Archive for category: Roman Catholicism

   For Roman Catholics, the Council of Trent made the official pronouncement on the canon of Scripture, and in that pronouncement determined the apocrypha was sacred Scripture. What criteria did Trent use to determine which books of the Bible were canonical? Some of the answers I’ve been given are, “Trent did not determine the canon, they simply reaffirmed the canon,” and

   I have been teaching through the Gospels at PRBC for a number of years now, mainly focusing on the Synoptics. But I covered John 5 recently, so I felt it appropriate to cover chapter six as well. In the process of teaching exegetically through the text, I happened to notice that Stephen K. Ray has a book out titled, St.

   In glancing through various sources relevant to the woman of Revelation 12 (historically taken as the people of God in the Old and New Testaments, but becoming Mary as Marian piety developed, especially in the middle ages) in response to Steve Ray’s words in his pdf from a few months ago seeking to defend the idea of the idea of

   As I have looked over my archives I see that almost three months have passed since my last installment in response to Steve Ray’s attempt to defend the concept of the Bodily Assumption of Mary from Scripture. Of course, this 30 page pdf, cobbled together from various sources, is only partly on the subject of the Assumption. A large portion

“Swan struck me as a real lightweight, and the above seems to verify my suspicion. He is a ‘wanna-be’ and it seems like he tries to puff out his chest to look bigger than he actually is.”     “It seems he is a James White wanna-be, though he’s no where near as clever.”    These are recent comments directed towards me

While looking through Catholic apologist Steve Ray’s blog, I came across a very brief entry that I found curious: Would Today’s Reformed & Presbyterians Agree? Jean Calvin, father of the multiple Reformed & Presbyterian denominations, said: “Persons who persist in the superstitions of the Roman Antichrist . . . deserve to be repressed by the sword.” Harkness, Georgia, John

“If the world lasts for a long time, it will again be necessary, on account of the many interpretations which are now given to the Scriptures, to receive the decrees of councils, and take refuge in them, in order to preserve the unity of faith.” Epis. ad. Zwingli (ap. Balmes, p. 423)” – Martin Luther    It is an odd occurrence

   It seems Dr. Bauman has concluded his participation in the thread noted earlier. But his means of doing so has surely left me bewildered. Evidently, charity in accepting a revert’s confession of faith is a good thing, but it seems to leave no charity left for anyone who would dare to ask you biblical and logical questions concerning your position.

I have the New Catholic Answer Bible sitting under a pile of books on my desk. A while back, I posted my initial review, The New Catholic Answer Bible (Part One). After documenting this “Answer Bible” did not contain the answers about the particular aspects of Roman Catholicism that I’ve been looking for, it easily made its way to the

   I noted this morning the “Keyboard Carpet Bombing” techniques of Phil Porvaznik. You have probably never heard of ol’ Phil, since Phil has a major problem standing up and being counted when he is challenged to do something more than sit behind a keyboard. He won’t do debates, won’t call in to programs where he would be challenged, etc. But

   Evidently Steve Ray doesn’t have much to say. Though he was quite proud of himself when he posted his many page pdf a few months ago (cobbled together, obviously, from pre-existing materials lurking in the recesses of his hard-drive), he quickly decided that though he had spent the weekend doing that, I wasn’t worth responding to, so, he wasn’t going

   Dr. Michael Bauman of Hillsdale College has responded to my comments on the blog entry noted earlier. I provide my response here for the simple reason that once again we have an excellent example of why comboxes are antithetical to meaningful theological exchange. As soon as I posted the link to that blog discussion, Phil Porvaznik saddled up his donkey

   Some comments were made regarding the ever-developing Beckwith saga (including Frank Beckwith posting canons from the Council of Orange) here. Beckwith dares to reduce the issue of Rome’s gospel to mere theories regarding imputation versus infusion. Another comment was left by Dr. Michael Bauman, accusing anyone of sin who would identify Beckwith as an apostate. I provide here the comment

   I was just directed to this article (ht: Plaidman!) alleging that Francesco Forgione, aka, “Padre Pio,” a “saint” so popular in Italy that a recent survey said more people there pray to him than to Jesus or Mary (!), faked his “stigmata” using carbolic acid. While that is all very interesting, what I found most intriguing was the reaction of

In a previous entry, I explored the alleged parallel in the development of the Roman Catholic Marian dogmas and the Trinity. Recall, Catholic apologist Steve Ray recently sought to validate the Marian dogmas as developing like the Trinity developed. To hear Ray’s assertion, listen to this recent Dividing Line broadcast.    I pointed out the Marian dogmas are not mined from

   After this past Thursday’s Dividing Line, I’ve been looking around for any type of response from Steve Ray or his supporters. One person on Ray’s discussion board at the “world premier” quipped, “There was also some guy named J. White on the guest list, but he never showed.” Well, at least this may indicate some of his Ray’s supporters at

   I almost lost consciousness this morning when I saw this announcement appear on my screen: World Premier of Apostolic Fathers!    Friday night I will be giving an introductory talk on the Apostolic Fathers before showing our new DVD for the first time!! The title is Apostolic Fathers, Handing on the Faith.    Anyone who buys a copy at this event will

   After about a year of stopping myself, I finally picked up The New Catholic Answer Bible (Wichita: Fireside Catholic Publishing, 2005). The work appears to be some sort of collaboration between Dr. Paul Thigpen, editor of The Catholic Answer magazine and My Daily Catholic Bible (Our Sunday Visitor) and Dave Armstrong (a self-proclaimed Catholic apologist). Thigpen left the charismatic movement

   As I noted last week, Steve Ray’s response (titled “The Obsessed Man Continues his Rant”) to my series (which he professes to have not bothered to read—can you imagine if I replied to his 30 page pdf with the same kind of attitude?) began with these kind words: Someone informed me that James White the Baptist was continuing his rant

   Turetinfan has posted a reminder to Guardian that his 90 days will be up soon. As the first DL we will be doing after the cruise and debate will be 10/23, Guardian gets almost an extra week to get all that material together. I’m looking forward to the phone call!    TQuid posted a recent diatribe of Art Sippo here. Classic

   TurretinFan (for those who do not know the real Turretin, you should! One of the greats of the church’s past!) has nailed Steve Ray’s hypocrisy to the wall in his post here. That Ray’s own fans do not see the double standard is quite telling, to be sure. I have had a number of folks write to me and report

   I continue working my way through Steve Ray’s attempt to defend the bodily assumption of Mary and her queenly coronation as posted in a thirty-page pdf on his website. I note that for the first time since I began my response, Ray has taken note of it on his blog. And, as is usual for Steve Ray, his reply is

   A few days ago I posted the first portion of my comments in the Boston College debate as part of my reply to Steve Ray. In my comments I noted that Robert Sungenis had asserted that Paul had “over-reacted” in response to Peter’s actions at Antioch. In my reply I pointed out that according to inspired Scripture, Peter was not

   Yes, the summer months are tough on ministries. Donations are down all over, including here in the ol’ A&O bunker. But after getting eight copies of the same “we are about to go belly up, we need a quarter of a million bucks right now” e-mails from Catholic Answers, I started getting another one, featuring a Madonna/child graphic, for the

I continue my examination and refutation of Steve Ray’s attempt to defend Rome’s dogmatic teaching of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven, and her doctrinal teaching of the queenly coronation of Mary. In our first installment we pointed out that since the Assumption is a dogmatic teaching, the highest standard of evidence is required to defend it, and we

I’ve been reading Van Til’s An Introduction To Systematic Theology. Van Til notes systematic theology seeks to offer an ordered presentation of what the Bible teaches about God. He says “the study of systematic theology will help men to preach theologically. It will help to make men proclaim the whole counsel of God. Many ministers never touch the greater part

   What do all false religions share in common? While a number of answers suggest themselves, in our context, I am referring to their united attack upon the inspiration, consistency, and sufficiency, of the Bible as the Word of God. In particular, false religions that wish to make some room for Jesus in their teaching while fundamentally altering the truth about

   I have once again made it across the border, and look forward greatly to meeting the saints here in Toronto. My flights were in the main uneventful, but now I am rushing to make some major changes to my presentations in light of some studying I was doing on the way up here. I am thankful for the technology to

   I think I will live blog Frank Beckwith’s appearance on CA Live today. It begins at 3pm PDT. You can find the link here. Be watching, as I will update as the program progresses.    Start: I wonder if Yanni knows CA Live uses his music as their theme?    Well, that’s interesting. I thought Beckwith did not want to be an

   On August 13th Steve Ray posted a blog article that presented the “logic” used in Roman Catholic theology that lies behind the assumption and coronation of Mary. I replied the next day here. (Ray, in his response, has the wrong date of his own initial blog article, and links not to my initial response to him, but a later one).

   I was directed to another set of replies to the top ten questions I posted a few days ago in answer to a question sent in by e-mail. I don’t get the feeling they were offered in an overly serious manner, so I will skip most of them. But I did find some of the comments left on the blog