This question cant really be overlooked, or can it? are catholics really christians? The problem is ...1. the catholics have too many doctrines/beliefs or should i call it that? Christianity is supposed to be simple. do this and u get this, do that and u get that, but overtime the catholics have brought in a hell lot of other things to contend with. Other issues that pertain to this divergence are petty, those involving mary being the mother or God and all that, the main issue is...why do they bow to graven images which is STRICTLY prohibited in the bible, even if it is the graven image of God himself? I WAS ONCE A CATHOLIC. when someone made me see reasons, i took off.

They practise the Christian Religion (man made) not GOD inspired Christianity (which is a way of life).

Please what did the Catholics do to you guys? Everywhere in this Religion section, it's always Catholics! Catholics!! Catholics!!!   Apart from the fact that you are annoying some people, you are also duplicating topics.

Where in the bible are we instructed to say a rosary prayer?

not that i care especially, but why isn't the veneration of saints considered idolatry

Charlisco and Exu, I hope your questions are not directed at me. Well if they are, I won't answer you. There is a thread on "Questions about Catholics", you can go there to ask and I can't be bothered to give you the link cos I'm

You did not solve anything. you just proclaim your anger.
that is where the problem lies

They practise the Christian Religion (man made) not GOD inspired Christianity (which is a way of life).

You these so-called "born-again" are nothing but hypocrites! Although, I'm not a Christian (and I will never be one; I was born a Muslim and I'll die a Muslim -- insha Allah), but I respect the Catholics more than you "new breed" christians. By negating them you have alienated over a billion of the christian adherents. If we remove this astounding number from your population worldwide what remains is, maybe, a little less than 800,000,000 "christians." You are now in minority; even, the Indian Buddhists or whatever they call themselves, are now more than you in number. What makes you better than the catholics?

I'm not a Christian, or a Muslim for that matter but I fail to see why the numbers (larger numbers) of Christians/Catholics matters...

sometimes i find it hard to understand where people are going with their religious debates. No one has really seen God, everybody is taking from the account of some people who claimed they have dealt with God. God is personal to individual just as our clothes fit on our body so is God to us.  we should be able to respect other people's views on this religious issues. If you are not catholic , then you must be something else, it is your responsibility to discover the way that work for you. Its all about getting results and not aimless wandering and blabbing.

I am not catholic and what they do is non of my business. They read the bible just like everyone of us, their teachers know exactly everything on genesis about worshiping idols and stuff like that, do you think they are stupid or stubborn? what do you think they will benefit from disobeying the Almighty God? If they think Mary deserve some adoration for serving as a way to bring Christ into the world, whats wrong with that? At least they have a good reason for doing that And i know God understands. We all are human and non of us have seen or know the mind of God. ( you can only claim)

I will suggest you to just mind your business and your relationship with God and I'm sure when you start doing well , you will attract a lot of people to your side, I wonder what you will do with them.........................lol

charlisco:

Where in the bible are we instructed to say a rosary prayer?

Where in the Bible are you instructed to drive a car?

No, and that is why a problem will arise if the church started putting pressure on all members to drive cars, or the preachers start expounding on the spiritual benefits of driving a car!

I'm not a Christian, or a Muslim for that matter but I fail to see why the numbers (larger numbers) of Christians/Catholics matters...

Oh, yes. You failed to discern that  every now and then the Christian media arrogantly theorize  that the Christian population is about two billions while the Muslim population is 1.3 billions. When, where, and how did they take the census? Lying bastards!

I still fail to see why the number of followers makes any difference...

You these so-called "born-again" are nothing but hypocrites! Although, I'm not a Christian (and I will never be one; I was born a Muslim and I'll die a Muslim -- insha Allah), but I respect the Catholics more than you "new breed" christians. By negating them you have alienated over a billion of the christian adherents. What makes you better than the catholics?

I fully agree with ajisafe on this one

What's the difference between Catholics and Christains?Nothing. Am Catholic i believe God is the Creator, Jesus is His Son, who died and saved us fro our sins. If this is not the same thing preached in Penticostal Churches, please somebody tell me. What a question

Am catholic and been going out with pentecostal woman and I tell you it's not the same.

So, what's wrong with Pentecost? I think the most important fault within the entire movement is the religious power and authority most of these denominations and congregations instill within the local pastor -- something that is pandemic within both Pentecostalism and its spiritual descendent, the Charismatic movement. The local pastor has Pope-like powers over the local church, and many Pentecostal/Charismatic pastors rule over their local assemblies like virtual dictators -- many only having church "boards" filled with "yes-men" to satisfy tax authorities. In many of these congregations, the pastor answers to no one -- to no committee, not to the church at large, and not even -- in many cases -- to the denominational organization that credentials him. He is an authority unto himself and to his God, and many Pentecostal/Charismatic/non-denominational church-goers literally believe that his words uttered in sermons, prophecies, etc., are the literal words of God -- as surely as most Christians believe the Bible to be.

chrisd:

So, what's wrong with Pentecost? I think the most important fault within the entire movement is the religious power and authority most of these denominations and congregations instill within the local pastor -- something that is pandemic within both Pentecostalism and its spiritual descendent, the Charismatic movement. The local pastor has Pope-like powers over the local church, and many Pentecostal/Charismatic pastors rule over their local assemblies like virtual dictators -- many only having church "boards" filled with "yes-men" to satisfy tax authorities. In many of these congregations, the pastor answers to no one -- to no committee, not to the church at large, and not even -- in many cases -- to the denominational organization that credentials him. He is an authority unto himself and to his God, and many Pentecostal/Charismatic/non-denominational church-goers literally believe that his words uttered in sermons, prophecies, etc., are the literal words of God -- as surely as most Christians believe the Bible to be.

Maybe it's me but this seems like a problem faced by Christianity in general...scratch that, all monotheistic religions...

I'm loving all this finger pointing by the way, pure comedy...

It's very inspiring that you noticed things you don't like about the Catholic church and left. More encouraging is that you're able to voice out your opinion about them. Now, contrast that with what is going on with the Mohamad cartoons in Europe. That's what you should be worried about because if the trend continues, you will not be able to complain about Mary or any other image.

Are dogs really mammals?

chrisd:

So, what's wrong with Pentecost? I think the most important fault within the entire movement is the religious power and authority most of these denominations and congregations instill within the local pastor -- something that is pandemic within both Pentecostalism and its spiritual descendent, the Charismatic movement. The local pastor has Pope-like powers over the local church, and many Pentecostal/Charismatic pastors rule over their local assemblies like virtual dictators -- many only having church "boards" filled with "yes-men" to satisfy tax authorities. In many of these congregations, the pastor answers to no one -- to no committee, not to the church at large, and not even -- in many cases -- to the denominational organization that credentials him. He is an authority unto himself and to his God, and many Pentecostal/Charismatic/non-denominational church-goers literally believe that his words uttered in sermons, prophecies, etc., are the literal words of God -- as surely as most Christians believe the Bible to be.

.......but that's the way your Pope operates too? right?

I hear you Catholics see him as a deity - a demigod, of a sort.

ono:

.......but that's the way your Pope operates too? right?

I hear you Catholics see him as a deity - a demigod, of a sort.

Hearsay as we all know is very dangerous

How about the tongue-lashing disciplinarian your typical Pentecostal preacher is.

hmn, don't know where this one is leading us. We're only giving avenue for the Devil to smile at the varying opinions about the one and only true God.

Sorry about that word on the Pope. Lets come together as Christians and forget this sectarianism on Christianity.  We shall all meet at the feet of Jesus on the last day. When that time comes, we can then ask him if Catholics are really christians.

For the now, Catholics are my brethren in the Lord.


For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another - Galatians 5:13

- Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous - 1 Peter 3:8


I love the Catholics. They are my brethren.

It is interesting how the Bible was formed and the reverence the Catholic Church has had for the Bible since she defined it and the Catholic Church's preservation of the Bible up to the Douay Rheims translation. I mention here the painstaking process of how monks copied Bibles before the printing press. I also defend the Catholic Church against accusations that they hid the Bible to keep people ignorant of it.

I give two reasons why it is hard to find English Bible translations dated before the reformation. Because the Protestants destroyed many Catholic objects in countries where the reformation flourished, Catholic Bibles could not be found in these areas. However, in countries where the reformation did not take foothold, there are many existing vernacular Bibles. I actually went to the Field Museum in Chicago and saw 11th century Spanish Bibles with my own two eyes. It was luck that they were on a tour.

I learned that Martin Luther regarded the Epistle of James to be unworthy to remain in the Scriptures (mostly because of James 2:24) but I had to do some searching to verify it.

Enough now. Wish you a nice day

You these so-called "born-again" are nothing but hypocrites! Although, I'm not a Christian (and I will never be one; I was born a Muslim and I'll die a Muslim -- insha Allah), but I respect the Catholics more than you "new breed" christians. By negating them you have alienated over a billion of the christian adherents. If we remove this astounding number from your population worldwide what remains is, maybe, a little less than 800,000,000 "christians." You are now in minority; even, the Indian Buddhists or whatever they call themselves, are now more than you in number. What makes you better than the catholics?

Ajisafe,

Please tell me this. WHO ARE YOU TO CALL BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS HYPOCRITES!!!!
Only God is the judge he will rule the unworthy so why do you bother? I am a born again christian and i know a lot of people who are born again, we are all one body of christ, I REBUK IT IN THE NAME OF JESUS THAT WE ARE HYPOCRITES! I think before you judge you should TAKE THE LOG OUT OF YOUR OWN EYE BEFORE YOU CAN JUDGE THE SPECK IN ANYONE ELSES.

Chrisd,

You agree with this??
Both of you need to get right with God. The REAL God. The Jehovah Jira, Alpha and Omega.

I agree, seen lot of born again hypocrites in pentecostal and charismatic churches. All it is, is a show off in church to be seen. Sometimes it seems more like a big entertainment thing to get young people in. My lady was pentecostal and they kicked her out of leading a church prayer group because I'm Catholic. Never happened in my church concerning her though. But you do have to agree though that the church usually has some level of influence on a person. Let's depict the Pentecostal preacher character, It's basically an American art form, preaching is a theatrical way.

We’ve been bewitched. What matters to us today are the carnal things. We want flash, bang and the wow factor. If a person can shout loud enough and get everyone to swoon at the altar, we don’t care how he or she lives at home. Morality is irrelevant. Some Christians write to say: “The Bible says we shouldn’t judge. No one is perfect. We need to forgive.” What Bible are these people reading? Mine says plainly that it is our responsibility to judge sin in the church.

I am not writing this to slander or diminish the spirituality of those who hold to pentecostal/charismatic and born-again concept. There are genuine persons out there too. And don't tell me about how loving Jesus was all the time, he was not a very nice person actually,

they act like they prefer mother of jesus than they like jesus cos everywhere around them you see pics of mary and they kneel to her and pray whereas God says jesus is the way to God(christianity) so they might not be 100% christian

Ok first of all Catholics were the first christains to exist, and do not judge what you do not know.
If you call kneeling worhiping you are out of your mind. And if you have no pictures in your house of your own mother or fmaily members I pity you.

I wrote this somepqlce else but I'll repost it.

I'm going to adress the issue that Catholics worship Marry.
Those who say such things obviously know nothing of catholisism and shouldn't speak as if they do. The only reason anyone claims that a Catholic worships Mary is because they are told by a person who also knows nothing of catholisim but claims to. It is a lie that Catholics worship Mary- ask any Catholic and they will assure you they don't. So why would we worship a person who we refuse to say we do? That's not true worship is it?
I'll give you an easier way to understand what the Mary thing is.
(I did not come up with this by the way, a few women that used to be protestant were explaining what they learned. They told how they were told since they were children that Catholics worshipped Mary and saints and were never told what the real meaning was)
So we're going to look at God as our king right now, we are the people of his land and we look to his knights for protection just as he does. When a king sends out a knight to serve for him and the knight goes out to do as he is told and succeeds, the king honors him. The rest of us in turn are expected to honor him or else we are being disrespectful to not only the knight but the king. There is no fault in honoring those who lived their lives as best they could under the word of God, they are to be looked up to and immitated. Mary is very similar to this, we must honor her above all other people, she is our ultimate mother and Jesus expects us to treat her with respect and honor just as he did. She is not worshiped in prayer, we send our prayers to her so that she may pray for us because she is completely pure and her prayers are pure. We oiften ask people we know to pray for a loved one who is suffering or things of that nature, and so if you claim that asking Jesus' own mother to do this for us is worship, all of your religions are guilty of worshiping people other than Christ.


Just because someone tells you that as a Catholic you worsip Mary coesn't mean they know what they are talking about. When you called yourself Catholic did you worship Mary? No the religion teaches us to honor Mary.

And by the way, the bible says all over it do not judge, Jesus said them many times himself.
However, to those nuts who think that if they are a certain religion they are audimatically saved, I hope that you may someday realize what a load of crap that is. Than Jesus died in vain and everything he preaches if you think that you're born a sinner so oh well keep sinning.