I became a born-again Christian three years ago—I'm 47 years old, so it's quite late
on in life, I was 44— with an evangelical church. And after I became born-again, I became
very active in the pro-life movement which is mainly Catholic-led, so I know a lot of
Catholics. So my question is: why would I be a Catholic, given that I'm born-again?
I know Jesus, I know I'm saved, why be a Catholic? Adam, great question. I can tell you from
my own perspective— because as you know, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal lord
and savior when I was 10 years old at Boulevard Baptist Church in Falls Church, Virginia,
changed my life. I wanted to be a preacher from the time I was 10. I later became a minister
in an Assembly of God community, loved Jesus, became a good old Pentecostal preacher. And
so I asked basically the same question you're asking me, I asked of a young marine about
34 years ago. And basically the answer is: I became Catholic, first and foremost, to
save my soul. Because, see, I believe, Adam, that you can be as born-again as you want
to be born- again, and we believe you're born again in John 3:5 through baptism—of course,
faith and baptism. We believe that's what Jesus is talking about there, and it's very
clear when you look at the context that he's talking about being born of water and spirit,
that It's referring to baptism, which is the instrument whereby we are brought into Christ.
As Romans 6:3-4 says, we're buried together with him through baptism. 1 Peter 3:21 says "baptism does now save
us." Acts 22:16, Ananias says to Paul "Why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord." So
baptism is the instrument of salvation. "What must we do?" they said to Peter in Acts 2:37.
"Repent, and be baptized each one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the
remission of your sins," right? So you can be as born-again as born- again can be, but
you also have to obey Jesus. You can't just go out and start your own Church. That's so
contrary to everything in the New Testament. The idea—for example, Martin Luther, to
start his own Church, the Lutheran Church—where in the world is that in the Bible? Jesus,
my brother, is the only one who has the authority to start a Church, and he did that two thousand
years ago. When Luther and then Calvin and then Knox and then Zwingli, and now we have
thousands of different men and women who have started their own churches, that is outside
of the will of God. And I had to realize that. I asked the question—I'll tell you, Adam,
I was asked the question: why was I Assembly of God? And I had to: "Oh, okay, well why
am I Assembly of God? Well, I like the 16 tenets of faith of the Assembly of God—
oh, well, actually I disagreed with two of them—but I liked 14 out of the 16!" Right?
And so I really had to scrutinize: "Okay, why am I?" And then I had to say "Well, why
am I, why am I, why am I?" Until finally what you end up doing is, if you ask the question:
okay, what would you have been if you were around in, let's say, oh, 1450? Right? There
was no Protestantism. It didn't exist. I would have been Cath— well, maybe I'd have been
Orthodox. Okay, well, what would you have been in the year 900? There was no Orthodox.
And ultimately, Adam, it goes back to the one holy Catholic and apostolic Church. And
I found out, as an historical fact, that Jesus Christ really did establish one church, and
that is the Catholic Church. And we, as a historical fact, can trace all of the ordinations
of all of our bishops from all around the world back to the apostles. Every bishop in
the world that is Catholic is a successor of an apostle. And of course our popes are
successors of Saint Peter. Now that I found to be fascinating. I found it entirely biblical
and historical. But I still had the problem, Adam: I disagreed with a lot of the doctrines
of this crazy Catholic Church. And I will tell you, I went from doctrine to doctrine
to doctrine and I hammered it out. From the papacy, you name it. But ultimately, I think
the first thing that really got me moving—I mean, there were moral issues, there were
lots of things, but the thing that was really kind of the earthquake under my feet was the
issue of authority. Because what I find in the New Testament is: the Church established
by Jesus Christ has infallible authority. Because, Jesus says concerning his church:
"If they hear you they hear me, if they reject you they reject me." In Matthew 10:40, Luke
10:16, Matthew 18:18, right? "Whatever you [the Church] binds on earth is bound in heaven,
whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven." That is divine authority that Jesus gives
to the apostles and the apostles' successors, the Church! And when I looked around at all
the protestant communities, what I saw is a bunch of men giving you their opinion of
what they think the Bible says. And that was a big problem to me, because if you can't
speak in the name of Jesus—that means speak infallibly— well then you're not the Church
that Jesus established. This whole cacophony now of protestants, everybody's saying "Oh,
I know the truth!" Evangelicals, you talk about. Well, they disagree with each other
on matters so essential like we were talking about earlier: predestination, salvation,
can you lose it, right? Is baptism of sacrament is marriage is sacrament— we could talk
about every doctrine from the trinity to the hypostatic union, every doctrine, and you
have disagreements among Christians today, those who who name the name of Jesus Christ.
It is the Catholic Church alone, my brother, that has presented one Lord, one faith, one
baptism for two thousand years, never contradicting a definitive teaching. No pope two thousand
years ago has ever contradicted on a definitive matter a pope like Pope Francis who is the
Bishop of Rome today. To me, there was no human explanation even for the existence of
the Catholic Church.