I'm a Catholic Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and the Bible says, if you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and confess with your mouth that God raised Him from the dead, as I do, you will be saved. And so I certainly consider myself born again, though I know some anti-Catholics will disagree with me.
I'm not anti-Protestant. I have many Protestant friends, and sometimes worship along with them. Faith in Christ as True God and Only Savior unites us despite some differences that remain. In pro-life and charitable works, we can certainly co-operate. I respect especially the Conservative Evangelical Denominations, that are Anti-Abortion, and Pro-Matrimony.
Anyway, having read a lot in Church History, I can quite confidently say it is quite different from what most Protestants have been raised to believe. Take the Evangelism of Europe. For e.g. How did it happen? Through the Roman Catholic Church! That's a Historical fact.
For e.g. as everyone should know, Catholic Bishop Saint Patrick, in the 4th century, was sent by the Pope, to Ireland. When he arrived, almost the whole nation did not know Christ. After an Annointed Ministry of Miracles and Preaching, and Teaching the Holy Trinity that had just been defined in the Church Councils at his death, the whole nation was Christian!
Take England. The same story repeats. Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine of Canterbury, a Bishop, along with about 40 monks, to England. They prayed and fasted, worked and labored in love for the Lord. Soon the whole nation was Christina in One Church. That I believe is how God Willed it.
I pray all Christians will be One some day again in the Future. That is the Lord's Will for us, as He prays in His High Priestly Prayer in John 17. He tells us the World will believe in Him when we are One in Him. His Prayer will one day be fulfilled, since the Word of God also says, He was heard in all things out of reverence for Him. I pray for the same also.
The key issue was Holy Communion. The Catholic Church maintained it was literally the Body and Blood of Christ, as I also believe, while most Protestants, like Calvin, taught that it was merely symbolic. Some Protestants still believe it is literal. Luther did also. But this core issue divided the Church.
Let's continue to pray, study Scripture, grow in Love for Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and one another, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into All Truth. In Lord Jesus' Name. Amen.
Edit. P.S. The word "denominations" never occurs in the Holy Bible. When the Lord speaks of His Church, e.g Mat 16:18 and Mat 18:17, He always speaks of it as One Church.
God Bless.
Grace and Peace brother - I have to disagree with the history you've been taught. My education has been much different.
England, Scotland, Ireland and much of Europe was evangelized
way before even Constantine's day. Isso. or Iso - Jesus, was known about by the locals and churches had been formed long before the time that the "church of Rome" (not yet the Roman Catholic Church) began their move into those lands. Many Celtic and druidic communities had already begun to convert to Christianity although there was much in-fighting. But there were many Christians long before Constantine, and the RCC wasn't even a dream yet.
The edicts of Constantine, to "better organize" Christianity, weren't done until well into his reign. Constantine's involvement started with the Edict of Milan around 315ish(?) and grew, arguably for the worse imho. But that involvement didn't really escalate until after the founding of Constantinople in 330ish(?). That would be about the same time Helena, his mother, supposedly found the "true cross" and the whole royal family was getting into this "new religion" that here-to-fore was illegal, lol.
So, the notion, that arguably modern historian's hold to, that the RCC started in 314 is preposterous! A rational mind would tell us that the idea of a "State Religion" that was
illegal a year prior, wouldn't have been accepted by the citizenry of Rome. Those people loved their ancient God's and enjoyed sending Christians to the colosseums, throughout the empire, to be slaughtered. Can you imagine what the citizens of any modern, western nation would do if Christianity was enforced upon them? It had to take
years before the change would be accepted.
Anyway, the Emperor started mixing politics and religion a little later, thereby giving the church in Rome a sense of higher authority over the then other existing churches; churches in Laodicea, Philidelphia, Jerusalem, Alexandria, etc., etc. But even before Constantine, the church in Rome had become somewhat obtuse, then again, there was already a lot of disagreement between them all... differences were becoming harder and harder to resolve. But none of them had yet conceded all power/authority to the church at Rome - regardless of what the Emperor thought, because the other churches weren't all part of the Roman Empire.
Regardless, as Constantine's power grew, so did the power of the church at Rome, and being typical of men, that power corrupted. As the Roman Empire expanded, the Roman church. with Constantine's guidance, began subjecting all/any Christian community to their line of thinking. The well-established churches in the "British Ilses", as with every other area under Rome began to be persecuted and forced to submit to Roman authority. Groups like the Ceile De and the Culdee were branded heretical... as with many, many others. Those communities weren't always "named" but definitely followers of Christ. They were segregated by distance and mostly isolated. And one by one, the Roman church took them over or killed them.
Patrick was taught about Jesus from the Ceile De after being taken a slave by Irish raiders - he was virtually agnostic before then and didn't follow his grandfather's belief as per the Roman church.
I could go on and on - but I realize that I'm not going to change anyone's view of history. The point is, that the RCC has "back-dated" a lot of our history and injected their mythos into because the wanted to and had the extreme power and (self-assumed) authority to do just that. It justified their claim to supremacy in all things Christian. It was a power-grab, and it worked.
But read the real history of the early church for yourselves... pray God for discernment and remember that history is often written by the victors... just men, and then very fallible.
God Bless.