No you don't. But you do have the authority given to the Church to make it and other things a requirement.
I saw nothing resembling the Catholic Church there... where did it tell us to pray to Mary? or that any of these Saints can answer a prayer... I thought we only reached God through Jesus, I did see that in there by the way, not through outsourcing.
Where?????
Hogwash. [HTTM: HOGWASH TO THE MAX]
You do not have anything resembling the [Roman] Catholic church in Scripture.
You don't have the forbidding of priests to marry,
nor the veneration of Mary,
nor the mass [some will quibble about that!],
nor infant baptism,
nor the primacy of Rome at all.
You have disciples, some single, some married - as Peter was, sharing with independent churches throughout Israel, Asia Minor, and eventually at Rome, being developed by Apostles and other disciples.
You have baptism by immersion of believer's only- something distinctly Baptist.
You have observance of the Lord's supper - not as another sacrifice for sins, but in rememberance of what the Lord did once for all.
You have no evidence of formal confession to a priest, rather Scripture says confess your sins one to another and pray for one another.
Sorry, on the Scriptural argument Catholicism loses.
INDEED. THAT'S WHY they have to lean so hard on !!!!TRADITION!!!! that they end up doing repeated back flips in adoration of !!!!TRADITION!!!! . . . one sometimes wonders . . . while . . . Christ waits patiently for some 1:1 PERSON TO PERSON dialogue.
That is not a defining characteristic of Catholicism as a whole.
nor the veneration of Mary
Luke 1, Luke 11:27, Rev. 12, John 19:26-27 as well as John 2:1-5 motivate our love for Our Blessed Mother and demonstrate her love for us.
the mass
The last supper contains the key words "this is my body, etc."; that we eat Jesus's real body is also explained in John 6. The instruction to priests to "do it" is in Luke 22:19. The sacramental and sacrifical character of the Mass is in 1 Cor. 11.
infant baptism
Surely not prohibited by the scripture; there are several references to baptizing the entire household in the Acts; the analogy with circumcision allows for it. On the other hand, the Church is not opposed to baptism at any age, and requires what you might call believer baptism of adults. Full immersion baptism is encouraged when practical; like you might expect the practice be in arid Palestine, we do not insist on full immersion. It is strange to see such attention to ritualistic detail among the Baptists, by the way.
primacy of Rome
Not a defining Catholic characteristic if you mean it in the geographical sense. Primacy of Peter over other apostles is all over the gospels, hence the papacy.
formal confession to a priest
You agree that confession of sin is mandated by the scripture, but object to "formal" confession. However, the authority to forgive or retain sins so that they stay either forgiven or retained in heaven (John 20:21-23) can only belong to a select organized group.
You can surely offer your own interpretation that is non-Catholic of all these scriptures, but your "You do not have anything resembling the Catholic church in Scripture" betrays a level of ignorance of the Holy Scripture that is unusual in a Baptist.
How about their other whopper? *Mary herself* popped down in Mexico City and told Juan Diego that Mexicans should all be Catholic! And thats ok,, But Mormons saying Jesus visited American indians,, THATS just crazy.
Sounds pretty similar to me,,,
Wonderfully said.
Let me add you also do not have a hierarchy ruling over the congregation. You have elders accountable to the congregation and elders appointed by the congregation.
The Baptist model is the model found in the Apostolic Era. We are churches united by our faith and practices but under local authority.