Posted on 03/19/2014 1:32:10 PM PDT by rwa265
If a Protestant looking into the claims of Catholicism were to ask me, “What one book should I read, where I can find a quick answer to any question I have?” I would tell him to read Devin Rose’s new book The Protestant’s Dilemma. I would also recommend this book to Protestant apologists, even those of many years, well-skilled in polemics. It will remind them of the heavy burden of proof they face, and the weakness of their position on point after point. The truth may set them free and bring them home too. (It has happened.)
All this may seem like overstatement — the obligatory praise from one Catholic blogger to another. But it is not.
Consider first the range of issues this book takes up. There are thirty-six chapters, each one on a different topic, from the papacy to sola scriptura, from the canon of the Bible to Purgatory, from confession to Eucharist to infant baptism. If something about the Catholic Church troubles you, this book has the answer. If you think you have found the point on which Catholicism fails, this book will show you why it is one more point upon which Protestantism fails.
Consider also the brevity. The book is just over 200 pages long, which means that Mr. Rose’s answers get to the root of the question without a knot of academic detail. It is harder to do than it might seem. This is the book of a man who has spent a long time studying the questions that divide Protestants and Catholics, and who knows how to present his case in a way that is easy for anyone to understand. At the same time, the book is useful for the professional apologist, for it recalls his mind to the basics.
(Excerpt) Read more at scottericalt.com ...
Did you spell Vatican wrong?
Still waiting for Bb to show even a single example of elsie adding to the conversation.
Would that be because there isn't one, because if there had been even one you would flaunted that and claimed victory, but you didn't.
BTW don't think it passed unnoticed that you tried to pull the abusers trick of accusing the accuser.
No, no, NO!!
You twit!
Not a DIME of tithing monies go into these projects!!
We use PROFITS from OTHER operations to purchase these great amounts of land.
What?
You wanna know where the money came from to purchase and start THOSE business?
Why from the ones that came FIRST; you silly goose! The ones that ALSO didn't have any tithe money bootstrapping them up.
--MormonDude(It's turtles; all the way down...)
Waiting... waiting.... Crickets....and more Crickets....... and still more, well we all get the idea.
Do NOT leave out the REASON for these prayers, and we PROTESTants won't have to TWIST Scripture so much.
SODT
Which comes first?
Being a BULLY or being Bossy?
And what’s the Greek for ‘this day’?
And to have what?
One more to ignore?
Your 'Better than Youness' is noted.
Here's the haystack: find your OWN needle!
Sometimes a cigar...
Do not worry.
No VAT will assessed to any of your posts...
.5000
___
Please educate me on this. Scripture is replete with individuals confessing their sins directly to God:
"I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. - Psalm 32:5"
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." - Psalm 51:4
"And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;" - Daniel 9:4
"I have heard of thee by the bearing of the ear; but now mine eyes seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." - Job 42:5-6
"We have sinned, and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements; neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of this land." - Daniel 9 5:6
"And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo I have sinned, and I have done wickedly." -- 2 Samuel 24:17
"Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress; my bowels are troubled, mine heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled." - Lamentations 1:20a
And the Christian is instructed to confess to God:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1 8:9
With so many examples of black-letter Scripture of individuals confessing their sins to God, how is this a "Protestant twisting"?
Too, the context of James 5:16 in the studies I have read is for Christians to confess sins one to the other (not to a priest, as that admonishment doesn't appear in that verse) so that prayer to God may be more effectual and fervent in the case of those who ask for it in the context of the rest of the verse, or to conciliate Christian forgiveness between those who have wronged each other.
Bless your day.
by your thinking and cherry picking scripture, you must live in on-going doubt about your eternal future.
that is not what Christianity is about at all.
your point if I understood it correctly, is that if we don't confess every sin to a priest, they cannot be forgiven...right?
well then what was the point of Christ dying on the cross??
Yes, Jesus picked Judas - he was the one that would betray Him as prophecy said. He created Satan and the fallen angels, too, but Judas was never put in charge of leading believers. Do you actually believe these debauched men were handpicked by God to lead all Christians? Either you have a poor opinion of God or you will have to admit that the Holy Spirit was NOT involved in the selection of these men and other forces were. Take your pick!
As for your claim that none of the DDDP (DEbauched, DEpraved, DEgenerate Popes) ever "taught" heresy, you are, like usual, hedging your words. No matter what gets posted of their many sins and wrong pronouncements that other Popes corrected, reproved or condemned, you will assert that only those doctrines that fall under the heading of ex-cathedra (of which there are the HUGE number of two) actually count. When you are through playing games, let me know. Until then, better pray for yourself, I know I am.
We can't help it if you conveniently skip over all the positive contributions Elsie has made to the conversation. A few recent ones were within the last few posts on this very thread. No need to flaunt, just telling the truth has its own reward.
BTW don't think it passed unnoticed that you tried to pull the abusers trick of accusing the accuser.
It actually wasn't but it's revealing how you would think that way.
I see name calling has been a daily practice of FRomans. “Ignornance” really?
And as bb pointed out, God did not put any of them in charge of any of His people. Ever.
On the contrary, He has this to say about leadership in the church.....
We are commanded by Paul to not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother who is sexually immoral.
That would included priests who molest children. Instead of allowing them to consecrate the host and serve it to the congregants with those same hands which are committing such an abomination, they should be defrocked and ex-communicated. NOT protected.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Then there are these qualifications for elder and deacons, which Catholic try to tell us are really priests.
1 Timothy 3:1-13 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
Titus 1:5-9 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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