“Be like the Bereans and search the Scriptures daily!”
This is a common battle cry among those who criticize the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The insinuation is that Catholics do not search the Scriptures daily. My goal is to prove them wrong.
I agree that it is a noble thing to search the Scriptures daily. But is the point of Acts 17:11 (the Bereans named as “more noble” than the Thessalonicans) that they merely searched the Scriptures (OT, by the way) OR is it that they received the Word from the apostles with great eagerness and joy rather than great skepticism and contempt?
The response to the Catholic Church today is often one of contempt. There are many “ministries” whose sole goal is to speak against the Catholic Church. And while there is much disunity outside of Rome, the one common denomominator among those outside her walls seems to be the belief that Rome is wrong.
As a non-denominational Christian, I was taught this belief and for a time I believed it. After God moved me from my very nurturing non-denominational church family, I was faced with the dilemma of finding a new church. Living in a big city, I soon found that there were thousands to choose from. Nothing felt like home. Nothing had that same feeling as the church where I had been raised. Every church was different. Sure they all believed in Jesus and the Bible but all had slight and sometimes vastly different interpretations of Scripture. I felt like a lost child who couldn’t find her way home. I knew who my Father was and I still held a strong belief in Jesus, I just couldn’t find my Father’s house.
I did the only thing I knew to do. I prayed and begged Jesus to help me. I suddenly had a strong desire to know Jesus like I never had before. I wanted to know Who He was and what He wanted me to do. So, I suppose like the Bereans, I searched the Scriptures daily. The exception would be that unlike the Bereans, I already had faith in Jesus. I wasn’t searching the Old Testmant to see if Jesus really was the Messiah. Instead, I was searching the Gospels to get a better picture of my Lord and Savior.
I read the 4 Gospels over and over. I was fascinated. I realized that although I had been raised a Christian all of my life, even graduating from our church school, that Jesus’s Words were not proclaimed as loudly as they could have been. I suddenly realized that I heard a lot more of “Paul said” than I did of “Jesus said.”
The Gospels became the Gold Standard for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love Paul and believe His letters were inspired by the Holy Spirit. I just believe that some of his letters are hard to understand and that his words are often distorted. His letters must be read in light of the words of Jesus. Maybe this is why the church in her wisdom thought it was fitting to place the Gospels first in the New Testament?
I never dreamed I would ever be a Roman Catholic. But after searching the Scriptures like a Berean, I was convinced that the there was One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and that she holds the keys to the kingdom of heaven, the power to bind and loose, and even the authority to forgive sins.
The Bible made me Catholic!
Hi guys-
I appreciate your website and your desire to seek God more fully — and admire your willingness to share and take issue with a pretty big name in the Christian world. I actually have had the reverse journey as you — I was born and raised a Roman Catholic, am actually finishing up my doctorate at Boston College, but converted to a Protestant denomination last year. But this is not the reason I comment… I thought you made a great point about MacArthur and His general attitude towards Catholics. While I think His theology for the most part isn’t bad, the love of God can be hard to find in his admonishments, and I believe He misses the big point of Grace. I’m glad you referenced the Gospel of John as part of the reason of your conversion (you actually mentioned the Gospel as a whole), because it bleeds out of the pages of this book. The Gospel of John makes it crystal clear that faith is what is important — before we even get to the Epistles. For MacArthur to make the claims he makes demands the complete oversight of this Gospel, ironically the Gospel written for evangelistic purposes, nonetheless. He completely misses the point, I believe, that even if every Catholic didn’t realize it (which is not true, many do) all Catholics are saved for the same reason I am and He is… of course faith. Even if we don’t necessarily realize it. The Bible never says, for instance, if you don’t believe you are saved you aren’t saved, though some people believe this, and my fellow Protestants are particularly guilty of this.
Anyway, I hope you continue to grow in the love of God, and are assured of your salvation through your faith. Keep up the site…. Best, Anthony
You see, as a Roman Catholic, unless you have been blessed by the Magesterium as an ‘official apologetic’ you cannot be allowed to read or argue from the Bible to defend your Roman Catholic position. You may only repeat exactly what the Roman Catholic Church teaches; which means you may not come up with any analogies, private visions, mental break-throughs, etc. As far as I know no RCC apologetic has been sanctioned in this way.
Why not? Because you are in grave danger of becoming like Martin Luther (an ordained Catholic Priest) when he began to translate the book of Romans into the German langauge and realized great descrepancies between what the RCC taught and the scriptures actually said.
You see, for Martin Luther, the Bible set his soul free, which kicked off the Reformation.
Jesus loved to use hyperbole, and used it frequently in His teaching.
hate his father and mother, his wife and children Luke 14:26
camel to go through the eye of needle Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25
right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away Matt. 5:29
my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink John 6:55
Could a Roman Catholic assure us that Jesus was not exaggerating,
when mentioning REAL BLOOD?
You see, as a Roman Catholic, unless you have been blessed by the Magesterium as an ‘official apologetic’ you cannot be allowed to read or argue from the Bible to defend your Roman Catholic position. You may only repeat exactly what the Roman Catholic Church teaches; which means you may not come up with any analogies, private visions, mental break-throughs, etc. As far as I know no RCC apologetic has been sanctioned in this way.
Why not? Because you are in grave danger of becoming like Martin Luther (an ordained Catholic Priest) when he began to translate the book of Romans into the German langauge and realized great descrepancies between what the RCC taught and the scriptures actually said.
You see, for Martin Luther, the Bible set his soul free, which kicked off the Reformation.
MacArthur, is one of the more thorough teachers around today. i find he teaches pretty much everything that the Bible says, particularly the difficult things for which the main stream don’t seem to have the stomach. So it’s hard to swallow and I often don’t like it. But I believe I’ve grown closer to Christ in part due to his teaching. I think his intentions can be easily misunderstood.
Heeeheee!
The bible made you CAtholic….this is a joke….heeeheeeeeheeehee….bwahaahaaaaahaa…hehahehhe!
Please tell some more jokes this is very funny stuff…! Very funny indeed!
Still laughing..I come on here every now and then just to get my spirit up….heeeheeee!
What’s next teh bible made me Muslim? The bible made me Hindu? Bwa haaaa! haaahee!
REally funny stuff man!
This is amazingly similar to my story! I became a Christian from reading the gospels. I just fell in love with Jesus, and what He said and what He did. So I started attending church – a protestant “non-denominational” one. However as I “shopped around” I didn’t find any church which really brought me close to the Jesus I had first loved. Something that really unsettled me was that the theology was more focused on the epistles, than the gospels. I thought, “If the new testament writers are authorities, then aren’t their successors also authorities, and so why don’t we just accept the Catholic church?”. The more I read the gospels, the more sense Catholicism made, and the more I could see the Jesus that I first loved in the Catholic Church. I’ve been in the Church for 30 years now, and keep finding Jesus ever more in it.
The Bible didn’t make you catholic, you by your choice made you catholic.
i pray that you will truly look into the “teachings” of the catholic church, especially the the teachings of praying to the saints, the whole pope gig, & mary as the co-redemptress??!!!
Please show me even in The Gospels where JESUS institutes the office of pope? The first leader in The Church was none other than, James the 1/2 Brother of JESUS, which blows holes in mary’s perpetual virginity teaching. The Name’s of JESUS’ 1/2 Brother’s are taught in The Gospels, the fact that HE has sister’s is also mentioned.
An interesting side note here, the entire Bible is written by GOD using human vessels. Everything contained in the cannon [excuse the extra books added but NOT quoted by JESUS to the catholic bible] is true and is given to us for our edification, correction, & teaching! To assert that there are sections more worthy than others is to call GOD a liar, dangerous water to be treading!
Do i believe there are Born Again catholics? Indeed i do, but they do NOT hold to the doctrines of the catholic church, like recognizing the pope, mary as co-redemptress, THE LORD’s Supper as a way to Salvation, etc.
Don’t fall to the flesh of religion…seek instead the deep intimate Relationship w/THE ONE TRUE LIVING GOD through HIS SON JESUS!!!
Remember JESUS HIMSELF says “HE hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans” Revelation 2:6 The deeds of the Nicolaitans was to lord over the people, i.e. like the hierarchy of the roman catholic church
i pray THE HOLY SPIRIT will remove the scales from your eyes, rend the veil of deception over your heart & mind that HE will bring you to The Truth of JESUS, The Only Way, The Only Truth, The Eternal Life <3
Hi thanks for your story. I was a similiar story myself except I joined the Eastern Orthodox Church.
please delete my post
Thanks
Aaron