Is protestant better than catholic

Answer 1

I think the answer on this varies from person to person and from local church to local church. The better 'faith' is the one which causes you to better love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30). The better 'faith' will cause you to see Jesus Christ as God Himself coming to live a sinless life as a man, to die on the cross to take upon Himself the punishment for our wrongdoings, and to be raised from the dead (Luke 24:46-48). For some, the ritual of the Catholic church does this, for another, it drives them in the opposite direction. The better 'faith' will help you to see that it is by faith alone in Jesus you are saved from separation from God. For some, the Protestant focus on The Bible, being the inerrant Word of God, as the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him, liberates them to a deep passion for, and enjoyment of God. May the Spirit of the living God direct the path of all who seek Him.

Answer 2

As you might imagine, the answer depends a lot on whether one is Protestant or Roman Catholic. There is also the issue how we should measure better - Do we ask which one has more adherents, which one has more charities, or what? The standard I would suggest is which one is more faithful to the teachings of the Scripture, but even that simple basis reveals my Protestant bias.

I suggest that you visit local churches of each type and ask yourself; Does holiness and truth live here? Do I feel God speaking to me through the services of this church? Do I sense a real love of neighbor in this congregation? Then make your decision of which one would be better for you based on the answers.

Answer 3

In the Christian religion, there are many traditions; however, we can narrow them down to two distinct traditions: Protestant, or Reformed, and Catholic/Orthodox.

In the latter tradition, God's revelation (and humanity's response) occurs through a threefold combination of Sacred Scripture, Apostolic Tradition, and the Holy Sacraments.

1. Sacred Scripture includes the Hebrew and Greek language books of the Old Testament and the complete set of New Testament writings. Throughout the centuries there have been many great and lesser theologians who have helped to interpret and understand Sacred Scripture for the world;

2. Apostolic Tradition includes the ancient teachings of the Saints and Doctors of the Church, Apostolic Succession -- the continuous, generational, laying on of hands from Jesus' Apostles to today's bishops, and the cardinal teaching of the Real Presence -- Christ's real and mystical Presence in the elements of bread and wine when consecrated by a priest;

3. The Holy Sacraments are seven ceremonies or rituals which become special encounters between the human and the Divine: Baptism, Communion, Confirmation, Confession, Marriage, Ordination, and Anointing Of The Sick. They signify events and processes of commitment and healing.

Orthodox and Catholic churches are those governed through a hierarchy of Deacons, Priests, and Bishops, trace their beliefs and traditions back to Apostolic times, and have religious orders of nuns, monks, and friars. Be aware that not all Catholic Churches are Roman. There are many independent Catholic churches -- that is, Catholic churches not affiliated with Rome. The most well-known is the Church Of England/Episcopal church. It is from the Roman (Western) Catholic Church that all Protestant/Reformed churches have sprung.

For Protestants, God's revelation is limited strictly to the Bible, and just a few sacraments are celebrated, depending on the denomination. They eschew the hierarchal trappings and traditional ways of the Catholic church and, by association, the Orthodox churches of the east as well.

1. The Bible for Protestants is either the primary or sole source of God's revelation, depending on the denomination. They follow only the Hebrew language books of the Old Testament, although the New Testament collection of writings is the same for them as for Orthodox and Catholic Christians. Reformed/Protestant Christians also exercise the freedom of interpreting the Bible without need of official theologians. However, such freedom has led to a multiplicity of doctrinal differences, false teachings, and cults;

2. Essential Sacraments for Protestants are Baptism, Marriage, and a form of Communion. Some denominations are more traditional than others, and may have a form of Ordination and even Confirmation.

Again, depending on the denomination, Protestants either derive from theological leaders and innovators who felt compelled to reform the wayward Catholic teachings of their time or, as with some more recent groups, spring from a back-to-basics search for a purely biblical Christianity. Still other Protestant groups are offshoots of earlier Protestants.

Cults are religious groups whose teachings derive from a particular individual and whose teachings run counter to established Christian belief (salvation by grace, the Trinity). The most well-known of these pseudo-Christian groups are The Jehovah's Witnesses, whose beliefs come from Charles Taze Russell, and The Mormons/Latter Day Saints, whose beliefs come from Joseph Smith.

Answer 4

No, Catholicism teaches that God, through the sacraments, beginning with Baptism, actually makes us justified, and continues to justify us as long as we cooperate with the graces that He sends us. We, however, must cooperate with Him, receive the sacraments, pray, and act accordingly. If we fail to act rightly, then we condemn ourselves to hell. Protestantism is rather difficult to compare as there are over 33,000 different varieties and every single one of them has a different view, but for the most part, they do not believe that God actually justifies them and expects their cooperation. They think that God looks at His Son, and ignores our sin, leaving us in our sinful condition, and that no matter what we may do, as long as we KNOW that we are saved, then we are fine. To a Catholic this is outright heresy, read the entire letter of Saint James, which was specifically written to counter heretical interpretations of St. Paul. "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." James 2:24.

Answer 5

Assuming that you mean prosperous, then the usual reason would be that the Calvinist streak of protestantism assumed that the only way you can be assured of eternal salvation is by being prosperous on earth, so they tend to work very hard, Ben Franklin's "early to bed, early to rise" was in this vein. Catholics take Our Blessed Lord a little more seriously when He says that they need to take up their cross daily and follow Him, and the fact that they will be judged on what they do (as enumerated in the Matthew 25:31-46, and the Sermon on the Mount), they are more likely to be doing the good works which will earn them their reward (read the letter of St. James, particularly chapter 2, verses 14-26. So the Calvinist protestant is working very hard at being prosperous to show that he is saved, and the Catholic is working very hard at helping his neighbor to work out his salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).