God doesn't want me to be Catholic?

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God allowed/s it because we have free will to do what we want and the devil knows this too and slides in to see if we will fall for him instead. The fruit of the lesson is discernment! To discern that which is of God and that which is not
 
1ke said:
Our own imaginations are quite capable of creating all sorts of fantastical scenarios that we attribute to God.
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Yes, but God is also quite capable of giving dreams and visions.

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”
1ke said:
And God is not micromanaging your life like that.
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So when God answers the plea of a heart it is micromanaging?

I suppose if any anyone can micromanage us it is one who has the very number of our hairs numbered.

To be fair I suppose if the dream were to leave Protestantism I would probably doubt it to be of Godly origin also.
 
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Sounds to me like the person who’d advised you about leaving left the Church because she was poorly catechized. Her own doubts appeared in her dreams from lack of knowledge. This can be resolved by doing your own research on the matter. Learn all that you can. Let God lead you.
 
Perhaps, yet it sounds if she had attended some form of Catholic training and might very well have attended parochial school. I mean they were singing Catholic songs.

The real question is did she hear an alternative message or path. Did she hear a Billy Graham crusade or something. I mean a Catholic doesnt just ask God if they are on right path out of nowhere. So no matter the level of catechism, an alternative message can lead to a plea to God’s court and Staff.

So indeed was the dream anointed, and was the prior prayer for guidance anointed, and was the hearing of an alternative path/ message that began everything anointed?
 
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mcq72 said:
Did she hear a Billy Graham crusade or something.
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Billy Graham would NEVER have told someone to leave the Catholic Church. (Some of the copycat televangelists who followed him certainly would have, but not Graham himself.)

Billy Graham had an established practice of sending people back to their home church (even if Catholic) to revitalize it. Pope St. John Paul II invited him to give a retreat in Poland. Graham also worked with the Pope and with President Ronald Reagan on their joint campaign to bring down the Berlin Wall.
 
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AussieGirl said:
It took me a while to find a translation that says “she” (the woman/Mary) shall crush the serpent’s head. I did find it in the Douay-Rheims Challoner Revision 1752 and Catholic Public Domain Version.
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The Mystical City of God: Life of the Virgin Mother of God, manifested to Sister Mary of Jesus of Agreda:

Excerpt :

The dragon in agonizing efforts to escape,
said : O Woman, give me leave to hurl myself into hell,
for I cannot bear thy presence, nor will I ever venture to
come before Thee as long as Thou livest upon this world.
Thou hast conquered, O Woman, Thou hast conquered,
and I acknowledge thy power in Him who has made
Thee his Mother. Omnipotent God, chastise us Thyself,
since we cannot resist Thee

but do not send thy punishments
through a Woman of a nature so inferior to ours.
Her charity consumes us, her humility crushes us, and
She is in all things a living manifestation of thy mercy
for men. This is a torment surpassing many others.
Assist me, ye demons! But alas, what can our united
efforts avail against this Woman, since all our power
cannot ever deliver us from her presence until She her
self casts us forth? O foolish children of Adam, who
follow me, forsaking life for the sake of death, truth or
falsehood? What absurdity and insanity
is yours, (so in despair I must confess), since you have in your midst
and belonging to your own nature the incarnate Word
and this Woman ? Greater is your ingratitude than mine
and this Woman forces me to confess the truths, which
I abhor with all my heart. Cursed be my resolve to
persecute this Daughter of Adam, who so torments and
crushes me!
http://themostholyrosary.com/mystical-city.htm
 
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MarysLurker said:
Billy Graham would NEVER have told someone to leave the Catholic Church. (Some of the copycat televangelists who followed him certainly would have, but not Graham himself.)

Billy Graham had an established practice of sending people back to their home church (even if Catholic) to revitalize it.
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Exactly. Billy Graham presented a message, a path, that was not Catholic, not Protestant, not Orthodox, not Jewish but presented Jesus Christ as the gateway, the path. And lest someone confound the simplicity of that with which Christ ( Nestorian, Arian etc.), that would be the traditional Christ of those four churches mentioned.

Grahams very message is that Christ is not sectarian. So if one is raised thinking their church is all it relative to other churches, his message certainly challenges the necesity even validity of such a sentiment. Hence the listener lady just might ask herself, is their indeed spiritual life outside of Catholicism, even a life ordained by Jesus Himself.

So agree Graham would not directly tell someone to leave the Catholic church, but he also would not condemn one changing churches either.
 
mcq72 said:
Grahams very message is that Christ is not sectarian.
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So your “just Christ” church is not sectarian. But everyone else is a sect. Special pleading fallacy.

If Graham had really believed that “just Christ” was enough, he would have done what the subsequent copycats (Swaggart, Copeland, Osteen etc) did and started his own church. All of those guys say what you say but Graham did not.

This interchangeable-church viewpoint leaves all churches unable to make moral claims. If the Episcopalians are pro-choice and anti-marriage (which they are) you have zero basis on which to say they are wrong. You have your Bible verses. They have theirs. You end up appealing to tradition and history and that road leads to Rome. And ultimately, you must accept the Immaculate Conception of Mary, or else fall into moral relativism.
 
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MarysLurker said:
So your “just Christ” church is not sectarian.
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No i said Christ is not sectarian but churches are, some more than others. The scale is how much does a church teach Christ and how much does it teach “their” church. Graham preached Christ. What church, sect, denomination did he put forth, preach, suggest ? And with all this Graham certainly did not suggest " churchlessness". He certainly believed in the Body of Christ.
MarysLurker said:
This interchangeable-church viewpoint leaves all churches unable to make moral claims. If the Episcopalians are pro-choice and anti-marriage
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Amd as you point out churches do make moral claims, just as you can make a moral claim, just as two witnesses can make a moral claim.
MarysLurker said:
You end up appealing to tradition and history and that road leads to Rome
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Well, just as folks have their bible verses, folks have their traditions and historical views. That all leads to Rome is CC particular view, but not Orthodox nor Protestant. All roads should lead to Peter and Paul, and Christ Himself.

We differ just as they did in Jesus day. Yet Christ did not side with the sects of His day, but was very generic with “salvation is of the Jews”…He treated Jewish sects based on the merit of their claims and deeds . We would be wise to do likewise. Catholicism as it is today is but a part of Christendom, in which rests salvation thru Christ for the world.
 
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I understand this point, I really do. I understand that there are times where we need to practice discernment. However, if she was so young, how could she have been expected to discern such a thing? Especially when she was so earnestly and purely seeking God…It just troubles me that God would allow a child to fall away (at least from the “fullness of the truth”) in that way, when their’s is the kind of faith we’re supposed to have.
 
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mcq72 said:
I do not judge one’s zeal for Christ as being relative to zeal for IC
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What is zeal for Christ? The Episcopalians would say that zeal for pro-abortion is zeal for Christ, sadly. We would say that such “zeal” is actually two grave sins against Christ, blasphemy and murder.

Once upon a time, when the culture was Judeo-Christian, everyone agreed there was a God, and everyone accepted the Ten Commandments as normative, no one asked tough questions. I regret to inform you that those days are over. I miss them too.
 
MarysLurker said:
What is zeal for Christ? The Episcopalians would say that zeal for pro-abortion is zeal for Christ, sadly. We would say that such “zeal” is actually two grave sins against Christ, blasphemy and murder.
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Yes, and we have both judged such zeal as based on ignorance and not truth and Spirit…now what?
 
Thank you for your encouragement 🙂 Yes, the Catholic Church’s claims to apostolic succession and its historical longevity do weigh favourably!

I do think @mcq72 makes good points further down the thread re: God answering pleas of the heart; it seems @Hope7 and I have very similar questions and concerns!

I’m also very aware of my biases and how they might influence my perception. In any case, I have to stop pretending I have any chance of working out God’s deal here!
 
AussieGirl said:
Thank you for your encouragement 🙂 Yes, the Catholic Church’s claims to apostolic succession and its historical longevity do weigh favourably!

I do think @mcq72 makes good points further down the thread re: God answering pleas of the heart; it seems @Hope7 and I have very similar questions and concerns!

I’m also very aware of my biases and how they might influence my perception. In any case, I have to stop pretending I have any chance of working out God’s deal here!
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Read Karl Keating famous book, he’s the founder of Catholic Answers:

https://www.amazon.com/Catholicism-Fundamentalism-Karl-Keating-ebook/dp/B0037BVKEE

 
Also read and listen to Timothy Staples. He is a convert from the assembly’s of god. You can find videos on you tube with him.
 
I’m not sure if anyone else would see this, since it’s been so long, but I had another experience which I’m struggling with.

My pastor (who genuinely seems like such a Godly person) came up to pray for me, and shared that she felt God saying "You don’t need to chase Me. I’m right here."

Now, I was freaked out because that also spoke exactly to where I was in that moment. I understand there’s a chance that wasn’t God, but after praying so much for a sign, it’s hard for me to ignore. (Especially when my pastor just seems so genuinely connected to God.) However, were I to stay at my current church, Catholic questions would inevitably plague me.

Any thoughts? (I understand if not; I’ve been overwhelmed by the gracious responses already.) I’m just so conflicted…the verse 1 Corinthians 14:33 comes to mind (“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints”), but I’m really struggling with discernment; I am so confused.

God bless you all,
Hope
 
Hope7 said:
My pastor (who genuinely seems like such a Godly person) came up to pray for me, and shared that she felt God saying "You don’t need to chase Me. I’m right here."
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When I decided to become Catholic, I was working in a pro-services firm. I had told no one about my forthcoming conversion except my parents and one relative. None of them had any objection. The next week a client of the firm and a complete stranger came and started a Protestant vs. Catholic debate with me out of nowhere!

It’s possible that someone found out you were considering the Church and is running resistance. It’s also possible that it is a temptation to stop looking with a spiritual origin.
 
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