Coming Out of Catholicism

When I was sixteen, I became Catholic to marry my husband, who was a cradle Catholic. I was raised in a Covenant church where the people believed one could lose their salvation. I expressed salvation in Christ at about 12 years old but had no idea what that really meant.

Both my husband and I were indoctrinated in the notion that we must do certain things to maintain our salvation. Rituals: attending Mass, or in the case of the covenant church, Sunday services every week and being a good person.

After I became Catholic, I was introduced to the confessional, where I would enter a little closet door and sit down. The priest was in another closet on the other side, and between us was a little window that would not reveal the penitent or the face of the priest. A little dark window with hatches would be opened so that the priest and I could hear one another without seeing each other.

Having been raised Protestant, I was not familiar with the mantras that were required to confess my sins, except: "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned." The other phrases that were required for me to speak, I didn't know.

I said to the priest the required words, "Forgive me father for I have sinned." I was shocked when the priest chastized me for not repeating the other phrases that had to be said before he could absolve me of my sin. He mocked me by saying, "How old are you? You should know this by now."

At this point, I argued with the priest, "You mean you will not forgive me because I didn't say those words? I think God has forgiven me." I explained that I was not raised Cahtolic and didn't know all the rituals. Then the priest reluctantly absolved me, as though I was rebellious.

This is the nature of ritualistic religion based on rules instead of Christ. When I told the story to others, they laughed because I argued with the "man in charge, who had the ability to not forgive me.

I left that little confessional box and never returned. Not because I was offended; I wasn't. I just sensed the foolishness of having to confess to a man when I could go straight to God.

This was the beginning of my quest to read the Bible for myself. After I began reading the Bible, I trusted in Christ and left the Catholic system of religion.

Shortly after that, my husband came out too and trusted in Christ.

Religion is based on man's rules and ideas, not on God's Word. Those in religions such as Catholicism trust in the Pope, not in Christ, and in the rules of the system, not the Bible.

The Catholic church feared losing people to protestantism because of their desire to read the Bible, which in the past they were discouraged from doing. I was one who defied the church and read it anyway.

Now we have "Catholic Bible Studies", sadly teaching to fit with their traditions, even using some Protestant verbiage to confuse people.

When a Catholic says they are saved by grace, they mean they get more graces each time they do a good deed. They never know for sure if they are saved, or how many graces it takes, but the more graces by deeds, the better chance they will earn their salvation.

Of course, we know the Bible teaches we do not earn grace. We accept the grace of God, based on His work, not our own.

Ephesians 2:8-9 "8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Now I deal with Protestants, Pentecostals, and others who claim to be Christian who are acting the same way as the priests did. They heap rules on people God never gave, they monitor our every encounter to make sure we are following their doctrine, and isolate us from the herd for not accepting the traditions of their group that God never instituted.

Mark 7:13 "13Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”

Isaiah 29:13 "Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men."

Colossians 2:8 "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ."

1 Peter 1:18 "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,"

Brothers and Sisters, we must seek the Holy Spirit and read His word for ourselves to avoid becoming in bondage to man's traditions and the cultural pulls we encounter every day.