Former Protestant Pastor tells how he got over his objections to Mary

[Music] people are like wigging out in my comments section on my videos about what Catholics believe about Mary so I thought I'd make a video today on how I dealt with those things that a lot of Protestants struggle with when it comes to what Catholics believe about Mary how can you believe that Mary was a perpetual virgin when the Bible says that she had brothers and sisters had brothers and sisters how can you believe that you know the Immaculate Conception was a thing or you know all these other things I I get all those and I understand those objections because at one point in time I dealt with them too so you know for everybody that wants to you know hit me with all these comments about well don't you know this isn't in the Bible or that isn't about I I understand that I get it I'm there but here's the deal even though at one point in time I believe that I'm where I am now so how'd that happened how did I get over these objections well I want to share with you like three things that happened to me or that occurred to me as I was making my way into Catholicism that helped me deal with these objections because I remember when I was a Protestant arguing with my Catholic friends that was what I would deal with all the time was what are you guys talking about why are you so obsessed with Mary and who she is and and where do you get all these crazy ideas about her well the first thing that I had to understand was you know this question that we often hear where do you find that in the Bible I had to recognize that there's something wrong with that question in and of itself now I know that it sounds good right because everything that Christians must believe should be found in the Bible right well maybe you know there are some things that we as Christians believe that aren't explicitly taught in the Bible and I know this is sort of apologetics 101 but the idea of the Trinity or more importantly how about this one which books actually belong in the Bible you know so when you start to look at that stuff these are questions that can't really be answered by the Bible in and of itself so when it comes to the teachings about Mary we as Catholics have to so with that and say you know it's not so much about where do I find that in the Bible as it is about where do we get the idea of what Christianity teaches and where does that come from and it has to be bigger than the Bible because of course the Bible itself doesn't tell us what's in the Bible you know we need the church for that anyway I could go on about that for a long time so for me I had to get over that question I had to stop trying to find it an exact verse that said you know and in whatever whatever verse 8 chapter 5 or whatever you want to call it this or that of the other thing I had to get over that because that's just not the way some teachings work the second thing I did was I started to look into what the church fathers taught about Mary and I started to look at what they were saying even from Scripture and to be honest with you my mind was blown a little bit when I started to realize how old these views were or are about the Blessed Mother you know I used to think that the Catholic Church made this stuff up in like the Middle Ages or in some instances even in like the 19th century or whatever because some of these views I just thought they were I'd never heard of them before in the way that the church taught them and when I started to look back at what the Church Fathers taught and looked back in history and I realized how old these views are and made me wonder where did these guys get these ideas and I started to look at how they interpreted the Bible and how they interpreted even even things that I that I had read a million times and never saw for example all of the parallels between what happens with Mary in Luke's Gospel and what happens with the Ark of the Covenant in the books of Samuel in the Old Testament you know there's this parallel that Luke is trying to make that Mary basically he's telling us is like a new Ark of the Covenant and you know these were things that that Christian theologians thousands of years ago of course you know a couple thousand years ago we're identifying and seeing so when you start to look at where they come from on this it might make you realize that sometimes our Protestant objections aren't quite as biblical as we think that they are and that was starting to happen to me and I'm like okay I'm getting this now because really at the end of the day what matters most is your view of authority and as I was becoming more and more convinced that Jesus gave his teaching to his apostles and he gave them what we know we referred to as the deposit of faith and these men possessed that faith and they passed it on to their successors and on and on and on I started to realize that what the church teaches about things you know is pretty powerful and as Catholics we believe that all of the doctrines of the church that you know the ones that are revealed by God to the church that these are things that we have to believe we don't get to pick and choose you know when I was a Protestant I remember there'd be all sorts of different beliefs and variations in opinions about things that were important within the same denomination people would have varying views about baptism or about confirmation or about communion you know well in Catholicism you know there's differing views about some things but when it comes to the actual dogmas of the church you don't get to pick you don't get to decide what you're gonna believe you receive all of it and when you do that you have to submit yourself to that teaching and I got to a place where I was ready to do that even though some of these beliefs about Mary were still a little bit puzzling to me but I was ready to move past that and then you know even when I was still a Protestant something happened to me with regard to Mary that I hadn't expected I began to react to her and teachings about her in an emotional way and what happened to me was basically this I was preparing to preach a sermon through an Advent which is the time right before Christmas about Mary receiving the news from the angel Gabriel that she was going to be giving birth to the Messiah and as I was preparing for that message when I would study and look through the scriptures and think about that and pray about that I began to react to these ideas in an emotional way and it was like something I hadn't experienced before where I just began to kind of feel her presence and her influence in my in my life and it was shocking to me I would begin to cry at times think about that and that's not really Who I am and it just caught me off guard and I remember preaching that sermon to these Methodists and it was a powerful day and a lot of people reacted to that in pretty amazing ways and I began to understand that what the Church teaches about Mary is more than just a doctrinal belief but it teaches about the role that she plays in our lives and in our faith as the mother of the church and our mother as Christians and I began to think about that you know as reflecting on the scripture in John chapter 19 verse 26 where Jesus looks down from the cross at John and at Mary and he says you know woman behold your son and then he says to John you know behold your mother and I began to really think about that why does John include that in his gospel is it just so we know what happens to Mary after the fact he I think that John was making a deeper point I think he was showing that Jesus was giving his mother as a gift to all of us that she would take on that role of motherhood to us as her children spiritually and what happened to me when I began to embrace that was of what I feared would happen you know which was oh I'm afraid of you know becoming some kind of idolatry or Mary worshipper that that's never been a temptation for me what happened to me was I began to fall more in love with Jesus because I began to experience this gift that he gave to us that I'd never even seen before ever even though it's right there in the Bible where's that in the Bible John 1926 you know and as Catholics you know we refer to Mary as our Blessed Mother you know the Blessed Virgin Mary I remember as a Protestant thinking why do they do that well again that's found right there in the Bible Luke's Gospel where is Luke 148 the Bible says that Mary records the it says these words all generations shall call me blessed so we call her blessed that's what we do because that's who she is and I pray that you would experience that just as I have she loves you and she wants to bring you to her son she wants to bring you to Jesus in a way that you've never experienced before and I'm telling you she and she will if you just get over your objections to that I know that worked for me and I believe it could work for you too now let me say a couple of things so I've done I've done something that I want to share with you I started a Facebook page it's called Keith nester Catholic speaker and it's more of like a public figure page because one of the things I didn't expect to happen but that's been kind of cool as I'm getting you know a ton of friend requests on my personal Facebook page and I just haven't been able to get to all that so I thought this would be a good way to interact with you guys now when I look through the comments on these videos there are so many that I haven't even been able to respond to I do read every single one I go through them and I'm working really hard but I just feel terrible when I can't get to everybody's comments so I'm doing the best I can but please don't feel offended if you've written a comment to me and I haven't been able to respond to it I'm really trying hard to do that and and you know this Facebook page is another way that hopefully we can interact together I also started a website it's just called Keith Nestor calm and there'll be things on there that you can look at and interact with and I pray that this content continues to bless you I'm so appreciative that you guys are watching these videos it amazes me every day and I'm so thankful for that if you want to keep watching them go ahead and hit the bell subscribe like the videos and of course when you share them on Facebook and things that helps too thanks so much you guys have a blessed day [Music]

Channel: Keith Nester

Views: 75,633

Rating: 4.8919721 out of 5

Keywords: Virgin Mary, Roman Catholicism, Catholic, Catholic Convert, Blessed Mother

Id: 3evSqzTBefM

Length: 10min 27sec (627 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 15 2019