O.K....if not the Roman Catholic church, then which denomination started at the time of Christ followed His instruction and guidance more closely.....for the entire 2,013 years.....from beginning until now??
NONE!!!!!
That's what we've been trying to tell you.
The church, the true body of Christ, is not about denominations. It's not about religion. It's not about organizations.
It's about the body of Christ, called the church, being built up of all true believers WHERE EVER they are, whenever they lived, whatever church or denomination they choose to affiliate with.
No one denomination or label is the true church because a relationship with God through Christ is not about labels and rules and regulations.
The body of Christ is an organism, a living organism, not an organization, a dead system of works.
I don't know what *church* boatbums attends. Nor Cynical Bear, Syncro, presentlynoscreenname, daniel1212,smvoice, etc but I do know that they are brothers or sisters IN CHRIST because they have put their faith in Him for their salvation.
They are part of the church; they are the church.
Or Baptists with John the Baptist being the first member, if that's more like what Catholics want to hear.
It was not a denomination, those started much later.if the Roman Catholic Church WERE the same one begun in the first century
they would have stayed true to the Gospel and remained faithful to the truth established by Jesus and enscripturated by the Apostles and their disciples.O.K....if not the Roman Catholic church, then which denomination started at the time of Christ followed His instruction and guidance more closely.....for the entire 2,013 years.....from beginning until now??
It was Christians.
There were thousands of them in the first century.
Many of those that Jesus preached to followed him, they did NOT follow the non existent Catholic church.
There were Christians back then, but NO Catholics.
Except in the sense of the fact that the Church founded on the basis of salvation and following Jesus, all those members were a part of the catholic church. Catholic means universal, ie all the followers, born again and saved, of Jesus.
Many years later a group of people started a denomination called Catholicism.
Then they co-opted the word catholic, added a big "C" at the beginning of the word, and started proclaiming themselves the only true Christians. [Kind of like the homosexuals taking and changing the word gay]
They were so sure of that, that later they started killing the actual true Christians because the wanted to follow Jesus and his fantastic teachings instead of the "Church Fathers."
I've seen where others have already addressed the main point of your question - and quite adequately. But I DO have one concerning your math. How is it you consistently imply the Roman Catholic Church began in the first year A.D.? You've said "2,013 years" several times now. Not to be picky, but, I wonder why you think your church began when Jesus was arguably but an infant, only a few years old? You can't seriously believe this is also true, do you?