Why am I not a Catholic? 10 differences
between Catholics and Christians. Christianity has about 2.2 billion people under
its umbrella out of which 1.3 billion of people are Catholics. 900 million are Protestants
and 220 million are Greek Orthodox. Now Roman Catholic church has went through two main splits.
The first big split happened in the year 1054 where delegation was sent from the Pope Leo IX
to the city of Constantinople and pretty much excommunicated the bishop or the leader of that
church there because he refused to acknowledge the office and the supremacy of pope and ever
since then, the Eastern Greek Orthodox church split from the Roman Catholic church. Now
I grew up in Ukraine where predominant mainline faith in Russia, Ukraine is Greek
orthodox. They differ from Roman Catholic church and here are some major differences between
Roman Catholic church and Greek orthodox. They do believe in the same God but they have differences.
The first difference is Roman Catholics deemed pope as infallible while Greek orthodox believers
do not. Number two difference is Roman Catholics believe that Mary is free from original sin while
Greek orthodox do not believe that. Number three, Roman Catholic priests cannot marry while priests
in Greek orthodox can marry before they are ordained. Number four is Latin is the primary
language used during Roman Catholic services while Greek orthodox churches use native languages
of where they're at. Number five, Roman Catholics revere statues as much as Greek orthodox revere
icons. Number six is doctrines can be changed in Roman Catholic church while in Greek orthodox,
doctrines do not change. Number seven. Unlike Roman Catholics, Greek orthodox do not accept
the concepts of purgatory or the stations of the cross. Number eight is Catholics mainly kneel
during mass while Greek orthodox, they stand. Number nine. Women are not recommended or
required to wear head coverings. In Greek orthodox churches, women are encouraged though not required
to wear head coverings and so the first split that happened was in 1054 where eastern Greek orthodox
split from the west Roman Catholic church. The second huge split that happened to the Roman
Catholic church happened in the 16th century. It was provoked by Martin Luther who nailed 95
thesis to the Catholic church on October 31st 1517. Pretty much he just outlined abuses of the
Catholic church and where they crossed the line and did things that were not scriptural. Now in
the rest of this video, I'm going to share these things that we differ with the Catholic church
as Protestants and as Christians. Number one. The biggest difference which pretty much creates
a dominant effect is that Christians believe that the Bible is the only book that contains the Word
of God whereas Catholic or Catholic believers, they believe that the Bible along with the
tradition contains the Word of God and that only the church can interpret the Bible for you
and this is where we differ because a lot of ideas that Catholics came up with the tradition came up
with. They are not consistent in the Bible like for example purgatory, like for example talking to
saints or praying to saints. You know all of these extra biblical ideas that are attached to virgin
Mary, that are not consistent with the scriptures. For Christians, the Bible is the Word of God.
The Bible contains the truth about God and the Bible doesn't need to have things added to it. In
fact, Jesus said that because of your tradition, you have made the Word of God of no effect.
He says that in Mark chapter 7 verse 13 and Jesus promises to us the Holy Spirit who will
help us to understand the truth and who will lead us into all the truth. Jesus doesn't tell us
that I will send you the church and the church will be the one to lead you into truth. Now the
church is very important in believer's life and in his discipleship because every Christian is
part of the body. Every Christian is a member but it's not the church that interprets the
Bible, it's the Holy Spirit and we rely on the holy scriptures not the holy scriptures and
our tradition but the holy scriptures alone, Bible alone. Number two difference between
what Catholics believe and Christians is Christians believe that there are many
true churches under the Lordship of Jesus and the holy Bible whereas Catholics believe in
one true worldwide church under the leadership of the pope. So for Christians, we believe that Jesus
Christ is the head of the church not the pope. And we believe there are many churches all around
the world that are true believing churches, who are not a part of the same denomination, who might
not be under the same covering but they're all under the covering of Jesus Christ and the Word
of God and they may differ in their methodology. They may differ in the way that they conduct their
services and the way they disciple people, in the way they reach out to people, in the way they do
many things as long as the core doctrines remain the same. They are our brothers and sisters and we
belong to the body the global body of Jesus Christ whereas Catholics believe in one true church and
this of course happens to be the Catholic church. In fact the word 'Catholic' means universal and
so one true church that is overseen or is led by the pope and that's where we differ. Number three
difference is Christians believe that the church is built on the revelation of who Jesus is and
is led by the ministry which draws its authority from the scriptures whereas Catholics believe that
the pope is the successor of the apostle Peter and the first head of the church who was appointed by
Jesus Christ. Pretty much that Catholics believe the idea about pope is that he is direct successor
of the first pope which was apostle Peter and the foundation for this idea comes from Matthew
chapter 16 verse 18 and 19. But Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to
you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind
on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Now
in Greek, Peter's name is 'Petros' which means stone but when Jesus said on this rock I will
build my church. He used a different Greek word, 'Petra' which was a collection of rocks knitted
together to form larger slab. So Jesus's church will be comprised of His unified followers who
confess Him as Christ, the Son of the living God as Peter did. So Catholics use this verse to say
that Jesus said, On this rock meaning on Peter, He will build His church. First of all, it
contradicts the Greek but also it contradicts the writings and the church history because
we see that actually James was the pastor in Jerusalem church and Peter was more of like an
apostolic leader coming and establishing churches and we don't see anywhere in the New Testament
where Peter was seen as the one that the church was built upon. Yes, he was outspoken. Yes, he
preached that message that thousands of people got saved. Yes, he was a believer in Jesus Christ
but so was other apostles and so was apostle Paul and so we don't see that Peter appointed
another guy to be his successor after he died and it was embraced by the early church. It was
until centuries later that this or hundreds of years later, that this idea started to become more
popular as Christianity gained political influence in the Roman empire. Catholics believe that
pope is infallible. They also believe that pope is the head of the church. For Christians
we believe that only Jesus is infallible. Only the Word of God is infallible and Jesus is
the head of the church and Jesus is building His church out of believers who believe that He is
the Son of God. He is not building His church on a person. He is building His church on a revelation
which Holy Spirit makes clear to us believers that Jesus is the Son of God. It's Jesus's church.
It doesn't belong to a pope. It doesn't belong to a pastor. He says, I will build my church and I
will build this church on the rock, on the truth, on the body of unified believers who confess
Jesus as their Lord. Number four difference is Christians believe in the priesthood of all
believers. Catholics believe in the sacrament of holy orders where bishops, priests and deacons
receive a seal of God, giving them sacramental authority over lay Catholic people. Catholics put
huge emphasis on this holy order. Bishops, priests and deacons. In fact for a long time lay believers
were not just normal average believers were not able to understand the scriptures. Everything
went through the priests, through the bishops. Everything was pretty much bottle necked through
the people who claimed to know it and then the average folks were just relying on those people.
Ministry was also done through this holy order. But the Bible teaches us differently. In 1 Peter
2:9 it says that, You are a chosen generation, you are royal priesthood, you are His own special
people, and so priesthood is connected and encompasses every believer, he is a priest unto
God. We are kings unto God. We are His saints. We are His children. Number five. Christians
believe that communion elements are symbolic but Catholicism teaches that once priest consecrates
the elements of communion by saying, 'This is My body' then bread and wine become the body and
the blood of Jesus Christ. So the Catholic church teaches that Eucharist is the source and
the summit of the Christian life. There's a huge emphasis that is placed on Eucharist, on partaking
of the Lord's supper. Actually only one-third of Catholics according to pure research believe that
the elements, bread and wine become literally the blood and the body of Jesus Christ. Majority of
Catholics, 69 of them believe that it's symbolic and that's what most of the protestants
or all of the protestants believe as well but the main teaching of a Catholic church teaches
that they are not symbolic and they are blood and the body of Jesus Christ. Number six.
Christians have two sacraments. Catholics have seven. Now when I say sacraments meaning like
these two ceremonies that Christians observe. It's water baptism and the holy communion. Now the
Catholics they have seven of these sacraments and they're very important to the salvation and
to the spiritual connection of a Catholic person with God. The first sacrament is baptism and
baptism is different from the water baptism of Christians. In Christian water baptism, you get
baptized as an adult and you get baptized when you repent of your sin. In the Catholic baptism,
you get baptized as an infant. Priests perform the baptism on infants because it helps them to
produce rebirth. It's necessary for salvation and it frees the person who is baptized from
the original sin and unites that infant with the church and Christ. So as you can see, it's very
different from the water baptism of Christians and I have another video that deals with water
baptism where I combat these ideas of Catholic approach to water baptism. Baptizing infants,
sprinkling and how it's necessary for salvation and the whole nine yards. Number two sacred
sacrament in the Catholic church is the confirmation and it's where the bishop lays his
hand upon the person confirming that the person received the Holy Spirit. The third sacrament
as we already mentioned it's the communion and it's called Eucharist in the Catholic church. It's
when the priest celebrates the mass and after the priest pronounces, 'This is My body and this is My
blood' then the elements become literal blood and the body of Jesus Christ. Number four
is confession. This is also huge. It's that penance involves sorrow of sin, confession
of sin and then when you have expressed your sorrow in your confession and your desire to
turn away from that then there's an absolution of sin by the priest because this confession
was received now this sin was removed. Of course we believe in different. The Bible says to confess
your sins to one another that you might be healed. There is no reference of us confessing our
sins to one another so we will be forgiven. Confession of sin is very important because sin
grows in the dark but confession of sin is not necessary to another believer so you can receive
forgiveness because that believer cannot forgive you of that sin unless you've sinned against that
believer and you need to ask for forgiveness but still you need to ask for forgiveness from God. We
confess our sins to God and His blood washes us. Number four is holy orders and so one of the
sacraments in the Catholic church is the holy orders and as I mentioned, it's an ordination to
the office of bishop, priest and the deacon as a succession to the apostles. Bishops, they ordain
priests and so forth. The priest is actually between God and man as Jesus is between God and
man. So the priest pretty much becomes like a mediator. Now in Christianity, we believe there's
only one person who stands between us and God. His name is Jesus. His name is not my priest. His name
is Jesus Christ. He said, 'I am the Way, the Truth and Life and nobody can come to the Father but
through Me.' In Catholic church, they also have a sacrament of marriage and pretty much almost like
in the protestant church that vows are exchanged in front of a priest or in a protestant church,
in front of a pastor and the difference though is that this marriage unites this couple not only
to each other but it unites them to the holy church and to Christ. The last sacrament in the
Catholic church is the anointing of the sick or the last right. It's when the bishop consecrates
oil and then the priest anoints the person that's about to die with oil and this is pretty much, he
removes any infirmity and obstacles left by sin and prepares the dying person for the glory. So
these are the seven sacraments in the Catholic church. It's not that they have all of these
sacraments. Most of these sacraments as I have outlined they differ for how Christians practice
confession of sin, water baptism, ordination and so many other things. But number seven and
this is the big one is that Christian doctrine, we are saved by grace through faith. In the
Catholic church is you are saved by grace plus through the church and by observing seven
sacraments. These seven sacraments are not result of your salvation. They are necessary
to your salvation starting from the first one, water baptism all the way to the last right. As
Christians we believe in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9. These are the words spoken by apostle
Paul that we are saved by grace alone. It's one of the biggest differences between the Catholic faith
and the Christian faith. It's what Martin Luther argued. It's what he presented as abuse in the
Catholic church is that there was Jesus plus good works. There was salvation is a gift from
God but you also have to do all of these things to be saved. In the Christian faith, we
believe that salvation is a gift from God, period. It's from the grace, it's through faith.
It's of Christ and the scripture teaches us that. It's what makes this a new covenant.
We don't have to do these good works to be saved but because we are saved, we
are saved unto good works meaning, Jesus has given us new nature so that we want to do
good and we do that, not so that we can be saved; we do that because we are saved and that is a
huge difference between Christians and Catholics. Number eight. Christians don't pray to saints or
to Mary. Catholics pray to the saints and Mary, the queen of heaven. As Christians, we pray
to the Father in Jesus Name by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught us to do that. We
don't pray to the saints. Now some people will argue with me and say well Catholics don't pray
to the saints. They pray through the saints but still even if that is the case, we don't need
to go through other believers to the Father. Now with that said, it does not mean that
when you are on earth and you need other believers to stand in the gap with you, that you
cannot ask somebody to stand in prayer with you. But this is different when Catholics pray
to Mary, when they ask this queen of heaven, this virgin Mary to help and intercede
on their behalf to Jesus Christ you know Mary never in the scripture you will see where
people came to virgin Mary so that she could talk to Jesus on their behalf after the resurrection
of Jesus Christ nor even during the times. One time when Mary and others came to Jesus and
they said we gotta take You home and Jesus says, 'You know who My mother and My brothers are?'
Anybody and everybody who hears and obeys the Word of God. Catholics believe that Mary, she was freed
from original sin, that she ascended to heaven and she was always a virgin which we know it
contradicts the scriptures because Mary had children after Jesus. In fact, it says that Joseph
did not know Mary until Christ was born indicates that he continued a normal marriage relationship
after the birth of Christ and so as Christians, we don't pray to saints. We don't pray to virgin
Mary. We pray to the Father in His Son's Name by the power and the help of the Holy Spirit. Number
nine. Christians don't believe in purgatory, Catholics do. We don't believe in the waiting
period out of which you can still be rescued from if your relatives pay enough money, confess enough
sins to the priests. It's a huge money scheme. It's a huge also gimmick to raise resources and
funds for the church and it worked a lot during the if you read the history, you will see how many
times they use that to really raise money for the Catholic church but there is no instance in the
Bible. Now the Bible does teach us of Hades. It does teach us of the bosom of Abraham
but we believe as many scholars would teach that once Jesus died, He emptied that place and
took all the old testament believers because now their sins were paid for. We don't believe in this
particular waiting period of people going there who lived like they wanted to live and then after
death, they have the chance to be reborn because their family members are on the earth paying some
money to the priest or doing some kind of rituals. It's not consistent with the Bible. There is not
one hint. There is not one even mention of that. In fact, on the opposite the Bible tells us that
you know after death is judgment. The rich man who end up in hell. We see that he didn't wait
for his brothers to get him out of there through some kind of indulgences or through some kind
of a payments to the church or to the synagogue. Once you're dead, you're gone unless God gives you
mercy and you get resurrected and you come back like some people who died and they were not ready
to meet the Lord and they would go to hell and then you know five, ten minutes later they came
back into their body but that's extreme exceptions and these are very unusual circumstances. So
we don't believe and there is no instance in the Bible in the New Testament of the presence
of purgatory or the steps of the cross meaning, you can receive redemption once after you die
even though you rejected Christ and you did not follow Christ while you were alive. Number ten
is Christian ministers marry, Catholic priests do not. Catholic priests are prohibited and
forbidden from marrying. In fact in the Bible, Paul talks about these people who add to
the Christian liberties by making laws that Jesus didn't give us and so and I understand
Jesus wasn't married and people would argue Paul wasn't married and so the idea is noble for
pastors or priests not to be married and to be fully devoted to their ministry but it does see
marriage as in a negative light whereas marriage is a shadow of Jesus and the church and
marriage helps to develop our character. Marriage is good and I think that
if there will be more marriages even in the Catholic church, a lot of this abuse
that is happening by the priests would have been avoided because when you put these restrictions on
people who are doing this ministry, a lot of times you suppress very natural desires that could find
their fulfillment and satisfaction in very wrong ways, which becomes a huge problem and as it is
still to the Catholic church. With all that said, maybe you're thinking man he's bashing
the Catholics. I love Catholics. Rhe city that we are in currently, over 70 of our city is
Hispanic and majority of Hispanics are Catholics. Catholicism for Hispanics, it's not their
religion, it's their culture. So in attacking Catholicism, it might feel like I'm attacking
your culture. I am not attacking your culture. I am not attacking you. I'm attacking a belief
system which I believe is not consistent with the scriptures. I personally know Catholics
who are born again. Catholic priests who are genuine followers of Jesus Christ. The same
way I know a lot of people who go to Christian protestant churches who are not born again and who
are simply heathens and they are unbelievers but they still go to a local church who teaches the
truth of the Bible and so my encouragement to you, if you're watching this video and you are
Catholic, you're a devoted Catholic. I want to encourage you to look through these points
again. I want to encourage you to read the Bible. I want to encourage you to read the writings
of apostle Paul and I want to encourage you to take the filter of tradition as you read
the Bible. I know the church has programmed you to think that you cannot understand the
Bible without the church but that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible is simple. It's not
that complicated and you can understand the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit. You cannot be
saved by participating in rituals at your church. You can only be saved by the grace through
faith in Jesus Christ. Prayers don't save you. Baptism doesn't save you. Taking holy communion
cannot save you. Being in all kinds of church programs cannot save you. You can only be saved
by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and How do I know that? Because the Bible tells me so and so
if you're watching this and you are ready to place your trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and as
your Savior not in your pope, priest, tradition, culture or church but in Jesus. Pray this prayer
with me. Now I'm going to tell you right away, sinner's prayer cannot save you any more than any
sacrament you will do in the Catholic church but sinners do pray and God hears them and He answers
that prayer and all you got to do is acknowledge that you are a sinner. Acknowledge that you
need saving and ask Jesus to do that for you. You can pray a prayer like this. Lord Jesus, I
am a sinner. I believe you are the Son of God who died on a cross for someone like me. I
repent of my sin. I place my trust in You. Save me and deliver me. Amen. If you prayed
a prayer like that, I want to encourage you to dive into the Word of God. I want to
encourage you to talk to God every day. He's your father. I want to encourage you to find
a living church not a church that focuses on all of these things that are not consistent.
Find the church that is teaching the Bible as the Word of God not as a Word of God
plus tradition and plus what we tell you but the Word of God and then be plugged in
there and continue to grow in Jesus Christ. Hey, thank you for watching this video, this extended
teaching. Drop that in the comments below of what is your thoughts. What did you learn? Maybe you
were watching and you used to be a Catholic, my goal was not to attack you. My goal is to attack
the belief system that I believe is not scriptural and so but let me know. Be nice in the comments
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Thank you guys and until next time, God bless.
