Apologetics for the Masses - Issue #164

General Comments

There’s a new video in the series, “Questions Protestants Can’t Answer,” up on YouTube. I put it up a few weeks ago but forgot to tell anyone. The topic for this video has to do with Sola Scriptura.

You can find it at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv9Egpd5kx8

Introduction

This week, while waiting for a response from Mr. Thrasher in our continuing debate on whether or not Peter was the 1st Pope, I thought I would do a couple of questions and answers. I don’t want to get involved with another ongoing discussion with someone until the one with Mr. Thrasher is done.

So, this week we have two questions – one is on whether or not God wants all men to be Catholic, and the second one is on Adam and Eve.

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Q:     I get the sense from what you write that you are of the opinion that God wants everyone to be Catholic. Is that a fair assessment of your belief?

A:    Indeed it is! I don’t know how someone who is Catholic could believe otherwise. Let’s look at the evidence. First of all, Scripture tells us that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” (1 Tim 2:4). So, God wants all men to know the truth.

Secondly, we see that Jesus Christ is the “way, the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6). So, God wants all men to know Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is the Truth and God wants all men to know the truth.

Thirdly, the church “is His body, the fullness of Him [Jesus Christ] Who fills all in all,” (Eph 1:23). So, God wants all men to be members of the church because the church is the fullness of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the Truth, and God wants all men to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Finally, since the Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ, then God wants all men to be Catholic. Now, you will get argument from many quarters as to whether or not the Catholic Church is the one true Church of Christ, but for those who call themselves “Catholic,” there should be no argument on whether or not God wants everyone to be Catholic.

And I say that for two reasons: 1) If God wants everyone to be Catholic, as the logic employed above tells us He does, then all Catholics, who pray “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” should want everyone to be Catholic as well, and, 2) It’s a matter of charity. Do we truly love our fellow man, or not? If we do, then would we not want everyone to have what we have? Would we not want everyone to receive Jesus in the Eucharist as we receive Him in the Eucharist? If it is a matter of charity to feed the physically hungry so that their stomachs are full, how much more a matter of charity it is to feed the spiritually hungry so that their souls are full! And everyone who is not receiving Jesus Christ – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – in the Eucharist is indeed spiritually hungry whether they realize it or not.

So, since God wants everyone to be Catholic, and since it is a matter of charity that we share what we have with others, then it behooves us, as Catholics, to do all in our power to bring everyone we can into the Catholic Church. In Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), paragraph 17, it states: “For the Church is driven by the Holy Spirit to do her part for the full realization of the plan of God, who has constituted Christ as the source of salvation for the whole world.” The Church as a whole “is driven by” the Holy Spirit for the salvation of the whole world. We then, as individual members of the Church, need to a driven by the Holy Spirit in our desire for the salvation of all.

Through our baptism, each and every one of us is called to the task of evangelization. Let us begin this new year, then, by resolving to take the task of the salvation of souls a bit more seriously than we may have done in the past. Let us resolve to be a driven people.

-———————————————————————————————————

Q:     "Who says the Catholic Church is the authentic interpreter of Scripture? Answer – the Catholic Church. How do you know for certain that Rome is the true infallible interpreter? The Catholic church is not the only church that claims to be the true church with an infallible interpreter. There are the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many others who make this same claim.”

A:    The Catholic Church does indeed claim to be the authentic interpreter of Scripture. Doesn’t it make sense that the Church founded by Jesus Christ would claim to be the authentic interpreter of Scripture? Who says that God is the one true God? God. Does that make His claim somehow illegitimate? Oh, sure, there are others making the claim that they are the authentic interpreters of Scripture, but doesn’t that also make sense that there would be impostors who wish to usurp the authority of the one true Church of Christ by claiming that authority for themselves? The difference is, the Catholic Church has the witness of history on its side.

When did the Jehovah’s Witnesses get started? Was it 2000 years ago in Israel? No. Are there Jehovah’s Witnesses temples in the Promised Land dating back to the early centuries? No. In Rome? No. Anywhere in the Middle East? No. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have, in fact, no witnesses.

The Mormons? Again, no witnesses. Did they start 2000 years ago in Israel? No. Did anyone else see the angel Joseph Smith claims to have seen? No. What about those gold tablets? No. Any evidence of those two great civilizations that Mormons claim existed on this continent 2000 years ago that supposedly annihilated themselves in an epic battle somewhere in what is now the state of New York? No. Archeologists can find arrowheads and pottery from small 10,000-year old Indian villages, yet not a single shred of evidence for either of these two great civilizations that Mormons claim existed just 2000 years ago. History tells us that Joseph Smith’s claims were bogus in oh so many ways.

The same holds for all the other pretenders to the throne. For all of them, they have no witnesses to bear out their claims. But, what about the Catholic Church? What witnesses does she have? Plenty. The witness of the Early Church Fathers, most of whom were bishops in the Catholic Church. They were not bishops in the Baptist church, nor the Presbyterian Church of America, nor the Mormon church nor the Lutheran church, nor the Anglican church.

The witness of history. Historians of all creeds and of no creed will tell you that the papacy can be traced back 2000 years. That the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ around the year 30 A.D. That the line of the Bishops authority can be traced to the Apostles.

Was it the monks of the Methodist church that preserved and copied the Scriptures in their monasteries over the centuries? No. The monks of the Evangelical church? No. The monks of any of the "non-denominational" churches? No. It was the monks of the Catholic Church that did so. Which church is it whose witness we rely upon for the canon of Scripture – to know that the Bible is indeed the inspired, inerrant Word of God? The Mormon church? No. The Evangelical church? No. The Jehovah’s Witnesses? No.

The witness of miracles. No church, that I am aware of, claims the existence of ongoing miracles – miracles that have eluded scientific explanation even to this day – other than the Catholic Church. The miracles of bodies of saints that are incorrupt. Eucharistic miracles that date back centuries. The miracles of such things as the tilma of Juan Diego, which should have disintegrated into dust over 400 years ago and whose image still cannot be explained by science. The many historical witnesses that relate the miracles performed by the saints – the Catholic saints – throughout the centuries – healings, raising people from the dead, bilocation, and many many more. All of these witnesses, and more, point to one and only one Church as the authentic interpreter of Scripture – the Catholic Church.

In Conclusion

If Mr. Thrasher gets a response to me in the next few days, then next week’s newsletter will continue our debate on Peter and the Pope. If not, then we’ll talk about something else.

I hope all of you have a great week!

How to be added to, or removed from, the list

If this newsletter was forwarded to you by a friend, and you would like to be added to our distribution list, all you have to do is go to www.biblechristiansociety.com and click on the “Newsletter” page to sign up. It will take you about 10 seconds.

$RemovalHTML$