Catholicism and Christianity

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Table of Contents

God the creator
Final Judgment
The Bible
Pope and his system
History of the two religions
Difference in doctrine and believes
The way they work in today’s world
Works Cited

The religious believes of both Christianity and Catholicism has some common features and differences as well. The research paper will focus on both sides in trying to compare and contrasting the two denominations (Marstensen 205). Although they are termed as two different religions, they share the most common believes of all Christian.

God the creator

Some of the similarities that both the Catholics have with Christianity are about only one God who is in trinity. God the father, the son and the Holy Spirit is what has been there, today and forever (Christian Century Foundation 116). They pray to this one God through Jesus who is the son in human flesh. God who is in three forms is the sole creator of everything found in universe both living and non-living things, and He is the one who sustains the whole of his creation.

Final Judgment

Another similarity is about God who is rightly angry with his people who do not work according to his will. They believe after death, God will make everyone to resurrect and come back to earth where judgment will take place. The way people live on earth deserves either a reward or a punishment from God.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross and resurrected on the third day he paid for the sins, but those who keep on repeating their sins will be punished (Chilson 314). Everyone has a chance to repent his or her sins on earth to avoid the punishment on the judgment day, when sinners would be punished. The repentance may be speaking to God either directly or through the priests for the Catholics, for those people who mind the life after death.

The Bible

Another similarity between the Catholicism and Christianity is about the bible, well known as the words of God. They both know that bible is the collection of different works written by men, God inspired most of them. The bible contains information about the will of God, through which we are supposed to follow to be rewarded in heaven.

The bible contains the views of men and the words of God through his people (Anatolios and Brown 287). Whoever does according to the will of God declared in the bible shall be rewarded in heaven and be saved from everlasting punishment of the sinners. The good things believers are promised in heaven are contained in the bible that Christians are supposed to follow. All in all Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics.

Pope and his system

The first difference is Catholicism has Bishop of Rome who is the pope, and they believe is the spiritual leader of their entire church system. The Catholic Church is centralized with the head controller being the pope, who they follow in most of their practices. The pope guides other catholic leaders as well as the church followers as he is the spiritual leader. However, for other Christians who are non-Catholics, believe that Jesus is the spiritual head of the church (Marstensen 210).

This makes them not to have other religious figures since they believe with Jesus Christ all the religious requirements of the church are fulfilled. Catholics allow the pope to speak on behalf of the church about the morals or dogma assuming that he cannot make mistakes because the holy spirits guides him. Other Christians cannot allow anyone to speak for the church, because, it was only Jesus who could present the church.

History of the two religions

The history of the two religions has some differences especially about the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden. According to the Catholics, despite the fact that human being race was stained by sins, they still believe some original innocence and goodness was left with humanity (Chilson 318). However, other Christians have a view that nothing good was left with humanity because the entire race was very depraved. The entire humanity was stained by the original sin of Adam and Eve.

Difference in doctrine and believes

The doctrines of the Catholicism are very different with that of Christianity. For instance, Catholics believe that the bread and wine in the Eucharist are changed through the power of the Holy Spirit that appears unseen to real body and blood of Christ. According to what other Christians believe, they assume that the bread and the wine taken during Eucharist are just symbols of the blood and the body of Christ.

The Catholics still believe in seven sacraments that represent holy moments of their followers, while most of other Christians believe in two types of sacraments only baptism and Eucharist (Chilson 383). Catholics believe in requesting saints to pray for them, but Christianity believes that, it is only Jesus Christ, who can intercede between them and God almighty. This act is viewed as idolatry by most of non-Catholics Christians.

The way they work in today’s world

In today’s world, there are some differences in how Catholics practice their faith from other Christians (Marstensen 364). For instance, there is celibacy of the clergy in Catholics where the priests are not supposed to be married. They do this because Jesus Christ himself was not married as he dedicated his full life in service of God his father.

Another difference in today’s life is about their act of verbally expressing their sins to the priests. It is their believe that their sins are fully forgiven by Christ through the priest. They do this as a way of strengthening their faith, as well as adding happiness and joy in their peaceful lives.

The image of Jesus Christ, God the son, who is a common figure to all Christians.

The image of Mary and his son Jesus Christ, Catholics pray through Mary by use of rosary.

The picture of catholic pope, who is the spiritual leader of their church.

Works Cited

Anatolios, Khaled and Brown Stephen. World Religions. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009.

Chilson, Richard. Catholic Christianity: a guide to the way, the truth, and the life. New York: Paulist Press, 2003.

Christian Century Foundation. The Christian Century. Michigan: Christian Century Foundation, 2006.

Marstensen, Hans. Christian dogmatics: a Compendium of the doctrines of christianity. New York: T. & T. Clark, 2003.

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