Why are catholics not christians?

Catholics ARE Christians. What we believe can be found directly in the Apostle's Creed which reads as follows:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

As for those who say we are not, they are seeking to bolster the status of their own church...ie. if our Church is Christian as we say, then why did they "break-away"? They can never acknowledge that our Church is Christian as otherwise, there is no need for their's. God bless!

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Addendum to Alabama Cookie Girl who wrote, "The Bible says that any man claiming to forgive sins is a blasphemer. (Blasphemy #2)" Are you not aware that the BIBLE says, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." (St. John 20:23 KJV). Jesus gave the power to forgive sins directly to the apostles, or were you not aware of that? Your other five points were equally incorrect...if you post your points as a question, I will be more than happy to respond in detail. Lastly, the BIBLE also says, "Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness." (Exodus 23:1 KJV). I strongly recommend that you find out for yourself what the Catholic Church believes in before you spew any more lies and heap up damnation for yourself.

The Protestant Reformation shows that the Catholic Church is the original Christian Church. Why? What were the Protestans rebelling against? Think about it. They rebelled against the Catholic Church, not some other church. Where did the Protestants go? Did they find some other church that existed from the beginning to go to that agrees with their doctrines? No, because such a church did not exist. They had to start new churches. This means there was no other church around that they could go to. Yes there is the Orthodox but that is also very much catholic and they don't believe in faith alone or scripture alone either so how could they go there? Since those doctrines are the foundation of Protestantism.

Catholics were the first Christians. Protestant Reformation came about because Martin Luther a CATHOLIC PREIST had issue with the fact that the ONE AND ONLY CHURCH at the time THE CATHOLIC CHURCH were selling forgiveness of sins. Therefore he wrote his famous 95 Theses basically calling THE CATHOLIC CHURCH out on all the corrupt things the church was doing.

John Calvin brought about the 2nd phase of Protestant Reformation with his theological system and approach to Christian life later to be called Calvinism.

You people can point out the faults of the Catholic church and quote scripture if you want but your late to the game Martin Luther and John Calvin beat you to it by about 500 yrs. You are all Christians.

<<where did this notion come from, and why are people saying that catholics are not christian?>>

I was raised Methodist and I never heard that Catholics weren't Christian...until I became Catholic.

I guess that notion comes from misinformation and in many cases willful ignorance. As seen some of the answers you got (Alabama Cookie Girl and Chris/Garrett) the notion is based on an assumption that they know what Catholicism teaches (when they don't) and that their conclusions are correct (which they are not).

Take for instance this statement:

<<They can pray directly to God, but choose to pray to 'saints' and to Mary... there is no middle-man>>

A wrong assumption. Catholics DO pray directly to God...all the time. We can also ask other Christians to pray for us, which includes those Christians who have eternal life in Christ, as the Bible promises. They are not "middlemen" they are other Christians, and the Bible says that "intercessory prayer" is pleasing to God.

That's just one. You could go down the entire silly list and refute/defend each and every anti-Catholic attack.

Catholics are Christians. We follow, love and desire Christ. We believe salvation is a free gift from God and that we can not do anything to earn or deserve this gift. We can only place ourselves at his mercy and believe in his sacrifice as the perfect fulfillment of our debt.

It is really, Catholic christians or protestant christians. Both are Christians.

the term christian is a fundamental protestant ministries that tries to grab a piece of pie in the sky.

Pathetically, it is run by unqualified people so called '3-week crash course in on-line license ' and rants against the catholic church. They are called the 'profit oriented' ministers. LOL

I call myself a Catholic Christian because that's what I am. I have no need to attack my Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ because I'm secure in what I believe. I know that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, I worship the Father and Him Alone, and I put my trust in the Holy Spirit's guidance.

And the proof of all of this is that I can still pray for those who hate me and my Church. May God have mercy on all those who have attacked Catholics and Catholicism here tonight and fill them with love, instead of hate.

They are Christian. Some say that because they have more doctrine and other traditions.

But Christians are literally Christ-followers, and they have Christ at the center of their religion.

I grew up Lutheran, but I'm now Methodist. I do know about the Protestant reformation.

Fundamentalist is not Christian. Fundamentalism cannot get anyone into heaven, because fundamentalism teaches automatic salvation, and that is a false gospel of salvation (see entire NT) that is against JESUS' and THE APOSTLE'S teachings!

And Fundamentalism teaches a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Jesus, which the bible makes NO MENTION OF. In fact, Jesus and His Apostles taught unity in Jesus and worship, and that you could only be a part of Christ if you were a part of the body of Christ, which is the Church.

So, you need to get away from fundamentalism, and instead, to believe in JESUS and be a part of HIS CHURCH for His free gift of eternal life in heaven can only be found in HIS CHURCH! John 3:16, Acts 2:47, 1 Timothy 3:15, Ephesians 1:22-23! :D!

It's clear from the Book of Acts in the Bible that fundamentalists didn't even exist during the days of Acts. And the SEVEN CHURCHES in Revelation, all of which existed before 100 AD, NONE of them were fundamentalist churches! You see, they had structure, organization, leadership, bishops, teachers, a primary leader (Peter), apostolic succession, Churches grouped together by regions (diocese), but fundamentalism does not. Fundamentalism didn't even exist for over 1700 years after Jesus, and was invented AFTER the Protestant movement. And fundamentalism didn't exist for over 1500 years after the Bible was complete and compiled, and the Protestants removed the Deuterocanon (something they have no clue about). Those in the Book of Acts are the first Catholic Christians, and they believed what is called Catholic doctrine today. ANYONE can read the Book of Acts for themselves and see. Had fundamentalism existed during the time of Acts, the first Christians would have called them heretics.

Also there's TONS of Christians who also completely rejected catholicism, long before Martin Luther was even born, and they were heretics too! Fundamentalism comes from Protestantism, which murdered thousands of Catholics just because they were trying to go to Mass. Hitler was a fundamentalist, because he rejected Catholicism and instead made up his own mind and decided that killing Jews and Catholics by the thousands was good for the world.

So not only is it wrong for anyone to say that "fundamentalists were the first Christians", but this blows away the fundamentalist's claim that "no churches existed other than a bunch of independent churches, and then a big massive suppressive church formed, until Martin Luther came along and they got out from underneath that big oppressive church that magically appeared out of thin air since it didn't exist at any time before".

Every "self-named-pastor" is a false prophet. And there is no one in the Bible that ever made themselves a "pastor" or started a church of their own, unless they were a heretic.

There were ALWAYS Catholic Christians from the very start. Catholic means "universal" and Paul argues against the Jewish converts who said Gentiles should be circumcised before they become Christians, because the church is UNIVERSAL (Catholic).

Fundamentalism cannot save. Believing in Jesus means you believe in his Church, and you will come to the Church (which He is the head of) for His free gift of salvation. So, fundamentalists need to become catholic, and believe in

JESUS instead of just paying lip service to God.

Jesus is God, and Jesus loves you so very much! :D And the Trinity is true (which the Catholic Church established as doctrine, not the fundamentalists)!

The truth is that the only way to be saved, is by becoming part of the body of Christ (which is the Church), because that is the only way you can TRULY BELIEVE IN HIM and obtain His free gift of eternal life in heaven, by grace, through faith. And the only reason you receive justification for your good works is because Jesus, who is God, died on the cross for the sin of the world (John 1:29) and the sins of many (Hebrews 9:28) who died under the Law, and so that our personal sins can now be forgiven only by way of a proper confession (James 5:16). Believe in Jesus and believe in His teachings, not the false teachers who proof-text the bible. Eat the Bread of Life in the Eucharist, which is Him, and receive the grace that is the free gift of salvation, and you will be in heaven, but be humble and repent (Luke 18:14, John 3:10-18, John 6:47-50)! :D

Salvation is a free gift that you must work for (2 Timothy 4:7,Philippians 2:12), and it is obtained when you are finally in heaven with Christ. You can lose or "leave" salvation if you do not turn away from sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-20, Romans 6:15-23).

Please pray now: "Oh, My Jesus, forgive me of my sins and save me from the fires of hell. Lead all souls into heaven especially those that are in most need of your mercy.

Catholics are christians they were the first Christians. Lutherans split off from us. the rest of protestantism split from protestant denominations.

Alabama Cookie gal@You evidently attended the Jack Chick school of Theology and got your Masters from the Tony Alamo school of advanced theology. I thought all you Southern gals were suppose dto be the epitome of courtesy good manners etc You seem to have no class at all.

We are the True Christians the first and the ones Christ calls his bride the Church. As for the Jack Chic Type of so called Christians all i will say is stupid does what stupid hears..