Why would a Christian harangue me to become Christian, if I'm already Catholic?

Question

Doesn't Catholicism fall under Christianity? I keep telling the lady that I'm Catholic therefore, we believe in the same God. She keeps preaching me to convert to her Christianity, I think, it's Baptist. But we're the same, right? It's not like I'm Jewish or Muslim. What's the difference then? Why?

Answer 1

Your "friend" has a very limited view of Christianity. Unfortunately many Americans and other fundamentalist Christians have no larger sense of Christianity than what they have experienced.

I remember years ago when I met Oswald Hoffman, the longtime voice of the "Lutheran Hour" radio program. He used a Ancient Greek New Testament for his reading and preaching. He shared that the comment he often received was, "You should use the King James Bible, just like Jesus did."

The same type of person is harassing you because she has no real sense of Scripture or Christian history. I recommend that you read "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" by Karl Keating. His rebuttals are clear, detailed, and charitable. Special emphasis is given to the scriptural basis for Catholic doctrines and beliefs.

Another great book is "101 Questions and Answers on the Bible" by Raymond Brown. Brown was the premier Scripture scholar for decades. It provides an good introduction to the contemporary Roman Catholic view of Scripture.

Answer 2

Your Baptist friend is operating under the false impression that Catholicism is not Christian, which most people like her wrongly assume. If she bothered to do a little research, she’d find out that we are Christian. In fact, we were the first. The Catholic Church is the original Church founded by Christ.

In fact, the opposite is true of Protestant denominations, like the Baptists. They were founded in 1609 by John Smyth in Amsterdam. Here’s a list that shows it: http://www.scripturecatholic.com/history.html.

As usual, history shows the way. The Catholic Church is the only one that can historically show her beginning with Jesus; no other denomination can do that. Yes, we love our protestant brethren, they are Christians like us. They just need to come back home.

God bless.

Answer 3

Not all Christian denominations are created equal. Catholicism is the One True Church.

This is not to say the other denominations are wrong or bad. It would be more accurate to claim they aren't entirely right, is all.

There are some Christians who whole-heartedly believe Catholics are not Christians. Such types are victims of bad theology. They are toxic individuals. Stay clear of this ilk as best you can, and take their anti-Catholic rhetoric with a grain of salt because, either they are the victims of poor theological instruction, or, for whatever reason, hate Catholics.

Eventually, if you hold fast to your Catholic heritage, anti-Catholics will go away - but not before accusing you of being close-minded. Of course, this is the pot calling the kettle black because, the fact is, there's nothing you could say that could get them to consider converting to Catholicism.

Again, either these people hate Catholics, and/or are victims of poor theological instruction. Whenever you have a run-in with such ilk, show them one better and treat them with a healthy dose of Christian tolerance and compassion.

Answer 4

Most non-Catholic Christian denominations accept Catholics as Christians. A very few do not.

The World Council of Churches which brings together more than 340 churches, denominations and church fellowships in over 100 countries and territories throughout the world, representing some 550 million Christians accepts the 1.1 billion Catholics as Christians. http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/who/faq-e.html#07

A dictionary would say that a Christian is someone professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

Catholics would fit this definition.

In the Nicene creed, from 325 C.E., Catholics profess:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father.

Through Him all things were made.

For us and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried.

On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are baptized as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

We truly are spiritually "born again," we just don't usually use those words.

For a complete description of what Catholics believe, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/index.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

Baptist is a term describing individuals belonging to a Baptist church or a Baptist denomination. The name comes from the conviction that followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to be immersed in water as a public display of their faith, and thus most adherents reject infant baptism. While the term "Baptist" has its origins with the Anabaptists, and was sometimes viewed as pejorative, the denomination itself is historically linked to the English Separatist movement of the 16th century.

Answer 6

This person was probably haranguing you because she was worried about the inherent blasphemy in the confessional system, papal infallibility and things like that.

But you can have the last laugh, because many evangelicals are fundamentalist heretics. These believe in the rapture and speaking in tongues, and go to the bad place when they die.

Answer 7

One of the first major differences between Catholicism and Protestantism is the 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. Protestants view the Bible as the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured. This belief is commonly referred to as “Sola Scriptura” and is one of the “Five Solas” (sola being Latin for “alone”) that came out of the Protestant Reformation as summaries of some of the important differences between Catholics and Protestants.

While there are many verses in the Bible that establish it’s authority and it’s sufficiency for all matters of faith and practice, one of the clearest is 2 Timothy 3:16 where we see that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 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. 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. Essentially the Roman Catholic Church’s denial of “Sola Scriptura” and their insistence that both the Bible and their “Sacred Tradition” are equal in authority undermines the sufficiency, authority and completeness of the Bible. The view of Scripture is at the root of many of, if not all, the differences between Catholics and Protestants.

Answer 8

A friend of mine walked into a Christian school once with her daughter to pick up another child, and the teacher had the class pray for them both because they are Catholic.

What you have here my friend is a "Holier than thou" Christan and they can be the most annoying type.

They're not all like that though, so keep judging people on an individual basis.

Answer 9

Cotholicism is a religion not Christianity, they follow the teaching of catholicism, not from the word of God in the Bible.

Answer 10

Catholicism teaches some things that are quite central to Christianity which are different to what the Bible teaches. Although I know that some Catholics are Christians, if people hold to all the teachings of the Catholic church, I don't think they can really be Christians. For example, Catholicism teaches that you need to do extra things like going to confession and doing good stuff, on top of believing in Jesus, in order to go to heaven. That's just not the gospel.