Catholicism vs. Protestantism

A beginner's point of view.

This is an article that I’ve been meaning to write for a while. I’m Catholic, but my journey was a bit different from most. I was born and raised Catholic, but went away from the faith altogether and returned to it by taking a more “protestant” approach: studying scripture, developing a personal relationship with Jesus in prayer, and being a bit skeptical of the Catholic Church in many ways.

Slowly, I started to understand the role of the Church better, and eventually ended up coming back to where I had started —Catholicism—, only this time it wasn’t just because my parents had taken me to Mass every Sunday but because I had sought out the truth on my own and felt I found it within the Church.

Still, I confess that I’m very much a beginner. I have only recently finished reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and I’m still learning a lot about the differences between denominations and about the specific doctrines of Catholicism.

Which is why I don’t write this post from a position of authority but rather of curiosity, having been engaged with a lot of Protestant ideas, followed a lot of Protestant preachers and influencers, but also having been inside of the Catholic Church as a kid and now again as a 28-year old man. I have had the opportunity to engage in conversation with people from both denominations, and I have a lot of positive things to say about both. If I make a theological mistake or make any sort of false claim in this article, I encourage you to correct me in the comments: as I stated, I’m not an expert on this, and I will simply attempt to explain what I’ve seen and understood to the best of my abilities.

I write this post in a spirit of unity, not divisiveness. My intention here is not to create controversy or attack any denomination. My goal in this article is simply to explain some things I’ve noticed —flaws and virtues—, of both Protestants and Catholics, in the hope that we can learn from each other and try to move forward towards Ecumenism and Christian unity. I exclude Orthodoxy from this article simply because I don’t know enough about it to comment on it, but of course that my desire for unity includes those of the Orthodox faith.

Faith and Works

This is the first and most interesting thing I was confronted with when exploring the different denominations. Last year I posted a quote that I took directly from the book “The Catechism Explained” by Rev. Francis Spirago:

I was surprised by some of the comments and restacks, in which I was told that Heaven was won by faith alone, in some cases very effusively and even aggressively. It was the first time I was openly confronted on such a matter, because it had always seemed obvious to me —even when I wasn’t a Catholic— that getting to Heaven would require rejecting sin and being obedient to God.

One thing I’ve noticed from Protestants that I think many of us Catholics can learn is their unwavering belief in Christ and how open they usually are with that belief.

However, I’ve noticed something within Protestantism too, and that is the fact that the faith by which they say we win Heaven is a shallow faith, simply meaning “to believe in the existence of”.

Faith, true faith, means to follow, love and obey. Even when in some discussions I’ve tried to reach a middle ground —of salvation being by faith but faith being expressed in good works—, I have been told that works do not matter at all when it comes to attaining salvation. But if that’s the case, if salvation requires to simply claim that you believe in God, then what even is the point of acting righteously? And how can you know that you actually have faith? Faith —as in trusting and following— will naturally and necessarily be expressed in works.

The point is that for one to have actual, real faith, one is necessarily going to show that faith in works. If there’s no works, it means your faith is not really faith: it’s mere “belief”.

It never sat right with me, the whole “faith alone” claim, because of the reasons explained earlier, but also, and most importantly, because of what that means regarding how we relate to and react to sin.

The Question of Sin

If your salvation has nothing to do with the way you behave, it becomes way too easy to justify sin. The lines become blurry, and it’s very easy to justify all sorts of sins as long as they are not explicitly stated to be sins in scripture (we’ll talk about this later).

Who cares what you do? You’re already saved!

This just seems too easy. Where’s the carrying of our cross then? Where’s the self-denial that Jesus demands from us?

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
— Matthew 16:24

Jesus’ sacrifice opened the door for us to get to Heaven, but we still need to make the effort to walk through that door, by turning away form sin, repenting and pursuing a life of virtue and purity. Under the protestant view —and again, please correct me, but this is what I’ve been told by my protestant friends—, there’s basically no incentive or need to turn away from sin. The only reason why we should turn away from sin is, according to the faith alone belief, because it harms us on this earth.

But we are self-destructive in many ways, and harming ourselves is usually not a strong enough reason to stop certain behaviors. Under the Catholic view, sin weakens or even severs our relationship with God completely, until we reconcile with Him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where those sins are now forgiven thanks to the Grace of God and because of Jesus’s sacrifice.

Jesus made it possible for us to get to Heaven, but there’s effort required on our part as well. Because God is all-forgiving, but God is also perfectly just.

Regarding Scripture

Another thing that Catholics can learn from Protestants is how diligent and disciplined they are regarding the studying of Scripture. There’s a bunch of different opinions on this matter, but I do believe every Christian, of any denomination, should read the Bible.

Even though there’s of course lukewarm Christians in any denomination, from what I’ve seen, Protestants are usually very knowledgeable of Scripture, which is absolutely a good thing.

There’s two issues, however, that I’ve noticed regarding the approach protestants take to Scripture:

One, they believe in Scripture alone, meaning that any dogma that isn’t explicitly stated in Scripture is not valid. The problem with this is that it’s impossible for a book —even a Holy one—, to contain every single detail and every single possible scenario of every possible moment of human history. It would be infinitely long and impossible to read.

One thing that helped me understand the importance of the Church was this example: There was no contraception in the time of Jesus, so obviously there wouldn’t be anything in Scripture explaining how we should react to it. And that’s just one example, but it’s evident that as times change, society moves forward and new issues and dilemmas appear, the answers to specific questions won’t be explicitly found in Scripture.

That’s why we need the Church: to help us navigate the developments of each epoch and provide guidelines of behavior that clarify the issues that naturally arise. And this institution needs to be infallible. I know this is another point of controversy, so I’ll talk about that a bit later on.

The second issue I’ve noticed regarding the Protestant approach to Scripture —and it relates to what I just wrote above—, is that it assumes that each individual can interpret and understand something as intricate and complex as Scripture on their own.

This was another thing that drew me towards Catholicism. It just felt very wrong to believe I could know the truths of God just by reading His Word and interpreting it according to my own understanding. I am too much of a sinner, too blind and too ignorant to be confident that I can understand every single little thing in the Bible.

The protestant response to this is that you can understand it because you have the Holy Spirit’s aid. But if it were so simple, then wouldn’t everyone interpret scripture in the same way, all of us inspired by the Holy Spirit?

If that were the case, there wouldn’t be so many different protestant denominations, each one claiming to be the one that most closely adheres to Scripture. That just goes to show that we are NOT capable, as individuals, of understanding The Bible in a unified way, and each individual will see things differently. But Truth is Truth, so it’s by definition, unique. It’s simply not possible that every person that interprets Scripture interprets it correctly and finds the Truth in it.

I recently saw a video on Instagram that explains the problem of Protestant fragmentation. Regardless of what you think about Jordan Peterson, I think he explains the problem of individual interpretation well, which in turn shows why it’s deeply necessary to have the Church and it being the keeper of God’s Word and Law with the passage of time.

Infallibility

This article is getting long enough already, but I think this issue is very important to this discussion as well, and it’s also something I recently understood.

The Catholic view of Papal Infallibility doesn’t mean that the Pope is perfect. It doesn’t even mean that he’s a good man. The Pope can be a great sinner. Infallibility simply means that when the Pope is speaking ex cathedra (meaning, with authority, from the seat of Peter), on faith and morals, he is preserved from error by the Holy Spirit. Infallibility applies only to specific declarations that meet certain criteria: they must concern faith or morals, be intended for the entire Church, and be proclaimed in a definitive manner. It is important to note that this doctrine does not imply that the Pope is incapable of sin or error in all his actions or statements; rather, it is a safeguard for the Church's teaching authority, ensuring that essential truths of the faith remain intact and unaltered.

I think this is important to know because it means that a personal dislike for a specific Pope doesn’t make you non-Catholic. You can dislike the Pope, disagree with some of his statements and behaviors, but you do need to trust his judgement and authority when he speaks ex cathedra.

This isn’t just a made up doctrine, but based on Scripture too: we believe the Church that Jesus established cannot and will never fall. If it did, then He would’ve lied to us when He named Peter the head of His Church:

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.
— Matthew 16:18

And we know that’s just not possible.

Final Thoughts

There’s a lot more that I could’ve included in this article: the courage with which Protestants defend their faith, which is something many Catholics lack, the question of Mary and our devotion to her, the claims of idolatry directed towards Catholics, each denomination’s view of the sacraments, and many other issues that separate Catholics and Protestants.

But I think this article is long enough already, so maybe I’ll write a part two giving you my take on those other topics. For now, let me know what you think and please, as stated above, correct me or educate me if there’s anything I wrote that was false or unclear. I mean it when I say that I’m looking to learn and that I don’t intend to speak from a place of authority but of personal opinion and intellectual curiosity, to try and find the Truth.

The final message I want to leave you with is that regardless of where you stand, I truly believe we need to move forward in a spirit of unity between all Christians. We are, after all, all fallen, all sinful, and lost.

We are all honestly trying to find the Truth and we are all doing our best to follow Christ faithfully. In any discussion with people from a different denomination we ought to remember that, and pray for each other, so that we can all hopefully meet in Heaven.

In Christ,

Simple Man

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