Reformed Christian Comes Home to the Catholic Church
I had blogged about Ryan's conversion before but here is the full story of his conversion. He was a charismatic evangelical who associated with Reformed churches and found his way to Rome. The life and death of soon to be canonized John Paul 2 is what started his interest in a Church he was taught to hate and malign. Once again, an unbiased look into history helped Ryan see that the early Church was indeed Catholic, holding to the very same beliefs she proclaims almost 2000 years later!
Ryan is a proud husband and father of three as well as a mathematician and lawyer and blogs about his love for the faith here.
"My church was Reformed and vehemently so. We had a lot to say about what was wrong with other Christians: Dispensationalists, Arminians, Pentecostals, mega-churches, mainstream Protestants...all sorts of groups were frequent targets of our derision. And of course, we trashed Catholics. "I mean, if those people ever picked up a Bible, they'd figure out how dumb what they believe is, right?" We had debates--and I mean serious debates--about whether the Pope was the Antichrist (not any one Pope in particular, mind you, more just the papacy in general... the alternative Apocalyptic role for the papacy in our hermeneutic was the "whore of Babylon"). In the worldview I shared with my friends, to be Roman was to be ridiculous."
" I had believed that Calvinism and Reformed theology were a better way of doing Christianity, and yet the (reformed) church had proven to be just as vicious, cruel, and shallow, if not far more so, than the denominations we spent so much time criticizing. I felt like "scorched earth": so much of what had grown in my life had burned to the ground."
"The deeper I read into the history of the Church, the more my beliefs grew Catholic. My enjoyment of the ancient Church Fathers led me to read more and more modern Catholic authors as well, especially Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI). I was blown away by how these writers combined brilliant theological insight with an all-consuming love for God. In addition to my reading habits, I grew increasingly Catholic in my devotional practices as well."
Ryan is a proud husband and father of three as well as a mathematician and lawyer and blogs about his love for the faith here.
"My church was Reformed and vehemently so. We had a lot to say about what was wrong with other Christians: Dispensationalists, Arminians, Pentecostals, mega-churches, mainstream Protestants...all sorts of groups were frequent targets of our derision. And of course, we trashed Catholics. "I mean, if those people ever picked up a Bible, they'd figure out how dumb what they believe is, right?" We had debates--and I mean serious debates--about whether the Pope was the Antichrist (not any one Pope in particular, mind you, more just the papacy in general... the alternative Apocalyptic role for the papacy in our hermeneutic was the "whore of Babylon"). In the worldview I shared with my friends, to be Roman was to be ridiculous."
" I had believed that Calvinism and Reformed theology were a better way of doing Christianity, and yet the (reformed) church had proven to be just as vicious, cruel, and shallow, if not far more so, than the denominations we spent so much time criticizing. I felt like "scorched earth": so much of what had grown in my life had burned to the ground."
"The deeper I read into the history of the Church, the more my beliefs grew Catholic. My enjoyment of the ancient Church Fathers led me to read more and more modern Catholic authors as well, especially Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI). I was blown away by how these writers combined brilliant theological insight with an all-consuming love for God. In addition to my reading habits, I grew increasingly Catholic in my devotional practices as well."
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 6:05 PM
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