Why I am catholic – it’s steadfastness
When I was a freshman in college and I was undecided, like many, on my major, a senior gave me some advice. Frank (the senior) told me how he decided to major in accounting. He reviewed all the employment figures for marketing, general business, economic majors etc. and how they had pretty steep ups and downs in the job market over the years. Then he notice how steady the jobs were for those in the accounting field. Well, that is how I decided to major in accounting as well, I always wanted to be employable. Now I have had some ups and downs in my career, but I can say that I have, for the most part, always been able to find a job for this average accountant.
How does my employment history have to do with why I am catholic?
Well when I was going through the RCIA process (I would recommend it for all, even for you cradle catholics) I was struck by the fact how the church survived various attacks, accusations and even some internal conflicts. But the church continued to march on. My next question to myself was this, if this was a false teaching, false church, false everything, then why or how did this catholic church survive? It appears from all history books and any thing I researched online from other non-catholic sources, everyone agrees that there was one church that followed Jesus Christ, therefore called (in Romans, Paul called the churches of Christ) church of Christ or christians. No not the same as those churches that are named “church of Christ”.
So if we look at that timeline chart of the history of christianity, you will notice that the catholic church is the straight middle line of the chart. And all the little branches off of this main line, did not happen until approximately 1600 and since then the branches off those branches have gone wild.
Like a tree that looks very full and beautiful, underneath, at the core, is a very strong trunk that holds up all the branches and even keeps the tree from blowing over against strong winds – like the catholic church.
BanksShot 
Nice post. I do, however, have a couple criticisms.
If you’re already fully initiated, such as a cradle Catholic, you can’t go through the RCIA process. You can go to the classes that prepare catechumens and candidates for RCIA, but these classes are not actually RCIA. This is an important distinction when debating someone that says, “The Bible says, ‘believe and be baptized,’ not, ‘take some classes.'”
The other criticism is more of a personal issue for me. When talking about the catholic Church, I believe the word “Church” should be capitalized, and when talking about other churches, it should be lower case unless it is preceded by a title. Thus you have the distinction between the Church of Christ and the church of Christ. The former is the catholic Church, and the latter is the Campbellite Church.
LikeLike
duly noted on the Church – thank you!
LikeLike
removed — auto links that i have to be careful to review before posting. thanks for letting me know.
LikeLike