what is the difference between catholics and christian ?

Question

i don't know WHAT is it ? can someone please tell me?? and do catholics believe in jesus ? or even god?

Answer 1

Interesting you should ask. We had a Hindu foreign exchange student who honestly thought all Christians were the same.

Basically all Catholics are Christian but not all Christians are Catholic.

Yes Catholics believe in Jesus and the Holy Spirit and God, the father. There are even different verisons of Catholics - the Roman Catholics who follow the leadership of the top guy in their church - the Pope...... and the Orthodox who follow the leadership of their top Patriarch. Martin Luther started the Protestants (people who protested about the way the Catholic church was running at the time). They are very much also Christians, they just didn't believe you had to do what a man on earth dictated. They were right about some of the dumb things that the Popes were doing at the time. Since then, the Catholic Church has gotten a lot better, so there are people who are Catholic and proud of it now. The Protestants eventually divided up into groups by what they believed, so you have Presbyterians and Methodists and Baptists, etc. They all believe in God and Jesus, they just don't agree about some of the smaller stuff and how you should get to heaven.

I think of it like a diamond. It has different facets. When you look at one facet, it's perfect. But you can look at it from a different side and see a different facet and it's still the same diamond.

God is the diamond. The Catholics and the other Protestants each look at their one facet but they are all Christians.

Answer 2

By definition anybody who believes in God, and that Jesus Christ is His Son is a Christian. All these people believe in the word of the bible.

Where Christianity starts to splinter off is in its interpretation of the bible. What is the relationship between Father, Son and the Holy Spirit? What was the nature of Christ? Was he part man, part God, only God? What is needed for the salvation of the soul? Is being a good person enough? Or do you have to help others? These and many other question are the basis for church doctrine. Church doctrine is an attempt to interpret the bible in areas where is not so clear or modern day practices.

So the difference between Catholics and other Christian groups is in the church doctrine. Saying someone who is Catholic, is not a Christian is like saying someone is a New Yorker and not an American.

Answer 3

The term Catholic is most commonly used for a part of Christianity that believes in a hierarchical leading to the Pope in Rome. They believe in Jesus and in God.They also believe many other things not set about in the Bible. Ask a Catholic if they are Christian and they would most likely say yes. The term Christian refers to any follower of Jesus Christ. On of the big splits to use the terms separately came during the Reformation with Martin Luther and others who wanted to reform the Catholic church to get them back closer to the Bible. In some sects of the Catholic church they worship Mary the earthly mother of Jesus, some even more than Jesus himself, and say she only had Jesus and no other children excluding the passages from the Bible of Acts 1:14 and Mathew chapter 12. Some also worship saints more than God and ask the dead men to protect them instead of God. There are books that do go way in depth of the differences between Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians.

Answer 4

Catholics believe in Jesus and God. As do Christians. The difference is they believe and like more the Virgin Mary, the Catholics. Oh! And Catholics ARE Christians!

Answer 5

There isn't a difference.

Catholics just put more importance on Mary than Protestants are comfortable with so the Protestants try to claim that Catholics aren't Christian. Thing is, thats a lie.

Catholicism was the FIRST Christian religion. Without the Catholics, Christianity wouldn't exist.

See, the Christians can't even get along with each other, much less the rest of the world.

Answer 6

There is NO difference between Catholics and Christians, since Catholics were the first Christians, the only Christians for 1,000 years after Christ, and the only Christians Christ ever intended to exist. There are however differences between Catholics (complete Christians) and protestants (incomplete Christians), and that incompleteness is the difference. All Protestant churches have rejected some of the beliefs and practices of original Christianity, replacing them with new traditions of men that no Christian on earth ever heard of until a few hundred years ago. Just which beliefs have been rejected depends of course on just which Protestant denomination you are looking at, since some of them differ from one another as much as they differ from Catholicism. Catholicism is the living testimony to the stated will of God "that they all may be ONE, even as you Father and I are ONE". Protestantism represents what happens when men deviate from the stated will of God, just as Christ predicted (2 Tim 4:3-4).
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Answer 7

Catholics are people who belong to the Catholic church. Christians are those who believe in Christ as the saviour. The Catholic church is a Christian church, but not the only Christian church. Alot of the differences are just in the way different churches conduct their sermons/masses. The Catholic faith is very strict in how it does things. Most other Christian faiths are less structured.
And for the record, I have never heard a Protestant minister say Catholics are not christian, I have heard a Catholic priest say Catholics are the only true christians.

Answer 8

Great question! Catholicism is a religion based on the teachings of men. Christianity is based on the teachings of Christ.

Catholics believe in Jesus and God, but their beliefs are usually very general. For example, they acknowledge that Jesus is God's Son and that He died for the sins of the world. However, true Christians acknowledge that Jesus died for their own personal sins, not just the world's and accept forgiveness from God the Father through the sacrifice of His son.

Catholics also believe in the necessity of intermediaries (priests, saints, "virgin Mary") whereas true Christians believe (based on Scripture) that Jesus is the ONLY intermediary between God and men.

Also, there are tons of practices that Catholics participate which are in direct contradiction with the teachings of Jesus Christ as taught in the Bible.

Finally (and this is a biggie), Catholics believe that salvation comes through their church alone, whereas Christians believe and know that only Jesus saves and He's Lord of all.

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Biggest misconception: All Catholics are Christian...
As a former Catholic (I grew up in a Catholic family), I can honestly tell you that I was not a Christian, not by any means. Christianity is not a religion, but right RELATIONSHIP with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

To say that "All Catholics are Christian" is like saying "All Arabs are Muslim". It's a gross overgeneralization and it's simply not true.

There are many Catholics who are Christians, but you do not become a Christian by a default identification with any particular religion (a Christian denomination included). To become a Christian, you have to make a positive decision for Christ as Savior and Lord of your life. The Catholics who have done so, can sincerely call themselves Christian.

Answer 9

Catholics are Christians in the sense that they believe in Jesus, that He was sacrificed for our sins, rose on the 3rd day and is coming again.

They differ from the rest of Christians in the fact that they follow many extra-biblical teachings such as, praying to Mary and other Saints, they honor the Pope are a "spokes person for God" The believe in Purgetory (a place of holding between life and eternity where a persons sins can be cleansed before judgement through prayer) and Mary remained a virgin her whole life and was also ascended into Heaven like Jesus and there are many more.

Answer 10

the Old and New Testament Scriptures are the divinely-revealed, written Word of God, Catholics venerate the Scriptures as they venerate the Lord's body. But Catholics do not believe that God has given us His divine Revelation in Christ exclusively through Scripture. Catholics also believe that God's Revelation comes to us through the Apostolic Tradition and teaching authority of the Church.