Questions for Catholic converts

[Teflon93]

I agree. That’s exactly why I didn’t let her snarky comments attacking the Christians and the Catholic Church go. My reply was defensive, but not hateful…but honestly, I don’t think it was that bad…I’m wagering that she already had a super negative opinion of the Church to begin with, so it probably would not have mattered what I said or how I said it.

I gave up. I prayed to God to forgive me for the role I played in the dispute, I prayed for him to restore the friendship and to someday soften her heart to his truth.

That was precisely the right thing to do, IMO.

Too often people prey on the scrupulous for base reasons.

We forget sometimes how much steel lined the spines of the saints and how “intolerant” they could be in today’s terms.

Mother Theresa springs immediately to mind, or Pope John Paul II publicly rebuking the Sandinista bishop with a boldly wagging finger.

Christ driving the moneychangers from the Temple, whip in hand, also provides a ready example.

Christianity is the fire as well as the marshmallow.

 

[Debra_C]

Your final sentence is said by a lot of Protestant (at least evangelical) leaders, as well.

I’m still trying to work this out myself…but I think the trick is interpretting the word, “BELIEVE”. We usually take this word to mean that we awknowledge the truth or existance of something without proof. But I’m begining to think that when Jesus makes a statement like that in John 3:16 (a verse often quoted to support the grace only doctrine)…the word “believe” is not only supposed to mean awknowledgement…but also obedience. To believe in the Son means to obey the Son…and the Son has commanded us to repent, to love God (which again involves obedience), to love our neighbor (works of mercy), etc…
So following my reasoning (which could be faulty), one could replace the word “believe” with whatever Christ has commanded.

It isn’t to say that “doing” works is going to get you to heaven…but God is going to hold us accountable for everything we have done, good and bad…and I think that will include NOT obeying, not loving, not helping others…not “working”.

The way I see it, sarah_anne, is that the initial faith is, in and of itself, a gift or a grace from God. We can allow it to begin the conversion or transformation of ourselves from the inside out, or we can go along as we always were. But Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” He asks us to respond to that gift of faith, to exercise it, to nurture it and help it grow. We are to love Him and follow Him. If we do not allow His grace to slowly (sometimes quickly) transform us and make an effort to conform ourselves more and more to His will rather than selfishly following our own, we have have shown despise for His gift of grace. To do so, is to reject it, and if we reject His grace, He makes it clear we will not reach heaven. He will not force us to love and serve Him. He gave Himself as a free gift, even unto death on the cross. He expects us to respond to that gift with love freely given.

I know that only a portion of Protestants teach once saved, always saved. And though I never heard the term conversion described as I did in my previous post until I got to RCIA, it does not surprise me that some Protestants have used it this way. After all, Protestants and Catholics alike are Christians, and we share more in common than we have differences.

 

[Ignatius]

My understanding of Catholicism is probably rudimentary compared to the people here, but still I’d like to know why people convert to Catholicism from Protestant denominations.

What is it that sparks the change? What are doctrinal differences These are the two main questions I need answering: why people did it and consequently, the differences in doctrine that caused this change.

Hi Jesse, and welcome.

You may be surprised to learn that, according to a recent poll, many if not most on this forum are former Protestants. Some were even pastors of sizeable congregations.

Here is a good video with some perspective: youtube.com/watch?v=hl-08atFqzc

Here is a website with the witness and conversion stories of many protestant clergy who discovered the Truth of the Catholic Faith: www.chnetwork.org/

Here is a site that gives the biblical basis of The Catholic Church (it might have been Protestant but now it’s Catholic) www.biblechristiansociety.com

Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.

Your servant in Christ.

 

[Leeta]

I grew up in an anti -Catholic Christ of Christ home in a Protestant city and state. Catholics were and still are rare there.

First I had an experience of deep love for Christ and sorrow after reading a Marvel comic on the Life of Jesus when I was 4 years old. My mother pointed out things which weren’t Biblical about it. (Apparently it was a Catholic version.)

Later in 7th grade I had doubts about God’s existence. Someone gave me C. S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity. So I knew there must be a God.

Then I had a conversion at 13 after asking Jesus in my heart. What really drew me was the love of the Christians and in the prayer. I was baptised in the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking in tongues. Then I did street and school witnessing (I considered Catholics to be apart of a cult.)and drifted off into sin and lukewarmness.

Then at college, I met my future husband, a Catholic. By that time I was not attending any church. He refused to marry anyone, but a Catholic. He asked me to look into the Catholic Church and see what it taught. I did enough, but not too much investigation to discover that Catholics are Christians, much to my surprise. My prayer was, “Lord I don’t want to do anything to hurt you!”

So I could reconcile my conscience to becoming Catholic. Afterall I had some vague inkling from newspaper stories that the Church had changed its teachings and that it was not a medieval society anymore.

But I remained a Protestant at heart. I figured that every church had its errors in doctrine and the Catholic Church was no exception.

After having my first children, I became involved with fighting abortion. I had seen their hearts beating at 20 weeks inside me and was shocked to find out that abortion was legal up to birth.

All these years I thought the Catholic Church had changed a lot of its teaching, but I kept reading in secular newspapers that the Church opposed birth control. This was news to me. At the liberal Newman Center we attended it was never mentioned.
So finally i read that Humanae vitae somehow explained why the Churcdh opposed it. So I read it and was shocked. Pope Paul VI had propehesied that if birth control became widespread, civil governements would intrude into the married life and decide how many children a couple could have. I had just read about the atrocities commeitted by the Chinese government against its own by forced abortions.

I decided then and there that I wanted no part in using birth control if its use led to such a barbaris and inhuman society such as China was and is.
Then I wondered how Pope Paul VI, an unmarried man, could have had any inkling of this. The whole world had opposed the encyclical Humanae vitae. So how did he know? I decided that the Holy Spirit had truly spoken through this encyclical and that if He had, then He probably had spoken throught the Pope on other matters, too.
I trembled because I knew I had to truly believe all that the Catholic Church taught. Since I was still quite Protestant this would take some doing.

So I studied up on all the matters about which I had problems (the ‘errors’ as I had believed them to be) and lo and behold these teachings were all very sensible and quite Biblical.