What is the difference between Catholics and Christians?

Question

I'm a Christian but I was wondering what the main differences between Christianity and Catholicism were. I know that they put more emphasis on the saints and Mary but what else? I'm confused....

Answer 1

The Roman emperor Constantine created the Roman Catholic church in the 4th century. A great deal of the customs, and rituals from his prior pagan indoctrinization were custom fit into the new Roman Catholicism.

Answer 2

The literal meaning of Catholic is "universal" that is, the entire Christian church. But with the passage of time Christianity started breaking down into various groups known as sect, each claiming to be the true proponents of Christ's teaching.
Below I give 2 examples of how Catholics differ from other churchs.


1) They (Catholics) believe that both the Bible and sacred Roman Catholic tradition are equally binding upon the Christian. Many Roman Catholics doctrines, such as purgatory, praying to the saints, worship or veneration of Mary, etc. have little or no basis at all in Scripture, but are based solely on Roman Catholic traditions. Protestants believe that only Bible is binding on Christians.

2) According to Catholics, Pope is the “Vicar of Christ” (a vicar is a substitute), and takes the place of Jesus as the head of the Church. Other Christian sects reject this claim.

Answer 3

Catholicism and Christianity are not the same religion.Most people have a tendency to think and say that they are the same.Catholicism is not the branch of Christianity.It is another religion.There are Christians,Roman Catholics, Independents, protestants, Orthodox and Anglicans.These are the 6 chief/important 'religions' that worship the Christian God or Jesus Christ or both.I don't know much about other religions I only know about Catholicism.So it's not easy to point out the real differences.

Answer 4

CATHOLICS ARE CHRISTIANS. you mean Protestants and Catholics. Christian is anyone who believes in Christ as his savior. We don't put more emphasis in Mary and the Saints that's a misconception. We Honor Mary and the Saints but put more emphasis in God. Sure there are some Catholics who pray and thank only Mary or a Saint but that is not the Catholic religion, is Just some one who has a wrong view of the faith, and that's mostly what people see.

Answer 5

The Catholics are one of the major divisions within the Christian faith. They hold to the idea that church "tradition" has the same weight as scripture. As such, they believe that certain doctrines which have evolved over the centuries, even if not found specifically in the Bible, should be treated as true.

They give Mary a higher position those most other Christians believe is given in the scriptures. They also allow prayer to saints for help, healing, etc. They believe in purgatory, which is a place between heaven and hell where a person goes for a time after death, and can still be "saved" while there and make it to heaven through the prayers and offerings of their family and friends.

They believe that sin must be confessed to a priest, who will give some type of penances which must be performed (such as saying the Lord's Prayer or Our Father a number of times) before the sin is forgiven. They believe that a person must be baptized to remove the stain of original sin before they can be saved. Normally it is done to an infant and always by sprinkling. They believe that you must receive communion on a regular basis to be saved, and that the bread and wine of the communion is physically transformed in the actual blood and flesh of Christ before it is eaten. They offer a "Last Rite", which is an anointing with oil for those dying (or who have just died) as a final forgiveness of all sins.

They forbid priest to marry. They have monks and nuns, who are non-priest who have chosen a life of chastity, poverty and service to God. They teach that life begins a conception, so an abortion is murder, and that most forms of birth control (because they could cause a fertilized eggs to abort itself) are forbidden.

The acknowledge the Pope as the head of the Christian church, and believe that when he speaks in that official capacity that anything he says has the weight of scripture.

They include a nine books (or additions to books) in the Old Testament that are not found in Protestant Bibles, or are grouped in a separate section of "less then inspired" books. However these books are not used in any Catholic masses or readings, nor part of any of their rituals.

These are some of the major areas of Catholics beliefs and differences from the Protestant and Orthodox churches.

Answer 6

I didn't think there was really much difference.

Catholicism is a form of Christianity.

It just has different beliefs and traditions. But, from what I understand. Catholics believe Jesus died on the cross for their sins. Isn't that generally what all Christians believe.

But from what I understand, not all Protestant religions are the same. So, would that make Baptist not Christians b/c they are of a different sect.

Answer 7

First things first, a Christian is one who follows Christ and his word. You can be of any so called Christian denomination, but if you don't follow Christ and his word, then you aren't Christian.

It is true Catholics were the first Christian, but the Roman Vatican has no biblical or historical link with those early Catholics. In fact, throughout the bible we are warned 'against' following Rome.

This is a basic outline of the differences. I'm sure if you do a quick Google search you'll find thousands more - they pretty much invert everything the bible says.
As you'll see these differences are hardly 'minor'.

Christians believe Jesus is the high priest, the one link to God in heaven.
Catholics believe the pope is high priest, he and his own (mortal) priests are the link to heaven.

Christians don't worship, pray, or bow down to idols.
Catholics worship, pray, and bow down to idols.

Christians obey the bible and its laws.
Catholics (the Vatican) change God's laws according to their needs.

Christians are meant to study and dissect the bible, to use it as an armor against Satan.
Catholics rely on the pope to do that for them - he's supposed to "interpret the scripture" for his followers.

Christians believe God is the only one to be bowed down to, worshiped, or prayed to.
Catholics believe it's okay to pray, bow down to, and worship: Mary, the Saints, and the pope.

Christians have a long history of being persecuted.
Catholics have a long history of persecuting Christians (60 million true Christians killed under Catholic rule). Remember your basic American history much? Christians fled to America to escape the Vatican's grasp.

Christians go against ceremonial traditions.
Catholics lavish in it.

Christians don't pray to the dead.
Catholics not only pray to the dead but (the Vatican) place dead bodies beneath the altars of many of their churches.

Christians believe 'the saints' are the born again believers in Christ.
Catholics believe a saint is someone who acts like Christ - a higher rank of sorts.

Christianity is based on the bible's word.
Catholicism grew on its ability to appeal to early pagan faiths - it's essentially a revived (smaller) Roman Empire molded to fit the needs of early pagan faiths.

Christians have no mental image of Mary (we don't know what she looked like).
Catholics model the image of Mary after the sun Goddess Isis.

Christians believe Jesus had brothers and sisters.
Catholics deny this biblical fact to uphold Mary as 'unique, and special'.

Both Catholics and Christians agree that the anti-Christ comes from the new Roman Empire - the fifth beast of Revelation.

Christians are bold and stand up for their faith.
Catholics give negative thumbs down votes on Yahoo Answers when their views are challenged.

Answer 8

Catholic is the larges,fullest and oldest subset of Christian.
Do you mean to ask what are the differences between the main dissenting tenets of the varied protestantisms and Catholicism? All Trinitarian Nicene Creed believers are Christians and they come in 3 groupings :Catholic,Orthodox and Protestant. Not all Protestants are trinitarian or believe in the diety of Christ.
so they are not part of Historic Christianity.

Answer 9

Catholics ARE Christians. The main reason for there being somewhat of a distinction is because the word 'Christian' has come to be equated with 'Fundamentalist' in many people's minds, and some Catholics do not like to be mistaken for Fundamentalists when they identify themselves as Christians.

Answer 10

Catholics are Christians. They believe that Christ is the Savior. So technically, no difference at all.

If you want a better answer to your question, please specify the denomination. Obviously Catholics don't believe all the same things as Protestants would (or any other Christian denomination of course).