If I believed half the lies you do about Catholicism, I would quit right now.
1. Best One-Sentence Summary: I am convinced that the Catholic Church conforms much more closely to all of the
biblical data, offers the only coherent view of the
history of Christianity (i.e., Christian, apostolic Tradition), and possesses the most profound and sublime Christian
morality,
spirituality,
social ethic, and
philosophy.
2. Alternate: I am a Catholic because I sincerely believe, by virtue of much cumulative evidence, that Catholicism is
true, and that the Catholic Church is the visible Church divinely established by our Lord Jesus, against which the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail (Mt 16:18), thereby possessing an authority to which I feel bound in Christian duty to submit.
3. 2nd Alternate: I left Protestantism because it was seriously deficient in its
interpretation of the Bible (e.g., “faith alone” and its missing many other “Catholic” doctrines – see evidences below),
inconsistently selective in its espousal of various doctrines of Catholic Tradition (e.g., the canon of the Bible), inadequate in its
ecclesiology, lacking a sensible view of
Christian history (e.g., “Scripture alone”; ignorance or inconsistent understanding of of development of doctrine), compromised
morally (e.g., contraception, divorce), and unbiblically
schismatic and (in effect, or logical reduction, if not always in actual belief)
relativistic.
Disclaimer: I don’t therefore believe that Protestantism is all bad (not by a long shot – indeed, I think it is a pretty
good thing overall), but these are some of the major deficiencies I eventually saw as fatal to the “theory” of Protestantism, over against Catholicism. All Catholics must regard baptized, Nicene, Chalcedonian Protestants as Christians.
4. Catholicism isn’t
formally divided and
sectarian (Jn 17:20-23; Rom 16:17; 1 Cor 1:10-13).
5. Catholic
unity makes Christianity and Jesus more believable to the world (Jn 17:23).
6. Catholicism, because of its unified, complete, fully supernatural Christian vision, mitigates against
secularization and
humanism.
7. Catholicism (institutionally) avoids (and/or has the remedy to) an unbiblical
individualism which undermines Christian community (e.g., 1 Cor 12:25-26).
8. Catholicism avoids
theological relativism, by means of dogmatic certainty and the centrality of the papacy.
9. Catholicism avoids
ecclesiological anarchism – one cannot merely jump to another denomination when some disciplinary measure or censure is called for.
10. Catholicism formally (although, sadly, not always in practice) prevents the theological “pick and choose” state of affairs, which leads to the
uncertainties and “every man for himself” confusion within the Protestant system among laypeople.
11. Catholicism rejects the
“State Church,” which has led to governments dominating Christianity rather than vice versa, caesaropapism, or a nominal, merely “go through the motions” institutional religion.
12. Protestant State Churches greatly influenced the rise of
nationalism, which mitigated against equality of all men and the universal nature of historic Christianity (i.e.,
catholicism in its literal meaning).
13. Unified Catholic Christendom (before the 16th century) had not been plagued by the tragic, Christian vs. Christian
religious wars which in turn led to the “Enlightenment,” in which men rejected the hypocrisy of inter-Christian warfare and decided to become indifferent to religion rather than letting it guide their lives.
14. Catholicism retains (to the fullest extent) the elements of
mystery, supernatural, and the
sacred in Christianity, thus opposing itself to secularization, where the sphere of the religious in life becomes greatly limited.
15. Protestant individualism led to the
privatization of Christianity, whereby it is little respected in societal and political life, leaving the “public square” largely barren of Christian influence.
16. The secular false dichotomy of
“church vs. world” has led committed orthodox Christians, by and large, to withdraw from politics, leaving a void filled by pagans, cynics, the unscrupulous, the power-hungry, and the Machiavellian. Catholicism offers a sensible, internally-coherent framework in which to approach the state and civic responsibility.
17. Protestantism leans too much on mere
traditions of men. Every denomination stems from one founder’s vision, which contradicts something previously received from apostolic Tradition and passed down. As soon as two or more of these contradict each other, error is necessarily present.
18. Protestant churches (especially evangelicals), are far too often guilty of
putting their pastors on too high of a pedestal. In effect, often pastors (at least in some denominational traditions) becomes a “pope,” to varying degrees. Because of this, evangelical congregations often experience a severe crisis and/or split up when a pastor leaves, thus proving that their philosophy is overly man-centered, rather than God-centered (Catholic parishes usually don’t experience such a crisis when a priest departs). Many pastors have far more power in their congregations than the pope has over the daily life of any Catholic.
19. Protestantism, due to lack of real authority and dogmatic structure, is tragically prone to
accommodation to the spirit of the age, and moral faddism.
20. Catholicism retains
apostolic succession, necessary to know what is true Christian apostolic Tradition. It was the criterion of Christian truth used by the early Christians and the Church Fathers.
21. Many Protestants take a dim view towards
Christian history in general, especially the years from 313 (Constantine’s conversion) to 1517 (Luther’s arrival). This ignorance and hostility to Catholic Tradition leads to theological relativism, anti-Catholicism, and a constant, unnecessary process of “reinventing the wheel.”
22. Protestantism from its inception was
anti-Catholic, and certain factions of it remain so to this day (especially in certain fundamentalist and Baptist and Reformed circles). This is obviously wrong and unbiblical if Catholicism is indeed Christian (if it isn’t, then – logically – neither is Protestantism, which inherited the bulk of its theology from Catholicism). The Catholic Church, on the other hand, is not anti-Protestant.
23. The Catholic Church accepts the authority of the great
ecumenical councils (see, e.g., Acts 15) which defined and developed Christian doctrine (much of which Protestantism also accepts).
24. Most Protestants do not have
bishops, a Christian office which is biblical (1 Tim 3:1-2) and which has existed from the earliest Christian history and Tradition.
25. Protestantism has no way of
settling doctrinal issues definitively. At best, the individual Protestant can only take a head count of how many Protestant scholars, commentators, etc. take such-and-such a view on Doctrine X, Y, or Z. Or (in a more sophisticated fashion), the Protestant can simply accept the authority of some denominational tradition, confession, or creed (which then has to be justified over against the other competing ones). There is no unified Protestant Tradition.
26. Protestantism arose in 1517, and is a
“Johnny-come-lately” in the history of Christianity (having introduced many doctrines previously accepted by no Christian group, or very few individuals). Therefore it cannot possibly be the “restoration” of “pure”, “primitive” Christianity, since this is ruled out by the fact of its novelties and absurdly late appearance. Christianity must have historic continuity or it is not Christianity. Protestantism is necessarily a “parasite” of Catholicism: historically and doctrinally speaking.
27. The notion (common among many Protestants) of the
“invisible church” is also novel in the history of Christianity and foreign to the Bible (Mt 5:14; 16:18), therefore untrue.
28. When Protestant theologians speak of the teaching of early Christianity (e.g., when refuting “cults”), they say
“the Church taught . . .” (as it was then unified), but when they refer to the present they instinctively and inconsistently refrain from such terminology, since universal teaching authority now clearly resides only in the Catholic Church.
29. The Protestant principle of
private judgment has created a milieu (especially in Protestant America) in which it is easier for (invariably) man-centered “cults” such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, and Christian Science arise. The very notion that one can “start” a new, or “the true” Church is Protestant to the core. Though (I want to stress) these cults are
not Protestant themselves; nevertheless they tend to proliferate, given the existence of certain false Protestant principles of epistemology and authority.
30. The lack of a definitive teaching authority in Protestant (as with the Catholic magisterium) makes many individual Protestants think that they have a direct line to God, notwithstanding all of Christian Tradition and the history of biblical exegesis (a
“Bible, Holy Spirit and me” mentality). Such people are generally under-educated theologically, unteachable, lack humility, and have no business making presumed “infallible” statements about the nature of Christianity.
Read more at
150 Reasons Why I Became (and Remain) a Catholic
