When I was a Protestant, I believed what I thought was right and found a denomination that reflected my beliefs. It wasn’t hard! There are 43,000 little groups, each invented by a man with a marketing plan designed to attract those of similar beliefs. They, like me, were proud of “doing their own thing”.
I had moved to two or three churches. Then, I noticed that the Protestant churches, themselves, moved around. My United Presbyterian Church had begun as an earlier form of Presbyterians called “Covenanters”. Then, that congregation joined another group of Presbyterians. When I attended, it was among thousands of United Presbyterian Churches.
The United Presbyterian Church, like most Mainline Protestant Churches, supported The World Council of Churches. They were a large organization that, among other causes, began to support The Southwest Africa People’s Organization. SWAPO was said to be a humanitarian group with the usual goals of “helping”. Then, SWAPO was found to be fronting for Communist forces with a different goal. In order to destabilize the region, they were wiping out Christian schools, hospitals, and missions.
During that period, our individual Church’s missionaries in Africa came to our church once or twice a year to ask for funds.
I said to our minister, “Reverend, Jesus said that ‘a house divided cannot stand’. We, in our church are giving money to our missionaries in Africa. At the same time, some of the money we are required to send to the Presbytery goes to National Headquarters. A little of that is sent to The World Council of Churches. A tiny bit of our money gets to SWAPO.” Then, I concluded, with some anguish, “We might be paying for the bullets used to kill our own missionaries!”
To his credit, our minister did not try to hide the problem. “It is wrong.”, he said, “But, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
By the grace of God, there was a Catholic priest as a guest at our local service club the following week. I made arrangements to receive instructions and was blessed to be received into The Only Church Jesus Founded.
A few years later, my old church left The United Presbyterian Church. Now, they are with a group calling themselves “Evangelical Presbyterians”. It’s the same building and the same people in a different denomination.
What leads to Catholicism? Realizing there is no truth without consistency. One thing Rome has is consistency! It’s why Protestants become Catholic. The confusing calls of competing congregations hide far greater truths than they make visible.
There is hope for those who say, “I believe in Jesus and The Bible.” They do recognize some truths: Jesus fulfilled the prophecies, He is the Son of God, He died so that some will be saved, and He will come again.
What moves some souls from the conflicts and contradictions of competing congregations to Catholicism? In my case, and in others, it is a search for Consistency. The Catholic Church, if nothing else, is consistent! The Catholic Church had not changed on one, single important teaching in the Faith Handed Down From The Apostles. No other group could make that claim!
Seeing that there is no truth without consistency is why Protestants become Catholic. Those who seek consistency have no choice.
