Dance your ass off!!
our A: There are many Christian denominations and churches: Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, and so on. Being a member of one doesn't determine whether a person is a Christian.
The real issue is whether the person individually has Jesus Christ living inside of him or her...if they actually have a personal relationship with God.
In the Gospel of John, we are told, "to all who received him [referring to Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."1 Why do we have to become children of God? Because until then, God is distant. We may know he's there. We may know we are supposed to worship him. We may even know that in times of need, he's the one to pray to. But there is a distance we are aware of, and it is because of our sin.
Now, as long as we live and breathe, guess what, we're going to sin. We're going to do things our way instead of God's way. But our sin need not remain a barrier between us and God. Here's how.
The Bible says that there is a penalty for sin, and it might be greater than you'd expect. The penalty for sin is death. It's not just the penalty for sins like murder. It's God's judgment against any and all sins. The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death..."2 So that we would not have to die eternally separated from God because of our sin, Jesus died in our place. He fully paid for our sin. And offers us complete forgiveness. Not temporary forgiveness. Even for the sins we will commit in the future, we can have his forgiveness now, because Jesus died for all of our sin. We can immediately begin a close, personal relationship with him, that barrier of sin being gone. It isn't that we become perfect and no longer sin. But we become forgiven when we see that Jesus died for our sin, in our place.
"Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us."3
When we receive Jesus Christ into our lives, God declares us "not guilty" and he says that we are now "made right with God." Our relationship with God has begun in a real way, where we no longer know God is "out there," but instead we know that he lives inside of us. We have God's forgiveness, a relationship with him. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."4
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In the 16th century, during the Protestant Reformation, many faith groups split away from the Roman Catholic Church. This destroyed the relative unity of Christendom in western Europe. The Protestant movement further fragmented during the following centuries. At the present time, there are over a thousand Christian denominations in North America alone, in addition to many thousands of independent, unaffiliated congregations, para-church organizations, and personal or couple ministries. Although there are many mainline and liberal Protestant faith groups, most are conservative in nature.
Some beliefs of the Roman Catholic church and conservative Protestant denominations are in opposition to each other. Examples are:
 | The acceptance of the theory of evolution by the Catholic church, and the continuing rejection by most conservative Protestants. |
| The acceptance of homosexual sexual orientation -- but not same-sex behavior -- as morally neutral by the Catholic Church, but not by many conservative Protestants. |
| The rejection of the death penalty by the Catholic church, and the continuing acceptance and promotion by most conservative Protestants. |
| Catholics place ultimate interpretive authority in the Pope and Magesterium. Conservative Protestants place it with the individual Christian and his/her interpretation of the Bible. |
| Catholics teach that the bread and wine during the mass becomes the actual body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. Protestants generally regard the two components as symbolic of Jesus' body and blood. |
The gap between the two groups appears to be increasing over time. Future reunification of the Christian religion appears impossible.
Both Catholics and conservative Protestants generally agree on some major theological matters, like the existence of angels, Mary's virgin conception; Jesus' sinless life, incarnation, crucifixion, bodily resurrection, and his imminent return of Jesus to Earth in the second coming; Heaven, Hell; the Trinity, and the deity of Jesus. They agree that his execution brought about atonement -- the potential to bridge the gulf between humanity and God caused by sin. However they disagree on how this was achieved. They partly agree about the significance of baptism, but disagree about the timing when it is normally performed. They do not agree on which books are included in the official canon of the Bible.
Perhaps the main difference between conservative Protestantism and Roman Catholicism is expressed by the "five Solas". "Sola" means "alone" in Latin. The first three Sola statements of the early Protestant movement stressed that:
| "Sola Scriptura:" The Bible is the sole authority for Christian beliefs and practices. The Catholic Church stresses a balance between Biblical support and the tradition of the Church itself. |
| "Sola Gratia:" One is saved through grace alone, given to the believer by God directly. The Catholic Church stresses the importance of church sacraments as a channel for God's grace. |
| "Sola Fide:" Salvation is by the individual's faith alone in trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Again, the Catholic Church stresses the importance of church sacraments. |
There also exists a great gulf between the two groups on other matters of belief and church practice -- particularly with regard to the rapture, authority within the church, church organization, freedom of the individual, freedom of each congregation, etc.
I am still searching more for the differences... more to come...