The first known use of the Greek word katholikos (καθολικός), which means "universal, complete, or whole," is attributed to Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote around A.D. 107, while being taken to Rome for execution. In his Letter to the Smyrnaeans, he wrote:
Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church. It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop. On the other hand, whatever has his approval is pleasing to God. Thus, whatever is done will be safe and valid.
The other location where we encounter the term catholic is in The Apostle's Creed; the version we are familiar with having been written somewhere between A.D. 710 and A.D. 714.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried,
He descended into Hell, the third day He arose from the dead,
He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty,
from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
The term catholic is used to refer to the true and living church in its universality, but it has nothing to do whatsoever with the Roman Catholic Church. The two are worlds apart. There is a vast difference between the catholic church—that is, the universal church, and the Roman Catholic Church, which is a complete and utter oxymoron. The catholic (universal) church is spiritual and invisible, made up of every true and genuine believer around the world. The Roman Catholic Church is physical and visible, made up of those who follow the traditions of men and elevate fallible men to positions of godhood.
Every true and genuine believer belongs to the true catholic (universal) church, whereas the Roman Catholic Church is largely filled with religious frauds and hypocrites on a one-way trip to Hell. It is the Roman Catholic
Church who kept the world in darkness—known as the Dark Ages—concerning
the light of Christ Jesus. It was various members of the true catholic (universal) church who finally set the church free from its grasp.
The Roman Catholic Church, centered around the worship of Mary—the "queen" of heaven, is a superstitious religious cult that has assimilated elements from just about every other religious cult into itself (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.). It makes a mockery out of biblical Christianity, keeping people dead in their sins while the wrath of God abides on them still.
Just some of the Roman Catholic Church's teachings refuted by the ultimate authority, Scripture:
- Peter had a wife (Matt. 8:14).
- You cannot pay for the dead or for the sins of the dead (Acts 8:20).
- There is one mediator between God and men—not the Pope, a priest, or Mary (1 Tim. 2:5-6).
- Forbidding marriage is wrong (1 Tim. 4:1-3).
- There is no purgatory (Heb. 9:27).
The Roman Catholic Church, centered around the worship of Mary—the "queen" of heaven, is a superstitious religious cult that has assimilated elements from just about every other religious cult into itself (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.). It makes a mockery out of biblical Christianity, keeping people dead in their sins while the wrath of God abides on them still.
The Roman Catholic Church is blasphemous, in that it:
- claims to have the power to forgive sins, which only God can do (Mark 2:7),
- makes a man out to be God, which is only true of Christ Jesus (John 10:33), and
- persecuted the church in the name of God, as history reveals to us (1 Tim. 1:12-13).
There are only two kinds of religion: works-based, which encompasses
every world religion outside of biblical Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church; and grace-based, which is a free gift, where your works are the result of your salvation and not a means of attempting to earn it.
The term catholic was originally used to describe the invisible church because it is universal in its scope. However, eventually the term became corrupted by the application of it to the Roman Catholic Church. It seems to me that they stole the entire wording from the Apostle's Creed, calling themselves the "Holy Catholic Church," when there is nothing holy about them in the least. The term catholic—universal—is used to describe the true church, but the Roman Catholic Church is not that church.
The term catholic was originally used to describe the invisible church because it is universal in its scope. However, eventually the term became corrupted by the application of it to the Roman Catholic Church. It seems to me that they stole the entire wording from the Apostle's Creed, calling themselves the "Holy Catholic Church," when there is nothing holy about them in the least. The term catholic—universal—is used to describe the true church, but the Roman Catholic Church is not that church.