Former SDA Thinking of converting to Catholic

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tabbytru said:
Hello. I was born and raised Seventh Day Adventist even attended SDA Academy. I started having doubts about my beliefs for a few years now and, have stopped attending the church, since then i have attended a few different churches trying to find the right one.

I have been having a problem with them because they all believe differently and even they have varying beliefs with in there own denominations.

I have always been afraid of the Catholic Church because of the Adventist beliefs that the Pope is the Anti Christ and all of the stories about them . But i have been searching for the true church, so i started looking into who started the churches that we have today and they all of course came out of the Catholic church.

I then wondered who started the Catholic Church. I found that it came out of Jesus’s ministry. I found Catholic answers and it has helped me to debunk some of my concerns about the church from being SDA . I have recently called my local Catholic Church to ask about learning more about the faith.

I admit that i am abit scared because i do have the SDA church beliefs in my head but I no longer believe most of them. I am very nervous about this step that i am taking but yet I hope that i will finally find the true church to belong to 🙂
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Tabby,

Welcome to CAF. There are many great references already sent your way on this thread. Couple of other ones that I would add:
  • Visit your local Catholic Church and speak with the Priest. They are here to help you on your journey
  • Go to Mass … already suggested but for sure. Ask questions. No bad questions.
  • Ask questions on CAF. Use the documents library on the home page for additional articles.
  • Consider buying the Catholicism for Dummies book from the dummy series. It’s written by two priests and approved by their bishop. Well written.
If your head if full of the pope being the anti-Christ and the number 666, **read this. ** article.

Lots of prayers your way. I had a college roommate who was Adventist so I know a little bit about the beliefs. Great guy by the way and he was not anti-Catholic. I think a lot depends on the teaching of the local SDA Church.

Definitely ask and answer this question: how do you know that the bible that you have, all the books in it, are inspired and inerrant? We both agree that they are but how do you know that they are? I asked this question of a SDA visiting the house last Summer. They had never thought of the question. The answer surprised them…the answer leads to a road which leads to a river called the Tiber.

PnP
 
I want to thank everyone for there help I am going through the articles and videos you have all suggested and they are a great help. I have also checked out the Catholicism for dummy’s and I am going through that as well! I will call the church and set up an appointment to talk to the priest and to attend mass as well.
 
andrewstx said:
Yes stories. Many SDAs have been raised with untrue ideas about the Catholic church. (They don’t seem too aware of Orthodoxy at all). Things like ‘whore of Babylon, and the Great Beast’.

A lot of it comes from Ellen White’s book the Great Controversy which is filled with exagerations and mistruths about the Catholic church.

I really feel bad for the OP, she has been raised with these stories and likely going through a lot of mental conflict now.

:grouphug::hug1:
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This is true, plus ellen G white holds the same authority as the bible.
 
tabbytru said:
I want to thank everyone for there help I am going through the articles and videos you have all suggested and they are a great help. I have also checked out the Catholicism for dummy’s and I am going through that as well! I will call the church and set up an appointment to talk to the priest and to attend mass as well.
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My girlfriend is SDA, she would tell me stories about how the Catholic Church was bad, I’m like Hun, you know their telling you lies. Well we started talking we been dating for 3 and a half years, and we said look we both can’t be right, on a topic you guys say yes and we say no, both can not be true b/ c God is not confused.

So last year we began to read the Bible, I had never read the Bible but I began to look at different catholic apologetic websites, catholic books, and videos. At the bottom of my post there will be a Spanish and English link to a book that I worked on. It has everything from the sacraments, like the Eucharist, infant baptism, the church, the pope, morality, the Virgin Mary, Saturday and Sunday. Take a look it’s detailed, it should help you see the Catholic Church in a different light.

I forgot to finish about my gf, well she was surprised that I would have something important to say in each book of the Bible, she would be like, we hardly talk about this book or that 1. When we read john 6, she wept for thirty minutes. She told me I had never heard a sermon on this chapter, Jesus is in the bread and wine. She’s scared bc her dad is very controlling, but I have told her don’t live your life for your dad.

I hope my book helps you.
 
tabbytru said:
I want to thank everyone for there help I am going through the articles and videos you have all suggested and they are a great help. I have also checked out the Catholicism for dummy’s and I am going through that as well! I will call the church and set up an appointment to talk to the priest and to attend mass as well.
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Catholicism for Dummies as it is an excellent and very readable reference book on the faith. A man named Marcus Grodi who converted to the Catholic faith has a program entitled “The Journey Home” on the EWTN TV network. In it, he interviews those who have converted from various denominations. Here are two fellow Adventists who provided their conversion stories. chnetwork.org/category/conversion-stories/by-denomination-or-faith/seventh-day-adventist/

May the Holy Spirit guide your journey.
 
Poguy…your sharing of Bishop Sheen’s statement is right on and a keeper.

I cannot get into my personal life and I realize now over the years how my crosses were put there because of my faith. My oldest married into an evangelical family and there are strains of anti Catholicism in my husband’s family that was greatly affected by lies put out by the Freemasons in his part of the Philippines. Some in the family are turning to authentic Catholicism due to the crosses they were given so after so many years, we are seeing conversions on my husband’s side of the family. I credit the strength of the sacraments, the saints, the Blessed Mother, and my Catholic friends for all their prayers to helping me stay faithful to the Lord in our Church.

I would love to show it to some others but it is not the right time.

I can also see what anti-Catholic forms of Christianity can break families apart and destroy the practice of prayer in the family that was once there.

I had two priests, two wanted to come together, to my home and they blessed every room and every corner to sanctify it.

There is so much help for the Catholic Christian and I likewise live in a very anti-Catholic region in America.
 
tabbytru said:
Thank you everyone for your help, I have grown up being scared of the Catholic Church because of being told that the pope is the anti Christ and that the Catholic church is going to prosecute us and we would have to go into hiding.

I have been taught that under the pope’s hat that he wares is the number 666 that the pope is against god and speaks blasphemes him based on revelation.

I have been told that the knights of Columbus and the Jesuit priests and trained as an army to kill all those who will not follow the future Sunday law.

I have called my local catholic church and the classes will start in September. But honestly from what i have been told about Catholics i am a little scared of them.

I have started to learn a little and was glad to find out that the catholic church does not worship idols or Mary or the pope. That is just some that i have heard.

When it comes to the sunday vrs. saturday i have spent two years dealing with that issue but i am finally good with sunday i was very worried about saturday not being the sabbath . but i have studied it and have finally realized that the bible does say sunday now
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I can assure you on several points:
  1. the Pope does not wear any 666 emblem. The best understanding we have of 666 is that it is a reference to Nero Caesar. (When written in Hebrew, Nero’s name has the value of 666–if we start with the Greek form, Neron Caesar. If we start with the Latin Nero Caesar, we get 616, found in the oldest manuscript. Nero is the only name that allows this, and it seems to fit the circumstance of the Book of Revelation anyway.)
  2. The Knights of Columbus do not get any special military training. Indeed, these days they tend to be older men, and often not in the best physical shape. Nor do Jesuits–or any other orders–get training of that kind. There are no obscure orders of monks dedicated to hunting down the Anti-christ or heretics. (Even Hollywood gets that one wrong. 🙂 )
  3. If you do go through RCIA, you will (I pray) learn the truth about the Catholic Church–and likely you will have a better understanding of what we teach and stand for than many cradle Catholics. If you do find something you cannot accept, you do not have to join the Church. I hope that you do find, rather, something you can believe in, and even bet your (immortal) soul on!
 
bmonk said:
  1. The Knights of Columbus do not get any special military training. Indeed, these days they tend to be older men, and often not in the best physical shape.
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it could be caused by the cookies and brownies that we have at our meetings. Or perhaps the pancake breakfasts … Or the Lenten Friday spaghetti dinners.

We do appear to be attracted to delicious food. 😊
 
Porknpie said:
it could be caused by the cookies and brownies that we have at our meetings. Or perhaps the pancake breakfasts … Or the Lenten Friday spaghetti dinners.

We do appear to be attracted to delicious food. 😊
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Snerk! 😃

(But you did verify my point! Thanks! 👍 )
 
I am promoting Shane Shaetzel’s book who is a former evangelical and is now Catholic.

His format is the misconception followed by the Catholic belief and practice. I was talking to my watchman and he said the Vatican owns the Bank of America and has the paper on it…and to look it up. Well for his sake I did and inspite of one’s site denying it, people are stuck on such concepts of the Catholic Church. Shane addresses some of the financial issues as well.

Actually the Catholic Church gives more to charity than any country including ours.
 
Thank You all For All of your support and Information it have been more than helpful. I am wanting to attend mass and also the classes but I have no ride to get there and i can not ask my mom because she said a few months ago that if i ever became Catholic she would kick me out. So at this time i have no way to get there. I had called the church but they cant seem to find anyone either. 😦
 
Porknpie said:
it could be caused by the cookies and brownies that we have at our meetings. Or perhaps the pancake breakfasts … Or the Lenten Friday spaghetti dinners.

We do appear to be attracted to delicious food. 😊
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Two places you no doubt tend to find Knight grouped together, Delicious Food, and Free Beer.

I can speak from experience, I resemble that statement…
 
tabbytru said:
Thank You all For All of your support and Information it have been more than helpful. I am wanting to attend mass and also the classes but I have no ride to get there and i can not ask my mom because she said a few months ago that if i ever became Catholic she would kick me out. So at this time i have no way to get there. I had called the church but they cant seem to find anyone either. 😦
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Things will change. PM me with your location and if you are in my area…you’ll have your ride. 🙂

You might show her some of the things that you have learned from us. Facts often cut right through the lies and deceptions.👍

Ah sorry…I’m in Florida and you’re in Tennessee. How old are you my friend?
 
Church_Militant said:
Things will change. PM me with your location and if you are in my area…you’ll have your ride. 🙂

You might show her some of the things that you have learned from us. Facts often cut right through the lies and deceptions.👍

Ah sorry…I’m in Florida and you’re in Tennessee. How old are you my friend?
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I think the reason they didn’t have anyone is because the secretary was out of town. I e-mailed her directly and she said she is working on getting me a ride. So hopefully she will be able to.
I am a young adult. My mother is blind and wheelchair bound so i have been taking care of her. but since she has said that she has said nothing else … i will have to see what happens when i actually attend mass.

I was wondering what do i wear to the mass? is it casual or formal or…?
 
tabbytru said:
I think the reason they didn’t have anyone is because the secretary was out of town. I e-mailed her directly and she said she is working on getting me a ride. So hopefully she will be able to.
I am a young adult. My mother is blind and wheelchair bound so i have been taking care of her. but since she has said that she has said nothing else … i will have to see what happens when i actually attend mass.

I was wondering what do i wear to the mass? is it casual or formal or…?
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As for what to wear, you don’t need to dress to the 9’s. But, a business casual style dress is usually considered best.

But in the end, being in mass with God is much more important that what you are wearing.
 
Or as they say on cruise ships for dinner…“smart casual”. A nice shirt and slacks does for me.

Don’t forget…most parishes have at least one Mass every day, usually in the morning.
Praying for ya.🙂
 
tabbytru said:
I admit that i am abit scared because i do have the SDA church beliefs in my head but I no longer believe most of them. I am very nervous about this step that i am taking but yet I hope that i will finally find the true church to belong to 🙂
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Hi Tabby and welcome to the forums.

Let me first repeat the words of Saint Pope John Paull II, “Be Not Afraid!” These are the words of Jesus that the Pope quoted.

Subrosa
 
tabbytru said:
ok thanks… i believe i will be attending a 9:30am service
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I haven’t read the thread, but here are a few links you might want to look over beforehand so you feel a little more comfortable about what’s going on.

catholicdeacon.org/mass%20outline.htm

And here are the readings for this Sunday, 6/22/14. (our readings are on a 3-year cycle to ensure that the entire Bible is regularly proclaimed).

usccb.org/bible/readings/062214.cfm

Don’t worry if it all seems confusing to you, or you feel a little out of place. Just stand, sit, and kneel when everyone else does, and participate as much as you feel comfortable doing so. There should be an outline of the Mass responses in the pew if you wish to follow along. The only thing we do ask if that when it comes time for Communion, just stay in the pew and allow others in the pew to get by. (The reason we have closed communion is theological, the bread and wine on the altar truly, really turn into the Body and Blood of Jesus Himself, and we want to make sure that no one partakes of Communion unless they truly know what they are doing, and believe it is His Body and Blood.)

Welcome to Mass! Hope you enjoy yourself. Make sure to come back on here and update on how it goes and your thoughts. God bless!
 
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