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Protestantism and catholicism

danieldemol

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
From google;
“Catholicism is the traditions and beliefs of Catholic Churches. It refers to their theology, liturgy, ethics and spirituality. The term usually refers to churches, both western and eastern, that are in full communion with the holy See. The Catholic Church is the main and earliest form of Christianity.“

Protestantism
“the faith, practice, and Church order of the Protestant Churches.
    • adherence to the forms of Christian doctrine which are generally regarded as Protestant rather than Catholic or Eastern Orthodox.”
 

Shiranui117

Pronounced Shee-ra-noo-ee
Premium Member
what are they
What Protestantism and Catholicism both have in common:
-Believe in the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Christ.
-Derived from medieval Latin Christianity.
-Believe in the Bible as the inspired Word of God.
-Worship as a community in a church on Sunday (a couple smaller Protestant groups like the Seventh-Day Adventists are an exception).
-Believe in Jesus Christ as God, Lord and Savior (a couple smaller Protestant groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses and Unitarians are an exception).
-Believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead to give us new life.
-Have baptism and Holy Communion.
-Believe that God is Trinity: Three Persons in one God (a couple smaller Protestant groups believe otherwise).
-Believe that God saves us.
-Reject idolatry.
-Celebrate important holidays like Christmas, Easter and Pentecost (the Jehovah's Witnesses are an exception).
-Established ranks of clergy, either in a threefold form of deacons+priests+bishops (like with Catholics and older forms of Protestantism), or in the form of having pastors/ministers belonging to individual congregations who may or may not be organized into larger regional church groups which have a bishop or president as their head.

What is unique to Catholics:
-Along with the Bible, Catholics believe in the authority of Holy Tradition, or the teachings of the Apostles taught to their students that didn't get written down in the New Testament. Holy Tradition is both commentary on how to understand the Bible, and also how a Christian should live.
-A Catholic is defined as someone who believes in all the teachings of the Catholic Church and who submits to the authority of the Roman Pope.
-There's not just the Roman Catholic Church, but there are also about 22 other Eastern Catholic Churches with unique traditions and history that developed alongside and separate from Western Roman Christianity.
-Believe that the Pope is infallible (i.e. cannot be wrong) when acting in his official capacity as a teacher of faith and morals.
-Believe that the Pope is the supreme head of the Church. Nothing has more authority than the Pope, not even a council held by the entire rest of the Church.
-Believe in Purgatory (a place where you go after you die to be purged of the stain of sin before you can enter Heaven).
-Giving respect (not worship) to Mary and the Saints.
-Asking for the prayers of Mary and the Saints.
-Seven sacraments/important rituals are counted which specially bestow God's blessing for a specific purpose: Baptism, Confirmation/Chrismation, Holy Communion, marriage, ordination, Anointing of the Sick, and Confession.
-We are saved by our faith in God, and this faith consists of both believing and doing good works.
-The Catholic Church as an institution goes back to the very beginning of Christianity, along with the Orthodox Churches (who are not Catholic, but are kind of similar in a lot of ways to the Catholics).
-Catholics have monastic life--monks, nuns, etc.

What is unique to Protestants:
-Belief in the authority of the Bible alone (or the Bible primarily). Holy Tradition is either irrelevant, secondary to the Bible, only useful insofar as it conforms to the Bible, or flat-out wrong, depending on your Protestant tradition.
-Do not believe that any one person is infallible, but that the Holy Spirit can guide anyone to understanding the Bible correctly.
-Belief that we are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone. Good works are not a part of faith, but merely the results of it.
-While many of the older Protestant groups still believe in Mary and the Saints, Protestants as a whole don't ask for the prayers of Mary or the Saints.
-No Pope. The Pope is seen as having overstepped his bounds and acquired a kind of power in the Catholic Church that Jesus would have never approved of.
-Some Protestants (the Calvinists) believe in predestination, i.e. that God has foreordained some people to go to Heaven, and some people to go to Hell, and we cannot change that fate. Other Protestants don't believe this, and neither do the Catholics.
-Some Protestants will ordain women as clergy, and have women pastors, women priests, women bishops, etc.
-Some Protestants will ordain openly LGBT people as clergy.
-Protestant groups were all founded around or after 1517 AD.
-Many Protestants don't have any super-formal and detailed worship service like the Catholic Mass, but have more spontaneous worship without a lot of prescribed prayers, gestures and words to be said at certain points in the service.
 

Shiranui117

Pronounced Shee-ra-noo-ee
Premium Member
Protestantism was Henry V!!!'s method of getting multiple divorces and not upsetting god.
And Luther wanting to talk about some things but then getting thrown out of the Church because of personal and political shenanigans.
 

Jumi

Well-Known Member
Protestantism early movement also came to be about delivering the Bible to the masses in their own language. There were many streams, some formed rivers of blood.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
what are they

Protest-ants are all denominations (Lutheran, Episcopalian to Baptist and indirectly the JW) who protested and broke off from the Catholic Church. The key divider being the nature of the Pope and Roman influence in Jewish teachings which many protestant churches believe have tainted the real teachings of christ. Many protestants (Lutheran, Episcopalian, for example) do recognize the Eastern Catholic Church as the original Church. They don't recognize Roman Catholic as part of the original church and the decisions made by the popes along christian history even when it comes to the actual bible.
 
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metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
What Protestantism and Catholicism both have in common:
-Believe in the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Christ.
-Derived from medieval Latin Christianity.
-Believe in the Bible as the inspired Word of God.
-Worship as a community in a church on Sunday (a couple smaller Protestant groups like the Seventh-Day Adventists are an exception).
-Believe in Jesus Christ as God, Lord and Savior (a couple smaller Protestant groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses and Unitarians are an exception).
-Believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead to give us new life.
-Have baptism and Holy Communion.
-Believe that God is Trinity: Three Persons in one God (a couple smaller Protestant groups believe otherwise).
-Believe that God saves us.
-Reject idolatry.
-Celebrate important holidays like Christmas, Easter and Pentecost (the Jehovah's Witnesses are an exception).
-Established ranks of clergy, either in a threefold form of deacons+priests+bishops (like with Catholics and older forms of Protestantism), or in the form of having pastors/ministers belonging to individual congregations who may or may not be organized into larger regional church groups which have a bishop or president as their head.

What is unique to Catholics:
-Along with the Bible, Catholics believe in the authority of Holy Tradition, or the teachings of the Apostles taught to their students that didn't get written down in the New Testament. Holy Tradition is both commentary on how to understand the Bible, and also how a Christian should live.
-A Catholic is defined as someone who believes in all the teachings of the Catholic Church and who submits to the authority of the Roman Pope.
-There's not just the Roman Catholic Church, but there are also about 22 other Eastern Catholic Churches with unique traditions and history that developed alongside and separate from Western Roman Christianity.
-Believe that the Pope is infallible (i.e. cannot be wrong) when acting in his official capacity as a teacher of faith and morals.
-Believe that the Pope is the supreme head of the Church. Nothing has more authority than the Pope, not even a council held by the entire rest of the Church.
-Believe in Purgatory (a place where you go after you die to be purged of the stain of sin before you can enter Heaven).
-Giving respect (not worship) to Mary and the Saints.
-Asking for the prayers of Mary and the Saints.
-Seven sacraments/important rituals are counted which specially bestow God's blessing for a specific purpose: Baptism, Confirmation/Chrismation, Holy Communion, marriage, ordination, Anointing of the Sick, and Confession.
-We are saved by our faith in God, and this faith consists of both believing and doing good works.
-The Catholic Church as an institution goes back to the very beginning of Christianity, along with the Orthodox Churches (who are not Catholic, but are kind of similar in a lot of ways to the Catholics).
-Catholics have monastic life--monks, nuns, etc.

What is unique to Protestants:
-Belief in the authority of the Bible alone (or the Bible primarily). Holy Tradition is either irrelevant, secondary to the Bible, only useful insofar as it conforms to the Bible, or flat-out wrong, depending on your Protestant tradition.
-Do not believe that any one person is infallible, but that the Holy Spirit can guide anyone to understanding the Bible correctly.
-Belief that we are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone. Good works are not a part of faith, but merely the results of it.
-While many of the older Protestant groups still believe in Mary and the Saints, Protestants as a whole don't ask for the prayers of Mary or the Saints.
-No Pope. The Pope is seen as having overstepped his bounds and acquired a kind of power in the Catholic Church that Jesus would have never approved of.
-Some Protestants (the Calvinists) believe in predestination, i.e. that God has foreordained some people to go to Heaven, and some people to go to Hell, and we cannot change that fate. Other Protestants don't believe this, and neither do the Catholics.
-Some Protestants will ordain women as clergy, and have women pastors, women priests, women bishops, etc.
-Some Protestants will ordain openly LGBT people as clergy.
-Protestant groups were all founded around or after 1517 AD.
-Many Protestants don't have any super-formal and detailed worship service like the Catholic Mass, but have more spontaneous worship without a lot of prescribed prayers, gestures and words to be said at certain points in the service.
VERY much to the point and correct-- congrats.

BTW, I grew up in a Protestant church, converted to Catholicism when I turned 30, and then left Christianity in my 50's as I converted to Judaism. Currently, I am unaffiliated because of logistical problems but I weekly attend mass with my wife. I also taught theology for many years, including a comparative religions course. I say this as one who can very much appreciate the general accuracy of what you posted above-- good job!
 
what are they

In a nutshell?

Protestantism - various heretical sects each with opposing heretical views on God, the Bible, Salvation.
Catholicism - The true faith of Jesus Christ, the practice of said faith, and the only Church established by Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
In a nutshell?

Protestantism - various heretical sects each with opposing heretical views on God, the Bible, Salvation.
Catholicism - The true faith of Jesus Christ, the practice of said faith, and the only Church established by Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind.
The Church teaches neither of these things, which one can read for themselves if they use the "Catechism of the Catholic Church": Catechism of the Catholic Church
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
The Catholic Church has always taught these things if you read the dogmas of the Church.
The Church uses the terminology "heretical teachings", not "heretical sects", largely because there are many items whereas they're in agreement. Prior to Vatican II, there's no doubt that the Church was less cordial with its wording and also quite resistant to ecumenism, and now PF often refers to them as "brothers & sisters in Christ" and the Church is very active in ecumenism.

Therefore, my problem with what you painted is that you used too wide a brush.
 

Glaurung

Denizen of Niflheim
The Church uses the terminology "heretical teachings", not "heretical sects", largely because there are many items whereas they're in agreement. Prior to Vatican II, there's no doubt that the Church was less cordial with its wording and also quite resistant to ecumenism, and now PF often refers to them as "brothers & sisters in Christ" and the Church is very active in ecumenism.
With all due respect, this is a distinction without a difference.

Whilst it is true that those who have never assented to the Catholic faith cannot be formal heretics, it doesn't change the reality that many key Protestant doctrines are materially heretical. (Which you acknowledge). Word games aside, a sect that teaches heretical things is by that fact a heretical sect. Of course, I agree that since most Protestants have never been in communion with the Church, bludgeoning them with cries of heresy is a pointless, self-righteous exercise.

That said, I don't think there's any obligation to facilitate our wayward 'brothers and sisters'. Once the Church presents the faith the onus is on those to whom it is presented to either accept or reject it. The Church is the ark of salvation and leaning on its edge in no way helps the drowning. Essentially, I don't see what is gained by endless 'dialogue' with those resolutely outside of the faith.
 
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