Testimony of an Ex-catholic

    I was born in 1952; raised in the Catholic church all of my child hood. I attended a Catholic elementary school and a Catholic high school from 1958 to 1970. In elementary school we had to attend mass every morning. Back then most of the service was in Latin, so I didn't get anything out of it....couldn't even understand it! I remember we had to fast before receiving communion, so we had to bring our breakfast and eat after mass. I remember my mom would pack an egg sandwich loaded with butter. Well, by the time mass was over my egg sandwich was cold and all that melted butter got hard again. But it really was good!.... cold egg sandwich with chocolate milk. To this day that's how I like them. Unfortunately or fortunately....how ever you want to look at it...that's all I got out of it. All during grade school, as it was called back then, I was taught the Catholic doctrine; "religion class".

    During the Easter season, we would make an alter to Mary. I remember praying to her a lot, but don't ever remember talking to God....now that's unfortunate! As the years progressed and graduated to high school, I was still being taught the Catholic doctrine..."religion class"....I hated religion! Now I know why. I found out that God hates religion also. Religion is man made attempts to connect with God. That's what I was trying to do; it just wasn't working. The bible says that our own righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags to Him. Trying to work your self into heaven does not work. I actually failed religion class in high school. I could never get my self rooted in the Catholic religion; there was just nothing there. I was doing what I thought was right, going to mass, doing good things, going to confession.....confessing the same things over and over again I might add, etc.etc. It all seemed to be meaningless rituals; I never saw victory in my life or had any power to overcome. After graduating from high school, I didn't have much to do with God. My thinking was, if God existed at all, He was just some far away out of sight out of mind....".thing." It was just as easy for me to believe matter always existed, than it was to believe that God always existed. I was still searching though. I began to follow a series about the origins of the universe by Carl Sagon....thats another story!

    Again the years past. I married in 1981. My wife had two children from a previous marriage....so I had an instant family. We had another child in 1983. My wife was raised Lutheran and I began to go to church with her; since we had children I thought it was the right thing to do. I still did not have much to do with God, even though the Lutheran church taught a tad more according to the bible than Catholic church did, there was no relationship with God. I still saw Him way out in the distance...set apart from everyone and everything......and it seemed there was no way to get close to God. I was never taught I could have that close relationship with God through Jesus.

     Again the years rolled on by and then my wife became very ill. My wife had made an appointment with our chiropractor to talk to him about her condition. All the other Physicians couldn't help her. Our chiropractor just happened to be a born again Christian...at that time neither one of us knew what that was. Remember we were never taught that we had to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. We thought all we had to do is be a good person and go to church to get to heaven. He asked us if we knew what the bible said about anointing the sick with oil; of course we didn't, so he began to explain it to us from the book of James. He invited us to his church and they prayed and anointed my wife with oil. After service I asked her if she felt any different; she replied, "I don't think so." This was all new to us. We didn't know what to expect. It was very different from what we were use to... I distinctly remember feeling that the service was "alive"; that's what was so different. It was the presence of the Holy Spirit & the Anointing.

    We were drawn to this; my wife especially. She kept saying there has got to be more to God than just singing a couple of songs, listening to a prescribed 20 minute sermon, go home and just forget about God the rest of the week. So my wife began attended this church regularly & going to bible studies....she was saved in 1986 and after praying for me for a year I started to go also. I was saved in 1987. We are now born again, spirit filled Christians. By the way, my wife was totally healed!! God has since directed me to another church to fill a need in the music ministry. I thank God I was never deep rooted in the Catholic religion.

    I've shared my conversion with my family who are devout, deep rooted Catholics. I was excited and wanted them to be saved also. As I shared with them my experience, they told me I was led astray, that I was in a cult, and only the Catholic church was the one/true church. Being a new Christian, I didn't have all the answers right then. I began to research the Catholic church and began to really study the bible concerning all the doctrines from the Catholic church that were in question... doctrines that didn't line up with scripture. I presented my findings to my family, showing them in black & white; sometimes from their own bible, the scriptures regarding: salvation, baptism, communion, praying to Mary, praying to the dead, praying for the dead. They believe that Peter was the first pope and that the popes are infallible....I ministered to them.... I plowed that ground off & on for almost a year. These are not hard to understand scriptures, they are cut and dry; but they would not listen. I was getting angry and frustrated, then God told me to back off. I was trying to convince them they were wrong......that's not my job. As Christians, we are called to only share the truth and the plan of salvation; I did that!

     Don't take me wrong here, I'm not bashing people. The Catholics I have met are wonderful people; my family are great folks! But when I clearly see someone, especially my family, following wrong doctrine; doctrine that does not line up with the word of God, it grieves me. They don't know it, but their eternal destiny is at risk. God said He desires that no man perishes, but that all come into the knowledge of the truth. I continue to pray that the blinders be removed from their eyes and see the truth. Well, Adam, I guess that's about it. I'm just glad I'm saved.......... God is good!!! Jim

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