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Apologetics for the Masses - Issue #132
General Comments
I hope all of you are having a very merry Christmas Season and that the New Year brings many blessings for you and your loved ones. Two things to mention here: 1) A thank you from the Acosta family; and 2) Re-thinking the process for mailing CDs to Baptist (or other non-Catholic) ministers.
1) Here’s a message from Andy and Arlene Acosta, the family I mentioned in Issue #130 that was having such a difficult time:
Dearest Friends in Christ of the Bible Christian Society:
The outpouring of charity from you has been beyond what we could have imagined. Truly an AWESOME God that we have. This outpouring of God’s blessing and Grace are a big help to my wife, who about 2 months ago stopped attending Mass. She had convinced herself that although God exists, he’d turned his back on our plight and regardless of our prayers had neglected our requests and provided us with no real hope.
For myself, when I have the time to reflect on what has and is happening to us, I get mixed feelings about what His Divine Will is for our family. The thoughts and regrets of the sins of my past often haunt me and lead me down a dark road to feelings of depression. But, in those moments I have been asking for Christ’s Divine Mercy and, through the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, for the strength to carry on. As a 2nd Degree Knight of Columbus, I have asked for the prayers of the founder of this society, Father Michael McGivney to intercede on my behalf for a more secure future and a renewed business career, in hope for his cause for cannonization.
Many of you have asked for our prayers as well. Please know that we have prayed for all the families that have blessed us through the Bible Christian Society. For me, I believe that at this time in our spiritual life we are more united to Our Crucified Lord because of the trials and tribulations we are facing. I believe our intercessions, not only for our own family, but also our prayers for you and your families, are finding a special place in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, united as they are with our trials and sufferings, and with the prayers of Mary. Our prayers go out to every one of you for all your kind acts of charity.
A very sincere thank you to all you blessed families for your prayers and financial assistance during these truly unsure times our family is going through. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we will you and yours during this Holy season of Christmas. We especially will keep close to our heart those of you who are in the same financial situation that we are and those that have asked for prayers for family members that have left the Church.
May the Lord be with you all. “…for unto us a savior is born.” Merry Christmas!
Love, in Christ through Mary,
Andrew & Arlene Acosta & Family.
Andy has not yet found a job, but the influx of funds from you guys has certainly helped out in a big way. Please do continue to keep the Acosta family in your prayers.
2) Now, regarding the idea I mentioned in the last newsletter about ordering the CD, “Baptist Minister Becomes Catholic Priest,” and having it anonymously sent to one or more Baptist Ministers in your area. A number of folks got confused when they went to the website about exactly how to do that. So, let’s try something that I think might be a bit easier.
If you would like to send that particular CD, or any other CD or CDs (several folks also sent the “Rapture and the Bible” CD) to one or more Baptist ministers – or to any non-Catholic for that matter – simply make a donation on the “Donations” page for $1.00 per CD, and then email us, through the “Contact Us” page on the website, the name(s) and address(es) of those to whom you want us to send the CD. We already have a letter typed up to send along with the CDs and we will not mention your name unless you tell us to do otherwise. Let’s try that and see how it works.
Introduction
Okay, this week I’m going to give you guys a little apologetics exercise – get you to think about how you would respond to a particular situation, before you read about how I would respond to it. And I’m gonna trust you to sit down and think about it before you read my initial response…
Challenge/Response/Strategy
The Situation:
In the last newsletter, I gave you a couple of my "Two-Minute Apologetics" articles, both of which had to do with the biblical support for the Mass. After sending out that newsletter, I received an email from a Mr. Ron Kempen, a subscriber to the newsletter – who is not Catholic – who has, for a couple of years now, been sending me emails about my newsletters telling me how wrong I am.
Here is his email in its entirety (misspelling and bad grammar in the original):
John Martignoni,
You are certainly foolinig yourself with your religion. This is a much more, make that a very much more better description of the mass. http://gospellightmin.com/articles_by_others.php?id=74. It’s time for you to wake up or as John (the apostle) says in his gospel, the truth will set you free!
Ron Kempen
Your Response?
So, take a few minutes and think about how you would respond to Mr. Kempen. You don’t need to email me or anything, just think about it before reading my response below. You can go to the link he mentions and read that garbage if you wish, but it’s not really necessary in order to complete this exercise. But, if you do read the article at the link he gives, think also about how you would initially respond to that. And I say "initially," because you always need to remember that you don’t have to respond to every single point all at once.
Hint: As I see it, there is one major point of contention with Mr. Kempen’s response – go back and read what I wrote in the last newsletter (if you don’t still have it, you can go to the "Newsletter" page of our website – www.biblechristiansociety.com – and read it) and then look again at his response.
Also, if you do read the article at the link he sent, think about how you would initially respond to that. Keep my "Rules of Engagement" and my 4 apologetics strategies – The Ignorant Catholic; How to Be Offensive (Aw-fensive) Without Being Offensive (Uh-fensive); It’s the Principal of the Thing; and "But That’s My Interpretation" – in mind.
[Jeopardy music plays ever so quietly in the background…]
My Response:
The first, and most important, thing that I would say about Mr. Kempen’s response, is that he didn’t address a single one of the Scripture verses I used to support Catholic teaching on the Mass! And you know what, neither did that article he linked to, just in case you read it. In my newsletter I cited Malachi 1:11, 1 Cor 10:16-18, specific verses in Hebrews chapters 5, 8, and 9, and Hebrews chapters 4-10 in general. Those Scripture passages all fit very well with specific Catholic teaching on the Mass, and that prophecy from Malachi 1:11 gives a very good description of what occurs within the Catholic Church on a daily basis. Did Mr. Kempen even attempt to give an alternative interpretation for a single one of those verses? No, he did not.
So, the first thing I would do in response to Mr. Kempen’s email would be to say, "Answer those Scripture passages. Tell me how those specific passages fit into your theological system. Give me your interpretation of those verses." And why do we want to hear his interpretation of those verses? Because his interpretation won’t make a whole lotta sense and we will then be able to systematically pick apart his un-systematic theology, just by asking him a few questions. I would not bother responding to anything in that article he linked to until such time as he had responded to what I had initially written. He’s telling me I’m wrong, well, show me why I’m wrong. Don’t just wave your hand and say, "You’re wrong," and then send me off to read some article somebody else has written that doesn’t even address what I’ve said. I don’t mind reading what someone else has written, but first I want you to respond to my arguments. Do not let the other guy set the pace. You set the pace, you define the arguments, you make him respond to what you have to say.
Now, if you read that article he linked to, what is the first response you had to it? My first response was: This is all 100% his private, fallible, non-authoritative, non-binding, man-made interpretation and why should I eat this garbage he’s throwing out? Well, in truth, my very first response was: Oh for cryin’ out loud…another ex-Catholic telling us how "devout" he was and and what a wonderful Catholic he was, that is, of course, until he got "saved." You know, it amazes me how all of these formerly "devout" Catholics seem to have serious misunderstandings regarding exactly what the Church teaches…as this guy does. I used to think "devout" meant closely adhering to Church teaching in word and in deed, but after reading about all these "devout" former Catholics, apparently it actually means being ignorant of Church teaching. Go figure…I guess I was just devout about what devout means.
Anyway, back to it being that guy’s opinion. Here’s a quote from the article: "My study of the Scriptures had caused me to doubt the Catholic interpretation of the Mass. My mind was already prepared to accept the fact that the bread and wine were symbols. Now I found my heart confirming that truth."
"His" study of the Scriptures caused him to doubt the Catholic interpretation of the Mass. Is he an authoritative interpreter of Scripture? I guess he must be! Is he infallible in his interpretations? Well, I guess so! And look at what confirmed it for him…his heart. In other words, his final authority for declaring the Catholic Church wrong about the Mass is…(drum roll please)…his feelings. I guess that’s all anyone would need, right?
If you do read through that article, pay close attention to what the Bible verses he quotes actually say, versus all the verbiage he adds to them. He stretches and twists Scripture quite a bit.
Regarding my giving a response to that article, if Mr. Kempen responds by directly addressing the Scripture verses I brought up in the previous newsletter, then I will be more than happy to give a response to the article he linked to. I might address that article in a future newsletter anyway, because there was one huge contradiction in it where he completely destroys his own arguments (see if you can find it), but I’ll just have to wait and see.
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In Conclusion
Again, I hope 2010 is filled with many blessings for you and your loved ones. Please keep us (both of us) here at the Bible Christian Society in your prayers throughout the year – we will be keeping you and yours in ours.
God bless!
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