Topic: Is Catholicism the first founded religion?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: December 18, 2002

Moderator who originally posted this source: Mary Pat Fourqurean

Question:   Is the catholic faith the first founded religion? if so, what were the jews faiths and beliefs before jesus came and founded the church?

Answer: 

Dear Mel,

Thanks for your good question. The Catholic faith is not the first "founded religion" because Judaism is over a thousand years older than Catholic Christianity (and Hinduism is even older than Judaism). Judaism was founded by Abraham and Moses: Moses led God's "chosen people" - the Jews -out of Egypt around 1250 BC. Basically, the Jews believe in only one God as revealed in their Bible, the "Torah" or "Tanakh", which is basically the same as the Protestant Old Testament (for both lack the 7 books of the Catholic Apocrypha). But Jews never call their Bible the "Old Testament", because that would imply it needed a "New Testament" to complete it (as Catholics believe). And since the Jews reject Jesus as their Messiah, they are still waiting for a Messiah different from Jesus, and so they don't accept the New Testament account of Jesus as the Messiah.

As a Catholic, you grew up in historic times, for the late 20th century was the first time in history that the Catholic Church officially called anti-semitism a "sin" and it was the first time that the Church called the Jews our "elder brothers", and it was the first time that a Pope (John Paul II) ever visited a Jewish synagogue and prayed with the Jews there (both Pope John XXIII in the 1960s and Pope John Paul II today are the most pro-Jewish Popes in history). However, Catholic brotherhood with the Jews still has its disagreements (as both Popes understood perfectly), the biggest of all being that the Jews do not believe that their One God is a Trinity (One-in-Three), whereas Catholics believe that their one God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit: 3 divine Persons who are united but not blended, as 1 God. To Jews, this sounds horrible, like three gods. But to Catholics, this sounds wonderful, like one God being His own community. Hope this helps. Mary Pat Fourqurean.