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Or at least that was what I was taught, along with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, as comprising the three major branches of Christian church. Okay I do admit to knowing nothing about the Assyrian and Oriental Orthodoxies, but I think those are small, e.g. the Assyrians number less than half a million.
Anyway this CNN story includes a breakdown of the Philippines population by religion which leads the reader, taking things on face value, as thinking Catholicism and the rest of Christianity are exclusive. I'm well aware of the differences in theology between your average Baptist and Pope Francis, but I don't see any grounds for presenting them as separate religions. Now I could see the second category presented as "other Christian" and have no problem with it.
think that you're looking at an "artifact" or cultural peculiarity of apparently how someone in a (nominally) majority Catholic country (the Philippines) views statistics of the religious views of some of it's citizens and NOT necessarily how the Catholic Church either there or anywhere else itself sees things, would think that even the folks who made up the chart don't actually believe that non-Catholics are not Christians or for that matter that Catholics are not Christians, either. IOW, they just as likely really mean "other Christian" as you suggested despite what the literal wording of the article might SEEM to imply.
of course (and sad to say, IMHO) there are folks in the "other Christian" or however you might call them category and affiliation who are seemingly quite willing to believe that Catholics are definitely NOT Christians for a variety of reasons and in fact say that (at best) Catholics are deeply sunk in grievous error and "pagan" blasphemy in faith and practice repugnant to God.
may God bring us all to faith, hope, and love with other Christians regardless of affiliation or name and may we all show the love our common Christian faith and baptism calls us to share with EVERYONE.
Christian who do not see other churches as Christians is usually spiritual pride , as Christianity there are some church of the same kind who believe and are blessed by God and their brothers in the church of the same doctrine can have very few believers , as tolerances levels can be different even with the same kind churches ........I see all of these kinds have Jesus Christ in their authority for salvation of the masses of people
Or at least that was what I was taught, along with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, as comprising the three major branches of Christian church. Okay I do admit to knowing nothing about the Assyrian and Oriental Orthodoxies, but I think those are small, e.g. the Assyrians number less than half a million.
Anyway this CNN story includes a breakdown of the Philippines population by religion which leads the reader, taking things on face value, as thinking Catholicism and the rest of Christianity are exclusive. I'm well aware of the differences in theology between your average Baptist and Pope Francis, but I don't see any grounds for presenting them as separate religions. Now I could see the second category presented as "other Christian" and have no problem with it.
Edit: I don't have a dog in this race as I'm neither, but I do think it is important to know how religion works.
It is a bit more than that, if you keep Sunday as your Sabbath and you keep Easter and Christmas with all it's traditions and rituals then your authority IS the Catholic church whether you be protestant any other form of Christianity that authorizes Catholic law and their authority by observing what is wholly Catholic. If you follow what is wholly Catholic meaning that your entire worship system is founded in wholly Catholic law separated from the law of God in it's two different worship systems, then you are a Catholic in my eyes. It wouldn't matter if you said Protestant or Catholic because both are Catholic and Protestants who follow what is wholly Catholic prove that their authority is the Catholic church. I always laugh if I hear somebody speaking bad of the Catholic church knowing that they follow Catholic law and tradition.
Or at least that was what I was taught, along with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, as comprising the three major branches of Christian church. Okay I do admit to knowing nothing about the Assyrian and Oriental Orthodoxies, but I think those are small, e.g. the Assyrians number less than half a million.
Anyway this CNN story includes a breakdown of the Philippines population by religion which leads the reader, taking things on face value, as thinking Catholicism and the rest of Christianity are exclusive. I'm well aware of the differences in theology between your average Baptist and Pope Francis, but I don't see any grounds for presenting them as separate religions. Now I could see the second category presented as "other Christian" and have no problem with it.
Edit: I don't have a dog in this race as I'm neither, but I do think it is important to know how religion works.
The Philippines is a special case different from the European and thus the American Protestant/Catholic split. It would be as if the Catholic Church was dominant in America and the Mormons (LDS) of Jehovah Witnesses (JW) came to outnumber all the Protestant sects added together. Only in the case of the Philippines the homegrown other Christian Church is the Ingelsia Ni Cristo (INC) and their offshoots. In the cases of INC, JWs or LDS the official designation the Catholic church gives to those is other Christian groups is "cults" because of their concept of rejecting the Holy Trinity along with some other theological things while calling themselves Christian. It is not that they expect the sect's leader to order the drinking of poisoned Kool-aid which is the general definition that the secular culture uses for "cults".
So because of that official Church designation and that the others in the Philippines are for the most part not Protestant or Orthodox, so not Christian communities in full communion according to Catholic leadership it is more polite to speak in terms of other Christian rather than the Holy Church, Islam and cults in the Philippines.
Someone managed to get it backward. All Christian Churches are Protestant branches of the Catholic Church.
I think CNN just took a feed from the Philippines where the distinguishing terms are Catholic, and non Catholic Christians just shortened to Christian on the street, with Protestants being called Born Again. In the US the story would not have reported with a demographic Catholic versus Protestant split
Or at least that was what I was taught, along with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, as comprising the three major branches of Christian church. Okay I do admit to knowing nothing about the Assyrian and Oriental Orthodoxies, but I think those are small, e.g. the Assyrians number less than half a million.
Anyway this CNN story includes a breakdown of the Philippines population by religion which leads the reader, taking things on face value, as thinking Catholicism and the rest of Christianity are exclusive. I'm well aware of the differences in theology between your average Baptist and Pope Francis, but I don't see any grounds for presenting them as separate religions. Now I could see the second category presented as "other Christian" and have no problem with it.
Edit: I don't have a dog in this race as I'm neither, but I do think it is important to know how religion works.
Catholicism typically thinks of itself as the true church, while the rest of us are simply impostors, or "separated". that's why they did the "Come Home to Rome campaign". They believe they are the only true church with true apostolic succession going back all the way to Peter as the first Pope. Official RCC doctrine is that salvation comes only through Rome.
Having said that, there are also some major theological differences I'd encourage you to research infused vs. imputed righteousness. The RCC teaches infused, Luther and the Reformers taught imputed righteousness.
"Official RCC doctrine is that salvation comes only through Rome"
nope. official RCC doctrine is that salvation ONLY comes through Christ the incarnate Son of God who redeemed mankind through His offering of Himself to the Father for our sins on the Cross and by the pouring forth of His precious blood on that Cross He cleansed all things. Through faith and baptism by water and Holy Spirit and proved by our works/fruits of faith, hope, and love in Christ we may ultimately enjoy and possess the fullness of His redemption.
Catholics believe that the fullness of the Christian faith indeed resides most completely in those individuals and groups in communion with the "church of Rome" whose early representative is the bishop of Rome but whose eternal HEAD is Christ but it is NOT restricted to that body. nevertheless, while there are divisions in Christianity, Catholics believe that despite the sad separations between Christian believers our common baptism in Christ makes us ALL brothers and sisters striving to truly become "one in Christ" with the hope of heaven by the grace of God here and hereafter.
in the peace of Christ our Savior, Lord, and Brother.
Last edited by georgeinbandonoregon; 08-30-2016 at 10:11 AM..
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Catholicism is a branch of the Christian Church
