2007-02-08 17:04:24 · 18 answers · asked by tychobrahe 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sure is a lot of disagreement on this! This absurd business about one group saying that the other isn't Christian is one of the reasons why many people find it difficult to take anything these people say very seriously. They can't even agree on who's a Christian and who isn't.
2007-02-09 08:18:27 · update #1
For a long time Catholics (together with Orthodox ) were the ONLY Christians! So to say Catholics are not Christian is ignorant, self righteous and bigoted.
I'm not a Catholic so I'm not sticking up for them - just pointing out FACT.
2007-02-08 17:28:50 · answer #1 · answered by Tirant 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
The term Jew is used in at least two senses in Scripture: to refer to those who are ethnically Jews and to those who are religiously Jews. Jesus was a Jew in both senses. In fact, he completed the Jewish religion by serving as the Messiah (Christ) whom the prophets had long foretold.
The completed form of the Jewish religion is known as Christianity, and its adherents are Christians or "followers of the Christ." Unfortunately, many people who were ethnically Jewish did not recognize Jesus’ role as Messiah and so did not accept Christianity, the completed form of Judaism. Instead, they stayed with a partial, incomplete form of Judaism. Other Jews (the apostles and their followers) did recognize that Jesus was the Messiah and embraced the new, completed form of Judaism.
Shortly thereafter it was recognized that one could be a follower of Christ even if one did not ethnically join the Jewish people. Thus the apostles began to make many Gentile converts to the Christian faith. It is thus possible for a person to be a Jew religiously (because he has accepted Christianity, the completed form of the Jewish faith) but not be a Jew ethnically. This is the case with most Christians today.
It is this difference between being a Jew ethnically and religiously that lies behind Paul’s statement in Romans 2:28–29: "For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal."
Christians are those who Paul refers to as being inwardly (religiously) Jewish, while non-Christian Jews are those who he refers to as being outwardly (ethnically) Jewish. The former condition, he stresses, is the more important.
Unfortunately, over the course of time some Christians broke away from the Church that Jesus founded, and so a name was needed to distinguish this Church from the ones that broke off from it. Because all the breakaways were particular, local groups, it was decided to call the Church Jesus founded the "universal" (Greek, kataholos = "according to the whole") Church, and thus the name Catholic was applied to it.
That is why Jesus was a Jew and we are Catholics: Jesus came to complete the Jewish religion by creating a Church that would serve as its fulfillment and be open to people of all races, not just ethnic Jews. As Catholics, we are those who have accepted the fulfillment of the Jewish faith by joining the Church that Jesus founded.
2007-02-11 14:16:05 · answer #2 · answered by cashelmara 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can't just group all the Catholics. Everyone has their own personal relationship with Jesus. It isn't up to a religion as a whole, but the individual. I've seen Catholics more devout in following Jesus than I have some born-again believers.
2007-02-09 01:20:29 · answer #3 · answered by T 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Of course. Catholics (the Roman Church) were the 2nd or 3rd Christian Church established, the other 2 being Byzantine and Greek.
I assume you're American, and so you will find that Catholic customs are different from a lot of the home-grown America sects. The most simliar to Catholics in America are the Episcopolians, again they have their root in a European Chruch- the Anglicans, who themselves are derived from Catholics.
2007-02-09 01:15:42 · answer #4 · answered by verbalise 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Catholic Church wrote and authorized all the authentic new testament scripture.
It is the original and authentic "Full Gospel" Church of Jesus Christ, who it continually proclaims as the only begotten son of God, our mediator and savior.
So, the Catholic Church is most certainly Christian.
Don can't recognize it because he belongs to a cult of his own making, and he prefers to believe cleverly crafted lies and deceptions, many of which can be found on his own website.
A classic case of poop-envy.
2007-02-09 02:40:27 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Uh ... YES, Catholics are not only Christian, but the ORIGINAL Christian Church. You have an ignoran answer that said we (Catholics) believe that Jesus IS God, while 'Christians' believe that Jesus is the son of God. Fact is, He's both, and all Christian denominations believe the same way .. that Jesus is both the son of God AND divine. It's called the Paschal Mystery.
2007-02-09 01:13:25 · answer #6 · answered by irish_giant 4 · 8⤊ 0⤋
Catholics were the first so-called christians, so I would say yes.
2007-02-10 16:05:35 · answer #7 · answered by Mari76 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes
2007-02-09 01:16:30 · answer #8 · answered by JohnC 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Yes.
Catholics were first, but they still called it Christianity.
2007-02-09 01:11:14 · answer #9 · answered by lilith 7 · 5⤊ 1⤋
I love it that protestants say no. Given the Catholic Churches body count, I'd say certainly.
2007-02-09 01:13:27 · answer #10 · answered by Holy Cow! 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋