Catholicism is the joining of churches internationally under the leadership of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, who holds the following key beliefs:

• Jesus died for our sins and rose on the third day
• The Trinity
• That scripture is the infallible word of God
• That God is the creator of the universe
• That Mary is the Mother of God, the perpetual virgin, and never sinned (immaculate conception).
• That when one dies, they either go to Hell, Heaven, or Purgatory
• That individuals who want to go to Heaven or Purgatory must complete certain sacraments of the Church
• That confession of sin can absolve sin by either being truly and absolutely repentant or by confession by a priest
• That venerated saints, with Mary being the highest, can be prayed to and intercede on behalf of those who pray to them
• That Church teachings, such as councils and certain statements of the Pope, hold the same authority as the Scriptures
• The Church also maintains that the Apocrypha is apart of the official Canon of Scripture.

Protestant Christianity was a reform movement that led to a separation from the Catholic Church, beginning with Martin Luther's nailing of the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church in Germany in 1517.

These rebukes of the Catholic Church were intended not to divide but to reform it. However, the rebukes challenged too much of the Catholic Church and proved irreconcilable with it. The Catholic church in 1521 excommunicated Luther, removing him from fellowship, which carried the weight of going to Hell in Catholic teaching.

It was Catholic practice to celebrate Mass in Latin and to keep the Bible translated only into Latin, a dead language at the time. Once excommunicated, Luther began translating the Bible into German so that common, literate people in Germany could read it.

As time passes, more European countries that had historically been Catholic break from the Catholic Church: England becomes Anglican, primarily for monarchical reasons rather than for the rise of Protestantism; Sweden, Germany, and other countries break off from the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church, in response, convenes the Council of Trent to address the Reformation and issues decisions to combat Protestantism. These decisions include:

• Canonizing the Apocrypha: a commonly read compilation of books that had always been held in high esteem by Christians but were not officially canonized until then. Attempts by the church to canonize date back to 393 AD.
• Tradition, common teachings of the church throughout history, held the same authority as the Bible.
• Condemnation for anyone who claims that salvation is achieved by faith alone without the completion of the sacraments.
• CANON IX.-If anyone saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema. (anathema means excommunication)

This marked a significant step in the Catholic Church's Counter-Reformation to combat the growing Protestant movement. The Catholic church also founded the Jesuits and utilized the Inquisition to persecute protestants.

It is worth noting that both sides did persecute the other, with the Catholic Church handing out a greater number of death sentences recorded. The death toll is unknown due to the reformation being a series of events that included multiple wars that were both religious and political, wars causing famine and sickness, with the estimated death toll over 200 years being somewhere between 7 and 17 million.

Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ. She is the virgin that the angel Gabriel declared to be favored amongst women that God impregnated in the womb, without sex. She raised Jesus and joined him frequently in his ministry.

The claim of the catholic church is that:

• Mary is the highest venerated saint
• She is the Immaculate Conception; born sinless and never sinned
• remained a virgin throughout her life
• and was assumed into Heaven at the end of her life

While the Catholic Church's position is that she is not worshipped, it does hold that she is to be highly honored.

The Catholic Church also draws parallels between Mary and the ark of the covenant, specifically that she bears God within her, as the Ark did. There are several typological parallels: David jumping for joy and John the Baptist; the 3 months spent in the countryside with Elizabeth, as in the 3 months with Obed-Edom. These typological parallels stop at the typological level, as no one dies when Mary is touched, and a procession of Levitical priests does not transport her.

The claim that Mary never had any children is not supported by scripture:

• "Is this not the carpenter’s son? Isn't His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?" Matthew 13:55
• "His brothers therefore said to Him, 'Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing" John 7:3
• "But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother." James 1:19

The scripture makes multiple references to the brothers of Jesus; many Catholics would retort by saying this could mean cousins, but this language is never applied to a confirmed cousin, John the Baptist.

The Bible also only states that Jesus is sinless and all others born of Adam are inherently sinful.

The book of Acts, which recounts the history of the early church, mentions Mary only in the first chapter, noting that she was in prayer. No other reference to Mary is made in the remainder of the Old Testament.

The elevation that the present Catholic Church has of Mary is not evidenced by scripture, but is instead wholly propped up by their belief that the traditions that they dictate as being equal to the scripture at the conclusion of the Council of Trent.

A common belief in the Catholic Church is that you can call upon venerated saints to intercede for you before Christ on various matters, and that Christ listens more closely to the venerated saints than the non-venerated saints.

The difficulty is that there is no New Testament example of the church praying to the saints, even though they would have been available to them, as James was an early martyr to the church, or to any of the Old Testament saints.

Whenever prayer is described in the New Testament, we see a direct connection to God through the God the Son, Jesus. Catholicism claims that Jesus is more apt to listen to others, such as his mother, more than us, or if we ask others to pray in church, why wouldn't we ask those in heaven? Simply put, the reason is that the Bible discusses praying with one another (James 5), and we never see the saints in Heaven listening to prayers; instead, when we pray, we appear before the throne of Grace (Hebrews 4), where God resides. The Bible says that God listens to the prayers of the righteous and that the fervent prayers of a righteous person availeth much (James 5), but it makes no mention of saintly prayer. The earliest reference we have to a saint's prayer dates to 200 years after Paul's letters, most likely between 230 and 270 AD, and includes a written prayer in the name of St. Titus.

The hierarchy of Bishops leading up to the first and foremost Bishop, the Bishop of Rome, the believed office of Peter, who the Catholic Church holds as the first pope. The Pope is charged with guiding the global church; the Pope has authority on discerning doctrine similar to a church council would, and has the final authority on matters within the church.

The Pope is not sinless and can only be deemed speaking an infallible truth when he speaks Ex Cathedra, when he says a doctrine to the universal church. The most recent Ex Cathedra statement Catholics believe to be Ex Cathedra is from the 1950s, when Pope Pius declared that Mary was assumed into Heaven.

The belief that Rome is the final authority stems from the understanding that both Peter and Paul ministered and died in Rome. Rome was also the center of political power during the Early church period. In later centuries, it lacked formal political leadership, allowing the fledgling papal office to gain political authority in the city. This eventually led to a great deal of international political power as the Pope commanded armies, and the kings of nations submitted to the Pope as the head religious authority. The most excellent exercise of the Pope's political power occurred during the crowning of Charlemagne on December 25, 800 AD, when the Holy Roman Empire was founded.

The Pope often comes into conflict with various church councils and has times when they openly state or approve incorrect doctrine, such as during the Arian Controversy with Pope Liberius. The Catholic defense is that the Popes in these situations were not speaking Ex Cathedra, which becomes a cherry-picked selection of when and when not to trust in Papal Infallibility, which was only established in the mid-1800s with Vatican 1.

Sacraments are said to be outward expressions of grace by a believer that God uses to sanctify them, yet these sacraments are not all consistent with scripture in their practice.

1. Baptism- the practice of baptizing children to cleanse them from original sin, allowing them to go to Purgatory when they die, yet in all of the Bible, every single person that is baptized makes the decision themselves and repents, something babies are not capable of doing.
2. Confirmation- when someone in the church gets old enough, usually 16, they must be trained in the scriptures, typically through classes, serve the church ministry, attend confession, and other activities to join the church. Once this is completed, the individual is anointed by the local priest, and the Holy Spirit is sealed upon them, and they are a member of the Church. The belief that the Church assigns and seals the Holy Spirit is effectively a heresy, as it directly contradicts Scripture, as God sends and seals the Holy Spirit, not us.
3. Partaking of the Eucharist- During the Last Supper of Christ before the crucifixion, Christ instituted communion, also known as the Eucharist (Eucharist being Greek for thanksgiving) in the Catholic Church. Christ declared that in partaking of this rite, you would be eating his flesh and his blood; these were metaphors of salvation, as we are saved by the sacrifice of his life, giving up his flesh and blood. The Catholic Church teaches that when the priest blesses the bread and wine for the Eucharist, they become the literal flesh and blood of Christ. However, they do not physically change; they are still believed to have been literally changed into the flesh and blood of Christ, and Christ is crucified again. Yet scripture holds that Christ was only crucified once for our sins, and when he spoke of the bread and wine being flesh and blood, he was speaking metaphorically.
4. Confession- The sacrament of confession involves confessing your sins to a priest and completing the penance as instructed by the Priest, or repenting in prayer to God. Still, you must do it in perfect repentance, which few can do; you can only be certain of forgiveness if you confess before a priest. Now, when it comes to repenting of sin, it is a good idea to confess to another and bring it to light; otherwise, hidden sin tends to grow and consume. However, the dispensation of grace can only come from God; the idea that the church can dispense grace is not reflected in scripture. The Catholic Church uses John 20 out of context to claim this authority. What is the correct view of Forgiveness in John 20:22-23 
5. Anointing of the Sick- this is when a priest would anoint a sick person, those specifically at the point of death, with oil, and they are united to Christ in his sufferings, they receive confession if unable to communicate, and receive spiritual peace. This is taken from James 5, which states that those who are sick should call for the elders of the church to pray for them and anoint their heads with oil, so that God may heal, and if the sickness is caused by sin, that the sick person repent and be forgiven.
6. Holy Orders- this is for those who take upon the role of either deacon, priest, or bishop. They receive a special grace for their service to the church.
7. Matrimony- the sacrament of marriage.

The Catholic Church holds that the Scriptures, traditions of the Church, Ecumenical Councils, and the Papacy have equal weight in Authority.

This is the key difference between Protestants and Catholics: Mariology, prayer to Angels, asking for intercession from Saints in Heaven, Purgatory, Papacy, indulgences, and other key Catholic doctrines are not found in the Old or New Testament, but rather in Church Councils and the Apocrypha.

The Apocrypha is a collection of extrabiblical books that have been held in high esteem throughout church history but not included in the canon of the Old Testament.

These books were not accepted by the Jewish people, who were entrusted with the care of the Old Testament while Israel existed; there are no direct quotations from any of these books in the New Testament. No church council officially canonized these books until the Council of Trent in 1546, though several regional councils approved the Apocrypha. In Catholic theology, recognition as authoritative requires an ecumenical council representing the worldwide church.

The Apocrypha are valuable books that should be esteemed among Christians, but do not carry the weight of inspired scripture. The Catholic Church claimed this only in response to the Protestant Reformation to defend certain Catholic beliefs that could not be found in Scripture, such as Purgatory.

Purgatory is the belief that, before one goes to Heaven after death, as long as they are saved by the grace of Christ, a final purification must occur in Purgatory. There is no description as to what Purgatory looks like other than punishment for sin on Earth.

The Catholic Church holds that it is the responsibility of the Church still living to pray for the saints in Purgatory and intercede on their behalf before Christ.

There are no references to this location in the New Testament or the Old Testament. There is a short reference in the Apocrypha, in 2 Maccabees, to praying for the dead, which is why the Catholic Church has embraced the Apocrypha to defend the belief in Purgatory.

Purgatory itself has granted a great deal of power to the Catholic Church, as both Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians do not embrace this belief. It has allotted the Catholic Church a great deal of donations, as the Catholic Church maintains that donations to the Church are an act of Penance and can be made for those in Purgatory. This led to the sale of Indulgences by the Church, in which one could pay for oneself or for others to be released from Purgatory to Heaven upon death, a practice approved by the Papacy.

1. Priests weren't always celibate until, in 580 AD, Pope Pelagius declared them to be so.
2. Lending at Interest, Usury, was a sin, and anyone involved was looked down upon.
3. The Church endorsed Capital Punishment, and the Pope even had his own executioner until the 1993 Catechism update that said it should only be used in extreme cases.
4. The Church's use of torture and execution of Heretics, including those in the protestant reformation.
5. The use of Indulgences to buy yourself or someone out of Purgatory into Heaven.
6. The Catholic Church no longer has a standing army or conducts wars.
7. The Catholic Church used to exclusively celebrate Mass in Latin, long after it had become a dead language, even if no one in the congregation understood Latin. Someone could attend every church service their entire life and never learn anything. The Church also retained the Latin Vulgate and persecuted those who translated the Bible into vernacular languages, including William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, and others.

The Catholic Church has changed throughout history, especially since the Protestant Reformation, with many of these changes resulting in the consolidation of power and greater appeal in a world in which the government and church are not jointly administered.

In the Catechism, the Church claims that there is no salvation outside of the Church, so do you need to be united to the Catholic Church to be saved?

No, the gospel, salvation, or the way to heaven, is that Jesus, God himself, came down to the Earth in the flesh, as a man, lived a perfect life, bore our sins on the cross, and rose on the third day from the dead. We are called to repent from our obedience to the world, living in sin, and submit ourselves to God as our savior, and you will be saved!

It is important to recognize that Scripture references both an invisible and a visible church. The invisible church is all those who are saved in Christ across the world, and the visible church is all those who claim to be saved by Christ across the world. The Catholic Church claims that they have perfect overlap between the visible and invisible church and that people can be saved and not be Catholic as long as they desire to be united to the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church has spent centuries undermining Christ and the scripture to place more importance on the church. They pray to saints to mediate, even though Christ is the perfect mediator. They claim Mary is holy and still human, yet Christ's holiness is unique; otherwise, Mary could have died for our sins as the requirement was a perfect fulfillment of the law. They claim that the priests are a representation of Christ on Earth and that they can absolve your sins if confessed, yet Christ is the only one who can truly absolve sins. They give great emphasis to their councils and popes and claim that their words, when finalized, carry the same weight and authority as Christ's!

If you follow the Catholic Church, you will spend your life building a greater devotion to the Catholic Church than you will to Christ.

Belonging to the Catholic Church does not mean you automatically go to Heaven or Hell; there will be Catholics in Heaven, and there will be Catholics in Hell.

The reality is that if you are dependent on the Catholic Church to save you, you will go to Hell; if you are reliant on Christ to save you, you will go to Heaven. Purgatory is not an option available.

Click here for the testimony who found Christ and left the Catholic Church