“Surely you’re not trying to tell me that Christ started the church in Rome are you?”
Did the Catholic church begin in Rome?
“Actually wasn’t the RCC started in 1054 when they broke with the previous universal Church, sometimes known today as the Catholic-Orthodox Church?”
Depends on who you talk to. This is the present Orthodox position, but both Catholics and Orthodox have at present, existing bishops with apostolic succession going back to the earliest days of the Church. This is why it’s better to just refer to it as the Church, because back then that’s how people understood it.
So your choice is one or the other. Or, hopefully as the case will be, one, when we come together again.
“Not only that, but there seems to be a problem with the line of succession espoused by the RCC.”
Oh? Then you might want to inform the Orthodox. Because their line of succession is exactly the same until the schism.
“Papal succession occurrs after a pope’s death right? Also, if Linus ordained by Paul, not Peter was bishop of Rome while Peter was alive, that would mean that Linus, not even an Apostle, had Papal supremacy over both Peter and Paul - two living Apostles.”
You’re mixing up two, very different concepts. One, it is unusual for one pope to have ordained a priest who becomes a future pope. For one, most popes don’t do that many ordinations (usually ordinations are done by the presiding bishops).
Two, in the early days of the Church, we would expect the Apostles to ordain people as they came into the Church. That Paul ordained Linus isn’t surprising, nor does it mean that Linus became Pope while Peter was living. All it means is that Linus became a priest (that’s what ordination means), when Paul baptized him.
What is important is that Linus, who eventually became Bishop of Rome, on the death of Peter, was ordained by Paul, that is Apostolic succession. It goes from Apostle to pope, not from Pope to pope.
See post 361
>>What is important is that Linus, who eventually became Bishop of Rome, on the death of Peter, was ordained by Paul, that is Apostolic succession. It goes from Apostle to pope, not from Pope to pope.<<
So by all accounts Linus was the first pope and not Peter like Catholics would have us believe and Christ really didn’t make Peter the first pope.
Catholics really need to put their ducks in a row and rewrite what the church fathers wrote to make things more consistent.
Or begin to understand that the RCC is totally evil and deceitful like the rest of us have.