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As a acatholic girl, I've been raised to keep my distance from the evangelical church, (protestants) but I dont get the differences, can anyone please help me get a clearer picture?
The difference is primarily an issue of authority.
The Catholic Church contends that the "deposit of faith" (everything necessary for our salvation from Christ through the apostles) has been handed on in 2 ways from the time of Christ: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
The Magisterium is responsible for guarding and handing on the deposit of faith. (The Magisterium is the Sacred teaching office of the Church, and it is composed of the Pope and the Bishops in Union with him.)
Protestants, on the other hand, hold that they only real authority is Sacred Scripture, and that each person is responsible for interpreting the scriptures according to his or her conscience. There are two major issues with this line of thinking.
The First issue is that the sciptures themselves say that the totality of all teaching is not necessarily contained within the writings on Sacred Scipture. ("stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter." 2 Thes. 2:15) Also, the Apostles, (the predecessors to the modern bishops) had been entrusted with the authority to bind and loose, with a guarantee from Christ himself that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church which he founded on St. Peter (the rock) (see Mt. 16:17-19). Those Apostles charged their successors to "guard the deposit," so that the truths which they learned from Christ could be preserved throughout the ages (see 1 Tim 6:20).
The other issue is that if there is no authority to interperet the scriptures, then there can be no binding interpretation. Each person could read the scriptures and take any given verse out of context, and split off to start a new Church because they don't agree with an interpretation of their parent Church (which is exactly what has been happening over the past 500 years).
Shifting gears, most protestant groups accept the early councils with respect to their Christological decrees, and usually accept the Nicene and Apostle's Creeds. The Nicene Creed confesses "We believe in one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church."
Those are the 4 marks of the Church: oneness, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. The Catholic Church is truly one, united by the Sacraments of Initiation and sharing in the divine life of God in the Trinity (see Jn 6:51-55; 1 Pet 1:4). The Church can be considered Holy, not because the people who are in it are holy, but because of the Holy Spririt who continually sanctifies her, (as Chirst promises in Jn 16 and St. Paul notes in his letters to the Galatians and Ephesians).
The term "Catholic" means universal. The Church exists among everypeople, and her head, Christ, calls all people to himself, stating that "no one can come to the Father except through me" (Jn. 14:6). The term "apostolic" means "sent," and it's used because the Church was founded on Chirst's own Apostles who he sent out to "make disciples of all nations... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded." He also gauranteed that he would be with them until the end of the ages (Mt. 28:19-20).
It was by the authority that they received from Christ that the bishops compiled the Cannon of Scripture (the Bible) and under their supervision that the councils adopted the doctrines of the creeds and other Christological conclusions in the early ecumenical councils in the first millenium. Anyone who accepts the authority of the Bible should logically accept the authority of the bishops who compiled it.
Good answer, filletof spam! I was raised Protestant, went to a Catholic school and now go to an evangelical church, so I've seen all sides. There are good things on all sides, as well as some things that annoy me about them all, if I'm being honest!
Catholics are the oldest of the three groups you've mentioned. There is a lot of importance placed on ritual and the tradition of the Catholic Church - does that make sense in your experience?
Protestants are descended from the groups who broke away from the Catholic Church in the 15th and 16th Centuries. They had a good point - the Catholic Church was very rich and very corrupt at that time - it's changed somewhat since then. The Protestants wanted to return to what Jesus taught in the Bible, and modelled their new churches on the earliest church in the book of Acts. Since then there have been a huge variety of Protestant churches, some of which are quite strict about Biblical teaching and others which are more liberal. For example, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Pentecostals and House Churches are all usually seen as Protestant, but can be very different to each other.
Evangelicals are part of the Protestant movement, with the emphasis as filletofspam described. It's also true that Renewed Catholics can be very like Evangelicals (my friend Jo, who attended my church for some time, was actually a Renewed Catholic, and was very happy to worship with us).
One type of Christian worship which really crosses the boundaries is Charismatic. The Pentecostals and House Churches can be very Charismatic (it means being filled with the Holy Spirit and worshipping very freely), but the Renewed Catholic Churches are also Charismatic. This has broken down some of the boundaries which were set up between the different Christian groups. I think that's a very good thing.
Good question. The Evangelical Church likes to say it has no rituals, but I think it does! A ritual is something you do over and over again, because it has a religious significance to you and you feel it brings you nearer to God. I've heard Evangelicals saying they don't like ritual, but then our services are the same every week... That must be a ritual! So I don't think rituals are wrong, but maybe the Catholic church has a good thing going in that it recognises its rituals for what they are.
The problem is, you can get very caught up in doing something very beautiful and religious, like a lovely sung mass or an evangelical 'time of worship' (which means singing a lot), and feel very contented and fulfilled, but kind of miss the point. The point is, I think, are you worshipping God through Jesus? Are you turning to Jesus to confess your sins and are you grateful he died to save you? (Being 'born again' means sincerely asking God to forgive your sins and for Jesus to rule your life.) Are you asking to be filled by the Holy Spirit so that you can do God's work in the world when you leave worship?
In my opinion, you could experience all that at either Catholic or Protestant worship, or in fact you could completely miss it at either. Because I'm a Protestant, I find that our empahsis on the Bible being read, taught in church and studied at home, makes it easier for me to focus on 'the point' - Jesus. But I know that my friend Jo and many other Catholics get 'the point' as well! I would recommend remaining a Catholic (I hope your mum would approve) but studying the Bible too - of course many Catholics do know their Bibles well, and I think they really love and serve Jesus, which is what being a Christian means in my opinion.
Martin Luther never intended to break away from the Catholic Church. His intention was to reform it, by ending some of the practices such as simony and the sale of indulgences. But eventually, the movement snowballed, and soon all kinds of Catholic doctrines were questioned, including the intercession of the saints, the existence of Purgatory, devotion to Mary, the Pope's authority, the sacraments, etc.
The Reformation started, among other things, a 30-year war in Europe as several countries with Protestant majorities broke away from Papal authority and waged war against predominantly Catholic countries.
I thought the religious wars were over, but when I listen to modern Catholics and Protestants talk about each other's beliefs, I'm not so sure...
Evangelicalism and Protestantism are not the same thing. There are evangelical movements in several Protestant sects and there are even Catholics who consider themselves evangelical.
Not all Protestants are Evangelicals. The Evangelical movement is based on the idea that you have to be born again and have a personal relationship with God rather than work through a conduit of a church, preist, etc. Evangelicals also feel they have a duty to evangelize and act as missionaries for their faith. The also look at the Bible as the most important authority on truth rather than a church's teachings, liturgy, or doctrines.
im half protesent and half catholic . the difference is that catholics believe that st gabreal came down to mary and planted the baby in her , and protestants belive she had sex with joseph . and also thousands of years ago everyone use to be a catholic , but you give the chapel money and they wud pray for you and you wud go to heaven but then there was a man (cant member his name ) and he give 92 reasons why you shudnt so then there were protsters and they were like little ants joining & joining and thats how they got Protestant
I am catholic and to make a long story short, I feel pretty much the same as you do. I pray directly to God and that to me God is the only authority. I believe the holy spirit is within us and we are to try through this struggle of life to develop a more personal intimate relationship with God (really to submit all control to him). I wish we could all have a better understanding and respect for each other instead of developing these "labels" and adversarial relationships. Thanks for helping to open up the dialogue. God Bless!
As a christian Jesus Christ is our high priest. we therefore come to him with our sins and He forgives us. Only He has authourity to forgive sins. There is no need for any other preist. As Christians we read the Bible for ourselves, understand it by the Holy Ghost living in us, hear feel and have a real and intimate relationship with GOD. What do you guys do? because I'm also not sure of the difference. I tripped up unto this site so please reply to Ghostchasing@hotmail.co.uk
well thanks that really helped in making my mind! i am catholic and i think i'll stay, but i borrowed a bible from the protestant to help me study the bible, and get the point thanks!! merry christmas and happy enw year!
do you thing the rituals or the bible is more importasnt??? because the evangelicla church has no rituals what so ever, thats the opposite of the catholic church
Have a great Christmas and God bless you!
