Catholics Vs. Protestants (I don't get it)

[Not of the World]

20 hours ago, NCAP said:

There is no such thing as a true believer. And there is no such thing as a false believer. The writers of the bible use the word believer, with no adjectives attached.

How about Christian and "faithful" Christian?

[Not of the World]

11 hours ago, Omegaman 3.0 said:

They add works to the salvation formula,

Does their catechism say that?  Or the Pope?

[Not of the World]

3 hours ago, Starise said:

I don't see any good in the catholic church as of now.

The organization or do you also mean all Catholics?

[Not of the World]

11 hours ago, Omegaman 3.0 said:

Those would be my thoughts.

Appreciated and God bless you!

[Not of the World]

11 hours ago, Omegaman 3.0 said:

I think some Catholics are saved, some are not. I think some protestants are saved, some are not.

I think that's most likely.

[Not of the World]

11 hours ago, Omegaman 3.0 said:

I see that Roman Catholics, accept that Jesus is God, God is triune, Jesus is creator, He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died vicariously for believers, was buried and rose again in the resurrection, ascended to Heaven, and will return again. Those are strong points. I think some Catholics are saved, some are not. I think some protestants are saved, some are not.

Seems to me though, that salvation is by grace, through faith, and not of works. The RCC does not seem to accept that. They add works to the salvation formula, and believe in baptizing infants (instead of baptizing disciples as Jesus instructed) thinking that if a baby dies on the way to church to get baptized, it will not be saved, but a sprinkling of water and an incantation from a priest, fixes that. The have too high a regard for Mary, claiming that she was sinless (in spite of her own confession that she had a savior), they believe that she is forever virgin, in spite of the fact that Joseph "knew" her. They call her mother of God, queen of heaven etc, without Biblical support. They call her co-redemptrix, how do the figure that? There is one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. There is no need of priests, we have a high priest now, whose name is Jesus. The call priests father, Jesus said call no man father. They seem to worship saints (in the Bible all believers are saints) and pray to dead people! They invented purgatory (not in the Bible). The have a pope, while in the Bible there is no central human leader of the church. They (some of them) think they are the only true church. In a way they are right, there is one catholic (not Roman Catholic) church, that is all believers across time and across the world in any denomination, or even in no denomination.

So, while they have a lot of the important basics down, there are some fairly important differences also. 

Those would be my thoughts.

I think that your entire post is very well stated.  As to how they sit with Jesus, I guess only he knows.  Edit to add that if they (or anyone else) faithfully believe in and follow the Great Commandment, then I believe that they are saved.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Not of the World

[Not of the World]

4 hours ago, Starise said:

If both Catholics and protestants believe the respective teachings of their churches they are VERY VERY different from one another.

The sliding effect I attribute to the last days falling away has both groups often sliding to places that would have not been considered only a short time ago.

The current pope is taking the Catholic church into places it has never gone before. Dark places. Unbiblical places.

There is a definite line where the similarity ends, and has in recent years, become extreme going in the opposite direction of bible teaching. I don't see any good in the catholic church as of now. Led by a Jesuit pope who's only purpose is to eliminate anyone or anything that opposes their mandates. Instead of killing off those who disagree and taking their property, the new more subtle strategy has been to loosen the requirements for those who want to be good people and go to a church and be accepted. It's the same strategy used by fake televangelists. Tell people what they like, tell people what they want to hear, make people feel good about themselves instead of looking at their sin.

This idea has been in the catholic church since day one. They assimilated pagan holidays and deities into their teachings. The sun god, the female gods and others. It's all there for anyone who would care to study it. I ask you, if the differences cancel out the similarities to main stream Christianity, and in fact, eliminate or negate them, then do we still have have a Christian teaching founded on Christ? What we have is the Catholic church heading up a movement as the 'universal' church with many so called protestant denominations in tow all willing to compromise to the point that it's no longer Christianity. How does one combine Judaism, Islam and protestant belief with the catholic church and come back with anything but the great whore of Revelation?

The day will come, and is already almost here, when the one world religion will be founded and I think we see this happening now. It will all be very disarming and appealing to the uninitiated. About the best we can say of it is it will be substitute for the true worship of Jesus Christ.

Ask yourself how any thinking Christian can sit under a man who is said to be the voice of God on earth and acts as if he is God  on earth. What believer in his right mind would take such a position? No true believer would even consider such a position and would call it blasphemy against God, yet here we have this man, this Jesuit going around in a bullet proof car letting people kiss his shoes and his ring and claiming to have the power to bless as God blesses. A man who usurps the words of God Almighty, replacing them with something else that is opposite what the word says.

An even greater mystery which I can only attribute to the end times deceptions, is why would so many people follow such a person and hang on their every word? Especially given the history of this organization that calls itself a church?

 

I think you make a lot of good points.  Let me ask you this.  If Catholics faithfully believe in and follow the Great Commandment, do you believe that they will be saved?

[Not of the World]

16 hours ago, Saved.One.by.Grace said:

I am 73 and a former Roman Catholic with 12 years of parochial school teaching as a foundation.  I haven't been a Roman Catholic for about 53 years.  I believe some Catholics are saved when they deviate from the authorized Papal teachings.

Some would have you believe that.  Most born again Christians believe we are saved by grace apart from works while most Roman Catholics believe you are saved by grace with works a requirement.

The Bible is pretty clear on the subject.

 

Thank you for your thoughts.  I don't recall the Church actually teaching that works are required.  Is that in the catechism? 

[Michael37]

4 hours ago, Starise said:

This idea has been in the catholic church since day one. They assimilated pagan holidays and deities into their teachings. The sun god, the female gods and others. It's all there for anyone who would care to study it.

It was a two-way street, with Imperial Rome adopting many of the pagan customs, beliefs and religions of the tribes and countries they conquered so that by the time Constantine had the realisation that ending the persecution of Christians and incorporating Christianity into the existing state program would strengthen the Roman Empire, mixing myth with truth was considered patriotic.

Quote from Constantine I - Legacy | Britannica

 Traditional country magic was tolerated by Constantine. Classical culture and education, which were intimately linked with paganism, continued to enjoy enormous prestige and influence; provincial priesthoods, which were as intimately linked with civic life, long survived the reign of Constantine. Constantinople itself was predominantly a Christian city, its dedication celebrated by Christian services; yet its foundation was also attended by a well-known pagan seer, Sopatros.

[Not of the World]

Is there something wrong in taking a secular holiday and making it into a holiday about Jesus?