What are the main differences between Catholic and Protestant beliefs?

protestant churchs are more plain but catholics churches are more colorful and eye catching they are both christian

Roman Catholic Answer

The Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in the first century to bring God to the people and the people to God. The Protestant "churches" were founded by individuals sixteenth centuries after Christ according to their own personal beliefs.

Catholics believe that God the Son became incarnate in a human body through the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary to save mankind from their sins. He established His Church and appointed Apostles (Bishops) and Peter (Pope) to guide that Church on earth and He guaranteed to be with It until the end of time. Catholics believe that you only have one choice in life: to love and serve the Lord, or to reject Him and be separated from Him forever in Hell. Every other choice you have in life comes down to that, is this following Jesus or rejecting Him.

Protestants reject Christ because they reject His Body: the Church. They believe that they are their own little Pope and that they can decide how to follow Jesus themselves. Thus they fragment into many "denominations" as they decide how they want to follow God, ignoring what He, Himself has said, and interpreting for themselves what is right or wrong. Thus they believe that they have more choices than following God or not, they believe that they have the choice to decide HOW they are going to follow God.
the difference between them are: 1.catholics believe in the Motherhood of Mary, which the protestant dont 2. catholic believe in the presence of Christ in the blessed sacrament, which the protestants dont


ANSWER: Ultimately the number of differences are too numerous to recited. Re: the above, I would clarify as follow:

1. Many (though not all) non-Catholic christians/Protestants would accept the motherhood of Mary but would have difficulty understanding/accepting that Mary is the Mother of God. Theologically, that is because Jesus is God (protestants believe this) and that Jesus was fully human and fully divine (most protestants believe this) and THEREFORE Mary is the Mother of God b/c Our Lord had no "parts." Mary was therefore not merely the mother of the HUMAN PART of Jesus b/c he was, in fact, 100% human and 100% divine at the same time -- He had NO "parts." A divine mystery and matter of faith.

2. Several Protestant denominations believe that Jesus is "present" in Holy Communion (i.e., the Lutherans) But they differ as to HOW -- transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation. Most, other than the Orthodox, to not believe in Transubstantiation which means that the bread and wine, literally, become the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ even though the APPEARANCE of bread & wine remain. Consubstantiatioists would say that Our Lord CO-EXISTS with the bread & wine. It may sound like not a big difference but it actually is theologically. Catholics reject that Our Lord "co-exists" with objects. The bread and wine IS changed, really, even though we can't see it. ANALOGY: If I expose a piece of bread to radiation, it IS radioactive but it won't look any different nor will it taste any different . . .but oh boy is it different! ;-)

3. Most Protestants consider communion merely symbolic. Their focus is on the 'REMEMBRANCE" part of Scripture (Last Supper) instead of on the "DO THIS" part. Catholics DO IT -- CHANGE IT literally (even though we see no change). We're not merely remembering/commemorating the Last Supper. We are re-creating the Last Supper and the SAME Last Supper that occurred 2000 years ago in the upper room. We are partaking in the SAME Eucharist that the Apostles did. Difficult to understand. Takes faith but the biblical and historical evidence shows that this is how the early church understood the Eucharist too.