Are You Protestant Or Catholic?

Have you examined why you believe what you believe?

Please contact us if you have questions or if you need some encouragement.

I was raised Catholic and I am very grateful to the nuns and Catholic church and school I attended. They basically gave me a good education the guidance I needed. Yet when I learned about the Protestant Reformation which came about in a similar way that I realized that the well-meaning Catholic church was adding to do to the word of God, which basically overlooked what Jesus did on the cross by directly stating what Jesus did was not enough to be saved, but their works and traditions needed to be followed which I have a problem with because in the Bible it clearly says.

It was during a time in my twenties when I felt lost and burdened, caught in the grips of addiction. The weight of guilt and shame became unbearable, and I yearned for something bigger than rituals and traditions. As I sought truth that could liberate me from this cycle, I found peace within the walls of Elmbrook Church – a non-denominational Protestant church in 1989.

After Gathering The Facts, I Prayed, And Made My Decision! Be Sure To Gather The Facts! Reflecting On My Life, It Is With Gratitude That I Acknowledge That The Catholic Church Has Taught Me Some Wonderful Things About God, Jesus, And Christianity In My Younger Days. However, After Becoming More Aware Of What The Bible Teaches, I Embraced My Newfound Protestant Faith, Which Brought Forth An Understanding That Resonated Deeper Within Me And That I Follow!

It acknowledged our inherent sinfulness while emphasizing the unconditional love and grace offered by God through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. This realization allowed me to make a decisive choice towards transformational healing. In the middle of this personal exploration between denominations, my mother remained steadfastly devoted to her Italian Catholic faith for over 90 years yet fully supported my decision. ~ Bill Greguska

 

• ProclaimingTheGospel.org

• What Good Is Christianity?

• Gotquestions.org/difference-Catholic-Protestant.html

• If You Are Catholic, Make Sure That You Are Saved!

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We Need To All Love One Another ~ Despite Our Personal Upbringing!

Ten Ways To Discover Encouragement For Yourself:

1. Encouragement for Relationships
2. Encouragement to End an Addiction
3. Encouragement for Your Faith 
4. Encouragement from Many Topics
5. Encouragement to Pray Daily
6. Encouragement from our Ideas List
7. Encouragement via Chatting
8. Encouragement from our Sitemap 
9. Encouragement from a Free Bible
10. Encouragement from My Book

Find out what God’s Word says about your situation and what to do about it ~ Click here.

 

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Protestant Or Catholic?

There Are Many Catholics Who Know And Love Jesus, And Are Saved!

Some Catholics, like my mom, cousin Joe Bova, and others, have come to understand God’s grace and forgiveness. Even though some of these Catholics remain in their faith, their relationship with God ultimately matters. When I shared with my Italian mom that I was no longer a Catholic because I chose to be Protestant, my mom’s unwavering advice was to continue loving God to be a good man and live a righteous life, which inspires me today. I am concerned that not all Catholics are truly saved. I thank God my mom, dad, and cousin Joe are. Do you have any doubt about your salvation?  Settle it now by getting right with God. Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

 

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Religion Versus Christianity

The chart below compares what religion stands for versus what Christianity stands for.

Religious Christianity By Works One Is Saved…	Or Is It Christianity As A Relationship With Jesus One Is Saved…
Man’s Way	God’s Way
Work For Man	Work For God
Reward	Gift
Works	Grace
Christ Plus	Christ Alone
Do	Done
Achieve	Accomplished
Try	Trust
Hope So	Know So
You Need Us	You Need Christ
Sin	Son
Fear	Faith
Law	Love
External	Internal
Actions	Attitude
Performance	Personal Relationship

 

 

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Protestant Or Catholic?

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This Catholic Wanted To Debate With Ray Comfort!

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The Catholic Faith Tends To Focus On Works Etc.

The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement sweeping Europe in the 1500s. It resulted in the creation of a branch of Christianity called Protestantism, a name used collectively to refer to the many religious groups that separated from the Roman Catholic Church due to differences in doctrine.

I was raised in the Catholic church when I was born and baptized. and had Godparents, went to Catechism, went to Catholic grade school, and Catholic high school was an altar boy. I was thankful to have been raised Catholic faith at the time until I learned more about God, Jesus, and the Bible.

We All Must Decide For Ourselves

Read the Bible for yourself, and you will understand why I am saying what I am saying. I do not have anything against Catholics or anyone. Still, when I took a closer look at my Catholic faith, I discovered the Catholic church was adding to the Bible, and not accepting what Jesus Christ did on the cross was enough to save us from our sins!

The teachers and nuns cared more than the public school I attended from kindergarten until 3rd grade. (Discipline in the public school was not sufficient.) Yet in the Catholic school, the standards were higher, and there was a general atmosphere of godliness around, even though later on in life, I realized their doctrine was not quite right. Watch the videos and read more below to learn more about Catholicism.

 

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Catholic Is A Works Based Man-Made Religion

I learned that Catholicism was a works-based man-made religion, compared to the Protestant faith, which is faith-based on a relationship with God and his love and grace. The Catholic church attempted to point me to God, yet there were many other things I had to do that were not mentioned in the Bible. (added to God’s word, which is all we need)

An analogy would be if someone who likes to be healthy and drink a protein drink would be something healthy, but if someone added something “bad or not good” to the protein health drink, it would no longer be useful for you. (just like with the Catholic church, some of the things they practice are not according to the Bible, which pollutes the Bible from being pure and good for you.

 

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Ninety-five Theses Was The Document That Started The Protestant Reformation

The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences is a list of propositions for an academic disputation written in 1517 by Martin Luther, then a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, Germany.

The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation and the European Reformation, was a major theological movement or period or series of events in Western Christianity in 16th-century Northwestern Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and the authority of the Catholic Church. Towards the end of the Renaissance, the Reformation marked the beginning of Protestantism and in turn resulted in a major schism within Western Christianity.

 

Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg, intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Matthew 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.
2. This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.
3. Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortification of the flesh.
4. The penalty of sin remains as long as the hatred of self (that is, true inner repentance), namely till our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
5. The pope neither desires nor is able to remit any penalties except those imposed by his own authority or that of the canons.
6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring and showing that it has been remitted by God; or, to be sure, by remitting guilt in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in these cases were disregarded, the guilt would certainly remain unforgiven.
7. God remits guilt to no one unless at the same time he humbles him in all things and makes him submissive to the vicar, the priest.
8. The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and, according to the canons themselves, nothing should be imposed on the dying.
9. Therefore the Holy Spirit through the pope is kind to us insofar as the pope in his decrees always makes exception of the article of death and of necessity.
10. Those priests act ignorantly and wickedly who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical penalties for purgatory.
11. Those tares of changing the canonical penalty to the penalty of purgatory were evidently sown while the bishops slept (Matthew 13:25).
12. In former times canonical penalties were imposed, not after, but before absolution, as tests of true contrition.
13. The dying are freed by death from all penalties, are already dead as far as the canon laws are concerned, and have a right to be released from them.
14. Imperfect piety or love on the part of the dying person necessarily brings with it great fear; and the smaller the love, the greater the fear.
15. This fear or horror is sufficient in itself, to say nothing of other things, to constitute the penalty of purgatory, since it is very near to the horror of despair.
16. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ the same as despair, fear, and assurance of salvation.
17. It seems as though for the souls in purgatory fear should necessarily decrease and love increase.
18. Furthermore, it does not seem proved, either by reason or by Scripture, that souls in purgatory are outside the state of merit, that is, unable to grow in love.
19. Nor does it seem proved that souls in purgatory, at least not all of them, are certain and assured of their own salvation, even if we ourselves may be entirely certain of it.
20. Therefore the pope, when he uses the words “plenary remission of all penalties,” does not actually mean “all penalties,” but only those imposed by himself.
21. Thus those indulgence preachers are in error who say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved by papal indulgences.
22. As a matter of fact, the pope remits to souls in purgatory no penalty which, according to canon law, they should have paid in this life.
23. If remission of all penalties whatsoever could be granted to anyone at all, certainly it would be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to very few.
24. For this reason most people are necessarily deceived by that indiscriminate and high-sounding promise of release from penalty.
25. That power which the pope has in general over purgatory corresponds to the power which any bishop or curate has in a particular way in his own diocese and parish.
26. The pope does very well when he grants remission to souls in purgatory, not by the power of the keys, which he does not have, but by way of intercession for them.
27. They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory.
28. It is certain that when money clinks in the money chest, greed and avarice can be increased; but when the church intercedes, the result is in the hands of God alone.
29. Who knows whether all souls in purgatory wish to be redeemed, since we have exceptions in St. Severinus and St. Paschal, as related in a legend.
30. No one is sure of the integrity of his own contrition, much less of having received plenary remission.
31. The man who actually buys indulgences is as rare as he who is really penitent; indeed, he is exceedingly rare.
32. Those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned, together with their teachers.
33. Men must especially be on guard against those who say that the pope’s pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to him.
34. For the graces of indulgences are concerned only with the penalties of sacramental satisfaction established by man.
35. They who teach that contrition is not necessary on the part of those who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confessional privileges preach unchristian doctrine.
36. Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters.
37. Any true Christian, whether living or dead, participates in all the blessings of Christ and the church; and this is granted him by God, even without indulgence letters.
38. Nevertheless, papal remission and blessing are by no means to be disregarded, for they are, as I have said (Thesis 6), the proclamation of the divine remission.
39. It is very difficult, even for the most learned theologians, at one and the same time to commend to the people the bounty of indulgences and the need of true contrition.
40. A Christian who is truly contrite seeks and loves to pay penalties for his sins; the bounty of indulgences, however, relaxes penalties and causes men to hate them — at least it furnishes occasion for hating them.
41. Papal indulgences must be preached with caution, lest people erroneously think that they are preferable to other good works of love.
42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend that the buying of indulgences should in any way be compared with works of mercy.
43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences.
44. Because love grows by works of love, man thereby becomes better. Man does not, however, become better by means of indulgences but is merely freed from penalties.
45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives his money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences but God’s wrath.
46. Christians are to be taught that, unless they have more than they need, they must reserve enough for their family needs and by no means squander it on indulgences.
47. Christians are to be taught that they buying of indulgences is a matter of free choice, not commanded.
48. Christians are to be taught that the pope, in granting indulgences, needs and thus desires their devout prayer more than their money.
49. Christians are to be taught that papal indulgences are useful only if they do not put their trust in them, but very harmful if they lose their fear of God because of them.
50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the indulgence preachers, he would rather that the basilica of St. Peter were burned to ashes than built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.
51. Christians are to be taught that the pope would and should wish to give of his own money, even though he had to sell the basilica of St. Peter, to many of those from whom certain hawkers of indulgences cajole money.
52. It is vain to trust in salvation by indulgence letters, even though the indulgence commissary, or even the pope, were to offer his soul as security.
53. They are the enemies of Christ and the pope who forbid altogether the preaching of the Word of God in some churches in order that indulgences may be preached in others.
54. Injury is done to the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted to indulgences than to the Word.
55. It is certainly the pope’s sentiment that if indulgences, which are a very insignificant thing, are celebrated with one bell, one procession, and one ceremony, then the gospel, which is the very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells, a hundred processions, a hundred ceremonies.
56. The true treasures of the church, out of which the pope distributes indulgences, are not sufficiently discussed or known among the people of Christ.
57. That indulgences are not temporal treasures is certainly clear, for many indulgence sellers do not distribute them freely but only gather them.
58. Nor are they the merits of Christ and the saints, for, even without the pope, the latter always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outer man.
59. St. Lawrence said that the poor of the church were the treasures of the church, but he spoke according to the usage of the word in his own time.
60. Without want of consideration we say that the keys of the church, given by the merits of Christ, are that treasure.
61. For it is clear that the pope’s power is of itself sufficient for the remission of penalties and cases reserved by himself.
62. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.
63. But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes the first to be last (Matthew. 20:16).
64. On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences is naturally most acceptable, for it makes the last to be first.
65. Therefore the treasures of the gospel are nets with which one formerly fished for men of wealth.
66. The treasures of indulgences are nets with which one now fishes for the wealth of men.
67. The indulgences which the demagogues acclaim as the greatest graces are actually understood to be such only insofar as they promote gain.
68. They are nevertheless in truth the most insignificant graces when compared with the grace of God and the piety of the cross.
69. Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of papal indulgences with all reverence.
70. But they are much more bound to strain their eyes and ears lest these men preach their own dreams instead of what the pope has commissioned.
71. Let him who speaks against the truth concerning papal indulgences be anathema and accursed.
72. But let him who guards against the lust and license of the indulgence preachers be blessed.
73. Just as the pope justly thunders against those who by any means whatever contrive harm to the sale of indulgences.
74. Much more does he intend to thunder against those who use indulgences as a pretext to contrive harm to holy love and truth.
75. To consider papal indulgences so great that they could absolve a man even if he had done the impossible and had violated the mother of God is madness.
76. We say on the contrary that papal indulgences cannot remove the very least of venial sins as far as guilt is concerned.
77. To say that even St. Peter if he were now pope, could not grant greater graces is blasphemy against St. Peter and the pope.
78. We say on the contrary that even the present pope, or any pope whatsoever, has greater graces at his disposal, that is, the gospel, spiritual powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written. (1 Corinthians 12:28)
79. To say that the cross emblazoned with the papal coat of arms, and set up by the indulgence preachers is equal in worth to the cross of Christ is blasphemy.
80. The bishops, curates, and theologians who permit such talk to be spread among the people will have to answer for this.
81. This unbridled preaching of indulgences makes it difficult even for learned men to rescue the reverence which is due the pope from slander or from the shrewd questions of the laity.
82. Such as: “Why does not the pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy love and the dire need of the souls that are there if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church?” The former reason would be most just; the latter is most trivial.
83. Again, “Why are funeral and anniversary masses for the dead continued and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments founded for them, since it is wrong to pray for the redeemed?”
84. Again, “What is this new piety of God and the pope that for a consideration of money they permit a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God and do not rather, beca use of the need of that pious and beloved soul, free it for pure love’s sake?”
85. Again, “Why are the penitential canons, long since abrogated and dead in actual fact and through disuse, now satisfied by the granting of indulgences as though they were still alive and in force?”
86. Again, “Why does not the pope, whose wealth is today greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build this one basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?”
87. Again, “What does the pope remit or grant to those who by perfect contrition already have a right to full remission and blessings?”
88. Again, “What greater blessing could come to the church than if the pope were to bestow these remissions and blessings on every believer a hundred times a day, as he now does but once?”
89. “Since the pope seeks the salvation of souls rather than money by his indulgences, why does he suspend the indulgences and pardons previously granted when they have equal efficacy?”
90. To repress these very sharp arguments of the laity by force alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasons, is to expose the church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies and to make Christians unhappy.
91. If, therefore, indulgences were preached according to the spirit and intention of the pope, all these doubts would be readily resolved. Indeed, they would not exist.
92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Peace, peace,” and there is no peace! (Jeremiah 6:14)
93. Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Cross, cross,” and there is no cross!
94. Christians should be exhorted to be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, death and hell.
95. And thus be confident of entering into heaven through many tribulations rather than through the false security of peace (Acts 14:22).

 

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Protestant Or Catholic Or Any Other Processed Faith?

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Many Good People Are Protestant Or Catholic!

Many wonderful Catholic people in the world do loving things for others, but they do not realize that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for our sins; debt was sufficient. We only need to do what the Bible says in Romans 10:9. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Protestantism is more a definition of the group of churches that broke off from the Roman Catholic Church during the sixteenth century rather than a religion in and of itself. All protestant churches can trace their roots back to the protestant reformation initiated by Martin Luther when he wrote his 95  Theses and nailed it to the Wittenberg Church’s door. Following his questioning of the Holy Roman Empire, others started questioning their authority and beliefs. The more notable figures were John Calvin, Zwingli, Thomas Cranmer, and John Knox.

 

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The Bible Makes It Simple!

The term “protestant” was initially meant to denote someone who was “a witness” rather than someone “against” something. Most early protestant figures saw themselves as trying to correct problems within the Roman Catholic Church rather than trying to rebel against it.

Today, the term protestant describes any sect or religion that had its basis in the Catholic Church but broke away to form its organization. These protestant families include religious denominations such as Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anglican, Episcopal, Baptist, and Calvinists. There would be many splinter groups from these early protestant religions, such as Methodists and Evangelicals. In later centuries, there would be many splinter groups from these early protestant religions, such as Methodists, Evangelical Churches, and Pentecostals movement. Keep in mind that there are also false religions to be concerned about.

 

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All Christian Denominations Explained In 12 Minutes!

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Five Solas

The fundamental beliefs that emerged during the protestant reformation. They eventually were summarized in the Five Solas or five Latin phrases. These five phrases in English translate to grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone, Christ alone, and Glory to God alone. They were meant to show how the Catholic Scripture had distorted the message of justification and salvation in Jesus Christ.

Today, there are about 590 million Protestants throughout the world. They cover all continents and nations. Nearly 27% of all Christians today are Protestants.

 

 

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