What is the difference? (beliefs, churches, dogma, Holy Spirit, worship)

[telon2222]

Could someone please explain to me what the major differences are between roman catholic and christianity? I know one is the way that mass is celebrated. Thank you for your help.

[SK2005]

awwwwww. Okay,
Think of it as an outline for a chapter.

Christianity
*Catholisism
-Orthodox
-Roman Catholic
*Protestantism
-Lutheran
-Baptist
-Methodist
-and a whole bunch others

Christianity is the chapter, Catholisism and Protestantism are the sections and the denominations are things inside the section.

Catholisism is simply a denomination of Christianity.

[SK2005]

Welcome by the way!!! Enjoy yourself here!

[SpiritElf]

SK2005, good answer, simple and to the point!

[capthowdy]

I've always heard differently, I mean the dogma of catholicism and the other denominations mentioned above do differ quite a bit....for example: I've been to many churches including baptist, presbyterian..(not sure if I spelled that one right), pentacostal, methodist and a number of non denominational churches. While there I witnessed many differences between them and catholics....such as saint worship, belief in purgatory, comunion, confession and the holy trinity... just to name a few. However in the end I'm no expert, it's just what I've seen myself.

[SK2005]

Originally Posted by SpiritElf

SK2005, good answer, simple and to the point!

Thank you. I found it works in a way that other people can understand.

[Mango32281]

Originally Posted by capthowdy

I've always heard differently, I mean the dogma of catholicism and the other denominations mentioned above do differ quite a bit....for example: I've been to many churches including baptist, presbyterian..(not sure if I spelled that one right), pentacostal, methodist and a number of non denominational churches. While there I witnessed many differences between them and catholics....such as saint worship, belief in purgatory, comunion, confession and the holy trinity... just to name a few. However in the end I'm no expert, it's just what I've seen myself.

Catholics do not worship saints. They ask them to interceed on their behalf, but do not worship them, they worship only God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
Many of the Catholic church beliefs you mentioned are things other denominations believe in but do not practice as rigidly as the Catholic church. Purgatory being the one major difference. Catholics are still Christian though. They believe Christ died on the cross and rose again on the third day to defeat death and Satan.

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by Mango32281

Catholics do not worship saints. They ask them to interceed on their behalf, but do not worship them, they worship only God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
Many of the Catholic church beliefs you mentioned are things other denominations believe in but do not practice as rigidly as the Catholic church. Purgatory being the one major difference. Catholics are still Christian though. They believe Christ died on the cross and rose again on the third day to defeat death and Satan.

Quite true (and I'm Orthodox, not RC). In actual fact you'll find that the vast majority of Christians believe in most of the same things as the RCs. We Orthodox, the RCs, the Oriental Orthodox all use icons (RCs use statues also), all venerate Mary and the saints, all believe in the real presence in the Eucharist (though neither we nor the OOs dogmatise it as transubstantiation), all follow Holy Tradition as well as Scripture. We also all reject sola scriptura, once saved always saved, salvation by faith alone, the rapture, predestination and various other doctrines that are quite common in Protestant groups.

Of course Roman Catholicism does have some unique features such as Purgatory, the Immaculate Conception, the Pope, super-erogatory merits of saints etc. (all of which we and the OOs reject), and the OOs reject Chalcedon and the subsequent Ecumenical Councils, which is why we are not all one church. We all consider ourselves Catholic, however, so to use the word 'catholicism' to describe the Roman Catholic church alone is frankly not really correct, though I accept it is common parlance.

The only thing I object to from the RC replies on this thread is referring to us as 'denominations'. I don't believe that and I didn't think RCs did either. Don't you, like us, reject branch theory? I am not a member of a Christian 'denomination' but of the Church. You might dispute which is the True Church (I'm sure you would) but calling us all 'denominations' doesn't seem true to Catholic ecclesiology because it implies we're all equally the true Church, just with different names - this certainly would contradict both Orthodox and OO ecclesiology.

James

[jimbob]

Hey yami, get a clue, we don't worship idols.

Back to the telon's question. The main difference is that back in the 1400's or 1500's, (forgive me if i can't remember the right date) luther broke off from the catholic church and started his own religion, that followed many procedures of the Catholic Church. Up till then, the only christian church, was the Catholic church, which had been instituted by Christ. Later, Calvin broke up too. From Luther and Calvin, came all the protestant churches that are now here. They may not be lutheran or calvin, but the majority of protestant churches have evolved from the original protestant churches.

[capthowdy]

Originally Posted by Mango32281

Catholics do not worship saints. They ask them to interceed on their behalf, but do not worship them, they worship only God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
Many of the Catholic church beliefs you mentioned are things other denominations believe in but do not practice as rigidly as the Catholic church. Purgatory being the one major difference. Catholics are still Christian though. They believe Christ died on the cross and rose again on the third day to defeat death and Satan.

I wasn't saying that catholics aren't christian I was however stating the obvious differences to other denominations, for that was the question asked. I may have used the wrong word with saint "worship" what I meant is that they pray to saints, a practice uncommon in other denominations.