Why do some Christians especially the fundamentalist accuse the Roman Catholic Church of not being.....?

Question

"the real Christians".

Technically we are what the Christian religon is.

Our church is the only church that can be traced back to the apostles.

In the beginning of the protestant groups they broke away so they could do their own thing for example get a divorce and remarry.

I respect everyones religion but it seems like the fundies are so rude and only think they are right.

Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, Agnostic, Buddists just about every other group I can think of is more respectful of others than some of these fundies.

What do you think

Answer 1

You are correct. They quote many verses, but are ignorant of the historical development of Christianity. They don't realize that the Body of Christ is a living organism, and like any other living thing, it will not look the same as it did 2000 years ago, just as you do not look like your baby pictures even though you are the same person.
They think the Word of God is a book, and fail to remember that the Word LIVES - It became Flesh and dwelt among us, and He lives on in the Church.
They often buy into simplistic anti-Catholic publications that reinforce their anti-Catholic attitudes.
Remember: America is historically anti-Catholic, and that attitude is part of the American pyschi.
Just look at the answer below by "searching": She thinks that we teach salvation by works, which means she doesn't know what we teach. These false assumptions are handed around and are never investigated. All you have to do is read the Catechism (which is online) and you will see that we do NOT teach salvation by works, that we do NOT worship Mary, etc. They are ignorant of the faith

Answer 2

You bring up an excellent point, JS. Here's my personal take.

I'm a Protestant. I don't see enough compelling evidence of the primacy of Peter to believe in the concept of him as the appointed head of the Church. If I did, I'd have to be a Catholic, because any other arguement would be a moot point, what with Papal innerency on doctrinal issues and all.

But I have my beefs with the Protestant side of the house, too. I can't help but believe that Martin Luther could have found a better way than splitting the Church. Not that the Catholic Church is all that catholic nowadays, what with Eastern and Greek orthodoxy, the various sects within Roman Catholicism, and other divisions, but at least they reach out to each other. It's hard to get a Baptist to even talk to a Methodist sometimes, and don't get me started on Pentecostal hang-ups!

I think the real problem that most Protestants have with Catholics is that we just don't understand Liturgy. They don't understand why it is so important to fling water at people and burn incence. They don't know the significance of keeping things in that little gold box. And then there's transubstantiation. If Paul believed the bread and the wine were really the body and blood, then why did he refer to it as bread and a cup in I Corinthians 11?

But you are right, of course. We can be a tiresome lot. But aren't there tiresome people in every group?

Answer 3

Unfortunately, you cannot compare the two. Fundamentalism is run separately by each pastor of each church. They are not bound together under a similar belief, only that they *try* and live according to the Bible. But this causes many problems. I've been to some churches that allow women to preach and assist during the service and they say it's according to the Bible. I've been to some where they *don't* allow women to preach and assist during the service because they say it's against the Bible. I've been to ones that have instruments and say it's according to the Bible and again, I've been to ones that say instruments are against the Bible during service and it should only be singing. It is at the whim of whatever the pastor decides is against or isn't against the Bible. It is however they interpret the Bible that the rest of that church will have to interpret it. But you could go right down the street to their sister church and it could be completely different. There really is no way to compare such a broken and dis-unified denomination to the Catholic Church. If I had to though, I would say that the Catholic Church is probably more progressive. We are, after all, the reason many sciences exist. We were the first to build universities for the study of the earth, nature and the galaxy. As long as it is not against God, the Church will accept it, God gave us intellect for a reason and the Church is behind many of the amazing discoveries that have been made by man. We must be progressive in one sense though because we have to keep up with the world and be able to reach people. That is why now there is a Vatican Youtube channel, it's why we can now get news to our brethren faster. We use the internet so that people can find the information they need to and we make sure to say what we believe and teach clearly, unlike the Fundamentalists that have no actual documents. I would like to take a moment and speak about your examples though: <> This was not a Church belief. We did not state one way or the other, but it was a belief of the time that the world was flat. Everyone believed it, but it was actually a Catholic monarchy that funded Columbus' trip so that he could prove his hypothosis. <> The Church, again, never taught this as a Catholic Church teaching. It was, again, the belief of the time. Though the problem the Church did have with Galileo was not his belief because the Church already had some speculation because of Capurnicus (whom Galileo based his theories off of), but that Galileo had no proof and wanted it to be included in the Doctrine of Faith by the Catholic Church. The Church said no, it was not what the Doctrine of Faith was about and refused. Galileo had no proof, and many of his theories were wrong, but he demanded they were fact with no proof. That was the problem there. <> The Church still states that Darwin's theory of evolution (in the sense that we were created from chaos and possible chance of x-genes) is a false teaching. The Church does though say that God *could* have created the world through evolution, we do not know. If you wish to believe in the 7 day story of Creation, then you can. If you wish to believe that 7 is a symbolic number meaning that God created the world perfectly, but it could've taken more than 7 days, you can. If you wish to believe that God created the world by banging 2 rocks together, you can. As long as you acknowledge that God is the Creator and He created us in His image. But the Church will never "progress" (as what society considers progression) in things that are against God: --Contraception --Abortion --Embryonic Stem Cell Research --Cloning --Eugenics --Hybrid Testing (mixing a human egg with chimp sperm) As long as it is against God, we will be against it as His Church. But from my experience, I would say the Church is more progressive than many Fundamentalist churches, though not all because they have no one set of beliefs.

Answer 4

You're right.

The 'church' is both the collection of all followers of Christ (Christians) but it is also an institution with leaders (Matt 18:15-17; Acts 15:28-29 and Acts 16:4). Since the church is the foundation and defender of the truth (1 Tim 3:15) and that Jesus promised the Apostles the the Holy Spirit will guide them into all truth (John 16:13) and that He will be with them until the end of time (John 14:1). Then the Church that Christ founded has a visible origin who's author is Jesus Christ and that Church will be guided into all truth until the end of time (at His return).

God Bless
Robin

Answer 5

The Christian religion "technically" is recorded in the New Testament.
The “first church” is the church that is recorded in the New Testament, especially in the Book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul. The New Testament church is the “original church” and the “one true church.” We can know this because it is described, in great detail, in Scripture. The church, as recorded in the New Testament, is God’s pattern and foundation for His church. On this basis, let’s examine the Roman Catholic claim that it is the “first church.” Nowhere in the New Testament will you find the “one true church” doing any of the following: praying to Mary, praying to the saints, venerating Mary, submitting to a pope, having a select priesthood, baptizing an infant, observing the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as sacraments, or passing on apostolic authority to successors of the apostles. All of these are core elements of the Roman Catholic faith. If most of the core elements of the Roman Catholic Church were not practiced by the New Testament Church (the first church and one true church), how then can the Roman Catholic Church be the first church? A study of the New Testament will clearly reveal that the Roman Catholic Church is not the same church as the church that is described in the New Testament.

You are calling all Protestants that do not agree with your false teachings Fundamentalists. Protestants who know their Bible do not go around saying Catholics are not Christians. A Christian is not a Christian because of their denomination.

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.

Answer 6

Evangelists as a whole don't respect anyone or anything....

....'cept money.

Note how, RIGHT AFTER they go on some hatemongering tirade, or more or less claiming everyone is assaulting Christianity...they hand out the collection plate. They claim that they might die soon! Then they hand out the collection plate.

Jesus cast the money-changers OUT of the temples. It was the idiocy of the Evangelist that brought them back, along with an idolatrous worship of the King James Bible. I honestly do not count such people as holy men, but then, I say the same of anyone who bastardizes the words of ANY religion to push their own personal agendas on others, regardless of denomination.

My denomination? I ain't got one, really. I have yet to find one in the area that I actually get along with, so I merely identify meself as "Christian" and leave it at that.

Answer 7

Bottom line is that religions are the ones responsible for division and hate among people, simply because they are not of God. (Galatians 5:8) The Lord called us to be one body (The church) just like they did in the primitive church (Book of Acts) so then i dont understand why men have to divide it into sub groups. the important thing here is faith through love. and the liberty that God gave us through Jesus Christ.

Answer 8

Some fundamentalists have been leveling that particular accusation at us since their denominations began. As far as I can tell, there are two basic reasons: ignorance (in the sense of not knowing something) or malice.

As someone else has already pointed out, many people who accuse us of worshipping Mary, putting the Pope ahead of God, etc., are simply repeating what they've been taught. "Brother So-and-so preached a sermon about how bad those Catholics are, and he went to Bible school, so he must be right." Many times, if we sit down and explain why we believe what we do to this kind of person, they understand our viewpoint and decide that we're not so bad after all.

The other group attack Catholics out of prejudice and hatred. I've seen plenty of that here in this Forum: people who think that theirs is the only "real" religion and that anyone who disagrees with them is hell bound. That borders on bigotry in my opinion.

There will always be fanatics in any group, but when Christians attack their brothers and sisters in Christ just because they don't agree them, it brings shame to the Name of our Lord and Savior.

Answer 9

I always thought it was funny, when I was a Catholic, how the fundie Protestants went on and on about how Catholics weren't real Christians ... when the fact of the matter is, Catholics were the FIRST Christians.

That's not to say the Catholic church was ever perfect. It was a human institution, and it needed reforms over the centuries. That's why people like Martin Luther rose to prominence and are still respected today.

If you hear someone start in about how Catholics worship statues or saints, or that they take their orders directly from the pope, you can be certain that person has never set foot in a Catholic church and has no idea what he's talking about. It's all misinformed prejudice.

Answer 10

You say that your church the catholic church can be traced back to the Apostles, friend I hate to tell you, No you can NOT prove that, There was no such thing as the catholic church in the time of the Apostles of Old. The catholic church came alone many years later, mainly around 300 AD, & if you try to say that your teachings are from the apostles, Again i have to say no they are NOT, You teach that a priest can not marry, & yet you claim to be a succesor to Peter, Again, No your NOT, Peter was a married man, & Peter Baptized people in water by complete immursion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, & Peter never did baptize any babies as the catholic church does, Peter never did teach there was 3 gods or 3 persons in the godhead & all 3 are co-equal, Peter did teach that there was ONE GOD & ONE IN THE GODHEAD, with 3 different manesfestation of that same spirit of God as God the Creator, & then God In his son, reconciling the world back unto himself, & then God as the Holy Ghost, But not 3 different persons in the godhead, Remember God is NOT a person, nor is the Holy Ghost, They are a Spirit, & only ONE SPIRIT. Now show me anything that the catholic church teaches that goes back to the teachings of the Apostles, The Apostle Paul even said if anyone or an angel from heaven preach unto you any other gospel then what we have preached, let him be accursed.