Question concerning my belief in God, Jesus Christ and the Popes statement that Catholic Church is true church

Question

I believe nearly everything the Catholics believe except for the following...
1-- I don't believe there needs to be a Pope to speak for Christ
2-- I don't need to confess my sins to a priest of pastor. I can
speak directly to God through Jesus Christ.
3-- I believe in believers baptism
4-- I believe communion is the way we remember and honor
Christ but it is not literally partaking of His literal body
5-- I don't go for the rituals such as the rosary, saint hood,
Holy Water, & Mary as a mediator between man and God.

Other than that if I were to talk about the Bible with a educated Catholic and a Baptist I would agree more with what the Catholic says than the Baptist....and I am Bapitst.....LOL. So am I still in error with my faith? What do you think?

I mentioned I don't "go for sainthood" but I guess I need to clearify...I don't pray to saints. I only pray to Jesus Christ.

Answer 1

You are not in error. You are a Christian, a member of Christ's church.

About the pope, I don't want to offend any catholics but I think the pope(the present one) is arrogant. I'm sure that a lot of faiths say that their church is the right one. What the pope seems to forget is that all Christians(including catholics)are one church.
I am with you on your 5 arguments/points..
1.The pope just gives arrogance to some catholics about the catholic church. I used to be a catholic, my dad is very arrogant about the catholic church.
2. About confession, my dad once told me that the reason why we had to confess to a priest was because Jesus is soooooo busy to hear all the confessions himself.
3. I agree with you about believers water baptism
4. I almost had an argument with my dad about communion. He used it as his basis for why my church doesn't believe in Jesus.
5. All born again believers are said to be saints, or at least strive to be. Praying to all these different saints that are dead - it doesn't do anything because they ARE dead, Mary is dead. It says in the Bible somewhere that the dead can't help us. That includes Mary and the saints. I have no idea how holy water came about, my church has oil that they use to anoint.

All of us who believe in salvation thru Jesus Christ are a part of His Church, its that simple. We all just worship in different buildings.

Answer 2

I'll address your reservations in order.
1. The idea of the Pope came about when Jesus said to Peter, thou art rock, and upon this rock, I build my church. It was an obvious play on words. Whether or not he intended Peter to be the foundational rock is the question that is argued. Some fundamentalists would say that Jesus called Peter a rock, but that faith was the rock of the foundation of the church. If that were the case, I would have to wonder why Peter was then given the new name. It doesn't make sense to me.

2. Jesus said to confess our sins to one another, and not just to God. Confession, to another person is a humbling act, and can lead to a greater motivation to live a better life. "I'm subservient to God alone" does not lead to the same level of humility as "I need to be accountable to my fellow man". Too, Christ gave to the apostles the authority to forgive sins. This is the model that the Catholic church follows.

3. With a story in the Bible of a man "and his whole family" being baptized, there is some evidence for the Catholic church's position. True, we don't have a description of the "sprinkling" practice, but neither do we have good evidence that everyone was completely submerged.

4. Jesus said "Take and eat THIS IS MY BODY". He doesn't seem to have been speaking figuratively.

5. True enough, there is no Biblical model for a rosary and holy water. Still, Jesus himself is a Jew, and Judaism is replete with ritual. The concept that if a thing is not mentioned in the Bible, that it must therefore be proscribed is itself man-made.

As for praying to saints and such, that is no different than you or I asking another person to pray for us, for the saints themselves are merely people (including Mary). There is nothing in the Bible to say that once a person is dead, that it is wrong to continue to ask them to pray for us, and that is all that prayer to a saint is. Prayer to a saint is NOT a form of worship, it is merely a request for prayer on our behalf.

Some say that tradition is a bad thing, and should not be followed. It is important to remember that the Bible itself is tradition. It is oral tradition that has been written down, with the exception of the letters, which we presume to have been handed down. Too, the particular canon of scripture that is chosen is tradition. There is no description in the Bible that details which books are to be included. Those were chosen by men, so even in the act of choosing a particular Bible, you are exercising an act of "tradition".

On the other hand, I'm no longer a Christian, but I think that one needs to look at their criticism of the Catholic faith with open eyes, an open mind and reason.

--Dee

Answer 3

I'm Baptist, and you sound more like a Baptist to me. But, that really doesn't matter. God doesn't care about denominations. He cares about your heart. It sounds like your heart is right with God. Faith isn't about a certain church. It is about what you believe to be the truth. That's why Jesus died for us. So we can have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. That is what being a Christian is about. That's why when He talks about the CHURCH, He is talking about His body of believers, not a particular CHURCH DENOMINATION. That's where I don't agree with the Catholics. They think they are the only ones going to heaven because they are in the "True church" Not so!!! Like I said, the CHURCH IS THE BODY OF BELIEVERS IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, NOT THE CATHOLIC "CHURCH", NOT THE BAPTIST "CHURCH", NOT THE LUTHERAN "CHURCH", NOT THE METHODIST "CHURCH", etc.!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 4

That makes you a pretty theologically correct protestant... Some churches (like Baptists) have their own traditions and "rules" that they adhere to without really having much of a base for them. You could try to find an independent church that in more in line with what you think. I'm a protestant and I have several issues with the Catholic church because of many of the their contradictory traditions and beliefs that are not based on the Bible (though I knew they would disagree with me). Perhaps you should research theology/the Bible/churches more in depth to figure out where you stand.

Answer 5

Which denomination that you are in agreement with does not really matter to God. He cares about what is in your heart.
A true Christian is a person who has put his or her faith and trust in the person of Jesus Christ and fact that He died on the cross as payment for sins and rose again on the third day to obtain victory over death and to give eternal life to all who believe in Him. John 1:12 tells us: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” A true Christian is indeed a child of God, a part of God’s true family, and one who has been given new life in Christ. The mark of a true Christian is love for others and obedience to God’s Word (1 John 2:4; 1 John 2:10).

Answer 6

Not all Baptists believe everything, just as not all Catholics believe everything. You failed to mention whether you believe praying to "saints" is ok.

Based on the information you gave, you would agree with the Baptists more than the Catholics, who base their religion on the things you said you disagree with.

Answer 7

In other words, you consider yourself Christian, but you accept numerous new traditions of men that no-one ever heard of until a few hundred years ago, and you reject many core Christian beliefs that every Christian on earth believed and accepted for 1,500 years after Christ. So, the real question is - by what authority did the human founders of your manmade tradition reject so many core beliefs of Christianity, replacing them with modern human traditions of their own invention?

Jesus said the truth would set us free. Obviously the truth cannot be represented by an tradition of thousands of manmade denominations who can't agree with one another on a single doctrinal issue. The Church is the body of believers in the truth, not the "body of believers" in just any idea that popped into someone's head - because that isn't an body at all. Jesus knew you cannot have truth without unity, and you cannot have unity without genuine authority. That's why He entrusted the keys to the kingdom and the power of binding and loosing to one man, personally appointed by Him. The history of the Church under that one man's God-given authority - 2,000 years of unity in belief, unity in teaching and unity in worship. History of Christian tradition separated from true authority - 500 years of continuous fragmentation into thousands of conflicting, contradicting unauthorized manmade denominations. Which of these sounds more like the stated will of God - "that they all may be ONE"?

Answer 8

So you believe that Mary was immaculately conceived just like Jesus?

You believe that Mary is the intercessor between men and Christ.

You believe that Catholicism is the only true christian church?

You believe church services should be conducted in a language only the priest understands?

I'd say you've answered your own question. You disagree with them on every fundamental level. I would find a church that jibes with everything you believe. Rather, I would make sure what you believe agrees with scripture (and nothing the catholics believe does) and THEN find a church that completely agrees with scripture.

Answer 9

you may want to check out a Greek Orthadox church, i don't know all of their belifes, but what i do know is this

they don't believe in the pope, i don't think they have confession,they do baptise, i'm pretty sure to them communion is a symbol

my only problem is that pretty much the whole thing is in Greek, though they have books in the church that translate the Greek so if you can figure that out i suppose that wouldn't be an issue

Answer 10

I am *not* surprised by your position at all. Anyone who seriously studies Catholicism with an open mind will be 'Catholic' in mind, if not in 'practice'.

You are a Christian, so let it be.

If you don't believe in those practices of Catholicism, maybe you can find out what those practices/beliefs are all about, in-depth, and talk to a seminarian priest about them and why you don't believe in them. At the very least, it would be interesting to get t o know, right?