I myself am a Catholic and I am confused if Catholic or Christian is the right religion? Both believe in the same god, but Catholic has different rules. I am scared out of my mind because my christian friends said only christians go to heaven, not catholics! I know I shouldn't take what they said personally but it does get me wondering... My belief though, is that whatever religion (related to Christianity) you are, as long as you believe, in god, lovehim with all your heart, and follow his rules, I think that god will find a place for you. So tell me what you think because I'm scared

Jerkerz : hmmm....this is actually a tricky thing to answer, because I believe there are many unbiblical teachings in Catholicism, but I believe there are those within the Catholic church that are truly born again and would go to heaven...they just won't be considered as "good" Catholics because they don't follow what the Catholic church says, but on what the Bible says. In other words, some Catholics could actually be Christians...they just don't want to change their labeling or traditions, which is fine. People can say that they are Catholic, but it really depends on what they really believe that determines whether they are Christians or not.


Now to your situation:
"My belief though, is that whatever religion (related to Christianity) you are, as long as you believe, in god, love him with all your heart, and follow his rules, I think that god will find a place for you."

Other than the fact you need to elaborate the bold parts...I don't think what you described about your beliefs is either Christian or Catholic...

Religion is all made up by humans people make rules and regulations on themselves.
Christianity is the relation with god and/or Jesus also no ridiculous rules.The only way into heaven is Jesus unless you never sin which is impossible.Pick up a bible and read it.

I totally agree with play4fun. If your reading the common protestant bible you will find some funny things that catholics believe that dont fit with the new testament concepts. Like Purgatory and hail Marry's... I dont know much about the catholic bible but I know it has extra books in it. But when I first became a christian I went to an unusual catholic church that was seperated from the vatican and alot of them were "born again" - not depending on only baptism, cofessions, ... to get to heaven. You can find alot about being born again in the gospel of John...

icrazyforpokemon : I'm sorry, but in Christian Conservations, I should hope that you're not trying to offend or make fun of the religion, thank you.

And yes, Catholics will go to Heaven. The main point is that you are baptized, repent, and believe.

the way i see it is Catholic is just another sect of Christianity...like Baptist and Jehovah's witnesses...they all got something different but pretty much follow the same major guidelines. I don't think just because you have a some differences that you'll go to hell...i mean, there's Christians that play with rattlesnakes to show they don't fear Satan.

Oraeus : Don't lump Jehovah's Witnesses in with us please, they are in fact very different.

As for your question Jerkerz, I do believe those who call themselves Catholic can be true Christians, but a majority, those who would be "good" Catholics, probably aren't, due to some of the teachings of the Catholic church, like play4fun said.

Which just makes things harder for me because I know a lot of Catholic people and don't know how to talk to them about it well without offending them and losing their friendship.

There is no "right religion." It's all a matter of perspective. Catholics think that they're right, the Jews feel that they're right, the Muslims think that they're right, and so on. You can never know for sure. I believe that it's a waste of time to argue about something like this because you can argue forever and you will never get any closer to knowing the truth. Also, Catholicism is a branch of Christianity.

I think it's interesting that Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live" (John 11:25). In addition, the Bible states "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).

Essentially, each denomination of Christianity--is of Christianity, because of faith in salvation by Christ. However, there is Biblical-Christianity and there is Christianity that has strings attached, where no such strings were given by Jesus.

I'd suggest to look over the links below; I think the articles thoroughly and accurately answer this.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Catholic-Christian.html

http://www.gotquestions.org/catholicism.html

NotJon : Let me ask you this, if you look at the verse "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) How is that perspective? He is either right or wrong in that claim, because He made that claim for everyone.

I also disagree with how you will never get closer to knowing the truth. You need to look into what the claims are and understand what is true and what is not. It cannot be based on what you feel is true, but it has to be based on what IS true, even if the truth hurts.

You're friends aren't the best Christians. You are a Christian just the catholic denomination. Even though I believe in a different way than Catholics doesn't mean that they won't go to heaven. Anyone that believes that they are a sinner and Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sin will go to heaven.

play4fun : It is a matter of perspective. Christians follow the word of Christ and believe him to be the one, Buddhists take the teachings of Buddha to be the path to enlightenment, and so on. Every major religious figure is seen to be right by their followers. And no, you will never get closer to knowing the truth. If we could, then everyone would just have the same beliefs. We don't know the truth and that is why there are so many different religions. You only think/believe that you know the truth.

There are only a few things that I know to be true for certain. I believe Arthur Lee said it best by saying:

"This is the only thing that I am sure of
And that's all that lives is gonna die
And there'll always be some people here to wonder why"

The truth won't hurt me. I know what kind of person I am. If there's a Heaven and a Hell, cool! If there's not, then that's fine too.

God did not write religion, so why bother following it? Your not following anyone but a brand, people do it all the time they follow facebook, or pepsi, or democrats, or apple etc... just a brand it makes no difference at all. Its what you believe in what counts the most and that is GOD not religion.

What if GOD despises religion for the fact that it separates the people into brands instead of fusing them together? If you don't believe this you will go to hell? That is not God speaking that is clearly a human pressuring you into following their brand... I mean, your friends pretty much proved that point.

catholics cannot goto heaven becuz they dont praise god they praise fake images like statue and stuff if u wanna goto heaven be a christan and praise got with ur heart read a bible and goto church, currently im a christan i hope this helped u, god bless u by the way.

cop7000 : Excuse me? That is a completely and utterly false misconception. If I had a nickle for every time I've heard this excuse, I'd be swimming in cash. As a Catholic myself, I can truthfully say that Catholics DO NOT worship statues and/or false images. We have statues and pictures of saints, Mary, Jesus, etc, to REMIND us of them, NOT to worship them (well, Jesus/God yes). Picture it this way, I'm guessing you have pictures of dead loved ones to remind you of them, correct? Say a close friend or family member died and you put a picture on your wall to remember them by, does that mean your worshipping them? No, you're merely putting their image up to remember them by.
Also, if you're saying that Catholics worship Mary and/or the saints, that is also false. We hold Mary AND the saints in very high regards, but we do not put them on the same level as God, or worship them.


To the original poster, Catholics ARE christians, just a /slightly/ different branch of them. Tell your friends to look into the Catholic religion before they go about saying those things, so that they actually know what they're talking about. So if you choose to go down the Christianity path, as long as you believe in your heart that God is the only way to eternal life, follow His commandments, repent, and pray, you'll be set.

Resanub : wow ok lol god bless u just my mom was watching this video on youtube where catholic was praising fake images. jeez dont be so rude to me.

cop7000 : I wasn't being rude, just merely correcting you. By the way, don't rely solely on youtube to get your facts next time. The site doesn't exactly have the most reliable sources. xD

Resanub : thx :/

Resanub : haha such a noob offending my brother cop7000?i will ruin you that is rude thut that wil jpg jpeg gif png ur such a noob resanub get it?nub






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Gold2 : The post was already discussed between the 2 of them, the rules of the RGR chat box are the same for posting... stop trying to cause problems.