“Original Origins... Of Wayward Churches”

Thursday, April 13, 2017

(This question is a follow-up to “Original Origins”)

Thank you for your answer regarding the first church in history, but I have another question.  Did the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church start at the same time, or did one form first and then the other?

Sincerely,
Ground Zero

Dear Ground Zero,

Both the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox church trace their history back to the days of Caesar Constantine.  As we mentioned in the last post, Constantine made Christianity the national religion and forced all people to join it.  By forcing people to join Christianity, Constantine removed all traces of the volunteer Bible-based faith that Christ died for.  With national sanctions, political power, and a religious hierarchy that included cardinals, bishops, archbishops, etc., Constantine’s endorsement of Christianity suppressed Christ’s religion.  This time period gave birth to a national religion that was more about politics and power than faith, hope, and love.  Paul warned christians that an apostasy like this was coming and to beware of anyone that would set themselves up as head of the church (2 Thess 2:3-4).

This national religion continued until about the 11^th century when there became a dispute over whether the city of Rome would lead this church or the city of Constantinople would.  This argument (and other smaller ones) broke the national religion into two groups.  The Roman Catholic church followed the Pope from Rome, and the Greek Orthodox church chose to have more localized bishops control their territories.  In any event, both churches can be traced to the same non-biblical beginnings which have confused many people for many generations.

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