The above made me go back and re-post this from a couple years ago. I have yet to identify who the author of this is, but it speaks to everything I felt when I re-crossed the Tiber. Edited slightly to make it relevant to the thread.
Letter from an ex-Baptist
This is a letter to all the pastors, evangelists, and other assorted leaders in Baptist churches whom I listened to at one time:
Dear _________ :
I just want to write you to tell you that I think you should be ashamed of yourself for giving your people only half (or even less) of the truth of the Bible regarding the Christian Faith and how that Faith is lived out. As a professing follower of Christ, the TRUTH should be very important to you. But the things you have said and the way you have said them have not been truthful at all:
- You talked about your denomination as if it went back all the way to the days that Jesus walked the earth. You act as if Jesus Himself was a Baptist Himself.
I didn’t know any better and I trusted you!
- You never told me about the writings of the Early Fathers. You never encouraged me to examine them for myself to see what the disciples of the apostles believed. You acted as if they were all Protestants back then.
I didn’t know any better, and I trusted you.
- You taught me that the Church was taken over by a false gospel sometime in the fourth century and the Gospel all but disappeared from the earth until the Reformation. It never occurred to me to connect 2 + 2 and realize that this is exactly what the JW’s and the Mormons teach.
I didn’t know any better, and I trusted you.
- You never taught me about a covenant, even though the Bible speaks of the New Covenant and Jesus said “This is the New Covenant in my Blood”. Since we live in a covenant relationship now (like the Jews did in the Old Covenant) and since the word “covenant” appears over 280 times in the scriptures, I would think that concept would be very important for a Christian to learn about.
I didn’t know any better, and I trusted you.
- What you did tell me about was something called a “dispensation” which appears only 4 times in the scriptures and that only in the NT. But you acted like this is the way God deals with people.
I didn’t know any better, and I trusted you.
- You never once told me that the Catholic Church, which you despise, was the Body which gave us the Holy Scriptures. To hear you talk, the Bible just dropped out of thin air one day. Some of you act as if the Reformers invented the Bible after years of pagan ignorance and superstition.
I didn’t know any better, and I trusted you.
- You never told me that anything orthodox I believe about the natures of Jesus, the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus the Christ, and all other understandings necessary to salvation, came from the councils of the Catholic Church. Why? Were you afraid that I would realize that perhaps the Church is not the demonic institution you have painted it to be? Or were you afraid that I would realize that any truth you Baptists have is only that which the Church defined in Her councils.
I didn’t know any better, and I trusted you.
- You never once took the time to really talk about the teachings of the Catholic Church. You simply made your accusations from your pulpit and either told or inferred to everyone that ALL Catholics are going straight to hell, with the pope in the front row seat.
I didn’t know any better, and I trusted you.
- You told me that the Church was some sort of “invisible Church” that no one could see because it is made up of all “true believers” from everywhere and every denomination (even though you also taught that only “we” really had everything “right”).
I didn’t know any better, and I trusted you.
You better think a long time about what you are doing and what you are teaching. It is bad enough that you make false accusations (which the Lord hates) against our Lord’s Church, but you are out there aggressively stealing His sheep from His flock which He put on earth. You seem to think think that since you “accept Jesus”, you won’t have to answer for anything at all because you are “covered by the Blood of Jesus”.
Well, I have news for you, it took me a while (too long, actually), but I finally had my eyes opened, and that is not what the Holy Scriptures teach. They teach that at the Resurrection, Jesus will judge ALL MEN (you get that? – ALL!) BY THEIR DEEDS, and based on what they have done, they will either live or die eternally!! That is what Jesus taught in John 5: 28 - 29 and guess what, that is what the Catholic Faith teaches us also, because the Catholic Faith teaches what Jesus taught!!
I would gladly sit down with you and show you what I have learned from both my own studies and Catholics who really know the Faith.
Sincerely yours,
Your former member
