This dialogue with my highly esteemed friend, Lutheran pastor Ken Howes (LCMS), took place on my Facebook page. His words will be in blue. *** The Smalcald Articles are indeed quite hostile to the Catholic Mass. We do reject the doctrine on the sacrifice of the Mass, especially as it used to be expressed–that Christ was sacrificed anew in the Mass. The more recent way it is expressed, that Christ’s one sacrifice on Calvary is re-presented (I realize that it is... Read more
Pastor Ben Maton (Lutheran – Missouri Synod [“LCMS”] ) serves at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. His words will be in blue. * * * * * At one point, after documenting the Lutheran Confessions’ repudiation of the papistic mass, you claim this “jaded view” of Lutherans puts them “in the incoherent, odd position of agreeing that Catholicism is Christian, despite the fact that its central rite is utterly non-Christian (and, far beyond that, anti-Christian, as it is idolatry, blasphemy, etc.).” If that’s true, RC’s have put themselves in... Read more
Pastor Ben Maton (Lutheran – Missouri Synod [“LCMS”] ) serves at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. His words will be in blue. * * * * * Dear Dave (and the rest of cyberbia reading this stuff) — The Lord be with you! And thank-you for your patience in waiting for our reply. Larry [another Lutheran pastor who was participating in the dialogue] is very busy and I am just lazy! We ended our first essay “If we have written clearly…” We... Read more
Jim Brown: Don’t take this personally. But your use of the word “reactionary” seems designed to offend more often than to inform. I hear that every time. And every time I have to dig up my post where I very carefully define it. And then people either don’t read it, or if they do, they no longer want to discuss it. The main thing to know about my use of it, is that it was intended as an act of... Read more
I’ve come to expect lame arguments from fundamentalist anti-Catholics and atheists about Scripture: wooden literalism, butchery of context, inability or unwillingness to seek to understand the intent of the writer, cluelessness as to literary genre, eisegesis, etc. What’s sad is that radical reactionary Catholics do the same exact thing to the pope‘s words, and then spread far and wide such nonsense and calumny as if it were gospel TRVTH. Presently, I am examining how a single sentence in Pope Francis’... Read more
All the usual suspects are now coming out of the woodwork, given the latest press reports about the pope and hell, blessing the world with more bilge and worthless rotgut in sinfully speculating about what Pope Francis supposedly denies. Chris Ferrara, of the notorious radical Catholic reactionary rag, The Remnant, opines at length. I shall take apart his analysis point-by-point. His words will be in blue. *** Ferrara’s article is entitled, “Pope Bergoglio Spouts the Annihilationist Heresy—Again.” On Holy Thursday... Read more
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (RSV; cf. 2 Cor 11:23-30; Gal 6:17) ***** I wrote the following in my book, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism (pp. 160-161), leading up to this passage: In some mysterious, glorious way God chooses to involve us in the very Redemption (always in a secondary and derivative sense, but actual nonetheless), just... Read more
Now there is another stink about Pope Francis supposedly not believing in hell (flat-out denying it). It’s based on the words of a 94-year-old atheist interviewer of the pope, Eugenio Scalfari, who has a very annoying habit of writing down the pope’s alleged “words” merely from memory. It’s all very familiar to me, because I wrote about the same phenomenon almost three months ago now. Here is a somewhat abridged treatment of a longer review devoted exclusively to the topic... Read more
Someone asked me: Dave, if Jesus could not have sinned, how is it that he was actually tempted as the Bible says? How can it be tempting to do something that is impossible to do? The Bible states that Jesus was tempted, just as it states that God the Father and the Holy Spirit were tempted, in the sense that Satan can try to do this, but he has no chance of succeeding, and is too stupid to know that... Read more
Someone (I believe, an atheist or agnostic) wrote in the comments for this blog: DaVinci partly true? Isaiah 53:10 [the prophecied messiah] “…he shall see his seed…” Per this the true messiah was to have had a child. And would he have had a child without marrying the mother, and still be sinless as claimed? Was Isaiah wrong therefore a false prophet? This isn’t opinion, its in the original Hebrew. The same words are translated the same way 39 other... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In