I am confused, I have the get greatest respect for all religions, however, on a previous question.?

Question

I received answers saying Catholics and Christians are the same. I have friends who say it is very different.? Curious, please answer.

Answer 1

Catholics were the first Christians.

Think of Christianity like JCPenny (a big department store), think of Catholicism as Ladies Wear (just one of many departments within the big store). Anglican - shoe department.. Protestantism - Men's Wear .. and so on..

Answer 2

Within Christianity there are a few great divides. One of the big ones and most recent divisions is between Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christians.

Put simply, the Protestant Reformation was a movement where people decided they wanted to move away from some elements of the Catholic Church that they felt were wrong and against God's original plan. Of course there were a lot of political implications involved as well for the sake of simplicity we'll say that the Protestants felt the Catholics were idolators and the Catholics felt the Protestants were heretics. Do a google search for "The Protestant Reformation" or "Martin Luther" to read more in detail about that.

A lot of blood has been shed over this issue over the years between the mainly Catholic Irish and the mainly Protestant English (do a google search for the Irish Civil War or Conflict in Northern Ireland).

An elitest extremist group in North America called the KKK is a Protestant group that targets and murders Catholics (among others).

Despite being a self-proclaimed Christian nation, the United States has only had one Catholic president in its history. The rest were all Protestants.

So in the end they both worship Christ and therefore consider themselves Christians. But the two definitely consider themselves quite distinct from one another.

Answer 3

Catholic and Orthodox are the oldest Christian denominations. Of course they are Christians.

There are also Christians who broke away from the Catholic Church (which at the time was the only Christian religion in the west) and they formed the original Protestant Christian groups. Those groups sometimes broke away from each other, and formed other Protestant Christian groups.

Yes, Catholics are Christians. Reading early Church writings reveals even the early Church was quite "Catholic" and it's pretty much the same now as it was then.

Catholics believe we are saved by God the Son, Jesus, who became man, and died on the cross and rose from the dead to free us from our sins. A summary of the Catholic faith is in the Apostles Creed (something most Christians profess).

Some protestant groups do not consider Catholics to be Christians, but it's probably because they have heard some half truths about Catholics. The links provided can at least answer some more questions about some of that.

Answer 4

Catholics claim to be the original Church. Whether that is exactly true or not is something we will never be able the prove exactly.
What is true is that Christianity as we know it was basically invented by the Bishops who attended the Council of Nicea in 325. They assembled the Bible, They defined the Trinity.
and all other Christian denominations are descended from what they created at Nicea.
The Easter Orthodox, the Nestorians, the Coptics, the Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Calvinists,Lutherans.....
All of the Christian Churches are from the Mother Church, which is the Roman Catholic one. The only people who have as good of a claim to historical precedence are the Eastern Orthodox (Greek)

Answer 5

Catholics started the the Christian church. So how they can be seen as not Christian is beyond me. All protestant forms of Christianity were formed (at least in their original forms) by Catholic Priests who thought they had a better interpretation of the Bible than their predecessors. Whether they did or not is up for debate. The three branches of Christianity are Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant. All are part of the same thing and believe similarly. Fighting over semantics is not what Christ was about I would think. People who say otherwise are ignorant fools.

Answer 6

It depends on who you are asking. I personally consider any religion that has Christ, and the teachings of Christ and the New Testament at the center of it to be a Christian religion. Some (but by no means all) Protestant based Christian religions seem to consider Catholicism to be some kind of Pagan religion. About all that I can recommend to you, is to study the Catholic church, and various other denominations, and make up your own mind about it. Maybe this link will help....
http://www.beliefnet.com/index/index_10002.html
The reason why the "Protestants" are called that, is because the "protested" against certain practices of the Catholic faith, and set out to do it their own way...

Answer 7

The question seems to be asked frequently which originally surprised me. I was raised as a liberal Protestant, and my church certainly regarded Catholics as Christians. Roman Catholics were, in fact, the first Christians; the Christian church was established in Rome. Some Protestant sects (fundamentalists, I think) maintain that Catholics (and Mormons and others who do not believe exactly as they do) are not Christians, but all Protestant denominations began as sects who were protesting (obviously) Catholicism or some other Christian organization. As an agnostic, my deduction is that anyone professing to believe in Christ is a Christian!

Answer 8

It is my understanding that all Christian denominations were derived off of the Catholic Church. (Many will argue with me about that but records dating very far back show that it was the first widely accepted Christian denomination) However, many fundamental Christians do not accept Catholics as brothers and sisters in Christ because they believe that they are involved in idol worship (Mary, saints, etc.) and other pretty big theological differences. I don't know enough about them to know if that is true or a complete fabrication. I DO know that Catholics consider themselves to be followers of Jesus Christ. The definition of a Christian is someone that follows Christ.

Answer 9

To be a Christians you must put your faith and trust in what the Lord Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. He died for your sins, He was buried and took your sins away and He rose again the third day for your justification. To be a Catholic or to be part of any religion does not please God. Only the blood of the Son will cause forgiveness of sins. 1 Corinthians 15: 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 1 Corinthians 15: 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: Romans 4: 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Answer 10

We have many common beliefs. As was stated earlier there was an East West split in the church and Catholicism ruled Europe became the dominating power until Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the church and we were allowed to create our own beliefs on what was written without an earthly "high priest".