ECT Why shouldn't I convert from Evangelical Protestant to Catholic?

R

RichRock

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Jason0047 said:
Well, not that I have anything against Catholics as people (For I am commanded by God to love all people), however, their beliefs are highly unbiblical and wrong, my friend. For it is obvious the RCC is a false religion because they worship or bow down to idols...
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Your statements are not based on fact and are completely false. I have seen with my own eyes that they do not worship statues.

The woman riding the Beast has a golden cup in her hand. This is one of the holiest instruments in Roman Catholicism: the golden chalice used in the Eucharist or Mass. The Roman Catholic Church possesses literally hundreds of thousands of solid gold chalices.
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So you are saying the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon because they use a golden cup for the Eucharist?

Interesting.

Personally, to be completely honest...I don't think it would be right for me to state that I don't beleive in the historic Catholic Church because they wear purple and use a gold coloured cup.
 
chrysostom

chrysostom

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Jason0047 said:
In prophecy, one does not look at one piece of information. They look at a pattern of a collection of information. I did not say that was the sole reason for the reason why the RCC is false.

Besides, how do you not see that idolatry or the worship of statues is not wrong? Do you bow down to statues now? Do you currently pray to the dead? If you join the RCC, you will be able to pray to dead people. Yet the Bible condemns such a practice. Read your Bible, my friend. God's Word does not support such an obvious and dark religious institution.
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jason
why not tell us what you believe?
 
Buzzword

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RichRock said:
I have been Evangelical Protestant most of my life, even spending some time living in a fulltime religious community.

The more I researched the origin of the bible and the history of my faith, the more I discovered the Catholic Church.

I am taking steps towards joining the Catholic Church and my question is this....'Why shouldn't I?'

I am not asking because I doubt my journey, I am asking because I haven't come across a good enough reason NOT to join.

Each side, for and against may debate, I look forward to reading each side's responses.

So, why shouldn't I convert to the Catholic Church?
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Whichever branch of the tree most reliably supports you.
 
R

RichRock

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Jason0047 said:
Besides, how do you not see that idolatry or the worship of statues is not wrong? Do you bow down to statues now?
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I do not worship statues, nor do I intend to...in the Catholic Church. Please prove that the Catholic Church worships statues, I would like to see proof of this.

Do you currently pray to the dead? If you join the RCC, you will be able to pray to dead people. Yet the Bible condemns such a practice. Read your Bible, my friend. God's Word does not support such an obvious and dark religious institution.
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In fact I have read my bible throughly. It is you who in fact are wrong, it IS biblical, please read yours without preconceived ideas.
 
Desert Reign

Desert Reign

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RichRock said:
I have been Evangelical Protestant most of my life, even spending some time living in a fulltime religious community.

The more I researched the origin of the bible and the history of my faith, the more I discovered the Catholic Church.

I am taking steps towards joining the Catholic Church and my question is this....'Why shouldn't I?'

I am not asking because I doubt my journey, I am asking because I haven't come across a good enough reason NOT to join.

Each side, for and against may debate, I look forward to reading each side's responses.

So, why shouldn't I convert to the Catholic Church?
Click to expand...

I went the other direction and I have not seen any reason to backtrack. Most of the clergy do not know Jesus in their hearts. Celibacy is an intolerable burden on them that leads to a lot of personal problems.

I became a Christian because of Catholicism, which I grew up in. It was good for me. At the start. I maintain a lot of respect for Catholics. But most of them do not know Jesus. They assume that being born into a Catholic family, being baptised and doing all the sacraments makes them a Catholic and that being a Catholic makes them a Christian and that being a Christian makes them safe from God's judgement. All that is wrong. It is a substitute for faith. Having faith is painful - it requires self sacrifice every day, as Jesus said. The religion is a substitute for that faith.

What I've said could apply equally to non-Catholics but there are two reasons why this is not a good argument to become a Catholic.

1. You need to understand that the church you are joining is endemically full of non-Christians. Keeping the sacraments does not make you right with God. ONLY faith does this. You can rationalise this for example by telling yourself that it is not up to you to judge a person's standing with God but reality will get you in the end. When it comes to working together with others you will not fail to be astonished at the brazen lack of spirituality all around you. At times you will feel you are in no different a place than any other social club and at the best of times you will have a circle of a mere handful of loving faithful believers around you in a sea of secularism.
2. If you think it will be your ministry to convert them from within then you will pay the price for that over the years in frustration. It will be no different to marrying someone who you know deep down is not suited to you and who you think will change as time goes on. They won't.

I can also think of another reason not to become a Catholic now. It is based on personal experience of several Catholic posters here, being converts, and a few others I have known over the years. In my opinion they spend all their waking hours trying to justify their conversion, trying to uphold the authority of the Catholic church, defending difficult doctrines like the immaculate conception, purgatory, the authority of the pope. They seem to feel a need to do this kind of thing in a way that seems to me to be bordering on the pathological, in a way that no 'born' Catholic would ever do. To me, it is a waste of a life when you do a thing and then spend all your time defending your action instead of doing those things that your action entailed.

And speaking of action, I would advise that you consider what will be different in the expression of your faith after you join the Catholic church: will it bring you closer to God? Will it give you more opportunities to serve Christ than you already have? Will it change your attitude to other believers? Will God think any better of you?
 
Desert Reign

Desert Reign

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RichRock said:
So you are saying that I shouldn't convert to Catholicism because Bishops wear purple? That's your strongest reason and number 1 on your list?
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Don't worry about Jason. There's a good probability that anything he says, even if totally mundane, is exactly opposite to the truth. If he said the weather is sunny here, I would think it likely that it was raining. See my sig.
 
PureX

PureX

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RichRock said:
I have been Evangelical Protestant most of my life, even spending some time living in a fulltime religious community.

The more I researched the origin of the bible and the history of my faith, the more I discovered the Catholic Church.

I am taking steps towards joining the Catholic Church and my question is this....'Why shouldn't I?'

I am not asking because I doubt my journey, I am asking because I haven't come across a good enough reason NOT to join.

Each side, for and against may debate, I look forward to reading each side's responses.

So, why shouldn't I convert to the Catholic Church?
Click to expand...
Catholics do not tend to be dogmatic about religious doctrine, especially in the U.S.,. So if you are a stickler for religious doctrine, and it sounds as if you may be, then you might be disappointed with the fellowship among Catholics.
 
R

RichRock

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Desert Reign said:
I went the other direction and I have not seen any reason to backtrack. Most of the clergy do not know Jesus in their hearts. Celibacy is an intolerable burden on them that leads to a lot of personal problems.

I became a Christian because of Catholicism, which I grew up in. It was good for me. At the start. I maintain a lot of respect for Catholics. But most of them do not know Jesus. They assume that being born into a Catholic family, being baptised and doing all the sacraments makes them a Catholic and that being a Catholic makes them a Christian and that being a Christian makes them safe from God's judgement. All that is wrong. It is a substitute for faith. Having faith is painful - it requires self sacrifice every day, as Jesus said. The religion is a substitute for that faith.

What I've said could apply equally to non-Catholics but there are two reasons why this is not a good argument to become a Catholic.

1. You need to understand that the church you are joining is endemically full of non-Christians. Keeping the sacraments does not make you right with God. ONLY faith does this. You can rationalise this for example by telling yourself that it is not up to you to judge a person's standing with God but reality will get you in the end. When it comes to working together with others you will not fail to be astonished at the brazen lack of spirituality all around you. At times you will feel you are in no different a place than any other social club and at the best of times you will have a circle of a mere handful of loving faithful believers around you in a sea of secularism.
2. If you think it will be your ministry to convert them from within then you will pay the price for that over the years in frustration. It will be no different to marrying someone who you know deep down is not suited to you and who you think will change as time goes on. They won't.

I can also think of another reason not to become a Catholic now. It is based on personal experience of several Catholic posters here, being converts, and a few others I have known over the years. In my opinion they spend all their waking hours trying to justify their conversion, trying to uphold the authority of the Catholic church, defending difficult doctrines like the immaculate conception, purgatory, the authority of the pope. They seem to feel a need to do this kind of thing in a way that seems to me to be bordering on the pathological, in a way that no 'born' Catholic would ever do. To me, it is a waste of a life when you do a thing and then spend all your time defending your action instead of doing those things that your action entailed.

And speaking of action, I would advise that you consider what will be different in the expression of your faith after you join the Catholic church: will it bring you closer to God? Will it give you more opportunities to serve Christ than you already have? Will it change your attitude to other believers? Will God think any better of you?
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Thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts, I understand your views and actually wondered this myself at one point in the past. I know that some people do get sucked into ritual and just go through the motions.
In my protestant community however, we had the same problems.Such is life. Some go through the motions, some are actively seeking the Lord. The parable of the seed comes to mind.

Personally I must choose Christ's only true church, research has shown me that the Catholic Church is the way forward. I know I will be entering a new culture so to speak, and I know I will meet many who just go through the motions...However, I also know I will meet many deeply spiritual faithful followers of Christ.

As for being surrounded by many who are 'unchristian' and being small island of spiritually faithful within the Catholic Church as you state, maybe this was your personal experience but mine has been the exact opposite so far.

You mention a pathological defence of purgatory etc by protestant converts, you may be referring to apologists? In which case that is understandable?
 
R

RichRock

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PureX said:
Catholics do not tend to be dogmatic about religious doctrine, especially in the U.S.,. So if you are a stickler for religious doctrine, and it sounds as if you may be, then you might be disappointed with the fellowship among Catholics.
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Quite the opposite my dear friend. It was the Catholics who showed me how to open my mind to possibilities outside my own narrow belief system.

I had become very weary of extreme literalism and fundamentalist ideology and enjoy the fact the church does not have an opinion on numerous things...such as the 7 day creation for example. I personally believe it took 13.7 billion years and not 7 days...and that is absolutely fine with them.
 
PureX

PureX

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RichRock said:
Quite the opposite my dear friend. It was the Catholics who showed me how to open my mind to possibilities outside my own narrow belief system.

I had become very weary of extreme literalism and fundamentalist ideology.
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Ah! Well in that case. You may well find yourself a new and welcoming home.
 
intojoy

intojoy

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RichRock said:
I have been Evangelical Protestant most of my life, even spending some time living in a fulltime religious community.



The more I researched the origin of the bible and the history of my faith, the more I discovered the Catholic Church.



I am taking steps towards joining the Catholic Church and my question is this....'Why shouldn't I?'



I am not asking because I doubt my journey, I am asking because I haven't come across a good enough reason NOT to join.



Each side, for and against may debate, I look forward to reading each side's responses.



So, why shouldn't I convert to the Catholic Church?
Click to expand...


You need salvation

Period
 
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