Catholics, Protestants, and Jews are three major denominations of Christianity among many others. While the pope is the head of the Catholic Church, Protestantism and Judaism refer to Christianity that is not a subject to Papal authority (Neusner, 2001). The Catholic Church and the Church of Christ are the two most commonly found churches in the world when compared to Judaism.
Protestant churches, on the other hand, are further subdivided into thousands of denominations. Each denomination has its own name. The Catholic Church has never split further to come up with different denominations, but rather has remained a universal church, the same can be told about Judaism (Neusner, 2001). This paper provides a comparison between the Catholic Church, Protestant Church, and Jewish prayer service with regard to their basic beliefs, Bibles used and communion beliefs they observe, including important holidays they practice.
Catholics are the first Christians who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Catholicism shares a number of beliefs that are also shared by Judaism and protestant. Essentially, Catholics believe that salvation and eternal life is God’s will for all people. For an individual to obtain salvation, he or she must first believe that Jesus is the Son of God. On the other hand, Protestants believe that Jesus Christ is the savior and Messiah (Wheeler, 2006).
Nearly all Protestants believe in eternal life after death (Wheeler, 2006). According to to0 Neusner (2001), “the central belief of Judaism is that people of all religions are children of God”. They also believe that all human beings are equal. The main responsibility and moral duty of Jews are to follow the Law of God and to certify His presence. The comparative analysis reveals that both denominations believe in the Messiah as the Savior.
According to Neusner (2001), the use of statues and pictures are commonly used by Catholics and are not allowed in Protestant churches and Judaism Christianity because it is considered to be the idolatry. These statues and pictures are not even allowed in Jewish and Protestant places of worship, and they are hardly ever used for many purposes. A common thing for all three religions, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism, is that they all preach life after death. They believe that once they will be reunited with their departed Christians, including their first prophets.
The Catholic Church, the Church of Christ, and Jewish Church all have Holy Scriptures to record their teachings. The Catholics use the Holy Bible in particularly Douay Version. The Protestants, on the other hand, use the Holy Bible, which has a collection of canonical books presented in two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Jews use the Jewish Bible also referred to as Tanakh or Torah. The similarity about these holy books is that the same writers wrote them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit while writing. Catholics have additional books, for example, the famous hymn books, prayer books among others. The Jewish Bible and the Holy Bible which are used by both Catholics and Protestants have the same teachings and laws as recorded by earlier writers.
The Catholics believe that God they worship is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. In addition, they believe that God is holy and a loving creator of the universe (Wheeler, 2006). The Protestants, on the other hand, believe that God is the sole creator of all things. They believe that God existed before and will exist forever. Similarly, Protestants believe that God transcends life and death. Jews, on the other hand, believe in God as the creator of the universe and all that is on it. The three religions acknowledge that God created World in six days and on the seventh day God rested. The seventh day is called Sunday as their Sabbath day.
Sunday is the Lord’s Day according to Catholics, Protestants, and Jewish believers. The three religions also have a number of special days dedicated to their worship practices which are different from each other. The Catholics celebrate Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas, and Saints’ Feast Days day as special days dedicated to their Lord.
The Protestants observe Sundays their Lord’s Day, as well as Good Friday, Easter, Christmas and New Year as Lord’s Day. Jews believe in quite a number of days dedicated to their Messiah. These days include Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Chanukah, Tu BiShvat, Purim, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Passover, Lag BaOmer, and Shavout (Federow, 2012).
They also have holidays given by God in the Torah. Catholics believe that worship is a continual process in the lives of Christians and they can take any day as a day of worship. Jews believe that every day is the worship day, and every day corresponds to agricultural seasons in Israel and the prayers explicitly mentioned this in Torah (Federow, 2012).
In conclusion, Catholics, Jews, and Protestants believe in the same God who is the creator of the universe. They believe in praying and use of the Holy Scripture to get their religious teachings and laws. They all live to please their Lord as well as hope to have eternal life. The only difference between the three branches of Christianity is that they look at each other as pagans.
References
Chilton, B. et al. (1999). Types of Authority in Formative Christianity and Judaism. New York: Routledge.
Federow, R. (2012). Judaism and Christianity: A Contrast. Bloomington: iUniverse.
Neusner, J. (2001). Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition. New York: Global Academic Publishing.
Wheeler, M. (2006). The Old Enemies: Catholic and Protestant in Nineteenth-Century English Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.