What are some pitfalls that new converts should watch out for?

Michie

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Good things to consider, thanks for sharing!

Praying for new converts now; may God fill them with His love & guide them to His truth! (And please pray for Talmon, a friend of mine that I think is considering Catholicism very seriously!)
 
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Michie

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Good things to consider, thanks for sharing!

Praying for new converts now; may God fill them with His love & guide them to His truth! (And please pray for Talmon, a friend of mine that I think is considering Catholicism very seriously!)

Praying for your friend and you. :)
 
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Charlie24

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#1 pitfall for new converts is what the apostles and Jesus warned us of, false doctrine.

That's why we should study the scripture carefully and often to confirm what we believe.

Yes, I'm aware of that. Wasn't pointing toward Catholicism only, we all have this problem.
 
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tz620q

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Yes, I'm aware of that. Wasn't pointing toward Catholicism only, we all have this problem.
That is an interesting thought. It makes me wonder if new converts are more susceptible to the old wives tale type of theology or less. I think it depends on the RCIA class that they took. If that class was set up to teach Catholic Doctrine and explain it, the new convert might actually be better able to determine what to believe than someone who was raised in the faith in a lukewarm manner. Often cultural Catholics are brought up thinking that all those cultural traditions that are part of their worship are what constitute Catholicism and are hard and fast doctrine.
 
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Charlie24

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That is an interesting thought. It makes me wonder if new converts are more susceptible to the old wives tale type of theology or less. I think it depends on the RCIA class that they took. If that class was set up to teach Catholic Doctrine and explain it, the new convert might actually be better able to determine what to believe than someone who was raised in the faith in a lukewarm manner. Often cultural Catholics are brought up thinking that all those cultural traditions that are part of their worship are what constitute Catholicism and are hard and fast doctrine.
I'm not that familiar with catholicism but in most baptist churches the new convert can hear several different doctrines and become very confused.

They can easily be led astray. That's why I recommend reading the scripture for yourself, ask questions, see if what you hear lines up with what you read. If not, why?

I believe if you do this the Holy Spirit will lead you to the truth. In fact, Jesus said the Holy Spirit will guide you in all truth. But the new convert must seek for the truth in order to find it.
 
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tz620q

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I'm not that familiar with catholicism but in most baptist churches the new convert can hear several different doctrines and become very confused.

They can easily be led astray. That's why I recommend reading the scripture for yourself, ask questions, see if what you hear lines up with what you read. If not, why?

I believe if you do this the Holy Spirit will lead you to the truth. In fact, Jesus said the Holy Spirit will guide you in all truth. But the new convert must seek for the truth in order to find it.
To a Catholic, hearing different doctrines in the same denomination would constitute a real crisis. First, we are almost compulsive in our need to determine and document the last nuance of each doctrine. This is often pointed out to us by our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox group of churches as being too scholastic. They believe that some of God's mysteries should remain so and even be beyond human understanding. We believe that God gave us our intellect and desire to know him to seek a better understanding. So Catholics have firm documents on what is the faith and doctrines and cannot exist in a fog of ignorance. Our doctrine is only a Google search away.

Secondly, different teachings within the Catholic church would say that the hierarchy placed above these individuals to make sure they are teaching the same thing have not been vigilant enough in finding and curtailing false teachings from being presented.

Finally, with all of these absolutes, it is too often the case that just this thing happens within the Catholic Church. It is hard to control the human frailties of over 1.2 billion people and to get them all to believe in the same thing. I know to you this must sound like Big Brother type mind control; but if you believe in a single God and a single truth, shouldn't that truth be both knowable and prevailing? Wouldn't a thousand differing opinions be a sign of people that are making God in their image, not remaking themselves in God's image?

Anyway, that is how a Catholic would view this. This is not a knock on reading scripture, which, by the way is a strong suit in the Baptist church. It is more about how one goes from doing that to establishing personal belief. For us, personal belief should be guided by the wisdom of those above us and before us (in time), not produced in a vacuum of self-actualization.
 
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chevyontheriver

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I'm not that familiar with catholicism but in most baptist churches the new convert can hear several different doctrines and become very confused.
We actually have a reliable guide for the faith in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
You can see it online at: Catechism of the Catholic Church
They can easily be led astray. That's why I recommend reading the scripture for yourself, ask questions, see if what you hear lines up with what you read. If not, why?
That is also very important. We should all be reading our Bibles. And yet there are folks who teach strange doctrines that they swear come straight out of the Bible.
I believe if you do this the Holy Spirit will lead you to the truth. In fact, Jesus said the Holy Spirit will guide you in all truth. But the new convert must seek for the truth in order to find it.
The Holy Spirit leads the Church to all truth, but not necessarily every individual is tuned into the Holy Spirit by the claim that they got their ideas from the Bible.

With everything, everything a new convert hears should be taken with a grain of salt. Does the idea comport with Scripture? Does it comport with the catechism? Does it comport with what your bishop says? What other bishops say? What the pope says? Does it fit with the way we pray? That's how we know.

Catholics have serious deviations that can entice them if they are not careful. They can go hypertraditionalist and act more Catholic than everybody else. Or they can go crazy liberal rivaling anything liberal Protestantism has to offer. They can pay too much attention to Mary or not enough attention to her. They can spend way too much time in church on their private devotionals or they can become daily mass goers to their great benefit. Mostly it's a balance thing, getting the right balance of traditionalism in liturgy and social justice and prayer and asking the intercession of the saints, of study, and all. We have a good guide in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in Scripture, in our authorized teachers. We are a non-fanatic balanced religion that allows great depth when we ourselves are properly balanced in this way. Someone like St. Francis or Mother Teresa look fanatical, but their balance is what makes them good models for our faith.
 
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