How is Catholic a Christian in the first place?

Question

If they don't believe Jesus Died on the Cross for our Sins

No mean nasty reply please, just don't understand how they are Christians

Christian= Christ

How is there Savior

Sorry

Who is there Savior

If you are not born a Catholic, is it true to become one you go to take class and study first

I used to think they was the most given of religions, untill all this child molesting been told on them and from way back in the 70's till now

The pope said

Where is God in all this?

What a question

My mistake "Sorry" I thought when they went to confession for there sins, they didn't believe in Jesus and his forginess

Answer 1

Roman Catholics do believe that Jesus died for their sins, rose three days later, and ever lives with the Father in heaven.
They believe in the Trinity, and many other doctrines of the Christian faith.
But the Vatican goes steps beyond the Bible and adds rules and regulations that are unbiblical and based on man's wisdom.

Answer 2

I am a Catholic and I am a Christian. I love Jesus with all my heart; I believe that He died for my sins - on a cross!; He is my savior and I worship Him, and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. I do not bow down and worship idols, saints, or the Blessed Virgin. One of the other people that responded to your question pointed out the historical roots of the Catholic church, which is correct. The original Christian church that was in existence for over a thousand and a half years (1,500) after the resurrection of Christ was the Roman Catholic Church. This is historical fact. If during that time you wanted to believe in and worship Jesus, there was only one place to go - the Roman Catholic Church.

Protestantism didn't even exit until about the 1500s, some small 500 years ago. I love my protestant brothers and sisters and I pray for them all the time. I do not mean to cause any offense by this; only to point out factual data and disspell misconceptions. Afterall, I wasn't Catholic all my life. I used to be protestant, but coverted to the Catholic Church after taking to the time to learn my faith.

God bless.

Answer 3

I have been both Protestant and Catholic. There is an interesting dynamic occuring on this board. Non-Catholics answer but really have no clue what they are talking about. The one ex-Catholic does not seem to have a good grasp on Catholic teaching.

The question asker on the other hand, has a legitimate question.

First, Catholics believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Until the sixteenth century, all Christians were Catholic or Orthodox. There really isn't a difference between Catholic and Orthodox on any issue of substance. And, hopefully, there will be reunion in the near future.

Most people who do not read history believe the Reformation was a purely religious movement. It wasn't, it was a civil war. As one Lutheran pastor recently said, the ultimate irony was that the Catholic Church implemented 93 1/2 of Luther's 95 thesis. The Catholic Church reformed but the Protestants did not stop protesting.

Now Protestants protest an entity which never existed. I will give you an example, Protestants will say that Catholics either are not allowed to read the bible or do not read the bible.

First, the Catholic Church has always recommended reading the bible, what it opposed were bad translations of the bible like the original KJV which when revised in 1890 removed 20,000 major errors. It wasn't true that Catholics were told not to read the bible, they were told not to read untrustworthy copies of the bible.

As a note, it was not the fault of the original translators of the KJV that they had such a bad translation. They provided an excellent translation of a 12th century incomplete Greek copy of text. As history turned out, it was one of the worst copies of the Greek text available. It was so riddled with copying errors and scribal changes that no one could have created a good bible from it.

The second ignores the fact that every word of the Catholic services is a either a direct quote of scripture or a near paraphrase to make the passage conform to the context in the service. Further, even in parts of the world where the service was not in the local language, the scriptures were always read in the local tongue. The Catholic service reads the entire bible once every three years if you attend every Sunday or two years if you attend daily. Some parts of the Catholic Church have slightly different schedules. The Byzantine reads the entire bible in less than one year, but you have to attend more than once per day.

Protestant beliefs are segments of Catholic beliefs. If you took all of Protestantism, every denomination, you would get a close approximation of Catholicism. The difference between Catholic and Protestant theologies is primarily one of and versus or.

Catholics tend to express beliefs as A and B and C. Protestants tend to express beliefs as A and B but not C because it is logically opposed to A and B. As such, when the Lutheran and Presbyterian Churches looked at union they realized each one was closer to Catholicism than they were to each other.

Both the Lutheran and the Presbyterian belief systems existed within the Catholic Church, but Lutheran's considered Presbyterian beliefs as the logical opposite of Lutheran belief and vice versa.

Catholic theology tends to be inclusionary rather than exclusionary.

Catholics accept beliefs A and B, not A or B. Protestants ended up with fractured subsets of Catholic beliefs.

If you read Mennonite theology then you are reading desacramentalized Franciscan theology. If you read High Anglican theology you are looking at sacramentalized generally Augustinian theology (which tends toward different routes than Francis). If you look at Baptist thought, you often see elements of the desert Fathers and certain aspects of Latin theology.

In the Catholic Church, all these diverse ways of viewing the world exist together. In addition, elements of ancient Christianity are present in the Catholic Church but absent from Protestantism. An example of this are the Thomas Christians.

The Thomas Christians were founded by the Apostle Thomas but were out of touch with the rest of the Church for over 1000 years. When the Portuguese landed in India in the sixteenth century to convert it to Christianity, they found the Mass being sung as the apostle Thomas had left it. That form of Catholicism is absent from Protestantism and simply has no analog.

The Catholic Church (which means the all embracing Church) is not only Christian, but the original Christian Church. It contains all the messages given by the different independent Protestant churches and even more. There are even pentecostal Catholic Churches.

I suggest you go one Sunday to a Catholic service with an open mind, sit in the back, and listen. Listen to the words of scripture, take note of something you object to. Then, when you realize they read the same bible as you do, go ask the priest why things are done that way. You will find a well thought out reason that what you object to is done that way.

Answer 4

To answer this seriously..

Catholics do believe that Jesus died on the cross for our Sins. Perhaps too much so .. And Catholics believe in the holy Trinity etc, etc.

Christian should simply mean a believer in Christ. "Catholics" .. of both Eastern and Roman rites certainly consider themselves believers in Jesus Christ.

Lately "others" have been narrowing or trying to narrow that defination. with quite a bit of success in the main stream culture. Hense this question as an example.

A short statement of faith can be found here .. and this statement of faith is shared by many other Christian groups, not just Catholic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed

A longer and still pity commentary about Catholics and their relationship to Christianity can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic

Much much more of course can be found and said about what Cathliocs believe and don't believe. and indeed what they really practice. Fr. Greely has some non-fiction research that has been done on what American Catholics do believe and their culture.

This profession of faith, Nicene_Creed, is said at all "masses" .. the Sunday services. Or an alternate one, which escapes me at the moment.

Many organizations who have arose to power in the last few years feel that they somehow are "more" Christian than other bunches .. and will have serious disagreements of what a follower of Christ is and what they should be doing.

I did not search partiulary hard for this .. here is one of many fellows who has some good arguments of why he is Christian but not Fundamentalist:
http://www.csun.edu/~vcgeo005/bible.htm

Here is one of the many rants that Catholics are NOT Christian. These too are easy to find. They are usually angry in tone. another who has said much is the author of the popular books and movies Tim LeHey "left behind" also bashes Catholics as not really "Christian". .. Alas I think this bashing is not in true Christian spirit.
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/cath.htm

Generally these NOT "Christian" stances revolve around...
a looser interpretation of the Bible, a believe in evolution, the position of Mary .. treatment of women, treatment of a church authorites .the idea of lay people and the clergy. the idea of sacrements and what they might mean, and other left overs from bygone ages.

I could go on.

These same people who claim Catholics are NOT Christian will also probably make statementst that Anglicans, Methodists, and other Luthern sects are not "Christian" either....

One can go to great lengths to argue Bible verses and doctrine statements .. but in the end all these things are statements of faith that really cannot be resolved by logic and argument. And indeed have to be resolved by prayer and hope and communion with God. If we are wrong, let us hope and pray that we are forgiven for at least trying.

A book about this .. which I have not read but sounds good is titled "Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity "


blessings.

Answer 5

Catholics do believe that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins.

A summary of Catholic beliefs is contained in the Nicene Creed (from the year 325):

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son, He is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

For a complete description of what Catholics believe, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/index.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

Catholics do believe in the holiness of Jesus. Actually, Catholics are the original Christians (after the Great Schism into the Western and Eastern Churches). Protestantism was a movement to reform the Church in the 1600's, but it broke off into its own sphere.

Answer 7

catholics are usually happy when they feel guilty about something or other, they believe a living rigor mortis is the only way not to sin as you cant move, or put a foot wrong in this state even though they want to ,need to in fact. but lack of willpower and general snobbyness makes them give in every time .then they run off to the priest and tell tales about others to take the heat off themselves.christianity is about giving and sharing.this appals catholics because whats theirs is theirs and what is yours has to be shared around this diverts attention from their ginormous bank accounts and puts the onus on youre measly few quid then they breath a huge sigh of relief and suffer alot by spending £2.50 a day on food for their 27 sprogs.for a whole week.without being rushed to hospital in a blind panic (stigmata)collection day at church is seen as a supreme punishment by the almighty but they can bare that because they view it as a pre-booked front seat in heaven with all the trimmings thrown in at roughly a quarter of the usual price.amen

Answer 8

The Catholic Church is the orginal Roman church. Catholic is Greek for universal.

The church then split into the western latin and eastern orthodox churches. Each of these subsequently split with offshoots such as the various Protestant churches - Protestant actually means to protest - since they disagreed with some of the old church theology.

All of todays modern churches evolved from the original Roman church - both Catholic and/or Orthodox.

Amazing how evolution works.

Answer 9

Where did you get the idea that we Catholics do not believe that Christ Died on the Cross for our sins?!?!?!

Of course we believe that, & we adore Him for Redeeming us from sin & Eternal Damnation.

Christ Is Indeed the Saviour of the whole world!!!

Answer 10

Catholics do believe that Jesus died on the Cross.