Archive for category: Roman Catholicism

For both the writings of holy fathers, the acts of councils, and all history, make it plain that this height of power, which the Roman pontiff has now possessed for about four hundred years, was attained gradually, or rather was either craftily crept into, or violently seized. But let us forgive them this, and let them take for granted that

Angel must have listened to the Madrid debate on the veneration of saints and images, because I well remember making with my words the point he here makes with his art. And, as usual, it is more memorable when Angel does it:

It has been a while since I heard from you, Alexander. I knew you were still lurking, waiting for your next opportunity to continue your crusade. Your opposition to those who seek to promote the gospel, especially in apologetic contexts, is well known, though, of course, you are constantly working to keep up that “image” behind which you hide your

Didn’t get a chance to do much today…meetings and traffic But I was sent this utterly odd thing about the music for the Passion. I’m starting to think working on the set of that film must have been very, very strange.  From MSNBC: John Debney, who composed the music for “The Passion of the Christ,” says he did battle with

Well, the book arrived. I refer to A Guide to the Passion: 100 Questions About The Passion of the Christ, a book designed especially to be given out by Catholics to folks who have seen The Passion of the Christ from Ascension Press, written by the Catholic Exchange. The URL given for the book is: www.evangelization.com. Notice that there are

DA, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism, pp. 69-70: The theme of the Epistle to the Hebrews is Christ as our High Priest. As such, the “priestly” verses are very numerous (for example, 2:17, 3:1, 4:14-16, 5:1-10, 6:20, 7:1-28, 8:1-6, 9:11-15, 24-28, 10:19-22). The teaching here acquires much more meaning within Catholic Eucharistic theology, whereas, in evangelical, non-sacramental Protestant interpretation, it is

Evidently some folks think a quick listing of “random thoughts” upon seeing the Passion movie is a “review.” Please. Take a blog for what it is: a blog. It is amazing to me how folks will look at two paragraphs here and ignore four hours of commentary on the Dividing Line, including the playing of clips, etc., and jump to

OK, saw it. Random thoughts time. Hopefully something more coherent will develop by the time of the Dividing Line tomorrow morning. 1) When Jesus said “I AM” to the soldiers, they fell back upon the ground. Why on EARTH delete that even when Jesus says “I am”?                                                                               2) “It is accomplished” and “It is finished” are not, in the context

The flood of Passion discussion is overwhelming. You can’t even keep up with it anymore. I’m glad I got started on it months ago. 🙂 Please note the article posted below; for Reformed Baptists you may wish to listen to Pastor A.N. Martin’s sermon from Trinity Baptist on this topic as well. There is stuff coming out now that is

Everyone is talking about it, as expected. I preached a sermon on it a few months ago, and this past Sunday I sort of “updated” our folks at PRBC on more recent developments. Here is the sermon for streaming, here for downloading; here is the more recent Sunday School lesson for streaming, here for saving. I’m heading for Atlanta this

Last night in class we went over Ignatius’ epistle to the Smyrnaeans. Someone remind me on a future edition of the DL to go over the first six sections in reference to the gross abuse of this material by Roman Catholic apologists (and those deceived by them). I could post the text here on the website, or a link to

I am currently teaching Development of Patristic Theology Through Augustine for GGBTS, and we are reading through Ignatius. Last week we read this section:   For there are some who maliciously and deceitfully are accustomed to carrying about the Name while doing other things unworthy of God. You must avoid them as wild beasts. For they are made dogs that

As most of you know, Mel Gibson carries in his pocket a “relic” from the Roman Catholic “visionary” and (eventually) saint Emmerich. Some of the scenes and material found in The Passion of the Christ came from Emmerich’s recording of her visions. Here is the description of the book from its back cover: THE DOLOROUS PASSION has been inspiring thousands

I have often noted these amazing words: When the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of saints and angels, greater than

The redoubtable Kevin Johnson, in response to the Machen citation below, has now accused me of misquoting both Calvin and Machen. Perhaps Mr. Johnson should look up the meaning of “misquoting” in an English lexicon, just as looking up pseudadelphoi in a Greek lexicon would have assisted him as well? He cannot show where the citation is inaccurate or in

Greetings from the frozen tundra of Long Island! I watched my little Weatherbug thingy last night and saw it down around 0 windchill. For a survivor of the last summer in Phoenix (which set four new records for heat), that’s COLD. I am happy to report one of my Christmas presents, a long leather coat, handled the wind and cold

Last night I was directed to the comments of someone with whom I have discussed the “baptism as sign of objective covenant, Roman Catholics are our brothers” issue a number of times. I was left speechless when this person claimed that when he tries to discuss this with Reformed Baptists, and presents “exegesis” to them, “there really is little if

Some may be confused about the comment I made below regarding Galatians 2:4-5 and the issue of whether the Roman Catholic is my “brother.” Part of the controversy, of course, goes back to the nature of the New Covenant, Hebrews 8, and all the many discussions focused thereon (I will have a full-length article on Hebrews 8 and the Newness

February 25th it hits. Mel Gibson’s film on the passion of Christ will bring us many opportunities to speak of God’s purpose in the cross. But in a world filled with “evangelicals” whose worldview is post-modern, not Christian, the film holds the possibility of inflaming the latent tendencies toward an ecumenical betrayal of the gospel itself. I presented a few

Just a quick note to let you know that Eric Svendsen has rebutted Sungenis’ article. It seems Sungenis didn’t learn much from the Mr. X debacle. 🙂 Click here.

The Arizona Cardinals stink. Let’s face it. They got clocked 44-6 this past weekend, and they are headed for another one of their regular 4-12 type seasons. I have often said I’d be happy to volunteer to pack them up and ship them off to any city willing to take them. They are just bad from top to bottom. So

For those who might wish to do some reading to be ready for the Svendsen/White vs. Matatics DL Tuesday night, here is an excellent article by Eric Svendsen in response to the article cited by Matatics in my debate with him in October in Salt Lake City, the article Matatics indicated “destroys” the hews hou argument. Click here for the

Thoughts Prompted by the Reprise of the Topic of the Atonement in Debate Against Robert Sungenis   (updated on 5/31/03)

In writing a brief exegetical article on Hebrews 10, I encountered a little-discussed mistranslation in the Vulgate text that not only illustrates the importance of studying the primary texts of Scripture (over against a secondary translation) but one which also speaks to the issue of the development of the dogmatic structure of Roman Catholicism over time. The reading is found

While traveling in New York I have been informed that CAI and Robert Sungenis simply must have the last word, which always includes some kind of allegation that it is everyone else who just doesn’t get it rather than Robert “Alone” Sungenis.  Now Sungenis is accusing me of dishonesty based upon a very brief private message session with a 14-year