[terycarl]

encourage people not to read the bible, where on earth did you get that nonsense???? if you will recall, the Catholic church WROTE the bible and for the first 1,500 years of church history, all Christians were Catholic,,, It wasn't until Mr. Gutenburg invented the printing press that the average person could even come close to purchasing a bible...Before that all were hand written by Catholic Monks and were rare and expensive..

[bahblahbah]

It's pretty much common knowledge that the Catholic church didn't like the common man interpreting the bible for themselves. In fact I think there were some laws against it up until the printing press was invented. They're always afraid of those "heretics".

[garybob]

if you will recall, the Catholic church WROTE the bible

The Catholic church was no where around when Moses, Paul, Matthew, Mark, John, Luke, Isaiah among others wrote the Bible. Perhaps you meant to say PRINT the Bible?

for the first 1,500 years of church history, all Christians were Catholic

The Romans were busy killing Christians until the 3rd century A.D. Those same Romans started the Catholic church.

[Walkenfree]

Here's the scoop. GOD inspired the Bible, the word Catholic means Universal. We believe in the "Holy Catholic" church, which means God's Universal Church for all faiths. The first 5 books of the Bible were written by Moses. (Called the Law of Moses). Also in the Torah & the Pentateuch;
The survival manuals for the Jewish Nation. The current ROMAN CATHOLIC Church is a break off from the Jewish Nation too. Martin Luther started the Lutheran Church as a break off of the Roman Catholic Church, and on and on it goes. I don't recall them being Roman Catholic Monks?

[familyop]

"If you will recall, the Catholic church WROTE the bible and for the first 1,500 years of church history, all Christians were Catholic."

Yes. With regards to the New Testament, and in the historical sense,... The early books of the New Testament were written in Greek by Romans and were later composed into one work in Latin. The first full or nearly full list of New Testament books was probably composed by Bishop Eusebius in the 4th Century. That, or something very nearly the same, was officially ratified during the 5th Century (under Augustine).

The first New Testament was composed by the Roman (Catholic) Church.

Paul, BTW, was a Roman citizen from Tarsis, Cilicia, Asia Minor. Interestingly about Tarsus (from a secular historical point of view), it appears from historical writings that the predominant culture there was Hellenism, and the main religion was Mithraism.