Posted on 01/04/2011 4:22:02 AM PST by NYer
If you grew up Catholic, it may be difficult for you to relate to those who profess faith in Jesus but whose stomachs turn at the thought of being Catholic. It might seem odd that the Catholic theology you’ve grown up with is seen by others as an offense to God. I was one of the stomach turners. There are days that I wake up and I still can’t believe I’m Catholic.
I grew up in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, usually referred to as Foursquare. Foursquare is a Pentecostal denomination that began in the 1920s and is not rooted in the Reformation. In fact, we had already rejected many things the Reformers believed. While we did hold to sola scriptura and sola fide, we did not believe in "once saved always saved," and, as Pentecostals, we believed in miracles and the gifts of the Spirit, which many of the Reformers rejected. You could say we had already "reformed the reform."
Our denomination had a hierarchy of sorts, but each church was free to design its services and internal composition as it saw fit. We were more concerned that people’s lives were being changed by Jesus than with church structure. In some ways this is good—there is little value in a well-oiled machine that doesn’t change lives. We were much more experientially formed than theologically formed. We cared about theology, but the life-changing experience with Jesus was what really mattered.
I must say that, on the whole, if you’re going to pick a Protestant denomination, Foursquare is a good place to be. It is firm in its moral teachings, and with its focus on living for Jesus, a person will inevitably grow closer and more like Jesus the longer he attends.
Who’s Ever Heard of Catholic Radio?
In my early twenties, I discerned a call to enter into full-time ministry and became a Foursquare pastor. Through my years of ministry, my wife and I learned to hear the voice of God and were willing to do anything and go anywhere that God wanted us to go. This led us to plant a new Foursquare congregation in the university district of Seattle, Washington, in 1999. Foursquare doesn’t fund you when you start a new congregation, so whatever you bring or raise from outside support is all you have. When I arrived with my wife and three girls, I had no income, three months worth of money in the bank, and great faith that we would reach the people of Seattle with the gospel of Jesus. We knew God would provide. Our desire was to seek first his kingdom and let him take care of the rest (cf. Matt. 6:33), and he always has.
During this time we ministered to teens, college students, young adults, and young married families. Each week we would head out to the strip by the college and pass out food and clothes to street kids and send groups of two around the block to start up conversations about the gospel. None of us were evangelists by nature; we simply knew that the only way the unsaved would find Jesus would be if we went to them—we couldn’t expect them to just wander into our church.
It was during this time that the door first opened to the Catholic Church. I happened to turn on the radio and catch Catholic Answers Live on Sacred Heart Radio in Seattle. "That’s weird," I thought. "Who’s ever heard of Catholic radio? And what do Catholics need with a radio station anyway?" I wasn’t necessarily anti-Catholic, but I held the usual Reformation-inspired opinions of the Catholic Church and how blessed we were to be free from Romanism. As I listened to the show I was shocked to hear not only a clear presentation of Catholic teaching but also that Catholics still believed in transubstantiation, papal infallibility, and so on.
As the years went on in Seattle, I would occasionally tune back in to Catholic Answers Live and many other shows on Sacred Heart Radio, mainly for the purpose of understanding what Catholics teach so that I could have a reasoned defense to the contrary. The problem was that, time after time, the Catholic explanation of theology was every bit a biblical as my beliefs, albeit in a different way.
Now, because our denomination started in the 1920s, I was oblivious to Church history. For us the Reformation wasn’t the good old days; Acts 2 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues are the good old days. There was virtually nothing done to fill in the gaps between the present and the first-century Church.
But the Catholics I listened to kept claiming that the earliest Christians were Catholic and that their writings from the first few centuries verify that claim. They would regularly present a point of theology that was rooted in Scripture and then support it with quotes from the "early Church Fathers." The speakers were clear that these writings are not inspired, nor are they on the same level as Scripture, but they do provide us with the historical context to know what the early Christians believed. More importantly, these early Christian writers claimed that these beliefs were handed down by the apostles, and some of them were even taught by the apostles.
At that time, Catholic Answers regularly threw out a challenge not to take their word for any of the positions of the Catholic Church but see for oneself if they are true. I decided to take them up on this challenge, figuring it would be easy. First of all, the Catholic Church sets an impossible standard for itself: infallibility in its dogmatic teachings on matters of faith and morals. All I had to do was prove one doctrine false and the entire system would cease to be without error. Secondly, I was sure that when I found the writings of these "early Church Fathers" and read them in context, they would set the story straight.
But there was a catch. Along with this challenge, there was a caution: Be careful—you just might become Catholic. Yeah, right! Impossible.
My Ship Came In
I started with a slow and measured search into Catholic teaching and Church history. This all changed after a most unexpected event. I was invited to speak at a Foursquare high school camp in the summer of 2003. The man who owned the camp was a gracious servant of Jesus and was gifted with what our denomination calls "prophetic insight," meaning that God gave him insight into things of which he had no natural knowledge. I had never met him before, and as we got to know each other that week, he said he might have some insight from the Lord for me. These encounters usually yielded a general word of encouragement that could probably apply to anybody. Nonetheless, I met with him in his office to pray and see if God had any direction for me.
He began to pray and said he could see a picture in his mind. He saw me and my family standing on the ocean shore and in the water was a huge ship. He said on the side of the ship were the words "Queen Mary." (At this point in my study, I didn’t know that this is a title for Mary; my interest was concentrated on the huge ship.) He looked straight at me and said, "I’m not sure, but maybe you’re supposed to have something to do with the Catholic Church."
I almost fell out of my chair. I told him about my unexpected encounter with Catholicism—the radio shows, the early Church Fathers, the challenge. I left the camp thinking that God might use me in some type of bridge ministry between Protestants and Catholics. Of course, I assumed it would be for bringing Catholics out of Catholicism and into the true unity and "fullness" of Protestantism. With my renewed focus, I returned home and aggressively pursued understanding Catholic theology, Church history, and how I could serve God in this capacity. "If I’m going to reach Catholics," I thought, "I’ll need to know what they believe and how they support those beliefs."
Hitting the Wall
As I examined each point of theology, I found that the Catholic Church’s teachings were the most biblical, the most historical, and the most reasonable. I was also surprised to find that Catholics also believed in miracles and the Pentecostal gifts I had grown up with (but with a more sound foundation). I thought, "Oh man! If this is true, I have to become Catholic."
The day finally came where I hit the wall and realized that the teachings of the Catholic Church are true. I realized that Jesus truly did establish a Church and didn’t leave the gospel to survive in an "every man for himself" model. In the end, I found that I, like all Bible-based groups, could support my theology from Scripture, but I always had to ignore certain passages to make it fit, and I couldn’t provide any support for its existence in the history of the Church. I found that Catholic theology makes sense of the whole of Scripture and that only Catholic theology is attested to from writings before the death of the apostle John to the present day.
I wasn’t excited about this discovery, for it would cost me most of what I had invested over thirteen years of pastoral ministry. But my desire was to follow Christ, so I resigned my pastorate in August 2004. Once again my wife and I and three girls were without an income, with three months’ worth of money to live on and full of faith that God would provide. And he has.
Now that all of us have come home to the Church, we are constantly amazed at the grace that God provides for living a powerful, Spirit-filled life. When understood properly, Scripture, liturgy, prayer, and the sacraments are far more capable of shaping our Christian walk than any of the relaxed church structures in which I had grown up. I have found that the structure and liturgies that used to turn my stomach have become a greater source of joy than I could have ever imagined.
How could being a certain religion make one’s stomach turn? I just don’t understand the apparent animosity that I see between people of different faiths.
In addition, these Orthodox can't free themselves from the past and blame others for the Rape of Constantinople , 4th Crusade, the Great Schism of 1054 or some other historical catastrophe as if the perpetrators are still living and need to be punished. Their minds are trained to blame others and they feel comfortable as perpetual victims.
Perhaps it is better to worship God as a protestant than to experience this type of siege mentality.
Unfortunately, it sounds like your brother-in-law should actually go to Mass sometime. The only time there is ringing of the bell during Mass is when everyone is supposed to be kneeling.
There is always just enough wrong in these little " I know a Catholic..." anecdotes to know when they're bogus.
Ditto.
The one strength that the Catholic side of the family has that is missing in the more experiential-focused Protestant communions is -- a focus on objective reality, and a conviction that the Christian faith applies to ALL of life, not just the "religious" part of life. The version of the dissertation I took before my committee had this conclusion:
Some protestants -- a faction that is, in God's great mercies inexorably losing its influence, its bearings, and its credibility (as well as its mind) -- has a brutally simple substitute for a world view. They simply write the whole world off, hysterically shriek that "All is lost! The End is upon us! Qui peut se sauvre!" We might call these the Prophecy pimps, the Rapturenauts, or, in one brother's elegant phrase, "Futurists who prefer Terror and Tarot rather than the Gospel to 'win souls'." It's the "sour grapes" approach. If you don't have a world view, just scream shrilly that the world that God so loved is not worth thinking about.
Sane, thoughtful, Christians find their way out of the hypnotic and addictive fun-house mirror world of experience-chasing, and start looking for other sane and thoughtful Christians to compare notes with. And frequently find such people on the wrong side of the Tiber.[1]
I was raised Catholic, and still process reality on deeply-embedded Catholic firmware. I still yearn to see things "according to the whole," and instinctively feel that a big-picture explanation makes sense of the immediate issues.
Providentially, the Catholics are not the only game in town. Reformed theology also addresses all of life, and challenges us to bring all we have to the game. Including our minds. My life, family, and vocation were transformed when a guy I'd evangelized ten years earlier turned me on to "Calvinism on steroids." There is a God, and I'm not Him. Neither, for that matter, are my religious experiences.
I would direct you to any discussion of the Anglican/Episcopalian Church where you will see that statement is not correct. There are former Episcopalians on FR who have converted to Rome who do bash the church they left.
Updating this article based on last night's Journey Home program, I believe he now has his Masters, is teaching catechisis at Steubenville, and also heading up the RCIA program for the diocese. As converts who swam the Tiber to Rome from the ELCA 17 years ago, my wife and I try to catch Journey Home every week. Last night's program was wonderful.
well, you can ask/email him. But since he was a Pentecostal, he would most likely be using the NIV or the KJV, I guess
Mine was more like a small setting public humiliation, but I hear what you are saying. Even though it was a simple misunderstanding, it was a big deal when I was 9, but that was a long time ago. I wasn't a catholic, just visiting with a friend - so it was not like I am a "former" Catholic.
Actually, many groups do do that — however do note that the Catholic Church consider Orthodox in particular to be our sister Church, to be a True Church, part of the One Apostolic Catholic Church.
He goes all the time.
To my point, what is biblical about standing or sitting for a bell?
To my point, we don't stand or sit for a bell.
“... Many of them may not feel the same about Orthodox and Protestant Christians..”
They are our brethren in Christ. I’m married to a Methodist btw for almost 50 years, who is more Catholic than I at this point and just about to jump the Tiber.
“I believe “their way or the highway” is a tenet Rome still teaches,...”
This is the Church. I would no more expect you to change your church’s belief for ours or the Orthodox to adapt to Calvin or some 4SquareGospel group.
“I would rather see us all united against the real enemy, in all his many faces and forms.”
Agreed. All Christians face the same persecutions. In the Muslim sphere, China, Africa and Europe, its face is legion. We will face it in America too soon.
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