im catholic but many Christians say were not good, starting to believe them? help?

Question

im catholic i been catholic since the day i was born im 16 now but just the other day this Christian was telling me that what catholics believe in is not good and that we should only believe in 1 god not 2 i cant help to agree with that person with some stuff she said but the other thing im afraid of is that ill be forced to believe the catholics beliefs but then the christians without knowing which one will be the right to believe in now im not sure if being catholic is good but i dont want to change to christian either because my entire family is catholic...i dont know what to do...should i just not be part of any religion anymore and still believe in god and what the bible says?....many people also say catholics will go to hell because we believe also in the virgin but we still believe in god and because of our beliefs...this religion stuff is confusing me so much....what will i also do about church....please help some one give me good advices i know i heard once that god doesnt go for any religion because he likes to except things without separation...so please help

Answer 1

Here's the deal: You're Catholic, but you don't know what you believe or why you believe it; you don't know what the Church teaches or why she teaches it.



As a result, any so-called christian with a bug up their backside can make you doubt yourself. To make matters worse, some protestants get a special thrill out of specifically targeting Catholics.



Does that last sound paranoid? Dr. Scott Hahn is probably one of the most respected Catholic teachers today; but before he converted, he used to go out Catholic-hunting. Jimmy Akin is another.



So, as long as you're uninformed, you are vulnerable to being jerked around by the uninformed.



The good news is: You are a part of a wonderful faith...no, the Catholic Church is the Fullness of the Faith. You just don't know it yet.



Best advice: find out what the Catholic Church teaches (those people that claim the Bible alone has all the answers all come up with conflicting answers, so you know that's bovine excrement right from the get-go). If you're 16, I'm guessing sex is probably the big issue. So read John Paul II's Theology of the Body, or other papal letters that explain why. People like to knock the present Holy Father, all the while ignoring just how brilliant the man is. Did you know he's got a brand new book out? From what I'm told, he starts slowly in order to cover the basics, but then takes off like a rocket.



Not to be mean, but your big problem is that you just don't know. So fix it.

Answer 2

Here's some advice. Learn the Catholic faith! Anyone who tries to steer you away from the Catholic Church and from it's teaching is a false prophet or teacher. (Mt 7:20)



This is what they will tell you that we are saved by faith alone. But read James 2:26 where it says, "See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." Again, false prophet.



They will tell you the bible alone is the sole authority. But ever since the Protestant reformation we see some 33000 Protestant denominations who can't agree on scripture interpretation. They have lost even the basic faith of the earliest Christians who believed in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.



Their churches were started by men after the 16th century. The Catholic Church was started by Christ himself, built on St. Peter. Mt 16:18-19. The Pope has Apostolic Succession to St. Peter. The Catholic Church is built on 3 Pillars, not just one. It is built on Apostolic Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium (teaching authority) of the Church. Thus it has a more firm foundation. It's Bishops trace back to the apostles.



We are a full gospel church, practicing the Sacraments - confessions of sins (Jn 20:23, James 5:16), the Eucharist (Jn 6:53), baptism (Mt 19:18), etc.



Tim Staples - Journey Home to the Catholic Church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A5XBzgjgfE



Tim Staples - The bible made me Catholic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeBbw8jzehc&feature=related



God Bless

Answer 3

1. Most catholics believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he is fully God himself, and that the Holy Spirit is also God. One God in three persons. This is the mainstream Christian tradition.



2. Most catholics believe that they are saved from their sins by virtue of Christ's death on the cross, when he suffered in our place, taking the punishment we deserve so that we could be free of punishment. This also is in the mainstream Christian tradition.



3. Some catholics blend the above beliefs with more legalistic ideas, or with more superstitious ideas. These things are not part of the Christian mainstream.



4. Some protestants have a hard time recognising that Mary is a unique person, to be very highly respected. That is a pity, because the bible is very clear that we should highly respect her. Some protestants accuse catholics of worshipping Mary, but it seems to me that few catholics actually do that. At any rate, respecting Mary is encouraged by the bible, but worshipping her, or praying to her, is not.



If you worship God, trust in him for your salvation, and read his word to find guidance for your life, then no Christian should have anything to say against you. You can do all these things perfectly well while remaining a catholic.

Answer 4

Just who have you been hanging out with? It's true that many non Catholic Christians say that, "were [we're] not good." It's also true that many non Catholic Christians say that we are good, even though we hold some false beliefs. Investigate Catholicism for your self. There is a simplified version or explanation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Get that. I forget the title; use the web.

Answer 5

You need to learn more about your Catholic faith, from Cathiolics, not from anti-Catholics. Catholics do not believe in two Gods.



A summary of Catholic beliefs is contained in the Nicene Creed (from the year 325):



We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.



We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.



We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son, He is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.



For a complete description of what Catholics believe, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/index.shtml



For an overview, see: http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac1086.asp



With love in Christ.

Answer 6

Catholics do believe in only one God.



All Christians (including Catholics) believe in the Virgin birth.



Anyone claiming to know who is going to hell would do well to demonstrate their omniscience in other areas as proof. Only God knows the future.

Answer 7

Perhaps you should begin by actually reading the Bible. I know for a fact, since I was raised in an Ultra-Catholic household, that they do NOT read Scriptures. Only keep hearing the eternal liturgy from the pulpit....selected verses.



PLEASE get a version you find easy to understand. Start with a Para-phrase version, like "the Living Bible" if you like. VERY easy to understand. And READ it.



See for yourself. The Bible is not hard to understand.



Rites and rituals and the fact that you were raised in a certain denomination is not what makes you a Christian!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you been born of God, of the Holy Spirit? No ritual can do that. It happens, and not cause you were raised in a certain "church".



I URGE you to read a Bible. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and it takes root in you.

Answer 8

Ummm uncover a Christian, bible headquartered church you prefer. You do not need to consider the whole lot despite the fact that to wait your present church. The fact will by no means be located bc faith is guy made. Religion is only a vessel to aid you attach. Why do folks consider faith is produced from the divine? It's guy made. I attend church buildings of all religions bc I respect all their exceptional perspectives and achieve schooling. My middle is wherein the reality is predicated.

Answer 9

The Catholic - Protestant rift will just never end..



Each tries to point fingers at the other..



As Catholics, we do believe in one God only.. (Nicene creed - I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.)



Nobody knows who will go to hell and who will not..

And no Christian has the right to even say who will go to hell, cuz eventually it is God's decision and not man's!





No matter what you choose, always try to not go against God.

Answer 10

Stephany, I answer a lot of questions similar to yours. Let me assure you first I am not against the people who attend a Catholic church, for I have known many very good Christian people who attend the Catholic Church. Second let me tell you that salvation does not come to an individual who is born into the Catholic church or any other church--salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ who paid for the sins of all men for all times. So now let me see if I can make some sense out of what has happened that makes the Roman Catholic church a non-Christian church.

In AD 313 the Emperor of Rome, Constantine the great had the Roman Universal Catholic Church formed based upon the Mithra Pagan religion of Babylon of BC 600. Modern Catholic claim that Jesus began the church while he was still alive and that Peter would be its leader. Non of that is true, it is a fable made up by the Catholic and not by documented scripture. Now let us get to the root of the myth of the Catholic church.

In the 4th century the Catholic church had the Greek version of the bible translated into Latin, oh about AD 387. The translators were instructed to lean toward the practices of the now established Church of Rome, a state church known as the Roman Universal Catholic Church. The Vulgate is the result of this translation effort, often known as the Catholic Bible. The church had so much power as being the state church of the Roman Empire they passed a law forbidding people reading or having possession of any other bible in any language other than Latin and then it must be their version. So the period of corruption begins in earnest--for the next 1200 the church persecuted all who opposed her and did not bow down to her authority--killing during this period about 50 million true Christians.



So you have eleven centuries of Catholic dominance and being a secular church it showed very little Christian love toward anyone. Late in the 1400's a man by the name of John Wycliffe began to translate the Vulgate, Latin remember, into English but using the old Greek documents for clarity. He began to uncover discrepancies, ultimately force to flee England where he was in danger, England being Catholic at the time. The a series of other followed Wycliffe in this effort after Wycliffe was finally caught and burned at the stake. Even Martin Luther who founded the Lutheran church translated from the Greek into German avoiding the Vulgate version for he had been removed as a Catholic priest due to his desires for man to have the bible in their native language.



In 1496, John Colet, an Oxford Professor gave the English speaking people their first English bible from his translation from Greek directly to English bypassing the corrupt Vulgate version by the Catholics. The two are so different any scholar can point out where the Catholic translators leaned toward Catholic thinking or practices which are not true to God's word of any period. People flocked to the true Christian churches as they were able to obtain the English versions of the Bible for it told of God's grace not the dominating forces of the Catholic church. Salvation was of Jesus and available to all, regardless of their church affiliation. During this period the Roman Empire finally lost its dominance, so did their church and the true Christians that had been under persecution for so long began to emerge from hiding and Christianity bloomed.

Stephany, I know that is a lot, but Christianity is a lifestyle of Godly freedom, not dominance of a group of people, we Christians are free. My salvation is between Jesus and me, it is under his conditions not a church. I join a church of like minded people so we worship God in harmony and if I disagree with the Pastor I have the individual right to disagree. No one tells my church what we can or cannot do. We have only Jesus as a church to answer to, he is our High Priest, and we talk directly to God through the name of Jesus, not through a priest who is just a man and we need no intercessor other than Jesus. We are Baptized because we are saved, not to get saved.

I hope this helps.

Answer 11

dear, read the words of Jesus in the four gospels and go from there in your relationship with the Lord. listen only to God and pray for the Him to guide you. God bless you.

Answer 12

just become a christian i know that Your whole family is catholic but they won't disown you just because you are a christian i would read the n.i.v bible and start with matthew mark luke and john in the new testament and go from there once you have accepted Jesus as your saviour you will never regret it your lowest day with Jesus is better than your best day without him

Answer 13

Catholic doctrine states that Mary was a Virgin when she conceived Jesus not that she stayed one. A lot of people problems with Catholicism is to do with their ignorance. Get a informed opinion from a real person not these Q&A as you will get a great deal of abuse from certain people who will answer this.

Answer 14

Catholics have a very full and comprehensive statement of their beliefs (you can see quite a lot of this in the Catholic Encyclopedia).



Protestant churches don't usually have a formal statement of beliefs (a catechism). No protestant church has anything as comprehensive as the Catholic Encyclopedia.



Protestants in general don't know what they believe (if your church has no catechism - you can't).



This might be because they don't really care what they believe - I can't really think of any other excuse.

Answer 15

It was a Protestant who was telling you that. You ARE a Christian. The Catholic Church was the original Christian Church, the ONLY Church founded by Jesus Christ, the ONLY Church He ever intended to exist, and the ONLY Church that teaches the fullness of truth. You are where God wants you to be. Jesus expressed His holy will concerning His followers - "that they all may be ONE". Which obviously meant "that they all may be members of the ONE Church I have founded for them". Which therefore meant "that they all may be Catholic". He also said the truth would set us free. Obviously truth cannot exist in the thousands of unauthorized conflicting manmade denominations of Protestantism, because the beliefs and teachings of each denomination conflict with the teachings of the others, and truth cannot conflict with truth. Truth can exist only in unity, which is why the Catholic Church has remained ONE in belief, ONE in teaching, ONE in worship throughout the world for 2,000 years, while manmade religion continues to fragment into more and more conflicting denominations every year.

Answer 16

Errors in the doctrine of the Catholic Church



1.Purgatory does not exist, is not in the Bible, and nullifies Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross. If purgatory were true, Christ died for nothing, because that would mean that we could go to purgatory and pay for our own sins. Purgatory negates the death, burial, resurrection and ascention of Jesus Christ. There is NOTHING we can do to add to or detract from Christs' atonement for our sins. Ephesians 2:5 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God-not of works, so that no one can boast".



2.Praying to saints and to Mary. Only God is omnipresent and omniscient and can hear the prayers of each indiviual who is praying at the same time. We do not need the "help" of the saints and Mary to reach God. Jesus taught us to say "Our Father, Who art in heaven..." NOT "saint whoever".



3.Mary is not co-redemptress. She was not "the immaculate conception". Neither was her mother. Both women were born the ordinary way. The ONLY ONE who was ever conceived without sexual relations was Jesus.



4.The bread and the wine do not turn into the actual body and blood of Jesus. Luke 22:19 "This is my body."...Jesus is standing in his body. The bread He is holding cannot be His body. It MUST be a SYMBOL of His body. "This cup is the new covenant in my blood.".....Jesus is standing with His blood coursing through His arteries and veins. Therefore the wine MUST be a SYMBOL of His blood.



5."There is one mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus". Our sins are to be confessed to God through Jesus, not to a priest. "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US." No priest involved. Jesus did not teach to confess to a priest, but to God in Jesus name.



6.There is no such thing as "Holy Water". Tap water is still tap water even if it has been "blessed" by a priest. Holy water will not create miracles such as healing of people. Only God, through the power of the Holy Spirit has the power to heal. The "blessed" water has no special properties.



7.Peter was NOT the "first pope". The "Rock" that Jesus refered to as the rock upon which He will build His church was Peter's confession,"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God", not Peter himself. Peter's name means 'pebble'. The confession is a 'boulder'.Christ's church is built upon the confession.



8.The pope is not the "Vicar of Christ." He does not represent Christ on earth. He is not infallible, whether he speaks "in the chair", or ex cathedra, "out of the chair".Church doctrines that are based on his pronouncements are invalid because they do not have the power or authorship of God.



9.Jesus is not still on the cross as your crucifixes depict. He is risen, the cross is empty. His sacrifice was "once for all". He is not being continually sacrificed. He sits at the right hand of God interceding for the saints. He is not on the cross.



10.The word "saints" refers to all Christians, not to certain "holy" people. Paul continually refers to us as "saints" There was no such thing as 'canonization' of saints at that time. All Christians are living saints.

Answer 17

http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/45119771



The Catholic church was founded by Constantine, a conquerer who was not Christian but took the name of the Christian God to rally support for his insatiable desire for power and territory. He instituted Christianity and illegalized persecution of Christians, but he failed to weed out and probably even encouraged inclusion of pagan doctrines and practices, set himself up as "Vicar of Christ", and founded the modern Roman Catholic church. Catholic doctrine is rife with contradiction to biblical scriptures, blasphemy, and heresy. Catholics are not bad people, just the doctrine spoon fed to them by an arrogant Nicolaitanian hierarchy.

Answer 18

You are a good Christian at heart and you must remember that always. If you convert to other sect of Christianity, you are still the same Christian on the inside.



Those who are trying to remove you from your faith are selling religion or even selling God straight from their briefcase just as Jehovas' Witnesses do. They go to your house and knock; you see them all dressed up in respectable-looking suits and briefcase. They make out your religion is bad and theirs are good.



Don't heed what others tell you. They all tell that good people with good hearts all go to Heaven, just because they're in different religions which they deem wholly wrong.



I want you to go to YouTube and type in NDEs and also atheists NDEs. Now see what NDEs survivors have learned about True God in Heaven. They are the people who had died clinically and were resusitated. Their testimonies should suffice to clear up your confusions.

From the NDEs survivors, you learn that God loves everybody UNCONDITIONALLY and you'll also learn that atheists with good deeds do go to Heaven after all.



Hell is reserved mostly for the demons and for the most evil-minded souls. Hell is there to prevents evil-minded spirits from harm to the living. Hell separates the evil spirits from the good ghosts and living. Demons escape from hell, enter our earth plane and do their utmost damages to living people and influence their negative bad thoughts and behaviour.



I had previously lived in two haunted houses and encountered hauntings in other sites. So I've learn a lot about ghosts, angelic and demonic spirits. So, I know enough what to tell you.

Always regard God as your loving divine parent. Think what your own mum and dad would do to you, if you were to be punished for mischief. Would your loving parents threaten you with fire? Would they be so cruel to burn you in fire. Then ask yourself this question, would loving God likewise threaten you with hellfire or rather give you humanely corrective punishment?



True God is not the cruel god who threaten others with hellfire, who inflicts them with too much suffering in life and then promise them paradise on condition that they follow "right" religion.

Loving True God is not like what others about Him threatening some people with hellfire.



Think as to who True God is.



True God = love, peace, forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, patience, etc.

God is NOT all for hatred, jealousy, vengence, cruelty, etc.



Now tell me, if you love dumb animals like cats, dogs, birds, would you punish them by burning them in fire? What kind of pet owner are you, if you are so cruel to your pets? So what kind of God is He to be insanely threatening you with hellfires?



True God loves you too much ever to threaten you with hellfire. No matter what mistakes we humans make in religions, God forgives us always and forgives our simple mistakes and confusion .

Answer 19

go to a Kingdom Hall in your local area. there you will find a people that will help you.