L
Little_Mary
Guest
I am posting Issue #1 of a newsletter published by The Bible Christian Society. The founder, John Martignoni, is a well respected Catholic apologist. His focus is on the bible to defend our faith, and he is a tremendous speaker.
Please read the newsletter below, then go to his website www.biblechristiansociety.com and subscribe.
John is also available for speaking engagements. His website includes a calendar and contact information. Thanks!
Topic: Apologetics for the Masses: Issue #1
Introduction
The purpose of this newsletter is not to just give you actual examples of apologetics discussions I have had with folks about the Catholic Faith, but to also give you the apologetics strategies and tactics behind what I say. Hopefully, you can take these strategies and tactics and apply them in your own apologetics discussions.
A little about the newsletters themselves: Discussions with any one person may take up multiple volumes of this newsletter or they may take up just one volume of the newsletter…depending upon whether or not they responded to me and how often they responded.
My goal is to publish two newsletters a month. There will be an introduction, then the “Question/Challenge” and “My Response” to the question/challenge. The “Strategies and Tactics” section will correspond to the “My Response” section. It will go paragraph by paragraph in giving you the thinking behind my response. Then there will be a short closing note.
Some of these newsletters may be long, some may be short. Initial discussions with someone tend to be broader and cover more topics, and, therefore, tend to be longer. As I continue a discussion with someone, I try to narrow the topics down, which will make for some shorter newsletters.
I hope, that if you like these newsletters, you will forward them to as many people as possible in your email lists, Catholic and non-Catholic alike and ask them to sign up themselves by going to the website… biblechristiansociety.com.
This initial volume of the newsletter covers a discussion I got into with a person who has recently left the Church. He was letting a friend of mine know why he left, and that friend forwarded the message to me, and I jumped into the fray, so to speak. It is rather long because it was one of our first exchanges and I am trying to respond fully to his questions and comments. (I copy the emails just as I receive them, so any spelling or grammatical errors are from the original.)
Question/Challenge
Email from Former Catholic:
Hi John,
Your website mentions Mary in perpetual virginity. The bible makes it clear that Jesus has one or two (maybe more) brothers. Where does the “perpetual virginity” come from?
Could you explain the Catechism to me? Why did the Magesterium need to clarify what God said? Why did it take them and the popes 600 or so pages to do so in the Catechism? Aren’t they clearly saying “Who cares what God’s word says - we can read his mind and we know what he tried to say so let us tell you”?
In five places the bible says very clearly that church leaders can be married (1 Corinthians 9:5, 1 Timothy 3:2 and 3:12, 1 Timothy 4:2-3, Titus 1:6), yet popes ignore God and say the opposite. That’s a minor topic, but it suggests the possibility of similar errors in bigger topics, like salvation. Jesus warned that things like this would happen (Matthew 7:13-27, 1 Timothy 1:3-7, 4:1-2, Mark 7:6-13, Colossians 2:8).
Where does the bible mention “mortal” sins, confession to a priest, or the existance of purgatory? With confession for example, 1 Timothy 2:5 says “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ”. Priests in confession are clearly not the mediator (as also stated in 1 John 2:1). Revelation 22:18-19 says “I warn everybody who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues, and if anyone takes words away from this book, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life.” Over 90% of religions have done this.
Remember Jesus’ talk with Nicodemus where he clearly says not once but twice that you must be “born again”? Why is “born again” not even referred to at all in the Catechism or Catholic definition of salvation?
Unlike the old days when I assumed the pope and priests knew what they were talking about, now I’ve seen way too much clear evidence that they just follow blind human tradition and a man-made religion set up to serve man’s ego. It’s as clear as simple things like:
Please read the newsletter below, then go to his website www.biblechristiansociety.com and subscribe.
John is also available for speaking engagements. His website includes a calendar and contact information. Thanks!
Topic: Apologetics for the Masses: Issue #1
Introduction
The purpose of this newsletter is not to just give you actual examples of apologetics discussions I have had with folks about the Catholic Faith, but to also give you the apologetics strategies and tactics behind what I say. Hopefully, you can take these strategies and tactics and apply them in your own apologetics discussions.
A little about the newsletters themselves: Discussions with any one person may take up multiple volumes of this newsletter or they may take up just one volume of the newsletter…depending upon whether or not they responded to me and how often they responded.
My goal is to publish two newsletters a month. There will be an introduction, then the “Question/Challenge” and “My Response” to the question/challenge. The “Strategies and Tactics” section will correspond to the “My Response” section. It will go paragraph by paragraph in giving you the thinking behind my response. Then there will be a short closing note.
Some of these newsletters may be long, some may be short. Initial discussions with someone tend to be broader and cover more topics, and, therefore, tend to be longer. As I continue a discussion with someone, I try to narrow the topics down, which will make for some shorter newsletters.
I hope, that if you like these newsletters, you will forward them to as many people as possible in your email lists, Catholic and non-Catholic alike and ask them to sign up themselves by going to the website… biblechristiansociety.com.
This initial volume of the newsletter covers a discussion I got into with a person who has recently left the Church. He was letting a friend of mine know why he left, and that friend forwarded the message to me, and I jumped into the fray, so to speak. It is rather long because it was one of our first exchanges and I am trying to respond fully to his questions and comments. (I copy the emails just as I receive them, so any spelling or grammatical errors are from the original.)
Question/Challenge
Email from Former Catholic:
Hi John,
Your website mentions Mary in perpetual virginity. The bible makes it clear that Jesus has one or two (maybe more) brothers. Where does the “perpetual virginity” come from?
Could you explain the Catechism to me? Why did the Magesterium need to clarify what God said? Why did it take them and the popes 600 or so pages to do so in the Catechism? Aren’t they clearly saying “Who cares what God’s word says - we can read his mind and we know what he tried to say so let us tell you”?
In five places the bible says very clearly that church leaders can be married (1 Corinthians 9:5, 1 Timothy 3:2 and 3:12, 1 Timothy 4:2-3, Titus 1:6), yet popes ignore God and say the opposite. That’s a minor topic, but it suggests the possibility of similar errors in bigger topics, like salvation. Jesus warned that things like this would happen (Matthew 7:13-27, 1 Timothy 1:3-7, 4:1-2, Mark 7:6-13, Colossians 2:8).
Where does the bible mention “mortal” sins, confession to a priest, or the existance of purgatory? With confession for example, 1 Timothy 2:5 says “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ”. Priests in confession are clearly not the mediator (as also stated in 1 John 2:1). Revelation 22:18-19 says “I warn everybody who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues, and if anyone takes words away from this book, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life.” Over 90% of religions have done this.
Remember Jesus’ talk with Nicodemus where he clearly says not once but twice that you must be “born again”? Why is “born again” not even referred to at all in the Catechism or Catholic definition of salvation?
Unlike the old days when I assumed the pope and priests knew what they were talking about, now I’ve seen way too much clear evidence that they just follow blind human tradition and a man-made religion set up to serve man’s ego. It’s as clear as simple things like:
- The pope letting people bow down before him.
- The pope took no action to fix the sex abuse scandel - that’s infallible??
- The whole “infallible” thing - clearly the bible says the opposite, and makes no exception for the pope.
