Protestant

[Trelan]

Hi everyone. I’m obviously new here and was looking around. Many threads in this section are about protestantism, and some people were very ignorant about it (i’m not saying all were).

I’m Baptist by the way.I just wanted to try to explain what it is about.

It is Christian, so it has many similarities with Catholicism, it is basically a few different interpretations. We use solely the bible, and although nobody knows exactly what everything in the bible means, we still believe that the bible is error-less.

The main difference is baptism. The problem is, the bible does not directly say how this should occur, but has what did happen in his time. We believe that the person should come to Christ and meet the Lord personally. By believing Jesus is your savior, you will go to heaven. Getting baptized, we believe, is not essential to be saved. But to grow in your faith, baptism is necessary, and baptized in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. We interpret the baptism of John the Baptist as this event, including the public testimony(to the congregation).

Baptists believe in evangelism, the spreading of his word to everyone. There is no “Baptist Church”, or head of the church. There are organized groups of churches, a few very large groups. The local church is lead by the minster, using the will of God for its ministry and mission. We believe in separation of Church and State. Separate identities for the good of both. But doesn’t exclude us from the public.

We believe in the Old and New testament. We pray to God to ask for forgiveness. We do communion, represented by the Lord’s Supper. We believe in the Trinity. The Trinity is not three separate Gods, but ‘three in one’. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We strive to be more like Jesus, despite the fact that we are all imperfect. We ask for forgiveness, and make a promise to try not to do it again. We try to grow in faith. Ultimately, though, we believe in Jesus, and that he is our savior.

Anything I missed? Anything I said wrong? Please tell me!

 

[love4mary]

Welcome to Catholic Answers Forum Trelan, I pray that your stay here will be enjoyable and that we learn from each other in Christian Love.

Others WAYYY smarter then me may address some of your points, I just wanted to extend to you a warm welcome.

 

[faelpsanfeel]

Sounds pretty reasonable, though I would argue that the Baptist churches in my area (along with the one in which I was raised,) are most certainly not for the separation of church and state.

 

[sterryfamily]

Welcome, Trelan. I hope we can learn from each other.

 

[Iowa_Mike]

Welcome, Trelan. I hope we can learn from each other.

Welcome…I think you’ll enjoy your experience on this forum. You gave a very nice summary of where you are in your beliefs, maybe you should start a more specific thread to explore just one of the ares you mentioned in more detail. For example you could start a thread to discuss how Catholics and Baptists differ in the interpretation of the bible…or some such thing.

It’s easy and it’s fun.

Iowa MIke-

 

[Trelan]

Sounds pretty reasonable, though I would argue that the Baptist churches in my area (along with the one in which I was raised,) are most certainly not for the separation of church and state.

Well, although it is possible, when a country/area is controlled by the church, it could lead to corruption of both. The idea is not a rule, but many believe in the seperation. Though, the U.S. usually has religous presidents.

 

[carol_marie]

Hi Trelan,
Welcome to the forums. Very nice summary of your beliefs ~ thank you!

 

[manualman]

Welcome!

Actually it might perhaps be more accurate to say that Authority and Sacraments are the main differences between us (of which baptism is one of 7 in Catholic teaching). We believe baptism to be a sacrament, which means that Grace is given to the one baptised. Because Grace is a free gift of God and because Scripture and Tradition both speak of “whole households” of converts being baptised (with no disclaimers about baby exceptions) catholicism has not seen reason to bar infants from baptism.

As you note, our differences are less than what we hold in common: the falleness of man, the redemption in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the love of God for all and the Grace by which we are saved and sanctified!

 

[Cat]

Hi!

Just wanted to let you know that I grew up and even got married in the Conference Baptist Church.

I converted to Catholicism, along with my husband, on April 10, 2004.

The baptism issue was a kicker, but I eventually came to believe that the Bible taught something quite different than what Baptists and many other evangelical Protestants teach. A lot of what I believed growing up Baptist was the teachings of men, not the Bible.

If you are interested in reading a website from a really cool Catholic Convert former Baptist minister, check out Steve Ray at this website:

catholicconvert.com/

Have fun on this board. It’s normally pretty civil.

 

[HailMary]

Trelan you might be interested in these posts:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=1643780&postcount=14
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=1643781&postcount=15
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=1643785&postcount=16

 

[sandmountainsli]

Something I was thinkin about today, (by the way I am a Congregational Methodist nor a Catholic so don’t blame them for my question) Since Baptists believe that baptism is unneeded for children and is suitable for only those of the age of accountability then does it not make sense that by that logic abortionists are sending more people to Heaven than most ministers and priests?
Should Baptists not therefore be Pro-Abortion as it will take away the chance of so many people going to Hell?
I am anti-abortion myself so this is just a question for all to ponder.
WP

 

[Church_Militant]

Hi everyone. I’m obviously new here and was looking around. Many threads in this section are about protestantism, and some people were very ignorant about it (I’m not saying all were).

Based on some of what you have said below, I’d say there are gaps in your understanding of Protestantism as well my friend.

I’m Baptist by the way.I just wanted to try to explain what it is about.

It is Christian,

Agreed.

so it has many similarities with Catholicism, it is basically a few different interpretations. We use solely the bible, and although nobody knows exactly what everything in the bible means, we still believe that the bible is error-less.

It does, but as you’ll see the differences are more substantial than you think.

By way of some clarification please give a listen to the following 2 Bible study MP3s. Sola Scriptura - The Bible Alone? and Sola Fide - Salvation By Faith Alone?

The main difference is baptism. The problem is, the bible does not directly say how this should occur, but has what did happen in his time. We believe that the person should come to Christ and meet the Lord personally. By believing Jesus is your savior, you will go to heaven. Getting baptized, we believe, is not essential to be saved. But to grow in your faith, baptism is necessary, and baptized in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. We interpret the baptism of John the Baptist as this event, including the public testimony(to the congregation).

Not exactly. Have a look at Acts 22:16 and Acts 2:38. Gotta go with the New Testament over teachings of men so far as I’m concerned. You can read my testimony here.

Baptists believe in evangelism, the spreading of his word to everyone.

So do we.

There is no “Baptist Church”, or head of the church. There are organized groups of churches, a few very large groups. The local church is lead by the minster, using the will of God for its ministry and mission.

Question: How is that will of God discerned?

We believe in separation of Church and State. Separate identities for the good of both. But doesn’t exclude us from the public.

We do too though it hasn’t always been the case, but that is not a doctrinal issue.

We believe in the Old and New testament.

All 73 books of the Bible? You might wanna have a look at this to get a better idea of where we come from on this. And this concerning the Deuterocanonicals.

We pray to God to ask for forgiveness.

As do we, but we have some different Biblical beliefs.

We do communion, represented by the Lord’s Supper.

As do we, but again, there are Biblical differences.

We believe in the Trinity. The Trinity is not three separate Gods, but ‘three in one’. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Agreed.

We strive to be more like Jesus, despite the fact that we are all imperfect. We ask for forgiveness, and make a promise to try not to do it again. We try to grow in faith. Ultimately, though, we believe in Jesus, and that he is our savior.

As do we.

Anything I missed? Anything I said wrong? Please tell me!

That’s it for now. Hopefully we can have good discussions and better understanding.

[SIGN]Welcome to CAF![/SIGN]Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.

 

[Contarini]

Sounds pretty reasonable, though I would argue that the Baptist churches in my area (along with the one in which I was raised,) are most certainly not for the separation of church and state.

Yes, they are–they’re just not for the separation of religion and state! They don’t want the Baptist church to be officially supported by the government.

Edwin

 

[faelpsanfeel]

Yes, they are–they’re just not for the separation of religion and state! They don’t want the Baptist church to be officially supported by the government.

Edwin

I see your point, but I’ve just heard way too many Baptists go on and on about how the US was founded on Christianity and they’re always really really concerned about having the Ten Commandments posted in government locations and stuff like that. Maybe they don’t want Baptism to be endorsed by the nation, but they certainly seem to want any non-christian groups to be explicitly excluded from politics.

I realize this is all pretty anecdotal.

 

[allischalmers]

Something I was thinkin about today, (by the way I am a Congregational Methodist nor a Catholic so don’t blame them for my question) Since Baptists believe that baptism is unneeded for children and is suitable for only those of the age of accountability then does it not make sense that by that logic abortionists are sending more people to Heaven than most ministers and priests?
Should Baptists not therefore be Pro-Abortion as it will take away the chance of so many people going to Hell?
I am anti-abortion myself so this is just a question for all to ponder.
WP

So why not kill a new born baby or one six month old?

Because they are the creation of God.

 

[keithkelley]

From a former Southern Baptist (now Catholic) welcome. I could type all day on the reasons that God lead me home to the Catholic Church this past Easter away from the Baptist Church. If you have any specific questions, please ask me. In the mean time, check out this conversion story of Fr. Gray Bean, a former Baptist minister, now Catholic Priest. He had alot of the same questions (and fears) that I had during my conversion struggle. You can download the free MP3 here:

biblechristiansociety.com/download

 

[allischalmers]

My sister’s pastor’s went to school to become a Catholic Priest but then became a Baptist minister. I quess it works both ways.

 

[mayra_hart]

are disciples of christ are a sect born from the baptist church. who was john campbell? thank you. hail mary full of grace…

 

[Montalban]

Hi everyone. I’m obviously new here and was looking around. Many threads in this section are about protestantism, and some people were very ignorant about it (i’m not saying all were).

I’m Baptist by the way.I just wanted to try to explain what it is about.

It is Christian, so it has many similarities with Catholicism, it is basically a few different interpretations. We use solely the bible, and although nobody knows exactly what everything in the bible means, we still believe that the bible is error-less.

Why do you only use the Bible.

Say you had a bottle of orange juice. You pour some into a glass. You can say “This glass contains 100% orange juice” but that doesn’t mean it contains all the orange juice available to you; the same can be said for Holy Tradition, which also contains God’s truth.

The main difference is baptism. The problem is, the bible does not directly say how this should occur, but has what did happen in his time.

This seems to be an argument to say that the Bible’s not all that God gave us - for God wouldn’t leave us with half the truth - see orange juice analogy above

We believe that the person should come to Christ and meet the Lord personally. By believing Jesus is your savior, you will go to heaven.

So children don’t go to heaven?

Getting baptized, we believe, is not essential to be saved.

As an Orthodox, I don’t believe in it insofar as I don’t believe in Original Sin, so to an extent, I agree with you.

But to grow in your faith, baptism is necessary, and baptized in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. We interpret the baptism of John the Baptist as this event, including the public testimony(to the congregation).

In the bible whole households were baptised.

Baptists believe in evangelism, the spreading of his word to everyone. There is no “Baptist Church”, or head of the church. There are organized groups of churches, a few very large groups. The local church is lead by the minster, using the will of God for its ministry and mission. We believe in separation of Church and State. Separate identities for the good of both. But doesn’t exclude us from the public.

IF there is no “Baptist Church” then it wouldn’t matter which particular baptist group you were part of, nor for that matter which Protestant group. Would that be a fair thing to say?

We believe in the Old and New testament. We pray to God to ask for forgiveness. We do communion, represented by the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus didn’t just say it was a ‘supper’. He said His Body was real food. Paul confirmed this when he suggested that if you just wanted a communal meal, eat at home.

We believe in the Trinity. The Trinity is not three separate Gods, but ‘three in one’. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Where is the word “Trinity” in the Bible?

 

[Trelan]

Why do you only use the Bible.

Say you had a bottle of orange juice. You pour some into a glass. You can say “This glass contains 100% orange juice” but that doesn’t mean it contains all the orange juice available to you; the same can be said for Holy Tradition, which also contains God’s truth.

The Bible is God Breathed. Where does it say not to follow only the bible?

This seems to be an argument to say that the Bible’s not all that God gave us - for God wouldn’t leave us with half the truth - see orange juice analogy above

God would leave the truth, but not all the answers. If he gave us all the answers, then why would we be imperfect?

So children don’t go to heaven?
As an Orthodox, I don’t believe in it insofar as I don’t believe in Original Sin, so to an extent, I agree with you.

That has to do with interpretation. You can read the same verse, but another reading the same verse might read it differently.

In the bible whole households were baptised.

Yes…

IF there is no “Baptist Church” then it wouldn’t matter which particular baptist group you were part of, nor for that matter which Protestant group. Would that be a fair thing to say?

It would be fair to say. Except, the leader of that particular church should be doing it for God, and not himself.

Jesus didn’t just say it was a ‘supper’. He said His Body was real food. Paul confirmed this when he suggested that if you just wanted a communal meal, eat at home.

Another interpretation issue. We believe that it is representing his body and blood, not physically is.

Where is the word “Trinity” in the Bible?

“I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”.