why would one think that the catholic church follows?

Question

the scriptures?
God clearly says the only way you can be forgiven is through him, not some pope. Also don't hold anyone higher than God (pope, Mary?) Also salvation is a free gift, not of works....also do not change, add or alter the Bible, yet they have their own catholic bible. I could go on and on........

Answer 1

The Catholics don't have their own bible. Thus far, the only Christian religion I know of that does is Mormonism.

See deadcatbounce3's comment below. I don't think you really know much about Catholicism, no offence.

Answer 2

1. Forgiveness only comes from God the Father and Christ hence at the first part of mass we say "Lord have mercy and Christ have mercy.

2 The pope and Mary could never take the place of Christ. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ, he is not sinless himself. Mary was born with sin being withheld by the power of what Christ did on the cross.
You are right Salvation is a free gift. Just like we freely choose to do works, not to earn salvation, but because we must do works.
The Bible cannon was established in the 3rd century. I believe Athanasius of Alexandria helped with it. The Bible that he came up with was the Catholic Bible. Since he was after all a Catholic.
So really Protestants have taken away from the Bible. And who knows why. Maybe the Appochrapha justified the Church according to Protestants. I don't know. Actually, I think that Anglicans still use the same Bible as we do. They are Protestants as well. And some of the High Anglican Churches still give mass in Latin.

Answer 3

The Catholic Church hold no body higher than God, and you insinuate that is complete ignorance. The Pope is merely the spiritual leader for the Catholic Church on earth charged by God to help lead the People of the Church to him. The only difference between him and say a small town preacher is that he leads no a small congregation of a couple hundred, but 1.5 billion.

To say that the Catholic Church has changed or altered the bible is ridiculous, it was the Protestants during the Reformation who split away from the church and altered the Bible including taking books out.

Your right you could go on an make yourself look even more foolish.

Answer 4

Ash, you've got some facts wrong.

Catholics DO Follow the Scriptures. We have readings every day. Today's readings are Zechariah 2:14-17 and Luke 1:26-38.

Catholics believe that Jesus is the only way of Salvation. We don't rely on the pope for forgiveness. Whomever told you that was completely mistaken.

Catholics do NOT hold anybody higher than God. We consider the Pope to be just a guy. He's a sinner like the rest of us, but he was elected to lead the Church on earth on behalf of Christ, and that's a big job. So we pray for Him and we try to show him a lot of support. As for Mary, again, Mary is NOT higher than God. Mary is a Christian saint. She is fully human, not divine in any way, and she received her total and complete salvation from Jesus, same as any of the rest of us. She is alive with Christ in Heaven, which we know because He Himself promised the gift of eternal life to all who believe and follow Him. You know about eternal life, right?

Catholics do NOT believe that works get us into heaven. Again, you were lied to. Catholics DO believe that salvation is a free gift, totally up to Jesus, and we can not earn it nor deserve it. Our works are an outpouring of our faith in and gratitude toward Jesus, and the Bible says works are good -- "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." That's what we Catholics do.

As for the Catholic Bible, it's the ORIGINAL New Testament, thank you very much. You wouldn't have one single book in your own New Testament without the Catholic canon of Scriptures. PROTESTANTS are the ones who changed the Bible by taking out books that were canonized a long, long time ago. Martin Luther and others decided to remove 7 books because they all upheld Catholic theology and Martin Luther wanted to get rid of as much Catholic theology as possible. He would have thrown out the book of James, too, but the other reformers stopped him. Anyway, you have it totally backward on this one, probably because somebody has been lying to you about Catholics.

You need some FACTS. Read "What Catholics REALLY Believe" or "Catholicism for Dummies" or go to this site on line where you can read a Q&A version of our Catechism.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html

You'll find out that we have a lot more in common than you think. Please don't be afraid to find out the TRUTH about Catholicism. Truth always sets us free, and the TRUTH about Catholicism will set you free from this web of lies you've been taught.

Answer 5

Gee, as I remember Christ gave the apostles the ability to forgive people's sins, and then told them to go out and spread the word.

Since the pope is a representative of the original 12 apostles, would he be just passing on the teachings of Christ?

I also don't believe works get us into heaven, only belief and faith.

As Paul said :
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).

Whether you like it or not, the Bible has continually changed since it was first put on paper. Every translation to a new language is a change. The King James version was translated from Greek to English and published in 1611. But, the first English Bible was translated from German in 1525 during the Protestant movement in Europe. The Catholics already had been using an official version of the Bible for 1000 years. So who exactly re-wrote or changed the Bible?

You could go on about any religion and the oddities held within.

But, Christ also taught about tolerance and forgiveness. Be a little tolerant about others beliefs. Gain knowledge to understand not to criticize.

Answer 6

You could go on and on but you'd just be spinning your wheels because you're wrong on every count.

Forgiveness is ONLY through God; only He can forgive sins. We go to the priest because God gave them the power to absolve sin in the sacrament of confession.

The pope and Mary are NOT higher than God and never could be.

Salvation is a free gift.

We did not alter the bible in any way; the Protestants did. We are the ones that gave the Protestants the bible in the first place.

Shall I go on?

Answer 7

Technically, Protestants have there own bible, Catholics came before. But you are on to something, When Constantine I (306 - 337 A.D.) converted Rome to Christianity (http://www.roman-emperors.org/conniei.htm) his version was based on Paul (Saul) works because Paul was well written, but Paul had actually got into trouble with some early Church leaders that didn't like his point of view. Most of the current Church is based on Paul's work Including the Catholic Church

Answer 8

I used to think the same way you do, until I really studied catholicism and got to know some catholics very personally. Now I know that I was ignorant to what catholicism teaches. While I agree that some of their traditions are not what mine are, they believe the same as Christians. In fact, THEY ARE CHRISTIANS. Every sect of the Christian faith has traditions that are different than the others. We have Pentecostal, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Assembly of God, Church Of Christ, and many more that I didn't name. None of us have the same worship style, and we all have different traditions. That doesn't mean that one is better than the other, because we all believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Its the same with Catholics. As Christians, we need to show our love to ALL of our brother and sisters. Not just the ones we choose to because they worship different than you. Jesus paid much to high of a price for us to pick and choose who should come.

Answer 9

I won't go into great detail here. (you can email me if you want more info) Does it bother you that they practice their religion they way they want to just as you practice yours the way you want to? Shouldn't you simply live as you see fit and allow others the same right? You don't have to agree with them. It seems it's not enough for some people to have faith they have to try and prove theirs is "greater" and more "right" than that of someone else.

If you take the time to learn about the Catholic church from Catholics who are very knowledgable about their religion they could explain everything you have mentioned.

The pope or Mary are not held higher than God. Forgiveness comes through God. (yes, that's Catholic teaching too)

Answer 10

But given that the catholics are the original christian chruch do you not think that their version of the bible is most likely to be the closest to being accurate? Also, as far as I am aware, the Pope is only the head of the church and is not held to be more important than God or able to forgive on his own behalf but on behalf of God.

Answer 11

Believe it or not, we Catholics agree that only God can forgive sins, no-one is higher than God, and that salvation is a free gift.

Catholics say Protestants removed seven books from the Bible while Protestants say Catholics added books, you will never get any agreement on this subject.