Why and how did Christianity develop from Jesus's Ministry to Catholicism?

Answer 1

A:To answer this, I'll go through the how first.

How did Christianity develop from Jesus' ministry to Catholicism:

Jesus is Jewish, as were His original followers. During Jesus' ministry, He still observed the Torah, the Feast days/Holidays and the Sabbath. His followers did the same.

After the resurrection the original followers shared the news with others. Eventually, it was shared with non-Jews. At the time, Rome was the ruling empire and several emperors persecuted believers in Jesus. Rome also pushed Jews out of Israel.

Then Emperor Constantine came along and suddenly believed in Christianity. He made it legal to practice and moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.

Emperor Theodosis I, shortly before his death, made Christianity the official religion of Rome. This changed a lot of things. Romans who worshipped Roman gods and slaves of conquered countries who worshipped their own gods now were forced to become Christian (which is the opposite of what Christianity teaches).

Official state church leaders were put in place (priests) and made sure that Christianity didn't "buck" against a governmental decision with it's teachings. The Pagans that had become Christians helped the church elevate Mary, Mother of Jesus to a god-like status as the "Mother of God". That way, they could still worship a goddess.

High ranking church leaders were anti-Semitic and pushed the rest of Christianity's Jewish roots away as heresies.

Since the resurrection, there have been apostles that watch over a certain church or set of churches to keep them in line Biblically. However, bishops, archbishops, Cardinals and the Pope replaced apostles and slowly the elevation of the Pope status occurred.

Things in the early church, such as supernatural miracles through believers in Jesus' name, became less common due to persecution and more fake "believers" sitting in the pews. Whenever supernatural miracles happened, the church either eradicated the believers or possibly made them a saint (that is, if the believer in question was either a nun or a monk. If you weren't either, you were eradicated).

Of course, saints were also slowly made into "lesser gods" (if you will) and worthy of prayer to.

Why did Christianity develop from Jesus' ministry to Catholicism:

For most of the time of the Roman Catholic Holy Empire, laymen were not allowed to read the Bible for themselves. They couldn't check to see if the church was holding true to God's word. They had to take church leaders on their word.

Which led to those leaders doing whatever they wanted and getting away with it.

Also, the anti-Semitism that crept into the church really changed the structure of Catholic Christianity. After all, the entire Bible is Jewish!

**However, I do want to note that there are many real Catholics today that believe in Jesus and the Bible and are not anti-semitic. There are also real Catholic church leaders today who sincerely love Jesus, others, the Bible and take their positions seriously.

B:Catholicism is an important part of the whole Christian movement, like Protestantism. The thing that distinguishes Catholicism from all other branches of the Church is their belief that the Pope is the earthly head of the Church. It is a doctrine that is based upon Jesus' commitment of the headship of the early Church to Peter. The Catholic Church think that Peter's authority was passed over to the Popes, but that idea is without documentary support, at least from the time of Peter and Paul, and much later as well.

Nevertheless, the development of authority of the Pope in the Western Europe was natural. For the first 1000 years, a significant amount of the missionary work done in Europe was done under the auspices of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, with the missionary outreach to the Anglo-Saxons of England being the best known, and the most prominent.

Over time, the Popes have jealously guarded this authority, and have done whatever they could to extend it. When it has been challenged, such as in the great schism of 1056, and in the Protestant reformation, and in the loss of secular power in 1870, the Catholic Church has responded with even more strident claims for the authority of the Pope.

Despite this, the Catholic Church have, in the New Testament, a basis on which to pull back from this approach, and to adopt the humility that Jesus taught his disciples to adopt. Further reforms in the Catholic Church would naturally follow from that step, opening it up to the full prophetic role of all the Christians within that movement.