Are Catholics Christians?

Question

How can creating saints and images to pray to, be Christian? Why all the attention to Mary? Are Catholics disregarding John 14:6?

Answer 1

How do they disregard the 2nd and 3rd commandments? To have no other gods before God and not to make any graven images, nor to bow down to one. And we are not to confess our sins to anyone except Jesus, as He is the only one who can forgive them.

Based upon what I know about the Catholic religion, they do not ask God for forgiveness. They ask a priest...without this repentence to God, you can't be a Christian and go to Heaven.

Answer 2

I'm not Catholic myself, but I can't stand it when people claim that Catholics aren't Christians! They believe in God, and Jesus, and the bible. They don't 'worship' Saints or the Virgin Mary, they only have a veneration for them, as all Sects of Christianity do. Catholics are just a bit more open with their veneration than Protestants.

Answer 3

Are Baptist Christians?
Are Methodist Christians?
Are Lutherans Christians?
Are Jews Christians?

It is a one on one - personal question.
Seems to me the Bible in Acts 16 : 31 says
. . . . Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, - - - - just that easy - - -

I do understand that following bad teachings are a trick of the devil to take us to hell while we are "doing good" - " going to church" " Working our way to Heaven so to speak" I know some people out of every group listed above that I believe to be Christian. Your affiliation with a group has . . . . . . . . . . . .
___NO BEARING___ on your going to Heaven, or being a Christian. At the same time I will agree with the jest of the question - some groups will show you God's plan for going to Heaven and some will show you "just church"
I do hope this question makes people consider if they are going to Heaven - for they can truly know . . . . .

Ephesians 2 : 8 says
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

Answer 4

Yes, the Catholic church is Christian. Their basis of worship is Christ, therefore, they are Christians.

The word "catholic" actually means universal. In a sense, all Christians are "catholic" because we are part of the universal church. "The catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof..." (McGrath108). According to Cyril, the word "catholic" is termed in four ways: "spread throughout the entire world," "without leaving anything out," "every sort of person," and "universal remedy and cure to every kind of sin" (Cyril qtd. in McGrath).

Answer 5

Catholics ARE the original Christians. It is the Church started 2000 years ago by Christ Himself. Talk about being Christian!

We did not create saints. God did. When we pray to saints we ask them to intercede for us, just as we might ask a friend or family member to pray for us.

Why all the attention to Mary? Well if she was good enough for Jesus, she's certainly good enough for me! (She should be good enough for you too.)

Answer 6

Technically speaking yes. They believe in God, Jesus, the holy ghost etc. just like Christians. They only vary in some of the ways they worship God and parts of their doctrine. Any religion which regards Jesus as a messiah and the son of God could be considered Christian.

Answer 7

Yes Catholics are Christians. Saints are those who have lived a holy life and are now in heaven. Do Catholics worship the saints? No. To worship someone is to acknowledge that the one who is worshiped is divine, is God. Sometimes we can confuse cultural gestures of reverence for gestures of worship. In doing so, we often judge not as God does, by what is in the heart, but rather by appearances (see Jn 8:15, Is 11:3).
Catholics hold saints in esteem because they are such wonderful images or mirrors of Christ. Paul several times exhorts his readers to be imitators of him: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11:1, also Phil 3:17, 1 Cor 4:16).
Mary is the first saint, and holds high honor today, as she did in the early Church. God honored her above all creatures by making her the mother of His Son. In honoring Mary, we are following the example of God Himself. Mary's special privileges were given to her by God, not man. Over the course of history, devotion to Mary has taken many forms, and even has been confused with worship. Church teaching has consistently placed Mary in the company of the saints, however.
Devotion to the saints comes back to the theology of image: Christ is God's image, the saints are Christ's image. We honor them because we desire to imitate them. We pray to them the same as we call upon earthly friends to do a favor for us. This too, is scriptural. In Acts we read of Peter and John going up to the Temple for prayer and encountering a beggar. Peter says to him, "I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk" (Acts 3:6). Peter makes it clear that he has the power of Christ in his possession.
To be sure, it is Jesus who heals, but Peter holds the right to extend that power. The same can be said of Paul. In Acts 19:11-12 we read, "So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them." These texts are the basis of the Catholic practice of asking saints to help us, of honoring (not worshiping) the bodies and relics of saints.

God bless,
Stanbo

Answer 8

of course they are Christian. They believe in the One True God and His son Jesus sent to earth to propitiate our sins, born of a virgin, crucified and rose again on the 3 rd day.

Answer 9

Yes, they are counted in censuses as Christians, and account for most of the world's Christians.

Answer 10

Sigh....YES. We have the fullness of the faith - that's what you, and others, miss out on. Catholicism is Bible Christianity per excellence.

Answer 11

Yes, Catholics are Christians, but you point out some very significant problems with the Catholic doctrine! I am a life-long Catholic and from my earliest understanding of the bible, I have always been perplexed that the oldest Christian sect, Catholocism.....(Catholicism pre-dates Protestantism by over 800 years).... encourages praying to any other than God (Trinity). This is strictly forbidden in the old and new testaments. So is the making and worshipping of graven images (idols). Catholic doctrine has raised Jesus' mother, Mary, to semi-Godhood! All because of the verse where the angel Gabrial's proclaimation of "Hail Mary..full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." Mary, was indeed, "blessed" above all other woman, soley because of her being chosen to be the host of our saviour. I would agree that this gives Mary some elevated stature, but certainly not to rise to the object of worship or prayer.
The "Immaculate Conception" (that Mary was conceived outside of sin) doctrine introduced by the Catholic church in the early 6th century, was put forth for the very purpose of justifying "Mary worship".
As a Catholic (Christian) I hold the Mary, the mother of Jesus, in very high regard, as we all should, but I do not pray to her.
Jesus rebuked his mother, Mary, at the age of 12 when he bacame "lost" while visiting Jerusalem. Mary, having lost track of Jesus and then finding Him teaching the Rabbi's in the temple, scolded Jesus out of a mother's concern for her son. Jesus said to Mary, "You should have known I would be about My Father's business!"
Jesus rebuked his mother, Mary, at the wedding feast at Canna, where he performed his first recorded miracle (water to wine). When Mary pressed Jesus to change the water to wine, Jesus said: "Would you have me do this before my time.", but then, as a good son should do, Jesus obeyed his mother and performed the miracle.
Lastly, as Jesus (our Lord) hung on the cross, he looked upon his mother and then to his disciple, John and the did a rather peculiar thing...He refered to his mother as "woman", a term that in Aramaic and Hebrew, holds very little regard for position or title. Jesus said, "Woman, behold your son (John)....John (son) behold your mother!"
The Blessed Virgin Mary lived out her final days in Ephesus (present day turkey), died at a ripe old age and I am certain that she was immediately brought before her Lord and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Our God is a mighty God! Thank You Father for the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus for the forgiveness of the sins of this lowly sinner. Amen!