What exactly does the Catholic faith believe in?

Question

And what is with the Roman and Greek Orthadox? A friend and I are just curious...

Don't they believe in different levels of hell, do they believe in different levels of heaven??

Answer 1

The simplest answer is that a Catholic or Orthodox believes:

"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. Born of the Father before all ages. God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God. Begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father. By whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And He became flesh by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary: and was made man. He was also crucified for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. And on the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And of His kingdom there will be no end. And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. Who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, and who spoke through the prophets. And one holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the world to come. Amen."

That is about it. There is one thing that strongly differentiates them both from Protestants. Both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox insist that everything that is done or believed, must conform to that which was left to us by the apostles. That means that what was believed at the beginning cannot be voted on or changed because it is no longer liked or agreed with. So women, for example cannot be priests because Jesus didn't appoint any women as apostles, nor did the apostles ordain any (the lists of every Catholic and Orthodox bishop include no women), nor did their successors the bishops (See Acts 2 on the ordination of Mathias).

Likewise, it is Catholic and Orthodox belief that the Church is Catholic or "all embracing," in other words under no circumstance do you get to go off on your own and start your own denomination no matter how strongly you disagree with anyone. The word Catholic literally means to hug all.

Finally, the services used by the Catholic and the Orthodox date back to the first century, which is why they seem so weird to an outsider. The Roman service is based upon the service left by the apostle Peter. The Greek service is based upon the service left by the apostles James. The Copt service was based upon the service left by Mark. However, all these services are four hours long. People are not that tolerant so they were "shortened for run time," as they say on TV. Still, the original services are on rare occasion used still today. The closest most people will see of them in the United States is at a Roman Catholic Church on the Vigil of Easter with its 13 Old Testament Readings, 13 Psalms, 13 Psalm prayers, the New Testament readings, the intercessory prayers, the baptism, confirmations, the litanies. It is long.

The Coptic Orthodox and the Coptic branch of the Catholic Church both use Mark's service on the Feast day of Mark. The Greek Church, both Catholic and Orthodox, still uses James' liturgy on occasion, but still rarely. It is long.

The Roman and Greek Churches are not separate churches but the one Church in schism. It isn't a complete schism anymore. Both are working diligently and ending the split. They are not different denominations, but just one denomination with a split down the middle. They are not in full unity nor in full schism. If an Orthodox bishop were to tell a Catholic to do something in good faith, they would hold the full apostolic authority of an apostle just as a Catholic bishop would.

Visually, the different branches of early Christianity look like different denominations, but that is because if you embrace all, then you embrace them as they are, not how you need them to be. Each branch has its own canon laws, its own prayers left to it by apostles, its own expressions of the faith, its own unique way of living out the Holy Spirit.

So, the short answer is that Catholic and Orthodox hold faithful to the teachings as originally given by the Eleven to their disciples the first bishops. Some of these teachings are given in the book we now call the New Testament, but some are not. The books of the New Testament are a lectionary. They are the books the Church chose to read on Sundays in the service. They are not the fullness of the truth, but the Church considers them inspired by God.

And the short answer to what a Catholic believes:

You are to love God with all your heart and mind.

You are to love your neighbor as yourself.

All the rest is just to keep life simple.

Answer 2

The Apostles' Creed pretty much sums it up:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell. [See Calvin]

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

As far as the Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox split, that occurred in the 11th century, over political, cultural, and religious differences between the two. Since the split they evolved on their own, so have slightly different rites and calendars, but our two churches are still basically the same. Recently the two have gotten closer together again.

Answer 3

LOL... Girl I could give you a long list....

- Trinity i.e worshiping the father, the son and holy ghost as one
- Purgatory i.e when someone dies if they don't go to heaven or hell there's a place between those two.
- Jesus Christ was born on Christmas day.
- Worshiping "The Virgin Mary"
- Woshiping Saints
- All Saints Day i.e a tradition of remembering the dead. It is usually done by placing lit candles from the person's grave to home. They say its a way of showing the dead person direction to come home.
- Baptizing babies - Baptizim should be a decision made by a person who understands what it means, babies don't.

Ok. That's only a few. I'll leave the rest up to other people to answer.
By the way all the above practices are not teaches of the bible.

Bye...

Answer 4

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty.

We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and live everlasting.


Might sound a little funny but this is the Apostles Creed which states our beliefs. I'd invite you to study up on it if you want more depth and detail.

God bless and take care.

Answer 5

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages. God of God, light of light, true God of true God. Begotten not made, one in being with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and the third day rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose Kingdom there shall be no end.

We believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (and the Son), who together with the Father and the Son is to be adored and glorified, who spoke by the Prophets. And one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

(That's the Nicene Creed, by the way, the statement of faith that every Roman Catholic says at every Mass.)

Greek, Russian or Eastern Orthodox are the same Church. Waaaaaay back in 1000-something, there was a war that prevented the western European Church from communicating with the Eastern Church. This went on for decades. When the two factions finally got back together, they saw some minor differences and one major difference ("Who's in charge here?") and excommunicated each other. In recent years, there has been some minor attempts at reconciliation, but the "Who's in charge here?" question keeps us apart.

Other than that, they believe almost all the same things, doctrine-wise.

Answer 6

I would like to encourage you to experience the comprehensive answer to your question at [www.GodsNews.com] regarding the Catholic Church and Mary. The following messages at the bottom of this website should be viewed: Airdates 07-3,10,17-07: IPC 2007 - Dr. Joe VanKoevering parts 1,2 & 3. Here's an official website regarding the next Marian dogma being petitioned to the current Pope at [www.VoxPopuli.org] by many Catholics and others. Review the evidence and decide for yourselves whether Mary is being honored or worshipped (or deified even). Enjoy! [(\o/)(XP)]

Answer 7

First, we don't have self assurance in predestination. Heaven is God's plan for each human guy or woman. 2nd, we don't have self assurance salvation would be earned. God invites us into the loving friendship for which we've been designed, and makes it a threat for us to stay invariably with him as his present. Jesus taught you will no longer have an intimate friendship with God maximum appropriate to eternal existence till you're born returned in baptism (Mark sixteen:sixteen; John 3:5), have self assurance Christ and placed faith in him (e.g., Luke 7:50, 8:12), resign your individual prerogatives (e.g., Matt 5:3, 10), repent to obtain forgiveness (Matt 3:2; 4:17; Luke a million:seventy seven, 24:40 seven), obey God and do what's purely and charitable (e.g., Matt 25; Luke 10:25-28; John 12:50), undertake the humility of a youngster (Matt 18:3-4; 19:14), consume the bread of existence (John 6:fifty one, fifty 3-fifty 4), and bear to the top (Matt 10:22, 24:13; Mark 13:13, Luke 21:sixteen-18). In different words, salvation would not come from purely believing a theological doctrine. Jesus defined getting into God's relatives as being born returned--an entire replace in a individual that starts at baptism, related to no longer purely faith, yet many forms of action. by using returning to an entire life of sin, we are able to divorce ourselves from God's relatives, that's why it somewhat is had to bear in fidelity to Christ till dying opens the door to eternal existence. people who practice that Catholic teachings contradict the Bible many times don't comprehend the two those teachings or the recent testomony, that's a decision of texts the church wrote, study, and chosen over a number of centuries. As a former Pentecostal, I even have stumbled on that the Bible interpreted properly to be thoroughly consistent with Catholic teachings and inconsistent with many Protestant teachings. case in point, James 2:24 says that we are no longer saved by using faith on my own. Cheers, Bruce

Answer 8

Along with all these great answers ( I'm not being sarcastic), we believe that God is the creator of all things visibale and non-visibale, human and non-human. That he sent down his son from heaven to forgive all our sins. The actual act of sinning started in the garden of good and evil, with Adam and Eve, when they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. Not only do we believe tha our Lord had come to forgive all our sins, but that he was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, but that also he will come again, during Armagedon, to save all those who believe in him, and to take us to everlasting live.

Answer 9

Some of us Catholics firmly believe in the children of Israel as being G-ds chosen people. After all Jesus was a Jewish man.

Answer 10

Here's a pretty comprehensive explanation in the link below.

There is way too much to talk about in a forum like this.

Email me with specific questions if you want.