What are the differences between Catholics and Protestants?
Christians who follow Rome and those who came out of it at the Reformation share the same Bible and the same Lord, yet they divide over two questions: who has the final word, and how a sinner is put right with God. The writers below treat those two questions as the root, and the visible differences — the Mass, confession, purgatory, prayers to Mary — as the fruit.
Where Final Authority Sits
The first split is over the source of truth, and it runs through several linked claims about the Bible, the pope, and who may interpret.
Fritz RidenourCatholics claim that Scripture and "Sacred Tradition" are equal in authority. Protestants say the Bible is the sole guide for faith and practice (see 2 Tim. 3:16,17; 1 John 5:13). Rome says the magisterium (the teaching authority of the Roman Church) has been entrusted to interpret the Bible for Catholics, who are not to interpret it for themselves. Protestants say that individual Christians can trust the Holy Spirit for guidance as they read and interpret the Bible for themselves… Catholics teach that the pope is infallible when he speaks "ex cathedra" (literally "from the chair," or with authority) on matters of faith and morals; Protestants reply that no human being is infallible, and only Christ is head of the Church (see Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18).
One writer presses that the argument is not really about who owns a book, but about whether God may speak to a person without a middleman.
The Christian's FriendIn Romanism the authority of the Church admittedly comes before the authority of the word, and the saints are not all of them allowed to be the direct objects of God's own word, or to act on it — that is, to be subject to it. They are to be subject to the Church… For this is the true question of Protestantism: not merely man's right to the Bible, but God's right to address man directly by His word.
How a Sinner Is Justified
The second split concerns whether being declared righteous is finished or ongoing. One writer tests Rome by the answers the apostles gave to that exact question.
William KellyFirst, does Romanism proclaim, as the apostle Peter did, the remission of sins through Christ's name to everyone who believes in Him (Acts 10:43)?… To the cry "What must I do to be saved?" do they answer with Paul and Silas, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:30-31)? The Council of Trent (Session 6, chapter 9) cancels this simple and certain word of truth, the gospel of our salvation; and in Canon 9 it condemns anyone who says that the ungodly man is justified by faith alone. They are therefore false witnesses and opponents of the faith. They confuse justification with practical sanctification, which destroys it.
Both sides value good works — the disagreement is about where works stand in relation to being justified.
Fritz RidenourEvangelical Protestants believe they are fully justified through faith in Christ, and that this naturally leads to the fruit of good works as they grow in the Christian life, as God has planned for them to do (see Eph. 2:8-10). Catholics, however, do not believe that faith alone provides justification, but that they must work for justification all their lives. Catholics, in effect, blend justification and sanctification together as one process.
Assurance Or Uncertainty
That difference decides whether a believer can know where he stands.
Numerical Bible NotesSuppose men are born again in baptism and sustained by the body of Christ in the sacrament of the Supper; suppose they have priestly absolution and the intercession of saints and angels, and of Mary… yet after all, at best there is a long purgation to be completed before heaven is reached, and distressing uncertainty. The Reformation, on the other hand, with its announcement of the scriptural truth of justification by faith, made it possible and right for every poor sinner turning to God to find his name in the book of life.
The Mass
The sharpest practical difference is what happens at the altar, and one writer frames it as a question that can only be answered one way.
J. N. DarbyDoes Christ bear sins in the Roman Catholic Mass? If not, it is a new way of getting forgiveness, which sets aside the deeply gracious but humbling way God has worked out salvation for us — the dreadful but infinitely precious sufferings of His own Son. If Christ does suffer in the Mass, then He is not glorified at the right hand of God. True Christianity and the doctrine of the Mass cannot go together.
Mary And The Saints
Rome grants Christ's mediation in principle; the objection is to adding anyone alongside Him.
William KellyAs God is one, it is important to notice the unity of the Mediator. Here the Catholic system — and not Rome only, though Rome most — has sinned against the truth… It is not only that Christ Jesus is Mediator; there is this "one" only. And who asked them to set the departed saints, or the Virgin Mary, in any share of that glory which is Christ's alone?
Neither Label Saves
Having the better position does not, by itself, make anyone a Christian.
Hamilton SmithThere is no vital power in Protestantism as such. Life is found in faith in the living Christ, not in protesting against evil… In a short while, however, great masses of people identified themselves with the Reformation movement, not because they loved the truth, but because they hated Rome.
So the question to settle is personal, not tribal.
A. J. PollockSadly, there are many Protestants and many Catholics who are not Christians… Of course there are true saints in the Protestant and Roman churches, but such people are true Christians, and they go to heaven not because they are Catholics or Protestants, but because they have truly repented of their sins and accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour.
Summary
- Authority first. The dividing line starts with who speaks last — Scripture alone, or Scripture plus tradition read for you by a teaching office.
- Access follows. If the church stands between, God's right to address each person directly by His word is lost.
- Justification decides. Declared righteous by faith, or working toward it lifelong with justification and sanctification merged into one process.
- Assurance is the test. One road ends in a name written in the book of life; the other in purgatory and uncertainty.
- Christ alone at the centre. One sacrifice never repeated, one Mediator never shared — and no label, Catholic or Protestant, saves anyone who has not come to Him.