Can you yoke a Catholic and a Protestant? Does Paul advise against that?

Answer 1

I think Paul just swung whichever way the wind blew.

Answer 2

Paul didn't have much to say in the matter - the religion was so new, that there weren't many different sects of Christianity (except the Gnostics whom he dismissed entirely).

I know that when I was raised Protestant, I was tacitly taught that Catholic doctrine was a perversion of the true Christian way. I suspect a marriage between two devout believers would be...tense, to say the least.

Answer 3

You could yoke Catholics and Protestants but oxen can haul bigger loads.

Answer 4

I believe you read the first chapter of second Corinthians so you must already know this answer.

Answer 5

Protestants hadn't been invented yet. =)

Answer 6

I like this second question of yours also.

When Paul was teaching and preaching, all of the followers of Jesus at that time were the original group of Christians that began the Church on that Pentecost Day and were then led to baptize all Nations in the name of Christ. Paul was called later at Damascus, which I quoted in my last answer from the Book of Acts. The name Catholic as relates to the Church did not begin until around the time of the Council of Nicea, 325 AD. There the Creed was written which named the four marks of the Church: as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. It was believed that St. Ambrose named the Church the Catholic Church which means universal in the Greek.

The Catholic church in being Apostolic, was formed with Peter as the Head, the first Pope. During that 300 year period, Christians were persecuted by Rome. It was not until the end of this persecution that the Catholic Church was formed as a recognized institution, but had an unbroken line of Popes from Peter and to this present time within the church body of believers.

The term Protestant did not appear until there was a split in the time of what is called The Reformation. Martin Luther disagreed with certain practices that members were engaged in, and broke off in protest from Catholicism and began his own church. This began a process of splitting into various denominations of Protestant teachings and interpretations of the Bible.

The Catholic Church does not disallow marriage to a Protestant and the Protestants in general, do not disallow marriage to Catholics. There is a stipulation that for a Catholic marriage to be a valid sacrament in the Catholic Church, the couple must be wed by a Catholic priest.

St. Paul would be very careful to balance faith and love, and want the couple to be obedient to their vows. So a person married in the Catholic church makes certain promises to raise their children in the Catholic faith. Those being very careful about their vows before God, will need to consider their choices.

Sacramental life in the Catholic Church and the way of the priesthood, is quite different from ministry and union in Protestantism, as the bonds in communion with the Church are
quite different. If that is considered unequal (meaning as different as a Lamb is to an Ox) then we could get into our last discussion.

The Reformation caused this dilemma in the Christian Church:
The causes of the great religious revolt of the sixteenth century [were largely as a result of clerics who held public office at that time, a practice which was later banished. It was not widespread.]

[However, Luther took this break with the Church to an extreme degree:]
Beginning by proclaiming the false doctrine of "justification by faith alone", he later rejected all supernatural remedies (especially the sacraments and the Mass), denied the meritoriousness of good works (thus condemning monastic vows and Christian asceticism in general), and finally rejected the institution of a genuine hierarchical priesthood (especially the papacy) in the Church. His doctrine of the Bible as the sole rule of faith, with rejection of all ecclesiastical authority, established subjectivism in matters of faith.

Where this becomes most evident:

Also in the priest Melchizedek we see prefigured the sacrament of the sacrifice of the Lord, according to what divine Scripture testifies, and says, "And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine." Genesis 14:18 Now he was a priest of the most high God, and blessed Abraham. And that Melchizedek bore a type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, saying from the person of the Father to the Son: "Before the morning star I begat You; You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek; *


Moreover, the blessed Apostle Paul, chosen and sent by the Lord, and appointed a preacher of the Gospel truth, lays down these very things in his epistle, saying, "The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, This is my body, which shall be given for you: do this in remembrance of me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you shall show forth the Lord's death until He come."2 1 Corinthians 11:23-26*

The priesthood was instituted the night before Christ's death in the Order of Melchizedek, at the Last Supper.

We see only in the Catholic church that successive lineage of the priesthood which is called Apostolic, descending from Christ through the Apostles. For this reason the Church claims the four marks: one (unity under the Pope), Holy (Christ as Head), apostolic (descending from Peter) and Catholic (universal- a calling made to all peoples of all nations.)

We say that marriage is a vow made before God in both instances. But sacramental union through the apostolic priesthood ties the couple by a bond to the Catholic church and their family is a progession of that same sacramental union in the Church.

Thus we have the Ox and the Lamb, a split that is healed by tolerance, faithfulness and love.

As St. Paul wrote in Ephesians:
"He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth it and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the Church: because we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." After this exhortation the Apostle alludes to the Divine institution of marriage in the prophetical words proclaimed by God through Adam: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh." He then concludes with the significant words in which he characterizes Christian marriage: "This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church." *