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Literature on the Early Roman Church
The early Roman church was a remarkable church. It was not, however, much like the Roman Catholic church. In an interesting post, John Bugay at Reformation 500 has explored some of the scholarly literature relating to the issue of the development of the papacy (link to post). To God be the Glory!
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Unloading 35 Loaded Questions for "Bible Christians" 25/35
Steve Ray has a list of 35 loaded Questions for “Bible Christians” (quotation marks his)(link to the whole list). This is number 25/35. I’m trying to provide the answers in a common format, for easy reference. 25) If Christianity is a “book religion,” how did it flourish during the first 1500 years of Church history…
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Unloading 35 Loaded Questions for "Bible Christians" 25/35
Steve Ray has a list of 35 loaded Questions for “Bible Christians” (quotation marks his)(link to the whole list). This is number 25/35. I’m trying to provide the answers in a common format, for easy reference. 25) If Christianity is a “book religion,” how did it flourish during the first 1500 years of Church history…
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You Cannot Balance Out Sins with Virtues
I recently came across an article from “CathNews” that “Australia is the ‘most sinful’ nation on earth.” (link to article) There are some obvious problems with a methodology that uses plastic surgery as the measure of pride, but I’d like to talk about the reaction provided the article. A Melbourne priest named Bob Maguire responded:…
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Beware of Imprecise Terminology
The following is a story [FN1], allegedly originally printed by Henry Bebel in 1550 (as shown above)(a late middle English translation and expansion is here). My own modernization [FN2] of the expanded Middle English version follows: Of the Parson that said a Requiem Mass for Christ’s Soul There was a certain country priest that was…
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Which Doctrine is Right?
A friend recently asked me how one goes about deciding whether a doctrine is correct or not. There are at least four answers to this question and an important caveat. First, as my friend was already doing, one asks one’s brethren for assistance. Scripture says: Proverbs 11:14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but…
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Unloading 35 Loaded Questions for "Bible Christians" 24/35
Steve Ray has a list of 35 loaded Questions for “Bible Christians” (quotation marks his)(link to the whole list). This is number 24/35. I’m trying to provide the answers in a common format, for easy reference. 24) How were the bishops at Hippo and Carthage able to determine the correct canon of Scripture, in spite…
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Unloading 35 Loaded Questions for "Bible Christians" 24/35
Steve Ray has a list of 35 loaded Questions for “Bible Christians” (quotation marks his)(link to the whole list). This is number 24/35. I’m trying to provide the answers in a common format, for easy reference. 24) How were the bishops at Hippo and Carthage able to determine the correct canon of Scripture, in spite…
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Death Penalty and Rome
Roman Catholicism today is mostly against the death penalty. For example, the contemporary Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the RCC’s view of capital punishment this way: Capital Punishment 2266 The State’s effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of…
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Unloading 35 Loaded Questions for "Bible Christians" 23/35
Steve Ray has a list of 35 loaded Questions for “Bible Christians” (quotation marks his)(link to the whole list). This is number 23/35. I’m trying to provide the answers in a common format, for easy reference. 23) Why do Protestants follow postapostolic Jewish decisions on the boundaries of the Old Testament canon, rather than the…