huh...I have come to realize I can no longer be a protestant

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hi jason,
have you ever heard of a tv show called the journey home on EWTN? that is the catholic channel, i hope you get it. it is a program mostly of protestant and evangelicals who are very religious coming home to the Catholic Church. the host Marcus also has a webpage, i think it is the coming home network or something like that.it is on monday nights at 7 pm central. it is excellent. i have always been Catholic,but not always a good one, and this show is just phenomenal. the people on it are so holy and inspiring to me, it has helped me in my faith so much. basically some of the teachings are the same, but the Catholic Church has so much more. I think the host marcus grodi was a minister, as are many of the guests , and they realize the same thing you have. there are also Scott Hahn tapes and books, for sale at ewtn or other places too. he was in fact very anti-catholic but is now bringing back many lapsed catholics and protestants. God Bless
 
The Journey Home and the Coming Home Network (chnetwork.com)

These might be of interest to you. Marcus Grodi is a former protestant minister who is now Catholic. His show, The Journey Home, showcases different people and how they came to know the faith. He also has a support group for protestant ministers in the process of converting.

🙂
 
Jason,

I can’t say how glad I am to read your thread. I am also a former Protestant (spent over a decade as a pretty active member of a Calvinist “Bible Church”), and God used a lot of people to get me home to the Catholic Church – people who would have never suspected, or ever advocated in some cases, becoming a Catholic.

One is a dear friend of mine who, sadly, had become very abusive in his language toward the RCC when we write each other, and so I can only handle his correspondence in tiny doses – many years ago he voiced both of our frustration perfectly well by asking, “what church can claim to have the correct INTERPRETATION of the Bible”, the answer of course being the RCC, but we didn’t know that.

Later on I started coming into contact with more people from a Pentacostal background, including one self-proclaimed prophet who started telling me and my then-girlfriend (now wife) what God’s will for our lives was. I challenged him by questioning where he got the authority to say things like that, which shut him down – but also got me to wondering.

Later on, my wife and I started attending a quasi-Baptist/Charismatic church (quite a unique assembly) where a man claimed to be an “apostle”, and that really, really bugged me. I was almost indignant about it – no, I was definitely indignant. But I would read passages in the Bible where it was clearly implied that apostles would still be around (I think Eph 4 and 1 Cor 12, maybe) – the man didn’t get the concept just out of nowhere, after all. But I couldn’t just accept it because he said so, or somebody allegedly had some prophecy about him. Nothing could be authenticated in my mind.

All of this finally made me fed up with the shaky foundations of evangelicalism as I understood it, and made me open to Catholicism. My wife was raised part Catholic, part Charismatic (a whole other story altogether), and she never was confirmed in the Church but wanted to take RCIA for a long time. She finally talked me into it, and the rest is history. I thank God from the depth of my heart that he used all of this to bring me to the true faith.

Jason, thanks for sharing. We look forward to your joining the family!

Michael
 
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jasonfin:
My theological studies have centered mostly on historical theology where I have been deeply influenced by two professors who have taught me about the Church Fathers, and how they can still be evangelicals, I have no idea.
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You have no idea? Maybe you should ask them.

If you want to know, that is.
 
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Kevan:
You have no idea? Maybe you should ask them.

If you want to know, that is.
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Of course, Kevan is right. It might raise some very interesting and challenging questions but you need not fear them as long as you are willing to listen to and consider all sides. One of my best experiences that really helped to solidify my own Catholic faith was reading the book Roman Catholicism: Evangelical Protestants Analyze What Divides and Unites Us, edited by John H. Armstrong (not to be confused with Lorainne Boettner’s Roman Catholicism). It consists of essays by professors and pastors and contains many of the most common misconceptions of Catholic teaching. A lot of the essays include many quotations from the Early Fathers to support their views. In my own research, however, I found a quite different picture from what they didn’t quote from the Early Church. I even started to write a book in response to it but I found that I needed to give up the project.
 
Are there any other posts on this board about people converting? I love hearing the stories!!! Also, are there any posts about people converting after being touched by the whole Pope John Paul II death? Could someone please lead me to these links if there are any? Thanks!!!
 
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Joey1976:
Are there any other posts on this board about people converting? I love hearing the stories!!! Also, are there any posts about people converting after being touched by the whole Pope John Paul II death? Could someone please lead me to these links if there are any? Thanks!!!
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Yeah, I’m SERIOUSLY considering converting. Whne my fiance (A fairly devout Catholic) moves back here in late May, she’s going to go to some RCIA classes with me. When we first met a year ago, I said there was nothing that could make me convert. Well, over this past weekend I told her what I was thinking of doing, and she about had a heart attack.
 
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Joey1976:
Are there any other posts on this board about people converting? I love hearing the stories!!! Also, are there any posts about people converting after being touched by the whole Pope John Paul II death? Could someone please lead me to these links if there are any? Thanks!!!
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You can access EWTN’s archive of The Journey Home in ReaAudio via this link: ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/selectseries.asp

This is a program where converts (mostly clergy) tell their stories and answer phone calls and e-mails live on the air. (The show I did was August 9, 2004!) Have fun.
 
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Joey1976:
Are there any other posts on this board about people converting? I love hearing the stories!!! Also, are there any posts about people converting after being touched by the whole Pope John Paul II death? Could someone please lead me to these links if there are any? Thanks!!!
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Most that I’ve seen, including this one, are from those investigating Catholicism but who have not (yet?) actually stated that they are converting. Another in which I am participating is at this thread.

forum.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=47949
 
Dear JasonGod bless you on your journey! I, too, realized I could not remain evangelical after studying the early Church Fathers. I have three good friends who all left our evangelical church for Catholicism after much prayer, study and thought. If I may share two things that helped me immensely: 1) take time to pray and fast, asking the Lord to direct you to His truth 2) St. Teresa of Avila’s *The Interior Castle *completely blew me away w/ its truth and beauty. One of my friends who was converting to Catholicism gave me a copy - she said it turned her life around. It is so amazing, perceptive, and packed w/ insights that you only may be able to read a page (or even a paragraph) at a time - you’ll need time to digest it.

Anyway, know there are many brothers and sisters who are praying for you! Your sister, Kate
 
I was raised an Evangelical sort of Southern Baptist and converted 2 years ago – I found the stories of Scott and Kimberly Hahn (Rome Sweet Rome) and a book by David Currie (Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic) extremly helpful –

I have extra copies to loan out to friends who wonder why I converted and have actually got one of them to consider converting herself this next year – the rest simply understand more where I’m coming from if I have a good bit of info to back myself us with.

Being a theology student I’m sure you have most of these facts now, but I still think it’s nice to have the same sort of people tell you their stories.

I hope you find your way home to Rome as I have – I simply LOVE this church.
 
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