ARE CATHOLICS CHRISTIAN? – A Guide to Evangelical Questions about the Catholic Church

Are Catholics Christian? Is the Catholic Church a cult? Do Catholics worship Mary? These are common Evangelical questions that Catholics deal with in America’s Bible Belt and elsewhere. Catholics use this book to strengthen their Faith. Evangelicals use this book to learn what Catholics really believe.

Shane Schaetzel, an Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church through Anglicanism, deals with these questions in a compassionate but firm way, having once asked them himself. Here, in the pages of this book, you’ll learn what Catholics really believe about: the Bible, Mary, the Saints, Purgatory, the Sacraments, Salvation and the Church. This book is an excellent resource for Evangelicals seeking answers about the Catholic Church, and Catholics seeking effective ways to answer Evangelical questions. It has also been used in Catholic parishes in the ‘Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults’ (RCIA).

Previously known as “Catholicism for Protestants,” the book was revised, expanded and republished under the new name “Are Catholics Christian?” It’s excellent to give as a gift to an Evangelical friend, or for just brushing up on your own Catholic faith. “Are Catholics Christian?” isn’t just another apologetics book. It helps you see Catholic teaching from an Evangelical perspective, and of course, it explains things in a way Evangelicals can easily understand. Priests and catechists, throughout the United States and Canada, have already used portions of this book in their regular RCIA material, and some simply read portions of the book to their class. It’s highly recommended by priests and catechists alike.

When someone says that he left the Church, or that he does not want to be Catholic, it is important for us to seek to understand why. It is becoming more and more common that those reasons why are based on faulty perspectives and misrepresentations of the Catholic Church. Shane Schaetzel has helped us to overcome this problem. I met Shane before I was even Catholic, and now it is my joy to be his priest (God’s providence is always amazing, is it not?). I am happy to say that he has done a great work to help us spread the truth about the Catholic Church and her teachings. His book, Are Catholics Christian?, takes its place in the work of the growth of the Kingdom of God by clarifying what the Church really does, and does not, say.

Fr. Chori Jonathin Seraiah
St. George Catholic Church
Republic, Missouri

The size of the book is kept down to 8.5″ by 5.5″. This makes the book not much bigger than an adult hand, keeping it easy to store in a purse, bag or backpack. Portability is important. People like to travel with books, and being able to easily pull this book out of some carry-on luggage, while waiting in an airport, or midway through a flight, or riding on a bus, is something readers of this book can easily do. Portability also plays an important role in planting this book with others, such as sharing it with a friend, family member, or passing it on to an acquaintance as a followup to evangelization.

A detailed Table of Contents section is also provided (see photo), making it possible to immediately turn to the page containing the question of interest, rather than having to thumb through a whole chapter searching for it. This book is designed for portability and ease of use. It’s not the kind of book you need to read cover-to-cover, though at under 200 pages, it’s small enough to get through in one evening. Rather, it’s designed so you can skip to whatever page you want, depending on what questions you need answers for. This is the kind of book you can start in the middle, read backwards from end to beginning, or skip around as needed.

TABLE OF CONTENTS…

• FOREWORD by Father Chori Seraiah
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1: GENERAL QUESTIONS
  • Are Catholics Christians?
  • Do Catholics believe in Jesus Christ?
  • What do Catholics mean by the Holy Trinity?
  • Is Catholicism a cult?
  • Do some Catholic practices have Pagan origin?
  • Must a person understand Latin to be a Catholic?
  • Is the Catholic Church opposed to modern science?
  • Why is Catholic worship so organized and structured compared to most Protestant worship?
  • Why is the Catholic Church so rich when so many of its members are poor?
  • Many Christians believe all sins are equal, do Catholics believe this too?
  • What is the Catholic Church’s position on sexual sin?
  • What is the Catholic Church’s position on abortion?
  • What is the Catholic Church’s position on artificial contraception?
  • Are Catholics socialists?
  • Are all Catholics the same?
• CHAPTER 2: SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
  • Why do Catholics call priests “father” when the Bible says “call no man father?”
  • Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest when they could go directly to God?
  • Why can’t Catholic priests be married?
  • Why does the Catholic Church not ordain women?
  • Why do some Catholic women wear head-coverings in church?
  • Are Catholics allowed to divorce?
  • Isn’t an annulment just a Catholic divorce?
  • Why do Catholics and Protestants number the Ten Commandments differently?
  • Why do Catholics use the rosary when the Bible says not to pray in “vain repetitions?”
  • Is the pope the Antichrist?
  • Wasn’t Constantine the first pope?
  • Didn’t Constantine invent the Catholic Church and introduce Pagan beliefs into Christianity at that time?
  • Isn’t the Catholic Church the “Whore of Babylon” from the Book of Revelation?
  • Doesn’t God hate religion, and isn’t Christianity really about having a personal relationship with God?
• CHAPTER 3: THE BIBLE
  • Do Catholics believe in the Bible?
  • Do Catholics read the Bible?
  • Why do Catholic Bibles have more books than Protestant Bibles?
  • Do Catholics follow the Bible alone?
  • Wait! Doesn’t the Bible tell us to follow the Bible alone?
  • Didn’t the medieval Catholic Church chain Bibles to altars, burn vernacular Bible translations and intentionally try to prevent the people from reading the Scriptures by keeping them in Latin?
• CHAPTER 4: MARY AND THE SAINTS
  • Do Catholics worship Mary?
  • If Catholics don’t worship Mary, why do they pray to her?
  • Why pray to Mary and the Saints at all, when you can take your prayers directly to God?
  • How is praying to the Saints not necromancy or witchcraft which is forbidden in the Bible?
  • Why do Catholics have statues of Mary and other Saints?
  • Doesn’t the Bible forbid the use of statues and “graven images?”
  • Why do Catholics believe in the ever virginity of Mary when the Bible talks about the “brothers” of Jesus Christ?
  • Why do Catholics believe Mary was without sin?
  • Do Catholics believe Mary ascended to Heaven like Jesus?
  • Why do Catholics give so much honor to Mary?
• CHAPTER 5: SALVATION
  • Are Catholics “saved” or “born again?”
  • Do Catholics believe in salvation by faith alone?
  • Do Catholics believe in “once saved, always saved?”
  • Why do Catholics baptize babies when they can’t even understand what is going on?
  • Do Catholics believe purgatory is a place between heaven and hell?
  • Do Catholics believe Evangelicals can be saved?
  • Do Catholics believe in the Rapture?
• CHAPTER 6: THE SACRAMENT
  • Do Catholics really believe that communion bread and wine become the literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ?
  • So does this mean that Catholics believe Jesus is re-crucified every time a priest says the Mass?
  • Do Catholics believe Protestant communion is the same as Catholic communion?
  • So then is Protestant communion just symbolic?
  • So if Catholics believe the communion elements are literally the manifestation of Jesus Christ, who is God, does that mean that Catholics worship these communion elements as God?
  • How is the Catholic worship of bread and wine not idolatry?
  • How can this Catholic worship of communion elements be Biblical?
  • How can any reasonable and sane person be expected to believe such absurdity as the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ?
• CHAPTER 7: THE CHURCH
  • Do Catholics really believe the Catholic Church is the one and only Church ever established by Jesus Christ?
  • So do Catholics believe Evangelical churches are illegitimate?
  • How can Catholics say that Peter is the “rock” upon which Jesus built the Church, when clearly the passage used to support this uses two completely different words for “rock?”
  • How can Peter (Cephas) be the “rock” when the Apostle Paul calls Jesus Christ the “rock?”
  • How can Catholics say Peter died in Rome, when there is no Biblical record of Peter ever being in Rome?
  • Maybe Jesus did invest his authority into his Apostles, but does that mean these Apostles could really transfer that authority on to their successors?
  • Why do we need Apostolic successors when we have the Bible?
  • How can the Catholic Church really be the Church Jesus established when there are scandals and corruption?
  • Do Catholics really believe the pope is infallible?
• CONCLUSION
• APPENDIX 1: List of Pontificates
• APPENDIX 2: The Biblical Canon
• RESOURCES

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