Which of the following describes a major difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism?

Answer 1

Protestants believe good works alone cannot gain you salvation.

Protestants do not believe in the pope's authority.

Catholics give spiritual authority to the pope.

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Catholic AnswerThe best description of the difference is free will. The Catholic Church has taught for two thousand years that God has given us free will to choose to love Him. If we choose to love Him, then we will obey His Commandments, and follow His Will for us, thus enabling our own happiness and eventual salvation when we die.

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Protestants follow the "reformers" from the sixteenth (and later) centuries who rejected Our Blessed Lord, because they rejected His Body, the Church. They decided that they had free will to tell God HOW they were going to worship Him. Thus they rejected His Church, they rejected the Bible as received and threw out books, in some cases (examples include Martin Luther and the Jehovah Witnesses) altered the text of the Sacred Scriptures to reflect their own beliefs instead of God's. Protestants, with no guiding authority outside of their own conscience are falling apart into, as of 2012, over 30,000 different denominations which believe completely different things from each other and, most especially, what God teaches through His Church. The Catholic Church remains as guaranteed by God who said that He would be with it, and guide it until the end of the world.
The Catholic Church is the Christian Church that was established by Our Blessed Lord on the Apostle Peter (see St. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16: 17-19), then the Church was born from the blood and water that flowed from His Side as He hung dead on the cross and was pierced by the soldier. Later it was shown to the world at Pentecost with the descent of the Holy Spirit. Our Blessed Lord promised to be with St. Peter and his successors and guaranteed that the gate of Hell would not prevail against them, and that His Church would survive until the end of the world. People who deny the Catholic Church are basically calling Our Blessed Lord a liar who was unable to fulfill His Promises. Protestants are Christians insofar as they are validly baptized and believe in the Nicene Creed, they are actually members of Christ's Catholic Church, although invisibly and in a hampered manner. Protestants who are not baptized validly and do not believe in the Nicene Creed in its traditional interpretation are misusing the word "Christian". . from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957 '''Protestant'''. An adherent of any one of the religious bodies detached from the Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation or of any sect deriving from them; one who professes the doctrines of those reformers. The name was first applied to and accepted by those Lutherans who protested against the decree of the second Diet of Speyer (1529) which ordained that in those states where the new religion had got a hold Catholic doctrine should not be attacked nor the celebration of Mass interfered with, pending the decisions of a council of the Empire. Its use afterwards spread to all reformers and is now generally interpreted as a "protest against the errors of the Church of Rome." It is a gross and misleading mistake to apply the name to members of the dissident Eastern churches, or to "after-Christians" who repudiate Protestantism equally or (nearly equally) with Catholicism. "'''After-Christian'''". An inhabitant of Christendom and a descendant of Christian ancestors who, implicitly or explicitly, repudiates Christianity as a revealed religion. The term is specially used of such people in England and the United States where much contemporary educated public opinion regards religion in a merely humanitarian and pragmatic way. |}

Answer 2

Catholicism requires Christians to follow a single leader, while Protestantism does not.

Answer 3

There is more in common between the Catholic Church and most Protestant churches than there is different, especially in the most important things, like our faith in God as Trinity, faith in Christ, the Resurrection, baptism, the importance of the Bible, etc.

There are many different Protestant churches and communities, each is different from the other, and so each is different from the Catholic Church in different ways.

What Protestants have in common is their origin in the various church reformations of the 14th-16th centuries in Europe, the result of which was a divided western Christianity on one hand, but also some much-needed reforms of the Church on the other.

Some common differences include the role and interpretation of Scripture and Tradition, the nature and mission of the Church, the importance of sacraments, the authority of the pope, etc.

In the centuries following the Reformations, both Catholics and Protestants developed exaggerated, polemical views about each other and then strengthened their own identity in response, in order to make clear that they were not "the other".

The last fifty years, since the Catholic Church entered the ecumenical movement, has seen great progress in understanding each other. First, erroneous understandings of each other began to be corrected. Then, dialogue began to bring churches closer to each other (for example, nearly all Christians profess a belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist/Lord's Supper, though there are disagreements about what exactly this means).

The view shared by the Catholic Church and most Protestant churches is that there is far more in common than what divides, but there remain important differences. Because the term "Protestant" covers an impossibly wide array of beliefs and churches, more detail is left to "the difference between Catholics and [a specific denomination]".

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First of all, the word is spelled Protestant.

The word "Protest" is the root of the word PROTESTant.

500 years ago, in the 16th Century (1500s), protesters were called protestants.

"Protestants" were "protesting" against the Roman Catholic Church of the 16th Century (1500s) C.E.

The original Protestants were Germans who were "protesting" the power of Rome (the Vatican) and especially the power of the (usually Italian) Catholic Pope.

The original "Protestants" were followers of the German theologian Martin Luther.

Martin Luther was originally a German Catholic priest who by "protesting" hoped to "reform" the Roman Catholic Church. ("Reform" is the root word that of the word "Reformation"). Since the (almost always Italian) Pope and the Vatican refused to "reform" the Roman Catholic Church, the German Luther and his followers (the "protestants" or "protesters") started their own Protestant Church - the Lutheran Church - named after Martin Luther (not to be confused with Martin Luther King who lived 400 years later).

There are now many, many Protestant churches (Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Quakers, Shakers, Mennonites, etc., etc., etc.).

While NO Protestant denomination follows the mandates of the Catholic Pope, some Protestant sects are closer to Catholicism while other Protestant sects are farther from Catholicism. Example: some Protestant churches have "communion" while others do not. Also, while most Protestant sects do not acknowledge "saints" - some do (Episcopalians).

The word "Christian" comes from the root word "Christ" as in Jesus Christ.

While Catholics and Protestants are all Christians (followers of Jesus Christ) , Catholics are led by the Pope from the Vatican (Rome, Italy), whereas Protestants are NOT led by the Pope. Thus Papal decrees, such as:

- forbidding divorce + remarriage

- forbidding artificial birth-control

apply only to Catholics and NOT to Protestants.

Thus in many Catholic countries (such as Mexico) families are larger with many children. While in Protestant countries (such as the Scandinavian countries which are Lutheran) families are smaller with far fewer children thus resulting in a different standard of living.

There is more in common betwen the Catholic Church and most Protestant churches than there is different, especially in the most important things, like our faith in God as Trinity, faith in Christ, the Resurrection, baptism, the importance of the Bible, etc.

There are many different Protestant churches and communities, each is different from the other in minor practices, culture, structure and so on, and so each is different from the Catholic Church in different ways.

But these are mostly peripheral and unimportant customs. For example, the Baptist Church baptises only adults and by full immersion. Tha Catholic Church baptises infants as well, by sprinkling with water. The Catholic Church has seven sacraments; the Anglican, just 2, the Salvation Army has no sacraments at all. The Catholic Church has priests and bishops, while the Methodist Church and URC has ministers.

These differences are all very minor when you consider that the important doctrines (of the Trinity, Jesus Christ's virgin birth, his death, atonement, resurrection, ascension and return and many others) are all held in common by both Catholics and Protestants. There is more in common between these two branches of the Christian Church than, say, between the whole Christian Church (including Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and so on) and pseudo-Christian cults like the Mormons (who have a totally different idea of God) and the Jehovah's Witnesses (who refuse to accept the divine nature of Christ).

In short:

They are essentially the same except a group of Catholics lead by Martin Luther some centuries ago, did not agree with the Vatican on the policy which required Catholics to follow rituals in order to get into heaven. Martin Luther protested against the Catholic church and started his own sect which is now the modern-day Protestent church

Catholics and Protestants carry a common bottom line/non-negotiatable belief:

That Jesus Christ is the son of God, He died on the cross for our sins, rose on the 3rd day, He will return for His church, and no one can be saved unless you accept Him as your personal Lord and Saviour

All other beliefs are highly disputed

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Catholic AnswerThe differences can be reduced to one main difference: Catholics believe that God gave you free will with which to accept or reject Him. You have to make that decision every moment of your life throughout your life, your choices to do this or that reflect your belief in God or not. However, God, when He came to earth, established a Church and completely revealed His revelation to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. So if you are saying "yes" to God, the rest is a given, ie: He has told us HOW we are to say "yes" in living out our lives.

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In protestantism, they believe this as well, but then they go further, rejected His Church and His Revelation, and relying on their own lights as to HOW they are going to say "yes" to God. Every protestant believes, in one way or another, that Jesus did not establish a Church but wrote a Bible and that each individual can discern how to say yes to Jesus just by reading the Bible. Of course, protestants can not explain how the first Christians were saved as there was no Bible yet, not who authorized the Bible as the Church wrote it and decided what was in it, but, regardless, that seems to be the difference.

Answer 4

OpinionThis answer is in reference to part of the statement given below, concerning Mary: Protestants Do believe that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. This is clearly stated in The Bible. The difference is that she did not remain a virgin all her life. The Bible states that she had other children, with Joseph as their father. Jesus was born of the Holy Ghost, conceived of God. Matt. 12:46,47 (Jesus' brethren); Gal. 1:19 (the Lord's brother James); Matt. 1:18-25 (the birth of Jesus) OpinionOne of the main differences in beliefs between the Nationalists and the unionists concerns religion. The majority or the unionists are protestant and the majority of the nationalists are catholic. When the Act of union 1800 was introduced in 1801, protestants started filling up northern Ireland as they now believed this was their country, however the Catholics were not at all happy about this. Most of the nationalists moved to southern Ireland to join the other members of their religion however, many Catholics refused to move as they classed northern island as their home and they were determined to get their homes back. This is where the problems started between the Catholics and protestants.

Catholics and protestants worship in many different ways however many people say they are both Christians. Both religions follow the bible but they just believe in different things. Catholics believe that the virgin Mary was a virgin all her life and the appearance of Jesus Christ was a complete miracle, on the other hand protestants deny Mary?s virginity as they believe there was nothing miraculous about the birth of Jesus. Protestants are huge followers of the church they have very long ceremonies and they treat their churches as well as they treat their homes. The catholic churches are far more decorated than the protestant churches this is because protestants focus much more on the bible than they do on their churches. Catholics tend to follow the church as they think this is where divine authority comes from but protestants just follow their bible as they believe it comes from the bible. This is why protestants don?t feel the need to hold long ceremonies and this is also why their churches are allot less decorated than catholic churches. Catholics seem to have a lot more beliefs than protestants this is maybe why their church services are longer. Catholics have seven sacraments, baptism, holy communion, first confession, marriage, holy orders, anointing of the sick and confirmation. Protestants however only have two sacraments which is baptism and Eucharist.

Another OpinionProtestants definitely DO NOT deny the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Protestants believe Jesus was born to Mary when she had never had sex. That is a virgin birth. But Catholicism teaches that Mary remained a virgin the rest of her life. Protestants believe that after the birth of Jesus, Mary had a normal sexual relationship with Joseph and the Bible mentions in Matthew 13:55 that He had four brothers. "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?" OpinionPROTESTANTS are the one who don't pray to MARY as the catholics do. They believe what is written in the bible and not what is taught in the church. According to them Mary was just the way for JESUS to come on this earth. she is not a god to be prayed. she was just a human being. Yes, a special human being to give birth to JESUS.

OPINION

Mary is prayed to for many reasons but not in respect to as a god. We know she is not God. God knows alls intentions thus regarding our prayers. Do you think that God would really want us to fight about our differences worst of all put the other (others) down while doing so? The goal is to Love all, we are ALL brothers and sisters. None of us can precisely know everything about God or Jesus teachings because we are so little minded. How many times did the Apostles misunderstand His teachings in which he called them out on thus having to further explain himself? Live the best way you can, do your best by God, and pray everyday, God will know ones true Heart. "If we merely walk, God will be pleased with our stumbles".
The major difference between the two, are protestants do not worship or pray to Mary, they do not have saints, and they do not pray for the souls of the departed people. Protestants believe that Jesus intercedes for them with god. Catholics believe Mary intercedes for them.

Answer 5

Actually, there are more similarities that differences, but let's at least list the major ones.

(Please remember that this is being written by a Protestant - I hope that perhaps a Roman Catholic will add their perspective).

For Protestants, the Scriptures are the sole source of authority, while Roman Catholics add church tradition to the Scriptures.

The Roman Catholic church is organized hierarchically under the authority of the Pope. Protestants are sometimes organized under bishops, sometimes in a representative way under a church council, and sometimes in a congregational way, but in no case do they give allegiance to the Pope. They hold that Jesus Christ alone is head of the church.

The Roman Catholic version of the Bible contains more books that the Protestant one.

Mary the mother of Jesus occupies a special place in Roman Catholic thought and devotional life. Protestants respect her, but do not hold any special veneration for her, and will criticize the Roman Catholics for at times seeming to worship her.

In Protestant theology, salvation comes by grace via faith in Christ alone. The Roman Catholic position is somewhat more complicated in that faith in Christ establishes a basis for salvation to which must be added "good works" consistent with that faith.

The Roman Catholic church recognizes seven sacraments while the Protestant church has only two - marriage and baptism.

Catholic Answer This is a tough question from many points of view. As of 2012, there are over 30,000 different protestant sects, many of which have no resemblance to each other at all. But there is one thing that every protestant has in common that does separate them from Catholics and that is the view of the Christian Church and what it means to be a Christian. The Catholic Church was established by Our Blessed Lord while He was on earth in order to bring people to God, and God to the people. The Church was born from His pierced side when He hung dead on the cross, He left Peter as His first Vicar, and 50 days later sent the Holy Spirit to guide the Church into all truth until the end of time. For a Catholic there is only one choice in life, whether to accept, love, and follow God, or to turn away from Him and follow your own Will. That is it. If you accept God and follow Him as a Catholic, every other choice you have in life will boil down to which one enables you to follow God. Catholicism is a revealed religion, you either accept it, as it is, or you don't. Protestantism is something else, protestants reject the idea that they just accept the Church's teaching in order to work out their salvation. They based their religion on a book - the protestant Bible, which is one that they took from the Catholic Church, removed the books that they didn't feel comfortable with, and then proceeded to say that each individual could work out what it means by themselves, which is why there are over 30,000 of them right now. Protestants set themselves up as their own little Pope and tell God how they are going to worship Him, ignoring His revealed word through His Church and His Representatives, the Pope and the Bishops.

Answer 6

The principal differences are:

1.) Catholics recognize tradition as having equal importance as scripture. Paul points this out in his 2nd letter to Timothy.

2.) Protestants generally do not accept the True Presence in the Eucharist or, if they do, it is only a temporary thing. Our Lord disappears after communion.

3.) Protestants do not accept the leadership of the pope.

4.) Catholics recognize 7 sacraments (all biblical) while most Protestants recognize only one or two.

5.) Most Protestants do not recognize the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible that are accepted by Catholics.

6.) Most Protestants do not recognize the perpetual virginity of Mary.

7.) While most Protestants recognize the Communion of Saints, their view of it is considerably divergent from the Catholic view.

8.) Most Protestants believe man is saved by faith alone. Catholics believe we are justified by faith but saved by good works.

9.) Catholics believe our souls must undergo a final cleansing as punishment for sins forgiven in Purgatory. Protestants do not.

Answer 7

Roman Catholic AnswerThere is no such thing as the protestant church. First of all, a church must have valid orders in the apostolic succession, such as the Eastern Orthodox Church, or Orthodox Churches. The word "church" would only be extended to a protestant as a courtesy, they are known as ecclesial communities. Secondly, there is no one protestant group - there are, at last count, over 30,000, all having little in common with each other (except that they are not the Catholic Church established by Our Blessed Lord) so the only way the question would be capable of an answer would be to ask the differences between a particular community and the Church.

Answer 8

The Protestant movement began as a refom of the Roman Catholic Church, which was seen as endorsing corruption and moving away from what were thought to be its early Christian roots. A Protestant is simply someone who believes the teachings of one of the Protestant faiths, and a Catholic is someone who believes the teachings of the Catholic Church and accepts its rituals.

There are many superficial differences between Protestant and Catholic beliefs and between Protestant and Catholic rituals, but one difference that seems to be fundamental is hagiology. Catholicism is monotheistic, yet Catholics pray to their saints for intercession to God whereas Protestants believe that God, being all-knowing, does not need intercession. When praying to saints, Catholics often pray in front of statues of the saint, which early Protestants noted was almost indistinguishable from pagan practices when worshipping gods depicted by statues.

To Catholics, the most important saint by far is the virgin Mary, who has been given numerous names as patron saint or in recognition of her special role in religious belief. Since the seventeenth century, there has been a tradition of apparitions by Mary, resulting in the dedication of holy places and the veneration of Mary.

Answer 9

Protestants believe good works alone cannot gain you salvation.-Apex :)

Answer 10

(FOR APEX) Catholics give spiritual authority to the pope