JeffreyLloyd's Testimony

I was raised Baptist, and was very active in my Southern Baptist church and youth group (I was elected President of our youth group four years in a row!). When I was 21 I began dating a Catholic woman named Marie.

I fell in love with Marie and we became engaged. For reasons not that important, I had stopped attending my current baptist church, so I agreed to be married in Marie's Catholic Church, but I would not join the Catholic faith. The priest asked me point blank, and I told him, "no way."

I was rasied a very proud Protestant (I had a copy of the 95 thesis on my door - which is funny cause I never took time to really read them). What I new about the Catholic church is what I had been told by others: They used to be christian, but they worship mary, pray to dead saints, worship pictures and statues, and think the pope is sinless. I never doubt this at all , my pastor even showed me a verse in the bible that said, "call no man father." Well, what do they call their pastors... fathers! That was proof enough that the catholic church was against the bible.

Well, I began to do some studying to learn about the Catholic Church on my own, I felt if I could learn what they believe I might be able to convert her before our wedding and in the process "save" her soul. You see at this point in my life I was very anti-Catholic. I hated the church and everything "pagan" it stood for.

My thought was, if I get the words right from catholic authors how they worshiped Mary, and such all I would have to do is show Marie these Catholic books and the Bible and she'll see the truth. So when I started to research Marie's faith instead of starting with anti-catholic material, I picked up some books from a catholic point of view - books by peopel like Scott Hahn, David Currie and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I had heard so much about the Catechism, but never really opened one up.

I then picked up some books from a Protestant point of view, namely by James White. The more I prayed and more I thought about both sides, the more I was convinced I was the wrong one!

I was shocked by what I read in the Catechism, here it is a bunch of Catholic beliefs with footnotes in the Bible (yes the Bible!) and in early church fathers! Then I started reading what the early church fathers wrote and the more I read their beliefs the more I saw those same teachings in the Catholic Church! This was a mind trip all right, my whole frame of mind was changing. To me, Christianity was my life. The thought of even changing churches, let alone becoming Catholic was so foreign to me!

I started to see the Catholic Church for what it really was, and not what I thought it was. I started to see how they don't worship Mary, they don't think the Pope was perfect, and they didn't teach all non-Catholics were bound for hell! I was shocked. I didn't know what to do and didn't know who to turn too. I didn't really know any Catholics I could really talk to about this. I hadn't told Marie any thing so I didn't feel I could really go to her.

I went to midnight mass with Marie that Christmas, and I could feel the power of the Holy Spirit telling me, "this is the place." Her parish was beautiful, and I could feel the power of the Holy Mass come alive for really the first time in my life.

Of all the things that brought me "home to Rome" was John 6. The chapter never made sense to me before I read it from a Catholic point of view. The idea that Jesus is actually present in the Eucarist was so exciting, I felt on fire for God like I never felt before!

Then it all happened, one little book changed everything for me. It is called, "Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth." The booklet is amazing and the first 10 pages changed my life forever.

I was a Christian, but I was not experiencing Christianity the way I believed Christ has intended. The next morning, I called Marie's parish and told them I wanted to join the Catholic Church, after meeting with a deacon, they let me join RCIA in January of 2002.

I was received in full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil that spring. I shocked Marie, but most of all I shocked myself. Here is the key part of "pillar of fire, pillar of truth" that opened my eyes:

Jesus said his Church would be "the light of the world." He then noted that "a city set on a hill cannot be hid" (Matt. 5:14). This means his Church is a visible organization. It must have characteristics that clearly identify it and that distinguish it from other churches. Jesus promised, "I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). This means that his Church will never be destroyed and will never fall away from him. His Church will survive until his return.

Among the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. (Most of today’s Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots.)

Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. The line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken succession, to Peter himself. This is unequaled by any institution in history.

Even the oldest government is new compared to the papacy, and the churches that send out door-to-door missionaries are young compared to the Catholic Church. Many of these churches began as recently as the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Some even began during your own lifetime. None of them can claim to be the Church Jesus established.

The Catholic Church has existed for nearly 2,000 years, despite constant opposition from the world. This is testimony to the Church’s divine origin. It must be more than a merely human organization, especially considering that its human members— even some of its leaders—have been unwise, corrupt, or prone to heresy.

Any merely human organization with such members would have collapsed early on. The Catholic Church is today the most vigorous church in the world (and the largest, with a billion members: one sixth of the human race), and that is testimony not to the cleverness of the Church’s leaders, but to the protection of the Holy Spirit.

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Now in no way do I feel bad toward my old church. I thank God every day for my Baptist grandparents and everyone at my old church who told me of the love only found in Jesus Christ. It was this faith that got me through the hardest times of my life ... my sledding accident, which I'll post about soon...

Until then God bless you!

Jeff