The problems with Catholicism

I am talking from the view of a baptist.
I have read that Catholics blindely obey and listen to "the pope", while they don't read what the Bible says about it. But, they added 7 books to the Bible when it clearly says not to (Proverbs 30:5-6 and Revelation 22:18-19).
The Bible says to read and study it, and to stone false prophets and teachers.
Nowhere in the Bible does it mention having someone like the pope.

> What do you have to say about these things?
> I do not count the added books from Catholics as evidence.

Please, do not spam or type unrelated things in the forum.

As a baptist, you presumably believe in the supremacy of canonical scripture but not all branches of Christianity do so. Another central belief among baptists is freedom of religious expression. Therefore, if people individually or collectively choose to "blindly obey" the pope (note: you have presented no evidence of this) or even have a pope, or deviate from the strict teachings of scripture, are they not just simply exercising their right to freedom of religious expression as championed by baptists?

@BlackBishop9319

The Catholics I know do not "blindly" obey the Pope. That myth is about as true as the Pope being "Christ on Earth," or that there's hidden Gospels locked in the Vatican, or any other such mumbo jumbo that perhaps a maleducated Baptist Preacher might tell his impoverished "flock" but that has no bearing on reality! While it is true that there was a time in the Catholic Church that it was heresy and punishable by death to question the Pope's authority, we must always remain very aware that the Catholic Church for hundreds of years was both a political engine of war and social hierarchy as well as a spiritual center for spreading the Gospel to all corners of the Earth.

Do not forget @BlackBishop9319 that when Constantine founded this Church, we were constantly under the threat of war and insurrection at the hands of all kinds of things like a rebirth of Roman paganism, all kinds of African threats, all kinds of Barbarian threats...it was a CRAZY time to be alive! What we were able to do was not easy and it required absolute unity within our ranks in order to make Christianity the triumphant and victorious religion that we were able to achieve it as. No where in the Gospel does it say to obey the Pope, hence, it is not something followed by Catholics today, but this kind of archaic notion of blind obedience to the Pope was ABSOLUTELY necessary back in the early beginnings of the Church becoming the official religion of Rome.

I am personally Catholic....I've never been around any Catholics who blindly obey the Pope and I've never even heard of such people in our common day and I've served as a Youth Minister and Finance Minister for over 20 years in various Catholic Churches. If that mentality still existed....I would probably know about it!

Nevertheless, as Ecclesiastes once wisely put, "For everything there is a season!" The season of blind obedience and harsh punishments for heresy has come and gone @BlackBishop9319!!

@John_Henry_Bonham
You are correct that I beleive that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion (aka freedom of religious expression).
I am not saying you should be locked in jail for beleiving or blindely trusting someone.

@TheLordOfLight So why do we still have pope? They say they speak to God back and forth.
The old Catholic church was run by the pope in the time of Martin Luther. At that time, the pope was charging people money to have salvation. And Martin wrote 95 reasons why the church was wrong. They were and still are corrupt.

It is better to follow Jesus Christ than opinions and words of men. That is the essence of faith in Jesus, followers of the way or Christians. Take up your cross and follow Him.
Not yourself,
not your family,
not the popular view of the day,
not the religious ideas of the masses/minority,
not your ruler/king/Caesar/bishop/pope/mom/dad

So I find it strange when people try to call themselves Christians but don't follow him, trust him nor give up their will for His. Do you not know that you must be worthy to follow Him?!

@BlackBishop9319 Who exactly today pays for salvation? Do you know those Catholics personally, how does it work?

@AnatolijKasparov
I said "- At that time - , the pope was charging people money to have salvation."
You said "Who exactly today pays for salvation."
I don't know who pays for salvation "today," but that is an example of what the pope was like in 1517.
I'm not sure if you are questioning history books. That isn't really something I can prove happend, but there are overwhelming evidence online you can research.

You finished with "They were and still are corrupt".

correct I did. Still doing it for the money and power.