Reflections based on the previous blog entry

Jimmy Akin's reader seems to be willing to go wherever the truth takes him or her. Although I fault the Fundamental Baptist church and schools I attended as a child and teenager for encouraging me to be legalistic and arrogant, they did perform a great service in that they taught me 1) there is Truth, 2) Truth can be known, 3) Truth should be followed wherever it leads, and 4) Truth should be obeyed, let it cost what it may. Although I could not articulate this as a teenager, these lessons penetrated my heart and mind, and I lived them. When I dedicated my life to Christ at sixteen (re-dedicated, actually, because my parents dedicated me to the Lord when I was a baby), a desire to really know Him started growing in me. This led me to study Christian doctrine, read Christian biographies, and become interested in world missions,* and these things raised questions in my mind like: What is the church? Why are many of our (modern Evangelical) beliefs different from the beliefs of the Reformers? Why do so many Evangelicals now accept doctrines the earliest Christians considered heretical (e.g., man is essentially** body, soul, and spirit; modalism, which is found among the "Jesus Only" Pentecostals)? Why and when did we stop believing the Church could settle doctrinal matters through Councils? With all the divisions among Christians, how can we ever hope to reach the unity of faith Paul spoke so often about (see Ephesians 3:13; Philippians 2:2; I Corinthians 1:10, et al)? My search for the answers to these questions eventually brought me to the Catholic Church. I'm working on a post that will contain my testimony and better explain why I became Catholic. But that's not why I'm posting this blog entry.

I'm happy the person who wrote to Jimmy Akin is doing his or her best to follow the truth. I'll be very happy if this person becomes a Christian in any tradition, but I hope he or she comes into full communion with the Catholic Church. I have this same hope for every human being in the world. Having said all that, we now get to the main reason I'm writing this entry. I just don't get people who are members of churches in spite of the fact that they disagree with much, most, or all of what their church teaches. And many of these people consider themselves to be loyal members in good standing, even! What is the point of being a member of a Baptist church if you're not really Baptist? Why call oneself Catholic if one only believes the teachings one likes? Do these people not recognize the inherent dishonesty in their position? While I was still an Evangelical, years before I ever dreamed I'd actually become Catholic, I toyed around with the idea of joining the Church. My reasoning was this: Catholics are not true Christians; someone needs to tell them about Christ; I will have more credibility with Catholics if I am a member of their Church. At that time I didn't join because, as I thought about it, I knew the Church would require me to make a profession of faith I didn't truly believe; I would have been a liar if I joined the Church at that time. It's one of God's ironies that He would lead me along a path that would ultimately make it possible for me to join the Church because I actually believe what She teaches! Unfortunately, some people have no problem with being untruthful. I was listening to a gentleman on NPR sometime last year, who calls himself an Episcopal priest and a good Christian, and yet, he disagrees with the most essential beliefs of Christianity! Many American Episcopalians are in this same boat. If only they would quit repeating the lie: "I am a Christian"! A few months ago, my parish priest was on vacation so we had a guest priest say Mass for us. In his homily, the guest priest encouraged us to follow the example of a Bishop who was removed from his office for being in serious dissent with Church teaching on sexual and contraceptive issues and publicly teaching his contrary views. Frankly, I was disgusted with this priest for having the audacity to think it's okay to tell us to follow a Bishop who broke his oath to guard, defend, promote, and proclaim Catholic teaching! Not only that, but every time he leads a congregation in reciting the creed, he lies when he says "[I believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church." Thank God*** this guy is retired! I wish he'd quit volunteering to cover for vacationing priests! Anyway, our parish will never have him back again.

I've done a fair amount of church hopping in my time, but each time I changed churches, it was because I was going where Truth was leading me. I was raised as a Fundamental, independent, King-James-Only, second-degree-separationist, cessationist, pre-millennial, pre-tribulational, dispensational Baptist, but realized in my second Junior year (yes, I was in the 11th grade twice. I chose to graduate a year late. I will address the reasons for that in another post) that something was terribly wrong with some of these doctrinal stances. (Of course, as a Catholic, I realize there's something terribly with ALL of these doctrines.) My church viewed Jerry Falwell as a liberal, for goodness' sake! Cessationism was the first of my beliefs to go, followed almost immediately by separationism. I had to find a new church to attend because I could not in good conscience remain in the Baptist church. My weekly attendance would have been a lie. Anyway, I have forgotten where I'm going with this, so let me just say the following, and I'll close:

It's very easy for me to feel superior to the people who consider themselves faithful members of the Church or Christianity in general, but really aren't even Christians. The truth is, however, that while they may be dishonest about their beliefs (more likely, apathetic) I have too many sins to cast stones at them. Sure, they drive me crazy, but the best thing to do is to humbly pray for them and serve them. Prayer without service just makes me more arrogant, but serving others is humbling. May God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to the Full Knowledge of the Truth in heaven! God be with you all.


*Speaking of world missions, there is an excellent calendar put out as a joint effort of several Evangelical Christian organizations that guides you through praying for the world country by country. You can pray online here: http://www.gmi.org/ow/. Follow the link that says "Pray for today's country."

**"Essentially" being the important word here.

***I am not taking the Lord's Name in vain. I literally mean I am thankful to God that this priest is retired!