Pentecostal to Catholic Conversion Story

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• published: 26 Sep 2015
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My conversion is one of the things that I’m extremely thankful to God for. My patron saints- the Mother of God, Thérèse of Lisieux and Jude Thaddeus have also been instrumental in my conversion. After making this video, I realized that I failed to mention what specifically convinced me of the truth of Catholicism over Protestantism. Firstly, it was issues of authority. In Protestantism, every church is overseen by a pastor and sometimes more largely, a congregation of pastors from different churches within the denomination. Each denomination of Protestantism professes different doctrines and has different practices and methods of worship. Figuring out which denomination to believe was a nightmare. Returning to early Christianity, it’s quite evident that the Early Church Fathers and saints of the first century held beliefs in the corporeal presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the need for a verbal confession of sins to the presbyter, the sinlessness and perpetual virginity of the mother of Jesus, the intercession of the saints; a method of worship which involved candles, incense, chanting, relics of saints, and more variety of texts in Scripture. These are closest to what the Catholic and Orthodox Churches profess and practice to this day. Just look up St. Ignatius of Antioch, Origen, and St. Clement of Alexandria. The primacy of St. Peter as Christ’s continuing representative was established very early on, and it is within this hierarchy of authority than the Catholic Church continues on. Secondly, it had to do with Scripture. Protestants have 66 books, while Catholics have 73. Early Christians had a wide variety of texts available to use, but the final canon was settled by the Council of Hippo, 393-426 AD, which contained the same books used by the modern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Protestantism initially began in 1517 as a heresy that denied the divine authority of the Pope, the Church, and the canon of Scripture used by the Church. Protestant theologians argued that 7 books of the Bible had no Hebrew origins, and were therefore unsuitable for use by Christians. These books contained evidence for Jewish practices of praying for the dead who were waiting in Sheol, the intercession of the saints in heaven, the role of angels in carrying prayers to God, and so much more that Protestantism has unfortunately discarded. Protestants have also come up with an argument that these 7 books were written during the “silent” 400 years before Christ when there were apparently no prophets and that these books were not written by any recognizable prophet. What they neglect is that not all books in the Bible were written by prophets, such as Psalms, Song of Songs, and Esther, which were written by King David, Solomon, and unknown authors. Also, Judas Maccabeus in the books of Maccabees is arguably one of the greatest leaders of the Hebrew people akin to the kings of Israel. Also, these books have been found to have Hebrew origins, but that they were lost during the Greek conquest of Palestine. Even if they had no Hebrew origins, it has no bearing on their infallibility because they were used consistently by the early Christians, not to mention the fact that the Holy Spirit’s inspiration was removed from the Jewish Rabbis and leaders and transferred to the early Christians leaders after Christ’s resurrection. Martin Luther’s removal of these books was simply due to the fact that they didn’t align with his theological system. He even went so far as to want to remove the Book of James because it taught that faith must be combined with works in order to produce salvation. After knowing this, I could not return to Protestantism. Protestantism is simply a combination of medieval heresies and schismatic leaders who, although their intentions were initially good in wanting to rid the Church’s bishops of corruption, tore the Church apart. Modern Protestantism on the other hand, is a faulty system of people personally interpreting the Bible and developing thousands of different doctrines rather than adhering to the authority of the continuing Church. One Protestant sect grows, declines, and runs into the wall before they pick up the scraps of the last one and create a new denomination, while the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have continued since the time of Christ and the Apostles. Modern Protestant churches use contemporary music, emphasise sentimentality in worship, and hold to a dangerous fundamentalism that creates the ignorant and close-minded conditions that we see in the southern part of the United States. I believe that if Christianity is to return to its initial unity of expression, Protestant beliefs must be challenged. My contacts: My facebook: facebook.com/HyperCatholic My email: churchtriumphantncg@gmail.com My tumblr: secretcatholic.tumblr.com