Should I be Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox?

There are various reasons why you would want to become a part of any of the various traditions within Christianity. Some are personal preferences, what your family does, etc. but these should all be trumped by the answers to the following two questions:

What do you believe to BE THE MOST TRUE?

All traditions within orthodox Christianity (and by orthodox I mean universally-accepted Trinitarian Christianity) offer a lot of truth. In fact, in my website at ChristLifeDecal.org I show just how close and similar our beliefs are. Compared to other religions, cults, and heretical offshoots of Christianity—Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants have much more in common than we do not. I recommend learning as much as you can about the history and beliefs of each.I believe they all have a lot of truth. But there is only one absolute truth. Stay away from thinking that one is true and the others are false. That isn’t humble. At least not from within the Christian Body. Just look for the one tradition you believe to be the most true. Obey your conscience, live faithfully, pray diligently, keep learning more and more, and continuously humble yourself and be willing to change your mind—allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you into the truth. Be willing to keep changing your mind, as long as you are doing it with the intention to honor God by remaining as close to His Truth as possible.

What do you believe to GLORIFY GOD AND JESUS CHRIST THE MOST?

At the end of the day, or life, this is all that matters. Not your personal beliefs, not your personal preferences, not what people you respect told you to do. Your relationship with God is the most important thing. What you do with your life that glorifies Him is what you should focus on. I believe each of the three (Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox) all bring glory to God. I believe there is something beautiful about our unity for God amongst our diversity. I do think there are some important differences though that are not to be minimized. I believe that Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy incorporate works with grace and distort the true gospel as a result.

All Christians need to remember that our loyalty should not be to our religion. Our loyalty should be to God alone. Our loyalty to our religion should only come about because we #1 (believe it to be the most true) and therefore only choose that one because we believe #2 (it will bring glory to God the most). We should never belittle our brothers and sisters in Christ in our Christian traditions in an effort to satisfy #1 because it won’t satisfy #2.

So whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. And may He give you wisdom to pursue all truth wholeheartedly.
(1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:17, Colossians 3:23)

P.S. If you want to know why I believe Protestantism is true take a look at our Statement of Faith, What We Teach, our The Spiritual Transformation of Man poster, and my book The Empowered Christian Road Map.