Encounter with an Evangelical Christian,

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lucymeadhbh

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Hey guys,

Bit disturbed about something this evening.

Today, during my break from work, I was on my way to confession when I was flagged down by a gentleman with a clipboard. He said he was doing a survey, galvanised by the recent referendum, on faith and what people believe. I stopped and started answering questions, (asking did I believe in hell, heaven etc.) and it became clear that he was evangelising me. I should have stepped away, but I just didn’t know how (he wasn’t saying anything I disagreed with, for example- he asked me if I knew someone who died for my sins, I said Jesus) and he kind of steamrollered me tbh.

He asked me to repent and I didn’t know how to not repent, (considering I was on my way to confession) and he asked me to pray for Jesus to take control in my life. Immediately, I felt peace when I invoked Jesus’s name in a prayerful way. He mentioned where he was from, (a town I am studying in currently) and introduced me to his father and teenage daughter. He wasn’t pushy, but he just said something I can’t get out of my head. “This is too much of a coincidence, God meant us to come to you today, to meet.”

Why would God have put this man in my path? Why, when I was on my way to repent, was I led to Evangelical type of repentance, instead of my Catholic one? I’m gutted I didn’t get to confession (as I had to return to work), but I’m feeling very confused now.

God Bless,
Meadhbh
 
There are lots of potential “why’s” to things. For me, I challenge myself to at least believe that whatever happens, it’s for those who believe. (Rom 8:28)

Did he recognize that you were Catholic? He may have really enjoyed talking to someone who was willing to talk to him like a human being. Maybe the last 10 people he talked to were abusive.

Or maybe he has heard some bad-mouthing of Catholics, and your attending to him and listening to him gave him the “evidence” that he needed to ignore their generalizations.

Or maybe to him, any interfaith dialog that isn’t hostile, comes as a Great Blessing – I like to swap stories with people of other religions so to me that might be important.

Or it could be part of a longer thing. Or if we have the “kingdom” mentality Jesus advocates learning to use (while still living on earth), then more and more things may fall into place and past memories get triggered frequently where you recognize that a part of you, in the context of the here and now, was influenced by some event you may not have thought about for years. I’m not really sure God actually intervenes to make things happen, although it can be pretty compelling when things are fantastically orchestrated so that something good happens.

Or it means nothing to anybody but him. No, that’s a lie because now it means something to you since it’s in your head. It means there is a mystery and you may or may not ever find an answer… dealing with uncertainties and mystery is trickier than dealing with “stuff we learn” but in our Church that part isn’t as widely known about among the faithful. That is the “apophatic” tradition including most famously, contemplative prayer. (CCC 2700-2724)
 
lucymeadhbh said:
Hey guys,

Bit disturbed about something this evening.

Today, during my break from work, I was on my way to confession when I was flagged down by a gentleman with a clipboard. He said he was doing a survey, galvanised by the recent referendum, on faith and what people believe. I stopped and started answering questions, (asking did I believe in hell, heaven etc.) and it became clear that he was evangelising me. I should have stepped away, but I just didn’t know how (he wasn’t saying anything I disagreed with, for example- he asked me if I knew someone who died for my sins, I said Jesus) and he kind of steamrollered me tbh.

He asked me to repent and I didn’t know how to not repent, (considering I was on my way to confession) and he asked me to pray for Jesus to take control in my life. Immediately, I felt peace when I invoked Jesus’s name in a prayerful way. He mentioned where he was from, (a town I am studying in currently) and introduced me to his father and teenage daughter. He wasn’t pushy, but he just said something I can’t get out of my head. “This is too much of a coincidence, God meant us to come to you today, to meet.”

Why would God have put this man in my path? Why, when I was on my way to repent, was I led to Evangelical type of repentance, instead of my Catholic one? I’m gutted I didn’t get to confession (as I had to return to work), but I’m feeling very confused now.

God Bless,
Meadhbh
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Since you already decided to confess and turn away from sin before you met this man, you already repented. What happened is that you were delayed in receiving the absolution from the Church, and which the evangelical Christians do not have to ability to give, not having apostolic succession.
 
Maybe God wanted you to meet that man to evangelize him, and to encourage him to go to Confession himself. I assume that, being Irish, there’s a decent chance that he’s a fallen-away Catholic. I would have nudged him in that direction, and I would have been very clear: Jesus gave His disciples the authority to forgive sin—this is clearly-stated in the Bible—and I am in no position to set up means to forgiveness that run contrary to those that Jesus intends.

Another reason, Meadhbh, is that perhaps God is calling you to a deeper appreciation of apologetics. Understanding why we believe the things we do, especially in the face of objections, is an incredibly useful way to: (1) not get flustered in these situations. (2) Evangelize our separated brethren, and to invite them to come back home, to the fullness of the Christian faith, not to simply a splinter-group of a splinter-group version of it.

I would recommend an awesome radio program to you: ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=6582&T1=called

Sincerely, listen to some of these shows. In fact, I notice that the most recent one (from June 11) addresses Confession to a priest. I went ahead an located the call, and encourage you to listen to it: ewtn.edgeboss.net/download/ewtn/audiolibrary/called2comm_20150611.mp3. It begins at 30:10 in the audio file. (Or, you can go here for the video: youtu.be/BNVhyOoxTnQ?t=30m16s)

Furthermore: Catholic Answers is probably the biggest apologetics apostolates in the English speaking world. I highly recommend their tracts: catholic.com/tracts
 
lucymeadhbh said:
Hey guys,

Bit disturbed about something this evening.

Today, during my break from work, I was on my way to confession when I was flagged down by a gentleman with a clipboard. He said he was doing a survey, galvanised by the recent referendum, on faith and what people believe. I stopped and started answering questions, (asking did I believe in hell, heaven etc.) and it became clear that he was evangelising me. I should have stepped away, but I just didn’t know how (he wasn’t saying anything I disagreed with, for example- he asked me if I knew someone who died for my sins, I said Jesus) and he kind of steamrollered me tbh.

He asked me to repent and I didn’t know how to not repent, (considering I was on my way to confession) and he asked me to pray for Jesus to take control in my life. Immediately, I felt peace when I invoked Jesus’s name in a prayerful way. He mentioned where he was from, (a town I am studying in currently) and introduced me to his father and teenage daughter. He wasn’t pushy, but he just said something I can’t get out of my head. “This is too much of a coincidence, God meant us to come to you today, to meet.”

Why would God have put this man in my path? Why, when I was on my way to repent, was I led to Evangelical type of repentance, instead of my Catholic one? I’m gutted I didn’t get to confession (as I had to return to work), but I’m feeling very confused now.

God Bless,
Meadhbh
Click to expand...
It’s funny but I know exactly the tactic that man was using–I used to do some similar to that when I was an Evangelical.

When he said that you and he were “meant to meet that day” he might have been sincere, but we were taught to say that to people to “close the deal” on “getting them saved.” It’s a tactic they use to try to convince you that you should be going to their church. So was introducing you to others–to make you feel like you were personally invited and wanted. It’s sales tactics many Evangelicals have learned very well.

As for feeling peace when you prayed. Well, why shouldn’t you feel peace when you invoked your Savior’s name in prayer? Aren’t you baptized into Christ? Haven’t you been confirmed? You’re not a heathen in need of saving–you are being saved in Christ so naturally your soul responded to prayer. That was nice but it doesn’t prove anything theologically except that you love him, know him, and desire to please him. So, go to confession, confess your sins and move on with your faith life. It was okay to talk to that man, but don’t be taken in by feel-good tactics by those whose only interest is to take you away from your faith in the Church Christ himself founded. The Holy Spirit moves where he wills, and he willed to move in you. Be thankful for that, but don’t let it throw you for a loop. Consolations are not the faith–they are like icing on the cake, not the cake itself. 🙂
 
lucymeadhbh said:
Hey guys,

Bit disturbed about something this evening.

Today, during my break from work, I was on my way to confession when I was flagged down by a gentleman with a clipboard. He said he was doing a survey, galvanised by the recent referendum, on faith and what people believe. I stopped and started answering questions, (asking did I believe in hell, heaven etc.) and it became clear that he was evangelising me. I should have stepped away, but I just didn’t know how (he wasn’t saying anything I disagreed with, for example- he asked me if I knew someone who died for my sins, I said Jesus) and he kind of steamrollered me tbh.

He asked me to repent and I didn’t know how to not repent, (considering I was on my way to confession) and he asked me to pray for Jesus to take control in my life. Immediately, I felt peace when I invoked Jesus’s name in a prayerful way. He mentioned where he was from, (a town I am studying in currently) and introduced me to his father and teenage daughter. He wasn’t pushy, but he just said something I can’t get out of my head. “This is too much of a coincidence, God meant us to come to you today, to meet.”

Why would God have put this man in my path? Why, when I was on my way to repent, was I led to Evangelical type of repentance, instead of my Catholic one? I’m gutted I didn’t get to confession (as I had to return to work), but I’m feeling very confused now.

God Bless,
Meadhbh
Click to expand...
Since that guy kept you from going to confession, you can bet that Satan put him there to do just that. Your sins haven’t been forgiven unless you go to confession, so get there and don’t let anyone stop you.

Linus2nd
 
lucymeadhbh said:
Hey guys,

Bit disturbed about something this evening.

Today, during my break from work, I was on my way to confession when I was flagged down by a gentleman with a clipboard. He said he was doing a survey, galvanised by the recent referendum, on faith and what people believe. I stopped and started answering questions, (asking did I believe in hell, heaven etc.) and it became clear that he was evangelising me. I should have stepped away, but I just didn’t know how (he wasn’t saying anything I disagreed with, for example- he asked me if I knew someone who died for my sins, I said Jesus) and he kind of steamrollered me tbh.

He asked me to repent and I didn’t know how to not repent, (considering I was on my way to confession) and he asked me to pray for Jesus to take control in my life. Immediately, I felt peace when I invoked Jesus’s name in a prayerful way. He mentioned where he was from, (a town I am studying in currently) and introduced me to his father and teenage daughter. He wasn’t pushy, but he just said something I can’t get out of my head. “This is too much of a coincidence, God meant us to come to you today, to meet.”

Why would God have put this man in my path? Why, when I was on my way to repent, was I led to Evangelical type of repentance, instead of my Catholic one? I’m gutted I didn’t get to confession (as I had to return to work), but I’m feeling very confused now.

There is head knowledge and heart knowledge. One can be in any religion and go through the motions of the traditions. It can feel very fulfulling. But when you ask Him to forgive you your sins (confession w Jesus or your priest) and be Lord of your Life is the icing on the cake. It awakens the Holy Spirit. We as Catholics do this and can feel fulfulled and really love God. Evangelically, some people need to go through those extra words to awaken them. It is in the Bible. Don;t be confused/ If you didn’t commit mortal sins you are allowed to ask God to forgive you your sins directly per Vatican II
in Christ’s love
tweedlealice
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lucymeadhbh said:
Hey guys,

Bit disturbed about something this evening.

Today, during my break from work, I was on my way to confession when I was flagged down by a gentleman with a clipboard. He said he was doing a survey, galvanised by the recent referendum, on faith and what people believe. I stopped and started answering questions, (asking did I believe in hell, heaven etc.) and it became clear that he was evangelising me. I should have stepped away, but I just didn’t know how (he wasn’t saying anything I disagreed with, for example- he asked me if I knew someone who died for my sins, I said Jesus) and he kind of steamrollered me tbh.

He asked me to repent and I didn’t know how to not repent, (considering I was on my way to confession) and he asked me to pray for Jesus to take control in my life. Immediately, I felt peace when I invoked Jesus’s name in a prayerful way. He mentioned where he was from, (a town I am studying in currently) and introduced me to his father and teenage daughter. He wasn’t pushy, but he just said something I can’t get out of my head. “This is too much of a coincidence, God meant us to come to you today, to meet.”

Why would God have put this man in my path? Why, when I was on my way to repent, was I led to Evangelical type of repentance, instead of my Catholic one? I’m gutted I didn’t get to confession (as I had to return to work), but I’m feeling very confused now.

God Bless,
Meadhbh
Click to expand...
Why was this ‘too much of a coincidence’? The man was standing there waiting to approach ANYONE who came across his path for the purpose of evangelizing. It happened to be you at that moment, but the next moment it was no doubt someone else, and then another person and so forth. I wouldn’t make too much of it, as if you were destined to meet him. If he had approached me, however, he might have gotten more of a discussion and debate than he had bargained for!
 
Linusthe2nd said:
Since that guy kept you from going to confession, you can bet that Satan put him there to do just that. Your sins haven’t been forgiven unless you go to confession, so get there and don’t let anyone stop you.

Linus2nd
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👍
 
Linusthe2nd said:
Since that guy kept you from going to confession, you can bet that Satan put him there to do just that. Your sins haven’t been forgiven unless you go to confession, so get there and don’t let anyone stop you.
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Maybe I missed something. It was on the way to confession. Did he stop the OP from getting to confession in time that they either closed that day or otherwise prevented the reception of the Eucharist?

If not, what’s the big deal? A guy stops and wants to talk – you either say, “I’m sorry but I really need to get somewhere” and you go, or you say, “sure I have time” and you talk to him. Doesn’t sound like satanic forces are required. Used to be, whenever I went to an airport, there were “Moonies” in orange robes annoying everybody they could. You keep walking.

If you stop and talk to someone and don’t leave and miss confession, it is not the “fault” of the man, or satan. You made time for the man, and missed it. If you felt “trapped” Unless he was physically intimidating or something.

If the OP felt “obligated” to stop, and “unable” to leave him, then maybe there is work to do on self-respect and assertiveness. I suppose in a way it’s satanic, but maybe more worldly.

Whatever the case, there’s no reason to get alarmed about it. Next time someone asks, either say “yes” or “no” and then stick by it – all else comes the evil one. 😉
 
Sounds to me like the OP just needs to be able to get away from a situation there is no obligation to stay in.

I have had passive-aggressive tendencies in the past, because I didn’t know what to say so I’d basically just be whatever to get through it, and then later feel angry and think “what I should have said.”

It doesn’t sound like some astronomically arranged situation that he made that comment, considering the other posters’ information. You don’t see people like him every day, but he sees people “like you” many times a day. Kind of like police officers; most people only are approached by them once in a while. This guy saying, “woah this is some experience dude this is cosmic” is then no more interesting than the fact that a cop might say, “license and registration please?”

You don’t run across that often, so it’s novel to you. Maybe the Lord wanted you to have that experience. But stand on Romans 8:28, in that no matter what happens, God will make it part of a nutritious spiritual experience for you.

Rom 8:28
We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

And yes, that is ALL things. Faith tells us that meeting that guy, missing confession, having this thread, these are all part of ALL thing, right? So to believe Rom 8:28 means to me that I have to place complete trust in the Holy Spirit, that He has things “under control” or whatever they call it in Holy Spirit Land when things are flowing. We don’t see them, because we are socialized to rely on our own understanding, and to be held responsible for things we actually can’t control.

So if I say and think, “I’m going to confession” with zero doubt that I’m going to pull it off, then I am boasting because I cannot control the future, try as humans do (and sometimes succeed) and whether or not there is “strong incentive.” I mean, if someone pointed a gun at me and said, “make the sun come up within 10 seconds or I’ll shoot” the sorry I’m held responsible for something I can’t control.

So I say, accept it, and let it keep you curious. Maybe some day you will look back and think, “oh now I see how that fits in.” 👍

James 4
Warning Against Presumption. 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit”— 14 you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. 15 Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.” 16 But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin.
 
lucymeadhbh said:
Hey guys,

Bit disturbed about something this evening.

Today, during my break from work, I was on my way to confession when I was flagged down by a gentleman with a clipboard. He said he was doing a survey, galvanised by the recent referendum, on faith and what people believe. I stopped and started answering questions, (asking did I believe in hell, heaven etc.) and it became clear that he was evangelising me. I should have stepped away, but I just didn’t know how (he wasn’t saying anything I disagreed with, for example- he asked me if I knew someone who died for my sins, I said Jesus) and he kind of steamrollered me tbh.

He asked me to repent and I didn’t know how to not repent, (considering I was on my way to confession) and he asked me to pray for Jesus to take control in my life. Immediately, I felt peace when I invoked Jesus’s name in a prayerful way. He mentioned where he was from, (a town I am studying in currently) and introduced me to his father and teenage daughter. He wasn’t pushy, but he just said something I can’t get out of my head. “This is too much of a coincidence, God meant us to come to you today, to meet.”

Why would God have put this man in my path? Why, when I was on my way to repent, was I led to Evangelical type of repentance, instead of my Catholic one? I’m gutted I didn’t get to confession (as I had to return to work), but I’m feeling very confused now.

God Bless,
Meadhbh
Click to expand...
He probably says that to everyone and how do we know that God did not put YOU in his path? You were not on your way to repent; you were on your way to confession and receive absolution from the priest, who stands in place of Jesus Himself. The Evangelicals cannot offer that. I would not think about it anymore, but maybe pray for this man and his and his family. Who knows, someday your prayers may lead to his conversion to Catholicism!
 
Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for your helpful posts. I’ve been mulling over everything a lot over the weekend and feel differently about things now. I was just a bit disturbed a the time, and I put a lot of store in the power of coincidence, I’d hate to ignore God reaching out to me.

But… speaking of coincidences, after writing my post the other night I put my tablet down without locking it and when I returned it flipped to the website of Our Lady of The Seven Sorrows, so I guess I know what God was telling me to do. 😉
 
I love discussing things with non catholic christians.

Things like the rapture and the true presence.

Some non Catholics are really clueless about Catholicism and believe all Catholics are going to hell. I rather enjoy debating with anyone and I am not a bible scholar by any means but I have enough to send over some salvos. Plus human reason helps too.

I think you may have encountered those people for any number of reasons, some having nothing to do with religion.
 
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