St. Paul in Prison (1627), by Rembrandt (1606-1669) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] (4-3-10) * * * * * First of all, before I get to my argument, let’s get some preliminaries out of the way. Readers can rest assured that I greatly love and revere Holy Scripture as much as any Protestant does. That’s not at issue. The issue is sola Scriptura: whether Scripture is the only infallible authority. Scripture is a set of divinely inspired books. Sola Scriptura... Read more
“The Door to Hell” (in the nighttime) / Turkmenistan, Darvaza [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license] * * * (1998; Afterword: 8 February 2003) * * * * * One cannot deny the traditional Christian doctrine of hell and honestly call oneself an orthodox Christian. No mainline or self-proclaimed evangelical denomination denies this doctrine (Seventh-Day Adventists being a special case), and of course, Catholicism and Orthodoxy have always held to this belief as well. It has... Read more
I Rejected This Absurd Number Way Back in 2004 / Reply to White’s Dividing Line Webcast of 2-18-16 Bishop James White [public domain video and image / Creative Commons license] * * * * * This discussion of the actual number of Protestant denominations is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but since White took it upon himself to make a general blast against Catholic apologists and organizations using this figure, I thought it was important to show the facts... Read more
Photograph by “Unsplash” [public domain / Pixabay] * * * [originally posted on 9-4-04] * * * * Recently, the anti-Catholic Pied Piper James White chided me on his Dividing Line webcast for not immediately speaking out against this figure (or similar ones; 23,000 is also often heard) when I was on the radio, after a caller mentioned it (mainly due to lack of time). A friend also wrote, asking for documentation, as to where these kinds of numbers can... Read more
Photograph by “ulrikebohr570” [public domain / Pixabay] (1-2-09) * * * * * This is a continuation of a previous discussion with a doctoral student in philosophy who is seriously considering conversion to Catholicism, but who struggles with the doctrine of hell, and aspects of God’s function as Judge. His words will be in blue. * * * * * Thanks for your reply. To clarify briefly, after having glanced at your reply, I don’t believe in predestination to hell, per... Read more
St. Jerome Visited by Angels, by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587-1625) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] (11-27-07) My good friend and fellow Michigander apologist Gary Michuta, in his excellent book, Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger (Port Huron, Michigan: Grotto Press, 2007), observed about St. Jerome: Jerome is the first of the Western Fathers to deny the inspired status of the Deuterocanon; the first to unabashedly designate them apocrypha instead . . . Jerome’s new canon was an innovation — and he knew it. (p. 142)... Read more
Fragment of the 8th century Greek manuscript Codex Regius: ending of the Gospel of Mark [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * (8-10-05) * * * Derived from pp. 800-804 of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, 27th edition (Novum Testamentum: Graece et Latine, published by Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft; see the web page from Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin, which reproduced the list. I have also added my own suggested comparisons and possible parallels; these will be reproduced in green (NT); otherwise NT passages listed in... Read more
Illustration from the deuterocanonical book of Sirach, Copenhagen, c. 1751 [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * (7-27-05 for all books except Romans: 1-11-05) * * * Derived from pp. 800-804 of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, 27th edition (Novum Testamentum: Graece et Latine, published by Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft; see the web page from Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin, which reproduced the list. I have also added my own suggested comparisons and possible parallels; these will be reproduced in green (NT); otherwise NT passages listed... Read more
Torah scroll: Big Synagogue Museum, Wlodawa, Poland [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] * * * * * (2-1-05 [Matthew] / 7-13-05 [Mark, Luke, and John] ) * * * Derived from pp. 800-804 of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, 27th edition (Novum Testamentum: Graece et Latine, published by Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft; see the web page from Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin, which reproduced the list. I have also added my own suggested comparisons and possible parallels; these will be reproduced in green (NT); otherwise NT... Read more
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Fr. Raymond Brown: Modernist Dissident?
Council of Trent (1588), by Pasquali Cati da Jesi (1550-1620) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] (4-3-09) He probably wasn’t at first, as these errors tend to get progressively worse over time. Even Hans Kung was fairly orthodox in his younger years. But at least in his later period, Brown was undeniably a dissident. But because certain dense, obscurantist, sophistical, fact-twisting opponents of the Church still don’t get it, and appeal to Fr. Brown as supposedly the quintessential “Catholic scholar” over... Read more