Separating the facts from opinons
Submitted by Drifter on 2002-09-20 16:02:12, Friday
In reply to Catholics vs. Protestants: a different perspective submitted by Splash! on 2002-09-20 03:42:49, Friday
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Your post helps to more accurately show the point view that I perhaps neglected. But there a couple of things that you said that I think need to be clarified because they are factually untrue. The rest of what you said is opinion, so I cant counter that without debating, but these things are fact and need to be clarified. >>The pope is the person they believe holds the position once held by Peter (whom Jesus gave the duty of founding the church)... >Protestants do not believe that Jesus handed the authority of the "church" over to any man; though, power has been made available to >Christians through the Holy Spirit by the Name of Jesus. While this could still be considered opinion there is strong biblical evidence of it: Matthew16:17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[which means rock] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." >>Catholics also realize that the bible is something they themselves put together in the council of Nicea... >Protestants believe the final books of the Bible were written almost three hundred years before the formation of the Catholic Church, and >they include scripture that don't mention the Catholic Church or any member of the Catholic order besides bishops who must be married. While it is true that all of the books of scripture were written before any organized and unified church existed, these scriptures were not yet compiled into what we call the bible, they existed separately and hadnt been compiled into one book. There are many different scriptures that were written prior to the compilation of the bible. The problem was that there were so many of them and some of them were contradictory. Some congregations chose to use certain scriptures, while others were using others. Such concepts as the trinity had not been settled and you had groups (specifically the Arians) teaching that Jesus was a sort of demi-god while others taught he was fully God. To settle these differences, the council of Nicea was called by Constantine and all of these issues were finally settled in this council of what would eventually come to be known as the Roman Catholic church. The other important thing that came out of the council of Nicea was the bible. Finally all of the hundreds of available scriptures were scrutinized and the ones that would become part of the bible were chosen through the process of canonization (which means there are many other scriptures which couldve been part of the bible but this council chose not to include them). These things arent really up for debate (unless you are an archaeologist or historian with new evidence), they are historical fact. >Protestants believe the main difference is whether our salvation is made complete in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross or whether our >salvation is a work in progress that can only be completed by ourselves, mainly through sacraments, suffering, and Purgatory. Catholics >believe the latter and do not believe that Jesus' work was complete. Protestants believe salvation is through grace by faith in Christ alone. This statement is false on both sides. Neither do Catholics believe that salvation is through works, nor do all protestants believe that salvation is through grace alone. Catholics believe in the sacraments, praying the rosary, etc. as things that will help you grow spiritually. But they admit that those things will not get you into heaven and that you can do all those things and still be lost (or that the opposite can happen and you can do none of those things but at the last moment repent and be saved). Protestants have not reached a consensus on the issue either. Some, believe in the once saved always saved philosophy (once you accept Jesus as your savior, you are saved no matter what life you live and no matter what you do afterwards). Others believe you are not saved if you failed to confess your sins to God before you died. Still others claim baptism is of the utmost important. There is no consensus on this from the protestant point of view. |
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