Traced back to Jesus?

  • Thread starter Thread starter flower_lady
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
F

flower_lady

Guest
I am catholic and could you tell me just a little about the catholic church being traced back to Jesus. So many non-catholics that I know say that this is a lie. I know it is true but where can I start in order to prove this to them. What books or liturature could I recommend to them and read for myself. Give me somewhere to start. Thanks.
 
Start with the Gospels. There is plenty in there regarding Peter who became the Bishop of Rome.
 
Well, for starters, the Bible is a good source for Jesus’s establishment of a single Church. From there, we have the completely unbroken line of Popes going all the way back to Peter, so, that’s a pretty good bit of evidence to anyone who’s actually willing to listen.
 
Just one such example: each and every Catholic Priest can trace their hand-on ordination back to one of the twelve, or to Saint Paul. Of all the other Christians on earth, only the Orthodox Christians can do that. Most likely those who dispute with you are members of protestant or protestant-derived communities. These trace back only to 16th century Europe and the trail stops dead at the door of the Catholic Church. In fact, a Pope presided over the councils of Bishops that decided which books are in the bible.

A couple of books that should help:

Catholicism for Dummies - an excellent and easily read explanation of the Church, her beliefs and the reasons for those beliefs. Good for any Catholic to have.

Essential Catholic Survival Guide - put together by the staff of Catholic Answers, this helps you to defend the faith against the usual challengers: Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians, as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons (who are not Christian, but use His name).
 
Megan7 said:
Thanks 🙂
Click to expand...
Well, I imagine they just don’t want to believe the truth because I have shown them the timeline of the popes and where in the bible Christ appointed Peter to head his church. I give up on these people. Thank you.
 
flower_lady said:
I am catholic and could you tell me just a little about the catholic church being traced back to Jesus. So many non-catholics that I know say that this is a lie. I know it is true but where can I start in order to prove this to them. What books or liturature could I recommend to them and read for myself. Give me somewhere to start. Thanks.
Click to expand...
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=833036
I like to use St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the smyrnaeans “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.”

This was around the time 100-107 A.D, and the term Catholic Church is used here as though everyone knows what he is talking about, so the words Catholic Church were used even before this.

Was among the Apostolic Fathers, was the third Bishop of Antioch, and was a student of John the Apostle.

Way before any other church was ever thought up.
 
flower_lady said:
I am catholic and could you tell me just a little about the catholic church being traced back to Jesus. So many non-catholics that I know say that this is a lie. I know it is true but where can I start in order to prove this to them. What books or liturature could I recommend to them and read for myself. Give me somewhere to start. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Around the year AD 180, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, wrote the following:

“3The blessed Apostles [Peter and Paul], having founded and built up the Church [of Rome], they handed over the office of the episcopate to Linus. Paul makes mention of this Linus in the Epistle to Timothy. To him succeeded Anencletus; and after him, in the third place from the Apostles, Clement was chosen from the episcopate. He had seen the blessed Apostles and was acquainted with them. It might be said that He still heard the echoes of the preaching of the Apostles, and had their traditions before his eyes. And not only he, for there were many still remaining who had been instructed by the Apostles. In the time of Clement, no small dissension having arisen among the brethren in Corinth, the Church in Rome sent a very strong letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to peace and renewing their faith. To this Clement, Evaristus succeeded; and Alexander succeeded Evaristus. Then, sixth after the Apostles, Sixtus was appointed; after him, Telesphorus, who also was gloriously martyred. Then Hyginus; after him, Pius; and after him, Anicetus. Soter succeeded Anicetus, and now, in the twelfth place after the Apostles, the lot of the episcopate has fallen to Eleutherus. In this order, and by the teaching of the Apostles handed down in the Church, the preaching of the truth has come down to us.” (Against Heresies 3.3.3, [A.D. 180])

Irenaeus traces the apostolic succession of the Bishop of Rome from Peter to his own day, and we know the full line of successors down to Pope Francis. Therefore, the Catholic Church can trace its origins all the way back to Jesus who appointed Peter as the head of the Church.
 
flower_lady said:
I am catholic and could you tell me just a little about the catholic church being traced back to Jesus. So many non-catholics that I know say that this is a lie. I know it is true but where can I start in order to prove this to them. What books or liturature could I recommend to them and read for myself. Give me somewhere to start. Thanks.
Click to expand...
It’s simple.

Catholics can offer an avalanche of materials to support the Catholic Church going back to Jesus. Non-Catholics have no materials and it bugs the heck out of them.
 
flower_lady said:
I am catholic and could you tell me just a little about the catholic church being traced back to Jesus. So many non-catholics that I know say that this is a lie. I know it is true but where can I start in order to prove this to them. What books or liturature could I recommend to them and read for myself. Give me somewhere to start. Thanks.
Click to expand...
only a biased anti catholic or historical illiterate makes such foolish claims. some like to pick arbitrarily points in history where they claim the current CC came into existence and lost its continuity with the CC that preceded it based on novel doctrines. Others claim the early church was corrupted shortly after the NT church. (and their church restored “NT true Christianity”)

Henry Chadwick, The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great, Oxford History of the Christian Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). An up-to-date and comprehensive one-volume survey of early Christianity. Chadwick writes with great lucidity, able to make complex matters clear and understandable. The best place to start.

Here is a great bibliography site
moses.creighton.edu/harmless/Bibliographies_for_Theology/
 
the said:
Here is someones argument against it.
thetaobums.com/topic/23122-was-the-first-pope-really-peter/
Click to expand...
Thank you :)…and here is a contrary argument from Catholic Answers Tracts:

catholic.com/tracts/was-peter-in-rome

Pope St Linus (Pope after St Peter) newadvent.org/cathen/09272b.htm

Full list of Popes after St Peter with biography/historical record : newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm

Where history is concerned, it probably comes down to which historian one chooses to believe - and all historians are to some degree or other biased… we all are to some degree or other and for our own reasons.

TS
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top