Below are some key points that led me to the Catholic Church. There are obviously many more things that could be added to an article like this, but this is a concise explanation of some things that had a big impact on me.





Christian Disunity: Being a devoted student of the Bible, and teaching and even preaching the Word for a number of years, I have had people ask me lots of questions concerning the Bible, much to my pleasure! Talking about the Bible and explaining what certain things mean is something that I love to do!

Before I became a Catholic I would discuss Scripture with people and sometimes conversations could get a little heated if there were a few or more people involved. Disagreements over certain doctrines usually happened among those from different denominations, nor was it uncommon with people in the same denomination. I’ve seen it happen many times, and it usually left some new Christians and non-Christians more confused afterwards, one reason why I like to discuss one-on-one about the Faith.

This is something that had always created doubts in my mind about the Christianity that I knew at the time. How could there be so much disagreement and differences between Christians when we all are using the Bible and all claim to rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance? With thousands of denominations all using the same book it was obvious that something was not right, this was not what Jesus established.

Jesus did establish a Church that is of one Faith, and that is the Catholic Church. Two thousand years ago Christ gave apostolic authority to His Apostles in order to lead the Church and preserve it in correct doctrine, and the Catholic Church has done that ever since. Evidence from the Early Church Fathers show us that Christians have always recognized that the Church had the authority to teach infallibly the Word of God, because the infallible written Word of God requires an infallible interpretation of it, and the Catholic Church has always been that infallible interpreter that was established by Christ. It was not until people broke away from the authority of the Catholic Church that private interpretations and different new beliefs started to be created and different little groups came to be established, and the Protestant Reformation was a full bloom of that.


Now when people ask me what I believe about such and such doctrine, I know longer have to try to convince them that my interpretation is right, I can tell them what has always been the universal belief for 2000 years by giving them what the Catholic Church teaches on it, backed up with Scripture and Tradition, not Scripture and my opinion.

Some people have asked me how I went from a Southern Baptist to a Catholic considering that there is a big difference between beliefs. I usually answer by saying that once I realized that the Catholic Church was the Church that Jesus Christ established I had no trouble believing what that Church taught!






Early Church Fathers: The Early Church Fathers brought a whole new world to my understanding of Christianity. For a number of years I had never even heard of the Early Church Fathers. But I remember I saw a big collection of the Church Fathers at a public library and just happened to take a look at a volume out of curiosity, and I decided to check it out. It was by St. Ambrose on the Sacraments. As I read his explanation on Baptism, I was astonished because he was making so much sense, and the Bible supported everything that he was teaching about it. This really got me turned on to the Church Fathers; I began to study their writings and discovered many things that caused me to look at the Catholic Church differently.

The Church Fathers showed me a connection and continuity from Jesus Christ and His Apostles that carried on through the Catholic Church for many centuries. Some of them were taught by the Apostles and worked right along side them. The Early Church Fathers have left us with tons of writings, everything from epistles, Bible commentaries, sermons and homilies, and much more. They testify to the fact that the teachings of the Catholic Church has been faithfully preserved and defended for 2000 years, and they show that the Catholic Church was not invented or established by Constantine or anybody else, but that Jesus Christ established the Catholic Church 2000 years ago.





The Bible: Ever since I was baptized back in 1996 I have been a zealous student of the Bible. I trained for the ministry as a Southern Baptist and spent time teaching and even preaching, working hard for the Lord.

An area of interest that I had concerning the Bible was how it has been established and transmitted to its present form. I was well aware that the Bible did not fall out of the sky from Heaven, but it is a product of centuries of careful handling and work. There were lots of writings that were considered Scripture by some Christians but did not make it into the Bible, and there had to be an authority to determine what books were inspired and what was not. To make a long story short it was the Catholic Church that put the Bible together.

Through Church councils the Catholic Church has given us the definition of what is canonical, or the standard received text. There has been numerous Church councils throughout the centuries that have defined the canon but it was finalized at the Council of Trent (1545-1547). The Bible is a Catholic Book through and through, and with the Church’s authority given to Her by God, She has been led by the Holy Spirit to faithfully put together the Bible which has been used by Christians even outside of the Catholic Church.




Apostolic Succession: Coming from a Southern Baptist background I had no real understanding of Apostolic Succession. I just assumed that Christianity was held together by a book called the Bible and people devoted to that book. But when I discovered that the Apostles had appointed successors called Bishops to carry on their ministry in order to meet the demands of a rapidly growing Church, plus the fact that the Apostles were not going to be on earth forever in order to lead the Church, I was amazed to discover that the Catholic Church has an unbroken chain of succession of Bishops that goes all the way back to the Apostles. This is where the Catholic Church has carried the same Apostolic authority that the 12 Apostles had 2000 years ago, giving the Bishops the same authority to lead the Catholic Church with the same guidance of the Holy Spirit.







Misunderstanding Catholicism: For years I had heard of all these horror stories about the Catholic Church and what the Church taught, thanks to resources like the Jack Chick anti-Catholic tracts as you see on the right hand side. I just assumed that Catholics worshipped Mary and statues, did not want people to read the Bible, practiced a bunch of empty religion, was an invention by Constantine, etc. I had heard all these things and I never really looked into it with any effort until I started comparing Catholic Bible translations with Protestant translations, and found Catholic translations to be better in many cases. I remember discussing this with a Catholic and giving the Catholic Church credit where I thought it was due, and he made a statement that sent me on a journey, he said, “If the Catholic Church got that much right then maybe they got some other things right as well.” Sounded logical to me so I started to look into Catholicism with an open mind.

I did something that I had never done before, instead of learning about Catholicism from non-Catholic sources; I decided to hear it from the horse’s mouth. One site that really helped me was Catholic Answers it had articles about Catholicism coming from a Catholic perspective, which clarified many things that I was misled about concerning Catholicism. I also got a Catechism of the Catholic Church that also gave me direct teachings from the Church itself that reinforced my findings. One misunderstanding after another began to be brought to light for me and many presuppositions that I had were shattered, until finally I reached a point to where I began to trust the Catholic Church, and the rest is history.