Advice from strangers:I've accepted Jesus as my savior, but lately I've been feeling drawn to Catholicism

There is common ground between Catholics and non-catholic Christians, but there are big differences as well. I have enclosed a piece describing differences in definitions between Catholicism and the Biblical definition:

Catholics and Protestants alike use many of the same words. However, the Catholic definitions of these words is often different than the Biblical definition understood by evangelical Christians. Therefore, before delving to far into exploring the beliefs of Catholicism, it is important to understand the different definitions. Below are some common terms, and how the Catholic definition differs from the Biblical definition:

Furthermore, it should be pointed out, that in order to justify the Catholic Church's doctrines of prayers for the dead, the Mass, invocation and intercession of the saints, the worship of angels, purgatory, the redemption of souls after death, and other doctrines, the Church added new portions to the Old Testament books of Esther and Daniel, plus seven additional books: Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Ben Sirach (or "Ecclesiasticus"), Baruch, and Wisdom. The Catholic Church refers to these extra books as "deuterocanonical works". This means that they are scriptural for Catholics, but not part of the Jewish Bible. Protestants call these additions "The Apocrypha," and have never considered them part of inspired scripture due to their historical, geographical, and chronological errors, as well as for their heretical doctrines. In fact, the Catholic Church itself did not add the Apocrypha to the Bible until the Council of Trent (held in the 1500's).

Grace

Bible: God's disposition toward mankind, wherein He expresses His mercy and love, so that the believer is now treated as if he were innocent and righteous.

Catholicism: A power - separate from God - which is placed into a believer. This power enables the believer to perform works that will earn him or her the "right" to heaven.

Salvation

Bible: The instantaneous reception of an irrevocable right-standing before God. Salvation is secured by faith, through the grace of God. It is not given only to those who have lived in a worthy way. Romans 3:23 tells us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." No, salvation is given to those the Bible describes as "ungodly," "sinners," "enemies," and "children of wrath."

Catholicism: The lifelong process whereby God and men cooperate in the securing of forgiveness of sin. This is achieved only after death (and/or cleansing from sin in purgatory), and is dependant on man's personal securing of objective righteousness before God; otherwise, there would be no salvation.

Reconciliation (atonement for sins)

Bible: All sins are forgiven at the point of salvation, because Christ's death satisfied all God's wrath against sin. (See Colossians 2:13,14)

Catholicism: Sins are only potentially forgiven, and so must be worked off through a process mediated by the Church and its sacraments over the lifetime of the believer.

Regeneration

Bible: The instantaneous imparting of eternal life and the quickening of the human spirit, making it alive to God.

Catholicism: The lifelong process of infusing grace (spiritual power) to perform meritorious works (in part).

Justification

Bible: The legal declaration of Christ's righteousness reckoned to the believer at the point of faith, solely as an act of God's mercy.

Catholicism: Spiritual rebirth and the lifelong process of sanctification which begins at the point of the sacrament of baptism.

Do not be too hasty to change churches or denominations. It is not unusual for a new Christian to feel this way. It is called growing pains. I am not Baptist, I am non-denominational Christian. If you hated Catholicism before, you will hate it again---nothing has change over the years. It may not be God that is speaking to you---it may be Satan. He is very cleaver at disguising himself and he is very subtle in his suggestions. People who change churches frequently are confused. You need to stick to one church for a while and set some roots in your Christian life. The Baptist church is a good place to do this. My Christian education is Baptist in background and I have no problem with their teachings. In fact, the study Bible that I use is published by Liberty University. Pray a great deal about this and seek the advice of your Pastor. Please do not make any decision on your own. Read John 15:5 and take it to heart. Jesus loves you.

I was raised Catholic, but my mom was Baptist. Most of her family has always looked down on us for being Catholic and told us all we were going to hell.

I went to Catholic mass every Sunday and really have no idea what the issue is. We all believe in Jesus, all accept him as our Savior and know he will guide us home to God. All of the teachings in the Catholic mass are from the Bible, there are 3 readings from the Bible and a sermon given on the 3rd reading, followed by Holy Communion where the Bible verses about the Last Supper are read and the Our Father is prayed together.

There is no right or wrong way to worship God, it is your personal relationship with Christ that matters and nothing else. Follow your heart and it will not lead you astray.

Roman or Orthodox?

All Religion is created by the Creator of ALL things. Some Humans have corrupted and continue to corrupt religion.

It makes no difference which denominations you choose or do not choose. You have a path that you alone must journey along, Take the scenic route. Do not rush it!

Your prayers are to the God, not to "many people."

You are the same person whether you join any denomination or not.

For all you really know it may not be so much that you are going to get something from them, but that you might bring something to them.

Your Question in this forum is proof of that! Look at the variety of answers that you have generated.

With the guidance of the God, Think for yourself.

This is a difficult question but I'm going to be completely honest in my answer. One of the earlier posters pretty much said it best though. Catholicism teaches many things that are unbiblical. My suggestion would be to research the catholic religion. A good place to start would be the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry website (carm.org) and see the objections to the religion. I know very little about catholicism but I can name a few things which people generally object to. They actually changed the ten commandments, bow down before idols, pray to someone besides God... those are just a few off the top of my head. There are a lot of great churches but I couldn't in good conscience suggest a catholic church to you. I would suggest a good non-denominational church, assembly of God, Calvary Chapel... something like this.

I'm a former Baptist who recently joined the Catholic Church so I kind of know what you are going through. Feel free to contact me with any questions or if you just want to talk.

Also, this website was a great help for me in showing the beauty and truth of Catholicism:

http://www.catholic.com/

other religions are against the catholic ways because

the catholics have a lot of paganism in their religion.

1) they pray to saints , when the bible says

to pray only to God (the Lord's prayer)

2) they take communion a lot & think that it

literally is the body & blood of Jesus ( @ least my

Father - in - law does) and not just a symbol of his

death

3) and NOT all , but a lot of Catholics that I know use the Lord's name in vain, if they only read the BIBLE on their

OWN instead of just what the preist reads they would

know NOT to do this

4) they bow down to statues & practically worship the Pope (another SIN)

5) they don't have all 10 of the commandments written

as the BIBLE has them written

that's why SO many other Christians are against the

Catholics , just look for a CHURCH that reads the

BIBLE word for word & completly follows the

WORDS of the Bible

Calvary Church's do this, you may want to try one of them

take care & God Bless

You have to do what you feel is right. Just beware that Satan can make a wrong church feel right and the right church feel wrong because he is sent to decieve you. I'm not saying that is what you are going through, but you should really read the Bible front to back and study it and then visit several different Baptist churches and several different Catholic churches before deciding between the two. And pray pray pray on it.

All Religions bag the opposition, This should trigger a rational thought process to spring into action. Religions were all created be men who lust for power. Religions control the behavior and thinking of weak minded, gullible fools using fear of eternal torment and false promises of an afterlife. Did Jesus say at the sermon on the mount that he was here to form a new religion headed by a dude in a purple gown wearing a funny hat shaped like a fishes mouth? Of course not. Catholicism has nothing to do with Christianity - it is an offshoot of the ancient Babylonian Mystery Religion - full of myths, legends and superstitious nonsense.

If it calls to you, follow it. If you are following Jesus there isn't going to be a problem. What you seem to be looking for is a different interpretation. That isn't wrong. Everyone is drawn to different things. I personally started Catholic but went toward non-denominational Christianity.

Good Luck