Why I Can't be Protestant

  • Thread starter Thread starter CopticChristian
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CopticChristian

Guest
Why I cannot be Protestant

Protestant Evangelists tell me “The Catholic Church kept the Bible from us”. When I search I see that the Bible was available in part in English, French and Slavonic.
The world spoke Greek, the world spoke Latin and it appears that translations were being done but not hidden. The Latin Vulgate is what Wycliffe used for translations. Calvin, a Catholic, wrote his Institutes of Religion in Latin. I find that this notion is not true and represents a distortion.

Protestant Evangelists tell me Catholics worship Mary. I know Collyridianism is a heresy of Mary worship. This is a lie and misrepresentation.

Protestant Evangelists tell me that the “Bible is True”, telling me about prophesy, history, and all other manners to prove the Bible is the word of God. I am then taken to 2 timothy 3:16.

I am then taken to the book of Romans pointing out that “no one is righteous” and “I must confess with my lips to be saved”.

I point out that this refers to the Old Testament and when I ask how we got the Bible I get no credible understanding based on historical fact. I point out that Henry Graham a convert to Catholicism wrote “where we got the bible our debt to the Catholic Church”. I explain the history of the Bible in English 1611 contained 155,683 words and over 5,700 verses contained in 168 chapters until 1885 when they were removed. On whose authority were they removed? Whatever authority it was it was fallible.

I point out that no one is righteous is from Psalm XIV and the formula is a novelty never mentioned in any other epistle. I point out that the letter is written to a Christian Church and could not have been meant to be a formula for conversion.

I am told that I need to be regenerated. I agree through Baptism and to try to understand the regeneration process through Protestant eyes is difficult. Salvation is the work of God from start to finish. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, working in love. They talk about a legal declaration that makes no sense. I cannot understand how you can be regenerated without faith and if you get faith where and how do you get it.

In the end all of our discussions boil down to fallibility. Protestants freely admit the book is infallible and freely admit that they deny any infallible interpretation and in essence all of their doctrines and teachings are fallible. These fallible ideas are vast, many and conflicting. I just can’t go through life with so much certain uncertainty.

Tell me why you cannot be Protestant
 
I’m sorry to say that I can be Protestant. I don’t WANT to be, but I have no other choice right now. BUT, when I’m a Catholic, it will be because:
  1. The Catholic Church is the original Christian Church. At first there was only the CC. When someone says that there is no true visible church, you know that’s a bunch of garbage, because then the apostles were not part of a true visible church - how were they not? Everyone agreed on doctrine, and there was only one church. (I feel like I’m rambling.)
    I can say it better in my head than online :o.
  2. Everything the CC says is true. “Bible believing” Protestants often lie about how we got the Bible or what the Church teaches. I can’t be in a denomination where people are lying and say they follow the Bible. Mainline denominations are too liberal. The only denominations I can respect are conservative non-denominational and perhaps a few confessional denominations because they are sincere and just have a lack of historical knowledge. And finally, the CC is guided by the Holy Spirit and will never be overcome by Hell.
  3. There is authority in the Catholic Church. There was authority in the Early Church. Both were united. Both are apostolic. And both were catholic. What other church can honestly say that?
Cant wait to be Catholic
 
Swiss_Guy said:
I’m sorry to say that I can be Protestant. I don’t WANT to be, but I have no other choice right now. BUT, when I’m a Catholic, it will be because:
  1. The Catholic Church is the original Christian Church. At first there was only the CC. When someone says that there is no true visible church, you know that’s a bunch of garbage, because then the apostles were not part of a true visible church - how were they not? Everyone agreed on doctrine, and there was only one church. (I feel like I’m rambling.)
    I can say it better in my head than online :o.
  2. Everything the CC says is true. “Bible believing” Protestants often lie about how we got the Bible or what the Church teaches. I can’t be in a denomination where people are lying and say they follow the Bible. Mainline denominations are too liberal. The only denominations I can respect are conservative non-denominational and perhaps a few confessional denominations because they are sincere and just have a lack of historical knowledge. And finally, the CC is guided by the Holy Spirit and will never be overcome by Hell.
  3. There is authority in the Catholic Church. There was authority in the Early Church. Both were united. Both are apostolic. And both were catholic. What other church can honestly say that?
Cant wait to be Catholic
Click to expand...
I often wonder about all of this. I agree that there are lies and I wonder if they know they are telling lies. I somehow believe that they are taught by someone and that the guy in the trenches is less culpable because whoever taught them knows better. The guy in the trenches however is responsible for testing what it is that they are taught and in that sense they may continue to propagate a lie. It is as Paul says “shall we sin so that grace may abound, Mē genoito”.
 
I will never be protestant because its simply not original

“We concede—as we must—that so much of what they [the Catholic Church] say is true: that the papacy has God’s word and the office of the apostles, and that we have received holy scriptures, baptism, the sacrament, and the pulpit from them. What would we know of these if it were not for them?” -Luther
 
CopticChristian said:
I often wonder about all of this. I agree that there are lies and I wonder if they know they are telling lies. I somehow believe that they are taught by someone and that the guy in the trenches is less culpable because whoever taught them knows better. The guy in the trenches however is responsible for testing what it is that they are taught and in that sense they may continue to propagate a lie. It is as Paul says “shall we sin so that grace may abound, Mē genoito”.
Click to expand...
Most of these people speak the words they have been taught. Most truly believe what they are saying to be true. I do not see it as “lies” in the sense that lies are told in order to deceive. These people are spreading what they believe to be truth. They think they are right and we are wrong. They think they are saving us from hell if we will listen to them.
 
Enjoy your everlasting punishment in hell, CopticChristian.

Just kidding, of course. 😃
 
  • Because of the doctrine of Total Depravity.
  • Because it creates a seemingly gnostic dichotomy between spirit and matter.
  • Because of the lack of a sacramental worldview where matter can bear spirit.
  • Because it doesn’t carry out the Incarnation to its fullest extent by believing that we can become ontologically righteous.
  • Because its subculture skews toward the mediocre in art and thought, using such things as containers for messages instead of world-changing civilizing forces.
  • Because it lack a sense of the sacred.
  • Because it lacks mysticism.
  • Because grace is believed to be a created good.
  • Because in some forms it treats the statement “The Book of Revelation must be interpreted according to its genre” as blasphemy.
  • Because of fantastical Premillenialism.
  • Because of moralism.
  • Because of sentimentality.
  • Because it has a diversity-destroying conformist subculture.
  • Because it lacks a cohering authority to maintain the Truth.
  • Because it’s historically ignorant and inconsistent.
  • Because it lies.
  • Because it easily becomes liberal.
  • Because it disobeys 1 Corinthians.
  • Because it denies Sainthood and intercession.
  • Because it either denies the miraculous
  • Because it confuses, decays, and destroys itself.
  • Because of denominations.
  • Because it lacks the richness of a real religion and is more akin to a philosophy with God tacked on.
  • Because the Bible wasn’t available to be used the way their doctrines demand until the printing press was invented, making God look like an idiot.
  • Because Calvinism is sick.
  • Because of celebrity pseudopope scholars like the polemical and arrogant John MacArthur.
  • Because of a lack of critical thinking.
  • Because prayer devolves into ask an Uncle God for favors then thanking Him. (No mysticism, contemplation, etc.)
  • Because it lacks oral tradition.
  • Because its Biblical canon is truncated.
  • Because on must have knowledge of things outside their Bible to interpret it correctly, including the Deuterocanon in our Bibles.
  • Because of antinomianism.
  • Because of anti-traditionalism.
  • Because of annoying CCM and Worship & Praise music making everything fluffy, man-centered, and comfortable.
  • Because of the false sense of security that comes from Sola Fide and Sola Gratia.
  • Because it decries relativism while at the same time being relativistic at its core.
  • Because of individualism and the “invisible church”.
  • Because the church building is just a building and not a holy place.
  • Because it lacks the grace of all the sacraments.
  • Because of a lack of the Catholic “both/and” thinking. Verse vs verse, etc.
 
You can be whatever you choose to be. Why couldn’t you? No one is forcing you to be Catholic. If you don’t want to be Catholic, then it’s simple. Just don’t participate in the church! The Church doesn’t enslave it’s believers.

The bigger question is what is the true religion? That’s what you should be interested in finding.
 
Rascalking said:
You can be whatever you choose to be. Why couldn’t you? No one is forcing you to be Catholic. If you don’t want to be Catholic, then it’s simple. Just don’t participate in the church! The Church doesn’t enslave it’s believers.

The bigger question is what is the true religion? That’s what you should be interested in finding.
Click to expand...
How do you reconcile Catholicism and Mormonism? They are by definition antithetical to one another?
 
CopticChristian said:
Why I cannot be Protestant

Protestant Evangelists tell me “The Catholic Church kept the Bible from us”. When I search I see that the Bible was available in part in English, French and Slavonic.
The world spoke Greek, the world spoke Latin and it appears that translations were being done but not hidden. The Latin Vulgate is what Wycliffe used for translations. Calvin, a Catholic, wrote his Institutes of Religion in Latin. I find that this notion is not true and represents a distortion.

Protestant Evangelists tell me Catholics worship Mary. I know Collyridianism is a heresy of Mary worship. This is a lie and misrepresentation.

Protestant Evangelists tell me that the “Bible is True”, telling me about prophesy, history, and all other manners to prove the Bible is the word of God. I am then taken to 2 timothy 3:16.

I am then taken to the book of Romans pointing out that “no one is righteous” and “I must confess with my lips to be saved”.

I point out that this refers to the Old Testament and when I ask how we got the Bible I get no credible understanding based on historical fact. I point out that Henry Graham a convert to Catholicism wrote “where we got the bible our debt to the Catholic Church”. I explain the history of the Bible in English 1611 contained 155,683 words and over 5,700 verses contained in 168 chapters until 1885 when they were removed. On whose authority were they removed? Whatever authority it was it was fallible.

I point out that no one is righteous is from Psalm XIV and the formula is a novelty never mentioned in any other epistle. I point out that the letter is written to a Christian Church and could not have been meant to be a formula for conversion.

I am told that I need to be regenerated. I agree through Baptism and to try to understand the regeneration process through Protestant eyes is difficult. Salvation is the work of God from start to finish. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, working in love. They talk about a legal declaration that makes no sense. I cannot understand how you can be regenerated without faith and if you get faith where and how do you get it.

In the end all of our discussions boil down to fallibility. Protestants freely admit the book is infallible and freely admit that they deny any infallible interpretation and in essence all of their doctrines and teachings are fallible. These fallible ideas are vast, many and conflicting. I just can’t go through life with so much certain uncertainty.

Tell me why you cannot be Protestant
Click to expand...
Because I would miss the actual presence of Jesus and the devotion to my Blessed Mother too much.
 
Christians on both sides (Catholic and Protestant) forget that both sides share the core believes found in both the apostles creed and nicene creed.

For example:
The Nicene Creed states:

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

All of these statements unify us as Christians, as brothers and sisters of Christ.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with the Protestant Church it’s awesome. I used to be Protestant and it has a very special place in my heart. It has its quirks and it certainly isn’t perfect but if a person for whatever reason doesn’t agree with the Catholic teaching it is a good place to go.

Be aware: because the Protestant Church is also Christian: most denominations especially the Evangelical ones are extremely: prolife, teach sex after marriage, the importance praying regularly, reading the bible, attending church regularly and more. The main difference is the belief in the Eucharist, the saints and a few other things that are best left for another discussion. BTW the Protestant Church has 5 or 6 less sacraments: for example most only recognize baptism and not the rest.
 
When I was a young Protestant I was involved in my church and attended every Sunday. Visited other churches, watched Christian tv, read books, donated to Christian tv and also donated to the 700 Clubs. Also went to conferences and a Billy Graham Crusade.

But things unravelled.
My degree is in history and I still study a lot of it. Much of what I was reading about the Catholic church in my churches were written by people who were not historians and far from factual.
I often heard people say something negative about Catholic teaching and about that time read something supporting it in scripture.
Scripture says that communion is the body of Christ and we take it every time we met. Yet my church took it occasionally and regarded it as symbolic.
One time I was with a mixed group of Protestants and they started talking about the Catholic church. They knew where it stood on many issues such as abortion. I asked where their churches stood on those subjects. Interesting that they all knew where the Catholic church stood but nobody knew their own.
Different chuches had different and opposing opinions. They would claim that at least they agree on the basics but that was not true. Infant or adult baptism? Can you lose your salvation? What is the meaning of the term “lord?” I saw too much confusion and God is not the author of confusion. When Jesus ascended into Heaven wouldn’t He want to leave His church in the hands of a competent infallible authority?
Over the years churches changed their teachings on such things as contraception, abortion, divorce and remarriage, baptism, salvation, gay marriage, etc. Was God changing His opinions?
I read Jimmy Swaggart’s “Letter to My Catholic Friends.” I had watched his tv show a number of times before. Following along in my bible I noticed he would skip a verse or stop a verse too soon changing the meaning of scripture. So I bought a Catholic Catechism and was not surprised at the distortions.
One time I was listening to a church sermon and the preacher was talking about Joanna. I thought “Thank God. One more sermon from our preacher or a tv minister about Mary Magdalene and I will run screaming from the room.” Then it hit me: speaking of people named Mary. There is a Mary in the bible who was at many important events and had a pivotal role but with all the sermons I heard about obscure people I never heard one about her except a brief reference to an unnamed virgin at Christmas. Oh sometimes there would be an insulting remark about the Mother of Jesus. Jesus obeyed the 10 Commandments and He honored His mother. How does Jesus like the way we treat His mother?
Then one Sunday morning there was the announcement that one of our pastors had his second divorce finalized on Friday and we were all invited to his third marriage that evening.
Later that day I learned that no Protestant denomination opposed abortion telling me there is no such thing as a bible believing church.
I already knew for some time that God was calling me to the Roman Catholic church.
I often heard that the Catholic church is the “Whore of Babylon” but could never see how they came to that claim. But I saw a strong similarity between the Tower of Babel and the Protestant Reformation.
Scripture tells us that all generations shall call Maqry “Blessed” so why do bible believing Christians throw a fit when one does?
 
wondrousgnat said:
When I was a young Protestant I was involved in my church and attended every Sunday. Visited other churches, watched Christian tv, read books, donated to Christian tv and also donated to the 700 Clubs. Also went to conferences and a Billy Graham Crusade.

But things unravelled.
My degree is in history and I still study a lot of it. Much of what I was reading about the Catholic church in my churches were written by people who were not historians and far from factual.
I often heard people say something negative about Catholic teaching and about that time read something supporting it in scripture.
Scripture says that communion is the body of Christ and we take it every time we met. Yet my church took it occasionally and regarded it as symbolic.
One time I was with a mixed group of Protestants and they started talking about the Catholic church. They knew where it stood on many issues such as abortion. I asked where their churches stood on those subjects. Interesting that they all knew where the Catholic church stood but nobody knew their own.
Different chuches had different and opposing opinions. They would claim that at least they agree on the basics but that was not true. Infant or adult baptism? Can you lose your salvation? What is the meaning of the term “lord?” I saw too much confusion and God is not the author of confusion. When Jesus ascended into Heaven wouldn’t He want to leave His church in the hands of a competent infallible authority?
Over the years churches changed their teachings on such things as contraception, abortion, divorce and remarriage, baptism, salvation, gay marriage, etc. Was God changing His opinions?
I read Jimmy Swaggart’s “Letter to My Catholic Friends.” I had watched his tv show a number of times before. Following along in my bible I noticed he would skip a verse or stop a verse too soon changing the meaning of scripture. So I bought a Catholic Catechism and was not surprised at the distortions.
One time I was listening to a church sermon and the preacher was talking about Joanna. I thought “Thank God. One more sermon from our preacher or a tv minister about Mary Magdalene and I will run screaming from the room.” Then it hit me: speaking of people named Mary. There is a Mary in the bible who was at many important events and had a pivotal role but with all the sermons I heard about obscure people I never heard one about her except a brief reference to an unnamed virgin at Christmas. Oh sometimes there would be an insulting remark about the Mother of Jesus. Jesus obeyed the 10 Commandments and He honored His mother. How does Jesus like the way we treat His mother?
Then one Sunday morning there was the announcement that one of our pastors had his second divorce finalized on Friday and we were all invited to his third marriage that evening.
Later that day I learned that no Protestant denomination opposed abortion telling me there is no such thing as a bible believing church.
I already knew for some time that God was calling me to the Roman Catholic church.
I often heard that the Catholic church is the “Whore of Babylon” but could never see how they came to that claim. But I saw a strong similarity between the Tower of Babel and the Protestant Reformation.
Scripture tells us that all generations shall call Maqry “Blessed” so why do bible believing Christians throw a fit when one does?
Click to expand...
I am a cradle Catholic and as Director of Catechetical Ministry, I hear the very same words by many recent converts or those willing to be initiated into the RCC. Protestanism sounds just to darn confusing and I can understand why many simply leave Christianity.
 
Actually I was baptized and confirmed Catholic. And very young attended some masses. But dad was a Mason and we stopped attending mass when I was about ten. And I had Catholic relatives. So I did have some contact with the church, not much, but enough to know some truths.

And I can understand why many turn off to Christianity when I also see so much confusion and hypocracy coming from so many Christians (both Protestant and Catholic).
 
Rascalking said:
You can be whatever you choose to be. Why couldn’t you? No one is forcing you to be Catholic. If you don’t want to be Catholic, then it’s simple. Just don’t participate in the church! The Church doesn’t enslave it’s believers.

The bigger question is what is the true religion? That’s what you should be interested in finding.
Click to expand...
This is interesting, thoughtful and not relevant to “why I can’t be Protestant”. Thank you for taking the time to read and post.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top