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“I, for one, am not questioning your freedom to choose; but am VERY interested in the information you looked at before COMING to this decision.

And, not ONLY the information, but how you analyzed, and dismissed, any contrary information.”

Well, let’s see. It wasn’t a short term process. It took about 2-3 years or so. I was quite ignorant of Rome and as I did my research I realized that much of what I believed the Catholic church taught - was a distortion and incorrect.

I started from the same place as Menno Simons and the issues that justified breaking away from Rome.

http://www.mennosimons.net/ft002-renunciation.html

You can find it here.

You might be shocked at what his justifications were and the hows and the whys. The gap is really not all that much between Menno Simons and the Catholic church. Much has been made of the difference - as I examined further, I realized that at Trent - the Catholic church had taken Luther’s words at face value. Rather than actually speaking to the anabaptists - they relied on Luther’s calumny and that it colored greatly the Catholic understanding of anabaptists.

In short - not only was Luther responsible for hanging and persecution of his fellow brothers and sisters, he was responsible for calumny.

The other part - is that I saw that I had been lied to by many folks I trusted about what the Catholic church believed. So I endeavoured to start from the beginning. What did the Church teach and why - what does the catechism say, and why? Why does the Catholic church state. I made a list - rather long, of the doctrinal issues between me and the Catholic church. And I went through them one by one. That winter I receieved Mere Christianity, and tore that book apart.

I went to RCIA for one year just to find out more about the catholic church. That summer, after the classes, I received Scott hahn’s Rome Sweet Home. Scott Hahn was able to explain to me much of Catholic doctrine in a way that made sense. It all fits together.

The last hurdle ended up being the very first one - rebaptism. I went to RCIA the next year and worked on that one issue exclusively. I prayed for guidance and God helped show me what I had read but never understood. The Nicene Creed states - “one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”. Rebaptism denies this doctrine - in asserting that baptism itself can be invalid.

Simon’s argument rests or falls on silence- nowhere does it say that rebaptism is permitted.