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Wrong...prove the churches of Rome were catholic..... lets use the process of elimination...they weren't Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian,or any of the other 20,000 or so protestant denominations. They were Catholics pure and simple. They called themselves Catholic (universal) before the end of the first century. They indeed, thought of themselves as soon to be worldwide (they knew nothing, of course, of the undiscovered continents on Earth) but they were following the order to spread the word to all nations. They also honored Peter as their leader and he happened to be the leader of the church in Rome....could have been anywhere, God chose Rome. Your protestant denomination, whichever one of the thousands that it is, came along about 1,500 years after the true church of Jesus Christ came into being. I have no idea who you think was there during, and for a century or so after, Christ's life. The apostles, disciples, followers, baptized, were all people who formed the earliest (Catholic) church. If they weren't Catholics, what were they???

you say that they didn't operate exactly as the Catholic church does today.....well, the Catholic church consists of more than a billion members. We've pretty much moved out of the catacombs and put up a few buildings...in virtually every country in the world. The Catholic church is, of course, an organization operated by humans and using human methods to do so. We have buildings, museums, money, art collections, whatever...The Catholic church, unlike most protestant denominations accepts responsibility for her staff members, hence the lawsuits pertaining to errant members of the clergy. You don't sue the Lutheran church, as such, if one of her members does something wrong.You may sue a local congregation, but they don't have the big bucks.

the problem with local assemblies, in this day and age, is that they all tend to do things their own way.(see protestantism)The United States has military posts throughout the world, however, to insure some sense of order, they are all under the direction of one commander-in-chief (unfortunately we have the present one) but you could not have post commanders all doing things their own way. I can attend Mass anywhere in the world and it will be the same. The same readings (different languages of course) but the same message and the same sacraments. It was at one time all the same language, maybe sometime we will return to latin, but that's not important.

Wrong...prove the churches of Rome were catholic

lets use the process of elimination...

.....you have got to be kidding....'Process of elimination' to determine if the churches of rome were catholic or not?????? and your response is avoidng the proof.

The earliest post-apostolic document written by the Roman church, First Clement, contradicts the teachings of today's Roman Catholic Church. It teaches salvation through faith alone,... for example (First Clement, 32).

The Shepherd of Hermas, an early post-apostolic document written by a member of the Roman church, teaches the doctrine of limited penance, which Catholics reject.

Some of the early Roman bishops, such as Leo I, denied that Mary was immaculately conceived.

The earliest generations of Roman Christians were not Roman Catholics.

Additionally..... There are so many examples of early Christians disagreeing with the Roman church or denying that the Roman church had universal authority,..catholics may suggest that such things were just exceptions to the rule, but the problem is that there's no evidence that the alleged rule existed.

We have example after example of early Christians denying the concept of a papacy, but nobody in the earliest centuries supported the concept...... Denials of the papacy aren't exceptions to the rule in the early church.... They are the rule.... There's no evidence of a papacy existing in the earliest centuries, because there was no papacy at the time.

lets use the process of elimination...they weren't Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian,or any of the other 20,000 or so protestant denominations. They were Catholics pure and simple.

That is the lamest reasoning I've seen yet. Process of elimination and viola, MY church is the oldest? FOTFLOL!!!!!!!!!!

It's worthy of this answer.

The oldest denomination is Baptist. You know, John the Baptist? It's even in the Bible.

What Catholics need to unwrap their mind from is that denominations, denominational tags, denominational affiliation, denominational ANYTHING means anything to the true believer in Christ.

They are just convenient labels.

Our identity is who we are IN CHRIST, not what church we’ve been baptized into, what local assembly we happen to attend on Sunday mornings, not who our parents or spouse like, or any such things.

Nothing and nobody saves but Jesus. I am HIS. I belong to HIM not a church. The church doesn’t save, HE does.

"They also honored Peter as their leader and he happened to be the leader of the church in Rome....could have been anywhere, God chose Rome..."

Council Of Nicea 325

CANON VI.
LET the ancient customs in Egypt, Libya and Pentapolis prevail, that the Bishop of Alexandria have jurisdiction in all these, since the like is customary for the Bishop of Rome also. Likewise in Antioch and the other provinces, let the Churches retain their privileges. And this is to be universally understood, that if any one be made bishop without the consent of the Metropolitan, the great Synod has declared that such a man ought not to be a bishop. If, however, two or three bishops shall from natural love of contradiction, oppose the common suffrage of the rest, it being reasonable and in accordance with the ecclesiastical law, then let the choice of the majority prevail.

Forgetting for the moment that there is no evidence Peter was ever the Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of Rome was recognized as an equal, not as the leader of the Church.