Why people who say Catholics are not Christians count Catholics when talking about the number of Christians?

Question

Subtract the billion Catholics from your statistics and suddenly Christianity becomes a rather insignificant religion.

Answer 1

I class Catholics as Christians, just a warped sense of Christianity, they say they live for Jesus but their Doctrine is Pauline based and they seem to put more emphasis on the Virgin Mother and the Saints of their church, but this is done to add credulity to their claim as The Chosen Church. Catholic Saints with the miracles of healing, well! they must be the chosen Ecclesiastes of God? Eh!


EDIT: wow 6 down within seconds, goodness you Catholics are touchy, are you that insecure that you cannot take criticism? what! its OK 4 U too call me the Devil incarnate, say I have no empathy or love because I am Atheist, thats Ok? but I can't say anything against your church? do you not see how blind, arrogant, and ignorant that makes you?


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One of the erroneous teachings of the Catholic church is the Doctrine of praying to the Saints of their chruch. The church teaches its congregation that it is OK to offer prayers, not only to their God, but also to the adorned, such as Mary, Joseph, Peter, Paul, Stephen, Augustine and even other Popes!! Is it Christian to Pray to anyone else but your God?

the Catholic Papacy uses Revelations 5: 8-14 to justify Praying for the saints.
there is no biblical teaching that states Christians are permitted to pray to those that once lived on earth. Revelation, the same book they use to justify their doctrine also contradicts it;
Reveleations 19:10; " And I fell at his feet to worship him, and he said unto me, " do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who told the teatimony of Jesus; worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophesy"

John wants to bow and worship the Angel, but the Angel tells him not to do so because he is a fellow creature. If the angel says that he is a fellow creature like John, that john is not to bow b4 him, does this not mean that no-one should bow b4 an Anglel or any other creature of God?
Biblically, prayer is always offered to God, it is a form of worship. All religions view prayer as an act of worship to their respective Gods, not Gods created things. Non Catholic Theists pray as a humble petition to their Lord and the Lord only, for anything else is Idolatrous.
the act of praying to the Saints, somewhat lesser than Angels in the heirarchy of Heaven, is against the wishes of your God portrayed in the bible. Idolatry, something millions of Pagans died for at the hand and sword of the Chrsitians, has become as symbol of Catholicism. an example would be the Black Madonna, one of the many Idols worshipped by the Catholic church, she sits behind the Golden screen at the Jasna Gora in Poland. Every day Mass is celebrated constantly for hundreds upon hundreds of Pilgrimms. It is said ( by Catholics) that the Black Madonna was painted by non other than St Luke himself, upon a beam of wood within the house of Jesus in Nathereth ( though the fact that Luke neve met Jesus or Mary, kind of slips everyones mind) the entire painting is covered with a Gold, silver and jewel encrusted Robes, with only the hands and feet of the Virgin Mother and her son showing to the public. They announce the opening of the Shrine with Trumets and horns, then at the very last minute the drums start to roll.......................then slowly the painting is revealed while the congregation prostrate themselves b4 the Idol. by the way while all this is going on the Preist all run around with plates squeezing every ounce of cash out of the congregation b4 the shrine is opened.

such Capitalism, such hypocracy, such Idolatry, such nonsense!!!!

Answer 2

Boy, this one was fun. Checking the answers given, I see that

7 Gave an ecumenial message
5 Proclaimed the superiority of Catholics
3 Took the high moral plane and avoided rating the Catholics
3 Said that Catholics are Christians
2 Said that Catholics are not Christians
1 Said that Catholics are just erroneous
1 Said that Fundies are nuts

Of course there's going to be people who 1) say that Catholics aren't Christians, and yet 2) include them when counting Christians of the world. It's not any different from people who say both 1) The majority of Americans are Christians and therefore this is a Christian Nation, and 2) American Christians are a persecuted minority of people, savaged by non-Christians and assorted heathens and atheists. You just can't win. I would argue that perhaps some people change their stance to the advantage of whatever argument they happen to be making at the time. Ya think?

Answer 3

WITH Catholics included, Christianity is the world's largest religion, with over two billion adherents, and Jesus has succeeded in fashioning a people for himself.

WITHOUT Catholics - and let's face it, if they're dropping Catholics, they're also dropping the likeminded Orthodox, Copts, and Armenians, who also have sacraments, priests, and veneration of the saints - that number drops.... well it drops to a handful of wingnuts from the Southern Baptist Convention, a few free evangelicals, and some flailing around wild eyed Pentecostals.

Let's just say Christianity drops off the top ten list altogether, and Mohammed, Buddha, Vishnu are all now more successful than Jesus.

So anti-Catholics - you have a choice to make... are you sure, and I do mean SURE - that you don't want to include our billions of people? Are you on the side of putting all these other religious figures like Mohammed at the top and in first place? I'm sure the Muslims would like that. Or are you with wanting Jesus on top? Who will you stand with?

Answer 4

Yes, Catholics are Christians, too. Where people get confused is because of the volume of errors contained within that Christian religion. However, every Christian religion, to this very day, which has come out of the Catholic church (directly or indirectly) also contains errors -- albeit, fewer of them. The 144,000 will be the only perfect Christian religion in this earth -- and they will be translated to Heaven without seeing death. After them, there is a great multitude, which no man can number (Rev. 7:9), which are still saved, too.

Answer 5

This is idiotic...the Romans were the first to collect and save the scriptures...they were the first church
it's called the Roman Catholic church ....every so called "Christian" group is just another deviation from the Protestant reformation Lutheran,Presbyterian,Baptist,Methodist and on and on have been slowly replaced with evangelicals who now call them selves "Christians" as their self righteous moniker.
ALL "Christians" are is just deviations from the first Church and first Bible

Answer 6

Numbers don't make Christianity. I actually think that there are some saved Catholics, as there are some saved Protestants.

I think that your question is a good one because it shows how off the mark that arguments are becoming. It doesn't matter how many of what are out there, God determines what is significant. Not numbers, never wee numbers of people an issue to God when it came to His grace and righteousness. According to the Bible, God only wants a remnant anyway.

So this bickering is hopefully going to become less and less. God does not want most people! There are two kinds of people on the Earth, the saved and the unsaved. There might be some unsaved people who will be saved, but God only knows who they are. To me, that is what we are supposed to be doing. Stop bickering, grow in the Lord, and preach the Gospel.

Answer 7

Because people don't take the time to educate themselves before they make stupid statements.

It's more self-righteous to just spout off.

Christian= a person who believes in Jesus Christ and follows His teachings.

Answer 8

You can't subtract Catholics from Christians. They are Christians.

We'd be better off subtracting the few fundamentalists who claim Catholics are not Christians...Christianity wouldn't even notice them missing.

Answer 9

I don't count Catholics when talking about the number of Christians. The number of true Christians, meaning those who will not be sent to the lake of fire on judgment day is much smaller than the number of people who claim to be Christians.

Answer 10

There are many Christian denominations and churches: Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, and so on.
http://www.everystudent.com/forum/difference.html

Answer 11

Numbers seem to impress people.