Recently, Catholic apologist Gary Michuta began posting on the Catholic Answers forum. In his posts, he commented on his apocrypha debate versus Dr. White, presenting his novel way of reconciling the canon discrepancy between Hippo, Carthage, and Trent. Michuta also mentioned the work of William Webster, prompting these responses from Webster:
Bill Webster Responds to Gary Michuta Part I
Bill Webster Responds to Gary Michuta, Part II
Bill Webster Responds to Gary Michuta, Part III
I had been having some interaction with Gary over on Catholic Answers, and I knew he was aware of these links. There was nothing though from Gary on the recent entries from Webster. I had wondered if he disagreed with them, or if he was passing over them in silence. One thing you can say about Catholic Answers is they do allow for opposing points of view. There are numerous discussions between Protestants and Catholics going on. It would’ve been interesting to interact with Gary on this subject.
On the other hand, the Envoy forum has “bunker” mentality. They protect themselves from those who would offer a different opinion. It appears Gary Michuta has traveled from Catholic Answers over to Envoy. He is now a moderator on Envoy. One of his first posts was a response to William Webster. I find this interesting, because he chose to post this response in a forum that doesn’t like to allow Protestants to respond. Michuta couldn’t even link to Webster’s articles because aomin links are not allowed on Envoy.
What of Michuta’s response? He simply reaffirmed the stance he took in his debate with Dr. White. He notes the vote at Trent to pass over in silence was 42 to 3. So much for canon certainty from Rome: 42 said you can’t be certain you’ve got all the Biblical books, 3 said you can. Michuta concludes by pointing people to his new book: “If anyone is interested in a fuller discussion of the many questions surrounding the disputed books of the Old Testament canon, my newest book, Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger, will be available later this month.” Ah, another read my book.
Quick Addition from JRW: OK, does this mean Trent did, or did not, provide a dogmatic, infallible canon? Haven’t we had the Keating/Madrid/Akin/Matatics/etc. crowd telling us for years now that we need Trent’s canon to even know what Scripture is? So, what do we call this? Dogmatic silence? Infallible uncertainty? “By Our Apostolic authority, standing in the line of Blessed Peter and Paul, We hereby grit our teeth.” If they knew of the differences, does it not follow that we have here an ecumenical “We are clueless, don’t ask”?
Alpha and Omega Ministries is a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. James White, director, is a professor, having taught Greek, Systematic Theology, and various topics in the field of apologetics for numerous schools.
