I Hated the Idea of Becoming Catholic

Aleteia ^ | JUNE 20, 2014 | ANTHONY BARATTA

[NYer]

It was the day after Ash Wednesday in 2012 when I called my mom from my dorm room at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and told her I thought I was going to become Catholic.

“You’re not going to become Catholic, you just know you’re not Southern Baptist,” she said.

“No, I don’t think so.”

A pause. “Oh boy,” she sighed.

I started crying.

I cannot stress enough how much I hated the idea of becoming Catholic. I was bargaining to the last moment. I submitted a sermon for a competition days before withdrawing from school. I was memorizing Psalm 119 to convince myself of sola scriptura. I set up meetings with professors to hear the best arguments. I purposefully read Protestant books about Catholicism, rather than books by Catholic authors.

Further, I knew I would lose my housing money and have to pay a scholarship back if I withdrew from school, not to mention disappointing family, friends, and a dedicated church community.

But when I attempted to do my homework, I collapsed on my bed. All I wanted to do was scream at the textbook, “Who says?!”

I had experienced a huge paradigm shift in my thinking about the faith, and the question of apostolic authority loomed larger than ever.

But let’s rewind back a few years.

I grew up in an evangelical Protestant home. My father was a worship and preaching pastor from when I was in fourth grade onwards. Midway through college, I really fell in love with Jesus Christ and His precious Gospel and decided to become a pastor.

It was during that time that I was hardened in my assumption that the Roman Catholic Church didn’t adhere to the Bible. When I asked one pastor friend of mine during my junior year why Catholics thought Mary remained a virgin after Jesus’ birth when the Bible clearly said Jesus had “brothers,” he simply grimaced: “They don’t read the Bible.”

Though I had been in talks with Seattle’s Mars Hill Church about doing an internship with them, John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life clarified my call to missionary work specifically, and I spent the next summer evangelizing Catholics in Poland.

So I was surprised when I visited my parents and found a silly looking book titled Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic on my father’s desk. What was my dad doing reading something like this? I was curious and hadn’t brought anything home to read, so I gave it a look.

David Currie’s memoir of leaving behind his evangelical education and ministries was bothersome. His unapologetic defense of controversial doctrines regarding Mary and the papacy were most shocking, as I had never seriously considered that Catholics would have sensible, scriptural defenses to these beliefs.

The book’s presence on my father’s desk was explained more fully a few months later when he called me and said he was returning to the Catholicism of his youth. My response? “But, can’t you just be Lutheran or something?” I felt angry, betrayed, and indignant. For the next four months I served as a youth pastor at my local church and, in my free time, read up on why Catholicism was wrong.

During that time, I stumbled across a Christianity Today article that depicted an “evangelical identity crisis.” The author painted a picture of young evangelicals, growing up in a post-modern world, yearning to be firmly rooted in history and encouraged that others had stood strong for Christ in changing and troubled times. Yet, in my experience, most evangelical churches did not observe the liturgical calendar, the Apostles’ Creed was never mentioned, many of the songs were written after 1997, and if any anecdotal story was told about a hero from church history, it was certainly from after the Reformation. Most of Christian history was nowhere to be found.

For the first time, I panicked. I found a copy of the Catechism and started leafing through it, finding the most controversial doctrines and laughing at the silliness of the Catholic Church. Indulgences? Papal infallibility? These things, so obviously wrong, reassured me in my Protestantism. The Mass sounded beautiful and the idea of a visible, unified Church was appealing - but at the expense of the Gospel? It seemed obvious that Satan would build a large organization that would lead so many just short of heaven.

I shook off most of the doubts and enjoyed the remainder of my time at college, having fun with the youth group and sharing my faith with the students. Any lingering doubts, I assumed, would be dealt with in seminary.

I started my classes in January with the excitement of a die-hard football fan going to the Super Bowl. The classes were fantastic and I thought I had finally rid myself of any Catholic problems.

But just a few weeks later, I ran into more doubts. We were learning about spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting and I was struck by how often the professor would skip from St. Paul to Martin Luther or Jonathan Edwards when describing admirable lives of piety. Did nothing worthwhile happen in the first 1500 years? The skipping of history would continue in many other classes and assigned reading. The majority of pre-Reformation church history was ignored.

I soon discovered I had less in common with the early Church fathers than I thought. Unlike most Christians in history, communion had always been for me an occasional eating of bread and grape juice, and baptism was only important after someone had gotten “saved.” Not only did these views contradict much of Church history but, increasingly, they did not match with uncomfortable Bible passages I had always shrugged off (John 6, Romans 6, etc).

Other questions that I had buried began to reappear, no longer docile but ferocious, demanding an answer. Where did the Bible come from? Why didn’t the Bible claim to be “sufficient”? The Protestant answers that had held me over in the last year were no longer satisfying.

Jefferson Bethke’s viral YouTube video, “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus,” was released during this time. The young man meant well, but to me he only validated what the Wall Street Journal called “the dangerous theological anarchy of young evangelicals,” attempting to remove Jesus from the confines of religion but losing so much in the process.

Ash Wednesday was the tipping point. A hip Southern Baptist church in Louisville held a morning Ash Wednesday service and many students showed up to classes with ashes on their forehead. At chapel that afternoon, a professor renowned for his apologetic efforts against Catholicism expounded upon the beauty of this thousand year old tradition.

Afterwards, I asked a seminary friend why most evangelicals had rejected this beautiful thing. He responded with something about Pharisees and “man-made traditions.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do this anymore.”

My resistance to Catholicism started to fade. I was feeling drawn to the sacraments, sacramentals, physical manifestations of God’s grace, the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. No more borrowing, no more denying.

It was the next day that I called my mom and told her I thought I was going to become Catholic.

I didn’t go to classes on Friday. I went to the seminary library and checked out books I had previously forbidden myself to look at too closely, like the Catechism and Pope Benedict’s latest. I felt like I was checking out porn. Later, I drove to a 5pm Saturday Mass. The gorgeous crucifix at the front of the church reminded me of when I had mused that crucifixes demonstrated that Catholics didn’t really understand the resurrection.

But I saw the crucifix differently this time and began crying. “Jesus, my suffering savior, you’re here.”

A peace came over me until Tuesday, when it yielded to face-to-windshield reality. Should I stay or leave? I had several panicked phone calls: “I literally have no idea what I am going to do tomorrow morning.”

On Wednesday morning I woke up, opened my laptop, and typed out “77 Reasons I Am Leaving Evangelicalism.” The list included things like sola scriptura, justification, authority, the Eucharist, history, beauty, and continuity between the Old and New Testament. The headlines and the ensuing paragraphs flowed from my fingers like water bursting from a centuries-old dam. 

A few hours later on February 29, 2012 I slipped out of Louisville, Kentucky, eager to not confuse anyone else and hoping I wasn’t making a mistake.  

The next few months were painful. More than anything else I felt ashamed and defensive, uncertain of how so much of my identity and career path could be upended so quickly. Nonetheless, I joined the Church on Pentecost with the support of my family and started looking for work.

So much has changed since then. I met Jackie on CatholicMatch.com that June, got married a year later, and celebrated the birth of our daughter, Evelyn, on March 3rd, 2014. We’re now in Indiana and I’m happy at my job.

I’m still very new on this Catholic journey. To all inquirers out there, I can tell you that my relationship with God has deepened and strengthened. As I get involved in our parish, I’m so thankful for the love of evangelism and the Bible that I learned in Protestantism.

I have not so much left my former faith as I have filled in the gaps. I thank God for the fullness of the Catholic faith.

[CynicalBear]

whether that is so or not it is speculation. Still, it doesn’t matter or change my comment. If Nicodemus and those gathered around understood clearly (as those who we are debating would have us believe) that it meant “from above” than Nicodemus would have been exposed as facetious in his comment.

[metmom]

The bottom line is that the requirement by some to identify with some earthly formed “denomination” has no basis in scripture.

Actually, Paul addresses that in 1 Corinthians 1 and speaks against it throughout the book.

1 Corinthians 1:10-17 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

[Resettozero]

Possibly, you’re overthinking it. If and when we need to know about these matters you’ve mentioned, He’ll let us know what to do. Fear not.

Hope you can find peace about it and rest in the assurances God has given his Children who He has set upon The Rock in a cleft.

It really isn’t all up to us; He has done it all for us and we lovingly follow by faith in Lord Jesus Christ and not by fear of what man might do to any believer/follower.

[CynicalBear]

Your misapplication of scripture is stunning.

[delchiante]

I have been to Punxsy... stayed in the hotel next door to their town square..
My mom was born on that day so she wanted to go and see it..

I was surprised when gobblers knob was outside the town...and some to the folks were not big fans of the rodent when it came to their gardens.

And I searched online and there is a February 2nd ‘Feast of the Presentation’ for the Catholic Church. so they have followed through with Torah with regards to their liturgical calendar where it is 40 days after their December 25th.

Our savior’s sign in the heavens(revelation 12) for His birth occurred this year on Gregorian September 26th.
Considering the earth has been wobbling for two thousand years since that time,those stars have appeared to have moved from our perspective.
it will take a few more thousand years for that sign to reach Rome’s December..

Or a couple big wobbles...not sure we want to be on the earth if it has to wobble that much in such a short bit of time..

[CynicalBear]

You may well get caught up in Old Testament laws and rules. If you think God didn’t know in what society we would be living today your just kidding yourself. The calender we MUST exist with today to function has nothing to do with our salvation. Jesus said to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. It’s faith and trust in the shed blood of Jesus that saves. The incessant insistence on law or rule keeping is counter to scripture and the freedom that is in Christ. Most of not all of that borders on if it’s not outright “another gospel”.

[imardmd1]

This whole debate slipped by me. Thanks for pinging me!

It doesn’t matter a hill of beans what other less important concepts people may be right or wrong about, if they do not get this one issue right.

You couldn't be righter than holding this viewpoint.

I am sure you know what the plan of salvation is. God bless.

It begins by The Holy Spirit using a regenerated believer-disciple mature enough to draw a fellow-human's attention to The Christ of the Cross long enough to correctly explain the Bible's theme of His purpose on earth, so that the Word can enter his/her heart, germinate, and bear the fruit of another newly born-of-the-Spirit disciple; who--confessing his/her sinfulness with the full intent to abandon a life of practicing sin, and whose sins are then forgiven/abandoned/forgotten by The faithful and righteous Father God (1 Jn. 1:9), washed away by the Blood of Jesus Christ--then has the Spirit of Christ in Him.

But God's saving doesn't end there. He keeps continuing to freely save that person by His grace through the faith of--and in--His Son, throughout the new believer's life.

Wherefore, the ongoing plan of salvation includes the followup induction rite where a delegated administrator, invested with authority of The Father, of His Son, and of the Holy Spirit, conducts the public ceremony to recognize the permanent enlistment and commitment of the believer to a never-ending life of discipleship. That ceremony is manifested by the bodily immersion into living water of the responsible, accountable, regenerated spiritual adult for the purpose of publicly and willingly declaring his/her permanent submission to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and His valid local assembly of believer-disciple-priests forever.

Any other use or method of this baptismal rite (such as for infants, or for recent converts only attending the assembly but not enlisted under ongoing personal supervised spiritual instruction, or by cults claiming association with The Christ but not claimed by Him) is not one authorized by the Holy Scriptures.

Here's where, as you suggest, the rubber meets the road. Being saved is a process one embarks on, and a gift which one must agree to once and for all, and which is worked out for the reminder of one's earthly life, with a glorious reward accompanying it, and culminating in a permanent, eternal life with God in His Paradise.

One claiming to be a "Christian," whose life does not bear these marks of ownership of and service to the Lord Jesus Christ, needs to quickly reevaluate his/her understanding of what salvation and sanctification means, and get the repairs made ASAP, lest destruction comes while dragging one's feet.

Personally, I do not believe that the Roman system is a saving faith, for there you can "lose your salvation," nonsensical if it is The Incomparably Infallible, Capable, and Faithful Almighty God Alone who saves and implements that salvation in and for the fallible human who has pled for it.

Though there is no cost to the human recipient for this salvation, there is a price for the benefits. The price is that he/she must give up his/her independence, and cast oneself on totally on The God and His Will, His Ways, and His Work, trusting in Christ alone.

[BipolarBob]

If you are not a catholic or a follower of a protestant organization, why do you care about the number of the beast?
The Biblical warning was for everybody so everybody should care.
Today is some god named Tiw’s day on the English calendar.. it is,however,the First Day of the week on our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom calendar found in scripture and in His sky. Yesterday was His weekly Sabbath.. sounds nuts to people who follow Rome’s system.
I don't follow Rome's system but it sounds nuts to me. We have clay tablets dating back millennium affirming the 7-day calendar and the days on my planet.
So does the thought that the name Jesus, December 25, easter and both Saturday and Sunday are not truth and can be explained with scripture.
I'm not sure what exactly you're saying but Dec.25 has no Biblical significance.

[af_vet_1981]

Your misapplication of scripture is stunning. If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

[imardmd1]

Everyone who uses "Roman Catholic" as their denominational label is actively dividing themselves from all other Christians, dividing the body of Christ by using a sectarian label not present in nor sanctioned by Scripture, nor in use as a denominational label for centuries after Christianity's founding, and which no longer tracks to its original sense anyway, the universal community of Christian faith.

Yes, I agree. To say this another way, one cannot be rightly dividing The Truth whilst at the same time wrongly dividing the brethren.

And the universal community of faithful Christ-followers is invisible, and exists only in Heaven (Heb. 12:22-24).

Are you sure that Romanists are a part of that community?

To me, that body is only the regenerated ones having no fellowship with/in unbelievers, but who have come out of them and become separate, not touching "the unclean thing," who are being received by The Father, and are perfecting holiness in the fear of God, walking in His Ways (2 Cr. 6:14-7:1, Ps. 128:1)

In other words, it is the citizens of the Kingdom of The God.

There is a legitimate separation, but not the kind you are reproving.

[af_vet_1981]

The bottom line is that the requirement by some to identify with some earthly formed “denomination” has no basis in scripture.

I believe in one holy catholic apostolic church.

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.


And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.


And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.


For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:


Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.


Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.


He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

[CynicalBear]

The problem with your posting those is that the Catholic Church has so corrupted the meaning of “ekklesia” it’s become either meaningless or a tool for cults such as the Catholic Church to use as weapons.

[Resettozero]

CB: Your misapplication of scripture is stunning.

af_vet: If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

Enemy?

Maybe that's a bit much, even for FR RF?

[CynicalBear]

One has to understand that sometimes it’s simply the mindset of the poster who typically uses scripture only as a weapon.

[editor-surveyor]

A careful read of John 3:8 shows that Yeshua is explaining to Nicodemus a birth as a new creature, able to do the things that Yeshua did after his resurrection.

An ability to travel invisibly as the wind does eliminates the kind of birth Nicodemus was envisioning.

Most don’t really even read verse 8, because they are looking for things out of their own experience, that they can insert into the verse.

I don’t think we need the original words that were spoken in Hebrew to grasp this difference. I believe that in this instance the Greek translators did an acceptable job of presenting the thought.
.

[delchiante]

True freedom is not worshipping on Rome’s system. I didn’t realize that until I realized what a slave I was to the world..

Christmas is going to be a workday on the Kingdom calendar..

People, even teachers of the Word, calling what is holy, profane.. and calling what is profane,holy.
Sincere people.. sincerely wrong..honest people, honestly mistaken..

‘Worship or worshipped’ is used 24 times in just the book of revelation..it is a big theme in the end times..

Maybe people aren’t thinking enough... or letting others do their thinking for them..

Rome is still around.. reborn.. it has long tentacles.. reaches into the world’s’ governments, business/economies and religions..

That is either prophetic or a ‘nothing to see or hear here’ or ‘its all good’

People don’t want to believe they have been feeding or even worshipping the beast..
It would be a punch in the gut.

We want to think we are smarter than that.. we all like sheep have gone astray isn’t for me.., it is for the ‘other’ guy mentality..

The Messiah warned us..His Word warns us..

Those with ears... I was blind and deaf to it... then He called me out of the world to do somethng.. that process of trusting Him completely with everything has not diminished what I originally believed..

It made me grow.. I met Him like we all do - The greco roman latin jesus..

He didn’t let me stay there.. maybe He let’s others stay there.. He didn’t for me..

And I now understand scripture that I read in a fog years ago.. the world has become clear..
And it didn’t happen because I was still in the world..

It would be a lot easier to live in the world.. america is set up for it..

I have no fear for me.. I worry about the billions that don’t see what He can show anyone who is willing to ask, seek, knock..

If people want to continue a catholic/protestant debate, they are welcome to that intellectual exercise. And I will show what He has shown me to be that they are two sides of a counterfeit coin..a sincere coin, but counterfeit..
Maybe Rahab is the best way to describe them..

Rahab and her family was ‘saved’ when her Babylon fell.. she hid the messengers (the message) so she was spared..
She lived outside the camp of Israel, according to scripture.. she was nowhere near the most holy place, or the holy place.
maybe that story tells us something about the Kingdom to come..
That Rahab was saved so she is at least a 30fold ..(Parable of the sower) but she wasn’t hanging out in the inner court or the most holy place.. she was outside the camp of Israel. Maybe that is a prophectic picture of the 1000 year reign for our Savior.

I would have no leg to stand on if scripture didn’t detail an unholy/satanic trinity in the book of revelation and if Satan wasn’t a counterfeiter who wants to be worshipped like the Most High.

It is not a welcome thought that the Antichrist will come from within.. but it is biblical. We think the Antichrist will be a non Christian.. maybe a Muslim.. maybe a secular humanist,, maybe a Jew..

The answer is they are all right.. the word anti in Greek can mean an opponent or one on the same side.. one that is opposed or one that is ‘instead of’ or ‘in place of’..

Darn concordance and bible study! It messes with one’s religious and world beliefs and givens..

The best and worst thing I did was get a concordance and start studying and living by scripture..

Best, because that study of genuine Truth will cause all the false to melt away and I can truly see how Awesome He is and how deceived I was.

Worst, because that study of genuine Truth will cause all the false to melt away and I can truly see how deceived I was.. And how so many are still..

The times of this ignorance God winked, but now He commands men that they should all everywhere repent. Acts 17

Some form of the word repent is used about 12 times in the book of revelation.so, a form of the words ‘Worship and repent’ used 36 times in the last book.

The same book that calls us ‘to come Out’ of her....

There is no denomination to run to..this isn’t commercial for denomination or religion...judaism is another card in Satan’s three card monte.

Rahab knew Truth.. she knew what was gong to happen to her Babylon named jericho.. I think it helps if one can see that they live in Babylon in the first place.

If people can’t see it, there is no action they take.. they have nothing to come out of... that must be a message for ‘somebody else’.. or for another time..

Nothing to see or hear here...

[af_vet_1981]

CB: Your misapplication of scripture is stunning. af_vet: If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee. Enemy?

See post 554, 567, 571.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “Interesting that you chose to raise your voice instead of reinforcing your argument.” <<

>> “Here is the solution for it” <<

.
That is the solution for an infantile play yard response?

To you perhaps.
.

[Resettozero]

See post 554, 567, 571.

I guess not. But thank you for the response.

R2z

[Resettozero]

One has to understand that sometimes it’s simply the mindset of the poster who typically uses scripture only as a weapon.

One ought to be careful how he slings that Sword. Double-edged and VERY SHARP; can take off one's own knee-cap or an ear if wielded improperly.