My child asked for the differnce between Chistian and Catholic. Please help me xplain?

Answer 1

The prime difference between Christians and Catholics are the ways of communicating to God and their belief systems. Although this can be a touchy subject because some people may not agree with what I am about to say.

Christians are people that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior that He died on the cross for their sins. Christians also acknowledge that Jesus is the son of God and God created everyone and everything on this planet. When a Christian prays or talks to God. Their prayers go right to Heaven thru Jesus to go to God.

Catholics however believe in Jesus and God, but their emphasis is on the Holy Mother Mary which is the earthly mother of Jesus. Plus they believe that they must talk to a priest to atone for their sins and give God's blessings.

Not every catholic believes in this however. Many catholics have left their religion to join Christianity.

Religion can be a most confusing topic to many believers and non believers. I hope I was some what helpful to you.

What about you? Do you believe in Jesus and God or do you believe in something else?

Answer 2

The word catholic means universal. The original Church that started on Pentecost in the Upper Room was the Catholic Church, but what happened is that they began to "organize" their religion in 325 A.D. at the Nicene Council and mixed the Roman and Greek "gods" with Christianity. For instance, the natural Sun's Birthday
which was celebrated from December 21 to the 25th which was a pagan holiday, was mixed up with what
they called the "Son's Birthday meaning Jesus Christ's birthday because they didn't want to give up some of their pagan holidays and "idols" so they mixed them up with Christianity.

But Jesus was never born in December. He was a type of the Lamb which are born in the Springtime.

The Catholic Church chooses a man they call a Pope which has a crown on his head that has some words that translate into" In stead of God" or "in place of God"
They regard their pope as their Absolute Authority where as the "Christian" faith regards the Holy Scriptures as the Absolute. The Cartholic Church has many dogmas and creeds that are totally not found in the Holy Scriptures, for instance, that Mary was without sin.
The Bible says that all mankind was born in sin and shaped in iniquity. It's our human nature to sin.
Mary was just a borrowed womb; an incubator for the
birth of Jesus. Jesus called her "woman"

Many people criticize the Catholic Church because they have made so many "rules" such as priests not being able to marry which is not Scriptural, but remember, that Catholic Church had "daughters" who also have their own little "isms" and "rules" that suit their own religious taste. Pot can't call kettle black.

One thing I admire about the Catholic Church is that it has never relaxed its stance on abortion and sodomites over the pulpit while many so-called
"Christian" denominations now allow it.

There are good people in all denominations and only God knows how much understanding each person has regarding His Word. But God is just and will judge everyone justly according to their knowledge and works
regarding His Word.


Catholics believe that the Pope is the Rock that the Church is built upon and some Christians believe that the Jesus was that Rock and then there are a few that believe that the Rock is the Rock of Revelation, of who God is.
And that God builds His True Church on the revelation of knowing Him .

Answer 3

Catholics have different beliefs than protestants. They have an additional set of books, other than the bible, that they rely on. That is where alot of their religious practices come from. They believe in a thing called purgatory, which is not biblical. They revere Mary as mother of God, which is not so (she was the earthly mother of Jesus; God always was and always will be). They pray to saints (and to Mary), which is not biblical. The Catholic church insists you have to be a member of the Catholic church or you aren't really saved.....which of course is not biblical.

They have a pope which they believe is Christ's emissary on earth (no one has a closer relationship to God than anyone else, we all come to the Father through the son). They have people pray repetitive prayers after confession of sin....as some sort of penance (which isn't biblical). They baptise babies for salvation (also not biblical).

These are a few differences!

Answer 4

Almost all important doctrine is completely agreed upon between Catholic Christians and most other Christians.

There are some minor doctrine issues and some major cultural traditional differences which, I believe, do not matter that much.

A Catholic worships and follows Christ in the tradition of Catholicism which, among other things, recognizes that Christ made Peter the leader of His new Church and Pope Benedict XVI is Peter's direct successor.

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

There are Christians in every church, that is, those that live up to all they know to be true. There are Christians in the Catholic church also but some that know some things are not right but take the Churches teaching over the bible or just do not care and want to do things their way rather than God's way. About the same in other churches too.

Answer 6

There are many churches. Catholic is a take off of Christianity. Like say baseball, everyone gets put on different teams but they are all called baseball players. Some are on the Mets, some are on the Angels, some are on the Devils.

Answer 7

There is no difference. The Catholic Church is the original Christian church and its largest denomination. All other christian churches split from the Roman Catholic church during the reformation led by Martin Luther (probably a bit much for your child). Just let them know it's a division of Christianity.

Hope this helps!

Answer 8

Christians follow the Bible and believe Jesus is Lord Son of the Living God, Our advocate, The lamb of God, and pray, as instructed by Jesus, to The Father, who loves us. Catholics Believe that some old man in Rome, Italy is god on earth, don't know the bible to follow its teachings, have a bunch of homosexual pedophiles for pastors, pray to mary, mother of thier god, and to a wooden statue. They are into idolatry , which is a violation of God's first commandment...oh, you were asking for a childs sake.... Christians: mostly ok. Catholics: mostly dangerous pegan strngers.. But all must be approached with caution, cause every where you go; evil is following closely..

Answer 9

Christianity is the religion. About 1000 yrs ago it broke into Catholicism and Orthodoxy because the leaders of the church weren't getting along. Then other forms of Christians appeared. The Protestants for example. Therefore catholics, orthodoxes, protestants, etc. are all Christians.

Answer 10

Sure. No difference. The difference is between Catholics and Protestants.

But, then... there's a difference between just about every Christian church and every other Christian church, even within the same denomination... and there's also differences between denominations... Baptists vs Penecostals, Methodists vs. Lutherans, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses vs just about everyone else... You get the idea.

So, perhaps the explanation is that there is no such thing as consistency among different Christian groups.

Answer 11

Not knowing the Catholic rites and ceremonies, this one is a little tough to answer, but I will try my best to give you a good honest answer. The Catholics, as I gather, pray through the Saints, and Mary, mother of Jesus. We Christians pray directly to God through Jesus the son, except for the Jehovah's Witness which is not a true religion, but a cult as is Mormonism.