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MY TESTIMONY
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I was born into a Roman Catholic family. That family consisted of my Mother, who converted from some dead Protestant denomination to Catholicism upon marrying my Father. Then there was my Father and his Mother who lived with us. They were also born into Roman Catholic families. I grew up believing that there was nothing that Mary or some other saint couldn't make right. I was made to feel that God was this high, imperial, impervious, unfeeling, uncaring, all-knowing personality that was too far away for poor, pitiful little me to ever reach.
I had a dear Baptist Aunt who would tell me things that weren't taught by the Catholic Church. She would tell me that I didn't have to confess my sins to a priest. She told me that I could just kneel down by my bed and confess them directly to God and He would hear and forgive me. She told me many things about the Bible, and everything she told me made absolutely total sense. It all rang true, no matter how young I was at the time. That was the beginning of my having doubts about the Catholic Church. Of course, I had to go to confession, as my parents forced me to.
My poor parents were, fortunately, their own undoing as far as RCC's hold on my heart and mind. They would go to confession every Saturday, Mass every Sunday, and live like heathens the rest of the week -- all the while stuffing and cramming their religion down my throat. I had to be good, moral and live right, but they could act however they wanted.
There was a lot of emotional and mental abuse, and by the time I married and moved out of their home, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with religion whatsoever! I had decided that if religion would make people act they way they did, then I was out of it! None of that nonsense for me.
At the age of 18, I married just to get out of the house. Of course I thought I was really in love, but unbeknownst to me, I had married a hopeless alcoholic. I say he was hopeless, because he didn't recognize that he had a problem, and didn't care to get help, no matter what he saw it doing to me and our son. Not being saved, I knew nothing about trusting God, so I divorced him after eleven years of total misery.
He was in the Navy, and we went to quite a few places. The first place we went was Dunoon, Scotland. It was beautiful, but while I was there, I suffered a stillbirth. We both wanted a change -- in order to put the pain behind us, so we were transferred to Rota, Spain after six months. It was a welcome change of pace.
While stationed there, I got to see and visit quite a few places, including the cathedral in Sevilla. Everything in Spain just drips with Catholicism everywhere you look. There are huge processions every holy day, and the people are very pious and dedicated to their religion.
Everything was coated over with gold they had melted down and used for paint -- the walls, the altars, just about everything! There was a huge organ built on an upper deck (similar to a choir loft, but unto its own), that had about three or four tiers of pipes, and just as many keyboards. It would have taken quite a master to play that instrument. The organ pipes were made of gold too. The statues had real gold and silver crowns with diamonds, emeralds, pearls, etc. No expense had been spared -- thus the reason that most of the Spanish people are very poor.
One of the oddest things that I recall in regard to the furthering of my doubts about the RCC system, was something that happened while I was expecting my son. We had been moved into off-base housing until we could get moved on-base. It was while living there that a very sweet lady started coming over and visiting with me, sharing her faith, and some "truths" about the Bible. She always carried the King James, and it was about her third or fourth visit when she finally revealed that she was a Jehovah's Witness. It was she who challenged me to find all those teachings I still believed in about Mary in the Bible.
I had my Catholic Bible with me, and she told me to look them up and show them to her when she returned to visit the next week. I took that Bible, and went to the back where there was a list of doctrines and corresponding Scripture verses. Was I ever shocked to look up those verses and discover that they had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the doctrines they were listed next to! Even more shocking to me was the fact that a lost Jehovah's Witness knew more about my religion than I did.
It still baffles me how God can use even a Jehovah's Witness to show someone the truth. That just proves to me that He can use anybody for His purposes if and when He so desires.
Another odd occurrence that happened during our stay there, was a very strange dream I had. In this dream, Jesus Christ had returned to earth in our "modern" times (the seventies, as it were), and I was in a house I'd never seen before, with a bunch of hippie-type people I had never seen before either. I was wearing a long, white nightgown. We heard a loud commotion outside, and went to a window and looked out to see what was going on. We saw soldiers wearing Nazi-type helmets (but sort of Romanesque -- with the little spearhead on top) and uniforms marching Jesus down the street. His hands were bound with ropes and He was dragging a huge, 12-foot cross over his shoulder. They were beating him like an animal, and they disappeared around the corner until we couldn't see them anymore. We were not allowed to go outside because of the "Occupation," so I went into another room that was full of school desks. I was very emotionally drained from what I had just seen, and felt very weak. I realized that I needed to eat. As I was in a nightgown, I figured I needed breakfast. No sooner had I sat down than I was brought a plate of ham and eggs. I ate the eggs, but couldn't eat more than a bite of the ham, as it had a very strange taste.
I went into another room, and there they had Jesus's body, still attached to the cross. Someone was dissecting one of His legs for "scientific purposes," and I noticed that his arms were not only out of socket, but the meat between his arms and shoulders was stretched very thin and browned from the sun -- it resembled bacon. I was so grossed out that I ran into another room, where someone offered me a slice of some of that "bacon." I started screaming, threw up my breakfast (I had suddenly realized what the "ham" was) and tried to run away, but they caught me and restrained me, and wouldn't let me go. It was then that I woke up, shaking like a leaf. It was several years before I realized that what this dream was showing me is that the Catholic church actually teaches "spiritual" cannibalism. After all, they believe that it is the actual body and blood of Jesus that is offered at communion.
I also came to realize that they were depriving their congregation of half of that sacrament, by only giving them the bread portion. Jesus commanded us to drink (symbolically, of course) of his blood also, and they only allowed the priest to drink the wine. They were silently telling those people that they are not worthy to partake in the blood of Jesus -- only the priests (not even the nuns) -- could partake of it. (A friend whom the Lord recently allowed me to lead into renouncing Catholicism, informed me that they have changed that, and that the congregation now does get to drink of the wine.)
They just make up the rules as they go along to suit their own purposes. The old system kept earnest, pious lay people feeling like underdogs, unworthy of the blood of Jesus. Believe me, I cannot say enough about all the inconsistencies. This is one of the oldest cults in the history of mankind.
I was married to my present husband a little over a year, when I began in earnest to really seek God. I had been watching some very good spiritual programs, wanting what those people had, but my Catholic upbringing taught me that once I had divorced and remarried, I was on my way to Hell, without recourse -- as I had been married in the Catholic Church, to a Roman Catholic man the first time.
There were so many things I had done, that I believed had me excommunicated, and on my way to Hell, that I had given up hope. I had finally decided that it was only for certain people. It wasn't for people like me. I was just too sinful.
Slowly, one by one, the Lord had certain guest speakers on these programs. Other women who had been divorced and remarried, and still others who had done all the things I had done, and they had what I wanted! At last, I knew that I could have it too! And when I heard one of the preachers say that God forgives all sin, I realized that I had been lied to. I prayed the sinner's prayer with him that night, and my life has not been the same.
There have been many miracles following my conversion. I was delivered from a fifteen and a half-year cigarette addiction in only one night, healed from grand-mal epilepsy, healed from a crippling form of arthritis in my back, and many more too numerous to count. I am still praying for my dear Mother and family to come out of all of this deception, and trying to witness to them. They are constantly trying to reconvert me, and I tell them that if they can't show it to me in the Bible, forget it. Since they can't do that, they don't have much to say to me.
We lost my Dear Dad in May of 1999, but just a couple of weeks before he passed away, he got saved! Praise the Lord -- now he's in Heaven! As much as I miss him, at least I know that someday, we'll be back together for all eternity!
I do have this to say this to anyone out there who was raised with Catholicism ingrained into their souls: If you are truly looking for something better; if you are tired of being made to feel guilty and having no concrete hope of salvation, get into the Bible. Listen to these ministers, respond to the altar call, and pray for the Lord to clear up all the confusion. I don't necessarily agree with everything the T.V. ministers preach, but when they present the gospel, and how to get saved, it's time to listen.
I do have a problem with this Ecumenical movement, which most of them are involved in (and I was unaware of back then), which is slowly inching towards the “one-world” church mentioned in Scripture. I pray for all of them to realize what’s going on and to come out of that. But what a wonderful thing to discover that I had been right all along! I was right that religion was not where salvation is found. It's the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and dear, sweet Jesus -- my new best friend. What a mighty God we serve!
In His Love,
Rande Snyder †
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