Glad to be subscribed to you. I think the overselling of the typical catholic pop apologetics is what led me out of catholicism. Had sort of a mere christianity upbringing that leaned pentecostal and was initially so moved by catholic arguments from steve ray and others that i converted. Stayed catholic for about 5 years but left within the past year after I realized that their silver bullet answers were not really silver bullets at all. Their triumphalism then seemed to me to be dishonest and irresponsible and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Trying to give all christian denominations a fair shake, but its hard to find catholic apologists that dont trigger my temper these days.
I completely understand. Dealing with the professional pop apologetic arguments has become an exercise in sanctification for me. I spend a lot of time tracing the history of particular arguments they make and it's shocking how relatively novel many of them are. It's a case study in how quickly and easily history can be rewritten.
I can relate a lot to what you are saying, thanks for sharing. Personally I got confirmed this easter, coming from a very devout Protestant background, also very anti-Catholic. Actually what first started moving me, where bad arguments against Catholicism, they actually budged me towards Catholicism. Right into the bad Catholic arguments 😂 like the where is Sola Scriptura in the bible kind of arguments. Now I've realised how tough these matters are, and how much nuance comes to play, it will take time for me to fully settle on the matters, but I do believe Catholicism is the way to go! Anyway God bless!
Dude, I have pretty much the exact same story...except I turned all my family protestant then went back to the Catholic church smh. Its cool to hear someone else thats had a similar journey in so many ways.
I have several Catholic friends and my wife is Vietnamese "cultural" Catholic 😆...I grew up anglican and now im member of an outstanding non denominational...i was born again April 10, 2011. I have studied a great deal of Catholicism and devoured all the James White vs Catholic answers stuff...any Catholic apologist you can name i have probably listened to at length (i even read Trent Horn Case for Catholicism and read Dr. Pitre books, Scott Hanh, Steve Ray, etc etc etc.) I studied church history under Dr. Mayhew and have read Augustine, Aquinas and much of the Fathers...The more I investigated the more i found my Protestant convictions further confirmed and solidified.
@Taylor Barrett For instance Luther and Calvin quote Augustine a lot (thus they find a lot of their theology in him). On Mary you have considerable examples of Fathers that do not affirm what later became Marian dogmas (of course this is admitted by Catholic apologists and explained away by saying they just speaking private opinion as private theologians and not for "the church" which I don't find convincing), or that Aquinas seems to reconcile Paul and James 2 on justification the same way Protestants do, or that Augustine later in life denied Peter as the Rock, etc.
I also read Newman's doctrinal development book and was less than convinced...It seemed more like an ex post facto attempt to smooth over the rough edges of history and account for the absence of certain doctrines early on (nor am I convinced of Steve Ray's little according analogy or that these things were in seed form and developed until they fully blossomed rather they look like accretions).
@Taylor Barrett I heard you mention you tend to like Protestant Scripture interpretation as you find it to often be the natural reading...I would definitely agree with that....I find sometimes Catholicism seems to be forcing a reading of the text that I don't think is natural (rather they have a preconceived doctrine that they must justify thus they attempt to read or force the text in a way to make it fit). I suppose all sides can be guilty of proof texting to fit their view but it seems to me (generally speaking and I don't mean this uncharitably) the Catholic side has a stronger tendency almost to want to simply utilize Scripture to try and support its agenda while the Protestant love for Scripture is more likely to lend itself to letting the Scripture truth/interpretation speak for itself.
