CONSIDERING CATHOLICISM

Evan Jaax

‘magna est veritas et praevalebit’ // truth is

great and it will prevail

When I was in highschool I was obsessed with finding answers. Driven by the insatiable
desire to be the best debater in my debate league I would spend hours analyzing different points
and positions of my possible debate opponents with the hope of finding a hole. If I found any
hole, the slightest crack in their logic or research, then blood was in the water. Dory and Marlin
had better run because “oooooh, that smells good”. I would exploit that hole with the
self-righteous aggressiveness of a district attorney prosecuting a child rapist. After all “facts
don’t care about your feelings” [Ben Shapiro].

Deep in our minds are vaults of knowledge. Established from a young age, these fortresses
of belief defend us from the chaos that would be uncertainty. Everything we hear or see gets
filtered through this fortress. Anything that agrees with or supports our preconceptions,
becomes part of that fortress growing its strength and size. But if it challenges the fortress and
seeks to destroy it we brand it FALSE and retreat back to our fortress. We train and prepare to
defend against these aggressors, because we know how many of our fellows' fortresses have
fallen.

In modern times the concept of a fortress is best summed up by the term ‘echo chamber’.
This “chamber” is the conceptualization of how our internal biases constantly look for affirmation
for our particular beliefs. It swiftly filters out and rationalizes anything that challenges our status
quo. Not only does it remove the bad, but it also seeks to associate with like minded people and
groups. The echo chamber effect is best understood in the digital space. Google, Amazon,
TikTok, and Facebook show you what you want to see so you will click, watch, and surf more.
There is no denying that the echo chamber works, our beliefs become titans of power and
conviction. But as our fortresses grow massive and looming, there is a question. Are they
bastions of truth or prisons of lies?

We have all been there. That feeling of panic when someone asks you something about a
core belief that stumps you. Maybe you fling out a response quickly as a feeble attempt to
protect the fortress. Maybe you get angry and hostile and retort back with an-ill thought
response. Maybe you change the subject. Maybe you feign nonchalance and pretend like they
didn’t just make a crack in your fortress.

We often forget these moments after they pass, after all our mind is skilled at forgetting
memories of near-successful attacks against our precious convictions. But we never truly forget.
Somewhere deep in the recesses of our minds is a subconscious war raging. And one day a
little voice inside your head will ask the question, “am I on the right side of this war?”

“You're waiting for a train. A train that'll

take you far away. You know where you hope this
train will take you. But you can't know for
sure. Yet it doesn't matter. Now, tell me why?”
― Inception

Years ago when I was 18, I was frequently engaged in religious dialogue with an enemy of my
faith, a devout Catholic. He was sadly mistaken and lost in his confusing religion of lies. Nothing
he said made any sense, it was all a feeble attempt to resist the truth of the gospel. I was right,
he was wrong, and all I needed was time to convince him. It was as simple as quoting a few
bible passages he had never heard, because if Catholics only read their bible then they would
quickly realize how Protestantism alone is compatible with God’s word. On top of quoting those
passages I responded to his claims with responses I had heard in church or bible study. I
remember distinctly thinking “I could easily beat him in a formal debate”. But behind this facade
of invincibility my civil war had begun. Cracks were forming. I was terrified.
 This Catholic friend probably didn’t realize how much chaos he had introduced into my life.
Beliefs I had spent years protecting were suddenly being called before the jury to defend
themselves. I spoke to my girlfriend at the time, deflecting the questions to her, in hopes that
she would have a satisfactory answer. This only confused and scared her, because Catholics
were wrong and I was asking Catholic-ish questions. Of course her family was very, very
concerned that a possible son-in-law was, in their mind, considering Catholicism. Throughout
this season of doubt and questioning I read, researched, and thought briefly about things I had
never once considered. Even writing an essay to my girlfriend’s father about my questions,
hoping to explain to him that I wasn’t leaving Christianity but I needed to find some answers. But
soon, as we often do, I backed away from the edge of the cliff. At the time I justified stopping my
search because I had read the bible consistently for 9 weeks and the doubts had stopped. So
obviously all I was missing was being consistent in my walk with God. Hallelujah!

However, I now know that I stopped my search because I was terrified. Terrified of two
possible conclusions: I either would find answers I wouldn’t like, or I wouldn’t find any answers
at all. So I stuffed my doubts away, married the love of my life (the girlfriend), joined a Protestant
non-denominational church with her, and moved on with my life. The fortress stood on.

I wish I could say my objective wisdom and truth seeking led me swiftly back to learning how
“to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” [1 Peter
3:15, ESV]. But instead it took 5 years of dodging questions about life and religion, before I
realized that I couldn’t keep running. I had to stop, turn around, and face the fear. Come what
may, my duty to God (if there was one) was to find answers. I knew that my family and friends
would be a combination of frustrated, concerned, or antagonistic if I became Catholic. But then
again how could I stop being a Christian by becoming Catholic? All I need is the bible and the
Holy Spirit to follow Christ… right?

As I asked this question and many more, I came face to face with a terrifying concept of truth.
Truth is absolute. There is no room for “my truth” or “my interpretation”. I had to know what was,
and what wasn’t. A train was coming, and I didn’t know where it would take me. I hoped it
would take me closer to Christ, but that didn’t matter. Why? Because it would take me to the
truth. Whether that truth was Atheism, Protestantism, or Catholicism. Praise to God that this
journey led me straight back to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, the maker of heaven and
earth, the Son of God, the Messiah, the TRUTH.
 ―

Water is purest at the source

Think of the last river you swam in. Maybe you floated in a tube, paddled in a kayak, or swam
in the current, but I doubt you drank the water. While you need water to survive we instinctively
know that we shouldn’t drink that murky, green water. That water is very similar to the water in
your bottle, but those microscopic differences could be the difference between sickness and
rehydration. If you followed the river upstream you would eventually find its source. Maybe it’s a
glacier melting, snow thawing, an underground spring, or a fluffy cloud. Water is purest at the
source.

As I searched for the truth about Christianity I realized if I wanted truth, I needed the pure
water from the source. That source was of course Jesus Christ himself. It wasn’t the New
Testament (that came 20+ years after Jesus), it wasn’t the Reformation (that came 1500 years
after Jesus), and it wasn’t John MacArthur (he came 2000 years after Jesus). So I began my
journey to find the purest form of Christianity, one that was corrupted least by man’s fallen
nature. To find the purest form of Christianity I needed to step back in time, and get as close as I
could to Jesus chronologically.

Irenaus, 189 AD.

“As I said before, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although she
is disseminated throughout the whole world, yet guarded it, as if she occupied but one
house. She likewise believes these things just as if she had but one soul and one
and the same heart; and harmoniously she proclaims them and teaches them and
hands them down, as if she possessed but one mouth. For, while the languages of
the world are diverse, nevertheless, the authority of the tradition is one and the same”
(Irenaus, Against Heresies 1:10:2 [A.D. 189]).

Protestants drink distilled water

 Let me explain, they have on a molecular level pure water, but they only get that by boiling
away all minerals from the dirty river water. Yes they get rid of a lot of the filth of the river (also
known as the world) but they also remove the naturally occurring minerals in the water. Here we
have a distinction between two different types of Protestants. One group only drinks this distilled
water. According to them, all they need is this water (sola scriptura). They drink it, and only that
water. The second group realizes something is missing, so they devise clever methods of
adding the perfect recipe of minerals back into their water (Orthodox/Anglican/Lutheran). But
neither of these solutions gives us the pure water that flows from Christ. That original water
doesn’t need cleansing or supplementation. While every Protestant denomination (~35,496 of
them [2010 ARDA Census]) claims to have the perfect recipe for the original water, we know by
logic that there can only be one version of water that is original. Anything more or less is not the
original.

I have heard it said that the “main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the
main things”. But ask any Protestant how they know what are the main things or the plain
things, and you will get a confusing array of answers. Protestants will even claim that they
believe the simple gospel. But ask them the simple question “is baptism necessary for salvation
in Christ?” and you will get a massive lack of coherence on this major element of the “simple
gospel”. We could spend all day going through differing beliefs within the Protestant church, but
at the end of the day every person has their own list of “plain & main things”. I would argue that
there are not 35,000+ denominations but rather around 1 billion. Everyone has their own Holy
Spirit compass guiding them, but I doubt that a single Christian agrees on everything. Truthfully
this is the single biggest reason I am considering the Catholic Church, because they claim, and
have evidence for a living - Christ protected and ordained - leadership to guide Christians into
what is true. Christ wanted us to “be one”. I am done with the disunity. I am done with the logical
fallacy of “Holy Spirit Relativism''.

Holy Spirit Relativism

Here is what the Jesus has to say about the Holy Spirit:
John 14:15-17 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells
with you and will be in you.”

John 16:12-15 ESV

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of
truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own
authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that
are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All
that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it
to you.”

Then in the Acts of the Apostles, the first specific time the Holy Spirit is recorded as deciding a
doctrinal dispute in the Church it wasn’t up to the individual Christians to “feel it in their heart”.

Acts 15:12-19 ESV

“Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose
men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent
Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following
letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the
Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some
persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds,
although we gave them no instructions, 25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one
accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men
who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent
Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it
has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these
requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood,
and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves
from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
If all believers have the Holy Spirit equally and yet we disagree on matters of doctrine. Then
there seem to be only 4 logical explanations:

1. The Holy Spirit doesn’t care about doctrines

2. Only those who have correct doctrine have the Holy Spirit
3. The bible, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is just sham religion
4. The Holy Spirit doesn’t guide individual Christians but rather the Church as a whole.

1. The Holy Spirit doesn’t care about doctrines

This argument is the main thrust of most modern Protestants. If you listen to these
Protestants explain their beliefs and doctrines they will inevitably say something along the lines
of “this is what I believe, the Holy Spirit has convicted me of this, I don’t think that other
churches aren't Christian they just have different views on X”. But how can we know what is
Holy Spirit inspired doctrine vs what isn’t? Do we only base it upon feelings? Our personal
interpretation of Scripture/History?.

Is Calvinism/Arminianism a salvific issue? Some say yes, some say no. I have heard the
argument that true Christians only believe in the simple gospel of Christ. But ask them to start
defining the hypostatic union, trinity, theotokos, doctrine of original sin, or grace and they will
give you a myriad of answers (if any). As if somehow these things don’t matter. All that matters
is the simple gospel. Just Jesus. But we can’t even agree on what the gospel is or who Jesus is.
Ask a Lutheran and a Calvinist to define justification and you will get two wildly different
theological treatises. Yet somehow they can both happily look each other in the eyes and say “I
think we are both Christians, your contradictory theology does not make you an enemy of
Christ, BUT I WON’T GO TO CHURCH WITH YOU.” This inevitably leads us in a circle of
relativism. Either doctrine matters or it doesn’t. Homosexuality is a sin, or it’s not. Birth control is
a sin, or it’s not. Abortion is a sin, or it’s not. Baptism saves you, or it doesn’t. Communion is
actually Jesus, or it’s not. Remarriage after divorce is adultery, or it’s not. Masturbation is a sin,
or it’s not. You can lose your salvation, or you can’t. The Book of Wisdom is prophetic and
inspired, or it’s not. Prosperity gospel is wrong, or it’s true. The sinner's prayer saves you, or it
doesn’t. Gifts of the Holy Spirit are ended, or they are not. Evolution is compatible with the Bible,
or it’s not. Icons are idol worship, or they aren’t. Women can teach in church, or they can’t. Nude
art is pornography, or it’s not. Polygamy is biblically defensible, or it’s not. Having investment
accounts is storing up treasures on earth, or it’s not. Wearing braided hair is immodest, or it’s
not. The sabbath is no longer binding, or it is. The Trinity is biblical, or it’s not. Self-defense is
murder, or it’s not. Bombing Hiroshima & Nagasaki was justified, or it was mass murder. You
have to get baptised if you apostatize, or you don’t. Et cetera, et cetera, and et cetera.

Most “progressive/vanilla” Christians are in camp 1, that the Holy Spirit doesn’t care about
doctrines as long as you “love Christ and other people”. Yet, I think there are smarter
conservative Protestants who wisely step outside of this cesspool of relativism that says: ‘truth is
WHATEVER I feel it is, as long as I love Jesus and love others’.

2. Only those who have correct doctrine have the Holy Spirit

I happily called camp 2 home for my entire Protestant walk. Yes there are people with wrong
doctrines, but those people weren’t ‘real’ Christians. They might say they followed Christ, but in
reality they didn’t have the Holy Spirit whispering in their ears but rather their corrupted nature
or worse, the devil. Protestants in this camp believe that true Christians, those actually with the
Holy Spirit, have true doctrine. And because they (those in camp 2) obviously have correct
doctrine, they therefore must have the Holy Spirit and vice versa. After all, how else could they
recognize that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is their Savior from sin unless the Holy Spirit
opened their eyes to Him. If the Holy Spirit revealed the truth to them, they must have the Holy
Spirit. If they have the Holy Spirit then they must have truth. And if they have truth, then anyone
who disagrees with them must not have the Holy Spirit. You clearly can see how this creates
35,000 different denominations. Scripture has something to say about this hyper individualism:

Judges 17:6 ESV

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

The reason I cannot be in camp 2 anymore is because there is no method of knowing who
has truth or the Holy Spirit short of divine revelation. Unless you can magically demonstrate that
you have the Holy Spirit then maybe you are just wrong, confused, or at worst serving the devil.
Maybe I am wrong, confused, or serving the devil? Maybe you think I’m wrong right now writing
this essay. But how do you know I am wrong? Except by your own reasoning, your own
interpretation of the Bible, and the Holy Spirit (but I also believe I have the reasoning, the Bible,
and the Holy Spirit).
 In the end each Christian in camp 2 has to shrug their shoulders and say words that terrify
me to my core. “It seems right to me, I think that's what the Bible says, God laid it upon my
heart, God spoke to me”. Even though two people can say diametrically opposite things under
the authority of those words. In the end camp 2 disintegrates into an exclusive version of
relativism that says: ‘truth is ONLY what I think it is’.

3. The bible, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is just sham religion

This takes little explanation but I think camp 3 is probably the most logically consistent of the
first 3 options. Instead of reducing a supposed “Spirit of Truth” into a “spirit of confusion” [which
scripture says God is not “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” 1 Cor 14:33] in order
to make sense of the obvious lack of unity amongst Christians, people in camp 3 ultimately
leave the faith. God promised to send us a helper who will lead us into all truth, yet we are in
complete disarray. Therefore either God doesn’t exist, God lied, or the Spirit isn’t what Jesus
said He would be. Any of these options make sense of the chaos that is Protestant Christianity.
Christ even said that the Holy Spirit coming would be better for us than Christ Himself staying:

John 16:7 ESV

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not
go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

Does Protestant Christianity look more or less unified than it would be under the direct and
active guidance of Jesus incarnate? But the Holy Spirit is better for us now than Christ Himself?
If the Holy Spirit leads Christians into chaos, how can God be real? Jesus either lied or John 16
is a forgery of men. Unless…

4. The Holy Spirit doesn’t guide individual Christians but rather the Church as a
whole.

Three passages of scripture are suitable to explain why camp 4 not only makes the most sense,
but it also, in my opinion, is the ONLY position that makes any sense.

Titus 1 ESV:
“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's
elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal
 life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time
manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the
command of God our Savior; To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace
from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. This is why I left you in Crete, so that
you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed
you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are
believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer,
as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or
a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled,
upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so
that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who
contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are
upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.
One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts,
lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be
sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of
people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled
and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable,
disobedient, unfit for any good work.”

1 Timothy 3 ESV
“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble
task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife,
sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not
violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own
household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not
know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not
be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the
 condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he
may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not
greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear
conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove
themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but
sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife,
managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as
deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is
in Christ Jesus. I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that,
if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is
the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Matthew 18:15-20 ESV

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If
he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two
others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or
three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to
listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say
to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth
about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where
two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

When I realized that the Apostles cared about sound doctrine, warned about false teachers
with false gospels, and that the Apostles did not have a one whit of relativism when it came to
matters of doctrine, I understood instantly that camps 1 and 2 were rubbish. God was a God of
order and truth, not chaos and subjectivity. But how do you know what is true? According to
Jesus himself in the above quoted passages of Holy Scripture, you take it to The Church. Not a
church, not my church, not your church, but rather THE Church. There is only one Church of
Christ. And it’s not your local self-elected pastor, it’s not your home church that you think is the
most biblical. It is the Church that Christ established upon His apostles when He gave them
authority to bind and loose. Hence why the early Christian creed of 381 said the words
Apostolic. Because as scripture attests the authority to teach and preach was passed on by the
laying on the hands (ordination) from the apostles. There was no such thing as self ordination or
democratic election to the office of pastor. Paul himself was ordained and baptised before he
began teaching. Being personally submitted to Church leadership and authority wasn’t up to
your decision of which church you personally agreed with, but rather a submission to THE
Church of Christ. In other words, you don’t choose your Apostle to follow. You either follow them
all, or you don’t follow any.

Christian Creeds

Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. 381 AD

“...And I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The Lord, and Giver of Life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified;
who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins. And I look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

It is interesting to note that the original Nicean creed of 325 also uses the verbage apostolic &
catholic.

Nicene Creed 325

“. . .And that those who say: “There was when he was not,” and, “Before he was
begotten, he was not,” and that he came to be from those things which do not exist or
from another hypostasis or say that he essences are either liable to be changed or that
 the Son is of another nature than the Father — these the catholic and apostolic
church anathematises.”

For those who wish to contend that Protestantism is the same as Catholic in the context of the
Nicene Creed we simply need to turn to Augustine who wrote during the time of the Nicene
Creed. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430. This is the context for the words
“apostolic” & “catholic” in the Nicene Creed of 325/381.

Augustine:
“For in the Catholic Church, not to speak of the purest wisdom, to the knowledge of
which a few spiritual men attain in this life, so as to know it, in the scantiest measure,
indeed, because they are but men, still without any uncertainty (since the rest of the
multitude derive their entire security not from acuteness of intellect, but from simplicity of
faith,)—not to speak of this wisdom, which you do not believe to be in the Catholic
Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom.
The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her
authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love,
established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very
seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in
charge to feed His sheep, down to the present episcopate. And so, lastly, does
the name itself of Catholic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the
Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics,
yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture
to point to his own chapel or house. Such then in number and importance are the
precious ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic
Church, as it is right they should, though from the slowness of our understanding, or the
small attainment of our life, the truth may not yet fully disclose itself. But with you, where
there is none of these things to attract or keep me, the promise of truth is the only thing
that comes into play. Now if the truth is so clearly proved as to leave no possibility of
doubt, it must be set before all the things that keep me in the Catholic Church; but if
there is only a promise without any fulfillment, no one shall move me from the faith which
binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion.” [The Writings
Against the Manichaeans and Against the Donatists, Chapter 4:5]
SIDENOTE ON CANON: The earliest Christian council that set the Christian biblical canon
occured in 382 AD at the Council of Rome, one year after the 381 Nicene Creed was universally
agreed to by the Christian Church. This is especially interesting because in 382 the Council of
Rome promulgated the 73-book Catholic canon NOT the 66-book Protestant canon. The biblical
canon was reaffirmed by the regional councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), and then
definitively reaffirmed by the ecumenical Council of Florence (1442). All long before Martin
Luther lived. You will never find a pre-Reformation CHRISTIAN Church council/synod that
affirms the Protestant Old Testament Canon. I stress ‘CHRISTIAN’ because you can find Jewish
groups who hold the Protestant Canon but never a pre-Reformation Christian council.

“To be deep in history is to cease to be a

Protestant.” ― John Henry Newman

While I completely understand that many of you reading have been offended by my words
and most likely disagree with them, I hope that you can appreciate my desire. All I want is to
serve Christ and follow Him. I want to follow the Truth (that is Christ) wherever that leads me. To
the best of my reasoning, study, and prayer I have come to the conclusion that the Catholic
Church warrants serious consideration, which is why I am joining RCIA (Rite of Christian
Initiation of Adults) this September 12, 2021 to investigate more fully the claims of the Catholic
Church. I still have my doubts, my concerns, and my questions. However, to quote Martin
Luther; “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”

This paper has barely scratched the surface of my studies, and I fully understand the nuclear
arsenal that a Protestant apologist could launch at dozens of my contentions. I hope that my
emphatic words will not be twisted to imply that I think I am better than my Protestant brethren. I
pray often that God would protect me if I am going down the wrong path, that He would stop me
in my tracks, but so far He hasn’t (or at least it doesn’t seem like it). Maybe God will bring me
back to the “true faith” in a month, a year, or a decade. But I cannot resist out of fear, what
everything in my heart, soul, and mind is telling me is from God right now.
 I love my Protestant family and friends. Your love of Christ, the Bible, and telling others about
Christ inspires me. My prayer and hope is that you would understand that I do not seek to leave
Christ but to love Him and obey Him. This essay is not a decree of silence, but a cry for prayers
and counsel. It is my attempt to bring you into a basic understanding of my mind and journey. I
do not wish to stop dialogue with you about matters of faith, rather I want to open a more
transparent ecumenism with all of my family and friends.

“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,

because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
or if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
Let us test him with insult and torture,
that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”
― Wisdom of Solomon 2:12–20