Catholics and Protestants: POST!

[Paris_Blues]

Really…

What’s really the differences on how Catholics and Protestants look at the topic of the human nature, sin, salvation? How do they view it and how is it that it’s different from one another?

Now…

Catholics - please explain our view (oh yeah, I’m Catholic too!
)

Protestants - please explain your view

I’m NOT intending this to be a debate thing though it could be but not intending it.

 

[Ianjo99]

Catholics believe humans are by nature inherently good, but sin stains our goodness. Baptism removes the original sin that our soul is stained with, and sin may again stain our soul. After Confession or something else that takes away sin, our stain is removed and we are again good. Protestants, correct me if I am wrong, see humans as inherently sinful and that grace/faith/what have you covers up that sinful nature.

I was told this by a priest, and he cited Luther’s “snow-covered dung” as the analogy often used by Protestants.

I think this is correct, but please, If I am misrepresenting the Protestant Faith, correct me!

 

[Melchior]

Paris Blues:

Really…

What’s really the differences on how Catholics and Protestants look at the topic of the human nature, sin, salvation? How do they view it and how is it that it’s different from one another?

Now…

Catholics - please explain our view (oh yeah, I’m Catholic too!
)

Protestants - please explain your view

I’m NOT intending this to be a debate thing though it could be but not intending it.

Honestly this depends on the Protestant. I mean a conservative Anglican is going to have alot more in common on this with a Catholic than a Baptist. Which Protestants are you asking?

Mel

 

[PhilVaz]

If you read The Gift of Salvation there isn’t much difference. Leading evangelicals and Catholics agree. Of course some Prot denoms (the sacramental ones) are closer to Catholics than others.

“The New Testament makes it clear that the gift of justification is received through faith. ‘By grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God’ (Ephesians 2:8). By faith, which is also the gift of God, we repent of our sins and freely adhere to the Gospel, the good news of God’s saving work for us in Christ. By our response of faith to Christ, we enter into the blessings promised by the Gospel. Faith is not merely intellectual assent but an act of the whole person, involving the mind, the will, and the affections, issuing in a changed life. We understand that what we here affirm is in agreement with what the Reformation traditions have meant by justification by faith alone (sola fide).”

Phil P

 

[Paris_Blues]

Melchior:

Honestly this depends on the Protestant. I mean a conservative Anglican is going to have alot more in common on this with a Catholic than a Baptist. Which Protestants are you asking?

Mel

ALL PROTESTANTS, ALL NON-CATHOLICS!! (or if you’re JW, Buddhist, etc. I don’t care, just speak up! )

BTW, PLEASE mention what you belong to (Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, JW, Anglican, etc. Catholics, I can probably figure out! )

 

[scylla]

As a Catholic I believe we are essentially good inside, it is our choice to reject God and do what we want.

It really depends on the Protestant denomination on the other hand. Anyone who speaks for a Protestant can be challenged by another differing view, so we shouldn’t make generalizations.

The denomination I went to prior to being Catholic believed, at least my pastor believed, that we were incapable of being good and completely bad. God makes us good,(similar to the Catholic view) yet even if we fall we are ok, because Jesus died for us and now because of that we are saved, no matter what. If we are not saved we were never saved to begin with, that is how they explain rejection of God. That you were not sincere in the beginning, or you just thought you were.

The problem with pinning a non-catholic down on their beliefs is ability to claim that they believe differently from the ones you disagree with, so it is kind of a moving target. This is when you talk to some people who just want to be right and win the discussion. So it is necessary to clear up what each believes so that you are just talking in circles.

God Bless
Scylla

 

[Melchior]

Paris Blues:

Really…

What’s really the differences on how Catholics and Protestants look at the topic of the human nature, sin, salvation? How do they view it and how is it that it’s different from one another?

Now…

Catholics - please explain our view (oh yeah, I’m Catholic too!
)

Protestants - please explain your view

I’m NOT intending this to be a debate thing though it could be but not intending it.

I am Anglican. About an 8 on the 1-10 anglo-catholic scale.

Human nature - Created in the image of God but since the Fall we are depraved (inclined to sin and enemies of God). We are made children of God through faith and baptism. But we still struggle against our sinful nature inheredited from Adam.

**Sin ** is: Rebellion against God, His laws, the perversion of what is good and disobedience. It is also a nature because of original sin we are born with a sin nature. Thus we sin because we are sinners and not the other way around.

Salvation: Since the fall God had a plan (actually His plan was eternal) to restore man and undo the work of Satan. He accomplished this through the Incarnation. Christ - fully God and fully man died on the Cross for our sins. Enduring the wrath that was due us because of our sins. On the third day He rose for our justification. We are incorporated into Christ through baptism. Our justification (that which is promised and given in baptism) is ratified by faith. By faith I mean total reliance on Christ alone for our Salvation. This faith is a faith that works in love. Mere intellectual assent without a desire or effort to follow Christ is not saving faith. But Salvation is fully attained by Christ alone. Apart form Him there is no other way to salvation. As He himself said “I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the father but by me”.

Mel