Pope is unscriptural. Nobody is between the individual and Jesus Christ.

Being "saved" by faith alone versus by faith PLUS good works.

Not so. There have been other Christian churches besides the Catholic Church from the very beginning.

Catholic here. I don't even bother when someone asks a question like this. Catholics worship Mary.

I'll play.

Catholics have a religion-Christians have a relationship.

Wait... so which one is it that doesn't do Christmas or Easter?

Followers of Christ and his Laws, or followers of mostly man made tradition?

The chief difference is: surprise.  Surprise and fear.  Surprise and fear are the chief differences.  Fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency.  The THREE chief differences are:  fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope...  AMONG the chief differences are...

How about those crazy Pentacostals....

the pope.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/PDBjsFAyiwA[/youtube]

Yes....exactly how does Mary hear all these Catholics asking her to pray for them?  Is she all seeing, all knowing?  How does she have this power?

There is even a catholic church in Orlando called "Mary, Queen of the Universe"

Catholics believe in the Bible too.

It should be Bible vs Bible plus tradition.

What about Jesus' brothers?   James, Joseph, Simon and Judas ?

Catholics worship God, Protestants worship the Bible.

Well, if want to be historically accurate...

Catholics are the original Christians until the reformation. Brit king wanted to kill his wives, massacre priests/nuns, destroy churches, and start a new religion called Protestantism and make his own Bible - King James version.

If you want to understand the fundamental differences between catholic christians and Protestant christians, you need to look at Martin Luther's Objections he nailed to the church house door.

I think there are Genuine catholics and Protestants who love Jesus and have a real relationship with him, and probably a fair number of each who do not.

From my point of view, Catholics have developed many traditions that contradict the Bible.

Using mary as a form of priest, asking her to intercede, for instance.  1 timothy 2:5  for there is one GOD and one mediator between GOD and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Mary came to see Jesus with his brothers when he was preaching in a nearby town.  One of the disciples learned she was outside desiring to see him.

Matthew 12

46 While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. 47 Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”

48 But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49 And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus never prayed to anyone but GOD.  When men tried to worship peter or paul, those men stopped them from doing so.  When  John bowed before an angel in revelation, the angel also did not permit it.  Why people would pray and ask mary for favors when we have the high priest himself ready to hear our petition makes no sense to me.

I also reject the claim that the original church was catholic, it was jewish, as stated above.  No where in the bible is the church referred to as catholic.  the roman Catholic church has it roots in the church at rome tha Paul started, but he seeded many other churches throughout greece and asia as well.  All christian denominations sprang forth out of what was originally called "the way."

I think there are several things the modern catholic church does that contradict scripture, and to be fair, many protestant churches have some doctrinal issues as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

ITT OP trolls and runs

Money

Catholics don't "worship" Mary...they venerate her and pray to her (and all the saints) to intercede on their behalf.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death"

No different than any thread on this website where a member experiencing an illness or going through a tough time asks the other members to pray for him.

Monotheism vs Polytheism ?

Asking Mary to pray for you does not make her a priest.

Exactly.   Any Protestant that won't understand that, doesn't want to.

Catholics do more ritualistic stuff.

Christians are more likely to troll and, even amongst themselves, show prejudice.

I think this was supposed to be the first post, so everyone could enter FPNI.

There are many different sects of christianity, some are:  Catholic, anglican, baptist, seventh day adventist, Lutheran, Mormon, and many others.  All have their interpretations of the Bible, and many have added their own bits onto it.  The two primary underlying beliefs are the Bible, and Jesus.

This post nailed it.

Last I checked Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity.

On a personal note I find that I disagree with a number of points of their theology, but that's true of almost any organized church including the one I'm a member of.  Disagreement is not a judgment of being 'not Christian.'

But Mary is dead

almost half of catholics are leftists

Your argument is incorrect because the Primacy of the Roman pontiff doesn’t have anything to do with the age of the Church.

With benefit of hindsight, Luther and arguably even Calvin are far more Orthodox Catholic than their inheritors.

Except for the fact that Peter himself uses one of the code words for Rome, “Babylon” in First Peter and the writings of Turtullian.

So there is at least as much internal and external evidence for Peter making it to Rome as not.

Nope.

Depends on your view of history.  My view of history is that the Catholic church as we understand it is NOT the church that was founded by Jesus through the work of Peter as described in the Bible.  I see it as a part of the Church (note the capital C) that Jesus founded through the work of Peter.  A subtle but important distinction.  The early church was not the Catholic Church as we understand it now, that came somewhat later (mostly can be traced to Rome and the influences of Constantine and his son).

The early Church predates Catholicism as we understand it in my view, so no, Catholicism was not the only game in town for the first 1500 years, but it was the largest.  There was probably a period in the dark ages, after the fall of Rome, where it may have been the only real game in town outside of tiny splinter groups (many of which were deeply flawed theologically themselves.  Gnostic groups come to mind, a theology that persists even to present day among some).  That obviously ended with the schism that created the Eastern Orthodox Church.

So Lutherans are Catholics?

Except when Jesus himself commissioned Peter.

Idol worship.

Please cite the Catholic reference for this.

I’d agree with this.

No sir.  I'm gaining much knowledge from you fine folks in GD. I truly am. Thanks.

Pretty much.

Our God is not the God of the death, but the living.

This.

Luckily we have that bastion of conservative political thought, the Presbyterian Church in the USA.

Interesting, that was not Calvin’s intent, nor Luther’s.

Age...

Catholicism is the original Christian faith.  The catholic church was founded by the Apostles, it's 2000 years old.

The archaic doctrine comes from the middle ages, and it seems kind of foreign now I admit.  The Lutherans have only been around for about 500 years... kind of a young fledgling religion in the scheme of things.

The Eastern Church was the first to split away, that was for purely political reasons.

Excepting that whole Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, competing calendars ....