“Calling people *Catholics* and *church fathers* hundreds of years after they died does not make them so.
It’s no different than the Mormons who baptize the dead and claim them to be Mormon.
Unless those people themselves state that they were Roman Catholics, I don’t recognize anyone else’s claim that they were. It’s just a blatant attempt to validate a power grab.”
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You reject history to your loss. You haven’t stated who canonized Scripture since it is your PO, the RCC didn’t. Second time I have asked metmom. Post it.
Don’t bother with the usual complete two paragraph early Church history from 33 A.D. until 1517. You know with the single lone name overkill of Constantine. You can’t mention any of the first Christians from history because everyone knows they are Roman Catholic.
Here is an Apostolic Father, the 3rd Bishop of Antioch,
his name is Ignatius. Notice, there is a hierarchy.
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•Scripture tells us that the Gospels do not include all of Jesus’ words or miracles
•Some teachings of Christ were passed down from Christ to the Apostles and then to the next generation of Christians
•These people are known as the Apostolic Fathers.
Ex: St. Ignatius of Antioch was taught directly by the APOSTLE St. John.
St Ignatius was the first to use the term “CATHOLIC Church”.
“wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the CATHOLIC Church”
Look again at the presumed writings of Ignatius. He does not make the word "catholic" a proper noun - it is not capitalized because it is an adjective describing the church. He used the word to describe what the Christian church in his time was - universal. That is the meaning of the word and just because the Roman Catholic Church comes later and tries to "copyright" the word, doesn't mean they own it. As we have said many times before, the church, the body of Christ, is a spiritual union of all believers and followers of Jesus Christ. He knows His own and He doesn't need a label or sign outside a building to recognize us.