{"id":6093,"date":"2009-07-30T06:12:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T06:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2009\/07\/a-reader-writes-240\/"},"modified":"2015-01-01T14:53:28","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T21:53:28","slug":"a-reader-writes-240","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2009\/07\/a-reader-writes-240.html","title":{"rendered":"A reader writes"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><blockquote><p>I\u2019m also a convert \u2014 1st from Atheist\/Agnostic -&gt; then to Baptist -&gt; last stop PCA.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to share an interesting tidbit with you.  As I was reading your book, <br><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mark-shea.com\/books.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>By What Authority<\/em><\/a>, I came the section where you quoted R.C. Sproul\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=DC-TRU4tEvsC&amp;pg=PT44&amp;lpg=PT44&amp;dq=%22fallible+collection+of+infallible+books%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=TuaS8wIKx6&amp;sig=YHFpwIEcW59n7mZYJYGvEuHgX6A&amp;hl=en&amp;ei=mZxxSsCqKoH8sQPDkqHqCA&amp;sa=X&amp;oi=book_result&amp;ct=result&amp;resnum=5\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">fallible collection of infallible books<\/a>\u201d in reference to the Canon.<\/p>\n<p>Why this is so amazing to me, is that this single quote was very important to my conversion. First of all, I was an eager follower of R.C. Sproul. I listened to him daily, ordered tabletalk, bought the books\u2026 and was even actively planning to attend PCA seminary in Jackson!<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know how commonly known Sproul\u2019s statement is, but I\u2019ll never forget the day I heard him say it (and later read it in Now That\u2019s a Good Question). When I heard it though, my truth radar (tradar?) went nuts. It just did NOT sound right! How could I trust the contents of the Bible, but not trust it\u2019s \u201ccollection process\u201d. <br>I certainly didn\u2019t immediatley associate the implications with Catholicism. However, <br>an important seed was planted that day. This seed would later grow to be a living <br>little shop of horrors plant that pinned me on the ground, put me into full-nelson hold and kept telling me to \u201csay uncle\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In any event, whenever I give Josh\u2019s Apologia to family and friends, it inevitably involves Sproul\u2019s \u201cfallible collection of infallible books\u201d. I also include another seed of Sproul origin: his affinity for Athanasius. Before Sproul, I didn\u2019t know <br>if Athanasius was a process, a disease or a person.<\/p>\n<p>These 2 \u201cRC Sproul seeds\u201d plus some other stuff, began an unraveling of my Christian worldview, that ended in a year-long Jacob-esqe wrestling match. All of this ended in me being received into the Church in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>For no particular reason, today was a day of doubts. Possibly b\/c I\u2019m considering picking up where I left off 6 years ago (kind of) and getting my Theology degree from University of Dallas. I thought I would read a little bit of a book I picked up the other day from the Catholic bookstore. All of this put a big smile on my face.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for that<\/p>\n<p>Just wanted to share.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thanks!  Glad to have you aboard the Barque of Peter!  Don\u2019t worry too much about doubts.  We all have them (even John the Baptist).  And the devil loves to attack when we are attempting to obey God.  So it could mean you are on the right track.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m also a convert \u2014 1st from Atheist\/Agnostic -&gt; then to Baptist -&gt; last stop PCA. I wanted to share an interesting tidbit with you. As I was reading your book, By What Authority, I came the section where you quoted R.C. Sproul\u2019s \u201cfallible collection of infallible books\u201d in reference to the Canon. Why this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A reader writes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I&#039;m also a convert -- 1st from Atheist\/Agnostic -&gt; then to Baptist -&gt; last stop PCA. I wanted to share an interesting tidbit with you. As I was\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2009\/07\/a-reader-writes-240.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A reader writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#039;m also a convert -- 1st from Atheist\/Agnostic -&gt; then to Baptist -&gt; last stop PCA. I wanted to share an interesting tidbit with you. 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