The definitive

As promised, here is the "Definitive" Why I Came Home to Rome Blog.

The very first thing I’m going to address is this: As we’ve discovered, I didn’t come back to the Catholic Church because I thought it was a "valid expression of Christianity in which I felt called to worship." I did not come back to the RCC because I thought it was a "Church I enjoyed" or "felt called to." I came back to the Catholic Church and full communion with it because I came to realize that what the Church was teaching was THE Truth with a capital T.
In other words:

(A) PROTESTANTS: The Church is every one who believes in the Lord Jesus regardless of their denomination. The sole authority of God left in the world is Holy Scripture.
(B) CATHOLICS: The Church is THE institution set up by Christ Himself and the source of sole authority, one expression of which is Holy Scripture which we received THROUGH the Church. People who are not Catholic with a Capital C but who believe in and love the Lord Jesus are "Seperated bretheren." Believers who are not under proper authority, but believers nonetheless.

I used to believe A, but now I believe B. That’s the ONLY area in which my doctrinal beliefs have changed monumentally. This came about through a series of doctrinal "changes" which were not actually changed…. but deepened.
I’m going to explain that in a second. The most important thing here to explain is that to me, B is a more theologically accurate and complete way of looking at A. I do not deny that the Bible contains everything we need for life and godliness. What I am denying is that that’s ALL THERE IS. The ultimate source of truth is the Holy Spirit, who lives in the Church, and when we are under proper authority we come to understand how the Holy Spirit operates with everything in that "proper order."

Authority isn’t a popular word, but I know that my protestant sisters who read this blog understand it conceptually because it’s a biblical term: the part that gets sort of confusing, as a protestant, is where you authority lies. As a woman, is it your husband or father? Is it your pastor? Your elders? Your bishop? Etc etc etc. When you have a problem with the authority you are under, and you get up and start a new church, how do you find someone to be your new authority? (I realize there are vast and varied answers to this question, but I will try to keep this blog to what I believe as opposed to what else there is out there.

The protestant model of "church" poses are REAL problem for those of us who believe that Christians are called to unity. Were we all organized enough, dialogues could be arranged between protestant leaders for the purpose of unity. I suspect everyone would agree that unity is crucial , but I also suspect that when it comes down to it, Pentecostals wouldn’t stop speaking in tongues and Lutherans wouldn’t stop singing from a hymnal. Does it matter in the end? Not if we all get into heaven, but wouldn’t that render our time on earth meaningless?
These issues seem like they don’t matter, but they do… because we are talking about worshipping God. And Worship is something God has a lot to say about. Not only that, but we are talking about TIME. Time that is essentially wasted if this stuff doesn’t matter.

I once heard Michael Cumbie, a former pentacostal pastor, speak on the six substitutes for worship prevalent in the protestant churches. Worship, he said, is a verb. It isn’t something done TO us, or FOR us, but BY us. In Today’s protestant world, we will find every manner of worship under the sun…from house churches to mega churches to churches that meet in bars. But ALL Of them operate under one of these six substitutes.

In and of themselves, he said, these "Substitutes" were not bad-- they were a part of true worship. But we needed ALL the elements and we needed them to be united in order to have authentic worship.
The six substitutes were:
The Lecture hall (we come and take notes, the sermon is front and center)
THE Evangelistic Tent (crusader mentality: come and get saved!)
THE Psychiatric Couch (Thinks in terms of human pain and our dealings with it)
THE Television Set (Let us entertain you!)
( I can’t remember the last two but I will add them in a comment once I get the chance to see the clip again)
All of these combined served elements of true, biblical worship, but alone, were not the whole picture. Alone, they were lacking. He made the point that protestant worship pastors never looked at Roman Catholicism to see what Catholics do because they don’t consider what Catholic DO as worship! When you walk into a Christian bookstore, you will usually find books on Roman Catholicism in the section on CULTS, right next to Mormons and Jdubs. (Never mind that they had been doing it for 1500 years before protestant worship showed up!) The fact was, he said, that liturgical worship incorporates all of these elements. Roman Catholic worship includes ALL the elements of worship and none of the substitutes.

I have always been frustrated by this because in my thinking, we need to at least acknowledge that the RCC is where we CAME FROM.
Most protestants I know who do acknowledge this will say… it’s where we came from but it’s dead now. It’s not what God is DOING NOW. It’s our past. Our heritage. And God’s not working there any longer. The thing that peeves me the MOST about this thinking is when people say Catholic worship isn’t scriptural.
Every architectural, every liturgical element of Catholic worship, from the altar to the tabernacle to the vestments to the windows and everything in between is directly from scripture. Every response, every thing we say and pray, is directly from scripture. Walking into a Catholic worship setting should remind every good bible believer of Johns’ Vision in Revelations 4+5.

Again, I’m quoting Michael Cumbie (can you tell I love his stuff??) here: Catholics don’t come to church to "Get a blessing." They don’t go there to be entertained or get goosebumps (although I get both!) -- they do it out of a sense of obligation to say THANK YOU and remember the Lord. Every day. Catholics are a Eucharistic people. Our lives are centered around the Eucharist (Communion) and because of that we are reminded that Eucharist MEANS "thank you."

Psalm 22:3 tells us that God inhabit’s the BREAD and the CUP… the tehellel euchela. The Eucharist. There is our blessing, in saying thank you each day.
Because of the Eucharist, God is more present and more active in my life than He ever was before. So how can he be "absent" from the Catholic faith if the Catholics are the only ones who get the Eucharist right?

And that’s where you and I are parting ways, because the way I see it now, God never LEFT. His Word is never empty, it does not return void. He never stopped working in the Catholic Church, because He promised in His Word that the church (And not scripture!) would be the pillar of truth in and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
I LEFT. I gave up on Him because I didn’t realize that He wanted to inhabit my heart. I learned that in a protestant church, but it’s a Catholic teaching. And now that personal relationship coupled with 2000 years of SACRED tradition has added more depth to my life than 6000 years of relationship with no authority ever could.

There are five major areas in which protestants and catholics differ in their understanding. This blog will examine those five areas and put forward what I came up with as I studied each question.

Because they build on each other, I will address each of them directly. Because I’ve already blogged extensively about most of them, I will keep them as simple as I can. These topics are very sensitive, I know, so I will really just touch on the top reasons why I’m OK with Catholic doctrine in those areas.

Under each heading I will provide a brief synopsis of Catholic theology on the matter and a link to an article which explains it more in depth. (I’m so sorry not to be more thorough, but I’ve got very little time to write today and this blog is already insanely long.)

PURGATORY:

Purgatory is not a place, but a state of being. The Catholic church’s teaching on purgatory is as simple as: sanctification. The only difference being that the RCC teaches that sanctification starts on earth, and MIGHT have to continue once you have died BEFORE you may enter heaven. Why? Because there is biblical evidence of prayers for the dead, which would serve no purpose if this were true. The word purgatory is found in the bible exactly as many times as the word TRINITY, and yet we all believe in that. We all believe in sanctification, but protestants have no answer as to how and why people like Hitler theoretically repenting on his deathbed and people like Mother Theresa dying would go to through the exact same experience at death. Basically, it makes no sense unless purgatory IS real.

More from This Rock on Purgatory.

MARY:

Mary is the mother of God, not the mother of Christ, because I believe in the trinity. Read it again. Everything after that should make sense.
Biblical evidence for Mary’s role as Queen of Heaven can be found in Rev 12:1, for starters, but also in the account of the Ark of the Covenant, in the OT. She is the NT ark of the covenant… bearing God to us. She is a created being, given the GRACE to fulfill her purpose, and biblically given to us as our Mother by Jesus Himself at the cross.
Wayne’s blog, inclusion, about Mary is the best way to describe most of this.

THE POPE

St Paul and St Peter were both killed in the same year in Rome. Paul went to Jerusalem to seek the blessing of Peter at the outset of his ministry. When they were both in Rome together, (though they were equals, he was the first among equals) there was a hierarchy there. And that’s how it was passed down-- apostolic authority. There is nothing apostolic about Protestant churches, try as they might to to create it.
Mormons say a lot of things I don’t agree with, as we know, but they do get one thing right: in scripture, wherever there has been no prophet, the people have lost their way. They fall into heresy. The people of God need a pastor, a prophet, a priest, a protector, and in order to be unified they need one that will unite them in truth.

Again, Roman Catholics have that in the Holy Father, who is, as I said above, the first among equals--- and the single most important sign of unity.

THE SAINTS:

IF Catholic beliefs on purgatory etc are real, then it follows that we have a "Great cloud of witnesses" who have gone before and are in heaven, interceding for us now. As such, we connect with these people and ask for their intercession, just as we would ask for a friend we "know hears from God" to pray. We have relics (things that belonged to the saint) because in the bible, objects that touched the saints had the power to heal people.


THE REAL PRESENCE:

Read John Chapter 6. Twice. And let your eyes be opened!

More.

Hopefully, that covers the main stuff.
The basic thing about Catholicism is this: if you can at least admit that Catholics CAN make a biblical case that is reasonable for whatever practice you find offensive or ungodly, then that’s a start.
The second step, then, is to see what the early Church fathers believed-- those who were disciples of the apostles, etc. What doctrinal things did they believe? You will find that the earliest Christians are documented extensively as believing these Catholic doctrines.

There is nothing richer, nothing more freeing for me, than realizing that Catholic doctrines are truth. All of a sudden every tired bone in my body has been revived with faith that will move mountains. Every single thing that had me… on edge.. About the state of Christianity today is suddenly evaporated and in it’s place I’m discovering the depth of Christian theology that is really INTELLIGENT--- I’m discovering that I don’t have to put aside philosophy, and science, and my intellect in order to be a Christian because the two are not diametrically opposed. I’m discovering that there is a depth and richness to my Christian heritage that I never even dreamed of… and that, in itself, makes me want to glorify God more and appreciate so much more the depth of His own character and His tender love for his creation.

It’s been the most amazing experience of my life.