The difference between a Protestant and a Roman Catholic

What is the real difference between a Protestant and a Roman Catholic? There are good people on both sides of that divide, and we show respect to all; the question we ask is, What is the basic difference between the two principles that account for their existence? It is two different views of Christ Himself. The Protestant believes that because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, therefore Christ is still present on earth with His church; His presence is manifested through a Vicar appointed to be His representative on earth, and that Vicar by His own appointment is the Holy Spirit given to every true believer. "I will not leave you orphans," Christ said, "I will come to you," and He was speaking of the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:16-18). In contrast, the Roman Catholic sincerely believes that a man, a fallible human being who must ask forgiveness like anybody else, is the Vicar of Christ. Between those two ideas, as far apart as the east is from the west, a vast amount of history has transpired, and great will be the future conflicts. Now, if one truly believes that the Holy Spirit is the Vicar of Christ, will not he/she be submissive to Him? So, as each new day arrives, you and I will decide anew whether we are Roman Catholic or Protestant. Jesus Himself had to make the same decision each new morning: He says, "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back" (Isa 53:4, 5). Do you respond to the Holy Spirit each new morning, or do you "turn away rebellious"? You can't respond "morning by morning" unless you respond to Him each new evening, for "the evening and the morning" constitute each new day (Gen 1:5). Because God loves us, He sends the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, to prompt us to turn off the silly TV, to use our evening hour more usefully, to be taught "as the learned," to be sensitive to Heaven's constant e-mail, to fulfill the prayer Jesus taught us, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Through that evening by evening, morning by morning conviction you have fresh evidence that God loves you. Listen! Respond!

Have you been blessed?