. . . According to Popes and Catholic Scholars Immaculate Conception (1630-1635), by Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (4-1-09) *** Revelation 12:1, 5 (RSV) And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; . . . She brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child... Read more
. . . and/or the Repentant “Sinner” Woman of Luke 7? Mary Magdalene Reading (1500-1510), by Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (7-22-09) ***** As I understand it, the notion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute comes from conflating the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet (Luke 7) with Mary Magdalene. Luke 7:39 seems to imply that the woman described was a harlot (“what sort of woman this is” in RSV). The Bible itself doesn’t make this... Read more
These are old Blogspot papers of mine. Allow a minute or two for the Internet Archive versions to upload, and choose scans from July 2015 or earlier. ***** Jack Chick’s Lies: The Real Alberto Rivera (with a letter from an Alberto supporter and counter-reply) [1-1-99] * Debate: The Anti-Catholic “Pope as God” Argument (vs. Paul Mansbacher) [1-1-99] * Dialogue: Double Standards: The Anti-Catholic Definition of “Christian” (vs. Matthew Bell) [1-11-99] * Counter-Reply to Anti-Catholic Baptist Pastor Chris Bayack’s Critique of... Read more
(aka John Q. “Deadhead” Doe) [public domain / Pixabay] *** Many of the papers below are archived versions from Internet Archive. Select from July 2015 or earlier, and allow a minute or two for them to upload. Mr. Swan is of the Reformed Protestant persuasion, and does quite a bit of research on Martin Luther. ***** Counter-Reply: Martin Luther’s Mariology (Particularly the Immaculate Conception): Has Present-Day Protestantism Maintained the “Reformational” Heritage of Classical Protestant Mariology?(+ Part II | Part III)... Read more
Gospel of John, beginning, King James Version. Photo by John Snyder, 1-18-14 [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] (mid-1990s) * * * * * Catholics accept Church authority and a reliable, divinely-protected Tradition, whereas Protestants “pick and choose” which traditions are to their own particular denominational taste. This is arbitrary in two ways: 1) There is really no cogent, non-arbitrary method for Protestants to determine which tradition is true (e.g., NT Canon) and which is false (e.g., Marian... Read more
Esther and Mordecai (1675), by Aert de Gelder (1645-1727) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** I came across a basic form of this argument in a comment on my site by “RoyMix“: “Doesn’t the Catholic Bible include the Prayer of Mordecai? I know Jerome moved it to the end, but it is still there. So only the Protestant Bible has a godless Esther.” He nailed it. The Protestant version is ten chapters, with the tenth chapter containing only three verses.... Read more
Board of Illusion, by Piotr Siedlecki [PublicDomainPictures.net] ***** The following is my post and some of the ensuing Facebook discussion, from 1 July 2012: A person (“Joe”) who is Catholic, but obviously laboring under some serious Protestant remnants in his thought, wrote under Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s review of my book on this topic: “Most Protestants will come around to admit they to honor their own traditions. But what they won’t admit is that any authority is more supreme than Scripture.... Read more
Salvador Dali’s Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Photograph by Ben Sutherland, 3-24-09 [Flickr / CC BY 2.0 license] (1995) ***** Thomas [Protestant]: Hey Joe, how can you Catholics believe that the communion wafer actually turns into the Body and Blood of Christ? Do you expect me to accept that?! Joe [Catholic]: Because in this case, we are the ones who insist on taking the Bible literally. There is much to suggest the miracle... Read more
(largely vs. Dr. Norman Geisler) Judas Maccabeus, who led the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167-160 B.C.), by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (1996) *** An educated and committed evangelical Protestant friend (since received into the Catholic Church) wrote to me in October 1996, inquiring about arguments against the deuterocanonical books (“Apocrypha”) raised in Norman Geisler and Ralph MacKenzie’s book Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1995).... Read more
Judith with the Head of Holophernes, by Simon Vouet (1590-1649) or follower [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (5-19-04) This is Appendix Three from my book, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism (1996): * * * The Old Testament in Catholic Bibles contains seven more books than are found in Protestant Bibles (46 and 39, respectively). Protestants call these seven books the Apocrypha and Catholics know them as the deuterocanonical books. These seven books are: Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom... Read more
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