Is Catholicism Christianity?

Question

I was just on the phone with a friend of mine and in the background they were having a debate about this topic. One side of the debate was arguing quite passionately that Catholicism is not true Christianity. Try to explain your answer.

Answer 1

The Catholic faith is a denomination of Christianity, whether it is true Christianity is not for me to say. I use to be Catholic and now attend a non-denominational Christian Church, and I am a Christian. Christianity is about being Christ Like, that is how the word Christian comes about. To be Christ like, one must have Jesus as saviour and follow the commandments of Gods words in the Bible. It doesn't mean you will never sin, after all, we are humans, but having salvation, you would naturally be striving to be like Christ. My complaint with the Catholic denomination is the way Mary is adorned, in my eyes, worshiped. Many Catholic's respond that they pray to Mary to pray for them. While it is true that it is a good thing to have people praying for you, God also says that we should not partake in speaking with the dead, fortune telling, witch craft, etc. Mary is not divine, and it is a sin to say otherwise. The same goes for praying to the saints. Besides, Jesus died on a cross for us so that we could once again approach the heavenly father, why would you not take Jesus' sacrafice. He gives us salvation freely and we deny it by praying to others who are not God. Even if you say you are praying to them to pray for you, you are still praying to them.

There are other things as wll that I don't agree with, but that is the most signifigant of my complaints.

As far as if a Catholic is saved, that is individualized. If that person truly has Christ in their life and loves the Lord, they will see the truth when it is their time which is God's time. I am sure there will be people from different denominations that will see the Lord, it is not for us to judge.

Hope that makes sense, good question.

Answer 2

The definition of the word 'Christianity' is believing that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, and the Second Person of the Trinity. There is a common Creed that is subscribed to by all Chrisitans.. the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed.
So Catholics are Christians,,, in fact Catholics are directly descended from the very first Christians , along with the Orthodox and Eastern Rite Churches. They have kept the traditional teachings more faithfully than the Protestants who have dropped a lot of them,,, as in belief that the Communion is the real body of Jesus as he taught in John 6, and at the Last Supper.
It is not true that Catholics worship any beside God himself. They look at the Virgin Mary as a very special human because she is Jesus' mother. They also do not worship saints,, but consider them heroes of the Church in much the same way Lutherans rever Martin Luther, Calvin, Wesley and other heroes of their own denominations.
PS.. another answerer, kendal, has given a list of what he says the Catholic Church teaches,, but those things are not true.. to find out what the catholic church really teaches, look at catholic sources, and not people who twist it and lie. For example,, catholics do not worship statues... if you had a statue of your mother and you kissed it it is not worshipping it. *sighs*

Answer 3

Catholicism is a sort of Christianity. It was once the finished faith, till Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation in 1517, and a team of Protestant church homes sprang up. Catholicism isn't a cult, greater each physique is Catholic than the different faith. It maximum truthfully is Christianity, this isn't any longer some thing people dispute.

Answer 4

Well it does not follow the Bible. Off the top of my head here a few problems i can list (I can list many more but i will get flamed)

1. Changed the 10 commandments (check your catechism to exodus 20)

2. Worship statues (one of the commandments that was changed)

3. Believe mary to be sinless and just as or more holy then Jesus himself.

4. Claim to have talked to dead saints, like mary.

5. Teach Heaven after you die, and hell, and purgatory. This is greek mythology

6. Have ancient babylonian, sunworship, egyption and other pagan symbols around Cathedrals.

7. Live by the sword - Dark ages.

8. Believe the pope is the Vicar of Christ. (only the Holy spirit has this title)

9. Believe priests have power to forgive sin.

10. Greedy for money, power etc. - Dark ages.

11. Changed the Holy Sanctified Sabbath of the Lord from the 7th day of the week to the 1st.

This is just off the top of my head. I don't blame Catholics, there are many devout Catholics who love Jesus more then I do. I blame the system.

If that interested you check out this link (bit off topic)

Answer 5

Catholicism was the original Christian faith. From its beginning, changes were gradually introduced in the scriptures (usually for political reasons.) Eventually, some individuals in positions of authority interpreted the Bible differently, and various religions branched out from Catholicism, e.g., Lutheranism by Martin Luther; the Church of England by Henry the 8th; Methodism by John Wesley, etc. Other branches included various orthodox churches: Greek, Russian, Coptic, Syrian. All of these, and many other protestant faiths are legitimately Christian.

Answer 6

Catholicism was the 1st established Christian religion (I really hate that word). So, from that point of view, they do follow Christ. However, they have adopted things from pagan religions & other sources to form their religious traditions. I read a book called "Revelation: Illustrated & Made Plain" by Tim LaHaye, who is most well-known for the "Left Behind" series. In it he describes how Catholic dogma has instituted practices that are not Biblical. some of these include the infallibility of the Pope, Holy Water, & the celibacy of priests, monks & nuns. Christmas traditions like the exchanging of gifts, the yule log, mistletoe, the fir tree, etc were all adopted from the pagan winter festival called Yule. This is how we celebrate the birth of Christ. We celebrate His death & resurrection with chocolate bunnies & looking for colored eggs. This is from a pagan spring festival. Eggs symbolize fertility & rabbits symbolize... well, y'know. Mr LaHaye said in this book that the word "Easter" is actually a derivitive of the name of a pagan goddess named "Ishtar" (not the movie w/ Warren Beatty & Dustin Hoffman). Please understand that I'm just relating what I read, not trying to pass judgement.That right belongs to God.

Answer 7

christians make up their definition of christianity as they go along. To the born-again christian world, being christian just means that everyone else is going to hell. All the words inbewteen really mean nothing.

It's best to ignore the born-againers and use logic.

Do Catholics folow the teachings of christ? I say to some extent they do. That makes them christian. Are they the Ghey *** ones that damned everything and everyone to hell? No... they're somewhat more level headed than that.

Is a born-again Christian even christian? If by having the power to damn any and everything to hell... then I guess they would consider themselves Christian... I on the other hand... would NOT.

Answer 8

lets look at the word shall we Christianity the base word is Christ and now correct me if i am wrong catholics believe in Jesus Christ and have been around since the roman empire I wont say they are the true christians cause i don't think such a thing exists. Each belief has its own value and worth to that group of people what is true for one isn't so for another. However the answer to you question is indeed yes

Answer 9

Catholicism has the covering or veneer of Christianity but does not teach what Christ taught. "I am the way.... no one comes to the Father but BY ME". Not by being born into a Catholic family, or going to church, or being Baptized a Catholic. etc. etc. This is not to say there are no Christians in Catholic or any other Churchs. But they would have to have come God's Way. God has set a way to get to Himself, only one way, Christ. There are many roads we can take to come to knowing Christ, but then he is the only way to The Father who is God.

Answer 10

To the extent that Catholics worship Jesus and believe in the major docttrines of the Bible, yes, one might say that Catholics are considered Christians.

But they have also added many extra-Biblical doctrines and dogma to their faith. That's why many others would deny that Catholics are true Christians.

The Bible teaches salvation by grace through faith.
Catholics teach a salvation by grace and good works. Then they go a step further and condemn all non-Catholics.
(The "anathema's" of Vatican II)

Investigate for yourself.