Is Christianity and Catholic the same Religion? Is Baptist Christianity?

Question

My husband told me Chirstians are Catholics and I thought Christians were just Christians/Baptist. What about Protestent?

Can you submit a link where you got your answer

Answer 1

"What separates us as believers in Christ is much less than what unites us." (Pope John XXIII)

Almost all important doctrine is completely agreed upon between Catholic Christians and other Christians.

Here is the joint declaration of justification by Catholics (1999), Lutherans (1999), and Methodists (2006):

By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping us and calling us to good works.

There are many minor doctrine issues and some major cultural traditional differences which, I believe, do not matter that much.

A Catholic worships and follows Christ in the tradition of Catholicism which, among other things, recognizes that Christ made Peter the leader of His new Church and Pope Benedict XVI is Peter's direct successor.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Catholics and Protestants are two different kinds of Christians. Catholics believe that you have to go through someone (like a priest of Mary, mother of Jesus) to talk to God. They add some things to their church that was never taught in the Bible, but there are Catholics that truly trust in Jesus and will be saved.

There are also different kinds of Protestants - Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc. I'm a Baptist. The differences between the types of Protestants are things like:

1) Baptists believe that once you're truly a Christian, you will always be one, no matter what you do. Some other Protestants think that if you wander away from Christianity, even if you were really saved, that you aren't a Christian anymore.

2) Also, Baptists baptise (basically a preacher lowers a believer a little bit underwater, and brings them back up) people into their church to symbolize our old Non-Christian way of life being washed away. Other Protestants have different things to symbolize one's salvation.

3) The services between all of these churches can get pretty different. Even with Baptists - some have more contemporary music, while some only praise God with hymns. It's just how you want to worship God.

Hope this helped!

Answer 3

Catholics are Christians. If you want to make a more proper distinction, it is Catholics and Protestants.

The Catholic Church as been around since Christ founded her 2,000 years ago. She has preserved, taught, and protected His teachings from the beginning.

Most Christians - catholic and protestant - have the same basic beliefs: that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, in His life, death and resurrection, repentance and forgiveness of sins, and the hope of eternal life. After this, it's difficult to explain.

Protestantism is a break from the Catholic Church around the year 1500, and includes all non-Catholic Christian churches.

When one tries to understand what Protestants teach, they soon discover that there are as many different beliefs as there are protestants. The reason is that Protestantism fractures every time there is a difference of opinion about belief. This is why we have over 54,000 different protestant denominations. When faced with this daunting number, someone trying to find the true teachings of Christ would feel this is impossible. Ironically, while each denomination is different from the other, they each claim to have Christ's true teachings and each condemn the other. It's crazy.

For the fullness of Christ's teachings and to be part of the Church He originally set down, we must study and live our Catholic Christian faith.

God bless and take care.

Answer 4

All those who are baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, are Christians regardless of denomination.

Put it this way, not all Christians are Catholic, but all Catholics are Christian.

Non-Catholic Christians, Protestants, including Baptists, are Christians as well.

Answer 5

This isn't a matter of getting my answer from a source. This is from experience. Part of it is from opinion as well. There is no source of that other than my own mind. There are many people that divide the church and say that Catholics are not Christians. However, they divide it because they do not understand or agree with the doctrine of the Catholic church. The Catholic church is different and they do things that many other churches do not follow. However, they agree on the essentials of Christianity (They believe in God, they believe in studying the word, they believe in prayer, they believe in Christ, they believe in being saved through his blood and his blood alone).

The church as a whole is divided into three divisions of Christianity. There is the Catholic church, the Orthodox Church, and the Protestant church. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox split over the argument of the pope. The Orthodox and Catholic church believe practically the same thing, except these founders didn't want to follow the pope. The Protestant Revolution split the Catholic church again and gave birth to every other denomination that is known today. All of them differ in the styles of worship and some of the doctrine is different, but they agree on the things that are essential to Christianity -- believing in the saving blood of Christ Jesus. Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Catholics, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and so on, are all Christians.

Some Protestant churches are like the Catholic church in the sense that they are what is called liturgical. This means that they follow the full Christian calendar. This means it starts with Advent (preparation time for Christmas), Christmas, Transfiguration Sunday (found in Luke 9:28-36), Lent (the preparation time for Easter, which ends with Holy Week), Holy week (includes the last week of events of Christ's life, Palm Sunday (Luke 19:28-40), Maundy Thursday (The Last Supper--Luke 22:7-23), Good Friday (the day of Christ's death - Luke 23:26-56), Easter is that follow Sunday (Luke 24:1-35), the Ascension of Jesus (Luke 24:50-53), Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13), Trinity Sunday (The day we remember that God a God in three persons), Christ the King Sunday (last sunday of the Christian year that remembers that Jesus is the King of Kings!). The liturgical churches are Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, United Methodist, Presbyterian USA, and United Church of Christ. My source for this is the fact that I'm United Methodist so I simply know this from experience.

The Catholic church differs on some things like the number of sacraments (holy practices) that they follow. The claim some things as one while others do not claim them. For example, they claim the act of confession as a sacrament. Other churches follow Confession in their daily prayer life, but they do not believe it as a sacrament as the Catholic church does. Some people believe that Catholic church worships Mary, but this is simply not true. I know many Catholics and this just is NOT the case. I have a great friend who works in the church, and he told me that if they worshipped anything other than God he wouldn't be there.

I know this is a long answer, but it's a complicated answer. It's not just a simply "yes they are all Christians". Like I said, many people do not believe that the catholic church is Christian, but it is due to the vast number of misunderstandings. If you have ANY questions about this stuff, PLEASE email me. I'd be happy to talk to you. I happen to LOVE talking about this exact subject. You can find my email in my profile.

Answer 6

There are so many denominations for several reasons. (1) Each denomination has a slightly different doctrine or emphasis from the others. (2) As people started churches, they simply gave them different names. (3) Denominations are good in that if you attended a Baptist church in one town, and then moved to another town, you could attend a similar Baptist church in the new town. The Lutheran denomination was named after Martin Luther. The Methodists got their name because their founder, John Wesley, was famous for coming up with “methods” for spiritual growth. Presbyterians are named for their view on church leadership - the Greek word for elder is "presbyteros." Baptists got their name because they have always emphasized the importance of baptism.



We, as believers, must believe the same on the essentials of the faith, but beyond that there is great latitude in how a Christian should worship, serve, and live his life. This latitude is what causes so many different flavors of Christianity. Diversity is a good thing, but disunity is not. If two churches disagree doctrinally, it is fine that they remain separate. This separation, though, does not lift the responsibility Christians have to love one another (1 John 4:11-12) – and ultimately be united as one in Christ (John 17:21-22).

Recommended Resource: The Master's Plan for the Church by John MacArthur.

Answer 7

No, he got it wrong. Catholics are Christians but Christians are not necessarily Catholics. Catholicism is a branch of Christianity and Baptist is a sect of the Protestant branch of Christianity.

Answer 8

Christian is the religion...
Catholic, Baptist, etc... is the sect.
Protestants are, generally, all non-catholic Christians... called that because of the people who "protested" the things the Catholic Church taught.

Baptists, Pentecostal, etc... All Protestants.

Answer 9

Catholicism is a form of Christianity that has been corrupted by pagan influences ever since about 350 A.D., maybe sooner.
The true form of Christianity was practiced by the early church in the first or second century after Christ's Resurrection. During the Dark Ages, the Catholics persecuted and martyred the true Church. Anyone who put the Bible above the Pope was tortured and executed. You could be executed simply for having a page of Scripture on your person. The Gospel had to be spread covertly. Its adherents had to hide out in the mountains to avoid persecution by the Vatican. This is why they were called the "Dark Ages", because the Light of the Bible was almost extinguished. It wasn't until the Bible was printed in the vernacular that we began to come out of the Dark Ages.
"Protestant" is a term for any non-Catholic Christian. However, today there is an ecumenical movement to reunite Protestants with the "Mother Church", the Catholic Church who almost destroyed them centuries ago. You will find more and more Protestant Christian churches' doctrines disagree less and less with each other, and their policies reflect those of the Vatican. If the founders of these churches knew what they were doing today, they'd turn over in their graves. It's kind of scary. If the Catholic Church regains power, the Dark Ages will return, and those who follow Scripture will once again be persecuted.

Answer 10

Here is a new word for you today: Denomination. Each of these religions is a denomination of Christianity. Anyone who worships Jesus is a Christian.

Baptists are Protestants, dear. Christians who are not Catholic are Protestants.

Baptists have a lot to answer for, for making sure their members know so little about their own religion. Christianity has to be in sorry shape when a Pagan (me) knows more about the basic-basic structure of Christianity than one of its adherants.