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Papal Priorities: Biblical Study or Saint Veneration?
Roman Catholics often raise the topic of authority and claim that we need an infallible interpreter to interpret Scripture. This, they say, means we need the papacy. But what does the papacy actually do or care about? When pressed, however, Roman Catholic apologists typically acknowledge that an allegedly infallible interpretation has been provided for fewer…
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Humanly Speaking the Cross was a Failure
The pope wasn’t saying that Christ’s death was a failure. He was saying the same thing that both Roman Catholics and Protestants affirm, namely that the disciples were expecting a Messiah that would give military victory over the Romans. Instead, the Romans killed him. He looked like a failure to those who had only a…
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Garry Wills on the Title "Holy Father"
Garry Wills (self-identified Catholic, but rejecter of the papacy and transubstantiation), in “Why Priests?” has this interesting comment (p. 12): Jesus is telling his Followers not to be like the Sadducees and Pharisees who seek the “first places”: Everything they do is done to impress people. They enlarge their tefillins and lengthen their tassels. They…
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Clarifying the Rebuttal to the Necessity Argument for the Papacy
Scott Alt has posted a response to my earlier post, which mentioned the fact that the papacy is not necessary. Mr. Alt’s primary error is confusing a rebuttal argument and a positive argument. Mr. Alt misunderstood my post as something like the following argument: 1) If something is not necessary, it is not true; 2)…
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Vatican Vacancy and Papal Necessity
For a brief time earlier this year, there was no pope – no bishop of Rome for the Roman Catholics. The “Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church” (Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone held this office at that time) was in charge of Vatican City and Gandalf Castle and the few other “temporal powers” that still exist. Yet…
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Candida Moss on Bishops and the Bishop of Rome in the Early Church
In The Myth of Persecution, Dr. Candida Moss (professor of New Testament at Notre Dame) makes two interesting comments regarding the early church and the papacy. First, at page 227, she states: According to the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, bishops can trace their line in an unending succession all the way back to the…
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Benedict XVI to Resign for "Health" Reasons
Benedict XVI is an octogenarian, so it is not in the least surprising if he has serious medical concerns. On the other hand, as many people are pointing out, a pope hasn’t resigned the papacy since 1415, when Pope Gregory XII “resigned” to end the Western Schism (his resignation was basically forced by the Council…
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Titles of Jesus: Archon of the Kings of the Earth
Jesus is described in numerous ways in the book of Revelation. One of the titles mentioned in the salutation of John and Jesus’ letter to the seven churches is “The Archon of the Kings of the Earth” (Greek: “ὁ ἄρχων τῶν βασιλέων τῆς γῆς”), which the King James Version translates as “the prince of the…
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Darryl Hart and a Heretical Pope
Darryl Hart points out how Pope John XXII (c. 1244 – 1334) was forced by the Parisian Faculty of Theology to recant his heretical views regarding the Beatific Vision (link). It’s an example of the messiness of the medieval papacy and particularly its relationship to France and the French theologians. The work from which Hart…
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Response to Cursilista Regarding Church History
Cursilista wrote: The one thing that bugs me is that the question I would ask is for a protestant explanation of how did Christianity move forward through time after Christ died. We have a pretty clear answer to that. Read the book of Acts. It says zero about a Roman-centered Christianity. Rome is part of…