Most of the things I do, I usually ask myself "why" I do things I do. Becoming an Anglican was not an exception to question myself as to why I did it. What are the motives behind it. While I'm examining myself, I was hoping that the reasons for conversion are valid, because I find it cheap to have "convenience" as the main reason for conversion.
Like I said in my previous post, I was really on the search of the right spiritual path for me. And since I love history, I have great respect for it. I wonder why Protestants throw off the bin all the historical aspects of the Church and the Scriptures. It was as if after Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven, the Reformation came immediately. So I questioned, what happened in between 33AD and the Reformation? All my life, I believed that Protestantism is the only way to go to heaven.
I was really bothered to know that history is not on the Protestants' side if you will really look at it. If the church has become apostate after 325AD council of Nicea, then Jesus was lying that his Church will prevail against the gates of hell. If what Jesus said is true, then somewhere along the lines of 33AD and Reformation, there exists a true Christianity. A true path of following Jesus.
Using simple logic and history, the Protestant claims seemed to have lost their strength in me. I started to read Protestant-Catholic debates and have understood the Catholic arguments. Suddenly, most of the beliefs I held regarding the Catholic faith begin to crumble.
But this does not explain as to why I shifted to the Anglican faith.
I became an Anglican because:
1. I have great respect for history. Intuitively, I know that something is wrong with the Protestant way of thinking things. Bible-only, forget the history of how we came up with the Bible. I refuse to be "ahistoric". I need to know the basis of my faith, not only basing it solely on my interpretation of the Scriptures, but on the historicity and the credibility of its history.
2. I am tired of waking up every Sunday morning, listening to "new directions" that God has revealed to our pastor. I mean, these "new movings/directions" certainly led to a lot of secondary things being the primary things.
3. I am done with "pressure Christianity". How many people should you share your faith with? Did you "evangelize" today to someone? Every minute counts because someone is going to hell if you don't spread the Good News. Protestantism has a point with that. But they forgot that your own life is the greatest "evangelism" you will ever have.
4. I believe that Protestantism is not the ONLY way to God. If that is the case, then there's a big question mark as to how the souls fared between 33AD and the Reformation? I refuse to believe that Christianity only got it right when the Reformers came into picture.
5. The centrality of the Eucharist makes more sense to me than the pastor's latest pulpit preachings. Most of the time the pastor's sermon feels like attending a self-help seminar. Most of the preaching nowadays focus too much on the health and wealth prosperity gospel. I do not need to know that my life will have prosperity, lots of cash, etc. I came to a point where I hated sermons that focuses much on money, I refute in my mind all the points the pastor has to make.
What I need is to be constantly reminded that I am a sinner saved by God's grace, not financial prosperity. The Eucharist perfectly fits my need.
I believe that the Eucharist is one of the most early teachings of the church (Acts 2:42). Jesus also taught it (John 6:25-59).
5. I don't mean any disrespects to pastors, in fact, I put most of the pastors I've met in high regard. But most of the time, the success of the Sunday service depends on them, on how well they have delivered or interpreted the Bible passage. And theoretically, God forbid, if any of them died, it will be a big blow to the church.
Unlike most protestant churches, creedal churches depend on the traditional liturgies passed on from the ancient church days. Sunday masses are not dependent on how well the priest/bishop gave homily. Just read the flow of the misalette, everything is there for your spiritual nourishment. Old testament readings, Psalm readings, the epistle readings, and the Gospel readings are there to be read and internalized during the mass. Like a balanced diet, this is a complete meal.
I love how we recite the Nicene Creed in unison. The creed itself is all-encompassing, simple yet profound statement of faith.
The beauty of the liturgy is one of the major things that draws me more closer to God's heart. All parts of it are biblical and historical at the same time.
In my next piece, i will write either A.) Major misconceptions on Roman Catholicism or B.) Demystifying Protestant Phrases. Wonder why I'm writing about Roman Catholicism?
Currently, I am attending an Anglican high church which is very similar to the ways of Roman Catholics. In fact, people sometimes mistaken us as Catholics.
As I close, the main reason I got out of Protestantism is simply because I wanted to minimize disunity in beliefs and confusion. I wanted something more uniform and established and tested throughout the years. I could have converted to other creedal Christian religions like Catholic or Orthodox if that was the case. But I have problems with some Catholic dogmas, and I find the Orthodox church very unbending in its traditionalism that it has become too exotic/foreign. Anglican is really the via media between Protestantism and Ancient Christianity. For now, I know that this is where God wants our family to be.
