A question for ex-protestants

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I was raised in the AoG church, but completely lost interest in God and Christianity in my teens. I was very much an agnostic until my early 20s when i made friends with a Pentecostal. eventually he whittled down my defences and convinced me to come to church with him, and I ended up becoming involved in this church for a couple of years. I came to a point where I thought that no Christians had it right, and we could only find the church that fit us best.

Then I met a Catholic girl, whom I started dating. one night I told her that I would never become a Catholic, but i would respect her beliefs. after a fair amount of thought i realised that it’s not possible to respect anything that you don’t really know anything about; so i started looking into what the Catholic Church had to say for itself, and was completely thrown off guard by the sense it all made. I also realised that Our Lord could not be so irresponsible as to leave us without an organic body that could serve as His authority on earth. If Christianity had been as fractured as the doctrines of Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura have led to it would never have survived for the nearly 2000 years that it has.

While I initially baulked at the idea of the Real Presence, my understanding of Church authority allowed me to be open to learning more about this and other doctrines. When the barriers to accepting this had been broken down, i really longed to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist.

Essentially, the reason i converted was a matter of Truth, authority and the Eucharist.
 
I’m not Catholic yet, but hopefully will be soon!!🙂
My decision on why to leave the protestant churches is:
  1. Church history. A study on this leads straight back to the first church, the Catholic Church. And the missing books in the protestant bible, and,
  2. They are so many different beliefs among the protestant churches and everyone’s different, even among the same type of church. There’s different branches of the Baptist, church of Christ, etc, etc, etc… With the catholic church they all believe the same way and I like that, to me it’s unity!! (one church)
Tracie
 
Former Protestant, reporting for duty.

It wasn’t so much what was in my church that made me leave, but what I found out it lacked. I attend a Catholic university, by the way, and hence I took mandatory Catholic theology classes.

When I was asked to do some research regarding the Mass, my professor lent me her copy of Scott Hahn’s The Lamb’s Supper, to help me get started on my research.

And sure enough, that book sparked my interest in the Catholic Church. Volumes and volumes later… well, here I am.
tracie001 said:
I’m not Catholic yet, but hopefully will be soon!!🙂
My decision on why to leave the protestant churches is:
  1. Church history. A study on this leads straight back to the first church, the Catholic Church. And the missing books in the protestant bible, and,
  2. They are so many different beliefs among the protestant churches and everyone’s different, even among the same type of church. There’s different branches of the Baptist, church of Christ, etc, etc, etc… With the catholic church they all believe the same way and I like that, to me it’s unity!! (one church)
Tracie
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I feel for ya!
 
ithrowcheese said:
I was raised in the AoG church, but completely lost interest in God and Christianity in my teens. I was very much an agnostic until my early 20s when i made friends with a Pentecostal. eventually he whittled down my defences and convinced me to come to church with him, and I ended up becoming involved in this church for a couple of years. I came to a point where I thought that no Christians had it right, and we could only find the church that fit us best.

Then I met a Catholic girl, whom I started dating. one night I told her that I would never become a Catholic, but i would respect her beliefs. after a fair amount of thought i realised that it’s not possible to respect anything that you don’t really know anything about; so i started looking into what the Catholic Church had to say for itself, and was completely thrown off guard by the sense it all made. I also realised that Our Lord could not be so irresponsible as to leave us without an organic body that could serve as His authority on earth. If Christianity had been as fractured as the doctrines of Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura have led to it would never have survived for the nearly 2000 years that it has.

While I initially baulked at the idea of the Real Presence, my understanding of Church authority allowed me to be open to learning more about this and other doctrines. When the barriers to accepting this had been broken down, i really longed to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist.

Essentially, the reason i converted was a matter of Truth, authority and the Eucharist.
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Very well reasoned and very succinctly stated. Well done. Welcome home. 👍
 
Mr.Ex_Nihilo said:
I’ve gone into detail about my thoughts on Sola Scriptura here…but ultimately it seemed to be **Catholicism’s understanding of Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant that really knocked me off my feet. **

No. I’m not joking. Once that was pointed out to me, I could never turn back from the Catholic Church. Everything else just fit into place by the Holy Spirit.
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I’m a Catholic Catechumen and I don’t know what you’re speaking of, though I’m intrigued to find out! 🙂
 
Mr.Ex_Nihilo said:
I’ve gone into detail about my thoughts on Sola Scriptura here…but ultimately it seemed to be Catholicism’s understanding of Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant that really knocked me off my feet.

No. I’m not joking. Once that was pointed out to me, I could never turn back from the Catholic Church. Everything else just fit into place by the Holy Spirit.
Click to expand...
You’ve seen the amazing parallels between 2 Kings 6 and Luke 1? Just thought that might be it.

Christ’s peace.
 
I was raised in the southern Methodist tradition from my parents but was never baptised nor belonged to any of the churches. I am 58 this year. I went into the service for awhile and when I was discharged, ended up in Central California where I met someone who was Catholic. We ended up getting married near Lake Tahoe in 1980, not in a church, but in a lakeside chapel. We started attending mass together and have been doing so most all of our marriage. Last year, I started RCIA. I thought that worshiping together would draw us closer in our marriage. We also have a son that attended Catholic school and now have a grandaughter who regularly attends mass with us. I went through baptism, first communion, marriage (in the church), and conformation all this year as a result of the RCIA class. Until RCIA, I really never made any connection to the Catholic doctrines and their teachings. After I started doing more research on the history of the church, the apostolic succession, the eucharist, and differences between the protestant and Catholic viewpoints, I then realized the Catholic church was “The Church”. 🙂
 
I attended mostly Methodist denoms as a youth but did not attend during teenage and military years. After I married, my wife and I attended but we always looked for a pastor.(.not a church) with charisma. We did not worry too much about doctrine because most of the pastors don’t even consider doctrine important…they just need to pack 'em in so the “message” is what is important. The last denom I attended was Baptist and by now I was tired of blowing in the wind doctrine and the never ending search for charisma. I told my wife that I was going to investigate the Catholic Church and I was going to do so with private study. She was not and still is not interested.
I started out by reading the Catechism and the supporting Bible citations and that took about 2 years. I took my time so it can be done quicker and probably should be. When I finished I knew that I had found the truth I wanted in Christianity so I began RCIA classes…one week in my home parish and the next week 500 miles away where I worked…I never do anything the easy way…always complicated. I think I started out my Catholic awakening angry because I felt as if I had been hoodwinked for all those years and I still lose my composure sometimes when I hear people repeat the things that I know are not true.
Ten years have passed and I regret nothing. I go to Mass alone except when my adult son neglects his own church and goes with me. I don’t feel like the Lone Ranger…I feel happy and at home because I know that I am. Maybe it is better that I wasn’t a cradle Catholic because I am not at risk for going back to the old ideas. What do I like?
One, Holy, Catholic(universal) Apostolic
Truth
Authority
The beautiful tapestry of the Church woven by billions for 2000 years ( or just plain history )
Organization
Completeness.
 
I spent my first 15 years in the Pentecostal church. Then my mother joined the Congregational church, so I went to church there. When I was 18, I decided that I needed to find a church that knew what they believed and was biblical. I visited with pastors of most protestant churches in the area. I asked what they believed and why. I didn’t seem to be able to find a church that fit me and seemed right. One pastor even asked me what I believed and then said they believed whatever each individual in the churh believed. As a last resort, I went to the Catholic church with my inquiries. I had been brought up with many misconceptions about the Church and didn’t think too highly of it, but it had been around for 2,000 years and they didn’t appear to change. And I have to admit, I felt I was in our Lord’s presence when I walked into my first Catholic church. I was quite confrontational with the priest because of the things I had been brought up to believe about the Church. But, the priest was very kind and answered all my questions. I knew I had found the place I should be. I knew this was God’s church started by Jesus Christ. The eucharist was the best thing for me. It was the real thing! When I was 20, I became a Catholic and received Christ for the first time! :extrahappy: I knew I had come home.
 
I was baptized Missouri Synod Lutheran, attended LCA (now ELCA I believe) church, and Missouri Synod Lutheran High School. Mom was Lutheran, Dad divorced Catholic (second marriage). When I was young, I had a Catholic friend who used to go to CCD class. I would wait outside but always felt drawn to go in. Once a nice Sister came out and invited me in. I was frightened and told her it was forbidden for me to go into a RC church :). That was at 10 years of age. Then in college I met many friends from Latin America. I fell in love with the mass and also with the importance they gave their faith. I spent a year in Spain studying and attended mass there. It gave me exposure to ideas I had never known about since the Missouri Synod church is so anti-Catholic. I preferred the more reflective, meditational and reverent aspects of the mass. It also did not make sense to me why the Lutheran church was still separate since so many things had changed since the 1500’s. I understood selling indulgences was wrong, but please, that hasn’t happened for a long time. I always wanted to be associated with the “real deal”. I converted at 25 and attended mass sporadically. I then followed radical feminism, and started to explore New Age, Hinduism, etc. Gradually I fell away and then I fell WAY away from the church; my life became miserable as I made incorrect choices and became a hateful person. In this horrible time, I was living in Mexico and happened on EWTN and watched it a couple of times and then one day that I had severe anxiety I spontaneously started to pray the rosary. I don’t know why but I felt it had power. My life still got worse, though,. I moved back to the US and then suffered for a long time until I couldn’t take it any more and made a new start. I moved to a new city and in the new city came upon EWTN again and started to really learn about the importance of Confession, the importance of the Eucharist, the Church Fathers, the fallacy of Sola Scriptura, the political aspects of the Reformation etc. and I became resentful of the misrepresentations about the RC that I had heard in high school. I liked the passage in the Bible indicating that both scripture and tradition should be followed. And the fact that the Jews left Christ after he told them they had to drink his blood and eat his flesh. So many things I cannot remember all of them. Scott Hahn does a great job of explaining all the things I thought about. I had had major issues with Mary, but now learned that the rosary was not praying TO her as a deity. So many things I had been really lied to about. After hearing that the rosary was taken from scripture, I started to pray the rosary. Repetitive prayer and the mystical side always drew me. I had messed up my life in a major way, and had panic attacks; I needed major help. It was amazing. If it is not my imagination, I received answers from the Blessed Mother - I would pray and then something would happen to affirm or guide me. Everything made sense. And then I went to Confession for the first time, yes, first time, since at RCIA they told me it was optional. This put me into a state of grace and everything started to become wonderfully clear to me, even better. Incredible. As a side note, I also think there were lots of old Polish ladies (grandmothers, aunts, etc.) in heaven praying for me, :). And my father. Not joking. He passed when I was 14. My father had never wanted to raise me Catholic, since he had been very religious as a child but could not accept that only faith was required - I think a priest talking with him did not show him that the Church wants reason to work hand in hand with faith and was too dismissive of his intelligence. Then he divorced and was refused the Eucharist and told my mom he didn’t want me brought up Catholic. But before he passed, he told her he had been wrong about that and she told me. It has always stuck in my head. And I am sure my grandmother (his mother) and her family always prayed for me; they didn’t really support my parents’ marriage and died when I was 7. But I think they were up there praying for me.
 
. It gave me exposure to ideas I had never known about since the Missouri Synod church is so anti-Catholic. I preferred the more reflective, meditational and reverent aspects of the mass. It also did not make sense to me why the Lutheran church was still separate since so many things had changed since the 1500’s. I understood selling indulgences was wrong, but please, that hasn’t happened for a long time. I always wanted to be associated with the “real deal”. I converted at 25 and attended mass sporadically. I then followed radical feminism, and started to explore New Age, Hinduism, etc. Gradually I fell away and then I fell WAY away from the church; my life became miserable as I made incorrect choices and became a hateful person. In this horrible time, I was living in Mexico and happened on EWTN and watched it a couple of times and then one day that I had severe anxiety I spontaneously started to pray the rosary. I don’t know why but I felt it had power. My life still got worse, though,. I moved back to the US and then suffered for a long time until I couldn’t take it any more and made a new start. I moved to a new city and in the new city came upon EWTN again and started to really learn about the importance of Confession, the importance of the Eucharist, the Church Fathers, the fallacy of Sola Scriptura, the political aspects of the Reformation etc. and I became resentful of the misrepresentations about the RC that I had heard in high school. I liked the passage in the Bible indicating that both scripture and tradition should be followed. And the fact that the Jews left Christ after he told them they had to drink his blood and eat his flesh. So many things I cannot remember all of them. Scott Hahn does a great job of explaining all the things I thought about. I had had major issues with Mary, but now learned that the rosary was not praying TO her as a deity. So many things I had been really lied to about. After hearing that the rosary was taken from scripture, I started to pray the rosary. Repetitive prayer and the mystical side always drew me. I had messed up my life in a major way, and had panic attacks; I needed major help. It was amazing. If it is not my imagination, I received answers from the Blessed Mother - I would pray and then something would happen to affirm or guide me. Everything made sense. And then I went to Confession for the first time, yes, first time, since at RCIA they told me it was optional. This put me into a state of grace and everything started to become wonderfully clear to me, even better. Incredible. As a side note, I also think there were lots of old Polish ladies (grandmothers, aunts, etc.) in heaven praying for me, :). And my father. Not joking. He passed when I was 14. My father had never wanted to raise me Catholic, since he had been very religious as a child but could not accept that only faith was required - I think a priest talking with him did not show him that the Church wants reason to work hand in hand with faith and was too dismissive of his intelligence. Then he divorced and was refused the Eucharist and told my mom he didn’t want me brought up Catholic. But before he passed, he told her he had been wrong about that and she told me. It has always stuck in my head. And I am sure my grandmother (his mother) and her family always prayed for me; they didn’t really support my parents’ marriage and died when I was 7. But I think they were up there praying for me. I hope my story may help someone else - if they identify with any of it. If you do identify, please STUDY and investigate the HISTORY of the church, between Jesus’s time and the time of the Reformation. All that is glossed over in Lutheran high school. And I believe that the Lutheran church does not really believe in unity as mandated by Christ. If they did they would try to unify again with the RC; we Christians should be together - we have so many enemies. I think they are just worried about control issues. They throw away so much rich history and writings and tradition that was made by people that actually knew Jesus! That is another thing that attracted me. The priests I heard were so intelligent. They knew more than the Lutheran pastors. The LCA was OK, but I always felt something was missing. Some validity, some truth and authority. The final thing was having had all these historical writings like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas not even mentioned. They were throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Anyway, I could go on and on. But if you identify with any of this, follow your curiosity and learn about the history of the church.
 
servus said:
Dear Ex-Protestants, i.e. Baptists, Methodists, Non-Denom, etc. What made you leave those Churches to join the Roman Catholic Church? Thank you for your responses,

God Bless,
-Servus
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I’m not there yet but I’m leaning towards it. I was a cradle catholic. I left the church at 15 primarily because my family were living like God didn’t exist or that you could manipulate him. Such as my father purposely married my mother to ligitamize my birth but so that he didn’t have to stay married to her he married in a JP. That way the church wouldn’t recognize his marriage and he could easily get an anulment. Which he did. His next wife was a Buddhist and he did the same thing. Their marriage fell apart in 5 years. He considers himself never to be married. My Uncles and cousins did the same types of things. My mother who is very dogmatic about being catholic plays with tarot cards and condones homosexuality. I then heard about Jesus through some protestants and their lives reflected their beliefs. I thought what did their beliefs do for them or the Church. And I left. I got to know the bible very well, however, I find the protestant churches have the same issues. The issue is belief real and not. The fear of the Lord is the begining of knowledge. My family did not fear the lord because it didn’t lead them to righteousness.

Now I’m looking seriously at catholic beliefs. I started puting facts together from a historical perspective and I find that many of the things protestants have taught me through bible studies and classes are quite simplistic. Jerome said scriptures could be understood on many levels. The earliest christians believe the in Eucharist. Many protestants do not. Oral tradition was the staple of christianity for many years before NT was canonized. Protestants disagree about just everything. But there is unified teaching in the catholic church. I still have difficulty with immaculate conception and assumption but it’s not a required belief to be catholic. I have a problem with people who idolize saints but I also have a problem who believe that the KJV is the only faithful transmition of God’s Word. I like the Catachism that states that Gods word was expressed entirely and fully in the person of Jesus Christ. Then I was confronted by Clement who pleaded with christians to remain subject to their Bishops appointed over them even if they disagree and that their leaders wouldn’t lead them to sin. Christ payed that his church be united. That is impossible unter protestant theology (the multitudes of them). The earliest church fathers disagreed with each other vehemently but they held to the deposit of faith and considered themselves Catholic (part of the universal church). I am humbled by them.
 
sambos671 said:
I’m not there yet but I’m leaning towards it. I was a cradle catholic. I left the church at 15 primarily because my family were living like God didn’t exist or that you could manipulate him. Such as my father purposely married my mother to ligitamize my birth but so that he didn’t have to stay married to her he married in a JP. That way the church wouldn’t recognize his marriage and he could easily get an anulment. Which he did. His next wife was a Buddhist and he did the same thing. Their marriage fell apart in 5 years. He considers himself never to be married. My Uncles and cousins did the same types of things. My mother who is very dogmatic about being catholic plays with tarot cards and condones homosexuality. I then heard about Jesus through some protestants and their lives reflected their beliefs. I thought what did their beliefs do for them or the Church. And I left. I got to know the bible very well, however, I find the protestant churches have the same issues. The issue is belief real and not. The fear of the Lord is the begining of knowledge. My family did not fear the lord because it didn’t lead them to righteousness.

Now I’m looking seriously at catholic beliefs. I started puting facts together from a historical perspective and I find that many of the things protestants have taught me through bible studies and classes are quite simplistic. Jerome said scriptures could be understood on many levels. The earliest christians believe the in Eucharist. Many protestants do not. Oral tradition was the staple of christianity for many years before NT was canonized. Protestants disagree about just everything. But there is unified teaching in the catholic church. I still have difficulty with immaculate conception and assumption but it’s not a required belief to be catholic. I have a problem with people who idolize saints but I also have a problem who believe that the KJV is the only faithful transmition of God’s Word. I like the Catachism that states that Gods word was expressed entirely and fully in the person of Jesus Christ. Then I was confronted by Clement who pleaded with christians to remain subject to their Bishops appointed over them even if they disagree and that their leaders wouldn’t lead them to sin. Christ payed that his church be united. That is impossible unter protestant theology (the multitudes of them). The earliest church fathers disagreed with each other vehemently but they held to the deposit of faith and considered themselves Catholic (part of the universal church). I am humbled by them.
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Praying that the wisdom you have received will lead you home. Always seek the truth, no matter where you end up.

Christ’s peace.
 
sambos671 said:
I’m not there yet but I’m leaning towards it. I was a cradle catholic. I left the church at 15 primarily because my family were living like God didn’t exist or that you could manipulate him. …

Sounds like you have some good insights. What stands out to me in your post is that when you were a child, the way that Church members acted determined your opinion of the Church. This is understandable but it’s unfortunate. What I try to remember is that individuals’ actions do not invalidate what the Church stands for. Even the sinful priests nowadays and all of the sinful clergy and members throughout history do not invalidate it. I see all of that as the evil forces working to undermine the Church and if we letit influence us, we have succeeded. I will say a prayer for you on your journey. I really identify with your comment about the simplistic teachings. Also on the early Church and the Eucharist and oral tradition. And as you learn more and more, it will make sense more and more; this is happening to me, too. It took me a while on the immaculate conception because as a Lutheran it was so strongly implanted in my brain not to make the Blessed Mother more than she was - that would be idolatry. But I think of it this way. Jesus had to have a pure vessel in which to be born and Mary accepted, what they call her fiat, God’s will, so it wasn’t as if she was sinless out of her own merit. God knew she would accept his request so he made her sinless. There are a lot of good books by Fr. Benedict Groschel on Mary (also many other authors - check out the catalog online at EWTN.com.) You might also like their program, The Journey Home that discusses stories of people who came back to the Catholic Church. When I joined, I still didn’t venerate Mary - as you say it’s not required, and you may never do it - no issue - but I can say I had a full turn around - and now I am one of those people that just got so excited over it that they want everyone to have that same experience - sorry if we get a little over zealous just ignore it :). One last thing on saints - you are right, there are many Catholics who don’t understand this and they shouldn’t be idolized. I would suggest you could read a little on the meaning of the Communion of Saints - the correct way is to ask the saint to pray for you, just like you would ask your sister to pray for you but the saint is a lot more knowledgeable and closer to God - being “dead” doesn’t mean we can’t “talk” to them so to speak. It all ties in with how the Church explains time and space, also very interesting - it is all very logical. Priests are so cool that way - I remember the first time a Jesuit priest explained the issue of 7 day creation. He indicated that the sun and earth didn’t have the same physical configuration from the first “day” so how could the first days be 24 hours. I just never got logic from Protestants, so that appealed to me. And carrying pictures of saints is just to remind us to try to be holy - like carrying a picture of your Mom. Anullments are complicated. On your dad’s it sounds tome that because he did this he really didn’t have the adequate intentions to make it a full marriage the way the church sees it, so that would make it logical to annul. I do understand what would bother you, thougjh, but that is just validating that unfortunately your dad didn’t really intend to be married, does this make sense? But it doesn’t mean his legal marriages didn’t exist civilly. Take care, :).
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