People say the bible is against catholics?

Question

Many people, mostly protestants, say that catholics do things the bible says is wrong. What exactly do we do thats so wrong?

And i dont mean what a handfull of preists did. I mean the actual rituals and what not that catholics follow.

And no, we do not worship mary

Answer 1

Well, they claim you engage in idolatry (they think you worship and pray to the Crucifix instead of use it as a symbol of devotion and rememberance).

If they claim you are doing things that are against the bible, ask them if they still eat shrimp. It too is forbidden in the old testament.

Answer 2

What Protestants mean is

1. The Catholic Church has rituals and traditions that are not found in the Bible. This is true. No where does the Bible state that it is the source of all truth. Something else to think about - which existed first, the Church or the Bible? The Church selected the books that make up the Bible from hundreds of religious writings. This does not make the other books uninspired, they just didn't make the cut.

2. The Catholic Church does not agree with THEIR interpretation of the Bible. The Protestant churches did not come into existence until 1500 years AFTER the Catholic Church was formed.

Answer 3

As a recent convert to the faith, I must admit that not to many Catholics read the bible outside of the gospel on Sunday.
However, few people (many 'anti-catholics') know how much are catechism takes the after the bible.

I know because I used to be one. I tried to prove the religion was wrong and ended up converting in the process.

As a former non-believer we used not bible quotes to back up our statements but how Cathoilc Rituals were anti-christian, (praying to Mary, ritual service, the eucharist.) we would use scripture to back these statements up and persuade inactive Catholics to our way of thinking.

There growing number of people reverting and converting to the faith, mostly based on the scripture and how after centuries it still holds through, despite the turmoil and corruption that is put through by the leaders.

I have learned many people leave the Catholic faith for social reasons, and people convert for theological reasons. Despite what the anti catholics say, Catholics should learn thier own faith that way it will help ignorant people understand.

My own family tried to stop my conversion process using quotes from the bible. However they could not compete with the evidence I found in the bible for them.

Answer 4

I"d like to know as well. I've been a Roman Catholic my entire life (36 yrs) and even though I have sinned (we all have, we are human) I have never found the Catholic church doing anything against what God's word says.

I have been attending 2 Bible studies for the past 4 years. I've done 2 studies on the papacy alone. I have no idea why others think we are evil. Jesus Christ gave us His authority and sent the Holy Spirit to guide the Church. The pope keeps us knowledgable about scripture. The Christian churches that don't follow the pope do their own interpretations and they have it wrong. And I've seen their congregations becoming lost and confused. Many yearn for a leader. The pope is the leader on earth with the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of God) leading him. Jesus is the highest priest.

I'll be interested to read what others say. Peace!

Answer 5

Catholics do not keep slaves and do not enforce capital punishment for those who speak a curse over their parents as the Bible instructs us to do.

I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. (John 16:12-13)

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"?

Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

We instruct you, brothers, in the name of (our) Lord Jesus Christ,to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. (2 Thessalonians 3:6)

I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you. (1 Corinthians 11:2)

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

Praying to Mary. The Bible doesn't say to do that. Praying to saints. This is more of a pagan practice than anything. Baptizing babies is not in the Bible. No where in the Bible does Jesus or the Apostles say that partaking in communion is making the bread and wine the "literal acutal pysical" body of Jesus Christ, Catholics believe this. The Rosary...Another pagan practice adopted by Catholics. For over 1200 years only the priest, monks, bishops, cardinals and other important religious people were allowed to read the Bible. Pergatory...not in the Bible. The big one...confessing to a priest...Jesus said this is not neccessary because of the priesthood of the believer. Every Christian has their own right to pray directy to God without seeing a human priest. The Bible does not say you have to go through years of training and rituals in order to be a Christian but Catholics believe that. I am sure there are other things that is not Biblical practices of Catholicism but this is all I can think of.

Now if you ask what are some good things about Catholicism I can make a long list on that too.

Answer 7

That's really a pretty silly thing to say, considering that the bishops of the Catholic Church alone were responsible for compiling the Bible, and compiled it for the exclusive use of the Catholic Church. So obviously they did not include anything in their book that was contrary to Catholic teaching. What Protestants really mean of course is that Catholic teaching conflicts with their own personal interpretations of the Bible. But so what? Their personal biblical interpretations also conflict with the interpretations of hundreds of other Protestant groups. This just demonstrates the futility of attepting to find truth through personal biblical interpretation. If Protestants themselves can't agree on the meaning of a single passage, it doesn't seem they are in a very good position to criticise the biblical interpretations of the Church to which the Bible was given, the only Church founded by and approved by Jesus Christ Himself, the Church to which He promised "the Holy Spirit will guide you to all truth", and "whatsoever you bind upon earth is bound in heaven".

Answer 8

We dont do anything wrong. Those people you are speaking about just repeat all the rumors they have heard without investigating the Catholic Church to see if its true or not. Like saying we worship Mary. We can tell them til we turn blue that all we do is ask her to pray for us and that we ONLY worship God, but instead of believing a Catholic, they believe the lies from Chick Tracts and such

Answer 9

get ready for all the wise comments and vast misconceptions regarding our catholic faith. as your question is more directed to protestants i offer these sites for them to research our faith more, atleast those that are interested, you may enjoy them yourself, good question and god bless.

www.scripturecatholic.com
www.catholiceducation.org
www.newadvent.org
www.ewtn.com
www.fisheaters.com
www.salvationhistory.com

more importantly the bible, the writings of the early church fathers and a catechism. i implore those with the misconceptions to turn to catholic sources when trying to understand our faith, you don't have to agree but atleast for the sake of tolerance and understanding.

to celtic rose, i am from ireland, a european country with relatives in other european nations, the catholics in the states are on the same page as those in europe(i am currently in america). that is the beauty of the catholic faith, you go to another town or even country you will be taught the same thing. in my humble opinion that is the only christian faith where such unity can be found.

Answer 10

Pastor Billy says: I'm just happy to see all the Catholics asking questions now. Keep up the great work and keep asking questions hopefully non-Catholics will become better educated by us engaging them. Pray for them to listen that is after all the major roadblock.