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| Catholics the true Christians receiving the Eucharist in the Holy Communion |
Members or followers of a certain religion in the past and even today are called by the name of their sect or religion. For example, those that follow Buddhism are called Buddhists; Judaism are Jews; Hinduism are called Hindus; since the church was understood to be the church established by Jesus Christ it was natural in Antioch to follow the ancient customs and they are called Christians from the word Christ. Therefore members of the Church of God in the early days were called Christians.
By recorded historical account in the Acts and by tradition, the church founded by Jesus was called Church of God and its member called Christians for the first time in Antioch. For lack of name at that time, the church was simply called Church of God to stress the point that the church was established and founded by God himself, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead. Church as written in the
Then a foremost and revered leader of the Church that came after the Apostle was the Bishop of Antioch, St. Ignatius who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle. He is the second in the succession of Bishops of the church in Antioch and has served in said capacity sometime from 67 AD after St. Evodius death to 107 AD when he was shipped to Rome as prisoner and died a martyr.
St. Ignatius having been taught by the Apostles John, Peter, and Paul has learned and acquired their kind of preaching of sending letters. In the same practice of the Apostles, he sent letter to the early Christians in Smyrna which was an Ancient Greek city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. This place is known today as İzmir, Turkey. The Letter to the Smyrneans reflects how the early Christians were and it included a reference to the name of the church of God:
"See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is administered either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude of the people also be; even as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." —Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ch 8
The letter was dated in 107 A.D. before St. Ignatius was martyred in Rome and has already clear reference to the name of the Church in the first Century which he named to be the Catholic Church for the first time. In Greek, Catholic means Universal for it was the the mission of the church to become a Universal Church, preaching the Gospel to all people of the world in all nations in accordance with the Great Commission of the Lord.
Reading the letter of St. Ignatius he was was evidently concerned with the rise of false churches even in those early years of Christianity which was consistent to the concern of St. John in his Gospel. It may have already been decided by the Church Fathers and the Bishops to name the church, the Catholic Church thus St. Ignatius used it to his Letter to the church in Smyrna. Clearly it was to differentiate the true Church from the false churches that even then have already started to appear preaching false doctrines about Jesus Christ and even pretending to be the church. The letters of St. Ignatius was kept by the church and has survived providing unimpeachable historical record that the Catholic Church is the one true church. It was an exhortation for the faithful to be always behind the bishop of the Catholic Church.
Now by design of God for nothing came by chance just as the world first called the church members as Christians in Antioch, it was also in the same place that the church was first called The Catholic Church. Therefor the Catholics are the true Christians for they are members of the one true church, the Catholic Church.
Having departed from the Catholic Church and having put up their own religions with their own sets of doctrines, can we call the Protestants Christians as they claim to be? Well everyone can call themselves Christians only by name but not by true association with the Lord. Which means in the original sense, in the true essence they are false Christians even if they claim to follow the Lord. This is in fulfillment of what Jesus taught in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Its the reason why when Protestant came to be, they were not called Christians as they love to call themselves today they were called Lutherans of the Lutheran Church, Calvinist or Baptists of the Baptist Churches, Presbyterians, generally they are called as Protestants of the Protestant Churches. One will notice that they are called as such after their founders not after Jesus Christ. The name Christians were originally for the Catholics and they stayed with the Catholics because they are true member of the one true church of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Catholics are Christians and Christians are Catholics. People who call themselves Christians are not legitimate Christians unless they are in total communion with the Catholic Church and therefore Catholics. No other people today can be called Christian in the true meaning of the name for which it was first called unless they are Catholics.
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