Christianity and Baptist Religion

The Baptist faith believes in the precepts of Trinity, Heaven, and Hell. Surprisingly Mary does not have a special place in the Baptist religion. They don't teach the assumption of Mary because Mary is seen as just Jesus' mother. As for the belief in Saints, they really don't designate saints because they believe that we all have been saved and we are all God's messengers. Unlike Christianity, Baptists don't have bishops or Cardinals. The Baptist religion has a much more loose structure than the Catholic faith.
There are also five pillars of understanding in the Baptist religion. These five pillars are tracing the history of God, the belief in the never ending kingdom of God, the gospels of Matthew and Mark, the revelation of Paul's gospel, and the gospels of Luke and John. They also believe that held four titles. Son of Man, Son of God, Son of Abraham, and Son of David.
I asked Byron what a person in the Baptist faith must do to make their journey to heaven. He responded by saying "Confess with your mouth, believe in your heart that Jesus died for you, and show love and compassion." Also one must be baptized and receive communion. Byron added, "We are born sinners and are saved by God."
The Sacraments that they have are Fruit of the Vine and Bread, which are grape juice and ceremonial bread. In the Baptist religion they have interfaith communion, where anyone can receive it. To the Baptists the sacrament of communion is more symbolic than what Catholics believe it to be. I found it interesting marriage and confession are not sacraments in there faith.
The Baptists don't have a set version of the bible, but usually they use the King James or the New King James version. Sometimes they do use the Catholic bible.
The format of a Baptist Sunday service consists of the choir, devotion (psalms, scripture, message, prayer, song), responsive readings, congregational prayer, choir, sermon, and invitation to join the church, offering, and then special announcements. Each month a different part of the church is in charge of the prayer service.
They receive communion by the Priest and Eucharistic ministers taking it down to the isles and distributing it. Communion is distributed to "everyone who is saved." As stated before the body and blood of Christ is very symbolic to the Baptists.
In order to become a Minister in the Baptist church you must go through meetings with the Pastor. Then you do a trial sermon at a mass and then go on from there. Their encouraged to take theology classes. It took Byron two years to become a Deacon. He also has a teaching certificate. His duties s a Deacon are distributing communion, helping the church community, and taking part in the devotion in mass. Deacons preach sermons, but are confined to assisting the Pastor in baptism and distributing communion. Deacons are reaffirmed each year. The Deacon can decide whether or not he or she wants to remain a Deacon.
The commonalities and differences that I discovered in the interview were that the Sacraments are different than the Sacraments in the Catholic faith. There are seven sacraments in the Catholic Church. They are baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, extreme unction (anointing the sick), Holy orders, and marriage. In the Baptist faith the only sacraments that are recognized are baptism and the Eucharist.
Another difference that I found interesting in this interview was that the Baptist's view Mary as just Jesus' mother. Christians also believe she is the Mother of God, but she plays symbolic roles in the Catholic religion. She is seen as the Protectess of all humanity. Most importantly she is viewed as the immaculate virgin. According to the gospels of Matthew and Luke, she conceived Jesus by heavenly intervention rather than human biology. Mary is appealed to in prayer and is honored in paintings, statues, and shrines. In my faith, which is Christianity, we honor her in the "Hail Mary" prayer.
In the Catholic faith, we honor spiritual heroes as saints. These people who we recognize are so holy and have so much faith, that they dedicated their life to Christ. On the other hand, the Baptists do not really designate saints because they believe we all have been saved.