Why do people keep saying that Catholics are not Christians?

Question

I have read many peoples statements that Catholics are not Christians. I am willing to bet that none of these people have any real understanding of what we Catholics do believe. What do they think we do eat little children? We do not worship Saints or statues. We do pray to God the Father, Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Why do you think we are not Christians?I don't think all Protestants are like the tele evangelists or run around with protitutes just become some have been caught doing so. What if anything do you really know about the Catholic Faith?

Didn't Paul write in Corinthians 1:10 Concerning Believers
"Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,by the name of our lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose."

For edification let me say we do not bow to statues when we bow or genuflect upon entering the church it is Christ truly present in the Eucharist we are bowing to. Not the crucifix or the statues. Jesus said "This is my body which will be given up for you." not "this stands for my body...." We believe that the Eucharist is truly Jesus Christ body and blood.

As for what I know of my faith, I have studied much and intend to keep studying. Learning is an ongoing process. I was not born a Catholic I studied and chose to be a Catholic. I was raised a Fundamentalist so I know more about the Protestant faith than you think.

Yes we use a somewhat different Bible but yours is the one that was changed. It came from ours.

As for our reverence of Mary it says in the Bible itself that this reverence started with Elizabeth mother of John the Baptist, "Blessed are you among women ,and blessed is the fruit of your womb..." then Mary replied,"My sould magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, fron now on all generations will call me blessed....." This is where we get the prayers "Hail Mary" and "The Magnificant"
You decide does not Mary deserve honor for being the virtuous women that she was and saying yes to God?

As for asking Mary to pray for us, Who prays harder for you than your mother? I pray for my sons more than anyone else I know does. Jesus said ,"Son behold thy Mother, Woman behold thy son." this is why we believe Mary is in essence our spiritual mother.

For those of you who think the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon check this out: http://www.catholic.com/library/Hunting_the_Whore_of_Babylon.asp

fact that the Catholic Church is singled out by Fundamentalists as the Whore reveals that they intuit the fact it has an important role in God’s plan. No other church gets accused of being the Whore—only the Catholic Church. And it is understandable why: The Catholic Church is the largest Christian body, larger than all other Christian bodies put together, suggesting a prominent place in God’s plan. Fundamentalists assume, without objectively looking at the evidence, that the Catholic Church cannot be the Bride of Christ, so it must be the Whore of Babylon.

Yet the evidence for its true role is plain. The First Vatican Council taught that "the Church itself . . . because of its marvelous propagation, its exceptional holiness, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in all good works; because of its Catholic unity and invincible stability, is a very great and perpetual motive of credibility and an incontestable witness of its own divine mission" (On the Catholic Faith 3).

So why is the Bride maligned as the Whore? Jesus himself answered the question: "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household" (Matt. 10:25). "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world . . . the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you" (John 15:18–20).

Answer 1

Unfortunately, many non-Catholics get their "knowledge" about us from other non-Catholics.

Particulary within the evangelical Christian and fundamentalist Christian communities, gross misconceptions about us and about our faith are passed down from generation to generation -- to the point where they just take these misinformed ideas about us as a given, without bothering to check with a knowledgable Catholic to see if it's true or not.

Unfortunately, their misconceptions are often further reinforced by the fact that many of us Catholics do not know our own faith all that well. How many of us can really explain the uniquely Catholic beliefs, such as purgatory or papal infallibility or the sacraments or all the others? Probably not many, unfortunately.

Many of us Catholics are so poorly catechized that many Catholics, often unwittingly, fall for accusations that we worship statues or believe that works gain us salvation -- especially when these accusations come from fundamentalist or evangelical Christians who bury us under an avalanche of Bible verses.

We Catholics simply need to do a better job of catechizing ourselves and our fellow Catholics. Only then will we see that the teachings of our faith represent true and Biblical Christianity -- despite what the evangelicals and "fundies" say about us.

Answer 2

Dear Debra,

I do not mean to sound critical but if God only wrote ONE Bible (His word), why are there so many different denominations. It would be logical to believe that if all these different churches (denominations) were studying the same Bible that over time they would all come to the same conclusion regarding doctrine. That is they would come to aggreement on what salvation is, what is baptism, and how can sins be forgiven, etc. At best One of these denominations is correct or maybe all of them are wrong!! May I ask you what Revelation 18:4 means? It states Come out of her my people and be not partaker of her sins ... The Lord cannot be talking about the world because Christ said "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature...." In Rev 18:4, the Lord also gives that noun a feminine gender, like the bride of Christ or the harlot of Poverbs 7. We also see in Matthew 24:15, 16 some interesting language. When ye see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place....flee to the mountains. The only holy place we know of is the church. And in Psalm 120 it say I will lokk to the hills from whence cometh my help, my help cometh from the Lord..... You see, Debra the churches, ALL the churches have corrupted the teachings of God. They have set up their own gods and are leading many to damnation. God is telling us that time that we are to come out of the church, regardless of denomination. Type this into your web browser for more info : www.familyradio.com. I hope this helps.

Answer 3

I can tell you from experience that Catholics and Christians are not the same. We don't do the same things. The preaching is different, you use a different bible, and pray to different people. For instance: a Christian will pray only to Jesus because the bible says in Exodus 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." The carved image would include crosses, rosaries, a carved statue of Jesus, Mary, Peter or anyone else.

We also believe in repentance and salvation at the age of accountability. And baptism with FULL BODY emersion at the age of accountability. We preach on sin because sin separates you from God.

When I was a Catholic I was never changed, it seemed to just be religious exorcise, but when I got my heart right with Jesus and became Born Again, then there was a change in my life.

Answer 4

Actually, in the very broad general scope of things, a lot of people do consider Catholics to be Christians.

Here's what I believe: just because you have a name slapped on you (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, etc) doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you are a true Christian. If you believe in Christ and only in Christ (not works, baptism, or anything like that) for your salvation (check out the book of Romans, for starters) than you are, in God's eyes, a Christian. I personally go to an independent Baptist church but I can vouch that I've met saved Catholics and lost Baptists.

Just one other question--can you explain to me how Catholics don't worship Mary? I know you say you ask her to pray for you just like you'd ask another person living on earth to pray for you. I get that. But calling her holy (like the Rosary prayer), having statues all over the place...how is this not worship? And didn't Alfonsus de Liguori say in his book "The Glories of Mary," that you should pray to Mary as a mediator? I'm just really confused here.

Answer 5

I know what you mean. I get it every day from my own family (being the only Catholic in the family makes me an easy target). My sister talks to her pastor about the Catholic Church and takes his word over mine.

I like your analagy about all Protestants running around with prostitutes based on the very few that have (or at least been caught at it). I guess we could also say that all Protestants are like Benny Hinn?

Archbishop Fulton Sheen said something like we can find thousands of people that are against the Catholic Church, but only a few that know what the Church is really about.

I pray for the day when all of our Protestant Brothers and Sisters would realize that we are all on the same side and that our similarities far out-weigh our differences in matters of faith.

Peace be with you

Answer 6

I am a Baptist Minister and have friends that attend Catholic services. Are there differences in worship? Yes. Are there differences in beliefs? Some. Trinity? YEP we agree! Christ crucified for our sins? We Agree!!!

I do not profess to know all the variations between the Catholic and Baptist denominations, there are some.....however Baptists cant even agree on alot of smaller issues!

What I focus on is wether or not we believe that we are all sinners, that Christ was crucified for our sins, conquered death, was resurrected, and now sits at the right hand of God. He is my Lord and Savior. Believe that and the other smaller stuff just fades into the background :-)

Answer 7

I hear that all the time and it confuses me. Maybe people who say that are confused about Christians versus Protestant Christians.

I know alot about the Catholic faith because I am Lutheran. We have an ongoing dialogue with the Catholic church to try and resolve our differences. Last year our two churches narrowed down our differences to a few select disagreements, and none of them have to do with the Trinity or the divineness of Christ.

We as Protestants should not try to exclude Catholics from the Christian church in any way.

Answer 8

I truly believe that there are a lot of problems with the doctrine of the Catholic church as a whole and wouldn’t call the the Catholic Church a Christian Church, however, far be it for me to say that there are not “true” Christians within that church. God is the only one that can judge the heart.

My question to you would be, do you call yourself a Catholic because of tradition and because you have gone there all your life? Do you want to truly know what it is wrong with that church or are you so set on continuing in “traditions” that are wicked that you refuse to listen to the word of God? I’m not trying to be mean or anything, but “tradition” is not good when it compromises the word.

Matt 15:9-9 And so, by your own tradition, you nullify the direct commandment of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah was prophesying about you when he said, 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce, for they replace God's commands with their own man-made teachings.'

Mark 7:8-9
For you ignore God's specific laws and substitute your own traditions. "Then he said, "You reject God's laws in order to hold on to your own traditions.

Answer 9

First, I am not Catholic. If one looks at the history of Christianity, he or she will find that the old Catholic church was the genesis of the Christan faith--throughout the centuries, some of the Catholic dogma has changed and other groups have left and formed other denominations but a study of biblical history will show that the Catholic faith was the faith of the first century following the death of Christ.

Answer 10

Wow, I would have to ask you the very same question.

What do you really know about your own faith?

If you bow before a statue of anything, inside your church or not, and pray for it(the person) to pray for you. You are doing the very thing, you are taught not to do.
The greeks prayed to statues of people and things, and even a statue they called the unknown GOD. They bowed before these statues and prayed to the one the statue represented to intercede for them on worldly matters.

You are doing no different.

I really do not want to hurt your feeling here. I married a great Catholic guy. My intent was never to change him, he was and is a great person. I felt no need to change anything about him. I however was brought up in a biblical doctrine church and our only source of knowledge came directly from the bible, no handouts or phamplets, we were to study directly from the bible.

As my husband started reading the bible, his own Catholic bible, he started seeing vast differences from what he was taught inside the church and what was actually written.

Years went by, I would answer his questions, but he didnt seem to want to believe my explanations (at least that is how I felt at the time). Finally one day, when we were getting ready to go to church, my husband came out of the bedroom dressed and went with us. NO words were spoken, I was in shock actually.

He started going most everyweek, and somehow, at some point he started his honest walk with GOD. NO great big dance or anything like that. Just him and GOD and open eyes.

No name on the outside of the Church to confuse the issue, just know that it is and remains a solid bible doctrine church.