Non-institutional churches of Christ and the Catholic Church disagree profoundly on authority and ecclesiology, yet they also share several instincts that separate both from much of modern evangelical Protestantism.
The question is whether those same convictions, one Church, baptism connected to salvation, obedient faith, and the centrality of the Lord’s Supper, lead even farther back, into the Christianity visible immediately after the apostles.
| Topic | Non-institutional churches of Christ | Catholic Church |
|---|---|---|
| Baptism | Normally teaches baptism as necessary and connected to forgiveness/new life. | Teaches baptismal regeneration and ordinarily requires baptism for Christian initiation. |
| Lord’s Supper | Central weekly act of worship. | The Eucharist is the center of Sunday worship. |
| Faith alone | Rejects salvation by faith alone understood as mental assent without obedient response. | Rejects justification by faith alone when it excludes interior renewal and grace-enabled obedience. |
| Church unity | Strong concern for one Church and restoration of apostolic Christianity. | Strong claim that Christ founded one visible, apostolic Church. |
| Tradition | Typically suspicious of post-apostolic tradition and creeds. | Receives apostolic Tradition together with Scripture as one deposit of faith. |
| Authority | Scripture interpreted within autonomous congregations. | Scripture and apostolic Tradition authentically interpreted by the Church’s teaching office. |
This comparison is intentionally concise. Individual congregations and Catholics may describe some points differently; fuller articles should document each claim with primary sources.