My Conversion: NOT Due to Hostility to Evangelicalism

Last updated on: February 21, 2018 at 1:30 pm By Dave Armstrong

I converted precisely for the reasons that I have explained in my four or five different accounts. It wasn’t because I was ignorant of evangelical Protestantism. It wasn’t because I despised or hated same or came to regard it as worthless. It wasn’t because I was disenchanted with where I was. My journey began out of simple intellectual curiosity about why Catholic believed certain things that I thought were exceedingly strange and puzzling (particularly, the ban on contraception, and infallibility).... Read more

Catholic-Protestant Common Ground (Esp. Re Good Works)

Last updated on: February 21, 2018 at 1:11 pm By Dave Armstrong

A Lutheran wrote, in response to my paper, “Gratefulness For My Evangelical Protestant Background and its Wonderful Teachings and Blessings”: “It is comforting to know that you still have respect and good memories from your years in the Evangelical Protestant church.” I’m delighted that this was edifying for him. I’m not an exception to the rule, by any means. I would venture to guess that probably 90% (if not even more) of Catholic converts have essentially positive feelings and great fondness... Read more

Reply to a Lutheran on Tradition & the Patristic Rule of Faith

Last updated on: February 20, 2018 at 3:30 pm By Dave Armstrong

The Catholic rule of faith has always been the “three-legged stool” of Scripture-Tradition-Church. *** Words of Pastor Ken Howes (LCMS) will be in blue. *** 553 is when the fifth Great Council [Constantinople II] said that tradition was an independent basis of doctrine. You beg the question with your assertion that Roman teaching was the apostolic doctrine–that is exactly the issue, and can’t just be resolved by the assertion that it is so. It is at 553 that there is a... Read more

Mass Baptisms in Acts & Future Binding Church Decrees

Last updated on: February 20, 2018 at 2:14 pm By Dave Armstrong

It’s amazing what can be found in Holy Scripture, if you dig deep enough. *** Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman (1802-1865) made the following brilliant argument: Acts 2:41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. We read, in the Acts of the apostles, of three, or five, and more thousands, being converted in one day, and admitted to baptism. Does this possibly allow us to imagine, that they were all instructed... Read more

Veneration of Relics: A Short Catholic Apologia

Last updated on: February 19, 2018 at 3:00 pm By Dave Armstrong

From one of my papers on the topic: Examples of second-class relics (objects that came into contact with holy people) are also clearly found in passages about the prophet Elijah’s mantle, which parted the Jordan River (2 Kings 2:11-14), and Peter’s shadow (Acts 5:15-16) and Paul’s handkerchief (Acts 19:11-12), used by God to heal sick people and to cast out demons. If all of this is “magic,” then it is a sort of “magic” directly sanctioned by God Himself. Protestant... Read more

Veneration of & Bowing Before an Angel (Joshua 5:13-15)

Last updated on: February 19, 2018 at 2:26 pm By Dave Armstrong

Veneration of an angel occurs in this passage: if it is Michael, as Augustine & Jerome thought. *** Joshua 5:13-15 (RSV) When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood before him with his drawn sword in his hand; and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” [14] And he said, “No; but as commander of the army of the LORD I have... Read more

LeBron Declines One-on-One Challenge w Laura Ingraham

Last updated on: February 20, 2018 at 5:26 pm By Dave Armstrong

NBA superstar LeBron James took it upon himself to blast President Trump, in a video. Conservative Fox News talk show host Laura Ingraham criticized him. Then, of course, she had to catch hell as a supposed “racist.” As a result, she invited LeBron onto her show to talk about it. What follows is my commentary and discussion on my Facebook page with two people who disagree. *** If Tough-Talkin’ Big Man LeBron James is so sure of his opinions, why... Read more

Dialogue: Conservatives & “Old” Pro-Lifers & the Poor

Last updated on: February 17, 2018 at 3:44 pm By Dave Armstrong

The claim is that conservatives & “old” pro-lifers lack any appreciable concern for poor people. Words of Dr. Edwin Woodruff Tait will be in blue; Scott Eric Alt’s in green; Vicki Clark in purple; others identified. *** God cares for the poor, and so should we. I’d like to see documented, any Catholic with a “Catholic IQ” above that of a pencil eraser who denies this (as some folks are claiming these days). I keep hearing about these people (and often,... Read more

Dialogue: Is the Mass Similar to Jeroboam’s Idolatry?

Last updated on: February 16, 2018 at 2:14 pm By Dave Armstrong

It’s not images per se that God expressly forbids in worship, but graven images (Jeroboam) *** Pastor Tim Gallant (Presbyterian), was responding to certain comments of mine in my post, “Reply to Pastor Steve Schlissel’s Reflections on ‘Romanism.'” His words (initially written in the thread, “What Thinkest Thou?” on the Reformed Catholicism blog) will be in blue: * * * * * If only the Hebrew prophets could have recognized that the really important thing about Jeroboam’s calves was that he intended Yahweh to... Read more

Is the Mass Equivalent to OT Golden Calf Worship?

Last updated on: February 16, 2018 at 1:26 pm By Dave Armstrong

Some critics compare the Mass to the idolatrous worship of the Golden Calf by the wandering Israelites. ***The following is my dialogue with an anti-Catholic (i.e., one who regards Catholicism as non-Christian) evangelical Protestant (his words are in blue), in a public online list. ***The Israelites . . . made a golden calf, but they did not worship the statue “in and of itself” [quoting me] as god. Aaron announced to them “This is your god, O Israel, who brought... Read more