Protestant/Catholic - Essay Example

Differences and similarities between the Protestantism and the Catholicism Protestant Vs CatholicCatholicism and Protestantism are the two major denominations in the world today. Initially, Catholicism was the only denomination, but due to disagreements within it that were as a result of its doctrines, some of its members protested and had to quit since they could not achieve their grievances within. They formed their own denominations and were called Protestants. Several differences have been clearly enumerated between these two denominations.

However, there also similarities since they are all Christians. DifferencesThe major difference between these denominations is the authority of the scripture; Protestants believe that bible alone is the satisfactory for a Christian “sola scripture”, while the catholic believes in the bible and the Roman Catholic Tradition which spells out purgatory as a place of temporal punishment for sinners, praying for the saint and worship and adoration of the Virgin Mary. Another difference is over the office of the pope; Catholics believe in the apostolic series and therefore argue along this line to establish the authority of the pope in order to assume the place of Jesus Christ as the observable head of the church (Laursen, 2001).

On the other hand, the Protestants believe that Jesus is the sole head of the church today and no human being can take his place. The third difference is about the celibacy doctrine upheld by the catholic authorities starting with the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and Priests. They believe that if one is to dedicate himself to God he or she should only do it to God alone and not to a wife or a husband. They uphold the premise that their bodies are sacred temples of the lord and should not be influenced by the things of the world.

The Protestants on their side argue that procreation is the will of God and failure to uphold it is a failure to fulfill human nature (Zingleman, 2001). SimilaritiesObservation of the Holy CommunionIn these two denominations Holy Communion is observed by taking of the sacrament that symbolizes the body of Christ and the wine as the blood of Christ which was shed in order to reconcile the Christians with God (Koffeman & Witte, 2001). Catholics take the Holy Communion on all their meetings and take special prayers for the sacrament.

The Protestants like the Anglican Church take the sacrament and the wine twice a month. The Holy Communion is observed to strengthen Christians’ faith in God.They both believe that all the believers will go to heaven while non believers will go to hell for complete destruction. By this they all consider sin to be against God’s will.All the Christians work for at most six days and take a rest to worship on the seventh. All the Christians except the SDA set Sunday as their day of worship and rest.

Biblical teachingsThe bible according to 2nd Timothy 3:16, the bible says: “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking and correcting and training righteousness so that man of God may be well equipped for every good work”. This substantiate the protestants believe in bible alone.Jesus promised Christians that he will ask God the father to give Christians the Holy Spirit to guide them. This is according to John 14: 16, “And I will ask the father to give you another counselor to be with you forever…..” this disapproves the Catholics argument about the Pope.

The bible teaches us that our bodies are the temple of the lord according to 1st Corinthians 6:19 which say: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…?” In my opinion, I believe that the Protestants practices have a better foundation and are worth believing since they are bible based and is accessible to every believer. Unlike the Roman Catholic Tradition which is only clear to Romans alone. ReferencesKoffeman, L. J., & Witte, H. (2001). Of all times and of all places: Protestants and Catholics on the church local and universal.

Zoetermeer: Meinema. Laursen, J. C. (2001). Continental millenarians: Protestants, Catholics, heretics. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. Zingleman, P. (2001). Catholics, Protestants and salvation. Long Prairie, Minn.: Neumann Press.