Protestants

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Anglewannabe

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As much as I believe the Catholic church is the one true church, I still have a lot of respect for protestants and see them do a lot of good behaviour.

Sometimes when I hear the comments in Catholic settings that knock protestants, I am shocked. I do not understand the rivalry. I can see why Catholics can have a reputation of being judgemental if they mock protestant beliefs. I also TRULY believe that a lot of protestants have a good relationship with God and if for whatever mysterious reason to me God leads these people to a protestant church, I am not going to question God’s ways

How do other people feel? Do others agree sometimes God genuinely does lead a person a protestant church?

ANgie
 
My closest friends are protestant. I have great respect for them, the conviction of their beliefs, and the positive effect of their faith in their lives. Many lukewarm Catholics could learn a lot from such people.

Do I think God leads them into their protestant faiths? Yes and no. God leads all people to Himself, but in an imperfect world, it is an imperfect process. I do not think God ever leads a person into another faith instead of Catholicism, but perhaps into that particular faith because it is the best option in the circumstances (where they were born, family, etc).
 
Anglewannabe said:
As much as I believe the Catholic church is the one true church, I still have a lot of respect for protestants and see them do a lot of good behaviour.

Sometimes when I hear the comments in Catholic settings that knock protestants, I am shocked. I do not understand the rivalry. I can see why Catholics can have a reputation of being judgemental if they mock protestant beliefs. I also TRULY believe that a lot of protestants have a good relationship with God and if for whatever mysterious reason to me God leads these people to a protestant church, I am not going to question God’s ways

How do other people feel? Do others agree sometimes God genuinely does lead a person a protestant church?

ANgie
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There are many good people that are unfortunately in false religions. I hope I never talk negatively about a protestant. But, their religion is false and it won’t lead them to Heaven. So, while I respect individual people, I don’t respect the false religion of protestantism.
I also TRULY believe that a lot of protestants have a good relationship with God. Do others agree sometimes God genuinely does lead a person a protestant church?
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God never leads people to false religions. That would be like saying God leads people to commit murder or theft. He permits people to have free will and they sometimes choose evil. Protestantism is evil. God yearns that all people enter the True Faith. Also, protestants definitely do not have a good relationship with God. They have a mistaken idea of what God is and how to worship Him. They don’t know Him since they don’t know the Church He has established. If they reject the Catholic Church, they reject Him.

I love the people that I know who are misled by the lies of protestantism. I pray that they recover from them, like I pray for someone who is ill to get better.
 
Anglewannabe said:
Do others agree sometimes God genuinely does lead a person a protestant church?
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Absolutely not. Why would he lead them to a community that makes up its own religion? Makes no sense to me.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that protestans are bad people. I’ve met so many who are deeply devout and have a great love for Christ. But there is no reason to think that heresy is OK just because people who practice it are nice. This is called political correctness and has nothing to do with God and His truth. One must always treat others with genuine respect and kindness but also retain the ability to reject their false beliefs. The western world has completely lost this ability, and sadly, many Catholics are following the trend. 🤷
 
The road goes both ways. There are many protestants that disparage catholics and judge catholics and claim that catholics aren’t christian, and that we are going to hell. There’s good and bad in both camps.
 
thomasf said:
The road goes both ways. There are many protestants that disparage catholics and judge catholics and claim that catholics aren’t christian, and that we are going to hell. There’s good and bad in both camps.
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Exactly. We have posters that note their confessions still teach the Office of the Pope is the AntiChrist (however that is their belief)…others the Pope himself, the Church is the whore of Babylon etc. and of course the ever still prevailing belief among some sects that Catholics are not Christians…we practice cannibalism…the list goes on and on ad infinitum and nauseum

I have not seen Catholics judge Proestants themselves just comment on their doctrine
any more than I have seen Protestants judge Catholics as persons.

Dotrine is why we are here. It’s important. If it did not matter why post on Catholic Answers to defend the Church? I find everyone passionate and enjoy all the posters Catholics and Protestants
 
Anglewannabe said:
As much as I believe the Catholic church is the one true church, I still have a lot of respect for protestants and see them do a lot of good behaviour.
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Same here, total respect for their devotion and love of God. There is certainly arrogance and pride from both sides. I will say this though. In the 40+ years I’ve attended mass. Not one time have I heard a single disrespectful or negative word against a protestant or any non-Christian faith. Never by the priest during the homily,or religion classes I took at a Catholic University. No utterance ever of denouncing other Christians to justify why we are Catholics, or why we should be Catholics.

Hopefully those who attended protestant churches keep that in mind if ever they’re in church and they hear something negative about Catholics, or Catholic beliefs. We don’t talk bad about you guys,ever. If a priest did, I could see myself getting up from the pew, genuflect, walk out the doors and get a cup of coffee and just come back later.
 
I don’t think God leads people to Protestantism. I think that many Protestant sects have perfected the art of drawing in lost souls by their passionate zeal for Christ, and an easy-to-swallow lack of doctrine or moral absolutes. Just love Christ and you are saved! It’s that easy!

In a world that says “take the convenient route” and “no one can tell you what to do” these churches lure people like the pied piper. It is individuals’ human weakness and desire for effortless salvation that draws them to such faiths, not God.

Having said that, Protestants are convinced their faiths are valid. They think Catholics let too much ceremony and legalism get between us and Christ. I don’t blame people for not understanding. Many do have an enviable and admirable passion for Jesus, worship, and a true love of scripture. These are good things.
 
I met a wonderful person once who was a Jehovah’s Witness. He seemed sincere and polite. I wished the world were filled with people like him. But that is exactly why I had to tell him he was in a false man-made religion. Being a good person is not enough. If it were, then why did Christ have to die on the cross? He died so that there is a way to get to Heaven. To get to Heaven we must have faith and we must live that faith by works. The Jehovah’s Witness cannot do this. They don’t know what works they should be doing. Many, many good wonderful people are trapped in this false demonic religion keeping them from getting to Heaven. It would be unmerciful to pat them on the back and say they’re all right when they aren’t. It would be like knowing someone has cancer, knowing there’s a treatment but because there so nice and you don’t want to upset them, you don’t want to tell them about it. This is uncharitable. Don’t pull punches with with evils like protestantism. Tell it like it is: all forms of protestantism are false religions inspired by the devil that will lead them to Hell. That is the charitable thing to do.
 
I don’t think God leads people to be Protestants, but I’m bothered by flip comments Catholics sometimes make about Protestant beliefs. There are so many different types of Protestants and they tend to be tarred all by one brush. I read Catholics saying things like “Protestants think homosexuality is okay” or “Protestants think divorce is okay” or whatever, as if every Protestant is a run-of-the-mill mainstream church variety.
 
Kensho said:
I don’t think God leads people to be Protestants, but I’m bothered by flip comments Catholics sometimes make about Protestant beliefs. There are so many different types of Protestants and they tend to be tarred all by one brush. I read Catholics saying things like “Protestants think homosexuality is okay” or “Protestants think divorce is okay” or whatever, as if every Protestant is a run-of-the-mill mainstream church variety.
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I think Catholics lump the myriad forms of protestantism together because they are all demonic lies about Christ; with the main one being that you can know God outside of His Church. This is exactly what the devil wants everyone to believe. Protestantism of any denomination is evil since it is outside the True Faith.
 
This document is helpful for understanding our Catholic approach to our “separated” brothers and sisters: vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_unitatis-redintegratio_en.html (it’s not very long)

One of the things I appreciate about this document is it takes a very clear position on the primacy of the Catholic Church while at the same time taking a very compassionate stance in relation to those in other churches. It also looks towards the day when all will be reunited in the Catholic Church.
 
Anglewannabe said:
As much as I believe the Catholic church is the one true church, I still have a lot of respect for protestants and see them do a lot of good behaviour.

Sometimes when I hear the comments in Catholic settings that knock protestants, I am shocked. I do not understand the rivalry. I can see why Catholics can have a reputation of being judgemental if they mock protestant beliefs. I also TRULY believe that a lot of protestants have a good relationship with God and if for whatever mysterious reason to me God leads these people to a protestant church, I am not going to question God’s ways

How do other people feel? Do others agree sometimes God genuinely does lead a person a protestant church?

ANgie
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Thank you for saying this, Angie. I am a former Catholic who attends an Episcopal church. I believe that both Catholics and Protestants can have a good relationship with God (I do) and I feel sad when people in one group criticize the other.

I had a good friend who left the Catholic Church for the Lutheran church because she was abused by a priest and staying was too painful for her. I can understand that.
 
Lisa1967 said:
Thank you for saying this, Angie. I am a former Catholic who attends an Episcopal church. I believe that both Catholics and Protestants can have a good relationship with God (I do) and I feel sad when people in one group criticize the other.

I had a good friend who left the Catholic Church for the Lutheran church because she was abused by a priest and staying was too painful for her. I can understand that.
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My good friend, you might want to read about the history of the Episcopal Church and King Henry VIII and St. Thomas More. There’s a great movie about this called, “A Man For All Seasons.” Besides the history, the Episcopal Church has drifted very far from the Catholic doctrines it started with. I feel I must bring this up because I believe you are in grave danger in that church.

I’m sorry to hear about your friend being abused by priest. That is horrific! Hopefully, he was laicized. But you must tell her that leaving the True Faith because of the actions of one man, would be like not believing in Mathematics because of the actions of an abusive Math teacher. It’s not logical. I realize the pain involved pushed her to do this. But out of charity for her soul, please convince her and yourself to come back to the Church Christ founded.

St. Thomas More, pray for him. Mother of Mercy, pray for her.
 
Anglewannabe said:
As much as I believe the Catholic church is the one true church, I still have a lot of respect for protestants and see them do a lot of good behaviour.

Sometimes when I hear the comments in Catholic settings that knock protestants, I am shocked. I do not understand the rivalry. I can see why Catholics can have a reputation of being judgemental if they mock protestant beliefs. I also TRULY believe that a lot of protestants have a good relationship with God and if for whatever mysterious reason to me God leads these people to a protestant church, I am not going to question God’s ways

How do other people feel? Do others agree sometimes God genuinely does lead a person a protestant church?

ANgie
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I struggle with this battle. Have you ever spent time in the protestant faiths? I have - LOTS of time. I can honestly say it is the most back biting and spiteful organization I have ever belonged. Complete and total hypocracy. Disagreements over everything. What gets me is that they don’t even see it.

There are individuals who do have hearts for Jesus. But the problem is that they DO NOT take Jesus at His own words because of incorrect teaching. They only use passages from the bible that support their own individual theology - mainly say a ‘sinners’ prayer and there is your instant ticket to heaven. What a shameful thing to confess to God after realizing that ‘I too’ lead people to believe this lie straight from hell.

No, I lost many years believing in incorrect teachings. I will do my best to reach out to those who are caught up in these Satan inspired faiths. If a pastor cannot believe in Jesus’ own words, “Unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you will have no life in you,” I won’t even listen.

“Many will come in my name and say, Lord Lord…” I pray I am not one of these…
 
dominic_aquinas said:
There are many good people that are unfortunately in false religions. I hope I never talk negatively about a protestant. But, their religion is false and it won’t lead them to Heaven. So, while I respect individual people, I don’t respect the false religion of protestantism.

God never leads people to false religions. That would be like saying God leads people to commit murder or theft. He permits people to have free will and they sometimes choose evil. Protestantism is evil. God yearns that all people enter the True Faith. Also, protestants definitely do not have a good relationship with God. They have a mistaken idea of what God is and how to worship Him. They don’t know Him since they don’t know the Church He has established. If they reject the Catholic Church, they reject Him.

I love the people that I know who are misled by the lies of protestantism. I pray that they recover from them, like I pray for someone who is ill to get better.
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Hard truths!
 
dominic_aquinas said:
I think Catholics lump the myriad forms of protestantism together because they are all demonic lies about Christ; with the main one being that you can know God outside of His Church. This is exactly what the devil wants everyone to believe. Protestantism of any denomination is evil since it is outside the True Faith.
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Yes. But I believe we should respect people enough to tell the truth about them and not speak of them as if they were caricatures and all alike. Many Protestant groups have retained truths and virtues that should be acknowledged even as the errors are pointed out. Unfortunately, some of them do a better job of living Catholic truths than we do even if they don’t know it.

Which is not to say that I think Protestantism is salvific.
 
As one who attended Protestant churches, I can tell you Catholics get knocked there as well. It is unfortunate because we are all brothers and sisters under one God.:grouphug:
 
Sidebar -

Another HUGE problem is that in the protestant faiths, they use Paul’s word about being “the chief of all sinners” to push the point that nothing is unforgivable through the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross (true), but they NEVER elaborate on the part where Paul states that he received mercy and grace because of his ‘IGNORANCE.’

The ‘hidden’ message they teach is that you CAN keep on sinning great sins and it will not affect your salvation - in most protestant faiths.

They do also suggest that you go to God and ‘confess’ your sin to him - Ok. Good, but I think there is something VERY important about confessing sins to your priest.
  1. God told us to.
  2. The Catholic Church still does as God commands.
  3. A good father counsels.
  4. I surely don’t want to have to confess the same sin again to someone I will see again.
  5. Jesus, I believe knew the importance of giving the ‘apostles’ the ‘power’ to forgive sin. He obviously could have given that power to all of his followers, but only said this to His ‘inner circle.’
  6. Why would Jesus even give the power if He thought it was useless?
  7. rest time:)
 
jeb53 said:
As one who attended Protestant churches, I can tell you Catholics get knocked there as well. It is unfortunate because we are all brothers and sisters under one God.:grouphug:
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That is not Catholic teaching.
 
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