What are the primary differences between Protestants and Catholics?

Answer 1

Same myths, different format.

Answer 2

The primary differences are:
1. The Pope is considered head of the Catholic Church and the only one allowed to interpret and pronounce on matters of theology.
The rest of Christendom recognises no such authority.
2. Catholics celebrate the Last Supper as the holy Mass and assign a different meaning to it from Protestants.

Answer 3

The biggest two differences are:

1) Protestsnts put the Bible as the final authortiy, the Catholics put the Pope as the final authority, although the Pope is required to justify everything by the Bible and the traditional history.

2) The organization of leadership.

Everything else stems from one of those two things.

Answer 4

the differences would take a while to list and give a brief description. for the beliefs of catholics(the true church of christ as instituted by jesus himself) you can look up on scripturecatholic.com and type catholic in your search engine you will find many others. as for the protestants,they have many different denominations,some that hold the same title such as baptist have several other branches within itself,none of which agree with the other in many aspects. i do not know any websites for particular ones but more than likely you can use your search engine or look up wikipedia. hope this helps, god bless.

Answer 5

Catholics believe in the authority of the Pope and apostolic succession, the real presence of Christ in the eucharist, the intercession of dead saints on our behalf, the efficacy of prayer for the dead, the efficacy of works (in addition to faith) to add to the saving merits of Christ.

Protestants do NOT believe in these things, to one degree or another, depending on the denomination. (SOME Protestants believe in other ideas that did not occur to the Catholics, such as the people going to heaven being predetermined.)

Those are the main contentions.

Answer 6

Wow i can`t believe what garbage you have received for answers, i guess the real Catholics haven`t answered yet. Differences....well let`s see protestants rebelled from the original church and wrote their own bible taking out 7 whole books...Catholics believe in the apostolic church, that is to say the only real church is that which was instituted by Christ himself which follows obediantly the apostolic line of authority..the Catholic church believes it has the real body of Christ in the tabernacles and in the eucharist not just a symbol, and the last big difference is that the protestants believe in sola scriptura(by faith alone are you saved)(not biblical) whereas the Catholics believe that you are saved by faith and works that are passed down by word and tradition.(biblical)

Answer 7

One sees more value in the idea of a large church organization than the other which is content with a smaller organization or even a total lack of affiliation. They are organizationally different.
In terms of belief, one is more absolute than the other, but at the same time more willing to occasionally compromise itself to keep members.
One relies more on tradition than the other which relies more on scripture.
But if I say which is which, I'll get in trouble with Yahoo.
So all can say is it's all good if you like that kind of thing.

Answer 8

Let's see:

Protestants believe in the trinity
Catholic's believe in the trinity.

Protestants believe in hell fire
Catholic's believe in hell fire.

Protestants have paid clergy
Catholic's have paid clergy.

Protestants believe in the immortality of the soul
Catholic's believe in the immortality of the soul.

Protestants believe all faithful ones go to heaven
Catholic's believe all faithful ones go to heaven.

Not much difference.

Jesus said the Father was greater than he was.
Paul said Jesus is in subjection to God.
Ez 18:4 says the soul dies.
Ps 37:10,11 says the meek will inherit the earth.

Answer 9

Catholics believe the Pope is the head of the church here on earth....no birth control....their ministers don't get married.....divorce is very hard to obtain.

That's just a couple things.

Answer 10

A Protestant can put whatever he wants on his John Thomas.

Answer 11

Protestants claim the Bible as their authority.
Catholics claim that the "tradition" is their authority.
I will list a few of their traditions


Dr. Boettner then gives us "Some Roman Catholic Heresies And Inventions" and the dates that these alleged "Apostolic" traditions were added to Roman Catholic theology &endash;
* Prayers for the dead, began about A.D. 300
* Making the sign of the cross 300
* Veneration of angels and dead saints, and use of images 375
* The Mass, as a daily celebration 394
* Beginning of the exaltation of Mary, the term "Mother of God" first applied to her by the Council of Ephesus 431
* Priests began to dress differently from laymen 500
* Extreme Unction 526
* The doctrine of Purgatory, established by Gregory I 593
* Latin used in prayer and worship, imposed by Gregory I 600
* Prayer directed to Mary, dead saints and angels, about 600
* Title of pope, or universal bishop, given to Boniface III 607
* Kissing the pope's foot, began with pope Constantine 709
* Worship of the cross, images and relics, authorized in 786
* Holy water, mixed with a pinch of salt and blessed by a priest 850
* Canonization of dead saints, first by pope John XV 995
* The Mass, developed gradually as a sacrifice, attendance made obligatory in the 11th century
* Celibacy of the priesthood, decreed by pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand) 1079
* The Rosary, mechanical praying with beads, invented by Peter the Hermit 1090
* Sale of Indulgences 1190
* Transubstantiation, proclaimed by pope Innocent III 1215
* Auricular Confession of sins to a priest instead of to
God, instituted by pope Innocent III, in Lateran Council 1215
* Bible forbidden to laymen, placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Council of Valencia 1229
* Purgatory proclaimed a dogma by Council of Florence 1439
* The doctrine of Seven Sacraments affirmed 1439
* Tradition declared of equal authority with the Bible by the Council of Trent 1545
* Apocryphal books added to the Bible by the Council of Trent 1546
* Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, proclaimed by pope Pius IX 1854
* Syllabus of Errors, proclaimed by pope Pitts IX, and ratified by the Vatican Council; condemned freedom of religion,conscience, speech, press, and scientific discoveries which are disapproved by the Roman Church; asserted the pope's temporal authority over all civil rulers 1864
* Infallibility of the pope in matters of faith and morals, proclaimed by the Vatican Council 1870
* Public Schools condemned by pope Pius XI 1930
* Assumption of the Virgin Mary (bodily ascension into heaven shortly after her death), proclaimed by pope Pius XII 1950
* Mary proclaimed Mother of the Church, by pope Paul VI 1965

And then Dr. Boettner concludes:
Add to these many others: monks - nuns -monasteries - convents - forty days Lent - holy week - Palm Sunday - Ash Wednesday - All Saints day - Candlemas day - fish day - meat days - incense - holy oil - holy palms - Christopher medals - charms - novenas - and still others.
There you have it - the melancholy evidence of Rome's steadily increasing departure from the simplicity of the Gospel, a departure so radical and far-reaching at the present time (1965) that it has produced a drastically anti-evangelical church. It is clear beyond possibility of doubt that the Roman Catholic religion as now practiced is the outgrowth of centuries of error. Human inventions have been substituted for Bible truth and practice. Intolerance and arrogance have replaced the love and kindness and tolerance that were the distinguishing qualities of the first century Christians, so that now in Roman Catholic countries Protestants and others who are sincere believers in Christ but who do not acknowledge the authority of the pope are subject to all kinds of restrictions and in some cases even forbidden to practice their religion. The distinctive attitude of the present day Roman Church was fixed largely by the Council of Trent (1545-1563), with its more than 100 anathemas or curses pronounced against all who then or in the future would dare to differ with its decisions.