Differences between The Orthodox and The Catholic Churches

1. Differences between The Orthodox and The Catholic Churches

2. Introduction • In the Creed, which we repeat frequently in our daily prayers, we say “We believe … and in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins, …”.

3. Introduction • Today churches may be classified in one of four major groups: - The Orthodox Church. - The Catholic Church. - The Protestant (Reformation) churches. - The Cults

4. Introduction • The Orthodox Church is unfortunately divided into two major families of Churches known as the Eastern versus the Oriental Orthodox Churches. • The Catholic Church, although it sounds like one universal Church, we find that it contains variety of ethnic churches with differences in the way the faith is expressed, such as the Roman, the Greek, the Coptic, the Maronite Catholic churches, and so on.

5. Introduction • The Protestants, although started as a trial to reform the Catholic Church, it has divided on itself to over 300 denominational and non-denominational churches such as the Lutheran, the Baptist, the Assembly of God, …

6. 451 431 381 325 Oriental Orthodox Church (Coptic, Ethiopian, Antioch, Armenian, Indian,…) 33 1054 Eastern Orthodox Churches (Constantinople, Greece, Russia,…) Pentecost Nicea Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon Chalcedonic Protestants (Lutheran, Baptist,…) Catholics (Rome) Jehovah's Witness Filioque Adventist 1521 Mormons 1538 Reformation Church of England Catholics (Anglican, Episcopal, United,…) Cults Fig. (1): Time Line History of Church Denominations

7. The Catholic Teachings (1) St. Peter is appointed by Jesus as the head for the Church of the New Testament

8. The Catholic Teachings (1) • The Holy Bible does not mention this position for St. Peter. • When the mother of the sons of Zebedee asked our Lord Jesus for her sons to be sitting one at His right and the other at His left, He said to her: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave” (Mt 20: 25-27).

9. The Catholic Teachings (1) • When the disciples had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest, Jesus said to them “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (Mk 9: 35). • When the council of Jerusalem took place (Acts15), St. Peter was not treated as the head of the council. Instead, St. James was the one who made the final decision on the matter.

10. The Catholic Teachings (1) • However, the Catholic Church supports her position by the following points:* When St. Peter confessed that our Lord Jesus is the Son of the Living God, Jesus told him “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And 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.” (Mt 16: 17-19).

11. The Catholic Teachings (1) • We notice here that: 1. Our Lord Jesus blessed St. Peter for his confession of the true faith. 2. Building the Church on this rock means on this faith, and when St. Peter deviated in his words right after this confession, our Lord Jesus called him “Satan” (Mt 16: 23). 3. This authority was given also to all the disciples (Mt 18: 18).

12. The Catholic Teachings (1) • Our Lord Jesus said to St. Peter “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Lk 22: 31,32). The Catholic Church claims that by these words our Lord Jesus gave St Peter the leadership of the Church.

13. The Catholic Teachings (1) • In fact, our Lord was warning here St. Peter by calling him Simon twice. Our lord Jesus have prayed for St. Peter lest his denial of the Lord which was about to occur may put him in despair and he might kill himself as Judas did. Thus, when our Lord Jesus said “strengthen your brethren” He meant that you Peter will be an example of the fall and repentance.

14. The Catholic Teachings (1) • On the day of the Resurrection, the angel said to the women “But go, tell His disciples, and Peter that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” (Mk 16: 7). • The Catholic Church says by mentioning Peter in particular here, our Lord Jesus means that St. Peter is the head.

15. The Catholic Teachings (1) • In reality, our Lord Jesus here mentions the disciples before St. Peter, as if He wants to assure St. Peter that he is still one of them and not rejected after his denial of the Lord. So, the words give a meaning which is exactly opposite to what the Catholic teachings calls.

16. The Catholic Teachings (1) • Our Lord Jesus said to St. Peter “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these? … Feed My lambs” and this was repeated three times (Jn 21: 15-17). Accordingly, St. Peter must be therefore, the head of the apostles.

17. The Catholic Teachings (1) • Again, the actual meaning here is contrary to the Catholic interpretation. The Lord reminds St. Peter here of his denial three times (that is why St. Peter got upset at the end instead of rejoicing for being appointed head!), and his restoration back to his apostolic position.

18. The Catholic Teachings (2) The Pope of Rome is the head of the Church as a successor of St. Peter

19. The Catholic Teachings (2) • This is against the teaching of Christ as seen from Matthew 20: 25-27. • No matter what title a bishop may claim, he cannot claim the rights of the disciples. • Even if the first bishop of Rome was ordained by the hand of St. Peter, he was ordained to oversee Rome and not the whole world. Other bishops were ordained by other disciples to oversee other places.

20. The Catholic Teachings (2) • St. Peter did not preach in Rome only, but he also preached in Antioch. So why does Rome claim such position and not Antioch? • The book of Acts clearly states that it is St. Paul who must witness in Rome “But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.”” (Acts 23: 11).

21. The Catholic Teachings (3) The Infallibility of the Pope of Rome

22. The Catholic Teachings (3) • Rome itself has been struggling with this dogma over the years. • First, the Pope was absolutely infallible, but the Scripture teaches us that “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3: 10). • Then, they said that he is infallible only when he sits on the see of St. Peter, and • Finally they said he is infallible when he is sitting on the see in official assembly.

23. The Catholic Teachings (4) The “Filioque”

24. The Catholic Teachings (4) • The Nicean creed states that “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the life giver, who proceeds from the father, …” this is based on our Lord Jesus saying “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father” (John 15: 26).

25. The Catholic Teachings (4) • In 856 Pope Benedict III wrote to the Eastern Patriarchs saying that “The heads of the Church of Rome will not accept communion with anyone unless he keeps the creed unchanged as was handed by the Ecumenical Councils who determined that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father, and not from the Son as taught by the sons of corruption”.

26. The Catholic Teachings (4) • However, during the 10th century, Rome started to alter the creed to read “who proceeds from the Father and the Son”. • This led to the division between East and West in 1054. • This change, though it might seems irrelevant for the Father and the Son are One (Jn 10: 30), it has many complications:

27. The Catholic Teachings (4) • There is inequality between the Holy Spirit and the Father since He depends also on the Son to proceed. • If the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit because He is equal to the Father, then the Holy Spirit can give birth to the Son as the Father for He is also equal to the Father. Thus, the distinct role of each of the Hypostasis will vanish, and we can no longer say the Son saved us.

28. The Catholic Teachings (4) • Many of the Fathers of the early Church such as St. Basil and St. John of Damascus talked about this and stressed the fact that the Father alone begotten the Son and proceeds the Holy Spirit.

29. The Catholic Teachings (5) The Purgatory

30. The Catholic Teachings (5) • In the 12th century, the Catholic Church started to teach that since no man leaves the earth without any sin, and that no man will enter heaven carrying any sin, then there must be a place (called Purgatory) where the soul will enter after leaving the flesh to be tortured for some time until it is purified from those sins. The implication of such dogma is that:

31. The Catholic Teachings (5) • It is contrary to the scriptures which never mentioned such place. • It is against the divine justice, for God will be unjust if He tortures the soul without the flesh who participated in committing the sins. • It does undermine the power of salvation of the Lord. His salvation did not pay completely for our sins, and we still have to pay the rest

32. The Catholic Teachings (5) • “…and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1: 7) and • “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood. Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev 5: 9,10).

33. The Catholic Teachings (5) • If anyone needs to go to purgatory, he should be the thief beside the Lord on the cross. • Jesus said to him “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23: 43) • And also the holy book of Revelation says “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”” (Rev 14: 13).

34. The Catholic Teachings (5) • This dogma makes room for a second chance after death. A believer may live sinning knowing that he can pay for his sins later.

35. The Catholic Teachings (6) The Immaculate Conception of St. Mary

36. The Catholic Teachings (6) • Catholics do believe that each child at his conception inherits the mortal nature as well as the original sin. • They refer to the writing of St. Paul “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom 5: 19).

37. The Catholic Teachings (6) • In 1849, the Catholic Church introduced a new dogma that the ever virgin St. Mary cannot carry the Son in her womb and the original sin at the same time. • Therefore, with the exclusion of sin, the state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice, as opposed to original sin, was conferred upon St. Mary.

38. The Catholic Teachings (6) • By which gift, every stain and fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities, essentially pertaining to original sin, were excluded. • According to this definition, we have the following problems:

39. The Catholic Teachings (6) • St. Mary become of no need of salvation, which is contrary to the teaching of the Scripture “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom 5: 12). • If there is another way to save humanity other than the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, then God died on the cross unnecessarily.

40. The Catholic Teachings (6) • God is Just and it would be unjust to grant one person the state of original sanctity, and innocence and not the others.5: 12).