Some people think that Jesus was the founder of the Catholic Church, Peter was the first pope and that popes are God’s representatives on earth. The Bible, however, tells a different story.
To prove that the church was founded by Peter, Catholics have long pointed to Jesus’ words in Matt 16:18 “You are Peter, and on this rock-mass I will build my congregation.” Peter later identified Jesus as the figurative “stone”, rejected by men but “chosen, precious, with God” and as the “foundation cornerstone” on which a person could rest his faith (1 Pet. 2 4-6).
The apostle Peter features prominently in the Gospels. That doesn’t mean Jesus created the church and named Peter the leader. Although Peter was given great responsibility, nowhere in the Bible do we find him claiming to be the head of the congregation and making decisions for the disciples as a group. In his letter, he called himself “an apostle” and “an older man”—nothing more (1 Peter 1:1, 5:1).
Paul did warn that from within the congregation, men would rise who would “speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts 20:30).
Shortly after the last of the apostles died, the official face of “Christianity” started to change, just as the Bible foretold (Matt. 13: 24-30, 37-43). Individuals began to gain more prominence. The Cambridge History of Christianity says: “Probably there was no single ‘monarchical’ bishop in Rome before the middle of the second century.”
Even if Peter did preach in Rome, there is no proof that he was head of the congregation there. Paul spent a long time preaching in Rome and he never once mentioned Peter in the 6 letters he wrote from the city. Around 30 years after Paul wrote his letters, the apostle John wrote three letters and the book of Revelation. Nowhere in these writings did John mention that the congregation in Rome was the most prominent one, nor did he refer to a leader of the church who held the supreme office of an alleged successor of Peter.
So, if the Catholic Church wasn’t founded by Jesus and led by Peter, where did it come from?
During his time on earth Jesus told his followers to “Go, … and make disciples of people of all the nations” (Matt. 28: 19,20). That’s what they did after his death: devote their lives to teach others, carrying the message of Christ throughout the earth (Matt. 24:14 reads “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the earth for a witness to all the nations”).
From the beginning, groups of people started heading out to Syria, various parts of Palestine and then Europe and other places.
Back in Judea, there was already plenty of conflict between the ideas the followers of Christ were teaching and the local Jewish leaders, who never accepted Jesus as the messiah and refused to follow his teachings, holding on to the old traditions. Despite the controversy, Christians kept preaching and the word continued spreading throughout the Roman Empire.
Now, let’s go back to Rome for a moment.
In 54 CE when Nero came to power, the empire was in bad shape and the Jews in Judea were staging a huge rebellion against the Roman oppression. The region of Judea, today’s Palestine (a place of conflict as far as history can tell) was under the ruling of the Herods, a family that implemented Roman orders and collected taxes for themselves and Rome. Besides being heavily taxed and being under the orders of a non-Jewish family, the Jews were further enraged by an order that a statue of the Caesar should be placed for worship in every temple. Polytheism was not accepted by the Jewish religion and they didn’t view the emperor as a god.
The people rebelled against Rome and the movement was able to defeat Rome militarily and set up a nation-state directly in the Roman Empire.
The Romans didn’t like being defeated. It wasn’t just a problem of ego. There was a real danger that this rebellion could spread to other parts of the empire. So they called their best military men to give a hand: the Flavians – the same guys who destroyed the druids in what is today’s Britain.
Nero asked general Vespasian and his son Titus to go to Judea with the roman army and crush the rebellion. They did a very thorough job that ended up with the complete destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
While the mission of destroying the rebellion was going on, in 68 AD the senate deposed Nero and he committed suicide. That left the coveted position of emperor available and Vespasian returned to the city and claimed the throne with the help of the army.
The Flavians thus became the imperial family but the empire was marked by power struggles, a bankrupt economy, religious conflicts and endless wars (any similarity with today’s situation might not be a coincidence).
Although the Romans had successfully ended the rebellion in Judea, another rebellion broke loose in Alexandria and the Christians were still preaching despite vicious persecution so things weren't going that well. The Flavians had to legitimate their dynasty and at the same time, find a way to counter the rebellions.
When Vespasian died, Titus was able to convince the senate to deify him – give him the title of god. This imperial cult, set up to worship Caesar as a god, was the perfect basis for the structure of what later became the Catholic Church. But how?
When the Christians started preaching in Rome they were not well received since their beliefs conflicted with local traditions and polytheism. As roman society became aware of this new religion, there was a lot of anxiety and rumors started spreading: Christians were accused of cannibalism, incest, eating babies, etc. They were also accused by the roman authorities of being atheists – meaning that they didn’t worship the same gods as the Romans - and hating the human race because they didn’t participate in the roman pagan celebrations.
For years, Christians were arrested, tortured and murdered in horrific ways. Ironically, the roman strategy only seemed to strengthen the Christians, that faithfully continued to spread the word of Jesus and that started to bear fruits since many people, attracted by the message of hope, started to convert.
In the third century there was a turning point. In 313, emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire and gave legal privileges and immunity from military duty and taxes to the Christian clergy. (Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia)
Constantine believed that Christianity could solidify his empire and unite it under one religion. Thanks to his pro-Christian policies, many believers of the polytheistic religions streamed into the church. This tightened Constantine’s grip and at the same time eased the conflict and violence without further military intervention.
Those who had been polytheists looked as if they had converted, but it wasn’t easy for them to get rid of the religious rites and worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars and various gods and goddesses. The adaptation to a new culture was difficult and brought a new set of problems, so a number of adjustments were made.
The men that led the original bishop positions in the church in the early times were previous members of the pagan roman aristocracy. They went from being a priest of a pagan religion to being priest in the roman church. The title of the pagan chief of Rome, Pontiflex Maximus, became the title of the pope (Pontifex Maximus - New World Encyclopedia).
Many of the rituals, paraphernalia and rituals of the roman paganism were transferred to the church. Even the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican was built on top of a necropolis and in the area directly under the high altar, below the grottoes, the excavators found a structure resembling a temple that they named the aedicula (meaning little temple). (Christianized sites - Wikipedia) .
The encyclopedia Great Ages of Man states that because of this Church-State marriage, “by A.D. 385, only 80 years after the last great wave of persecution of Christians, the Church itself was beginning to execute heretics, and its clerics were wielding power almost equivalent to that of the emperors.” Thus began an era wherein the sword eclipsed persuasion as the means of conversion, and the titled, power-grasping clergy replaced the humble preachers of the first century.
I will follow this post with another one, about what happened the following centuries.
For more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Catholic_Church
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/uk_1.shtml
https://www.gotquestions.org/origin-Catholic-church.html
https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/cambridge-history-of-christianity/7B03B6D6CA1680C8B5624BE561EDEBCA
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011571?q=history+of+christianity&p=par
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavian_dynasty
To prove that the church was founded by Peter, Catholics have long pointed to Jesus’ words in Matt 16:18 “You are Peter, and on this rock-mass I will build my congregation.” Peter later identified Jesus as the figurative “stone”, rejected by men but “chosen, precious, with God” and as the “foundation cornerstone” on which a person could rest his faith (1 Pet. 2 4-6).
The apostle Peter features prominently in the Gospels. That doesn’t mean Jesus created the church and named Peter the leader. Although Peter was given great responsibility, nowhere in the Bible do we find him claiming to be the head of the congregation and making decisions for the disciples as a group. In his letter, he called himself “an apostle” and “an older man”—nothing more (1 Peter 1:1, 5:1).
Paul did warn that from within the congregation, men would rise who would “speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts 20:30).
Shortly after the last of the apostles died, the official face of “Christianity” started to change, just as the Bible foretold (Matt. 13: 24-30, 37-43). Individuals began to gain more prominence. The Cambridge History of Christianity says: “Probably there was no single ‘monarchical’ bishop in Rome before the middle of the second century.”
Even if Peter did preach in Rome, there is no proof that he was head of the congregation there. Paul spent a long time preaching in Rome and he never once mentioned Peter in the 6 letters he wrote from the city. Around 30 years after Paul wrote his letters, the apostle John wrote three letters and the book of Revelation. Nowhere in these writings did John mention that the congregation in Rome was the most prominent one, nor did he refer to a leader of the church who held the supreme office of an alleged successor of Peter.
So, if the Catholic Church wasn’t founded by Jesus and led by Peter, where did it come from?
During his time on earth Jesus told his followers to “Go, … and make disciples of people of all the nations” (Matt. 28: 19,20). That’s what they did after his death: devote their lives to teach others, carrying the message of Christ throughout the earth (Matt. 24:14 reads “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the earth for a witness to all the nations”).
From the beginning, groups of people started heading out to Syria, various parts of Palestine and then Europe and other places.
Back in Judea, there was already plenty of conflict between the ideas the followers of Christ were teaching and the local Jewish leaders, who never accepted Jesus as the messiah and refused to follow his teachings, holding on to the old traditions. Despite the controversy, Christians kept preaching and the word continued spreading throughout the Roman Empire.
Now, let’s go back to Rome for a moment.
In 54 CE when Nero came to power, the empire was in bad shape and the Jews in Judea were staging a huge rebellion against the Roman oppression. The region of Judea, today’s Palestine (a place of conflict as far as history can tell) was under the ruling of the Herods, a family that implemented Roman orders and collected taxes for themselves and Rome. Besides being heavily taxed and being under the orders of a non-Jewish family, the Jews were further enraged by an order that a statue of the Caesar should be placed for worship in every temple. Polytheism was not accepted by the Jewish religion and they didn’t view the emperor as a god.
The people rebelled against Rome and the movement was able to defeat Rome militarily and set up a nation-state directly in the Roman Empire.
The Romans didn’t like being defeated. It wasn’t just a problem of ego. There was a real danger that this rebellion could spread to other parts of the empire. So they called their best military men to give a hand: the Flavians – the same guys who destroyed the druids in what is today’s Britain.
Nero asked general Vespasian and his son Titus to go to Judea with the roman army and crush the rebellion. They did a very thorough job that ended up with the complete destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
While the mission of destroying the rebellion was going on, in 68 AD the senate deposed Nero and he committed suicide. That left the coveted position of emperor available and Vespasian returned to the city and claimed the throne with the help of the army.
The Flavians thus became the imperial family but the empire was marked by power struggles, a bankrupt economy, religious conflicts and endless wars (any similarity with today’s situation might not be a coincidence).
Although the Romans had successfully ended the rebellion in Judea, another rebellion broke loose in Alexandria and the Christians were still preaching despite vicious persecution so things weren't going that well. The Flavians had to legitimate their dynasty and at the same time, find a way to counter the rebellions.
When Vespasian died, Titus was able to convince the senate to deify him – give him the title of god. This imperial cult, set up to worship Caesar as a god, was the perfect basis for the structure of what later became the Catholic Church. But how?
When the Christians started preaching in Rome they were not well received since their beliefs conflicted with local traditions and polytheism. As roman society became aware of this new religion, there was a lot of anxiety and rumors started spreading: Christians were accused of cannibalism, incest, eating babies, etc. They were also accused by the roman authorities of being atheists – meaning that they didn’t worship the same gods as the Romans - and hating the human race because they didn’t participate in the roman pagan celebrations.
For years, Christians were arrested, tortured and murdered in horrific ways. Ironically, the roman strategy only seemed to strengthen the Christians, that faithfully continued to spread the word of Jesus and that started to bear fruits since many people, attracted by the message of hope, started to convert.
In the third century there was a turning point. In 313, emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire and gave legal privileges and immunity from military duty and taxes to the Christian clergy. (Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia)
Constantine believed that Christianity could solidify his empire and unite it under one religion. Thanks to his pro-Christian policies, many believers of the polytheistic religions streamed into the church. This tightened Constantine’s grip and at the same time eased the conflict and violence without further military intervention.
Those who had been polytheists looked as if they had converted, but it wasn’t easy for them to get rid of the religious rites and worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars and various gods and goddesses. The adaptation to a new culture was difficult and brought a new set of problems, so a number of adjustments were made.
The men that led the original bishop positions in the church in the early times were previous members of the pagan roman aristocracy. They went from being a priest of a pagan religion to being priest in the roman church. The title of the pagan chief of Rome, Pontiflex Maximus, became the title of the pope (Pontifex Maximus - New World Encyclopedia).
Many of the rituals, paraphernalia and rituals of the roman paganism were transferred to the church. Even the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican was built on top of a necropolis and in the area directly under the high altar, below the grottoes, the excavators found a structure resembling a temple that they named the aedicula (meaning little temple). (Christianized sites - Wikipedia) .
The encyclopedia Great Ages of Man states that because of this Church-State marriage, “by A.D. 385, only 80 years after the last great wave of persecution of Christians, the Church itself was beginning to execute heretics, and its clerics were wielding power almost equivalent to that of the emperors.” Thus began an era wherein the sword eclipsed persuasion as the means of conversion, and the titled, power-grasping clergy replaced the humble preachers of the first century.
I will follow this post with another one, about what happened the following centuries.
For more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Catholic_Church
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/uk_1.shtml
https://www.gotquestions.org/origin-Catholic-church.html
https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/cambridge-history-of-christianity/7B03B6D6CA1680C8B5624BE561EDEBCA
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011571?q=history+of+christianity&p=par
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavian_dynasty
