Why Are Some Evangelicals/Protestants Becoming Roman Catholics?
It's no surprise how more of than not that Catholic apologists love to shove it on my face that some Evangelicals/Protestants are becoming Catholics. At the same time, Arminians love to use it to justify that my upholding of the teaching of "The perseverance of the saints" is a lie while Antinominians believe that such people are still saved. I am aware of some Protestants becoming Roman Catholics. Due to the fact I am not a Baptist Brider, I can embrace a Protestant as a member of the family in Christ if he or she shows signs of genuine conversion. For decades, the Protestant Christian movement (majority were Calvinists) has contributed to Christianity especially in the areas of hymns, educations and the translation of the King James Bible.
I was reading through Pastor John F. MacArthur's book "The Gospel According to Jesus" and listening to Pastor Ray Comfort's sermon "True and False Conversion". I have noticed how more often than not that today's messages are watered down. While listening to some of Pastor Paul David Washer's sermons, the Gospel message has been toned down. Wherever the Gospel is toned down from Lordship salvation to easy believism, the chances of getting a false convert is very high. When I read the book, I soon saw what faulty evangelism methods are doing to the Protestant churches these days compared to historic Protestantism. Historic Protestant preachers like Billy Sunday, Harry Allen Ironside and Arthur Pink did not water down the Gospel. They emphasized repentance of sin and presentation of the Law. Martin Luther emphasized the use of the Law in preaching. It's not so today anymore in most Protestant churches.
It's true I am a proponent of once saved, always saved but that is not the only point. Eternal security is not just once saved, always saved and live as you want. While holiness and perseverance are not the prerequisites of salvation but certainly, they are the fruits of salvation. Christians can sin horribly or backslide but they will definitely endure to the end. One can see the true and the false converts along the way. Those Protestants who converted to Catholicism were Protestants but not Protestant Christians. Some Baptists today are just Baptists, not Baptist Christians. These Protestants are just Protestants, not Christians. I would also present the stand that these Protestants who have converted to Roman Catholicism (or any non-Christian religion) did not lose their salvation, they never had it to begin with. I used to think it was possible to renounce your faith but the more I passed through Biblical preaching, the more I realized that those who fell away were never saved to start with.
Now why do I find some Protestants becoming Catholics? One can blame the ongoing apostasies of some pastors. The Evangelicals and Catholics Together movement promotes an incomplete presentation of the Gospel. In the late Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" he has also mentioned fellowship between Catholics and Protestants. EWTN features guest stars who are apostate Protestants (not necessarily having converted to Catholicism) and TBN features priests and nuns. Rick Warren even welcomed Pope Francis as a brother-in-Christ in one of his tweets and note his book is a very seeker-friendly presentation of the Gospel. Some Protestant preachers are not Christians at all. They have not only embraced Catholics as brothers and sisters in Christ but have also presented a watered down presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What happens is a mere change of religion, not a true conversion. Some may be raised in a Protestant home but not a Christian home. That is, they are Protestants in name only but not by heart. Sometimes these false conversions can be evident in a Protestant/Catholic marriage like aside from compromise, one may convert to Catholicism because the person was never truly saved to begin with. It's quite different from a Christian I knew who married an unbeliever but later on, her husband became a born again Christian. It's because they are both tare, not wheat and it requires a genuine conversion to become a wheat from a tare.
I was reading through Pastor John F. MacArthur's book "The Gospel According to Jesus" and listening to Pastor Ray Comfort's sermon "True and False Conversion". I have noticed how more often than not that today's messages are watered down. While listening to some of Pastor Paul David Washer's sermons, the Gospel message has been toned down. Wherever the Gospel is toned down from Lordship salvation to easy believism, the chances of getting a false convert is very high. When I read the book, I soon saw what faulty evangelism methods are doing to the Protestant churches these days compared to historic Protestantism. Historic Protestant preachers like Billy Sunday, Harry Allen Ironside and Arthur Pink did not water down the Gospel. They emphasized repentance of sin and presentation of the Law. Martin Luther emphasized the use of the Law in preaching. It's not so today anymore in most Protestant churches.
It's true I am a proponent of once saved, always saved but that is not the only point. Eternal security is not just once saved, always saved and live as you want. While holiness and perseverance are not the prerequisites of salvation but certainly, they are the fruits of salvation. Christians can sin horribly or backslide but they will definitely endure to the end. One can see the true and the false converts along the way. Those Protestants who converted to Catholicism were Protestants but not Protestant Christians. Some Baptists today are just Baptists, not Baptist Christians. These Protestants are just Protestants, not Christians. I would also present the stand that these Protestants who have converted to Roman Catholicism (or any non-Christian religion) did not lose their salvation, they never had it to begin with. I used to think it was possible to renounce your faith but the more I passed through Biblical preaching, the more I realized that those who fell away were never saved to start with.
The problem today is there are many "Bible-believing" Judas Iscariots today. Judas Iscariot is the example of a false convert. His life showed he wasn't saved to begin with. Remember, he did not lose his salvation. Salvation is not a temporal condition like pregnancy or sickness, whom God saves, He sanctifies and He keeps therefore they cannot keep on sinning without remorse. True salvation begets good works and a changed life. If you claim to be saved and reveling in sin, such a conversion is a sham. If you are truly converted, you will endure to the end (Philippians 1:6-7, 1 John 2:19). False converts stay for awhile and then they go. When Protestant preacher Harry Allen Ironside preached of eternal security, he showed the marks of a true conversion vs. a false one. Historic Protestants (these were true born again Christians) always exposed false converts, today a lot of Protestants are embracing false converts.
Now why do I find some Protestants becoming Catholics? One can blame the ongoing apostasies of some pastors. The Evangelicals and Catholics Together movement promotes an incomplete presentation of the Gospel. In the late Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" he has also mentioned fellowship between Catholics and Protestants. EWTN features guest stars who are apostate Protestants (not necessarily having converted to Catholicism) and TBN features priests and nuns. Rick Warren even welcomed Pope Francis as a brother-in-Christ in one of his tweets and note his book is a very seeker-friendly presentation of the Gospel. Some Protestant preachers are not Christians at all. They have not only embraced Catholics as brothers and sisters in Christ but have also presented a watered down presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The problem with some Protestant churches is that they have deviated from some of the founding fathers of the movement. Instead of continuing in the faith, they have compromised in the faith. The Gospel is watered down and stuff like repentance of sin and presentation of the Law are removed. If you remember the parable of the sower, the problem was not the composition of the soil but its condition. When the Gospel is watered down, false conversion happens more often than not. In result, you get Protestants but not Protestant Christians. Likewise, I've also seen some becoming Baptists but they never became Christians to begin with. Some of them are Arminianism which Augustus Toplady called the "Road Back to Rome". Arminian Protestant churches are just Protestants, not Protestant Christians which is why they have a high tendency to return back to Rome. They have become modernists, not Christians.
What happens is a mere change of religion, not a true conversion. Some may be raised in a Protestant home but not a Christian home. That is, they are Protestants in name only but not by heart. Sometimes these false conversions can be evident in a Protestant/Catholic marriage like aside from compromise, one may convert to Catholicism because the person was never truly saved to begin with. It's quite different from a Christian I knew who married an unbeliever but later on, her husband became a born again Christian. It's because they are both tare, not wheat and it requires a genuine conversion to become a wheat from a tare.