God: Is He No More Believable than Santa Claus?

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 4:52 pm By Dave Armstrong

Thomas Nast’s most famous drawing, Merry Old Santa Claus, from the January 1, 1881 edition of Harper’s Weekly. [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] This is an old atheist garden variety chestnut from the playbook. It came from the combox of my predictably controversial post, The Atheist Obsession with Insulting Christians. The words of MountainDewFan4 will be in blue. The words of Casey will be in green. Both are atheists. * * * * * Here is my “deconversion story”. At the early age of 8, I... Read more

Mary Mediatrix: A Biblical and Theological Introduction

Last updated on: January 25, 2025 at 12:25 pm By Dave Armstrong

Including a Discussion of the Doctrine’s Dogmatic Status and Espousal of it by Nine Recent Popes and Vatican II The Virgin Mary from the Ghent Altarpiece, 1432, by Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * * * This topic is one of the most misunderstood areas of Catholic theology: not only by Protestants, but also by not a few Catholics. Human beings cannot fully understand many complex and deep areas of theology, because they are... Read more

St. Paul was a Priest, According to the Evidence of Holy Scripture

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 5:00 pm By Dave Armstrong

Saint Paul, by Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * * * The future universality of the priesthood is clearly indicated in the Old Testament: Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. (cf. Is 66:18, 21; Jer... Read more

The Common Atheist Obsession with Insulting Christians

Last updated on: November 22, 2021 at 3:46 pm By Dave Armstrong

By Jan Tik [Flickr / CC by 2.0 license] * * * * * It’s always been as highly amusing as it is annoying to me to observe the constant stream of atheist invective and epithets hurled at Christians and Christianity. I take pains to note that not all atheists act in this fashion; but online, it sure seems like those who don’t are a tiny minority of, maybe 10-15%. Many have opined that the frequently unsavory nature of Internet discourse... Read more

Debunking the Mythical Protestant Notion of the Invisible Church

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 5:12 pm By Dave Armstrong

Photo by “wolter_tom” [public domain / Pixabay] * * * * * Our Protestant friends often tell us that “the Church is the invisible sum total of all true believers.” Many Protestants (including myself in my evangelical years in the 80s) are taught that institutions are “bad” and that “religion” (another bad word) is infested with the “barnacles” of man-made traditions. This sort of thinking, I submit, has more of “the 60s” in it than of 60 A.D. The... Read more

A Calvinist Dialogues with the Ghost of Plato (Christianity & Philosophy)

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 5:15 pm By Dave Armstrong

Plato: marble copy of the portrait made by Silanion, c. 370 BC for the Academia in Athens. [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license] * * * * * GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, 31 October, 2011. The Presbyterian writer Calvin B. Calvin startled and astonished friends and comrades on Thursday when he revealed that he had conversed with the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (c. 424-348 B. C.): who has been bored for centuries because he hasn’t found anyone remotely as... Read more

Does the Catholic Church Think it is Superior to the Bible?

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 5:17 pm By Dave Armstrong

[Pixabay / public domain] The Catholic Church assuredly does not claim any such thing; only that an authoritative Christian tradition and institutional Church was necessary to establish and proclaim the canon of Scripture. In many places, both directly and indirectly, Sacred Scripture teaches that it is inspired and infallible. What it doesn’t provide, however, is its own canon (list of books). Simply put: Scripture is what it is. 1 Timothy 3:16 and other passages clearly teach inspiration. The Catholic Church... Read more

Why Do Catholic Bibles Have Seven More (Deuterocanonical) Books?

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 5:22 pm By Dave Armstrong

Page from Codex Vaticanus Septuagint, from 1209. The Greek Septuagint Bible contained the deuterocanonical books. [public domain / Wikipedia] The Old Testament in Catholic Bibles contains seven more books than are found in Protestant Bibles (46 and 39, respectively). Protestants call them (inaccurately) the Apocrypha, while Catholics refer to them as the deuterocanon. These seven books are: Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (or, Sirach), and Baruch. They were included in the Septuagint (the Greek... Read more

“Right” & “Left”: Applicable to Theology and Ecclesiology?

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 5:27 pm By Dave Armstrong

Or, “Do ‘right’ and ‘left’ properly apply (by analogy) to an ecclesiastical spectrum as well as to political analysis?” Servant of God, Dorothy Day (1897-1980) in 1934 [public domain / Wikipedia] * * * * * There is such a thing as an ecclesiological left and right. “Radicals” is one way of referring to the far right or far left. Radical Catholic reactionaries are far right, which becomes in effect very similar to far left (dissidence, disobedience, pick-and-choose, Protestant-like private... Read more

Biblical Evidence for the Continuation of Priests as an Office

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 5:30 pm By Dave Armstrong

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) in 1956 [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] * * * * * Our Protestant friends (particularly evangelicals) sometimes claim that all Christians are priests, and that there is no special class set apart from others in the Church. I submit, however (and hope to show below) that the Bible teaches about clergy, who are set apart from lay members of the Church. It also gives indication of priestly function. The priesthood as we know... Read more