Why do people follow Catholicism?

Question

Let me be an informer here...this is not out of hatred but love and a desire to help people from being deceived. Roman Catholicism won't lead to Salvation.... for you believe in doing other things other than accepting Jesus Christ as savior. Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to salvation. Catholicism didn't originate from St. Peter, but from Constantinople of Rome. Rome faced a major dillema of religions, therefore Constantiniople created Catholicism as a mixture of Christianity and Paganism. That is why all the rituals are upheld. "Summoning Christ" down during their mass is blasphemous, because it is said in the Bible that Christ died ONCE and for ALL to take away man's sin. It is also said in the Bible that there is "but one mediator between Christ and man... Jesus Christ. No pope, individual is "infallible as God". That is blasphemous also. I am neither prodestant, presbiterian, or any of that. I am a believer of the truth, written for us in the Bible. Please don't be deceived by Satan!

I am not saying all Catholics do not believe in Jesus Christ as savior, I am also saying ROMAN Catholicism does. I have no denomination because the Bible is the only true Word to man. Nowhere in the Bible does it discuss Peter forming the Catholic Church, or given authority to do so. Moreover, PAGAN RITUALS are used in Catholicism. For instance, the five pointed star, images similar to the sun, and saints that Roman Emporor Constaninople accepted as part of the church. Constantinople the man, not the city. For instance, St. Brigid, a highly revered female saint in the church, was accepted from the Celtics pagan Sun Goddess Brigit, and accepted by Vatican II in the 1960's. Also, what is the second commandment and the book of Exodus? It is "thou shalt not bow down before any graven images". So the governing bodies of Rome can just evaporate a commandment from God? Rome is discussed in Revalation Chapter 17, and no other city or government has killed more christians in its' history

Edit: Emporer Constantine

Answer 1

First of all nowhere in the bible does it say "ACCEPT JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR AND YOU'RE SAVED." Second of all you need to brush up on your Catholicism, Mr. ignorant. Lastly, Christianity is a crock filled with brain dead members, your a fine example.

Answer 2

If you believe in the bible you have to believe in the Pope and the Catholic Church including tradition .Tradition was used to canonize the Bible by the Catholic Church .Christ gave authority to the Catholic Church under the Holy Spirit to canonized the Bible. What criteria was used, tradition oral teaching passed on and the Catholic Churches beliefs, under the guidance of the Holy spirit. The Catholic Church canonized the bible under Christ’s authority. So how can any books be put into the bible that go against Catholic beliefs and teachings (or removed) . So then if you believe the Catholic Church is false and not Christian, that its doctrine is false, then bible has no meaning and the Catholic Church had no authority to put the bible together in the first place. You would then have to throw out your bible. The Catholic Church teaches the same now as it did then nothing new has been added if so tell me but you cant because you know nothing of Church history or the history of your Protestant faith. The early Church Father’s all celebrated the Eucharist and the sacraments and all believed it to be the Body Blood Soul And Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Catholic Church does today. So who Gave the Authority to a , mentally unbalanced, diseased character Martin Luther hero of the Reformation. His intemperance, his persecution mania, his varying moods, were the origin of his permanent contradictions. Who gave him authority to add words to the Bible and remove 7 books and believe in his doctrine of Sola Scriptura which is found no place in the Bible. And all the made up doctrine that followed made up by men. Your either a Christian and believe the teachings of the Catholic Church or you are a hypocrite and heretic certainly not a Christian you see the word Christian was coined by a Catholic Bishop ordained By Peter himself and is a Catholic word.

Answer 3

My great-grandpa is a Catholic and totally agrees with you. She knows she is not saved by "the Catholic Church" but that does not mean the Catholic Church is not God's true church. She believes the Catholic Church is God's church, and honestly I don't have a problem with that anymore. I am not a Catholic at all but my grandpa is the humblest, sincerest Christian I know. She is a Christian all day every day. Many non-Catholics tend to only be Christians on Sunday at 10am, and that is if they are not thinking about football, the lady in the choir, or whatever.

Answer 4

Tradition.

All of the major old world churches (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheranism, Episcopalian/Anglican) are laced in tradition. Most of it is not contrary to the word, just a dressed up way of practicing it.

Old habits die hard and power is not easily given up so Catholics have trouble reforming because some of them feel the church practices have been going on for so long (Most from the time of Pope Gregory VII) that they feel they are sanctified, the rest like the idea because the church exalts them through the holy orders and sacraments which shares a lot in common with the Pharisees of Jesus' time on earth.

Answer 5

You know nothing about history or theology, you assert falsities that are disproven by history and you even assert them incorrectly. Constantinople is a City not a Roman Emperor. No one asserts anyone is infalliable as God (another twisted version). And Constantine (who you wrongly call Constantinople) did not convert the empire to Christianity (misconception), And the first papal encyclical was from Clement I in 88 CE (long before Constantine, or Thaddeus who was the emperor actually converted the Empire). Nor do we "repeat" the sacrifice it is a perpetual scrifice (continuing until he returns). Remember he commanded "Do this in rememberance of me". "For unless you gnaw (the actual translation) on the flesh of the Son of Man and drink of His blood you shall not have life within you." Remember in the Bible you said you supposedly follow tells us Jesus commanded ALL of these things. Just as he commanded his apostles to go out and forgive sin as he forgave them. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, the final sacrifice he was offered in physical form once for an ETERNAL (perpetual) sacrifice. Never once did Jesus say accept me by saying words and you are saved forever.

Always watch out for the "informer," who wishes to enlighten you for your own good, because they "love you" and are more concerned about you then themselves- "We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others. Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food."~Luke 21

Answer 6

Sorry, I don't mean to be offensive here either. I am an Atheist, but I must tell you, your efforts to explain something such as that is meaningless to say the least. Who would you expect to convince? If 100 million Catholics read your little blog, there would be 900 million more who could care less. Of the 2 Billion plus Christians on this planet, over half are Catholic. Just thought you should know.

Answer 7

I believe in Catholicism because it IS the truth. I am a convert from Protestantism.

I could answer your accusations, but would you instead care to show me proof of your claims? Why should I believe your biblical interpretations? On what authority do you make them?

God bless.

Answer 8

When you figure it out, you tell me.

Jim J offered nothing but documentary error. He knows alot of propaganda, but little concerning the facts.

Fact is, the Jewish high priest said "We have no king but Caesar" in order to get Pilate to deliver Jesus to be crucified.

In making this statement, the Jewish High Priest (whose position it is to represent God to the people, and the people to God) changed the venue of his office from being under the most high God, to being under the authority of Rome, the final occupier of the Babylonian empire.

By making this statement, the High Priest ceased being the mediator between God and man, and coincidentally, by this statement, condemned Jesus to death, by which Jesus became the mediator between God and man.

Rome later, by this authority vested in them by the high priest, evicted the nation Israel from the land of promise and renamed it Palestina.

Rome still weilds the priesthood yielded to them by the Jewish High Priest.

The only fly in the ointment is that we're nearing the end of the age, and the "changing of the guard" is about to occur.
.

Answer 9

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." I Cor. 5:8

Christ did die ONCE and for ALL, therefore, his sacrifice is perpetual (on going) for eternity in heaven and at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus is our high priest, his perpetual offering to God the Father is his body and blood.

Answer 10

Derek, I follow Catholicism because I believe that God led me to the Catholic Church through much prayer, Bible study and seeking His will.

You state some items that reveal you know very little about Catholicism. Do you mind if I set the record straight on a few things?

Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to salvation, same as you. We believe that He set up a way for people to learn about Him so that we can find salvation, which is the Church, but we don't believe the Church saves anybody. That's Jesus' job and His alone.

Catholics DO accept Jesus Christ as our one and only Savior. Only He can save us. However, out of our faith in Jesus, we also know that we have a responsibility to live the way He asks us to live.

You say that Catholicism originated in Constantinople, but that is not true and there is no evidence to support your claim. Jesus started SOMETHING with His Apostles, do you not agree? And He said that "the gates of Hell will not prevail against it." What He started is the Christian faith, and that faith has been preserved continuously without fail. Had it ever failed, then it would be evidence that the gates of Hell *had* prevailed against the Church that Jesus founded.

Constantine made Christianity legal, that's all. The faith he made legal already existed; he did not create it.

Regarding paganism, it's perfectly Biblical to turn something that used to be pagan into something that is holy and true. Please see Acts 17:16-34.

You seem to complain about rituals, but I do not understand why. Christ Himself observed rituals. The Last Supper itself was a Passover feast. If the Lord has no problem with rituals, they cannot possibly be sinful -- why do you complain about them?

I have no idea why you think it's blasphemous to ask Christ to visit us in Mass. He Himself said that where two or more are gathered in His Name, He is present. That's all that happens. Nobody orders Christ around in the Catholic Church, if that's what you are afraid of. We pray He will be among us, but surely that is no different than what you do when you go to church!

Catholics agree that Christ died ONCE AND FOR ALL for the sin of mankind. It's in our catechism -- you can read that exact bit here:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1M.HTM

You apparently have been told that Catholics believe in "re-sacrificing" Christ. This is a patent falsehood. We believe that Christ is eternal and that His work on the Cross is eternal. It is a constant and has no need to be recreated.

We also agree that there is one mediator between God and Man -- Jesus Christ. However, the Bible also makes it clear that we can pray for one another and that we SHOULD carry one another's burdens. In a way, that means we all must intecede for one another in prayer. Surely your church does not forbid you from praying for somebody else? So why do you think it's wrong for Catholics to ask for and receive intercessory prayers from good Christian people? The bible says that the "prayers of the righteous availeth much!" (James 5:16)

The Pople is not "infallible as God." We believe he's just a guy. He's a sinner, he confesses his sin same as we do. But we believe that God has enabled him to become a leader among the people and we believe that the Holy Spirit specially endows the pope with the ability to lead. From time to time, this *might* mean a pope will issue an infallible statement, but that is very rare. It's only happened twice, actually, and only on important issues. But most of what the pope says is NOT considered infallible.

Catholics love the Bible and read and use the Bible, too. Whomever told you we didn't was either badly mistaken or an outright liar.

Now then, I ask *you* to not be deceived. Go and read our catechism and find out exactly what Catholics *really* believe. We can live together in peace, brother -- there is no need for you to hate Catholicism for things that aren't even true!

EDITED TO RESPOND TO YOUR ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

You say, "Nowhere in the Bible does it discuss Peter forming the Catholic Church, or given authority to do so."

Actually, Catholics believe that JESUS formed the Catholic Church and gave Peter the authority to be in charge of the Church on earth after Jesus was gone. Please see Matthew 16:17-19.

Your description of the so-called pagan rituals confuses me. I've never seen a five-pointed star anywhere in the Catholic Church, and anyway, the U.S. military uses five-pointed stars, and school teachers hand out stickers with five-pointed stars and Dora the Explorer cartoons have five-pointed stars -- does that make all those pagan? Just because of a five-pointed star?

As for your complaint about images of the sun...last time I checked, God created the sun and called it "Good." See Genesis 1:14-18.

Now regarding saints, all saints are people who love Jesus and serve Him, some to the point of death/martyrdom. How you can call them pagan is beyond me. What is pagan about a saint serving Jesus?!?!?

I have read much about St. Brigid, and you are right that the Celtic pagans consider her a goddess. But that doesn't mean that she *is* a pagan goddess! She is a Christian. She loved the Lord Jesus and testified about him and helped many others become Christian believers. If God chose to do miracles through her, who are you to call her a pagan goddess?

Now for the second commandment, as you number it. You do know the commandments are NOT numbered in Scripture, don't you?

Anyway, we have that particular phrase in our FIRST commandment, it's that important. (We combine "I am the Lord your God" and "Have no other gods before me" and "Don't make idols" into one commandment because they are all running to the same theme, and we separate your tenth commandment into our ninth & tenth, because coveting your neighbor's wife is a VERY different sin than coveting your neighbor's property, don't you agree?)

No Roman authority "evaporated" any part of the ten commandments, and whomever told you this was lying or repeating a lie without evidence.

You can read that Catholics observe the commandment against idols in our Catechism; simply follow this link:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7F.HTM

As you will see when you read this, Catholics understand that there is a difference between an idol (which is object made to BE a person's god) and religious art (which is sacred imagery meant to inspire people to worship the one, true, living God). Religious art is not banned in Scripture. In fact, God instructs the Jews to create religious art for Him in Exodus 25 and continuing forward.

You might want to try getting some FACTS before you levy accusations against your Christian brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church.