Archive for category: Roman Catholicism

Here’s yet another converts tale. A Reformed person swimming the Tiber has made a fallible decision to submit to a self-proclaimed infallible authority. He set out four possible authority options to submit to now that he’s decided to leave his Reformed church. The one that appealed to him is the following: Submit to a form of Christianity that does not

It seems as though whenever we bring up the subject of Roman Catholics worshiping Mary, someone who is a Roman Catholic will say: “Go to your local parish, and as people are leaving Mass, ask them if they worship Mary!” Their expectation, of course, is that the folks at the local parish will say that they do not worship Mary.

Athanasius’ canon of Scripture, presented in his 39th Festal letter is famous. It’s not nearly as famous as his “Athanasius Contra Mundum” rejection of the Arian heresy, but it is probably the second most famous aspect of Athanasius’ life today (his excellent letter to Marcellinus on the Psalms was famous in ancient times and perhaps we can revitalize interest in

I’ve been fascinated by the selective use of history by those who convert to the Roman Catholic Church. Sometimes it can be attributed to ignorance. I don’t expect each person making a worldview shift to have the academic abilities to weigh certain levels of complex information. On the other hand, when a PhD from Fordham University, a man who’s authored

I recently posted Athanasius Contra Michuta #1. That entry led to the following e-mail question: “I was reading Athanasius on the canon and I noticed he included Esther in the apocryphal category but Esther is part of canonical Scripture. Can you briefly comment on this?” Roman Catholic apologist Gary Michuta likewise brings out this point in Why Catholic Bibles Are

Recently I engaged in a brief conversation with a Catholic Answers participant. The apocrypha, the canon, and the view of Athanasius came up. He stated, Neither Jerome (see Michuta, p. 148-152, and chapter 4), nor Athanasius, are clear opponents of the Deuterocanon. Both of them, especially Athanasius, cited books of the Deuterocanon as Scripture, a detail that supports the pro-Deuterocanon

The closest thing in the United States to a self-appointed infallible magisterium is Catholic Answers. They stand atop the Roman Catholic apologetics food chain claiming to be “one of the nation’s largest lay-run apostolates of Catholic apologetics and evangelization.” One need only search available public records to verify this claim. If you want to know what the papacy means, you

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a blog entry for the Unofficial Catholic Apologist Commentary on the Bible (these entries can be found here). I’d like to branch out in a different direction and take a look at Roman Catholic historical interpretation. Remember their motto: “to be deep in history is to cease being Protestant.” Let’s see if

Here’s an interesting tidbit from Karl Keating’s book Catholicism and Fundamentalism (San Fransisco: Ignatius Press, 1988). Chapter two is dedicated to exposing the errors of Lorraine Boettner’s book on Roman Catholicism. Keating documents Boettner’s error of attributing the forbidding of the Bible to laymen by the Council of Valencia in 1229. Keating points out this is historically inaccurate. It would

I was contacted recently by a person who couldn’t access my Reformation papers on Eric Svendsen’s Ntrmin.org website. It appears Ntrmin.org has vanished. Ntrmin was one of the best sites for countering Roman Catholic apologetics. Dr. Svendsen graciously hosted some of my longer papers on Martin Luther and the Reformation, as well as providing numerous helpful articles on Roman Catholicism.

Looking at Ergun Caner’s glasses in the preceding article reminded me of my own spectacles from the early 1980s. What WERE we thinking anyway? Well, here’s an example I just ran across on Twitter. I didn’t know this was available on line, but, here it is! A Marian debate with Robert Fastiggi from…back when I sported a full beard, had

James Swan pointed out that Catholic Answers is running a new banner ad in their forums: I confess, I wonder how many of Catholic Answers supporters have started to wonder, “Hey, why doesn’t this ministry I support do formal public debates anymore? I mean, this isn’t even a debate, it’s a radio program from 1995…fifteen full years ago.” Yes, and

Its been over twenty years since Roman Catholic apologist Karl Keating’s book Catholicism and Fundamentalism (San Fransisco: Ignatius Press, 1988) was released. This book was one of the catalysts for the resurgence of Roman Catholic apologetics today. Keating had already founded Catholic Answers a few years prior, but this book catapulted his efforts dramatically. I’ve heard more than a few

Last year I bought a product from Catholic Answers, and since then I’ve been bombarded with e-mail support requests. Here is the latest: From: Patrick Coffin Subject: Front row seat to a high-powered debate The Bible Answer Man Debate: Imagine having a front-row seat to a high-powered debate between a Fundamentalist Bible teacher and a Catholic apologist. Donate to our

In Book IV of The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin commented that history shows church councils have disagreed with church councils (IV, 9:9). In his comment, he makes a passing curious reference to Augustine and the debate over the use of images in church and worship: Need I then recount how councils disagreed with councils? And there is no

TurretinFan is providing responses to a series of arguments put forward by Dave Armstrong. In today’s installment TurretinFan was responding to this argument: Is every Christian in the world able to find enough time, and become educated enough and familiar enough with Scripture to be his own theologian? And if he consults other ones, wise enough to always get it

The debate below took place April 10, 2010, between William Albrecht (Roman Catholic) and myself, TurretinFan. The resolution was: “Does Sola Scriptura foster disunity and division in the body?” This resolution was originally proposed by Steve Ray. Albrecht took the affirmative position and I took the negative position. While the constructive speeches may be of interest, I think both

Is Rome the True Church? – a consideration of the Roman Catholic claim, by Norman Geisler and Joshua Bettancourt, explores a series of questions related to Rome’s exclusive claim to be the true church. The book explores this topic by taking out several links in the chain of alleged authority. First, the book addresses the alleged primacy of the Apostle

“How do you know that the Holy Scripture is all you need? What tells you that? Might you need a God-led authority (like the Roman Catholic Church) to tell you that?” This was a question I recently came across from the depths of cyberspace. It’s a question sharply aimed against sola scriptura, but it’s a false question attacking an incorrect

Scheduled to be released on the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 theses is Mitch Pacwa’s The Reformation Project video series. Pacwa was recently on Catholic Answers to discuss the project. He’s looking to do a ten part series on the Reformation from a Roman Catholic perspective. The host of the interview introduced Pacwa by noting the

Benedict XVI (B16) has written a book called “Principles of Catholic Theology.” It is something he published while a Cardinal and prefect of the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” (the modern name of the Inquisition). This book raises several points of interest as to B16’s view of Luther and his view of the church fathers. The following post

   Pastor David King, co-author of the three-volume set titled Holy Scripture: The Ground and Pillar of our Faith, has been spending a great deal of time in the years since the publication of that work continuing his work of cataloging patristic citations that are relevant to Rome’s claims and dogmas. He just posted the following in our chat channel: Basil

Over at Catholic Convert, pilgrimage peddler Steve Ray has a post arguing that a certain frequently cited Scripture does not dictate against Purgatory, that other Scripture does teach Purgatory, and that Purgatory involves being in the presence of the Lord (link to post). In the following analysis, we’ll consider his arguments piece by piece:

This morning I saw that James Swan had blogged a portion of a Karl Keating e-mail. It caught my attention, partly because I think someone removed me from the CA fund-raising e-mail list (I can’t say I’m upset about that), and partly because it contrasted so strongly with the attempted presentations of Rome’s beliefs common in ecumenical and apologetic websites.

When it comes to Martin Luther, there are a number of Roman Catholic apologists that become expert pop-psychologists. I don’t recall Dr. Sippo being either a psychologist or a psychiatrist, yet he recently was able to make a clinical evaluation on a man who died hundreds of years ago, living in a different culture and country: My charge that Luther

I mentioned yesterday my suggestion to Tim Staples that we do a similar type of fair debate and exchange on Catholic Answers Live. I said then that I would expect many in the CA audience would love to hear the “largest Catholic apologetics organization in the United States” actually doing direct, one-on-one apologetics with leading critics of their position. I

Sometime back I had a discussion with Dr. Art Sippo on Luther biographies. It was a written exchange via Patrick Madrid’s Envoy discussion forum. I can’t provide the forum link, because it was deleted. I did though save my posts and analysis of Mr. Sippo’s opinions. Eventually, I was banned from Envoy by Patrick Madrid. In fact, if you’re a

Don’t forget to be with us live this afternoon at 3pm PST, 6pm EST, for the special 90-minute edition of the Dividing Line, featuring a live debate with Tim Staples of Catholic Answers on 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 and the doctrine of Purgatory. The format is as follows: 15 minute opening statements (Tim gets to go first) 8 minutes rebuttals 5

Why can’t Roman Catholic priests get married? I’ve heard this question asked a number of times on Catholic Answers. Tim Staples recently commented on priestly celibacy here (mp3). Tim points out Roman Catholicism considers priestly celibacy a discipline, not a dogma. This means it’s something that could theoretically change, but probably will not because (as Tim says) “celibacy is a

Back in one my old philosophy classes I recall lengthy discussions as to the relationship between names and reality, and then spinning around for hours contemplating the brain teaser of what it means to “mean” something about anything. The aftermath: an entire class of young minds slipped further into skepticism, as if the reality each twenty something experienced was completely