A Study of the Differences between the Christian Religions (Catholic, Lutheran, and Methodist)
Hello everyone. Thanks for reading : D
Have you ever wondered what the differences are between Catholicism and the Lutheran branches of religion? How about the Methodist religion?
Well, I'm about to tell you : )
I'll also explain a bunch of different terms you may not have heard of from Catholicism.
So, the first difference is the number of sacraments.
1. The Catholic church believes that there are 7 Sacraments. They are:
Baptism
Reconciliation- see this
Confirmation
Marriage
Holy Orders- Holy Orders is the process where a bishop gives another bishop, priest, or deacon the rights to be in that vocation.
Anointing of the Sick- This is where a priest blesses a sick person with holy oil. It can be done when close to death by old age or sickness.
Why so many, you may ask? There are several reasons. All of the above sacraments require a priest to carry out. Also, something really cool that not all people realize is that not one person can receive all 7 sacraments. One cannot receive the sacrament of marriage and holy orders. Why? In the Catholic church, we believe that the priest cannot take a wife, and must be celibate. We believe that the priest marries the Church. He devotes his life to helping the Church.
2. Everything that I have on the Lutheran church is from research, not my own knowledge, so sorry if this is a little limited.
The Lutheran church believes in two main sacraments: Baptism and Communion. They believe these are the only two because they are the only ones referred to in the Bible.
3. The Methodist church believes in two sacraments as well, with the same reasoning as the Lutheran church.
The next topic is the authority (leader) of the Church.
1. As Catholics, we believe that the Holy Father, the Pope, is the leader of the Catholic church. Jesus said, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:18-19) We take what he says here literally. We believe that Peter was the first Pope of the church, and all other popes were supposed to follow his example. We look to the pope for guidance and to resolve all issues within Catholicism. Cool fact: All priests, deacons, cardinals, bishops, and popes were all touched indirectly by Jesus himself. When they are ordained, the bishop lays their hands on the priests, which we believe started with Jesus and his disciples.
2. The Lutheran church refers to the Bible for direction. Whereas in the Catholic church, the pope has the last say, the Bible has the last say in the Lutheran faith.
3. Methodist is same as Lutheran.
The next topic is where we receive our salvation.
1. The Catholic church believes that we are given God's grace of salvation through Jesus Christ, but we also believe that your works on Earth may defer you to eternal damnation. If you do bad works (sins) on Earth, we believe that you confess them, especially mortal sins. For more on this, see this post.
2. The Lutheran church believes that we are automatically saved through God's grace, no matter what.
3. The Methodist church's belief is somewhere in between the Catholic and Lutheran belief.
There are also lots of things in the Catholic religion that no other religions have, such as saints and reconciliation.
Saints
Saints are icons in the Catholic church of holy people. There is a very extensive process that deals with sainthood.
"The formal process of sainthood involves a complicated process taking time, money, testimonies, and miracles, and the church follows a strict set of rules in the process.
First, to determine who qualifies, the Vatican looks to its Congregation for the "Causes of Saints". Typically, a would-be candidate's "cause" is presented to the local bishop by his or her admirers who persuade him that the life of the candidate was a model of holiness.
Once the applicant is approved as a candidate, an appointed postulator interviews those who knew the individual. Personal testimonies, letters, and writings of the candidate's are put together. A relater then sifts through this information and prepares a position paper. If the volumes of evidence prove a life of "heroic virtue", the person is given the title "venerable" by the Pope.
The next title, beatified (blessed), is attained if it can be proven that a miracle occurred after the death of the candidate, the result of someone praying to that person for help.
To finalize a canonization, it must be established that a second miracle occurred. (Martyrs are the exception. The pope can reduce their miracle requirement to one or waive it altogether.) Most often prayer requests are for a physical healing.
Verifying a miracle is considered the most difficult hurdle in the process. Just deciding what constitutes one causes debate. A life of heroic virtue is obviously easier to establish than a healing that results from prayers."
-http://home.comcast.net/~motherteresasite/sainthood.html
As you can see, this is a very long process. However, there are many, many saints. There are also patron saints. Patron saints are the "patrons" of a certain thing, such as music, or priests. However, there are a lot of patron saints for weird things too. It's actually really fun to look for weird patron saints, like this website did.
Also, many people ask why we "worship" Mary, the blessed mother. I have done quite a bit of research on this, and I believe I found the answer.
There are two main forms of "worship" that we use. Adoration and veneration.
Adoration is reserved only for the Holy Trinity, that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is the highest form of worship in the Catholic church.
Veneration is quite different. It is honoring someone, not worshipping. We honor this person and, by honoring them, honor God who made them in his likeness.
For Mary, she has a special type of veneration. We believe that she is the Mother of the Church; that is why we pray to her.
There is also the differences between the reception of Communion.
1. Catholics believe in transubstantiation.
2. Methodists believe in the real presence of Christ only during the time of Communion. Christ is present, however it is believed that it is a mystery as to how he is present, and just knowing that he is present is enough. After Communion the bread is simply bread, and the juice is juice. More information can be obtained by reading a study called "This Holy Mystery" which explains in detail a lot of the history behind not only communion in the Methodist church but also a brief overview of Communion in other churches.
3. Lutheran churches differ from church to church, but I have found two distinctions. They either believe that the bread and wine is just a symbol of Christ's body and blood, or that they are Christ's body and blood, but still remain bread and wine throughout. The second view is called consubstantiation.
So, after writing about this for a couple days, and researching for many hours, I believe this is correct. Please comment if you want to chat more about any of this. If anyone from one of these three religions would like to post, or from any other Christian religion, I would really appreciate it!
"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in
unity!"
-Psalms 133:1
May the blessing of the Lord be upon you!
Your sister in Christ,
Emily
3 comments
I really love all of the work and research that has gone into this. So many resources seem to not go into enough detail about the differences, or they are so confusing it is hard to figure anything out. I am curious about the verse you picked and why you picked it? An interesting thing to note also is that although Lutheran and Methodists only have two sacraments, the other sacraments are still there for the most part, they just are not considered sacraments. (There are some differences in how exactly they are done). This is kind of off topic, but it would be nice if you maybe went into more detail about Mary sometime. How is Mary viewed, when and how is she honored, and so on.
Hey, thanks for commenting! I picked this verse because we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, so despite all the differences, we are unified. I can write another thing about Mary if you would like.
That is what I was thinking, but I wasn\'t sure! Nice verse! It would be nice if you wrote a little bit more about Mary sometime. As long as I am talking about things that it would be nice to hear a little more about, I thought I would throw a couple more topics out there. First of all, what about purgatory? I have heard a couple different views on that expressed, so I am just curious! Another thing, could you maybe go over some FICTIONAL books that are out there! I know there are a couple, such as the left behind series, and Angels and Daemons and The Da Vinci Code in particular, and I am sure there are others that could use some clarification to some as there are several people who have some interesting views on those. Another idea is if you could go over the sacrament of baptism and the rules for that. Some ideas for that include what, if any, baptisms from Churches other than Catholic does the Catholic church accept. I am sure there are other topics I will think of as time goes on. I think I know a fair amount about a lot of these, but I am always willing to learn a little bit more about them and I am sure others would as well!