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
Elaine May, Mike Nichols and Dorothy Loudon as panelists from the game show Laugh Line (3 April 1959) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * * * Radical Catholic reactionary online organization The Remnant has gotten wind of my recent article that critiqued them (and perhaps the other one from two days earlier, as well), and has made the following in-depth reply (I offer it in its entirety): Super Dave Armstrong Takes the Plunge, Attacks The Remnant[complete with video silliness]Written by Michael... Read more
(vs. Mark Cameron) Is the end near? Image by “geralt” [public domain / Pixabay] * * * (24 January 2000) * * * * * The following exchanges stem from my paper: Critique of “The Remnant”. In it, I expressed a willingness to interact with (to some extent), counter-replies. No one at The Remnant has been willing to formally debate these past three months since the critique was uploaded (or make any response whatsoever, in most cases). Another non-affiliated, more moderate self-described “traditionalist” or... Read more
Portrait of Jean Miélot (after 1456), by Jean Le Tavernier (d. 1462) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * (8 December 2004) * * * TABLE OF CONTENTS * * * I. Standard Protestant Church History Sources: the Early Church and the “Apocrypha” II. Did Any Jews Accept the Canonicity of the “Apocrypha”? Are Ancient Jewish Beliefs on the Canon Certain? III. F.F. Bruce: New Testament Allusions to the “Apocrypha” and Pseudepigrapha IV. Miscellany and Some Good-Natured Bantering Back and Forth... 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