-
Justin Martyr's Source of Apostolic Information – the Memoirs of the Apostles
Justin Martyr’s biography is necessarily a bit uncertain. Nevertheless, according to our best guesses, Justin Martyr was born around the year of our Lord 100, only a few years after the last of the apostles, the Apostle John, died. Thus, one might imagine that Justin Martyr’s knowledge of the Apostles’ teachings would come primarily from…
-
Didn't Augustine Say That He Wouldn't Believe the Gospel but for the Catholic Church?
I anticipate a response to my post on the Augustinian approach of seeking the Church through Scripture. The response is to provide the following quotation: But should you meet with a person not yet believing the gospel, how would you reply to him were he to say, I do not believe? For my part, I…
-
Responding to Nathan from "Called to Communion"
Over at the Roman Catholic blog Called to Communion (the link was this, though it seems to be broken at the moment), a commenter going by the name “Nathan” provided the following comment: Thus far your attempt to rebut the claims of this article seems to be simply a restatement of sola scriptura as including…
-
Response to Bryan Cross at "Called to Communion"
The following is a detailed response to Bryan Cross’ comment #441 here (link to the comment) at the Roman Catholic blog, Called to Communion. Dear Bryan Cross: Thanks for your thoughtful reply to my comments. I have a few rejoinders, which I’ll try to group in some sort of organized way below – not necessarily…
-
Blueprint for Reliability Following the Lord's Example
Gennadius (died about A.D. 496) on James of Nisibis (aka “the Wise”) (died after A.D. 350): “He composed also a Chronicle of little interest indeed to the Greeks, but of great reliability in that it is constructed only on the authority of the Divine Scriptures.” (Gennadius, Supplement to Jerome’s Illustrious Men, Chapter 1) Gennadius (died…
-
Augustine on the "We Gave You the Scriptures" Argument
One argument that we sometimes hear from Roman Catholic apologists is an argument that Roman Catholicism gave us the Scriptures, in the sense of preserving them for us over the centuries. This claim is, of course, anachronistic (the folks who preserved the Scriptures from the 4th decade to the 4th century, for example, could hardly…
-
Aquinas' Affirmation of the Primacy of Scripture
A few folks have thought that the following quotation is significant with respect to the issue of Aquinas’ view of Scripture’s primacy. I answer that, Neither living nor lifeless faith remains in a heretic who disbelieves one article of faith. The reason of this is that the species of every habit depends on the formal…
-
Don't Be Surprised if You Make Some Mistakes
Jerome wrote: And if the ingenuity of perverse men finds something which they may plausibly censure in the writings even of evangelists and prophets, are you amazed if, in your books, especially in your exposition of passages in Scripture which are exceedingly difficult of interpretation, some things be found which are not perfectly correct? –…
-
Did Hippo, Carthage, or Rome's Bishop Settle the Canon?
Some Roman Catholics are under the false impression that the councils of Hippo (A.D. 393) and/or Carthage (A.D. 397) authoritatively settled the canon of Scripture for the church – either directly or by endorsement by one or more Roman bishops. To be deep in history, however, is to cease to be so naive. John of…
-
Responding to Eastern Orthodox Answers to "Protestant" Objections
An author at The Franciscan Mafia has a post up (incidentally, while I believe the author was previously associated with the Federal Vision group, it appears that he has now switched his allegiance to Eastern Orthodoxy)(link to post). The post is designed to answer an objection to the Eastern Orthodox. Here’s the objection: The Orthodox…