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Swimming the Tiber, part 1

8/4/2020

1 Comment

 
I have recently converted to the Roman Catholic Church. My family and I are in the latter stages of coming into full communion with the Church. It’s been quite a journey for me personally. I say this because I recently had a friend who is Protestant, but also exploring the claims of the Catholic Church, encourage me to write about this and so I shall.

There were lots of things that compelled me to “swim the Tiber” and I’m not really sure where to start. I have spoken before and often about my journey into what I called the historic Church. I was raised Protestant, graduated from a Protestant seminary, was ordained in the Protestant tradition and even pastored a Protestant church. The last two to three years of my pastoral ministry, things began to change for me. I discovered something that was a bit jarring for me. I discovered that there were Christians before Martin Luther and after the Apostles.

I know, shocking, right?

I say this with, of course, a touch of sarcasm. I say it sarcastically because, growing up the way I did and being educated by the people I was educated by, one would have thought that Christianity had somehow been lost after St. John the Apostle died and Martin Luther nailed up his famous 95 Theses. Now, in fairness, not all Protestants think that there were no Christians between St. John and Luther…but most of them act like it. The attitude seems to be one of “Well, Christianity kinda got lost during all those dark years and then Luther came along and read the Bible and voila!” Again, I know I’m using caricature, but you get the point.

What happened, for me, was that I began to go back. I was reading Scripture and preparing sermons. Anyone who preaches regularly will know exactly what I mean when I say that I was wrestling with some of these texts. There are some things in Holy Scripture that are difficult to understand. So, I did what I was trained to do; I consulted commentaries. One day I realized that almost all the commentaries I had consulted were written within the last 100 years and all were written by Protestants. So I did something dangerous. I decided that I wanted to know what the earliest Christians thought about what Holy Scripture said.

Like, when Jesus, at the Last Supper, said, “This is My body…This is My blood..” What did He mean by that exactly and how did the earliest Christians view those statements? So I began to read and consult with the earliest Christian writings I could get my hands on.

You guessed it…the Church Fathers.

Some of this I’ve said before but, the point is worth re-stating. As I read the earliest Christian writers, thinkers, theologians, pastors etc, I was astounded. They were Catholic. For example (my brother and I talked a bit about this last weekend), did you know that you could not find a Christian for the first 1500 years or so of the Church that did not believe in baptismal regeneration? Let me say that a little more clearly. Baptismal regeneration was believed by all orthodox Christians for the first 1500 years of the Church.

Sure, there were people who didn’t believe that, but those people were considered to be heretical. For my Protestant friends, read that again. Baptismal regeneration was believed by all orthodox Christians for the first 1500 years of the Church. To say that I was shocked when I discovered this is a huge understatement. This flew in the face of everything I had been taught about baptism as a Protestant.

Another example for you. The unanimous belief of all orthodox Christians before the Protestant “Reformation” was in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. All orthodox Christians believed that Jesus was present body, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. Those who did not believe that were considered heretical. I can’t even begin to describe to you how much this shook me.

I wondered, ‘What else was I taught that doesn’t align with traditional Christianity?’

You must understand. I was, and am, wanting to align myself with and practice the faith “once for all delivered to the saints.” How can I claim to be Christian if I am not practicing the faith once for all delivered to the saints? How can I claim to be Christian if I don’t believe the faith once for all delivered to the saints?

I can’t.

We cannot claim that we are practicing the faith once for all delivered to the saints if we don’t follow the practice of the faith once for all delivered to the saints and we cannot claim that we believe the faith once for all delivered to the saints if we don’t believe what Christians have always believed.

I found myself in a really awkward position. Indeed, I found that I could not claim to be a Christian if I did not do and believe what Christians have always done and believed. As we progress, I will lay out my personal journey back to Mother Church.

​I pray that this journey will be as wonderful for you as it has been for me.
1 Comment
Mark D Cannon
8/4/2020 15:59:34

Scott

Thanks for sharing. I want to say I am on a spiritual journey myself and looking for a church to reflect my beliefs. It sounds like it was not just 1 thing, but several that led you to the Catholic/Anglican Church. I am a former Catholic (baptized and confirmed), but I really have a hard time coming back to the Catholic faith because of too many practices that I believe go against Jesus teachings and the early church. If you are ever in Indy, I would be happy to discuss some of those issues.

I do want to clarify something you mentioned about baptism.There are definitely differences in the practice of faith by Catholics and Protestants. I have heard some Protestants preach that baptism is preferred, but not necessary. On the other hand, Martin Luther believed in baptismal regeneration, as do other Protestants. In fact, Martin Luther accepted this as fact.

“[I]t is solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized or we shall not be saved. . . . To be baptized in God’s name is to be baptized not by men but by God himself. Although it is performed by men’s hands, it is nevertheless truly God’s own act. From this fact everyone can easily conclude that it is of much greater value than the work of any man or saint. . . . Therefore it is sheer wickedness and devilish blasphemy when our ‘new spirits’ [Anabaptists], in order to slander baptism, ignore God’s word and ordinance and consider nothing but the water drawn from the well and then babble, ‘How can a handful of water help the soul?’” (Long Catechism 4).

I also wonder how the Catholic faith squares infant baptism with adult baptism in the Jesus time. Does a child undergo such transformation if the decision to be baptized is made by their parents? What if both parents are not saved when the child is baptized, but are just part of the "Creaster Catholics" that do such things as part of tradition, but do not follow the tenants of the Catholic faith, including church attendance, communion, confession, sex outside of marriage, etc.?

I also have a big problem with the Catholic Church making this kind of statement:

"They cannot be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or remain in it (cf. LG 14)."

I don't remember seeing anything in the bible requiring adherence to religion, or membership in the Catholic Church as necessary for salvation. In fact, Jesus spoke out against the Scribes and the Pharisees because they put religion over the Law and God's Word. The bottom line is that religion, or becoming a part of a church, is not what is necessary for salvation. The bible is clear that putting your faith in Christ and baptism leads to salvation. Not membership in a church or specific religion. I think lots of Catholics and Protestants alike will be surprised to hear Jesus say what he prophesied in Matthew 7:21-23:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

That's my opinion on this, for what its worth.

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