question for Protestants who became Catholic

[Jim_Dandy]

Hey! How dare you!? There’s nothing wrong with methodism!

Methodism was founded by John and Charles Wesley in 1744 in England.

Catholicism was founded by Jesus Christ – God Himself – in A.D. 33, in Jerusalem.

Methodism (and all other Protestant or non-Catholic religions) is man made; Catholicism is God-made.

Only two world religions are God-made: Judaism and Catholicism, which is the completion of Judaism.

Former Southern Baptist, atheist

 

[heathernoel]

I’ve talked about it with my girls, and I am in no way ashamed of my years in that church, but honestly, having been invited back for several events there, I can’t make myself go. It’s not Home!

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

I’ve talked about it with my girls, and I am in no way ashamed of my years in that church, but honestly, having been invited back for several events there, I can’t make myself go. It’s not Home!

It’s amazing how it works thay way, doesn’t it? The church I “grew up” in invites me to events from time to time, but I can’t being myself to go. It’s not the same.

I am also not ashamed of being in the church I was. I am, however, ashamed at the anti-catholic garbage I spewed and my persecution of her members…

 

[heathernoel]

Does that mean I didn’t pay close enough attention? I can’t remember ever hearing about other denominations.

Sadly, I don’t remember any of the sermons, either

 

[Zundrah]

Does that mean I didn’t pay close enough attention? I can’t remember ever hearing about other denominations.

Sadly, I don’t remember any of the sermons, either

You haven’t heard of Baptist, methodist, pentecostal, non-denominational, gospel, free, Evangelical or others?

 

[Zundrah]

Methodism was founded by John and Charles Wesley in 1744 in England.

Catholicism was founded by Jesus Christ – God Himself – in A.D. 33, in Jerusalem.

Methodism (and all other Protestant or non-Catholic religions) is man made; Catholicism is God-made.

Only two world religions are God-made: Judaism and Catholicism, which is the completion of Judaism.

Former Southern Baptist, atheist

In your view what is the major difference between methodism and catholicism?

 

[AngloCatholic1]

rinnie asked:

What would be the one teaching that Your Protestant church, Preacher, etc could not explain away that got you to turn Catholic?

I was raised in a nominally christian home by two parents who came from Baptist families. I was given “christian” values, but never went to church, not even at Christmas! I sought out Christ all by myself at an early age, but still never went to church… because I didn’t know I had to! I was a young adult when I started looking for a church… but NEVER EVER even considered the Catholic Church because I was always taught that I was simply “protestant”.

After MANY years of Christian life, I overheard someone say that “Catholic Bibles are different”. At first I simply thought that they were different in the way that JW’s “Bibles” are different. But later I learned that the Catholic Bible contained MORE books. Then I investigated and found out that the Catholic Bible contains the SAME books that were considered Holy Scripture in Jesus’ own day! My question to the pastor was “How come OUR Bibles don’t contain the same books as the ancient Septuagint, the Scriptures Jesus Himself used?”. I was unimpressed with the weak answers I got.

So it was the fact that the Catholic Church uses ALL of the original Scriptures that got me to look at it for the very first time. Then, the more I looked… the more I realized that I’ve ALWAYS been a Catholic, and just never knew it! Amen!

 

[heathernoel]

You haven’t heard of Baptist, methodist, pentecostal, non-denominational, gospel, free, Evangelical or others?

Of course I just don’t remember any of the sermons I heard in the Methodist church, but I clearly remember some awesome Homilies over the years…that was my only point

My father’s family were Italian Catholics who came to the US and converted to the Baptist faith. Many still are. My mother’s family were founding members of an offshoot of the 7th Day Adventist church… it’s scandalous that I would choose Catholicism.

 

[jmcrae]

I always hear the same phrase when I hear Protestants who turned Catholic say one thing. But its never the same thing.

Let me explain. I always here there is one teaching of the Catholic CHurch that I could not have explained away.

What would be the one teaching that Your Protestant church, Preacher, etc could not explain away that got you to turn Catholic?

It seems there is always one thing that makes the :newidea: go off and then there is no turning back. I would love to hear what did it for you.

Thanks and God Bless!

What did it for me was that the Catholic Church made sense and could explain itself, with everything holding together, whereas the United Church of Canada had all sorts of bits and pieces, but nothing really holding the pieces together, and not really a whole lot of logic behind it. The explanation that I was going with was that the Holy Spirit reveals things to us gradually, and over time, things we thought were true back when, turn out not to be true, or else they were true back then, but things have changed and they aren’t true any more. I was actually okay with that explanation, until at the General Council of 2000, the Holy Spirit managed to contradict Himself within five minutes - at one moment, He told the Council not to worry about paying restitution to the natives for things that happened at the Residential schools, and then five minutes later, the Holy Spirit told them to pay out a particular sum to a certain group of natives.

To me it seemed perfectly transparent that certain people were manipulating the Council, and that the Holy Spirit had nothing to do with it at all - and it also became very clear to me that that’s how it’s always been - all these “changes” have just been various political factions in the Church getting the upper hand in the Council; in reality, the Holy Spirit had nothing to do with it.

I realize that the Catholic Church also has its politics, but it has never had any of its Councils contradict each other on matters of doctrine, and it isn’t possible for anyone to crash a Council meeting and force a vote to be retaken in his own favour.

 

[Bbigam]

It was several things for me, but the big one was the Real Presence in the Eucharist. I had long thought in my old Free Methodist church that communion ought to be something more than what it was - I’d always get excited when we had communion but then be disappointed when I took it. It also bothered me in the prayer my pastor used when he would say, “The elements represent Christ only in a heavenly and spiritual manner, they are never to be considered objects of worship.” One day (Friday, February 13, 2009!) I was studying up on Catholicism and read John 6 and suddenly understood the Real Presence and was hungry for it, and I’ll finally receive Our Lord at the Easter Vigil on April 3, 2010!

Long before that I had been gradually rejecting “faith alone” because it didn’t make any sense to me, and I had begun to reject Sola Scriptura and to somewhat accept at least the idea of Apostolic Succession and a Magisterium.

The rest is falling into place as we speak!

 

[Zundrah]

Of course I just don’t remember any of the sermons I heard in the Methodist church, but I clearly remember some awesome Homilies over the years…that was my only point

My father’s family were Italian Catholics who came to the US and converted to the Baptist faith. Many still are. My mother’s family were founding members of an offshoot of the 7th Day Adventist church… it’s scandalous that I would choose Catholicism.

Ah I see, but I remember some of the sermons but they are nothing compared to homilies!

 

[Robbinson]

The Eucharist - its all about the Eucharist

Blessings,

Brian

 

[Zundrah]

The Eucharist - its all about the Eucharist

Blessings,

Brian

Amen, my little friend!

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I always hear the same phrase when I hear Protestants who turned Catholic say one thing. But its never the same thing.

Let me explain. I always here there is one teaching of the Catholic CHurch that I could not have explained away.

What would be the one teaching that Your Protestant church, Preacher, etc could not explain away that got you to turn Catholic?

It seems there is always one thing that makes the :newidea: go off and then there is no turning back. I would love to hear what did it for you.

Thanks and God Bless!

I can’t think of any particular teaching. It was more of a spiritual pressure. When I resisted, push eventually became shove. However for the first nine years of my Christian walk, I basically attended one (Presbyterian) church with an outstanding (Methodist trained) pastor, who had a very talented family to boot. So I had well informed, consistent and wise leadership.

But when I got married and moved away (and he died not long after), I found myself shuffling mainly between Wesleyan Methodist and Baptist churches, with the occasional foray into AOG. What got to me was the lack of consistency with huge differences in pastoral ability, and not only between denominations, but even within the denominations.

I also felt that for people who rely on “Grace”, they seemed to always be running at a million miles an hour trying all these different programs. And when it came to the Catholic Church, some of these “grace filled” Christians became very self righteous.

In addition my old pastor made three comments to me in the privacy of his office (pity he didn’t make them publicly, as he was held in high esteem in local church circles).

One was that he sometimes wondered if Protestants get into heaven, and since I found that whenever he said anything, time nearly always proved him 100% correct, this was a bit of an eye opener.

His other comment was that he thought Martin Luther was the “False Prophet”. Not the usual protestant aspiration. Since he’d christened his second youngest son with Luther as his middle name, something had clearly changed his mind with the passing of years. I think he might have done some reading outside the recommended curricula. His understatement was “Some of the things Luther said and did weren’t very Christian”.

His third comment was “Protestants tell a lot of lies about Catholics and the Catholic Church”.

Overall however it was a sort of spiritual push, which the divisions within the above Protestant churches did nothing to assuage.

I know this much - wild horses wouldn’t drag me back into the Presbyterian Church.

 

[Jim_Dandy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Dandy
Methodism was founded by John and Charles Wesley in 1744 in England.

Catholicism was founded by Jesus Christ – God Himself – in A.D. 33, in Jerusalem.

Methodism (and all other Protestant or non-Catholic religions) is man made; Catholicism is God-made.

Only two world religions are God-made: Judaism and Catholicism, which is the completion of Judaism.

Former Southern Baptist, atheist

In your view what is the major difference between methodism and catholicism?

Short answer: because Methodism is only partially true, and Catholicism is the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth.

This applies to all Protestant denominations. Orthodoxy has also lost its way – not only by rejecting the papacy, thus destroying the unity of Christ’s Church, but morally by permitting two divorces and three marriages and allowing contraception. Only the Catholic Church, the True Church, Christ’s Own Church, stands alone against the pressures of our culture.

 

[Zundrah]

Short answer: because Methodism is only partially true, and Catholicism is the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth.

This applies to all Protestant denominations. Orthodoxy has also lost its way – not only by rejecting the papacy, thus destroying the unity of Christ’s Church, but morally by permitting two divorces and three marriages and allowing contraception. Only the Catholic Church, the True Church, Christ’s Own Church, stands alone against the pressures of our culture.

This is true but what about methodism? What part of methodism is only part true?

 

[rinnie]

This is true but what about methodism? What part of methodism is only part true?

Hi Zun, I don’t want to de-rail the thread so I am going to give you a quick and easy answer. Methodism is a Protestant Church. If a Church is Protestant it does not mean they do not agree with some of the CC. BUt they do not agree with all of our teaching. They protest it. They why they are not Catholic. In order for a Church to be the Catholic Church they must agree with ALL of the teachings of the Church. Now also before that gets out of hand not disciplines, teachings. We must be in communion with the Pope. IF you do not understand we can start another thread.

 

[Zundrah]

Hi Zun, I don’t want to de-rail the thread so I am going to give you a quick and easy answer. Methodism is a Protestant Church. If a Church is Protestant it does not mean they do not agree with some of the CC. BUt they do not agree with all of our teaching. They protest it. They why they are not Catholic. In order for a Church to be the Catholic Church they must agree with ALL of the teachings of the Church. Now also before that gets out of hand not disciplines, teachings. We must be in communion with the Pope. IF you do not understand we can start another thread.

Open up a new thread rinnie and throw me the link for it! We can talk about it there!

 

[hesco]

Once saved always saved- I never bought it.

Disrespect about Mary- I had a pastor’s wife tell me that Mary was no better than she was-if that was so, why didn’t God pick her to be the mother to Jesus?

It seemed to me- knowing as little as I did, that Mary had a special place in God’s plan. Mary was the deal breaker. Kind of ironic.

I decided to prayerfully consider Catholicism after I wrote a paper in a secular religion course and had to examine the different major faiths in light of the Gospels.

As I researched, I shared my findings with my husband. We made the decision to convert together. Which was amazing because my husband had never been a church goer, was unsure about Christianity, and was basically an agnostic. To watch his conversion was a beautiful and wonderful thing. Since we converted, he rarely misses Mass and only for legit reasons- illness. This was a man who only went to church with me to see our oldest in the annual Christmas or Easter performance. So even with all of the questions that I have (see a post called questioning my religion lately) I do trust that the Holy Spirit led me (us) to the Church and this is where I am meant to be.

Mary is totally disrespected in a lot of protestant churches. God chose her to have his son, she was born without sin. She didn’t even have a negative thought in her head. She is the mother of the church and deserves respect. We don’t worship the Virgin, but we do pray to her. Sometimes in different situations it is easier to pray to a Mother than a Father.