consist in this, that he should again falsely imagine, as being above this [fancied being], a Pleroma at one time supposed to contain thirty, and at another time an innumerable tribe of Aeons, as these teachers who are destitute of truly divine wisdom maintain;
while the Catholic Church possesses one and the same faith throughout the whole world, as we have already said.” *Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1:10,3 (A.D. 180). *
“For it is evident that those men lived not so long ago,–in the reign of Antoninus for the most part,–and that they at first were
believers in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, in the church of Rome under the episcopate of the blessed Eleutherus, until on account of their ever restless curiosity, with which they even infected the brethren, they were more than once expelled.” *Tertullian, On the Prescription Against Heretics, 22,30 (A.D. 200). *
You see, the Catholic Church is the Church. It doesn’t say “Full Gospel Temple”.
