And what was he studying? It wasn’t the Bible.
It was the Bible. Tim actually drew many Catholics away from the Church through using the Bible. But then he came across a Catholic who knew his Bible, and they had many discussions regarding their different beliefs. Determined to prove the other Marine wrong, Tim studied writings against Catholic teaching and writings defending Catholic teaching. This was very frustrating for him, because for every argument that he thought showed how Catholic teaching contradicted Scripture, he found a counter argument that showed how the teaching was actually supported by Scripture. After two years of this intensive effort, and a very bad experience at Jimmy Swaggert Bible College, he concluded that the Catholic Church was truly the church founded by Jesus Christ.
What exactly was he studying? You seem to allude to 'writings' other than the scriptures. And I would venture to guess that he was studying the church fathers.
Further, the comment about being associated with Jimmy Swaggart Bible college is also telling me this individual did not have the tools to interpret the Biblical text consistent with the grammatical historical approach using sound hermeneutical principles.
Post his story in full if you know of where it is ... where he lays out his exact arguments using scripture.