Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 9/5/2006

Question
Hi, i have a question. First of all, my mother is very religious and she wants me to marry a christian. ( i agree w/ 100%)
My boyfriend, for about a year is catholic.Well i told my mother about him and she asked about his religious background. now my mom's concerned
my question is, what is the main difference between baptist and catholic?
this just for my understanding, thank you for time

Answer
Hi Yvonne,

Thanks for this great question.  There are many differences between the two religions.  These differences come from two major differences in perspective.

1.  Catholics get their truth from BOTH scriptures and man made tradition passed on through out the ages.  Baptists look only to the Bible as the final authority of truth for all faith and practice.

Matthew 15:6
6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

Colossians 2:8
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.   
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

2.  Catholics try to merit heaven through works and Baptists believe that the only way to heaven in to accept Jesus as Savior through faith alone.

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

Galatians 2:21
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

Romans 3:20-28
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;   26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

If you have trusted Jesus to save you from your sins, you have been Born Again, your sins are covered by the Blood of Jesus.  If your boyfriend is trusting in his works, his sins are not yet covered.

I hope that this helps you.

In Christ
Pastor Don