KJV: How an Unlikely Bible Brought Me to the Catholic Church

I have spent my whole life sampling different denominations of Christianity, and even leaving it for a bit, and the irony of that is that my journey actually brought me closer to God. What makes this even more ironic, and kind of humorous to me, is that the KJV Bible, which is a Protestant Bible, was a huge part of what led me to Catholicism. 

I began going down my path to the church during my childhood, which I’d say might be a bit more of a unique story than that of many other Christians. While there were times when my family did attend various church services (such as visiting the church that my aunt and cousins attended, random times when I went with my grandmother and other relatives to church, and attending vacation Bible school), religion was not a big part of my upbringing, which I know is not the case for lots of other people. 

In fact, at times, I know for sure that my father was an atheist. I now know that his views on God may have been a core reason why I spent so long being a non-believer myself. Nevertheless, as an adult, I have also come to realize that my grandmother’s love of God is what originally planted a seed in my heart that, unfortunately, did not sprout or bloom into full-blown faith until after she had passed away. Even though, like I said earlier, we did not attend church regularly, her love of the Lord and her desire to get closer to Him and to be a follower of His still inspires me to no end. 

However, I did not feel very inspired by that when I was growing up, and I only barely dipped my toes into being open to the possibility that God does exist when I was in my late teens, which was when I was baptized in a Baptist church. Nevertheless, their theology made no sense to me, and my grandmother and I did not seem to fit into that community, no matter how hard we tried. This caused some religious trauma for me, which helped push me back into being an atheist. 

Years after that, I met and married a wonderful man. He had grown up attending Nondenominational churches with his parents, which I had never heard of before. The thought of a church that didn’t conform to any one denomination was such a cool concept to me at the time! However, a number of things began to make me realize that wasn’t the place to be, either (which my husband agreed with, and he converted to Catholicism with me). One example of this is the fact that even though these churches claim to be Nondenominational, they often share the same views as Baptist churches. Around that time, I started to think that perhaps Jesus would not be happy with so many of His children being divided into thousands of different denominations. While this left me feeling disheartened at the time, I now realize that this thought was yet another seed that would lead me to Catholicism. I feel much less negatively about that time in my life now. 

Nevertheless, the issues we noticed back then left us both feeling like there was no church left to attend that was theologically sound, and we stopped going. Yet again, I was an atheist. But one great thing that happened during this time was that I ordered my first Bible: a version of the KJV that you can color in! At the time, it seemed like the perfect choice for me. I love art, so coloring is right up my alley, and I saw that the KJV is a popular translation, so I thought that meant it was a good one to go with. 

Though I now know I would never buy that version again since it is missing seven books, that particular Bible at that particular time was what I needed. I didn’t actually dig deep into it right away, though, because I had lost belief once again after leaving that Nondenominational church. But over the years that followed that period of time, thoughts popped into my head that concerned the teaching that once you’re saved, you’re always saved, no matter what you do. I wondered how it could be possible that someone who was once a Christian could commit a horrible crime, or a series of them, never repent or change their ways, and yet still go to Heaven when they die. I also became very confused about several other Protestant teachings, too, and after a while of that, during the last few months of 2024, which was a time of deep depression for me, I felt it was time to put all my curiosities to rest and get serious about reading my Bible. 

I tried to read the whole thing a couple of times before that, but it was a fruitless venture. However, this time was different. I suppose my history of being a journalist was not going to let me pass this idea up any longer. It was time for my life to change, plus I was determined to find out the truth about God. I had planned to find out if He existed, and if He did, I wanted to know how I could get closer to Him. Boy, did I ever! What followed has been the most amazing ride. 

While reading that Bible, I began searching for online groups to do Bible studies with, and I was following a plan, also. I didn’t know much about biblical things, but I knew enough to know that I should not be relying on my own personal understanding of the Bible instead of seeking out thoughts from people who knew more about it than me. At first, this led to more confusion. But in the long run, it’s another thing that made me eventually become Catholic. 

Doing that was something else that showed me that when you have no authority (the pope, for example), it leads to many different churches teaching many different sets of beliefs, some of which result in heresy. During this time, I absolutely could not shake the feeling that we are all supposed to be a part of a universal church. I just didn’t yet know that it would be the Catholic Church, since I did not know anything about Catholic teachings back then. Something that supported this idea for me was the fact that in the Bible, those who were devout followers of Jesus did not have several sets of religious beliefs. Once they followed Him, they seemed to stick with the same teachings. 

Furthermore, I noticed that scripture does not claim that baptism is optional for Christians, and it also does not claim that it is merely symbolic. Also, I started picking up on the fact that you don’t have to be an adult to get baptized, so I no longer saw any issues with infant baptism. This also caused me to worry a bit, since my husband had not been baptized. 

This changed later on when he was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church after OCIA, and I can’t help but think that perhaps maybe this was another way that my KJV Bible ended up leading me to the church. In fact, in this instance, it seems to have done that for both of us. My husband said that if it had not been for us giving Catholicism a chance, he would never have been baptized. 

One more point that I would like to bring up is that when I was reading it and I came upon Luke, I wondered what Mary could have done to have already been considered “highly favored” or “full of grace” (the phrase you see at that point in the Bible depends on which translation you’re reading) before we, the readers, had even been told much about her. This had me thinking for a while about Mary, how the crucifixion would have affected her, and what it would have been like to have been chosen to be the mother of our Lord, which is the greatest thing someone could ever be chosen for, in my opinion. 

Something else that I believe is worth a mention here is that I was very interested in finding out where biblical figures are buried (or where their tombs are) so that maybe I could pay them a visit, should I ever get that chance. One evening, I decided to try to find out where Mary might have been laid to rest, and I was shocked to see that what is believed to have been her tomb at one point does not have her body in it. After that, I remembered something I had written about many years earlier, which is called fetal microchimerism. Essentially, Jesus’s cells would have stayed in Mary long after He was born, and this would have had a permanent impact on her body. 

This awakened a feeling in me that I could not get rid of. The churches I had gone to prior only ever mentioned Mary around Christmastime, and they failed to bring any of this up. The lack of teaching about her and giving veneration to her in the Baptist and Nondenominational churches left me questioning things more than I ever had before. I could go on and on about how Mary actually played a big role in my conversion as well, but I think I will save that for a different article. 

In conclusion, the KJV ironically pushed me to the Catholic Church, which I know for certain is the one Jesus created. That Bible is not approved by the church, and I will never buy another one, but I do appreciate the one that I have. These days, I read the NRSV-CE every day, and I am on my second round of following along with “The Bible in a Year (With Father Mike Schmitz),” but I believe God knew my first Bible was the way in which He could speak to me back then. And now that I have a Bible with all the books in it, I am excited to see what God may have in store for me that might be connected to that one somehow.