Reverts: Any of you come home because of non-Catholic works?

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As I was reading the ‘Joyce Meyer’ thread, I was reminded about my journey home to the Church. I had left the Church for over five years and it was actually non-Catholic works that led me home. Rather, I should say that the Holy Spirit led me home through non-Catholic works. You’ll never believe it, but I had a rapture believing friend who recommended the "Left Behind’ books. When I read them, I KNEW the premise of the entire story was wrong but I didn’t know exactly what the Catholic Church taught about the end times. So, I started to study up on the Rapture issue. Then, I read Lee Strobel’s books–The Case for Christ and the The Case for Faith. They really boosted my longing for Christ. Still, I dragged my feet about going back to the Church. Why? Pride, of course. I was ashamed of a particular sin (definitely a mortal one) and too embarrassed to confess it. I tried confessing directly to God but that felt utterly useless. One day I was in a book store looking for yet another religious book. I had an experience that was so strong, I left the book store, found the closest Catholic Church, and reconciled immediately. I can’t discuss the details of that experience, due to forum rules, however I do feel God had prepared me for it through the works of non-Catholics (Tim Lahaye is actually anti-Catholic, IMO)

So, how about any other reverts? Did your journey home start with the works of non-Catholics? Sometimes, I think the Holy Spirt has quite a sense of humor!
 
Many years after leaving Mormonism, it was radio talk show host (and practicing Jew) Dennis Prager who influenced me to turn back to God and trust Him again and start praying. Soon after that I was led back to the Catholic Church.

Dennis loves it when people tell him that he led them to Christ.

God bless,
Paul
 
No, I can’t say that non-Catholic works did, or that any particular word was the impetus to come back home. But the writings of a convert, Dr. Peter Kreeft, made it a lot easier to face, and then embrace, the prospect of the return.

Do Catholics, I wonder, really recognize the contributions, and their significant worth, made by so many converts? Dr. Kreeft, Fr. Neuhaus, and many, many others?

Blessings,

Gerry
 
I came back to the Catholic Church after not practising any religion for five years. I decided to return after reading the KJV Bible.
 
Well, I am not yet a Catholic, but I am pretty close to taking the plunge and converting.

Whatever the case, what got me interested in Christianity in the first place (or made Christianity seem like a viable option) was the writings of a Protestant philosopher, William Lane Craig.

One minor thing that started to make Catholicism seem like a viable option was, believe it or not, the (admittedly anti-Catholic) translators’ preface to the original King James Version. Looking back in hindsight, this is silly, but I was shocked to find out that the translators referred to different Church Fathers, and even called Saint Jerome “a most learned father”. Instantly I realized there was a problem with the simple-minded, 30-second anti-Catholic polemic which appeals to Matthew 23:9. Surely those translators read the verse (they themselves translated it!), so what was going on?

Also relevant, pondering the fact that the original King James had more books than Protestant Bibles do today piqued my interest, and sent me down a long road of trying to figure out who has the authority to say what is and is not in the canon (i.e. who has the power to “bind and loose” the previously disparate books of scripture into a single canon?). That led me to a belief in Church authority, and thus a literal understanding of the the Church being the pillar and foundation of truth.

Then, as I was studying about the canon of scripture, I came across the writings of a Methodist, Albert Sundberg, who argued passionately for the canonicity of the deuterocanonicals. Also, during that same period of research, I found various passages in the Babylonian Talmud, including the notes of esteemed modern Talmudic scholars, which shed very positive light on whether Sirach was scriptural in ancient Judaism. By the way, the fruits of this research are on display in the following entry on my blog:

blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=125682309&blogID=240765838

Also, up until recently, I had been torn about whether to go Catholic or Orthodox, and W.F. Albright’s “Anchor Bible” commentary on Matthew 16:18-19 made the notion of Peter as the leader of the Church all the more reasonable.
 
Welcome NewAbdalMaseeh :bounce:

it’d be interesting to know about your journey to Christianity 👍
 
I was sitting in a service and the minister was going on and on about Mary not really being who she was and that there were more than 12 apostles etc and he even mocked his own daughter and claimed he was a cynic. Well I never went back and it took a while to come back to the RC, but I now have a better prayer life and the sacraments my soul was missing. I never really liked only having communion once a month.
I never realliized there were so many non C converts to the faith.
It is wonderful to read all about them especially Scott Hahn.
Dessert
 
During my “prodigal” years I started attending a Baptist bible study. We started with the book of Romans. I found it fascinating & quite novel how we could spend over an hour just analyzing a few verses at a time.

Because of that bible study, I was given an NIV bible with a concordance. To make a long story short, once I used that concordance to look up phrases from the Mass, I realized how much of the Mass is derived word for word from the bible! That & many other wonderful, painful and beautiful experiences lead me home.

But there is a fond spot in my heart for that Baptist pastor and his congregation.
 
Prayer_Warrior said:
As I was reading the ‘Joyce Meyer’ thread, I was reminded about my journey home to the Church. I had left the Church for over five years and it was actually non-Catholic works that led me home. Rather, I should say that the Holy Spirit led me home through non-Catholic works. You’ll never believe it, but I had a rapture believing friend who recommended the "Left Behind’ books. When I read them, I KNEW the premise of the entire story was wrong but I didn’t know exactly what the Catholic Church taught about the end times. So, I started to study up on the Rapture issue. Then, I read Lee Strobel’s books–The Case for Christ and the The Case for Faith. They really boosted my longing for Christ. Still, I dragged my feet about going back to the Church. Why? Pride, of course. I was ashamed of a particular sin (definitely a mortal one) and too embarrassed to confess it. I tried confessing directly to God but that felt utterly useless. One day I was in a book store looking for yet another religious book. I had an experience that was so strong, I left the book store, found the closest Catholic Church, and reconciled immediately. I can’t discuss the details of that experience, due to forum rules, however I do feel God had prepared me for it through the works of non-Catholics (Tim Lahaye is actually anti-Catholic, IMO)

So, how about any other reverts? Did your journey home start with the works of non-Catholics? Sometimes, I think the Holy Spirt has quite a sense of humor!
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 Ok, I'm going to publicly confess this: the book I read that actually led me to a profound conversion experience and eventually back to the Catholic Church was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay.  I was a nominal Catholic, having been raised in the Faith, but non-practicing. I don't remember why I read that book, but when I did, the thought occured to me that if Jesus came back today, I sure wasn't ready for Him! ( I might add that at the time I was attending a 12 Step Program and was sincerely seeking God as I understood Him.) I mentioned this book to my husband, and he had a friend that he knew who had been studying the Bible and he invited us to a Bible study in  his home. Of course they prayed the Sinner's Prayer with me and I was "Born Again." I began attending Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches and Bible Studies. 
 However, I had some reservations and especially noticed the lack of the Eucharist. I began attending a Charismatic Mass and returned to the Church. I was not well-schooled in my faith--I had attended Catholic grade school and CCD, but I truly had very little understanding of my Faith. I prayed to the Holy Spirit and asked Him to lead me to the Truth, and He did. I began to read and study and reflect and pray about things and discovered a profound depth of thought and spirituality in the Catholic Church that was just plain lacking in the churches I attended. Contrary to the complaints from ex-Catholics about not "being fed" in the Catholic Church, I was finding more "soul food" than I could have ever imagined! I am not knocking other denominations, truly, and the people I knew were sincere Christians who put me to shame in their love of Jesus, and I consider them to be my brothers and sisters in Christ, but Catholic thinking is much, much more deep and spiritual than what I found. I also was exposed to rampant anti-Catholicism and that truly put me off.
 So God used Hal Lindsay to bring me back to Him and eventually back to the Church. :) I do not question God's ways. He does what He sees fit to do and His ways are not my ways. I praise Him and thank Him for what He did in my life. I am forever Catholic, and I am proud to be so, by the Grace of God.
(I just previewed this post, and noticed that what I had attempted to underline did not come out. My apologies. I will have to do some tutorials on this forum.
 
CB_Catholic said:
Ok, I’m going to publicly confess this: the book I read that actually led me to a profound conversion experience and eventually back to the Catholic Church was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay. I was a nominal Catholic, having been raised in the Faith, but non-practicing. I don’t remember why I read that book, but when I did, the thought occured to me that if Jesus came back today, I sure wasn’t ready for Him! ( I might add that at the time I was attending a 12 Step Program and was sincerely seeking God as I understood Him.) I mentioned this book to my husband, and he had a friend that he knew who had been studying the Bible and he invited us to a Bible study in his home. Of course they prayed the Sinner’s Prayer with me and I was “Born Again.” I began attending Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches and Bible Studies.
However, I had some reservations and especially noticed the lack of the Eucharist. I began attending a Charismatic Mass and returned to the Church. I was not well-schooled in my faith–I had attended Catholic grade school and CCD, but I truly had very little understanding of my Faith. I prayed to the Holy Spirit and asked Him to lead me to the Truth, and He did. I began to read and study and reflect and pray about things and discovered a profound depth of thought and spirituality in the Catholic Church that was just plain lacking in the churches I attended. Contrary to the complaints from ex-Catholics about not “being fed” in the Catholic Church, I was finding more “soul food” than I could have ever imagined! I am not knocking other denominations, truly, and the people I knew were sincere Christians who put me to shame in their love of Jesus, and I consider them to be my brothers and sisters in Christ, but Catholic thinking is much, much more deep and spiritual than what I found. I also was exposed to rampant anti-Catholicism and that truly put me off.
So God used Hal Lindsay to bring me back to Him and eventually back to the Church. 🙂 I do not question God’s ways. He does what He sees fit to do and His ways are not my ways. I praise Him and thank Him for what He did in my life. I am forever Catholic, and I am proud to be so, by the Grace of God.

(I just previewed this post, and noticed that what I had attempted to underline did not come out. My apologies. I will have to do some tutorials on this forum.

This is exactly what I was talking about in my original post. Hal Lindsay and Tim Lahaye seem to be cut from a very similar cloth. I admit I am embarrassed to have ever read the “Left Behind” series. However, I am so grateful I did because it got me thinking. I thought," what if there is a Rapture and here I am in a state of mortal sin??" (Nice combination of theology, huh?😊 ) Anyway, it only took a little bit of research to debunk the rapture theory, but still, the seed had been planted. Then I moved on to more neutral works (the ones by Lee Strobel) and there was a line in one of them I can’t forget. One of Billy Graham’s contemporaries had gone astray and stopped believing in God. He just couldn’t understand all the suffering in the world. When the author was interviewing this man, he remained pretty analytical. However, when the author brought up Jesus, the man got misty and said something like " Ah, Jesus… I really miss Him." That was EXACTLY how I felt. I missed Jesus in my life, in my heart and in my thoughts. I think only a revert can really understand how grateful I am that I am home.

Thank you for the testimony… God Bless You!
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I’m pretty sure it was the charismatic renewal many years ago that led me astray. I started going to a non-denominational church and was greatly impressed by the bible teaching and community friendliness and the many God loving people, but it did’nt take too long to see that their teaching was pretty empty and no tradition to fall back on.
Then, watching the funeral of John Paul II and all those thousands of people, it finally dawned on me that this IS the true church and what was I thinking of to ever leave it.
My journey home has been greatly influenced by EWTN and all the good people connected with this web site.
If anyone out there is sitting on the fence like I was for so long, “Come On Back”. This is the real thing and God’s true church.
 
Prayer Warrior: I am so glad to hear that someone else had an experience similar to mine. I, too, have found it embarrassing to admit that Hal Lindsay was instrumental in bringing me back to the Church. But God does act in mysterious ways…
 
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