What are the difference between Protestants and Catholics?

Question

It really make me wonder why many Evangelical churches emphasize much about abundance life on this church rather spending time on emphasizing the importance of eternal life, that life on this earth is so temporal.

Whats the use of leading an abundance life of happiness on this earth with material accomplishment if one to lose his soul in the eternal lake of fire?

Answer 1

er - back the train up a minute. Are you talking about the difference between Catholics and Protestants, or the difference between "abundant life" teachers and other Christians?

It seems that you're assuming too much.

And what IS "abundant life"? Jesus said "I came to give life, and that in abundance".

Or are you talking about the "prosperity" preachers, which is NOT the same as abundant life?

I mean, what IS your question, anyway??? How many apples does it take to make an orange??? What color is the yellow submarine??? What exactly are you asking???

Answer 2

Catholics
+ Catholics is the only church that is founded by Christ.
+ The Catholics worship God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit alone.
+ The Catholics believe in life after death.
+ The Catholics are the one who made the Bible.
+ The Catholics believe in "universal salvation".

Protestants
+Protestants are very obsessed with this "sola scriptura" thingy. Sola scriptura is in error, because, it was never even considered untill hundreds of years after Christ had died. If it was considered, Jesus would have written something himself. But instead He command, " do this, in memory of me".
+ Protestants doesn't really believe in Christ and eternal life.
+ Protestants believe more on the false gossips about the Catholic Church.

Answer 3

Evangelicism is not necessarily Protestantiism. There are Evangelical Catholics too. See the link at the bottom of my answer. Evangelical churches tend to be American and are nothing like the Protestant churches in Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_Catholics

Answer 4

"What separates us as believers in Christ is much less than what unites us." (Pope John XXIII)

Almost all important doctrine is completely agreed upon between Catholic Christians and other Christians.

Here is the joint declaration of justification by Catholics (1999), Lutherans (1999), and Methodists (2006):

By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping us and calling us to good works.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_31101999_cath-luth-joint-declaration_en.html

There are many minor doctrine issues and some major cultural traditional differences which, I believe, do not matter that much.

A Catholic worships and follows Christ in the tradition of Catholicism which, among other things, recognizes that Christ made Peter the leader of His new Church and Pope Benedict XVI is Peter's direct successor.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/index.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

Those who preach the "abundnace life" like Joel Osteen are in the minority and the majority of Evangelical Bible believing Christians disagree with Joel Osteen's message as much as we disagree with the message coming out of Rome.

I have a five page Microsoft Word document, stored in RTF format, so it can be read by many word processing programs.

This document compares the difference between the Roman Catholic Catechism and the Bible.

The numbers (2345) in parenthesis in this document are Catechism paragraph numbers.

If you'd like me to send you a copy, send me your regular E-mail address, since the document is too long to copy and paste here.

Pastor Art

Answer 6

1. issue of the sufficiency and authority of Scripture- Protestants believe that the Bible alone is the sole source of God’s special revelation to mankind, and as such it teaches us all that is necessary for our salvation from sin. This belief is commonly referred to as “Sola Scriptura.” Catholics on the other hand reject the doctrine of “Sola Scriptura” and do not believe that the Bible alone is sufficient. They believe that both the Bible and sacred Roman Catholic tradition are equally binding upon the Christian.
2. office and authority of the Pope- According to Catholicism the Pope is the “Vicar of Christ” (a vicar is a substitute), and takes the place of Jesus as the visible head of the Church. On the other hand, Protestants believe that no human being is infallible, and that Christ alone is the head of the church.
3. way towards salvation- Protestants believe that Christ alone can save them. However, according to Roman Catholicism, man cannot be saved by faith alone in Christ alone. They teach that the Christian must rely on faith plus “meritorious works” in order to be saved.
4. belief in life after death- While both believe that unbelievers will spend eternity in hell, there is significant and important differences as to what happens to believers. From their church traditions and their reliance of non-canonical books, the Catholics have developed the doctrine of purgatory. On the other hand, Protestants believe that because we are justified by faith in Christ alone, and that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us.

Answer 7

I don't see where your contents have any thing to do with your main question. But Catholic was the first Christian church and protestants are any opposing church; 'protest'

Answer 8

Well Catholic Church is the church founded by Jesus Christ, while Protestant churches that are divided into hundreds and hundreds of denominations are founded by humans.

There can only be one teaching under God, His Son and Holy Spirit.....not hundreds and hundreds...

Answer 9

Protestants put a high premium on:

Sola gratia

Sola scriptura

Sola fide

Universal priesthood of all believers

Answer 10

Well, to start, Luther nailed 95 differences to a cathedral door.