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 My journey into the Catholic Church extends from my
Episcopal baptism as a baby until my Catholic confirmation and first communion
in 2006. Detours along the road were through many Protestant churches, a
"rebaptism" as a Seventh-Day-Adventist as a child, another baptism into the
Watchtower organization and spending 20 years as a Jehovah's Witness, accepting
the "right hand of fellowship" into a Baptist church in 2002-before coming home
to the Catholic Church two years ago.
I have always attended some house of worship all of
my life. Growing up I regularly went to Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist,
Moravian, Episcopal, Congregationalist, Church of God in Christ, Assemblies of
God, and Baptist churches. I occasionally visited the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's
Witnesses, and since my family has Caribbean and Latin American roots, I even
attended the Catholic Church with some of my older relatives. My family always
prayed together and I was an avid Bible reader since I learned to read when I
was three.
 As a teenager on Long Island, New York, I suddenly
became interested in finding "the true religion." By then my parents said I had
to go to any church as long as it wasn't Catholic. In the ninth grade I was
learning about the Protestant Reformation which only solidified my family's
anti-Catholic sentiments. I concluded the Seventh-Day Adventists were not the
"true faith." They said in the 1800's Mrs. Ellen G. White, by Holy Spirit,
suddenly received "the message" that "lost" Christians had to return to
celebrating the Sabbath. She also said that they should look for Christ's
imminent Second Coming. I also didn't agree with getting baptized again every
time one sinned.
So, I set out to find where "the truth" was. I'd
spend time reading about different Protestant denominations at the library and
continued visiting many churches every Sunday. One day I was looking up
religions in the set of home encyclopedias. The line that stood out under
Jehovah's Witnesses was (paraphrase), "all their doctrine is based on the
Bible." That fundamentalist concept impressed me. At that point, my search
basically became comparing Witnesses to other Protestant faiths. I found many of
the Protestant denominations could not answer my questions. What really is the
trinity? How can Jesus be God? Are holidays scriptural? What are your prophecies
for the "last days"?
I had many Biblical questions about the book of
Revelations. The Jehovah's Witnesses were the only religion that offered me a
home Bible study. I started my study on the condition that we only could use my
Bible (a King James Version) and I wanted it to include the study of
Revelations.
As my studies progressed, I became alarmed that only
144,000 were going to heaven. There were a lot more people in New York City
alone. Next, they then told me about "the great crowd" who would live on earth.
They also pointed to scriptures that proved God's name was Jehovah, why the
trinity doctrine was false, and how 1914 was the start of the Gentile Times. I
continued to visit other churches who failed to explain the scriptures as well
as the Witnesses from my adolescent estimation.
By the time I went away to college in Philadelphia,
I was now accepting Jehovah's Witness literature and using a New World
Translation of the Bible. While I was away at college I decided I'd start going
kingdom hall, and no longer visited other churches. I accepted the trinity
doctrine was false so that virtually eliminated most Christian denominations.
So, I devoured all the Jehovah's Witnesses' prophecy books where "the light got
brighter and brighter." Yet, I didn't grasp the whole concept the devotion to
the organization, originally founded by Russell. I just considered myself a
Bible student.
Consequently, I was shocked when for the first time
I heard that the Bible had been written for only the "anointed" and not for the
"other sheep." When I heard about Russell being among the "anointed" that
started organization in the 1800's after being led by Holy Spirit, it started
sounded like the Seventh-Day Adventists. In fact, some of the Witnesses would
tell me the Seventh-Day Adventists "broke off from the Witnesses," while my
Seventh-Day Adventist relatives told me the Witnesses "broke off from the
Seventh-Day Adventists."
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