The Protestant's Dilemma (23 page)
Read The Protestant's Dilemma Online
Authors: Devin Rose
Tags: #Catholic, #Catholicism, #protestant, #protestantism, #apologetics
64 See the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2262–2267.
65 Joel R. Baseley, translator, Festival Sermons of Martin Luther (Mark V Publications, 2005), 157–158.
66 J. Sollier, “The Communion of Saints,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia. (New York: Robert Appleton, 1908). Retrieved November 28, 2009 from New Advent, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04171a.htm.
67 Protestants should realize, however, that when Catholics kneel down before a painting or statue of a saint, they are not worshiping the saint or painting but rather simply assuming a pious posture to aid in their prayer, both directly to God and also asking the saint to pray with them to God.
68 See Matt. 5:16.
69 2 King 13:21.
70 Comm. John 3:5; CO 47: 55.
71 Comm. Titus 3:5; CO 52: 431.
72 McGrath, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea, 262.
73 Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, VIII, 4, http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/catechism/web/cat-13.html
74 For a fascinating account of how Protestant theology changed from Calvin’s high view of sacraments and ecclesiology to the “born-again” conversionism of modern Evangelicalism, read this in-depth article: http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2012/03/have-you-been-born-again-catholic-reflections-on-a-protestant-doctrine-or-how-calvins-view-of-salvation-destroyed-his-doctrine-of-the-church/
75 Justin Martyr, First Apology, 61.
76 For a comprehensive list of early Christian writings and Church Fathers who explicitly taught the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, see this article: http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/06/the-church-fathers-on-baptismal-regeneration/
77 The Apostolic Tradition, 21:16.
78 Letters 64:2.
79 Ibid., 64:5.
80 McGrath, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea, 262.
81 Luther, The Large Catechism, XIIIA, 4, http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/catechism/web/cat-13a.html
82 Matt. 5:48.
83 Westminster Confession of Faith, XV.4.
84 CCC 1991.
85
http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2012/11/how-the-church-won-an-interview-with-jason-stellman/#comment-39963
86 Rom. 6:19, 22.
87 1 Cor. 3:12–15.
88 Catechismus Concil. Trident., II, n. 4, ex S. August. “
De Catechizandis Rudibus
.”
89 Comm. Malachi 2:14.
90 Anglican Wedding Ceremony from 1662: http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/compraym.html
91 Matt. 19:8.
92 Calvin, Institutes IV, 19, 18.
93 There are some Protestant charismatic communities today that anoint with oil for healing.
94 Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, 3:6:190ff.
95 Calvin, Short Treatise on the Lord’s Supper, 12.
96 Ibid., 10.
97 Ibid., 34–47.
98 Robert L. Plummer, General Editor, Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism, 63–64, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2012. (Emphasis in original.)
99 The most (in)famous of which is Jack Chick and his “Death Cookie” tract:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0074/0074_01.asp
100 Steve Ray’s Crossing the Tiber (Ignatius Press, 1997) is a solid introduction to the relevant biblical passages in both Old and New Testaments.
101 John 6:29.
102 In the prior verses he uses forms of phago/esthio, the less primal verb for eating.
103 John 6:54–58.
104 See Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:10–13; Deut. 12:16.
105 This is a simple argument, yet in over ten years of being a Catholic and hearing Protestant responses to it, I’ve never heard a rebuttal or even a cogent attempt at a rebuttal to it.
106 Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 6:2–7:1.
107 Ambrose, Concerning Repentance, bk. 1, ch. 2.
108 See this article on a conservative Presbyterian site:
http://www.opc.org/qa.html?question_id=70
and note this Catholic rejoinder:
http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2009/07/apostolicity-versus-apostolic-succession/
109 Augustine, To Generosus, Epistle 53:2.
110 Clement, Letter to the Corinthians, I, 42–44.
111 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Called to Communion, 114–115.
112 http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx?a=4253
113 This includes groups of Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, and other Protestant denominations. The United Methodists are also in the middle of an acrimonious denominational debate over same-sex “marriage,” with many regional conferences approving homosexual behavior and lobbying for the reversal of the current Methodist statement against it. Several Methodist pastors, including high profile ones, have already begun performing same-sex “marriage” ceremonies:
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/27/4512746/united-methodist-high-court-to.html
114 Beginning with the Anglican denomination’s acceptance of contraception within marriage at the 1930 Lambeth Conference:
http://www.lambethconference.org/resolutions/1930/1930-15.cfm
115
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/digital-issue/53?page=66
116
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/aprilweb-only/churches-contraception.html
117
http://marshill.com/2008/01/06/christian-birth-control-options
118 1 Cor. 6:9–10.
119 See Blessed John Paul II’s landmark work on the Theology of the Body.
120 Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 9:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html
121
http://www.nrlc.org/news/1999/NRL199/sween.html
Specifically, in cases where the physical or mental health of the mother was seriously threatened, or when the child would be born with a disability, or when the child was conceived in rape.
122 Though thankfully, from 1980 forward the Southern Baptist Convention changed back to a much more pro-life position.
124 Catholic Church law recognizes two exceptions, both involving marriages wherein one or both spouses aren’t baptized: The Pauline Privilege, in which one non-baptized spouse decides to seek baptism but the other does not (drawn from 1 Corinthians 7:10–15), and the similar but even rarer Petrine Privilege, wherein a (non-sacramental) marriage between one baptized and one non-baptized person may be dissolved by the pope in order that one of the spouses may enter a sacramental marriage with someone else.
125 Michael Spencer, “The Original Coming Collapse Posts,” Internet Monk (March 10, 2009), http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/the-original-coming-evangelical-collapse-posts.
126 McGrath, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea, 219.
127 Luke 10:16, 1 Tim. 3:15, John 16:13, Matt. 16:18.
128 Acts 7.
129 Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manichaeus, 4.
130 Rev. 5:8, Heb. 12:1.
131 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2683.
132 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_of_saints_%28Episcopal_Church_in_the_United_States_of_America%29
133 Obermann, Heiko. Luthers Werke. Erlangen 1854, 32:282, 298, in Grisar, Hartmann, Luther. St. Louis 1915, 4:286 and 5:406, cited in Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 113.
134 Martin Luther, De Wette, II, 459.
135 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Christianity_for_a_New_World.
137 Ibid.
138 Alister McGrath, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution—A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First (New York: HarperOne, 2007), 52.
139 Translated by Charles Gordon Browne and James Edward Swallow. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 7. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1894.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310237.htm
Table of Contents
4: The Four Marks of the Church
5: Protestantism’s Viewof the Catholic Church
Part 2: The Bible and Tradition
7: Martin Luther and the Canon
9: A Self-Authenticating Bible?
11: Sola Scriptura and Christian Unity
12: The Principle of Individual Judgment
14: Misinterpreting theGreat Commission
15: The Closure of Public Revelation
16: The Role of History and Tradition
Part 3: The Sacraments and Salvation
21: Sanctification and Purgatory
26: Holy Orders and Apostolic Succession
Part 4: Christian History and Practice
29: The Disintegration of Mainline Protestantism