Knife

According to the Roman Catholics they claim that their papal lineage starts with Peter, who of course got his teachings from Jesus. Peter went to Rome and was the first pope.

In addition, they claim (atleast I have heard the claim pronounced by several Roman Catholics I personally know) that what a catholic is taught today is the same thing a Catholic was taught 2000 years ago.

My question is...are there any good books or essays that directly refute these claims?

Biff the unclean

If you are looking for the Protestant church to somehow be older than the Catholic or to have "restored" pre Roman Catholic teachings you are out of luck.

Wallener

How can that possibly be when the first steps in orthodoxy didn't even occur until the 4th century CE?

Answerer

Early christians didn't call themselves Catholics............

It was doubtful that Peter was the favourite disciple chosen by Jesus to spread his teachings and lead his church.

It was Paul who started the vast Christian movement among the Gentiles.

Toto

Any standard history of the Chruch will show some development in doctrine.

As for Peter, try The Legend of Saint Peter by Arthur Drews, translated by Frank Zindler.

Chili

They are older Biff. The Catholic Church was built of the foundation laid by Jesus Christ and the protestant church already walked away from this before that. Go to John 6:66 and read "From this time on, many of his disciples broke away and would not remain in his company any longer."

You must always remember here that if the gates of hell shall not prevail against Her the anti-christ is not far away.

cognac

Dont' want to sidetrack the thread, but briefly, there are those (fundy Baptists) who really believe they go all the way back to Jesus, skipping Catholics altogether.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist_successionism

John A. Broussard

Yes, but the Catholic church has an unbroken, carefully kept lineage, except for some misnumbering, that is. Does anyone know what happened to John XX?

Knife

This is what I am tralking about. From what I have read this simply is not true. Roman Catholics claim it is, but the evidence they have for it is next to nothing and their theory (unbroken carefully kept lineage) is highly speculative.

I have read histories that deal with the early church that indirectly deal with the Roman Catholic claims, but none of them specifically debunk (or try to debunk) the claims.

By the way I am not a protestant nor do I care (at this point) about their claims.

Knife

The Roman Catholic church is the orthodoxy...which began when Peter became pope (so goes the claim). In other words, the Roman Catholic chuirch began with Peter and the "orthodoxy" was formed according to the Roman Catholic church doctrine (so goes the claim).