Tag: featured

How do you honour Mary?

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When doing apologetics, I personally find it best to vary the approach I take. Every person is wired differently and a well-crafted explanation which would convince one person may completely fail with someone else.

annunciation

Often when Catholics and Protestants talk about Mary, they jump straight into the “big” topics: the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, Intercession, the title “Mother of God” etc. However, I have often found it helpful to rewind the conversation when I see things moving in this direction. Instead of speaking about specific doctrines, I like to talk about Marian devotion at its most a basic level.

So, in today’s post I would like to present a dialogue between a Protestant (“Pete”) and a Catholic (“Catherine”), modeled on some conversations I’ve had where I have used this approach…

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Jesus Never Existed? Bart Ehrman Responds

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Several times over the last few weeks I’ve had conversations where friends have have seriously cast doubt over the very existence of Jesus of Nazareth, claiming that there’s no evidence that He’s even a real, historical figure.

You tend to hear stuff like this a lot on the Internet, but such claims are noticeably absent in respected academic scholarship. When I say “academic scholarship”, I’m not just referring to conservative Christian scholars either. I’m including liberal scholars, atheists, agnostics and those of other faiths. To demonstrate this, here’s an interview with Bart Erhman, who is an agnostic, former Christian, and a well-known figure in the area of Biblical criticism:

(I’ve moved the video start time past the pejorative preamble)

Catholic Answers recently produced an article in response in response to a recent article on Salon.com also on this subject.

Bishop Flores RIP

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As those of you who live in San Diego will doubtless know by now, a few days ago, Bishop Flores passed away. A few months ago he suffered a stroke and we heard recently that his condition had seriously deteriorated.

Bishop Flores

I was a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council around the time Bishop Flores took over the care of San Diego Diocese from Bishop Brom. Through these Council meetings, as well as through various diocesan events, I got to know this shepherd of Christ reasonably well. He was kind and had a great sense of joy, as well as certainly having some fire in his bones! He was extremely supportive of the Young Adult Catholic Community here in San Diego.

At 7:30pm the Young Adult Community in San Diego will be praying a rosary for Bishop Flores. Please join us in prayer, even if you can’t make it to the church.

My favourite memory of the Bishop was at the Rite of Election this year. My roommate Nathan was entering the Church and I was (for my sins) his sponsor. As we stood with the other candidates and catechumens having a group photograph, Nathan whispered to me “I want to high five the bishop”. As Nathan is always a bad influence on me, I whispered back “Do it!”. Nathan quickly made his way down to the bishop. Oh, it was the highest of fives… 🙂

Now that Bishop Flores has gone to be with the Lord, I can’t help but think of the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the young Bishop Polycarp at the beginning of the Second Century:

The times call for you, as pilots do for the winds, and as one tossed with tempest seeks
for the haven, so that both you and those under your care may attain to God. Be sober
as God’s athlete: the prize set before you is immortality and eternal life
– St. Ignatius of Antioch to St. Polycarp

You have run your race, Bishop Flores. May you rest in peace.

Absolutely Relative

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I recently had a conversation in which a friend said that he was quite liked relativism. Relativism has all kinds of problems, not least of which is that there exists a logical contradiction at the most basic level, since it makes an absolute statement in saying that everything is relative.

Despite this logical error, relativism is extremely popular. After all, it seems a rather nice, live-and-let-live outlook on life. However, the very practical problem with relativism is that it’s not how we really live our lives, since we all hold many things to be absolute truths. This means that, in order to be a consistent relativist, one ends up having to say some pretty crazy things. For proof of this, please see the video below…

Update – Here’s a follow-up conversation on Facebook which I think is worth sharing so as to really spell out the ridiculousness of some of the things said:

Friend: Well besides the fact that Todd Friel is clearly a douche-bag, I am supremely in agreement with the relativist! Sorry!

Me: Oh yes, Todd is extremely obnoxious, that’s a given. But how can you agree with the relativist? Aside from the fact that he can’t see the inherent logical contradiction in the very definition of relativism, he says things which he can’t possibly believe to be true.

He couldn’t even affirm that 2+2=4! I can *guarantee* that he doesn’t live his life as though that could be false. Consider the question of his race. If that man had been asked in ANY other context, he’d have had no problem answering the simple question. He just knew that his paradigm was at stake, so he was forced to deny the obvious. This is the primary problem with relativism – it’s not how people really live their lives…

* If this guy bought some gum at a store with a $20 note, do you think he would complain if I tried to just give him a dime change? Are there objective arithmetic truths when his own money is at stake?! 🙂

* When this chap was filling in the enrollment form at college, do you really think he was unable to commit to saying that his ethnicity was African-American?

* When taking his Math final, do you think he seriously entertained the idea that 2+2=5?

* In his history class, do you think he would have disputed with someone who claimed that the Holocaust was evil? When studying about African Slavery in the deep south, do you think he would have suggested that, from a certain point of view, the brutal treatment of the slaves was, in fact, a morally praiseworthy thing?

This is the weakness with relativism – it’s not how anyone lives their life and, if applied consistently, renders someone completely unable to confront moral evil since even something as horrific as rape could technically be morally good from another person’s point of view.

Quick Apology: The Deuterocanon

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A couple of days ago I posted some of the important dates concerning the setting of the Biblical canon. Closely related to the subject of the canon is the issue of the deuterocanon, the books referred to by Protestants as “the apocrypha”, which were removed from the canon at the time of the Reformation.

I haven’t done a “Quick Apology” post this week, so here goes. However, rather than dealing with just one objection in this post, today I’m going to provide a series of brief rebuttals of the top ten most common objections raised….

Tobit

Protestants typically say that the deuterocanonical books shouldn’t be included in the Bible because…

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Canon Dates

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Since I’m going to be discussing the question of the canon with some Jehovah Witnesses this weekend, I thought I’d post a few of the important dates which I often need to look up when talking about the setting of the canon of Scripture:

AD 170
The Muratorian fragment describes a New Testament canon which includes all of today’s books, with the exception of Hebrews, James, and 3rd John.

AD 180
Melito of Sardis provides a list of Old Testament books, including Wisdom but excluding Esther.

AD 367
Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria lists in his 39th Festal Letter the canon.  His Old Testament canon generally excludes the deutercanon, but includes Baruch and excludes Esther. He includes the entire New Testament canon.

AD 382
The Synod of Rome lists the 73 books of the Catholic Canon.

AD 393
The Council of Hippo lists the Catholic Canon. As with the other local councils, the pronouncements of the council were sent to Rome to be ratified by the Pope.

AD 397
The Council of Carthage confirms the pronouncements of Council of Hippo.

AD 405
Bishop of Toulouse requests a list of all the books of Scripture from the Bishop of Rome. Pope Innocent I sends him the list of 73.

Jerome completes the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible.

AD 419
The Second Council of Carthage confirms the Catholic canon.

AD 1441
The Council of Florence also lists the 73 book canon.

AD 1563
The Council of Trent also lists the current day Catholic canon.

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For a detailed list of books used in the Early Church, please check out this post from Shameless Popery.

When Jehovah Witnesses come to call…

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I have two Jehovah Witnesses (JW) coming to see me this weekend…

early_watch_tower_cover

Knock, knock…

You see, two JWs turned up at my door about a month ago. They asked about religion so I told them a little bit about my faith journey. I explained how the issue of the canon (the Bible’s table of contents) was one of the decisive topics which brought about my return to Catholicism. 

How did they know that the table of contents was correct, I asked. I knew the various standard Protestant answers to this question and found them all unconvincing, but I wondered how a JW would answer it. The two missionaries at my door said they couldn’t answer that question, but they’d go find out and get back to me.

(This was, by the way, an excellent answer. When someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, it’s far better to say you don’t know, rather than trying to make something up on the spot. Just make sure that you do actually find out the answer and come back)

Well, this last Saturday I had two older chaps turn up at my door. I invited them in but they didn’t want to and instead booked an appointment with me for this weekend. I’m currently looking to find an icon of St. Nicholas to put up in time for their visit 😉

(There was a legend that St. Nicholas punched Arias in the face at the Council of Nicaea for denying the full deity of Christ, a doctrine also affirmed by JWs)

“But I’m no theology expert…”

I didn’t want to end this post without briefly mentioning something else on the subject of JWs. Not all Catholics will feel comfortable meeting with JWs and discussing theology, and others might just simply don’t have the time. However, I would like to share something that a friend of mine does when JWs call. She simply says the following:

glass-of-water“It’s really great that you care so much about your faith that you’re willing to give up your Saturday mornings to do this, but I should probably tell you I’m Catholic. In fact, I’m reeeeally Catholic, so I think I’d probably just be a waste of your time. 

It’s pretty hot outside today though, so would you like to take a chilled bottle of water to take with you?”

So, if you have to go pick up the kids for soccer practice or you’re busy getting brunch together and don’t have the time, I think this is a great response to give. It’s simple, it takes a grand total of thirty seconds to say and demonstrates concretely the love of Christ to those who love God enough to face rejection and abuse from strangers every week.

For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward. – Mark 9:41

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