Archive for category: Roman Catholicism

Today is a “holy day of obligation” in the Roman Church. Followers of Rome are obliged to participate in Mass on such days (exceptions, of course, exist). The reason for today’s obligation? The definition by the Roman Church of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. I will not, in this brief article, go back over all of the many problems

Jesus explicitly repudiated people who singled out his mother for special attention. For example: Luke 11:27-28 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed

I am so thankful for brothers who are digging deep and exposing the new crop of Roman Catholic apologists, providing in-depth and historically accurate rebuttals of the vain attempts to substantiate the mythology of modern Rome’s claims. Both John Bugay and Turretinfan are posting a series of blog articles that, if you deal with Rome’s apologists regularly, you need to

Some of Rome’s rejections of Scriptural truth are more clear than others. One particularly clear set of examples comes from the dogmatic Constitution, “Unigenitus,”dated Sept. 8, 1713, and authorized by Clement XI. I’ve previously posted a full list of the 101 “errors” condemned (link to full list). There many alleged errors identified. I’ve taken the liberty to highlight a few

“Here I wish to affirm once more that religion can never justify intolerance or war. We cannot kill in God’s name!” (Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, September 30, 2010, Part 3) Desiring with an ardent desire to liberate the Holy Land from the hands of the ungodly, we decree with the advice of prudent men who are fully

Lord willing, I (TurretinFan) will be appearing on Chris Arnzen’s radio show, Iron Sharpens Iron, from 7-8 pm EST (4-5 pm PST). The topic will be the Formal Sufficiency of Scriptures. The show can be heard over the air in Long Island and Connecticut, and can be heard via live streaming anywhere there is Internet (www.Sharpens.org & www.AM1240WGBB.com). It is

Two of my blog team have posted articles on their personal blogs that you really need to read, especially if you have interest in Roman Catholic polemics. James Swan, the master of all odd Luther quotes, has just blown a hole in the boat of many of Rome’s pop apologists who constantly hammer away at the “Luther and Calvin believed

I hope those who wished to listen live to the purgatory debate last night we able to do so. I had to go with straight “house sound,” so it wasn’t as clear as, for example, the Silverman debate was, but hopefully it was still useful. Another clear delineation between the God-centered gospel of a powerful Savior and the man-centered gospel

On debate days I try to remain focused upon the topic of the debate (I even dropped a previous opportunity to speak today when it became clear it would be a massive distraction from my primary reason for being here in Oregon today). Central to the debate with Rome over her dogma of purgatory is the interpretation of 1 Corinthians

Roman Catholic Michael Liccione recently provided a comment in the comment box of a Roman Catholic blog that I think highlights two of the problems with Roman Catholic theology: (1) the disparaging of the authority of Scriptures themselves; and (2) the deification of “the Church.” He said: What’s needed is a concrete, communal, continuous locus of “the sources” that is

Over at Called to Communion, in the comment box, Bryan Cross wrote: In the first century, no one needed to confess that Christ is homoousious with the Father. But after the fourth century, to deny the homoousious is to fall into heresy. This is dead wrong and gets things exactly backwards. It has always been heresy to

Randy wrote: Regarding today’s Dividing Line, you *do* use “Anti-Calvinist” quite a bit, along with “Anti-Trinitarian,” and “Anti-Reformed” rather than calling them by their “postive” terms. So, stay consistent as to whether people should be defined by what they are positively (Arminian, Oneness believers) or whether it’s fair game for folks to call each other Anti- whatever. Because, you do

On Friday, September 10, Dr. White debated Roman Catholic apologist Robert Sungenis on the assumption of Mary. Dr White Discussed this debate on Iron Sharpens Iron. You can listen to it here. Other recent ISI shows: Jamin Hubner: The Atheist vs. Christian Debate on ‘Is the New Testament Evil’: One Christian’s Analysis TurretinFan: The Debate on the Immaculate Conception &

There seems to be a new conversion story every day of a lost Protestant finding his way across the Tiber. Based on these testimonies, one may be tempted to think the Roman church is growing while Protestant churches are dwindling. Haven’t Rome’s defenders been doing such a stellar job with apologetics, so that the conversions are coming fast and furious? Shouldn’t the number

My busy schedule has left me little time to write, however, I do still check in on a number of Roman Catholic apologists each day. Here’s what I found today. In some cases, there really isn’t anything new under the sun. Take for instance Gerry Matatics. Gerry updates his website a few times a year, if that. His recent offering

It’s a beautiful morning here in Santa Fe. I have become accustomed to arising early in the mornings of late, but this morning—I didn’t. It takes quite a while to wind down after two full debates (on two widely divergent topics), so I didn’t get to bed overly early either. In any case, I’m 4/6ths of the way through the

Augustine wrote: It is by these manners of speech, when we speak of things that do not happen to God as though they did, that we acknowledge it is he who makes them happen to us, those things at least that are praiseworthy, and these only to the extent that scriptural usage allows it. I mean, we certainly ought not

Every few weeks a thread pops up on the Catholic Answers forums relating to yours truly. Most are normally “eye-rollers” involving the penchant of folks to only want to listen to one side, find a quick and easy rebuttal that has little to do with truth, and move on. But recently one has popped up regarding the issues relating to

Our very own TurretinFan will be on Iron Sharpens Iron at 8PM EDT here to continue examining the claims of Christopher Ferrara regarding the truth about Mary. I just learned about it, so I’m blogging the announcement as quickly as I can.

I recently received an email from someone who was trying to argue that Augustine “clearly” taught that Mary was immaculate conceived. The person writing to me provided the following quotation (emphasis is his): “Now with the exception of the holy Virgin Mary in regard to whom, out of respect for the Lord, I do not propose to have a single

During Dr. James White’s debate with Christopher Ferrara on the alleged sinlessness and Immaculate Conception of Mary, Mr. Ferrara questioned the fact that a half dozen popes taught or held a position contrary to the dogma that was later defined as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Dr. White provided a citation to Schaff, the respected church historian, who identified

TurretinFan will be discussing my debate with Christopher Ferrara on Iron Sharpens Iron tonight, 8pm EDT (5pm PDT). TurretinFan wrote a helpful article after the debate, and has another he’s working on as well, so it should be a great program. You can listen here. Why am I not going on? Because I have four debates in 22 days coming

On Saturday, August 28, 2010, Dr. James White debated Mr. Christopher Ferrara on the topic of Mary’s alleged sinlessness and immaculate conception. While the debate audio/video are not (to my knowledge) yet available for purchase, here are a few points that I’d like to address. 1) Does Ineffabilis Deus lie about the patristic testimony? During the debate, Dr. White brought

Peter Stravinskas is threatening to bring legal action against us. Why? For a single blog article and my reporting that the proposed debate between us was cancelled. You can find the discussion of what happened and how I reported it here. Notice the terrible and libelous things I said there! I said the debate had been “scrubbed.” I said Stravinskas

Session XXV: Rule IV of the Ten Rules Concerning Prohibited Books Drawn Up by The Fathers Chosen by the Council of Trent and Approved by Pope Pius: Since it is clear from experience that if the Sacred Books are permitted everywhere and without discrimination in the vernacular, there will by reason of the boldness of men arise therefrom more harm

Francis Row Your Boat Ashore So I think the answer to our question has been answered fully, and fairly. It has never surprised me that Frank Beckwith returned to Rome. He had never left it in key and fundamental ways. Surely he had moved from non-Catholic church to non-Catholic church, and had embraced a non-Catholic view of justification. But even

That Sola Scriptura Thing The most eye-opening portion of Return to Rome for me was Beckwith’s self-admission that he had never held to a serious, confessional, historically and biblically grounded doctrine of sola scriptura. As one who has defended this divine truth against leading Roman Catholic apologists for most of my adult life, I found the ease with which Frank

He further goes on to say that it was through his study of the church fathers and the development of liturgical traditions that liberated him with respect to his views on church tradition. He says a lot more than that, actually, that is highly problematic, and has been addressed by a number of folks since his conversion a few years

Why Aren’t You A Catholic? Dr. Beckwith narrates a conversation he had with his niece. She asked him why he was not a Roman Catholic. His response was, I proceeded to tell my little niece that I had great respect for the pope and that I have learned much from the Church’s great thinkers, including Popes Benedict XVI and John

When I was first contacted about the reversion of Frank Beckwith, the then president of the Evangelical Theological Society, I immediately discussed the topic on my webcast, The Dividing Line. I held open the possibility that the report was premature, or in error, but, failing that, I immediately called for Dr. Beckwith’s resignation as the president of the Evangelical Theological

Christians are those who follow Christ, who have faith in Christ for salvation. They ascribe to him power and glory, which they do not ascribe to any creature. They have one mediator, as it is written: 1 Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom