Catholics don’t follow the whole bible, they worship Mary and they believe in purgatory, (which isn’t real)
They believe works alone can save you.Technically, they believe Jesus puts some of His righteousness in us, making it possible for us to work the rest of the way. Regardless, Romans 11:6 says, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.”
As for Peter being the first pope, that verse in Matt 16 is drastically twisted by Catholics. Peter had just proclaimed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. That is the rock upon which Jesus would build His church, not on Peter, on Himself.
When Jesus said that, he was making a pun. He said to Simon, “And I tell you, you are Peter, (the Greek word here is petros, which means pebble) and on this rock (petra, which means boulder) I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus was saying, you are a pebble that has made a great big boulder of a confession that I come from God.
If the “rock” refers to Peter, why would Jesus say the gates of hell will not prevail against “it” and not “him”? If Jesus was installing Peter as the first pope, why would He immediately turn around and call him Satan in verse 23? Jesus is the cornerstone of the church. He is the center of everything, not human beings. Catholicism tries to take the spotlight off Jesus and point it toward human efforts.
I’m tempted to go off about how wrong this representation of Catholicism is, but I’ll just lay out a few facts instead.
We do not worship Mary. I cannot stress enough that we do not. Worship. Mary. We treat her as a mediatrix between us and her Son, and respect her as the woman chosen to bear God Himself in human form. We venerate her, but do not worship her. She was human as we all are. We agree that worship of her would be idolatry. Which is why we don’t worship her.
The canon of the Bible could be a post within itself. If you want to know more ask me separately.
Hell is real. But those cleansed of sin can’t all go straight to heaven. “Why, Raphael?” Because like the debtor who would not forgive his fellow servant, we still owe God work for our sins. We are forgiven but indebted in a different matter. This brings in the problem of Indulgences, but again, that could be a discussion in itself and I’ll refrain from that for now. The point is, Purgatory is necessary if we wish to earn completely the happiness of heaven.
Now: Faith Vs. Works. This is going to sound like deja vu because it’s similar to what I said about Marian worship. We do not. Believe. In. Works. Alone. Had I gone off on the canon of the Bible I would have explained the differences between translations. But I’ll refrain and simply say that we, too, have Romans 3:28 regarding faith before works. Protestant Reformation-era Bible, making up most modern canon, removed James where we take “Faith without works is dead”. This could formulate a much larger debate but for the moment I’ll leave you with that information.
“You are Peter”, while the basis of our belief in Simon Bar-Jonas as the foremost apostle and first Pontiff, is not the only point at which Christ gives power to this apostle. A good example off the top of my head is after the Resurrection, in John 21 where Christ tells Peter – and not the other Apostles – to “Feed My lambs” and “feed My sheep”.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk, please leave all hate anonymously as asks or message me.
I’d now like to introduce my friend, wingman, and fellow Catholic writer, @that-catholic-shinobi, to the floor. She’s not as nice as me.
really considering that youtube series about now. And i promise i’m just as nice as Ross here.
Catholics honor Mary as the mother of God. The reason protestants consider this worship is because we pray to her.
There are three levels of veneration.
Latria- Worship. For God/ the Trinity alone. Recognizing him as Lord, Creator and Savior.
Dulia- Honor/ veneration and respect given to saints. Those that the Magisterium has declared to be in Gods presence in Heaven.
Now Mary is the only one in a class we call Hyperdulia, or a higher form of veneration. Mostly because 1) she’s the Mother of God. 2) She was conceived sinless (which is not a topic for this post).
Also, Catholics do not consider prayer worship, as many protastants do. Prayer is merely communication, whether to God or anyone else in Heaven.
Catholics believe in Faith AND Works. Mostly because Faith without action/ works is empty faith. Good deeds without faith does not lead to salvation. Martin Luther had an issue with the idea of needing both and thus formed his own church.
I’m not going to get much more into it, other than 99% of people who disagree with the Catholic Church or consider us heretics, don’t even have a complete understanding of what we actually believe. My sister even met a Catholic convert from muslim family and he was disowned and given death treats because they consider us pagans because of the Trinity, but I digress.
I apologize for the rant but if i ever got something wrong about someone else’s faith I would hope they would correct me. God Bless!
So you don’t have a reason for not liking Catholicism? It’s one of the oldest branches of Christianity. Didn’t Jesus tell St. Peter that he would build his church upon his rock? I’m not sure exactly what the scripture says. I’m thinking about trying it out and don’t know much about it which is why I asked, but now I’m curious why you’re so closed off to it?
Published
Obscure Fandoms 