Why do people believe the Catholic Church is the first church when...?

Your "question" indicates that you don't understand what Sacred Tradition is. Jesus left us with two forms of Scripture - Written Scripture (the Bible) and Oral Scripture (the oral teachings passed on by the apostles).

"So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us." (2 Thess. 2:15).

Without the Oral Scripture we could not be assured of that our Written Scripture is the Word of God. Jesus didn't leave us with a table of contents for the Bible. The Bible was complied based on the Sacred Tradition. No where in the Bible did Jesus command anyone to write anything down - instead they were told to preach God's word.

The article "What is Sacred Tradition" is a helpful explanation for you (http://www.mark-shea.com/tradition.html):

"Something wonderful is happening. Many of our Evangelical brothers and sisters are beginning to appreciate the ancient Catholic teaching that Sacred Scripture is the written portion, not the totality, of Sacred Tradition given to us by the apostles with the authority of Christ himself. Increasingly, they are beginning to grasp the idea that, though Scripture is sufficient (as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16), there is a distinction between material and formal sufficiency.

What's the difference between material and formal sufficiency? It is the difference between having a big enough pile of bricks to build a house and having a house of bricks. Catholic teaching says written Sacred Tradition (known as Scripture) is materially sufficient: all the bricks necessary to build its doctrines are there in Scripture. But because some things in Scripture are implicit rather than explicit, other stuff besides Scripture has been handed down from the apostles. This other stuff is unwritten Sacred Tradition (which is the mortar that holds the bricks of the written Tradition together in the right order and position) and the Magisterium or teaching authority of the Church (which is the trowel in the hand of the Master Builder). Taken together, these three things are formally sufficient for knowing the revealed truth of God."

1. We believe that the Catholic Church is the first church because Jesus started only one Church, and promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it, and there is a historic record of that Church's existence and leadership from the day Jesus started it with Peter at the helm until today.

2. Catholics do NOT "reject all the traditions which Jesus kept." For example, the Scripture that Jesus used was the Septuagint, which is our Old Testament. The "reformers" of the Protestant movement thought they knew better than Jesus and used a canon of Scripture developed by the Jews in about 91 A.D. because they were sick of Christians using the Septuagint to prove the Jesus is the Messiah. (Historic fact - look it up!) Think this over carefully - would you rather have the OT the same books that Jesus used or would you rather have an OT of fewer books as determined by anti-Christian Jews?

3. The traditions that Jesus gave the Church reflect the fulfillment of the Law that Jesus brought to us and the establishment of the New Covenant - like baptism, confirmation, confession and the Holy Eucharist. These traditions all came straight from Jesus, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with them.

Wow -= just as wrong as the Catholics.

Catholics have the Bible, but, also "Sacred Tradition," which are things handed down from the Church Fathers. They are not alone - the Orthodox, and Anglicans have this as well, and others. So, they DO keep traditions that Jesus did.

However, the "Catholic" church was born in the Great Schism in 1054, when the Christian church split into Catholic, and Orthodox parts. Both have their roots in the early church. (So do Anglicans for that matter - they being simply the continuation of the Church in England.)

So, Catholics DO follow Jesus, but, they are NOT the one and only original Church.

Tradition doesn't refer to the Jewish traditions Jesus kept. It refers to those teachings of Jesus which were not written down, but were consistently taught since apostolic times. In any case, we know the Catholic Church is the original Christian Church because of a little thing called HISTORY. There is no historical record of any other Christian Church during the first 1000+ years of Christianity, and the Catholic Church, by that name, has a clear historical record in every century since the first few years of the 2nd Century. The earliest historical record of the Catholic Church by that name is found in the writings of Ignatius, first Catholic bishop of Antioch, in the year 108. Ignatius was catechized and ordained by the apostle John.

Because after about 300 or 350 AD the catholic church dominated the other christian sects.

The first "church"? Believers are the "church"; NOT a building or denomination, and they were first called Christians in Antioch.

Acts 11:26. and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church, and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Your church is based on the teachings of Paul, not Jesus, so you're in no position to throw stones.

The Roman Catholic Church has to say it was the first church or else it will lose all authority.

That is why they maintain that claim in the face of all that is to the contrary, Scripture, History, reason, jurisprudence.

The people who don't have blind eyes can see clearly how the Catholic Church has been deceiving the people from its birth and to this very day. But sadly, the blind, or those who wish to remain blind will be led to the very portals of hell by this deceptive organisation.

First church of what? Read the following and see why they are the worst one of them all.

http://salem-news.com/articles/may042012/catholic-...