Killing Heretics: Any Conceivable Biblical Rationale?

Last updated on: February 27, 2017 at 2:16 pm By Dave Armstrong

Dialogue with a Calvinist Michael Servetus (1511-1553): non-trinitarian heretic whom John Calvin had burned at the stake [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (6-5-10) *** This discussion occurred in a combox on the Reformed Protestant-dominated Green Baggins website. See Jeff Cagle’s entire comment #268 regarding Luther’s excommunication. His words below will be in blue.* * * * * I threw #33 in as an aside: we note that even the pope errs here in his judgment that “burning heretics is... Read more

Salvation Outside the Church?

Last updated on: February 27, 2017 at 2:18 pm By Dave Armstrong

Alleged Catholic Magisterial Contradictions & St. Thomas Aquinas’ Views St. Thomas Aquinas: detail from Valle Romita Polyptych (c. 1400), by Gentile da Fabriano (1370-1427) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (31 July 2003) *** The following is based on an exchange with an Anglican, which took place on the Catholic Online forum. He has complained about posting his words, and my editing, and stated that the forum policy forbade such use. I obliged by removing his words (which were formerly posted... Read more

Crisis in the Church: What to Do About It?

Last updated on: February 27, 2017 at 2:19 pm By Dave Armstrong

[PublicDomainPictures.net] (9-12-13) *** To defeat darkness, you turn on the light and pray against it; you don’t just endlessly proclaim or warn or preach about it, as if that alone is sufficient. Those of us in the apologetics movement are teaching and defending as much truth as we can, as far and wide as we can (resources permitting), and in my opinion, that is the long-term solution, along with prayer for revival. But some folks want to attack the ones... Read more

“Shake the Dust Off of Your Feet”: Is it Mean Behavior?

Last updated on: April 19, 2017 at 1:12 pm By Dave Armstrong

The Miraculous Draught, by Henri-Pierre Picou (1824-1895) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (10-4-14) **** Is this a refusal to “meet people where they are at”? If we think that something Jesus said is “spiteful” we clearly have taken a wrong turn in our exegesis. This isn’t consigning folks to hell. It’s a typically Jewish figurative-but-concrete expression of protest against rebelliousness, hardheartedness, and stubbornness (perhaps the leading theme of the entire Old Testament). Hence Jesus says: Luke 9:5 (RSV) And... Read more

Visiting the Mount of Transfiguration & Nazareth

Last updated on: February 27, 2017 at 2:22 pm By Dave Armstrong

Steps leading down to the Holy Family’s house, in Nazareth. Photograph by wife Judy Armstrong: 20 October 2014. ***** [excerpt from my book, Footsteps That Echo Forever: My Holy Land Pilgrimage] ***** This is the account of the 3rd full day of my pilgrimage in Israel in 2014. I wrote this the same night in our lovely rustic chalet near the Sea of Galilee, after “interviewing” my wife Judy and fellow pilgrim Margie Prox Sindelar. They “stole the show” on... Read more

Walking Where Jesus Walked

Last updated on: February 27, 2017 at 2:23 pm By Dave Armstrong

Holy Places, Relics, and the Sacramental Principle Steps leading up to the temple; on the south side of the temple mount: where Jesus could quite likely could have walked. Photograph by my wife Judy Armstrong: 31 October 2014 ***** [excerpt from my book, Footsteps That Echo Forever: My Holy Land Pilgrimage, written in our hotel room, on a rainy day in Jerusalem: 2:30 PM local time, 31 October 2014] ***** On the south side of the temple mount nearby is a spectacular... Read more

St. John Chrysostom & St. Irenaeus: Sola Scripturists?

Last updated on: April 19, 2017 at 1:15 pm By Dave Armstrong

Refutation of Anti-Catholic Polemicist and Reformed Protestant Pastor David T. King St. John Chrysostom: Fresco in the Church of the Theotokos Peribleptos in Ohrid, Macedonia (13th century) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (4-20-07) ***** This is the same old same old: historical revisionism and anachronism galore: a tired attempt to make the Church fathers into something they were not, simply so the distinctives of Protestantism can be shored up and given a sophistical semblance of historical continuity that they (quite... Read more

Was Cardinal Newman a Modernist?

Last updated on: February 27, 2017 at 2:28 pm By Dave Armstrong

Pope St. Pius X vs. Anti-Catholic Polemicist David T. King (Development, not Evolution of Doctrine) Pope St. Pius X; Library of Congress photograph [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (uploaded on 6 March 2002. Revised on 4 December 2002 and 20 January 2004. Edited very slightly on 20 November 2006) The following dispute over a factual matter took place on the NTRMin Discussion Board, on Protestant anti-Catholic polemicist Dr. Eric Svendsen’s website, in late February and early March 2002. The... Read more

Luther & Veneration of Mary: James Swan’s Revisionism

Last updated on: February 27, 2017 at 2:30 pm By Dave Armstrong

. . . His Anti-Catholic Nonsense with Regard to Martin Luther’s Mariology & Also My Related Research Illustration of the famous windmill scene from Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, by Gustave Dore (1832-1883) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** James Swan is a Reformed Protestant anti-Catholic polemicist, who does a lot of research on Martin Luther: the founder of Protestantism. His confessed specialty or great interest is in observing how Catholic apologists approach Luther and analyzing that in extreme detail. One of his favorite... Read more

Mary’s Assumption vs. Material Sufficiency of Scripture?

Last updated on: May 21, 2022 at 11:53 pm By Dave Armstrong

Refutation of Anti-Catholic Polemicist & Reformed Protestant Pastor David T. King Photograph by “mintchipdesigns” [Pixabay / public domain: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)] (4-22-07) ***** I would like to challenge Pastor King’s claims that a belief in material sufficiency of Scripture is inconsistent with a belief in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pastor King’s lengthy exchange (mostly with a Catholic, David Waltz; this now being the “Three David Discussion”) is posted at James Swan’s blog. His words will be in... Read more