Catholicism

[Urban_Legend]

What is the difference between Catholicism or Catholicity and Christianity?

 

[anna ~ grace]

What is the difference between Catholicism or Catholicity and Christianity?

None. What matters is if one lives out one's life in Christ through love of Him, grace, and faith.

 

[anna ~ grace]

...

 

[Urban_Legend]

Basically I'm not entirely convinced or I'm rather very sceptical about the Catholic "religion"...

 

[anna ~ grace]

Basically I'm not entirely convinced or I'm rather very sceptical about the Catholic "religion"...

Ok, that's understandable. Do something for yourself; ask Catholics, check out Catholic websites, and resources. Study, read, learn, and pray. Ask questions.

 

[Urban_Legend]

I actually wanted to know the difference..and the opinions of those who uses this forum...I can ask Catholics and I can research- again, but then whats the use im on this forum

 

[anna ~ grace]

I'm not Catholic, but several things have caused me to feel drawn towards the Catholic Church. Her Saints. Saint Pope John Paul II, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Alphonsa, and others. They were just kind of in our lives growing up in the 80's and 90's (especially John Paul II and Teresa of Calcutta), and made an impact.

An emphasis on sacrifice, and love.

An emphasis on corporal works of mercy (e.g. feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, loving the unloved, etc.).

An emphasis on our salvation as a growing process based on works of faith made possible by our will's response to God's grace through His Son. Instead of salvation as a one-time event through faith alone through grace alone, or salvation as being merited only via faith, salvation as a journey of works, faith, love, dying to self, loving others, and becoming more like Christ just seems more Scriptural to me.

The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is something that I'm still praying about and trying to absorb. I don't want to receive Christ unworthily, or in a state of sin.

Catholicism, through the Deposit of Faith, Tradition, and interpretation of Scripture given through the Church and by Her (as opposed to individual interpretation of Scripture) gives Apostolic, unified, sensible, and holistic means of understanding and applying Scripture.

 

[rturner76]

Before the Catholic Church, people worshipped based on who they were or where they were from. The Catholic Church was the first religion that was "universal." That is what "Catholic" means is universal. So no matter where you were from or who you were, you could join the universal or Catholic Church. It was the only Church and in the beginning the Bishop of Rome didn't have the same kind of power as he has today so there churches on different regions with their own Bishops.

The largest split was in 1054 When the East and West excommunicated each other and the East became known as "Orthodox" Catholicism and the West became known as "Roman" Catholicism. In the 1500's Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church and his followers began an Evangelical movement that brought about what we call rotestantism" and that includes Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Calvinist and all the others.

Once that happened there became a way to differentiate if you were a Catholic or a different "kind" of Christian. Before Protestantism all Christians were Catholics, after, Christians could be a million different things, Catholic being one of them. Up until recently, Catholics were taught that they were the only true Christians and all others were not. Recently, The Catholic Church has accepted that other groups are indeed also Christian also however, there are some die-hard Catholics that believe the old way.

Similarly, some denominations have popped up like Seventh Day Adventists who teach that Catholicism is not truly a Christian religion but pagan.

So to answer the question more simply, there is no difference between Christianity and Catholicism. I don't know what Catholicity is.

 

[PloverWing]

The Catholic church is one of the oldest and largest branches of Christianity. They split from the Eastern Orthodox churches in 1054, and the Protestant churches split off from the Catholic church beginning in the 16th century.

Gracia Singh has given a very good summary. I'll add liturgical worship, which is something the Catholics have in common with Anglicans and Lutherans, but is different from the worship style of groups like Baptists or Quakers.

The visible, organic unity of the Catholic church is an important idea in Catholicism: the idea that the church structure itself is a gift from God. Many Protestant groups, by contrast, focus on the individual, who prays and studies the Bible alone, and occasionally joins with other Christians in worship.

Are there specific features of Catholic Christianity that you were curious about?

 

[com7fy8]

What is the difference between Catholicism or Catholicity and Christianity?

I tend to agree with some of what

Instead of salvation as a one-time event through faith alone through grace alone, or salvation as being merited only via faith, salvation as a journey of works, faith, love, dying to self, loving others, and becoming more like Christ just seems more Scriptural to me.

I would offer that the beginning of salvation is a one-time event . . . when a person first trusts in Jesus > Ephesians 1:12. But then there are essentials to being a child of God, including works of God's love, by means of "faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6).

And something it seems we all can have a way of not mentioning is . . . correction > I mean how our Heavenly Father really corrects His children > Hebrews 12:4-11. Without this, Hebrews 12:8 plainly says, "you are illegitimate and not sons." To me, this means God's successful way of correcting us is essential to our salvation. And Hebrews 12 makes it clear how we need to actively seek our Father for this correction . . . so we become "partakers of His holiness" in His love's "peaceable fruit of righteousness".

So, it is not enough to say a prayer and claim a one-way ticket to Heaven, and it is not enough to guilt-trip and punish ourselves while we keep on doing our wrong things. Self-paining can be a trick to try to pay God off so we can go after some treasure pleasure thing yet again, ten punish ourselves instead of getting God's real correction.

Real correction has pain plus success to get rid of your sin problems and make us perfect in His love > 1 John 4:17 < this is included in our Biblical assurance of salvation . . . "that we may have boldness in the day of judgment", our Apostle John says, here.

My impression is that some number of both Catholics and non-Catholics say little or nothing about these essentials, but they are plenty busy with talking about how they once said a prayer, or they are claiming their sacramental activities.

There are different kinds of non-Catholics. There are ones who do a number of sacraments similar to the Catholic sacraments, while others might only say a sinner's prayer and then believe they are unconditionally guaranteed Heaven, even if they go downhill and never walk with God. They will say their salvation is not of works; yet, they insist their saying a prayer guarantees they are saved. And saying a prayer is doing a work, I would say And if saying a sinner's prayer is believed to bring salvation and God's grace, then I can see that you could call the sinner's prayer a sacrament.

But people can be trying to make up ways of wording things, so they can look like they are so different from other groups.

But I understand that there are things of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism which are Biblical. But you can get the most and best by feeding all the way through the Bible and not take a shortcut by joining some group and then staying with what they are saying. With God, we always are growing to much more and better.

Gracia says we need to become "more like Christ". This needs our attention, more than comparing our practices and ideas with one another. How are we becoming, in comparison with Jesus? Because I am not perfect, I can easily fail to understand what other people mean about their groups. What I really need is to discover how I become because of our Father changing us to be "more like Christ" < what this really means

 

[Albion]

What is the difference between Catholicism or Catholicity and Christianity?

Catholicism is either the largest Christian church in the world or it's the world's largest cult...all depending on whom you are talking with.

If you were to take the side of someone who agreed with the latter approach, it would be because the head of the church, the Pope, is considered by the membership to be infallible when he's making an official proclamation on a matter of faith or morals (called an "ex cathedra" decree).

 

[MHM4Him]

I am not Catholic, so I won't speak for Catholicism. I am a Jesus follower. Christianity seems to come in many flavors, which is a problem for the protestant movement. No one seems to agree on doctrine. So, I seek the Bible for the truth of what it means to be Christian. Here is a fairly brief summary of what I believe the Bible says. If you want a more detailed version you are welcome to visit our publication called Matthew's House and dig in for more answers here: Matthew’s House – Medium

The "Christianity" I find in the Word of God is having a relationship with God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, by faith in the righteousness of Jesus (Phil 3:8-9). Jesus died to fulfill the law (Matt 5:17) not only to pay our penalty for our sin to save us into eternity (Rom 6:23), but also to free us from that law (Rom 8:2), and therefore free us from the domination of our sin (Rom 6:14). If we know our own righteousness cannot save us and we believe and confess that Jesus' righteousness does, then we are saved (Rom 10:9-10). We are given the Holy Spirit to dwell in us (Acts 1:8; 2 Tim 1:14) and our spirits are made new (1 Cor 15:22; 2 Cor 5:17). With the power of the Holy Spirit living in us (2 Peter 1:3-4), we are able to accomplish love (Jas 2:8), which is the only commandment of the new covenant (John 13:34) as we walk in Him (Gal 5:25). As we submit to the Holy Spirit in us, He will produce all kinds of great things in our lives (Gal 5:22-23) as we are free to do so much more than we were able to do before we became a follower of Christ (Phil 4:13) like loving others because He provides us that love (Rom 5:5).

That relationship I mentioned at first, is now alive as we allow God, through His Spirit, to participate in our lives every day, and every moment of every day. We can talk to Him, ask Him for guidance, praise Him, allow Him to direct us into love for others. The thing that I find is refreshing as a follower of Jesus is it is not about a bunch of man-made religious practices that you find in so many churches, both Catholic and Protestant, these days. When you take all that away, and just do what the Word says, it is simple, alive, beautiful, hopeful, and really good news.

 

[FreeinChrist]

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[Gregory Thompson]

What is the difference between Catholicism or Catholicity and Christianity?

Not familiar with Catholicity as a term. Catholicism is a form of Christianity.

 

[amariselle]

The Catholic church is one of the oldest and largest branches of Christianity. They split from the Eastern Orthodox churches in 1054, and the Protestant churches split off from the Catholic church beginning in the 16th century.

Gracia Singh has given a very good summary. I'll add liturgical worship, which is something the Catholics have in common with Anglicans and Lutherans, but is different from the worship style of groups like Baptists or Quakers.

The visible, organic unity of the Catholic church is an important idea in Catholicism: the idea that the church structure itself is a gift from God. Many Protestant groups, by contrast, focus on the individual, who prays and studies the Bible alone, and occasionally joins with other Christians in worship.

Are there specific features of Catholic Christianity that you were curious about?

The claim that Protestants only focus on the individual praying and studying the Bible alone and that they only occasionally join with other Christians in worship is absolutely false.

To be clear, I believe that it is acceptable to pray alone and study the Bible alone, but also corporately, with other believers. The idea that Protestants only do so occasionally is incorrect.

 

[amariselle]

Basically I'm not entirely convinced or I'm rather very sceptical about the Catholic "religion"...

I encourage you to do more research and study. There are integral differences between Catholicism and Protestantism/Evangeliscalism.

 

[Goatee]

Here we go again.....another Catholic Bashing thread is born!

 

[amariselle]

I'm not Catholic, but several things have caused me to feel drawn towards the Catholic Church. Her Saints. Saint Pope John Paul II, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Alphonsa, and others. They were just kind of in our lives growing up in the 80's and 90's (especially John Paul II and Teresa of Calcutta), and made an impact.

An emphasis on sacrifice, and love.

An emphasis on corporal works of mercy (e.g. feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, loving the unloved, etc.).

An emphasis on our salvation as a growing process based on works of faith made possible by our will's response to God's grace through His Son. Instead of salvation as a one-time event through faith alone through grace alone, or salvation as being merited only via faith, salvation as a journey of works, faith, love, dying to self, loving others, and becoming more like Christ just seems more Scriptural to me.

The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is something that I'm still praying about and trying to absorb. I don't want to receive Christ unworthily, or in a state of sin.

Catholicism, through the Deposit of Faith, Tradition, and interpretation of Scripture given through the Church and by Her (as opposed to individual interpretation of Scripture) gives Apostolic, unified, sensible, and holistic means of understanding and applying Scripture.

Just to clarify, is it your belief that one must do "good works" in order to be saved?

 

[DavidFirth]

I actually wanted to know the difference..and the opinions of those who uses this forum...I can ask Catholics and I can research- again, but then whats the use im on this forum

I am Catholic but very liberal. For example, I do not believe that the pope is inerrant when speaking ex cathedra. I also do not pray to saints.

 

[amariselle]

Here we go again.....another Catholic Bashing thread is born!

When someone is actually asking questions and desiring to hear different perspectives on Catholicism, they should not simply be dismissed as "Catholic bashing."

Such a response only serves to shut down any attempt at honest inquiry or discussion.