Don't non-catholic Christians violate God's law?

Question

Matthew 16:18-19 says that Jesus himself told Peter that
"you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven."

Since Peter went to Rome and became the head of the Catholic church based on Jesus' words, and all other Christian denominations were started by some regular guy or another (not even an apostle), doesn't it mean non-Catholics are defying what Christ himself ordered?
How can you believe the Bible is God's word, then ignore specific parts of it?

Answer 1

There is a common misconception that what Jesus was referring to here was Peter himself. This is not true, when Jesus said you are Peter, He was referring to what the name Peter meant, which is "rock". What Jesus was building His church on was not Peter himself, but the rock or the foundation of what Peter said in verse 16 prior to that. Matthew 16:16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Then when Jesus goes on after that to say "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven," again He was not referring to Peter the man but the church that was built upon the foundation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. What He is saying here is the Church built on the foundation of Jesus will be given the ability in His name to act out on His behalf just as the disciples were when Jesus sent them out to preach in the various towns. He gave them the ability to heal, cast out demons, etc. because they did it in His name. The church body was given the keys and the ability to bind things on earth, not Peter.

That is the foundation of God's church, His son Jesus not Peter. Do you think God would put the foundation on Peter over His Son just because Peter aknowledged who Jesus really was? Jesus even told Peter in verse 17 that it was not reavealed to him my man but by God.

Anyone who follows or is involved in a church that doesn't have its foundation based on Jesus being the Christ and the Son of the Living God is not part of God's true church as defined in the passages you pointed out. This isn't a Catholic vs Other Denominations issue, but a Christian issue in general and any denomination that doesn't have this basic foundation.

Answer 2

Many anti-Catholic Christians have no idea what Catholics really believe or why they believe it.

They hate the propaganda they've come to believe the Catholic Church is. If they took the time to learn actual Catholic beliefs and practices, they would realize the thing they hate is really a fallacous perception of the Catholic Church.

And let's not ignore the fact that honest non-Catholic Christians are attempting to interpret the Bible with less than the Fullness of the Truth at their disposal.

Catholicism possesses the Fullness of the Truth. The other Christian denominations only embody a portion of that Truth. That is why many honest non-Catholic Christians are mislead in their perception of Catholicism.

It's important to realize that there are many non-Catholic Christians out there doing more with less Truth than some Catholics are with the Fullness of the Truth.

My point is, merely being a Catholic does not guarantee he/she is going to be a better Christian than a non-Catholic Christian.

Some non-Catholic Christians honestly do not believe Peter was the first in an ongoing line of leaders of His Church. Dishonest non-Catholic Christians are not interested in the Truth, period.

Just because they've failed to understand this Biblical Truth does not, in and of itself, make them bad Christians. I read the Bible on a regular basis - I hope you do to - and I will be the first to say, I do not understand the meaning of every single verse in the Bible. Does that make me a bad Christian? Of course not.

We must be very careful when attempting to judge who is and who is not a good Christian, and why.

Answer 3

Heh, some people need to re-read their misguided answers and then do a little research! There's nothing worse then ignorance. =P

Anyway, yes, I believe that the Catholic church is the TRUE church as created by Jesus Christ. All other denominations are just branches of the same.

HOWEVER, I also believe that any person regardless of "religion" will enter heaven as long as they have accepted Jesus Christ as their lord and savior.

Answer 4

Apparently, you've been told a lot of lies about Catholicism, so let me try to clear things up for you. Catholicism is extremely Biblical, wholly Biblical. 1a. We do not use saints to reach God. That was a lie you have been told. 1b. We do worship God and Him alone. The respect we show for saints pales by comparison. It's not the same thing at all. By way of analogy, think about how people use the word "love." You love your parents, your spouse, your kids, football, pizza. But surely you don't love your spouse the same way you love pizza! It's the same thing for the way Catholics look upon God and saints. We know Jesus is our one and only Savior. We worship only the Lord God Almighty. Saints are just human "heroes" that point us to Christ. 1c. The Bible says that the prayers of the righteous have a lot of good effect (James 5:16). Who is more righteous than a saint who lives with Jesus in heaven? 2. Catholics do NOT practice any form of paganism. You must be completely ignorant about what Babylonian and Egyption paganism is to think it's anything close to Catholicism. Catholics have ALWAYS converted pagan practices to Christian worship, following Paul's example in Acts 17:16ff. 3. Catholics are fobidden from worshiping idols, graven images, etc. same as any other Christian. So there is no heresy. Worshiping an idol means believing a hunk of metal or marble or plaster or wood is a god. If you destroy an idol, the idol-worshiper thinks that you destroyed their god. But Catholics worship the One True God who lives eternally and cannot be destroyed. We have religious art to remind us to worship the Lord, but if you destory it, we won't think you destoryed our Lord because He cannot be destroyed. The web site you referenced is full of misinformation about Catholicism. We follow the laws of Christ, we don't violate them.

Answer 5

It depends on what you think that passage means. Do you take it to mean that Peter started the church and no matter which direction it went later, God would always be pleased with it and require all believers to stick to that path? If you that is what you believe, than you are right in your assessment of non-catholics.

I don't think you can come to that meaning if you read all of the Bible, however since all believers are clearly a part of "the church" in Scripture. All other Christian denominations rose up from the ranks of those in "the church" who were fighting to bring "the church" back into line with Scripture. All of those other denominations also come from Peter through "the church."

Answer 6

The Holy Bible Douay-Rheims Version

With Challoner Revisions 1749-52
1899 Edition of the John Murphy Company

IMPRIMATUR:
James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899.

Pope Damasus assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Roman Council in 382 A.D. He commissioned St. Jerome to translate the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin, which became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and was declared by the Church to be the only authentic and official version, in 1546.

The DR New Testament was first published by the English College at Rheims in 1582 A.D. The DR Old Testament was first published by the English College at Douay in 1609 A.D. The first King James Version was not published until 1611. This online DRV contains all 73 books, including the seven Deutero-Canonical books (erroneously called Apocrypha by Protestants). These seven books were included in the 1611 KJV, but not in later KJV Bibles.

The whole Douay-Rheims Bible was revised and diligently compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner in 1749-1752 A.D. The notes included in the text were written by Dr. Challoner.

The DR Bible was photographically reproduced from the 1899 edition of the John Murphy Company, Baltimore, Maryland, by Tan Books in 1971. Eventually, this edition was optically scanned to produce a large text file which this publisher used for creating this website, with the aid of text-processing software.

One important goal of this project was to preserve the original text "as is", without making any changes in the wording, because the original text had the Imprimatur of James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, dated Sept 1st 1899.

The text file was checked quite thoroughly by software written by the publisher for punctuation errors and verses out of order. The index was humanly checked for misspelled words and the corrections were made to the text. However, some spelling errors may still be present in the text. Many verses were out of order in the original file. These have been corrected.

Every effort was made to ensure that this online version is an exact match to the original printed version. No words were added or ommitted from the text, except for correcting errors caused by the scanning process. No words were rearranged. No verse numbers were changed, except in the case of Psalm 9.

Psalm 9 originally contained 21 verses and there were 2 versions of Psalm 10, numbering 1-18 and 1-8. This obviously caused a conflict, so it was decided to make the first Psalm 10 as the last part of Psalm 9 and renumber the verses 22-39. This retains the same numbering as all the Douay Rheims. Note, in the Protestant Bibles the numbering of Psalms 10 through 146 differs by one.

Answer 7

It's exactly like "newcovenant" says. Exactly. He hit it right on the button. Religion doesn't save us, Jesus does. We all belong to one body of Christ. I believe as a non-catholic Christian that some of the catholic beliefs are condemnable. Perhaps before looking at other, look at yourself. I belive Catholics ignore a huge part of the Bible. The part about not worshipping Idols. As long as you know there is only one way to God, then you'll be ok.

Answer 8

I love the catholics and so does God. and all have a chance to learn and repent. They follow a man, POPE and not God. Yes, I believe they violate many things about Gods law. First the priest says he can offer forgiveness. No, only God can do that, so this man plays God. thats a terrible sin. and, they say to pray to certain saints, ane even pray to Mary. No, God says the only way to pray is to Him and thru Jesus Christ. so, there are many things like that in that faith that are truly not of God. The devil brings deception wherever he can, and its not just to catholics.
The rock we are to build our church upon is Jesus. PEriod. there is no other way. Peter isnt the rock, nor is the pope. If you see the popes full name writtten in roman numbers , it spells out 666.. six hundred and sixty six. This isnt me slammming any religion including catholicsm. Just a fact known by most Christians. Do a study on the catholics and you see why other faiths say they arent christian. Its not because they hate them, Its because they love God and all of His ppl and want all to have truth, according to Gods Holy Word. Pray for the catholics to know Jesus is their rock, not the pope. and to wake up to truth while they still can. Many lovely catholics out there, and I have some as friends. But, all have a right to their own beliefs. we love each other in spite of our differences.

Answer 9

how can catholics wordship "other idols" and Mary and saints and not go through Jesus as the bible say?. Why tell a priest your sins? God wants us to tell God according to the Bible.
No it doesnt mean that non-catholics are defying what Christ ordered. According to so many Catholics, they dont even read the bible much as the priest interprets what it in the Bible to them and they pray to Mary. In the Bible it says to pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Why do catholics not follow the bible and God's laws in this??. It is not religion that saves, it is God and his word and repenting of sins that saves no matter what the religion. Many reliigons are branched off of others from catholic religion as well.

Answer 10

Wrong, the one true church is the body of believers, period. A denomonation doesn't save anyone, Jesus does.

Secondly, we all violate God's law.