What would you say are the four or five most important questions that must be asked when examining the claims of the Protestant and Catholic positions?

Here are what I believe some of them would be:

1) Was the office of an infallibe Pope with absolute authority spoken of by Christ or the apostles?

2) Was the Apocrypha considered scripture by Christ and the apostles?

3) Were the believers to accept anything that the leaders of the church taught, or were they to examine teachings in light of scripture?

4) What was the state of the church on the eve of the Reformation? Did it have Christ and his followers in mind, or was it a self serving, corrupt bureaucracy? Does having "competition" from the Protestant (and Orthodox) churches help keep the Catholic church on course, or are we worse off since the Reformation? (I do realize that the RC/O split isn't part of the reformation.)

What do you think the four or five most important questions are? I'm not going to debate any of the questions. I'm just trying to decide which books to include in my reading list for the next year or so.

Thanks!

Rob

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Originally Posted by rhadsen

What would you say are the four or five most important questions that must be asked when examining the claims of the Protestant and Catholic positions?

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Dear Rob : why should there be anything to be asked or said ?
In my views these differences are totally irrelevant. You believe what you prefer, and others believe what they prefer.
If you are a Protestant than enjoy your Protestantism.
And if you are a Catholic than enjoy your Catholicism.
You are all Christian brothers and sisters - although with reading the posts by so many of you I doubt the validity of their Christianity...

;) :) :p :D :rolleyes: ;)

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Is it a new trend, to crap on the catholics? Christians are so fragmented and divisive.

It's not a new trend. In fact some nursery rhymes talk about killing catholics.

Goosey Goosey Gander, whither shall I wander?
Upstairs and downstairs and in my Lady's chamber.
There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers,
So I took him by his left leg and threw him down the stairs.

In 16th century Europe. There was a reward for any Protestant that would kill a Catholic priest. Hence the nursery rhyme. The old man who wouldn't pray is a Catholic priest because he would only know his prayers in Latin and a common way of killing these men was to tie their legs together and throw them down the stair hence the last line.

So this is nothing new and in fact they have gotten significantly more civilised about it.

I see this thread as only another bashing thread, Closed