protestants and catholics?

Question

ito being a Protestant because they were born again. have known MANY MANY MANY ... catholics that switched
but i have only known one person who switched from being a protestant to a catholic... but not a saved Christian.

So, do you know anyone who was a saved Christian become catholic, when there are many false teachings/traditions against the bible ?

Answer 1

+ New Catholics +

In 2006 alone, there were 80,817 adult Catholic baptisms and another 73,684 baptized adults were received into full communion with (converted to) the Catholic Church. And that is only in the U.S. http://www.usccb.org/comm/statisti.shtml

+ Are Catholics Christians? +

Most non-Catholic Christian denominations accept Catholics as Christians. A very few do not.

The World Council of Churches which brings together more than 340 churches, denominations and church fellowships in over 100 countries and territories throughout the world, representing some 550 million Christians accepts the 1.1 billion Catholics as Christians. http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/who/faq-e.html#07

A dictionary would say that a Christian is someone professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

Catholics would fit this definition.

In the Nicene creed, from 325 C.E., Catholics profess:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father.

Through Him all things were made.

For us and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried.

On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are baptized as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

We truly are spiritually "born again," we just don't usually use those words.

For a complete description of what Catholics believe, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/index.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

What most people don't realise (including most Catholics) is that the Catholic faith is not united. In many parts of the world the Catholic faith embraces other cultures even adopting pagan elements of local religions. They still claim to be Catholics and the Pope as their Father but they are very different. In a way they are not Catholic.

Then the Catholic faith has plenty of room for deviation of belief and practices. Some Catholic churches are distinctly Evangelical and even Pentecostal. Personally I see the boundaries between all denominations being blurred and reflect on the fact that God isn't any. Of course what all Catholic churches have in common is their allegiance to the Papacy. What all this means to me is that conversion from a dead Protestant church to a lively Catholic church is good even if I don't agree with Papacy or recognise it's divine appointment. In fact if the only choice were between these two I'd encourage everyone to be Catholic. Under normal circumstances, however, I would err against the Catholic church and for that matter it's sister the Anglican Church.

I have not personally known anyone give up Protestantism to become a Catholic but do know some that have move into the Anglican church (which is the next best thing).

Then you also find that the conversion rate from Catholicism to Protestantism is higher than many believed especially in South America...
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2014/11/13/south-american-catholics-turning-protestant/

Answer 3

I personally knew a saved Christian who became a Catholic, and I am acquainted with a handful online. I very nearly became Catholic myself, but was hampered by some specific details on their doctrine of justification, and so I concluded that the Lutheran Church was the correct choice.

We Lutherans are far more similar to Catholics than to the kind of Protestant who says a Catholic can't be "saved", or who believes that a sinner's prayer or asking Jesus into your heart is the moment of salvation--so maybe I still qualify in your book. ;-)

In any event, evangelical Christians have a number of false teachings too, such as salvation being initiated by a prayer (which you will not find anywhere in the Bible), and in some cases eternal security.

And, if you were a Catholic you'd probably know lots of evangelicals who switched and not so many Catholics who did.

Answer 4

Yes many! More now than ever actually. Where would you meet them anyway? Most Catholics don't wear their religion on their sleeve. And lots of people you assume are protestant might not be. Not all Protestants would describe themselves as "born again" either.
And how can a person be a Christian and not be "saved"? Where is that from?
Most Christians I know disagree about many things; baptism, how to read the Bible, how to conduct church services music, etc.
But C..S.Lewis (the guy who wrote the Narnia Books) wrote another book he called Mere Christianity. The things we hold in common as Christians are greater than the things that divide us. What you believe are false teachings and traditions may be the very we need to agree to disagree about.
Where do you think the Bible came from if not from the Catholic Church herself? The Catholic Church existed before there was a Christian Bible and was the Church that gave you the Bible.
Did you realize that Catholics spend more time reading from the scriptures every Sunday than just about any other Christian denomination?
I was "born again" at age 16 and belonged to an Evangelical Church for years. Last year I became a Roman Catholic and
am a better Christian because of it. My Church isn't perfect but then neither am I.

Answer 5

This would be a good place to start:

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0077.html

In addition to the old testament, the bible reflects and includes a good portion of the 400 years of sacred Catholic tradition, beginning with Christ and the apostles, that faithfully reflects the life of the authentic church.

The bible is an authentic product of the Catholic church's tradition ... tradition that was eventually reduced to writing, and canonized under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit ... who continues to infallibly guide the only church that Jesus ever founded ... for the purpose of our salvation.

The Catholic church predates and preceeds the bible by about 400 years, so how could anyone logically expect the Catholic church to FOLLOW the bible?

The 15th century "reformers" who got together and invented a whole new religion, did it on their own, and they have no authentic claim to the power or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who unlike the bible, cannot be misappropriated OR misconstrued.

The late day reformers chose to FOLLOW the bible, and that might make some sense, since they started their religion ... complete with their very own original faith tradition(s) ... over a thousand years AFTER the Catholic church definitively wrote and compiled all the sacred scriptures.

The problem is ... they don't do what they claim.

The first thing they did was CHANGE the holy book they CLAIM to FOLLOW ... and now they have over 50,000 different protestant denominations, led by hundreds of thousands of different pastors ... all teaching different versions of "the truth" that each one claims was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit ... and that's something which can't POSSIBLY be correct.

No wonder they're frustrated. And no wonder they can't tell the difference between someone who has been saved ... and someone who has not ... or someone who is truly Christian ... and someone who is not.

Where confusion reigns, frustration is high.

Meanwhile, the Catholic church has remained one, grace giving, divine institution ... with one supreme earthly leader ... united by one Holy Spirit ... worshipping one God ... the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ... while faithfully professing one holy creed ... all around the world ... for the last 2000 years.

It is these simple but awesome facts that make Catholicism so attractive to those who are willing to take the time to go out and search for the whole truth.

And while the list of converts to Catholicism is much too long to print here, this link should get you started:

http://jerome2007.tripod.com/remarkable_conversions.htm

Answer 6

Hello,

There is no such thing as once saved always saved, a false Calvinistic doctrine. This is condemned by the majority of Christians, many protestants included.

Even worse than supposedly praying to a saint or Mary herself (if it was true) is the damnable teaching and lies about Eternal security, ie once saved always saved. These believers are the ones who well may be in for an ugly surprise and many non Catholic Christians would be far smarter to take the road toward Catholicism than the road to so called "saved" Christians. Most Catholics I know that left that church wisely went to protestant churches that condemned Eternal Security.

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Answer 7

Yep. I'm one. (I don't happen to agree with your editorial statement about the "false teachings" bit, though.) Went from Baptist to Catholic -- largely because I studied the Bible quite a lot, and what I was being told and taught didn't add up with what I was reading.

My RCIA class had about 30 converts, most from Protestantism of some sort. That's in one parish. You'd be surprised to know how many adult converts come into the Church each year in the U.S. alone. There are certainly converts going the other way as well -- but it's not the overwhelmingly one-way phenomenon you suppose.

Edit: imacatholic2 already gave you the numbers, I see. Are you surprised?

Answer 8

There are 1.2 BILLION Catholics in the world.
There 840 million Protestants in the world.

Odds alone favor more Christians are converting from Protestantism to Catholicism regardless of what you or anyone "claims" to witness.

Answer 9

I don't know, but mostly many catholics are shifting to protestant churches. The answer is simple, there is something that their soul is still searching.

Answer 10

Scott and Kimberly Hahn

Thomas Howard (you might know him as Elisabeth Elliot's big brother)

Mark Shea

David Currie

Me & my husband

Our good friends Bruce & Molly

My pastor, Fr. Doug D___

There are many, many, MANY others, too.