I would just like to address this comment. Being anti-Catholic is not what we are.....we are “anti” anything that is a departure from what Jesus, (as head of his “church”) taught and promoted.
History is an important component in this......what is the history of the “church”?
Arianism was a “Christian” movement of the fourth century that denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Arius taught that God is unbegotten and without a beginning. The Son, because he is begotten, cannot be God in the same sense that the Father is. The Son did not exist from all eternity but was created and exists by the will of the Father. In that belief he was biblically correct.
Like the rest of the trinity doctrine, these teachings arose over 300 years after the death of Jesus Christ. What took place in the meantime? What happened between the first century and the fourth? This is important.
He was one who saw that Jesus Christ was not Almighty God.....and the scriptures back up that position. JW’s however are not Arians. We know the God of the Bible, who was also the God of Jesus Christ. (John 17:3)
How far back do we need to go for that scripture to apply? Do you honestly believe that Christian teachings originated in Constantine’s fusion of apostate Christianity and Roman sun worship? The 4th century is the birth of Christendom, a completely corrupted form of Christianity that was foretold by Jesus and his apostles....I don’t believe that you have gone back far enough. Apostasy was already snapping at the heels of the apostles towards the end of the first century, but they were acting as a restraint against it until the completion of the Christian scriptures, the last of which were written by the apostle John.
Once that restraint was removed, (when all the apostles were dead) Christianity began to be corrupted by men seeking to promote their own ideas and introducing all manner of unchristian doctrines...the “weeds” of Jesus’ parable.
By the time Constantine mandated his state religion, Christianity was already dead in the water....ripe for all the unchristian teachings and festivals that were adopted. So from the historical perspective, Roman Catholicism is the ‘mother’ of the foretold apostasy. The bulk of Catholic beliefs originate in ancient Babylon....not from the teachings of Jesus.
Yes, and it pays to do your research. Arian was condemned for speaking the truth. We all know what the church did to ‘heretics’. The Inquisition was a great deterrent.
Constantine defeated his last remaining rival, Licinius, and became the undisputed ruler of the Roman world. In 325 C.E., as yet unbaptized, he presided over the first great ecumenical council of the “Christian” church, which condemned Arianism and drew up a statement of essential beliefs called the Nicene Creed.
The virtual founder of the Roman church was not even a baptized Christian. He was a worshipper of Zeus who turned Jesus Christ into the god he worshipped.
Roman sun worship is seen clearly in Catholic worship....the most visible being the obelisk in St Peter’s Square, which was transported from Egypt as a symbol of the Egyptian sun god Ra. Why is it even there?
Your assumption that the Catholic Church is a continuation of what Jesus began is far from the truth. Their departures would be a long list of things that Christ never taught....things that you have been taught as truth find no support in scripture at all.
I only hope you can do some research on the history of the Roman church and its beliefs and see for yourself that your faith (admirable as it may be) is not well founded.
Deeje I hope all is well... Jesus formed his Church on Rock! He made Peter his Shepherd and he gave Peter his keys a symbol of Authority!
Your words... Constantine mandated his state religion, Christianity was already dead in the water!! I reply ... Who said the Church failed? NOT the scriptures! The Scriptures tell you the Church has the AUTHORITY to teach all nations that Jesus is ALWAYS with hs Church to the end of time!
The Church was given an ADVOCATE to Guide her into all truth... To be with her
FOREVER!! Again I must point out to be "JW" you must reject the scriptures! To be in Protestant against the Holy Catholic Church you MUST reject the scriptures!
John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
Deeje Do you see it?
FOREVER!
You claim the Catholic Church made stuff up that is not scriptural???
FACT: The Holy Catholic Church NONE OTHER made the bible! She alone with the help of the Holy Spirit decided the truly inspired manuscripts weeding out the phony ones! There are no scriptures telling you what scriptures are God inspired! Even if they did say "this is inspired" the phony ones would also say they were inspired! The Catholic Church NONE Other was the AUTHORITY that tells you they are inspired! You use a corrupted bible with over four hundred changes.... THINK... How come all the other scripture interpreters (over sixty) do not have what your bible contains!? LOGIC ALONE should tell you your NWT is wrong!
Arius was removed as a false teacher... History proves he was a Catholic he was removed from the ONLY Church Jesus established!
Ignatius of Antioch said this in 110 A.D.
“Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop or by one whom he ordains [i.e., a presbyter]. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there;
just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church” (
Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2
[A.D. 110]).
Deeje Did you see it? "J
ust as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church”!!
The Martyrdom of Polycarp 155 A.D.
“And of the elect, he was one indeed, the wonderful martyr Polycarp, who in our days was an apostolic and prophetic teacher,
bishop of the Catholic Church in Smyrna. For every word which came forth from his mouth was fulfilled and will be fulfilled” (
Martyrdom of Polycarp 16:2 [
A.D. 155]).
Tertullian 200 A.D.
“Where was [the heretic] Marcion, that shipmaster of Pontus, the zealous student of Stoicism? Where was Valentinus, the disciple of Platonism? For it is evident that those men lived not so long ago—in the reign of Antonius 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 Eleutherius, until on account of their ever restless curiosity, with which they even infected the brethren, they were more than once expelled” (
Demurrer Against the Heretics 30 [A.D. 200]).
Cyprian of Carthage A.D. 253
“You ought to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and the Church in the bishops; and
if someone is not with the bishop, he is not in the Church. They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having peace with the priest of God, believing that they are secretly in communion with certain individuals.
For the Church, which is one and catholic, is not split or divided, but is indeed united and joined by the cement of priests who adhere to one another” (
Letters 66[67]:8 [A.D. 253]).
Council of Nicaea I
“But those who say: ‘There was [a time] when he [the Son] was not,’ and ‘before he was born, he was not,’ and ‘because he was made from non-existing matter, he is either of another substance or essence,’ and those who call ‘God the Son of God changeable and mutable,’
these the Catholic Church anathematizes” (
Appendix to the Creed of Nicaea [A.D. 325]).
Deeje So much for being dead in the water!!!!! You have been taught LIES by the Watch Tower! Jesus is ALWAYS with his Church he never left her!