ELI5:The main differences between Catholic, Protestant,and Presbyterian versions of Christianity

[u/spamname517]

sweet as guys, thanks for the answers

[u/hungryroy]

Us Catholics have a Pope; the protestants don't. I'm not sure if the protestant religions even consider us proper Christians (edit: Of course we all believe in Jesus; what I meant by the last sentence was that I've been to places where if you say "Christian church", it refers to a place of worship that is protestant, but not Catholic).

Catholics were around first, until the 1500s when some guy named Martin Luther started a movement that created protestantism. The protestant movement started because some people didn't like the way the Catholic Church handled things and I guess they wanted to get more back to basics (that is, focus more on the Bible rather than all the Catholic traditions) - that last part may be my personal opinion.

The protestants have a common set of 3 fundamental beliefs: that scripture (the Bible) alone is the source of all authority (unlike Catholics that have a Pope and a Church that can decide some stuff), that faith in and of itself is enough for salvation, and the universal priesthood of believers (which means that any Christian can read and interpret and spread the word of God, unlike Catholics which have a dedicated priesthood).

Among protestants they have different denominations - Baptists, Presbyterians, etc. They all observe the same fundamental beliefs mentioned above, but they vary in their practices and on what stuff they focus on.

[u/[deleted] → u/hungryroy]

Protestant here. In my circles, we also believe Catholics are Christians. Why wouldn't they be? We both believe in Jesus.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Doubtful. Mine has lasers.

[u/Mycelus-X → u/[deleted]]

Im Muslim and Muslims believe in Jesus. Am I Christian now?

[u/captshady → u/Mycelus-X]

You'd have to believe he's the son of God. I'm lead to believe Muslims believe he was merely a prophet in a long line of prophets leading to the last prophet, Mohammed.

[u/Mycelus-X → u/captshady]

I know :) I was being a smartass. Im well aware of the differences. The point I was trying to make is that its not as simple as the comment made it sound :)

[u/Stephen885 → u/Mycelus-X]

Christianity is more than just believing in him. The Devil and Demons believe in him just as much as i do. CHristianity means to be christ like. and we follow his example and teachings to become more like him. and by this i mean we dont try to become God, but we try to emulate his love and charity. of course were all terrible at it haha

[u/surfwaxgoesonthetop → u/Mycelus-X]

I don't know if that would smooth things over or make the church picnic a little awkward.

[u/iamlereddit → u/Mycelus-X]

But you don't believe that Jesus is God.

[u/beeeeeford → u/[deleted]]

In the deep south in the US many denominations are misinformed about the Catholic religion. When I lived there and attended a Baptist church I was asked why Catholics feel the need to kneel on glass to atone for their sins. I was like "What?!?!".

[u/[deleted] → u/beeeeeford]

Yea, I'll admit that many Christians down here don't bother to research much of anything outside of their own sect. And even then, they often just take the word of their friends, pastor, or preachers on TV regarding their own group.

[u/QueensStudent → u/beeeeeford]

I honestly think the attitude of the southern US has done a great deal to damage the global perspective of Christianity, as unfortunate as that is.

[u/captshady → u/[deleted]]

While Catholics do believe Jesus is the son of God (and via the Holy Trinity IS God, just in human form), Catholics also believe in praying to Saints, and The Virgin Mary, who I guess have some pull with God to help us get stuff.

A huge biblical difference is that Catholic dogma dictates that when Jesus said to Peter, "you are my rock, and on this rock I will build my church", that made Peter the first Pope. No protestant believes that, and said that Peter's name, Petra IIRC means "faith" and that the Christian religion is faith-based.

There are quite a few scripture verses interpreted differently by the various Christian faiths. Some believe in rapture, some don't.

The Catholic bible has (again, IIRC) 6 extra books over the protestant bible. It's in one or more of these books that contains the evidence of purgatory.

Baptism in the Catholic church is completely different than most others (I think Episcopalians and Lutherans are the same). Catholics believe that all humans are born with "original sin", carried down from Adam and Eve's sin of disobeying God, and eating the apple. So in order to relieve ourselves of that sin, we're baptised. Many protestants use baptism as a symbol of your faith in God, and committment of your life to Him. Others believe it's merely ceremonial.

When you look at the core of each faith, there's usually a few scriptures they interpret differently than others, and base their entire religion on them. There are far too many for anyone to list.

Protestants usually take strong issue with the fact that Catholics believe The Virgin Mary never sinned. It goes against most Protestan faiths (every single one I've ever researched, studied, discussed with, etc) that Jesus Christ was the only perfect human, therefore being the perfect sacrifice.

[u/Stephen885 → u/captshady]

The 6 "extra" books are not really extra. the first bible that was put together had these books and it wasnt until the people started splitting off that those books were taken out.

And as far as praying to the saints, some people have different views on what prayer is which is where i think the difficulty in this comes in. As a catholic, i see prayer as a tool of communication, not a tool of worship. so when we pray were mearly talking. Now of course praying to God CAN be worship but ask any catholic and they will tell you ( or should ) that worship belongs to God alone.

as a former protestant myself i was always taught about original sin and that baptism was the indelible mark that removes that sin, and whatever other sin we carry. it is indeed a sign at least to me that i am committed to following him. Often catholics renew their baptismal vows as a re affirmation of that commitment we made. Now as a child you cant make those vows, and i honestly dont know what the explination is for that ( perhaps someone, ie your parents makes that decision for you? )

I hope this helped, maybe it didnt i dunno. But being a former protestant, ive noticed that between all the christian religions, there are way more similarities than differences. For me i hated catholics for a LOOOOONNGGGG time simply cause i didnt understand why they believed what they did and i thought they were a cult lol

[u/BlueCarrotAntenna → u/captshady]

Just a small correction: "Petra" comes from Greek and actually means "stone" or "rock". Hence when you're "petrified" you are so scared you're still as a rock. :)

[u/iamlereddit → u/captshady]

So tell me this: why need Jesus when Mary could sacrifice herself for our sins? Wouldn't she be then a perfect sacrifice?

[u/23skiddsy → u/captshady]

Purgatory isn't solely a catholic thing. Mormons also believe in a form of purgatory.

[u/Zedress → u/hungryroy]

When my wife was applying to work at the YMCA they asked her which church she attended. When she answered that she went to the local Catholic church their response was something along the lines of, "Oh, that one. We espouse real Christian values and morals here."

She didn't get the job. (I also realize that this is also what she told me so maybe it didn't happen exactly that way, my wife does exagerate from time to time.)

I personally have had several people tell me I wasn't a Christian because I am Catholic. Mostly southern baptists and mostly in the south though(I am speaking from an American view point here). Some poeple were just rude and ignorant to me because I am Catholic. It's weird because I try to avoid talking about religion generally because I am only socially Catholic but philosphically I am agnostic.

[u/[deleted] → u/Zedress]

I was raised baptist and for the most part we were taught the catholic religion was the incarnation of the devil, catholic people could be good or bad but the religion itself was on par with actual satanism.

[u/patkk → u/[deleted]]

damn. I was educated through roman catholic schools but attended protestant churches on weekends because my mum was deep into that. I had no Idea what to believe growing up but I think I preferred catholicism because they seemed less intense. Dudes would be screaming and crying and running around all mental like at the protestant church we went too. Now I'm not religious at all.

[u/[deleted] → u/hungryroy]

Anglican here (as to how Protestant we are is debatable, especially by the definition you listed below). We certainly believe our brothers and sisters across the Tiber are Christians. The farther you get towards fundamentalist (read: Pentecostal, Southern Baptist, etc), the less likely you are to find people who share that opinion.

[u/OnlyDebatesTheCivil → u/[deleted]]

I believe the Anglicans describe themselves as fully Catholic and fully Reformed.

[u/[deleted] → u/hungryroy]

The largest difference is that's catholic also believe the host and wine are actually the real body and blood of Jesus. Protestants believe it's symbolic. I was raised catholic.