My path to the Catholic Church was primarily paved by reason. To be sure, there was also a spiritual aspect to it, but that was secondary to logical concerns. Indeed, it was only comparatively recently that I was able to fully grasp and embrace the concept of spiritual warfare – thanks in large part to the Lord of Spirits podcast. (Too bad it jumped the shark after a couple of years.)
Put simply, the core problem with Protestantism – all of it – is that its salvation history makes no sense. If we accept the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the turning point of history, why did God wait (at least) another 1,500 years to fully implement it? It simply doesn’t make sense.
The standard explanation is that the eeevil Catholics got their grubby hands on the early Church, injecting paganism and greed and defiling it’s purity, while God just idly observed. Generations of Christians were grotesquely misled, risking almost certain damnation until [fill in the theologian] unearthed the true, authentic Church in [year].
Again, I find it hard to accept that Christ died, rose from the dead, and then ascended into heaven, and after all that abandoned the Church and all humanity until some undisclosed future date. He said the Gates of Hell would not prevail against Her, but left out a looong interval when they would. I could never wrap my head around that.
Then there are the miracles. It is true that demons can perform prodigies that appear miraculous, which is why apparitions and supernatural events are placed under great scrutiny by the Church. Indeed, one of the amusing aspects of miracles is how hostile the Church is when they initially happen, with local clergy often having to be overruled when the evidence becomes undeniable.
Even now, there has recently been a declaration that an alleged miraculous shrine in South Korea is completely off-limits to Catholics upon pain of instant excommunication for those who go there. So much for Catholics being credulous saps.
Much of Protestantism is simply about being Christianity’s “easy” button, a low-energy, low commitment way to earn salvation just by believing.
However, the old denominations are fading fast. Some are breaking up, others are just dying out. The state churches of Europe are just fringe lunatics preaching in empty buildings.
But in the US, the thing is to be different. Pick a catchy Bible verse, and build your doctrine on it. Focus on special effects, or eloquent speeches, and the edgier your theology, the better. The world needs more Calvinist Nestorians.
This works because Americans have largely lost their history over the last 40 years. Only vague references remain, like Hitler being evil and something about slavery.
Trying to map out a timeline and path from the Apostolic Age to the present is not necessary, because that was really old and people back then were ignorant and bigots. Time really began ten minutes ago.
That’s how it has been for the last two decades, but the dramatic rise in young people taking an interest in faith seems to be changing all that. The women covering their hair at Mass are young, not old. No one over 60 receives the Host on the tongue, let alone kneeling – the ones who do that skew heavily young.
It is interesting that even Protestants like Chris Pratt are now appearing on Hallowed, an avowedly Catholic service. Maybe it’s just because the Church makes more sense.
Chateau Lloyd 
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