Quick Ten-Step Refutation of Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 5:12 pm By Dave Armstrong

[public domain / Pixabay] (10 October 2003) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Sola Scriptura is Not Taught in the Bible 2. “Word of God” 3. Tradition is Not a Dirty Word 4. Jesus and Paul Accepted Non-Biblical Oral and Written Traditions 5. Jerusalem Council 6. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Oral, Extrabiblical Tradition 7. OT Jews Did Not Believe in Sola Scriptura / Necessity of Interpretation 8. 2 Timothy 3:16-17: The Protestant “Proof Text” 9. Paul Casually Assumes that His Passed-Down Tradition is Infallible and Binding 10. Sola Scriptura is a... Read more

The Degree and Extent of Biblical Evidence for Sola Scriptura

Last updated on: June 3, 2017 at 1:01 pm By Dave Armstrong

[public domain / Pixabay] Read more

The Bible on Salvation via Baptism and the Eucharist

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 5:16 pm By Dave Armstrong

[CC0 public domain / Pixabay] *** (5-28-08) *** Catholics (like many Protestants) believe in baptismal regeneration, and we also believe that the Eucharist has a direct relation to salvation in some respect, based on passages such as the following: Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; 1 Peter 3:18-21 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that... Read more

John 6 and Disciples’ Lack of Faith in the Real Presence

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 5:20 pm By Dave Armstrong

. . . of Jesus in the Eucharist as a Parallel to Doubting Disciples The Last Supper (1625-1626), by Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * * * (2-14-11) [Chapter Four of my book, Biblical Catholic Eucharistic Theology] St. Peter (before his transformation after Pentecost) lacked faith in Jesus’ power over the natural world (Luke 8:24-25) and so he couldn’t walk on the water like Jesus did (Matt 14:24-33). Many Protestants likewise stumble over the miracle of the... Read more

Fairies, Atheism, God, and the Ad Populum Fallacy

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 5:24 pm By Dave Armstrong

Wotan chases after Brünnhilde. Illustration to Richard Wagner’s opera, Das Rheingold (1910), by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * I wrote the following remarks on an enormously popular atheist thread: Jesus never existed. Words of atheist TheMarsCydonia will be in blue. * * * * * This [denial of Jesus’ historical existence] is a ridiculous position; intellectual suicide; held by virtually no scholars who would be in a position to know. I never bother arguing it with... Read more

Does the Invocation of Mary at Death Ignore Jesus?

Last updated on: June 3, 2017 at 1:02 pm By Dave Armstrong

The Heart of Mary, by Leopold Kupelwieser (1796-1862). Photograph by Diana Ringo at Peterskirche, Vienna, Austria (9-22-13) [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license] * * * This is a chapter from my book, Biblical Catholic Apologetics (2013) * * * * * My friend, Mary Kochan, editor of the Catholic Lane website, wrote an article in July 2011, entitled, “Catholics, Please Say Something About Jesus!” Even before I read it, my “sociological” curiosity was greatly piqued by her statement introducing the article to me,... Read more

“Vain Repetition”: Jesus Shows Us By Example What it is NOT

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 5:31 pm By Dave Armstrong

Did Jesus Condemn All Formal and/or Repetitious Prayers (Like the Rosary and the Mass)? [public domain / Pixabay] * * * This is a chapter from my book, Biblical Catholic Apologetics (2013) (7-22-10) [all verses RSV] * * * * * Matthew 6:7 And in praying do not heap up empty phrases [KJV: “vain repetitions”] as the Gentiles [KJV: “heathen”] do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Sirach 7:14 Do not prattle in the assembly of the elders, nor repeat yourself in your prayer. But Jesus... Read more

Dialogues with Lutherans Regarding Three Luther Mary Quotes

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 5:34 pm By Dave Armstrong

Original Title: “Challenged by Lutherans Regarding Three Luther Quotes on Mary: Read the Facts and Decide for Yourself” The Annunciation (1914), by John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] (10-6-11) This exchange occurred at Cranach: The Blog of Veith: a Lutheran site, in the combox for the post “Mariology.” I was initially responding to the question of how “Catholic” Luther’s Mariology was, later in his life. I said it was relatively more so; others thought the opposite. I gave three quotes... Read more

Reply to Lutheran Gene Edward Veith on Mariology

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 5:39 pm By Dave Armstrong

The Alba Madonna (c. 1510), by Raphael (1483-1520) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] (10-7-11) This exchange occurred at Cranach: The Blog of Veith: a Lutheran site, in the combox for the post “Mariology.” I replied to the entire initial post by webmaster Gene Edward Veith, who is the Provost and Professor of Literature at Patrick Henry College, the Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary, a columnist for World Magazine and TableTalk, and the author of 18 books on different facets of Christianity and Culture. I reproduce his entire... Read more

25 Brief Arguments on the Biblical Canon & Protestantism

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 5:41 pm By Dave Armstrong

Or, “Difficulties Posed to Protestants by the Determination of the Canon of Holy Scripture” Papyrus 87 (Gregory-Aland), recto. The earliest known fragment of the Epistle to Philemon, with verses 13-15: dated late 2nd or early 3rd century [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] * * * From my discontinued book, 501 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura (2009). It was one of my several books in the style of Pascal’s Pensees (random individual thoughts [i.e., “pensees”] rather than continuous writing). In 2012, Catholic Answers (specifically Todd Aglialoro, my... Read more