Why have the Roman Catholic church chopped and chanced and added so many things to Christianity....?

Question

almost, if not, all of which is not in the Bible and is not what the origional Christians practiced? Is this right? Doesnt it kinda slot in with Revelations 22:18-19 " I warn anyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this book."?

Do you think it matters to God that we humans think we are so wonderful that we can add to His religion? Or do you think He just doesnt care at all.

How many of these added things actually come from pagan religions?

(I am not attacking Catholics cos I know these changes where made a long time ago, im just wondering if we should just accept these changes because it was done so many years ago and we r used to it, or if we should think about what God taught and did, and question what the people did)

for those of you who asked for specifics ........

.....changes such as Christmas, Easter, Baptising babies, the wafer ...and im not sure if the rosary is one....there are some others that i cant name off the top of my head, but ill find out if these arnt enough and post them tomorrow.

Oh, i just thought of two more...

....confessions (u know, in the church with the little box) and going with that, for the priest to be able to forgive people's sins when they have confessed.

to every one, please do no assume i am from a different christian denomination attacing catholics, or trying to prove that my demonication is the 'true christians' because i did not say which denomination I am from, for all you know, i could be catholic. I know many other denomications also changes many things, but this question is about catholics as i have only just now realised how much influence they have had. Maybe next time my question will be about one of the millions of other denominations....or about denominations its self.

please do not tell me to do my research. What would be the point of me asking this question if i went and did research....this is my research.

Daver...

...if circumcision was for babies in the old testamens (and seeing that the old testament is pysical).....and if biptism in the new testament is the new circumcision, and taking into account that the new testament is the spiritual fulilment of the old testement, I would think that is would be for SPIRITUAL babies (people who just accepted God) and not for real babies.

So cirmumsision and physical babies
and baptism and spiritual babies,.... im sure its not actual babies that need to be baptised, its i people who acctepted christ and is spiritually reborn.

Isnt baptising babies the opposite of freewill. God gave humans free will and would not allow them to be made chrisitian withou choosing first, and i dont believe that a baby can choose to acept God or not....anyway, i dont think baptism is needed for a BABY to go to heaven if they die wile still a baby, God would not let poeple who had not had a chance to choose Him go to hell...atleast not God i know.

I gave my heart to Jesus when I was a very young child, but my parents not being catholic, i was never baptised when i was a baby. I was always taught that i should be baptised when i feel the time is right. I am a teenager now and i think i will get baptised in my church soon.

Does it mean that if a child is not baptised they do not have a chance to go to heaven before they are baptised? What if a child gave their heart to Jesus at about the ages of 4 - 6, but what not baptised, does that still mean that they cant go to heaven?

I think what Jesus meant when he said that children should have access to heaven aswell as adults is, that the adults should teach children from as early age as possible and not just say "oh, they are too young to understand...".

Daves, you talk about the believers baptism and , if im not misunderstanding, how it is not nessacary to be a believer......now, what is the point of being baptised if you dont believe. So basically, a person (not a child now, cos this non-believer baptism should then include all people) who does not believe can be baptised, for reasons i know not, even though they do not believe that Jesus is their saviour and the Son of God? But Jesus said that the only way to heaven is though Him, if you believe in him, so how can people who do not believe in Jesus....or atleast belive who Jesus is ....be baptised and then expect to go to heaven.

Im not saying that people should not be baptised, because i know people can say they believe, but dont really, but what u are saying is that those people who do not belive and are baptised can then axpect to heaven.....something tells me that that isnt what Jesus meant.

The APOSTELS might have given the power to forgive sins, but priests are not the apostels, are they. The apostels were there, they were the first, they spoke to God, God told them, literilly, to their faces that He gives them the power to forgive sins. But priests apply for the job, they are humans just like all of us. If i wanted to be a priest one day, i can recieve training and apply for the job, but that doesnt make me elite, anybetter than any beggar on the streets.

What if you had no priest to confess your sins to? there are many places on our earth where there are not a church or a priest, wha should i do then if i were to find my self somewhere there was no priest or other person of christian faith....should i just confess my sins to the person sitting next to me? I wouldnt mind, cos what do they care, its just that so many people confessing thier sins to one person and then expecting to be forgiven....and expecting every "one preson" to be sincere and keep all those confessions to him self? again this does not feel quite right.

I tell my family and friends, i discuss things i did wrong or think i might have done wrong wtih people around me, but i confess my sins to God. and i ask God for forgiveness....most of the time, after i have spoken to God about matters and i feel that i have set tings right with God, i do not have any urge to speak to any one else about it. is this wrong then?

Answer 1

Behind the particular disagreements over the role of faith and works, the sacraments, the canon of Scripture, the role of the priesthood, prayers to saints, and all the issues surrounding Mary and the Pope, etc., lies the biggest rift between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism: the issue of authority. How one answers the authority question will generally solve all the others. When it comes down to deciding a theological issue about defined Catholic dogma, there isn’t really much to discuss on the Catholic's side because once Rome speaks, it is settled. This is a problem when trying to debate a Roman Catholic - reason and Scripture are not the Catholic’s final authority, they can always retreat into the “safe zone” of Roman Catholic authority.



Thus, many of the arguments between a Protestant and a Catholic will revolve around one's “private interpretation” of Scripture as against the "official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church." Catholics claim to successfully avoid the legitimate problems of private interpretation by their reliance on their tradition. But this merely pushes the question back a step. The truth is that both Roman Catholics and Protestants must, in the end, rely upon their reasoning abilities (to choose their authority) and their interpretive skills (to understand what that authority teaches) in order to determine what they will believe. Protestants are simply more willing to admit that this is the case.



Both sides can also be fiercely loyal to their family's faith or the church they grew up in without much thought to doctrinal arguments. Obviously there are a lot of possible reasons, and while we should not divide over secondary issues, both sides agree that we must divide when it comes to primary issues. Beyond that, we can agree to disagree and worship where we find ourselves most in agreement. When it comes to Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, the differences are just too great to ignore. However, that does not give license for caricatures or ignorant judgments - both sides need to be honest in their assessments and try not go beyond what God has revealed.

Answer 2

They should definitely go back and see what was truly meant for them! A changed Bible can mean a corrupted one, and after hundreds, if not thousands of alterations, im sure some lies were snuck into the Bible in order to win converts by making the religion seem better. The Qu'ran hasn't changed once since it was revealed..u can't find any two different Qu'rans, but if u pick up any two Bibles, u are almost guaranteed, due to the many many different versions and "editions", that they will be different....so you make the decision. I wouldn't have faith in a religion that I KNOW is molded through opinion and what the "author" WANTS to read and hear. Trust me, anyone should stick with the original, not an over-duplicated copy. Also, about the confessions, a human being cannot forgive someone, but can give guidance. So why are they being forgiven by the priest/bishop, isn't that Gods job?

Answer 3

The Catholic Church is the original Christian church. The Catholic Chuch came before the compilation of the Bible. The Catholic Church continues to use the Bible that was used by all Christians and Jews centuries ago.

The Jews found it necessary to make sure they were seperate from the Christians, so they got together and removed 7 books from the old testament that were seen as Christian friendly.

Prior to that Christians and Jews all used the same Old Testament the Catholic Church uses today.

After that, Martin Luther, brought about the reformation and declared that by the authority of the Jews he would use the same OT as they did. He did this to separate himself and his followers from Catholicism.

Please do your research. There is a lot out there to understand about the history of the Church. Read some of the works of Martin Luther (the father of Protestantism)...you'll be amazed at some of the odd stuff he said.

The Catholic Church allowed some of the Holy Days to be celebrated on typical pagan holidays because she wanted to replace their worship of false gods with the worship of Christ.

Also, Christ was a Jew, so many of the Jewish traditions were incorporated into the Church's worship.

The Catholic Church is the earliest Church, started by St. Peter himself...straight from the authority of Jesus Christ. The tradition that was handed down is just as important as the Bible. These things were known before they were written down.

Everything the Catholic Church does isn't laid out letter for letter in the Bible...again because it was prior to the Bible that these things came about. But she does nothing that goes against the Bible.

It's actually very interesting if you go looking...but in so doing you might just end up being Catholic.

Answer 4

The early Catholic Church struggled for a long time to gain acceptance. While going through those struggles, the people in charge realized that if they adopted the rituals and themes of other religions it then became easier to get followers of those religions to convert to Christianity. Thus, most major Christian holidays are actually set on the dates that many pagan holidays occurred (Christmas and Easter among them), and many Christian traditions started out as pagan traditions (look up the association of rabbits and eggs with Easter, and the origin of Yule logs, for instance).

There are many books that were written that are not part of the Bible as we know it today. Some theorize that at the Council of Nicea there were votes to determine which books should be "officially" part of the Bible. Others say that this theory is false. Either way, given how mankind reacts to strong religious feelings, there are undoubtedly books that were either originally included and later fell from favor, or that were never included in all.

I guess the short answer (too late!) would be that it's most likely to my thinking that it's more important to live well, care for others, and try to do good than it is to worry about whether you should eat shellfish or whether a woman should be able to wear pants or not.

Answer 5

revelations although the last book in the bible was not the last book to be written and has often been misunderstood. as it is the catholic canon of scripture was 73 books,why then is the protestant version missing seven books?would that not mean taking away from "the words in this book". not to attack anyone but saying the catholic church added to the bible is no more a reason to debunk catholicism than how fundamentalist/protestants took away from it. the catholic church has not added to the word of god but has kept that word alive. with revelation and guided by the spirit the churchs knowledge has expanded extensively through the years. the first christians were catholic and practiced the catholic/universal teachings of the church. you can even use secular history to prove this and you can also use the bible to prove this. the mass is entirely scriptural from the readings to the participation of both the priest and the congregation. hints of paganism in dates and celebrations? yes they exist but those not by no means show anything, if atall it shows how christ used evil or ignorance of christ to bring people to christ. i could go on about other points but instead i will offer these sites so you may research more thoroughly. you ofcourse do not have to agree,it would be beneficial in my humble opinion but i hope you check them out atleast and that you find it good reading/source material.

scripturecatholic.com
salvationhistory.com
ewtn.com
fisheaters.com

i recommend salvationhistory.com for the free study material it offers. also fisheaters.com has an interesting test you may enjoy,click on the protestant section and under basic it is the first link, the other features onthe site makes for good reading aswell.

Answer 6

With the exception of the Orthodox churches, all of the Christian churches took stuff from Catholicism (even if only the Bible-
The King James, for example, is the translation of the Bible that the Catholic church compiled-The Vulgate.)

There is not a single Christian church in existance that only follows the writings in the Bibles, because each Christian church picks and chooses which bibles they discard and what parts they will follow. For example, some churches change the story of Sodom to make it not about the violation of guestright- many Christians abuse their neighbor happily despite the fact that that's one of the big Christian beliefs...Or they violate the cleanliness code of the Hebrew Bible while using other parts of it to make claims about their neighbor, or they try to make laws out of Christianity, when Christianity teaches it is separate from government.

That the Abrahamic god doesn't seem to give a flying fig about people changing his beliefs, or interpreting them however they choose makes it obvious he either doesn't care, can't change it or won't change it.

At the least, you should think about this- Of all the Abrahamic religions, only Christianity thinks it's okay to translate the sacred texts into other languages. In the other two Abrahamic religions, adult practitioners of the religion are expected to at least be slightly able to read the book in the original language. Knowing how much changing the holy books changes the sect, isn't it weird that Christians read their books in languages like English?

Answer 7

The Catholic Church does not use Holy Scripture as the only basis of doctrine. It could not. The early Catholic church existed before and during the time that the New Testament was written (by Catholics).

There were hundreds of Christian writings during the first and second centuries. Which New Testament writings would become official was not fully decided until about 400 AD.

Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church (and is guiding the church today) to make the correct choices about things like:
+ The Holy Trinity (which is also only hinted at in the Bible)
+ Going to church on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is actually directly against one of the Ten Commandments)
+ The Communion of Saints
+ Which writings include in the New Testament?

Things that are even more modern like
+ Slavery is bad. Slavery is never declared evil in the Bible. This was one of the justifications for slavery in the Confederate States.
+ Democracy is good. The Bible states that either God should be the leader of the nation like Israel before the kings or kings should be the leader, "Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's." This was talked about a lot during the American Revolution.

This second source of doctrine is called Apostolic Tradition.

Do Christians who do not allow the continuing guiding force of the Holy Spirit to make their beliefs more and more perfect, still endorse slavery as Colossians 3:22 commands, "Slaves, obey your human masters in everything"?

With love in Christ.

Answer 8

Let us be honest, virtually all Christian denominations feel "We are the one true Church which was founded by Jesus Christ. All the other denominations split from us." Suffice it to say that the Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans etc. most certainly do not feel that they changed, left out, or added to the religion of Christ. Somewhere I read that there are roughly 30,000 Christian denominations. This does not include the Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others. Should we waste our time and effort yelling "Blasphemers!" at each other or should we try to live as good people as our conscious guides us?

I can only think that we will never truly know in this world who has it right.

Peace

Answer 9

For mind control. The whole mass is this and that "glorious mystery". Paul divulges several of God's mysteries in Galatians ann other places. Some things we will never know but God does not want His people in the dark,unlile the leadreship of the catholic church. They rarely read the Word so the people are clueless. ie.. Read the Catholic Bible 10 commanments and the catechism and you see 2 different things.... The prayer to Mary..part of it is in the Bible,but not as a prayer. It developed over 50 years in Ephesus for they were used to a female diety so it was easier to get them into the "religion" by letting them do that. Mary is a beautiful part of the story but does not have anything to do with our salvation,for example. The Word says Jesus prays for sinners,not the saints.

Answer 10

There are many questions here. I know that 1500 years( When Luther appeared) of existence can have many mistakes and I know that those mistakes were made thinking in expanding God faith. To convert more people to the religion. Christians were pagan for Jews.
Thousands(at least 2) years ago they needed somebody to rule what was the true. The first miracle of Jesus at the wedding was done because Mary asked for it, even dough Jesus said that "it is not time yet". Had this woman influence on hin or not?
Have you read the salute that God angel gives to Mary? Do you know of any prophet tha had been saluted in that way in the whole bible?