J
Junebug999
Guest
Distracted,
I decided to answer your question about my conversion in a separate thread. You had asked on another thread if I would take time to share my story. (I will apologize for typos or sentence structure, will also apologize for rambling, but here it is.
I was raised in a Baptist family, Dad was a Baptist preacher, a “Landmark Baptist”. They spent as much time railing against the Church as they taught what they believed. It’s the “Profess Jesus as Lord and Savior, choose baptism and then you’re good to go to Heaven,” and you spend the rest of your life “assured of your bus pass to Heaven” so to speak. Because my parents went to seminary, my mom studied Old Testament, and she used to explain the Old Testament in detail to us kids. Also, me and my siblings went to all adult Bible studies with them because they didn’t hire babysitters. So, I knew my Bible, knew all the standard anti-Catholic stuff, etc., but even as a little kid I used to doubt some things.
For instance, when something awful would be said about the motivation for a woman who had chosen to be a nun in the Catholic Church, I knew in my heart something was very wrong about that. Logic seemed to me that if a woman chose to serve God instead of having the comforts of a family and husband, that was a wonderful thing to do. If I heard something said about a priests robes, inside I would think, “but they look like what the robes were like worn by the Jewish priests and the Levites.” The same goes for the alter, incense, etc.
So, raised Baptist, was a Baptist in the local church (church pianist even)…but I always wondered and doubted Baptist Church history. You see I was taught that all things ended at the end of the original apostles. But from my reading of the Bible that didn’t make sense. It never made sense to me that the curtain (so to speak) would come down at the end of the Apostles then fast forward to just a few hundred years ago and some guy named John Smyth would now decide for all future generations what we would believe?
Also, scripture like “and the traditions of the church” bothered me. Oh, and “Thou art ROCK and on this ROCK I will build my church…” that REALLY bothered me always. Because you can find 5 thousand bajillion types of Baptists churches – aren’t there something like 34,000 PLUS protestant type churches??? If those (or one of those 34,000 PLUS churches is Christ’s Church – Christ’s representative on earth – If that is the case then it would look to me klike the gates of HELL is winning!!!
It always seemed to me that if Christ said something so important at “Thou art ROCK and on this ROCK I will build…” that that would mean something SOMETHING HUGE!!! Did Christ ever pull back on words??? He always said what he meant and meant what he said, and I didn’t think when he said that he meant for that to “end when the last apostle died.” Anyhooooo, these were questions that always ran around in this little Baptist head…soooooooooo
…fast forward to 1985, and my Catholic friends Rod and Holly had their first baby and I went to the baptism. My first Mass, and I saw Christ in the Mass. Having been always told it was all a lot of hocuspocus mumbojumbo, I instantly recognized Christ –
REAL PRESENCE – was there. I understood the ceremony because of my understanding of ancient Jewish ceremony. Having grown up being told the Church did not care about the Bible, but in that first Mass I heard a Psalm read, another Bible reading AND the Gospel was read – and the Gospel was so sacred that people STOOD to hear it. I was amazed. STRUCK! It was like love at first sight.
So, I was going through an adoption process through a Protestant adoption agency at the time and was told not to muddy things up by declaring I was converting to Catholicism and raising my adopted child in the Church, so after the adoption was final I signed me up for RCIA and baptism class for my adopted son, EXCEPT my husband declared he did not want his son raised in the Church, he wanted him raised Protestant. After a discussion with the priest, it was decided to not have this family divided over Catholic vs Protestant Church, and I went to Protestant chuch, me, my husband, and son. At times I quietly excused myself when anti-Catholic things were said.
soooooooooooooo fast foward to 2008. Now my son is 17, he does not go to Protestant Church, he has attended some church at the local parish with his Catholic girlfriend, There are some things he does not understand or like about the Catholic Church (so those things are a matter of prayer and God will guide him, you can pray too) (Son or husband are not wanting to hear anything about the Church right now either, so I’m just praying. – Husband does not really care for any church right now…sigh – but God will take care of that, let’s just pray.)
Soooooooooo, I have had a hard time getting to RCIA because I have been on Swing Shift the last few years, so I was travelling in my car and listening to Catholic Radio, either joining with the prayers or enjoying hearing the speaker. Now when I would hear the speaker talk about the Church and its teachings, I would mentally compare everything through a screen, weigh each thing, balance each thing against what I new Protestant/Baptist doctrine was. Well, this one day when I was driving and listening I realized God was calling me to no longer view the Church and its teachings through a Protestant screen, but to come in faith as a child would, believing, accepting the teachings of the Church. I was driving in the car and said out loud something to the effect of, “Lord I will follow you to your Church. I will accept the teachings of your Church as truth, and I will come as a child, in faith.” (something like that). I prayed for a way to get to RCIA classes, and suddenly at my job I was put on day shift for a while.
Now here I am. CA has been wonderful to answer my questions I have had, and I really enjoy the fellowship with other believers. I have had some icky things said by a couple people in my personal life, but I listen with grace and just pray for them. What they have said I just figure is a cross to bear, but that has made me enjoy the fellowship of my new friends at CA or my RCIA class all the more. My friends at RCIA, and teachers Gary, Fred and Meg have been wonderful. Meg met me at a Mass and whispered some things in my ear that helped me with understanding. She had me go forward for a Blessing. A Eucharistic minister gave me a blessing. It was very wonderful, even a little overwhelming.
I called the Baptist Church I was baptized in for a baptism certificate and was told they do not have a record of my baptism. I started RCIA recently, so will begin officially in this Fall with Meg, Gary, and Fred teaching me. It’s going to be a beautiful journey.
So…cradle Baptist called to His Church. I just hope, and I always pray for unity of all believers (have been praying this way since 1985). I would love for all believers who profess that Jesus Christ is Lord to heed God’s call to go to the one, true, and Apostolic (Amen) church. It just feels like home! Praise God!
I decided to answer your question about my conversion in a separate thread. You had asked on another thread if I would take time to share my story. (I will apologize for typos or sentence structure, will also apologize for rambling, but here it is.
I was raised in a Baptist family, Dad was a Baptist preacher, a “Landmark Baptist”. They spent as much time railing against the Church as they taught what they believed. It’s the “Profess Jesus as Lord and Savior, choose baptism and then you’re good to go to Heaven,” and you spend the rest of your life “assured of your bus pass to Heaven” so to speak. Because my parents went to seminary, my mom studied Old Testament, and she used to explain the Old Testament in detail to us kids. Also, me and my siblings went to all adult Bible studies with them because they didn’t hire babysitters. So, I knew my Bible, knew all the standard anti-Catholic stuff, etc., but even as a little kid I used to doubt some things.
For instance, when something awful would be said about the motivation for a woman who had chosen to be a nun in the Catholic Church, I knew in my heart something was very wrong about that. Logic seemed to me that if a woman chose to serve God instead of having the comforts of a family and husband, that was a wonderful thing to do. If I heard something said about a priests robes, inside I would think, “but they look like what the robes were like worn by the Jewish priests and the Levites.” The same goes for the alter, incense, etc.
So, raised Baptist, was a Baptist in the local church (church pianist even)…but I always wondered and doubted Baptist Church history. You see I was taught that all things ended at the end of the original apostles. But from my reading of the Bible that didn’t make sense. It never made sense to me that the curtain (so to speak) would come down at the end of the Apostles then fast forward to just a few hundred years ago and some guy named John Smyth would now decide for all future generations what we would believe?
Also, scripture like “and the traditions of the church” bothered me. Oh, and “Thou art ROCK and on this ROCK I will build my church…” that REALLY bothered me always. Because you can find 5 thousand bajillion types of Baptists churches – aren’t there something like 34,000 PLUS protestant type churches??? If those (or one of those 34,000 PLUS churches is Christ’s Church – Christ’s representative on earth – If that is the case then it would look to me klike the gates of HELL is winning!!!
It always seemed to me that if Christ said something so important at “Thou art ROCK and on this ROCK I will build…” that that would mean something SOMETHING HUGE!!! Did Christ ever pull back on words??? He always said what he meant and meant what he said, and I didn’t think when he said that he meant for that to “end when the last apostle died.” Anyhooooo, these were questions that always ran around in this little Baptist head…soooooooooo
…fast forward to 1985, and my Catholic friends Rod and Holly had their first baby and I went to the baptism. My first Mass, and I saw Christ in the Mass. Having been always told it was all a lot of hocuspocus mumbojumbo, I instantly recognized Christ –
REAL PRESENCE – was there. I understood the ceremony because of my understanding of ancient Jewish ceremony. Having grown up being told the Church did not care about the Bible, but in that first Mass I heard a Psalm read, another Bible reading AND the Gospel was read – and the Gospel was so sacred that people STOOD to hear it. I was amazed. STRUCK! It was like love at first sight.
So, I was going through an adoption process through a Protestant adoption agency at the time and was told not to muddy things up by declaring I was converting to Catholicism and raising my adopted child in the Church, so after the adoption was final I signed me up for RCIA and baptism class for my adopted son, EXCEPT my husband declared he did not want his son raised in the Church, he wanted him raised Protestant. After a discussion with the priest, it was decided to not have this family divided over Catholic vs Protestant Church, and I went to Protestant chuch, me, my husband, and son. At times I quietly excused myself when anti-Catholic things were said.
soooooooooooooo fast foward to 2008. Now my son is 17, he does not go to Protestant Church, he has attended some church at the local parish with his Catholic girlfriend, There are some things he does not understand or like about the Catholic Church (so those things are a matter of prayer and God will guide him, you can pray too) (Son or husband are not wanting to hear anything about the Church right now either, so I’m just praying. – Husband does not really care for any church right now…sigh – but God will take care of that, let’s just pray.)
Soooooooooo, I have had a hard time getting to RCIA because I have been on Swing Shift the last few years, so I was travelling in my car and listening to Catholic Radio, either joining with the prayers or enjoying hearing the speaker. Now when I would hear the speaker talk about the Church and its teachings, I would mentally compare everything through a screen, weigh each thing, balance each thing against what I new Protestant/Baptist doctrine was. Well, this one day when I was driving and listening I realized God was calling me to no longer view the Church and its teachings through a Protestant screen, but to come in faith as a child would, believing, accepting the teachings of the Church. I was driving in the car and said out loud something to the effect of, “Lord I will follow you to your Church. I will accept the teachings of your Church as truth, and I will come as a child, in faith.” (something like that). I prayed for a way to get to RCIA classes, and suddenly at my job I was put on day shift for a while.
Now here I am. CA has been wonderful to answer my questions I have had, and I really enjoy the fellowship with other believers. I have had some icky things said by a couple people in my personal life, but I listen with grace and just pray for them. What they have said I just figure is a cross to bear, but that has made me enjoy the fellowship of my new friends at CA or my RCIA class all the more. My friends at RCIA, and teachers Gary, Fred and Meg have been wonderful. Meg met me at a Mass and whispered some things in my ear that helped me with understanding. She had me go forward for a Blessing. A Eucharistic minister gave me a blessing. It was very wonderful, even a little overwhelming.
I called the Baptist Church I was baptized in for a baptism certificate and was told they do not have a record of my baptism. I started RCIA recently, so will begin officially in this Fall with Meg, Gary, and Fred teaching me. It’s going to be a beautiful journey.
So…cradle Baptist called to His Church. I just hope, and I always pray for unity of all believers (have been praying this way since 1985). I would love for all believers who profess that Jesus Christ is Lord to heed God’s call to go to the one, true, and Apostolic (Amen) church. It just feels like home! Praise God!
