This is not why I left Protestantism

[Michie]

With much controversy and conflict today among Catholics about Vatican II, the Word on Fire’s Vatican II Collection—with a foreword from Bishop Robert Barron, commentary by the postconciliar popes, and an excellent FAQ—is a timely and welcome volume.

It was the late summer of 2010. I was a Protestant seminary student, but I had been studying (and disputing) various claims made by the Catholic Church, precipitated by the recent conversion of one of my best friends, himself also a Protestant seminarian. The topic that most frustrated my fervent attempts to preserve my confidence in the Reformation was not Catholic criticisms of sola scriptura or sola fide.

fide.

It was authority.

I had come to realize that debates over the sufficiency of Scripture alone or how man is saved obscured a more fundamental problem: how to determine who had the authority to even decide what constituted Scripture (or, more broadly, divine revelation), let alone the thorny, complicated debates over the interpretation of various biblical passages. On what grounds did I, a 26-year-old American Protestant seminarian, claim authority to adjudicate such questions?

And, more to the point, did any person or institution have a remotely defensible claim to such authority?


Continued below.

This is not why I left Protestantism

www.catholicworldreport.com

 

[Erose]

I think we are about to see just how much that "gates of hell shall not prevail against..." is true or not in the next few years. In my life I do not think the Church has been in such a crisis of faith. You have some very load voices coming out attacking the Church daily from within. And they are coming from all sides. Progressives have made a lot of headway, and they think that this synod on synodality is their opportunity to change the Church fundamentally. Then you have the conservatives and traditionalists responding to this in the extreme, by either questioning or even denying Vatican II because they think it is Vatican II that is fueling this; and/or rejecting Pope Francis as the legitimate pope.

Sadly both sides are out of their boxes, and are or have become heterodox, and are moving away from the orthodoxy of our faith very rapidly.

Sadly, and this isn't an attack on Pope Francis, I just don't think he is the pope to put everyone back into their boxes.

Only the Holy Spirit can keep a schism from occurring, from all this hoopla.

 

[Bob Crowley]

In my case I left Protestantism for a couple of reasons - the main one is that God wanted me to.

The second is that I got frustrated with all the divisions in the Protestant churches.

In the case of "God wanting me to" - I was talking with my old Presbyterian pastor as I often did, and he remarked "I think you'll become Catholic".

I demurred as it wasn't even on my radar then, and added "It seems to me that my (unbelieving Catholic) father has taken me out of it".

He responded "I think God might want you to go back there...."

In the very same exchange he warned me about the pedophile crisis which would hit the church, saying "I think there's going to be a lot of them!"

That was way back circa 1990/91 as he died himself in 1992.

He had a bit more to say which would not be diplomatic for me to say right now.

I resisted for a while but eventually push became shove so I thought I'd better join. Whenever I drove past a Catholic Church for example it would sort of loom up at me.

Some time after he died and after I'd joined the church, the old pastor turned up in a vision one night and said "The Catholic Church is CLOSEST to the truth", with a distinct emphasis on the word "Closest". Then he just disappeared as usual.

He's turned up a handful of times in visions after he died (maybe four or five). Each time he said something which was relevant, and promptly disappeared.

It's been a while since the last one.

I have the occasional (strong) disagreement with the church as those who have been following another thread will realise, but for my money it is "closest" to the truth. That's where I stand.

 

[Gnarwhal]

I think we are about to see just how much that "gates of hell shall not prevail against..." is true or not in the next few years. In my life I do not think the Church has been in such a crisis of faith. You have some very load voices coming out attacking the Church daily from within. And they are coming from all sides. Progressives have made a lot of headway, and they think that this synod on synodality is their opportunity to change the Church fundamentally. Then you have the conservatives and traditionalists responding to this in the extreme, by either questioning or even denying Vatican II because they think it is Vatican II that is fueling this; and/or rejecting Pope Francis as the legitimate pope.

Sadly both sides are out of their boxes, and are or have become heterodox, and are moving away from the orthodoxy of our faith very rapidly.

Sadly, and this isn't an attack on Pope Francis, I just don't think he is the pope to put everyone back into their boxes.

Only the Holy Spirit can keep a schism from occurring, from all this hoopla.

McElroy certainly isn't wasting any time. And maybe it's just me but Jimmy Martin seems to have upped the ante.

 

[chevyontheriver]

And maybe it's just me but Jimmy Martin seems to have upped the ante.

He sure has the pope's ear.

 

[Gnarwhal]

He sure has the pope's ear.

Something something birds of a Jesuit feather...

 

[ralliann]

I think we are about to see just how much that "gates of hell shall not prevail against..." is true or not in the next few years. In my life I do not think the Church has been in such a crisis of faith. You have some very load voices coming out attacking the Church daily from within. And they are coming from all sides. Progressives have made a lot of headway, and they think that this synod on synodality is their opportunity to change the Church fundamentally. Then you have the conservatives and traditionalists responding to this in the extreme, by either questioning or even denying Vatican II because they think it is Vatican II that is fueling this; and/or rejecting Pope Francis as the legitimate pope.

Sadly both sides are out of their boxes, and are or have become heterodox, and are moving away from the orthodoxy of our faith very rapidly.

Sadly, and this isn't an attack on Pope Francis, I just don't think he is the pope to put everyone back into their boxes.

Only the Holy Spirit can keep a schism from occurring, from all this hoopla.

Isn't this also happening in the Orthodox Church in a way ?

 

[Erose]

Isn't this also happening in the Orthodox Church in a way ?

In my opinion it is happening in every church group that I know of. Progressives fighting it out with the Traditionalist/Conservatives, with mixed results.

 

[ralliann]

In my opinion it is happening in every church group that I know of. Progressives fighting it out with the Traditionalist/Conservatives, with mixed results.

This is true.