I would like to hear the remarks , counter-arguments and opinions of the non-Catholics about my conversion story. Thank you.

[Athanasiy]

I grew up in the light of the teaching of Evangelical Baptists.
Being a school boy in the 11 th-form of the secondary school, I was baptized in the Church membership and through some time entered to the Pentecostal Theological Seminary.
Actually the Biblical Theology was not a subject , with which I could deal as easy as my co-fellows friends.
May be some people believe in the so called spirit of discerning of Scripture only by reading and prayer , but in my personal experience this principle in many doctrinal questions not always worked out.
When I was study in the Seminary , I remember the teachers , mostly they were the people from the different denominations , some of them were the people which as I noticed dedicated all their life for the theology study.
Many of them had their own understandings and interpretations which were considered by them as an authoritative.
When the teacher was quoting some expert in the Biblical theology , he was telling :

• ‘ That one has that opinion , and that one has that opinion….’
  But I was confused and embarrassed : - Why comparing the Scripture with a Scripture , why there is multiple interpretation among our Evangelical denominations ?
  Can we decide the problem of different interpretations by referring in these interpretations to the other interpretation ?

Is it possible to decide the problem of the Biblical authority - outside of the Catholic Church ?
Why the Scripture outside of the context of the Catholic Church allows the juggling of the texts by the different confessions – the juggling of the texts from the Scripture , which seems are proving the truthfulness of each of these denominations and confessions ?

We can not read the Scripture just by the ‘surface reading .
In order to know the Bible , you not just need to be literate .
( My grandfather can not read even in the twenty first century . He is almost 90 years old. )

Its also not satisfactory of solving the problem if we have enough of free time for the Bible study.
Because we need to operate the material from the Biblical commentaries , guide-books , dictionaries.

We must know , by reading the Bible ; who ? when ? has wrote that or that Epistle or Book , which we have in the canon.
We must take into consideration and account the culture of those times , historical and linguistic contexts of what is written.
Reading the Bible we can test , examine , explore the Scripture , but we need also to have the abilities , to have proper and adequate way of thinking by exploring the texts.
It is better to say by our Evangelical language – we need to have the Spirit of discerning !

But what is most interesting is the fact that by having all these qualities , notice also that according to the Evangelical approach is required by every body - we can not eventually escape the multiple interpretations in some verses of the Scripture.
This fact was most inapprehensible and obscure for me.

 

[Athanasiy]

Does the Bible allows the multiple interpretations in certain verses?
Can the Scripture by itself … the Scripture which allows more than one interpretation in some verses and plenty propositions in another verses – decide the problem of authority outside of the tradition of the Catholic Church ? The Church , which in fact - decided the canon of the Scripture ?
I remember I was communicated with one young brother the Pastor of the Yuth
Evangelical Church , who was proving to me that if that or that in the Scripture would be true , the Bible would say about it , but if the Bible keeps silence about that or that question , then it is permitted , or God delivered to us to decide if it is permitted or not.
When I hear that , I am more than sure that to think like this is even dangerous.

In the Bible it is written what it is written , the Bible says what it says and nothing more.
The Bible doesn’t says about every thing !

Before in the ancient time the potatoes was forbidden to eat , just because it was not written in the Bible.
The example with potatoes looks ridiculous today , right ?
But there are modern scientific experiments , which are forbidden and sinful , but the Bible keeps silence about it.
There are the sins , lets say – modern sins , which you can not find in the Bible even if you have some theological microscopes or glasses - but those sins are sinful.

I know that many of our brothers and sisters in North America and West Europe , which are even trying to educate our Evangelical congregations by their literature , pamphlets and magazines , and notice , they measuring every thing by the Scripture but they have totally different opinion about the predestination to the Salvation , planning of the family , childbearing….
Notice , with the same Bible , they seems operate with a totally different measure of spirituality , totally different paradigm of spirituality in the very important matters.

Our forerunners , which founded the Protestant community , declared that Bible by itself – decides the problem of authority.
But learning the theology in the Evangelical Seminary , and even afterwards being graduated , I could not agree with that statement.
I understood , when I study the Scripture , sooner or later I can find myself in front of the choice :

• In what I should believe ?
  In my own interpretation of Scripture or how my denomination teaches the Scripture ?

I revealed that Scripture is not self – authentic.
None of the original manuscripts have survived.
There are thousands of the manuscripts.
There are plenty of Bible versions.
The Bible even doesn’t says about all what Jesus has deed.
( Mark 4:33 6:34 Luke 2:15,16 24:25,27 John 16:12 20:30 21:25
Acts 1:2,3.)

Even the idea of the Scripture which exist outside of the Church is absolutely strange for the early Church.
The conception of the Sola Scriptura had its form no early than in the 14-th century.
So , the question arise .
Did the Christ , who did not write even one word in the Scripture has left the book , or he left the Church ?

 

[Athanasiy]

Must the Church be ranked and aligned to the book , or may be the book who is the part of the Church tradition has to be ranked and aligned to the teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ ?

One more , very important fact I revealed for myself that the Bible calls not the Scripture but the Church as a ‘Pillar and foundation of the truth.’
( So it means that Church of Jesus Christ is higher than the Scripture.) – actually the word Bible , you can’t even find in the Scripture.
Apostol Paul commands to the Christians to be submissive to the Apostles tradition , he doesn’t say to be submissive to the Bible.
And the word tradition according to the Scripture itself is not a bad word , vice versa , the tradition in Greek means ‘ what is passed from one to the other.’
And the Scripture is the Church living tradition itself.

I have discovered that Evangelicalism which is split by the thousands of denominations requires the theological erudition , which not just impossible to find the true Church according to the Bible.
But requires the theological erudition which does not exist at all.
Because among the labyrinths of Charismatics , Jehovah Witnesses, Adventists and Baptists , there are a lot of educated people , who were studying the Bible for a years.

The Evangelical experience : ‘- Me , Scripture and Holy Spirit ‘ , looks like the experience of a chicken without hen , without mother , the chicken who runs after the every moving object .
The chicken who by instinct feels that there must be the hen .
So the Evangelical experience is similar with that funny chicken , with a Scripture without Church , with a Scripture outside of the Church.

Finally , I came to the conclusion :
The right understanding of the Bible without Church is impossible
There is no Scripture without the Church.
The context of the Scripture is the Church.
And to interpreting the Scripture outside of the Church is interpreting the Scripture outside of the context.
Otherwise how we can avoid our own faultlessness and unerring in interpreting the Scripture ?

I am sure that Jesus would never separate the Scripture from the Church .
Because the Scripture is the part of Church organism .
Like the heart is the part of the human body.
( Jesus would never be the guide of the Martin Luther’s reformation.
Jesus himself was not rebelling neither against the Roman Empire nor against the ecclesiastical authority.)

Why I have the reasons to trust the Catholic Scripture ?
Because the Catholic interpretation of the Bible doesn’t worship the letter of the text , but follows the spirit of the text.
The Catholic interpretation of the Bible doesn’t disfigures some ones innocent earthly joys .
Does not send the people before ahead to heaven or to hell .
The Catholic interpretation of the Bible doesn’t teach to be indifferent to the society .
The Catholic interpretation of the Biblical prophesies does not mix up the symbolic and spiritual with materialistic and literal.
Because the Scripture is the book of the Catholic Church.
So the truth about the Bible , has lead me to the truth about the Church.

 

[JonNC]

It sounds like to me that the Holy Spirit has led you to where he wants you. I wish only His blessings and peace on you.

Jon

 

[Publisher]

May your journey to the Catholic church bring you “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

If God has brought you to this place then I rejoice with you.