My Testimony
I gave my life to Christ at age 55 and was baptized at Crossroads Christian Church several years later. Having grown up Catholic, I simply did not know and had never investigated that what I had been taught was not what the Bible teaches. I knew who Jesus was but did not understand that He died to give me the free gift of eternal life with Him.  My first understanding came as a result of reading the first book of the “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye.  I read that I could know for sure that I could have eternal life with Jesus by confessing my sins, asking Him to take over my life, and repenting of those sins I had committed.  That one paragraph in that book hit me like an avalanche.  I accepted Christ and my life has never been the same.

In a fairly short period of time, I left the Catholic Church, joined Crossroads, got baptized, got certified to teach adult bible studies, and now lead several study groups. I am amazed at the changes that the Holy Spirit has made in me and continues to make in me.  For all  of this I am truly thankful.

My wife has made this journey with me out of the Catholic Church and has been saved as well.  She can certainly provide her own testimony.  It is a wonderful story as well.


That’s the short short version and below is a little more detail.

John

About five years ago I was working as a consultant for a company in Jackson, Mississippi.  As usual, I had brought along a book to read in my off-time.  The book I took to read was one that had been recommended to my wife from a woman at work.  It was “Left Behind” by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.  It is a fictional story that is based on the Bible’s “end times” prophecies (from the Rapture of the Church to the Second Coming of Christ).  I was interested in reading it but a bit apprehensive at the same time.  If you have never read the “Left Behind” series, I highly recommend them. In that book, it talked about “salvation” and what it meant to be “saved”. Having been a Catholic for well over 50 years at that point, I did not have a “biblical understanding of salvation.”  “Being Saved” was Bible Thumper talk for being part of some exclusive group of people who now thought they were guaranteed they would spend eternity with Jesus no matter what and that anyone who was not “saved” would be going to hell. Not having been saved, this included me, my wife, and my sons. 
 
That made no sense to me as a person raised in the Catholic Church. As a Catholic we were taught that getting to heaven is a lifelong struggle for each person and you are never sure from day to day or sin to sin whether you will make it to heaven or not.  In the Catholic system, faith alone in Christ alone will not assure your salvation; in fact, it is a sin to believe that (the sin of presumption).  So in that system, you must cooperate and support your salvation effort through receiving the sacraments of the Catholic Church and obeying all the rules of the Catholic Church about attending mass, observing holy days, praying to the saints and to Mary so they can intercede for you.  When you die, if you are currently not in a state of mortal sin you go to purgatory where through prayers and offerings of the living, you might eventually get to heaven.
 
On the other hand, what the Bible people were saying is according to the Bible, you simply must acknowledge that you are a sinner, place your faith in Jesus Christ and ask Him to be your Lord and Savior, and turn away from your sinful ways.  Once you have done that you are “saved” once and always and you cannot lose your salvation. At the very moment of your physical death, you will be with Jesus in heaven. As you can see, these are completely different teachings and in fact completely different gospels.  You certainly don’t find the Catholic approach to salvation in the Bible- it comes from tradition and interpretation and dogma generated by the Popes, College of Cardinals, and the “Magisterium” (the group in the church qualified to interpret scripture).
 
As I was laying there in bed that night and thinking about what the Bible teaches about salvation, I was absolutely overwhelmed and I knew that it was that salvation that made sense and the one I wanted.  For the first time in my life, I prayed for salvation.  It went something like this: “Lord, I don’t fully understand all of this now but I know that I want to spend eternity with you.  I know I am a sinner and I am sorry.  I ask you to forgive me.  I know that I have to make a choice now and that choice is that I ask You to take over my life.  I surrender it to You and ask that You change my heart and my mind so that I can serve You now and forever.”  I am not much of a crier, but I have to admit, I cried like a baby.  In a way, that is exactly what I had become, born again I was like a baby starting all over. 
 
I would like to say that I was at peace and all was well and everything in my life would get easier.  Hardly!  When the lights go on in your head and heart, you begin to see things that need changed.  You begin to want to know more about the One who saved you.  You want to find out how to serve Him.  Having been a comfortable Catholic, I was now very uncomfortable.  I needed to know what the Bible says and teaches and how that compared with what the Catholic Church taught and what I now believed. It took awhile, but I am full of joy and thanksgiving that my wife and I and my sons have all moved to bible based churches where we read the bible and hear the word of God preached and taught. Our lives have been blessed in so many ways since that time.  So that is the short version of my testimony. I put my faith in Jesus Christ.