My journey to the Catholic Church began several years ago while I was an Associate Minister of a small church. I was just beginning in the ministry, and was very excited about learning all that I could about God, theology, and the ministry. But as I was studying and learning, there was something that always bothered me. That something was the question of how can I know that I believe the truth? After all, almost every passage in the Bible can have several interpretations, and many of these interpretations even totally contradict one another. How could I know if what I believed was the right and true interpretation?
As time went on, my desire to know the truth grew more and more, until one day I remember crying out to God and asking Him to teach me what the Apostles believed. From that prayer onward my life has never been the same
I became almost obsessed with books on early Church history, and the writings of the early Church Fathers, such as Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp (among others). I knew that the more I learned about how the early Church believed and practiced, the closer I would get to the beliefs and teachings of the Apostles. After all, Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp were taught by the Apostles themselves! I discovered many times that learning how the early Church believed and practiced cleared up those passages in the Bible that had more than one interpretation.
It was during this time that I resigned as the Associate Pastor from the church my wife and I were attended. I resigned because through my studying I found that many of the beliefs that my church held were unbiblical, and thus, I did not feel like I could help lead a church that I disagreed with. So after much prayer, my wife and I left that church and began attending an Independent Christian Church.
It was at this church that I have learned much about the doctrine and teachings of the early Church. (For those of you who may not know much about the Independent Christian Churches, they are part of the Restoration Movement that started in the 1800. This Movement is an attempt to restore the church to the biblical pattern of the New Testament church.) From this church I learned the importance of baptism, and the relationship between faith and works and how they work together. I fully believe that being a part of this church was just one more step in God's answer to that prayer that I prayed several years before.
It is amazing when I look back and see how God has worked in my life these past several years. God knew that there was no way that I would ever accept the Catholic Church unless He led me there one little step at a time. After all, I was a licensed Baptist minister who had always believed that the Catholic Church was wrong. I wouldn't have even dreamed of joining the Catholic Church.
Up until this point I was still against the Catholic Church. I still considered them to be Christians, but I simply felt that they had stray from the beliefs and teachings of the early Church. Then one day I was reading the Bible, and a verse that I had read many times before seemed to just leap off the page at me. The verse was 2 Thessalonians 2:15 which says, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our letter." I read that verse over and over again. For the first time I realized that in this verse the Apostle Paul was instructing the church to not only stand fast to the written traditions that he had given them in his letter (which we have recorded in the New Testament), but also to the oral traditions that he had given them. In other words, there were two sources of Apostolic teaching for the Church - oral and written! This was the beginning of my look at the Catholic Church, for the Catholic Church claims to follow both the oral and written teachings of the Apostles.
As I began to study the doctrines of the Catholic Church and comparing them to the Bible and the evidences of Church history, I discovered some interesting things that I never thought was possible. First, I discovered that the teachings of the Catholic Church are very Biblical. In fact, they are more Biblical than non-Catholic churches in my opinion! I also came to the reality that the early Church was the Catholic Church. It was Catholic in doctrine! For years I had thought that the early church was Protestant, and that the Catholic Church had strayed from the beliefs of the Apostles. But when I truly looked at the facts and evidence from Church history and the Scriptures, I discovered that it was the other way around. It was the Protestants who had strayed - not the Catholics.
I could go on and share how coming to the Catholic faith has brought so much peace and joy to my heart. I could also share how it has made reading the Scriptures fresh and come alive to me in a way that I never thought possible. But to make a long story short, this is why I feel drawn to the Catholic Church. Ever since I prayed that prayer several years ago that God would show me how the Apostles believed, He has slowly led me, step by step, to the door of the Catholic Church. It is there where I have finally found what I have been searching for, which is the doctrine and faith of the Apostles.