Author’s Note:
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church**
I did not return to the Catholic Church because of sentiment, culture, or nostalgia. I returned—and remain—because Catholicism preserves the full, supernatural, cosmic, and historical worldview of ancient Christianity. It retains the worldview the apostles assumed, the Fathers proclaimed, and the early Church worshiped within: a world filled with angels and powers, a divine council surrounding God’s throne, and a destiny far greater than “dying and going to heaven.”
Many Evangelical and modern Protestant traditions tend to reduce salvation to a simple formula: accept Jesus, be forgiven, and go to heaven when you die. But the earliest Christians believed—and taught—something infinitely deeper, richer, and more awe-inspiring. Salvation was not merely rescue; it was participation. It was entry into God’s cosmic family, His heavenly council, and His eternal kingdom.
The Catholic Church never lost this vision.
It preserved it in its liturgy, in its sacraments, in its theology, and in its doctrine.
This is why I came back.
**1. The Ancient Christian Vision:
A Populated Heaven and a Cosmic Destiny**
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture reveals a universe alive with spiritual beings—angels, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers—assembled around God in a celestial court. Humanity was made to join this council. As the Psalmist writes:
“You have made them a little lower than the angels,
and crowned them with glory and honor.”
— Psalm 8:5
The Fathers understood this as humanity’s intended destiny—to surpass even the angels through union with Christ.
St. Irenaeus taught:
“The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ… became what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is.”
— Against Heresies 5. Preface
This is not “mere heaven.”
This is cosmic elevation.
It is the teaching that we will:
Reign with Christ (2 Tim 2:12; Rev 20:4)
Judge angels (1 Cor 6:3)
Become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4)
Be “like Him” when we see Him as He is (1 John 3:2)
This is the language of theosis—a doctrine preserved faithfully in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
St. Athanasius famously said:
“God became man so that man might become god.”
— On the Incarnation 54
Not “God by nature,” of course—
but God by grace, glorified and united to Him.
This remains Catholic teaching to this day.
**2. The Divine Council:
The Communion of Saints in Its Original Form**
What modern Christians call “saints,” the biblical authors saw as the “holy ones” of God—the heavenly council around His throne (Dan 7:9–10; Ps 82; Ps 89:6–7).
The Catholic Church preserved this worldview in its doctrine of the Communion of Saints—the belief that the Church on earth is mystically united with the Church in heaven and that the saints participate actively in God’s governance.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote:
“We mention those who have fallen asleep… believing that their souls are alive with God and that they pray for us.”
— Catechetical Lectures 23.9
The early Christians called on martyrs and saints not out of superstition but because they believed—correctly—that the saints were alive, exalted, and already sharing in the life of the divine council.
Heaven, for the early Church, was not a cloudy afterlife but a kingdom, a courtroom, a temple, a family, and a government. And humanity was destined to join it.
Catholicism preserved this mystical, supernatural communion when much of the Christian world forgot it.
**3. Liturgy:
Where Heaven Touches Earth**
One of the greatest reasons I remain Catholic is that the Catholic Mass reveals the supernatural worldview of the early Church in its full power. The liturgy is not a meeting, not a lesson, not a memorial meal—it is participation in the heavenly liturgy described in Revelation 4–5.
St. John Chrysostom wrote:
“The angels surround the priest; the entire sanctuary is filled with the powers of heaven.”
— Homilies on Hebrews 17
During every Mass, Catholics join:
angels,
archangels,
thrones,
dominions,
saints,
martyrs,
apostles,
and the Mother of God
in a single cosmic act of worship.
Where else in Christianity do we see this vision preserved so clearly?
When the priest says,
“With Angels and Archangels, and with all the hosts and powers of heaven,”
he is not being poetic—he is stating metaphysical reality.
This is Christianity as the apostles knew it: a seen and unseen unity of heaven and earth.
**4. Christ the King:
Lord of Angels, Nations, and the Cosmos**
Protestantism often centers Jesus as personal Savior—which is essential—but Catholicism adds what Scripture also proclaims: Christ is King of the cosmos, ruler over the angelic powers and the nations (Eph 1:20–23).
The early Christians believed that Christ’s resurrection enthroned Him as head over the entire supernatural order.
St. Gregory of Nyssa writes:
“The dominion of the Lord extends over all rational and spiritual powers.”
— The Great Catechism 26
The Catholic Church, in her liturgical year, feasts, and prayers, continues to proclaim Christ not only as Savior but as cosmic King, enthroned above angels, principalities, and powers.
This is the biblical worldview.
This is the patristic worldview.
This is the Catholic worldview.
And it is breathtaking.
5. Why I Remain Catholic
I remain Catholic because it is the one place where:
the supernatural worldview of the apostles is intact,
the divine council becomes the Communion of Saints,
the heavenly liturgy becomes the Mass,
theosis remains the goal of salvation,
Christ’s kingship is cosmic,
and humanity’s destiny is nothing less than
union with God and participation in His rule.
Modern Christianity often shrinks salvation down to an escape:
Believe → be forgiven → go to heaven.
Ancient Christianity taught something far grander:
“He has raised us up with Him,
and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places.”
— Ephesians 2:6
Not spectators.
Not passive residents of heaven.
But council members, rulers, glorified sons and daughters of God through Christ.
This is the Christianity of the Bible.
This is the Christianity of the Fathers.
And this is the Christianity the Catholic Church still teaches.
For me, there is nowhere else to go.
I came back because the Catholic Church preserves the beautiful, terrifying, supernatural, cosmic, and eternal vision of salvation that Christ Himself proclaimed.
And I remain because this worldview is not only true—
it is worth giving one’s life to.
Endnotes (Chicago Style)
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 13–18.
Ibid., 25–40.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), §§328–336.
Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995), 25–33.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.8.3.
Origen, De Principiis, 3.3.2–3.
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 23.9.
Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Ps. 82.
Heiser, Unseen Realm, 121–135.
Catechism, §460 (quoting Athanasius, On the Incarnation).
Ware, The Orthodox Way, 129–144.
Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 54.
Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua, 7.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.36.1.
Heiser, Unseen Realm, 113–120; 166–179.
Col 1:16; Eph 1:20–23; Eph 6:12.
Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism, 26; Origen, Commentary on John, 1.28; Augustine, City of God, 10.15–19.
Heiser, Unseen Realm, 275–288.
Roman Missal, Preface Dialogue.
The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Anaphora.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews, 17.
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 23.10.
Catechism, §§946–962.
“Domine, Petre, ora pro nobis,” inscription in Catacombs of St. Sebastian, 3rd century.
Jerome, Against Vigilantius, 6; Augustine, City of God, 22.10; Chrysostom, Homilies on 2 Corinthians, 26.
Bibliography (Chicago Style)
Primary Sources
Athanasius. On the Incarnation.
Augustine. City of God.
Augustine. Expositions on the Psalms.
Cyril of Jerusalem. Catechetical Lectures.
Gregory of Nyssa. The Great Catechism.
Irenaeus. Against Heresies.
Jerome. Against Vigilantius.
John Chrysostom. Homilies on Hebrews.
John Chrysostom. Homilies on 2 Corinthians.
Maximus the Confessor. Ambigua.
Origen. De Principiis.
Origen. Commentary on John.
The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
The Roman Missal.
Secondary Sources
Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997.
Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015.
Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Way. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995.
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