Between Christianity and being Catholic or Baptist? Don't we all live our lives through Jesus Christ under God? What the bible teaches me is practically the same and I've considered myself all three of these religions at some point in my life. I've had several people tell me they don't even believe in God or attend a good bible-based Church. And yet those same people, without any faith and guidance of a higher spiritual power, are still God's children just the same.

First off, Baptist is a denomination of Christianity, like Pentecostal, Trinity of God, Methodist, etc.

(I myself am non-denominational, we don't put a name for ourselfs, we follow what the Bible teaches, and believe the only way to heaven is Salvation) This link explains what salvation is.
http://www.creationtips.com/saved.html

Taken from a google search I found this is the difference between Christianity and Catholic: (Below is a copy/paste I found correct but didn't write any part of:)

"Let me try and answer this in a way that casts no bias in either direction. I'm not here to bash either points of view - just to try and answer your question.

First thing to understand is that there are three main classes of Catholic:

(traditional) Catholic
Roman Catholic
Christian Catholic.
...oh, and then there are those who identify themselves as Catholic because they were brought up in that environment rather than due to any beliefs/practises they may hold.

Confused yet?? Well keep reading

Roman Catholics tend to hold the most importance in all the traditional rituals - ie, importance of the saints, rosary beads, confessionals, etc. The Roman Catholic is less likely to read the bible themselves, relying more upon the hierarchy of the church to guide their religious direction.

Regular Catholics, whilst not tending to be as imbued in the ritualism of the Church, still hold to many of the traditional beliefs. The confessional is still deemed important in seeking forgiveness for sins.

Then there is the Christian Catholic (represented by such as John Paul II, John XXIII, and from memory the current pope) who tend to give the many Catholic symbolism far less weight, in preference to having a personal relationship with their God. These Catholics are often guided to bring unity btwn the Christian and Catholic brethren.

Now that you're probably confused as all heck, I'll try and cover a couple of the key differences.

The Catholic Church tends to be far more hierarchical in nature - the closest Christian comparison is the High Anglican, which was in many ways modelled off the Catholic Church by Henry VIII after being blacklisted because of divorce.

This actually stands as another key difference. Whilst both belief systems hold to the sanctity of marriage, the traditional and Roman branches of the Catholic church do not support divorce at all - although in specially circumstances a marriage can be annulled (I can't remember the exact terminology), such as in cases where there is ongoing spousal abuse or if one party has abandoned the church completely (the other party can then apply for this).

The other key difference (and most would agree this stands as the most significant of all) lies in their relationship with God. The Christian & the Christian Catholic alike believe in a personal relationship with their saviour, with need for an intermediary. Their sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus. A cornerstone of faith is the understanding that "no man shall come to the Father but through Jesus the Son".

Catholics and Roman Catholics instead will seek intermediaries such as Mary or the saints, who are seen as a bridge btwn them selves and Christ. Sins are forgiven through confession and penance rather than through praying directly to Jesus/God.

Christians alike also see the concept of being "born again" central to their faith, acknowledging that all are born in sin and thus must come to God on their own. From memory this is not the case with Catholicism (although a catholic could best explain why that is..a I can't for the life of me remember).

Anyhow, I hope this helps in some way. As I said at the beginning, there are a raft of differences - too many to cover here - but these are some of the most significant."

in my life time, i've seen at least 2 Protestant Christian pastors who:
have 3+ children

Catholics go into a booth and talk to a priest.

Its not about the Christian or Catholic dictionary words. Its about the humans using these words.
Do not follow "church" "man" "words". Follow God. Follow Jesus.

bottom line....

Catholicism = Salvation through hard work

Christianity = Salvation through faith

The bolded part. Thats your belief behind them, still being God's children, but if they dont belive in God, etc. then they dont even believe they are children of "God", other then mother/father.



This is very true.
Words are flawed, they describe what we have been told the word means.
Church, we all know they are flawed also, not much to say here. Not trying to be rude or generalyzing, just stating a fact that churchs have been viewed as "flawed" in many ways or forms.
Man, no flaw in man at all. Only flaw is what we chose to believe without feeling/knowing it. Most people believe in whatever, due to others experiences and others sayings about the subject, hence making it ever so easy to throw blame on the other if anything ever goes wrong, etc.

---

About the main goal of the topic/question, I wont publicly say anything against religions.
We all chose to believe whatever religion we want, no need to question other religions. But if you must, dont judge, try to be understanding, it will only broaden your own mind about religion when you're researching about them

Well, as far as man, he is fallen.

The quickest way I can sum up your question, is that Catholicism is religion at its core.

Catholic: pray to idols, confess to a man, have a pope

Christianity: Jesus

If you're referring to saints with Catholics, they aren't praying to them. The analogy is like posting here on d2jsp asking for prayers, you're not praying to the people here, you're asking them to join you in prayer. When the saints are involved, you are reaching out to them in the heavenly realm to also pray on your behalf, sort of like posting here to have strangers do so, or calling friends/family to pray for you.

Mainly just the praying to statues and the Bowing down the monstrance that some catholic churches incorporate.

This post was edited by Torm1 on Mar 15 2012 11:21pm

i dont know alot about catholic religion but what little i've heard leads me to believe they are not christians i could be wrong and tell me if i am
they believe that the pope is the head of the church
and the priests that they call father has power to forgive sin (the priest says something like "you are forgiven say 20 hail marys" )
they believe u earn forgiveness for sin therefore believe they can get to a point where they deserve heaven


Baptist believe Jesus is the head of the church and we are the body of the church
no man has the power to forgive sin
forgiveness is a gift not a reward for deeds and noone "deserves" heaven

Matthew 23:9
And call no [man] your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

the Roman catholic church is the mother church and Baptist is one of the multiple denominations who appeared iin 1609 in Amsterdam. Baptist church belong to the Protestant who is the main christians group churches who took his origin with Martin Luther in the 16th century.