Are there Protestant Bashing Books?

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I’ve run across numerous books written by non-catholics that really distort the facts about the Catholic Church. Lorrainne Boettner immediately comes to mind, as well as Jack Chick, and nearly anything written by the Church of Christ for their “Christian Developement” programs.

I"ll be the first to admit that I really am naive, but I’ve never run across books written by catholics that really bash protestants by distorting the facts. Are they too busy defending the Catholic Church or are there actually just too many to mention?

Let’s please keep this charitable. There will be no “So’s your momma” comments.

Notworthy
 
I remember 12-15 years ago many of the TAN books bashed Protestants. I dont know if they are still doing that.
 
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SolaChristo:
I remember 12-15 years ago many of the TAN books bashed Protestants. I dont know if they are still doing that.
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Which ones?
 
Catholic apologetics has always been defensive rather than offensive (i.e. bashing) in nature. Every mainstream (published by reputable publishers and not self-published by cranks) Catholic apologetics book I know is dedicated to refuting the charges brought up by anti-Catholics or by people that may mean well, but end up misrepresenting Catholic teaching so badly that a response is in order. In the process, of course, the inconsistencies and short-comings of non-Catholic theology may be pointed out, but that is different than writing a book for the express purpose of proving Protestantism wrong.

In other words, there are no Catholic equivalents to Lorraine Boetner’s Roman Catholicism, Ralph Woodrow’s Two Babylons, or James McCarthy’s The Gospel According To Rome. There are also no equivalent Catholic organizations like “Christians Evangelizing Catholics” or “Missions To Catholics.”
 
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SolaChristo:
I remember 12-15 years ago many of the TAN books bashed Protestants. I dont know if they are still doing that.
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I am curious to see that too, which ones? I really haven’t seen anything like Jack Chick tracts, or the Baptist tracts out there, (which are usually non illustrated tracts similar to Jack Chick tracts in tone)

I have several books now including one I just bought called Secrets of Romanism, but have not seen any like that from TAN.

I believe this is because the foundation of many churches are a rejection of Catholic belief and this influences some of their focus, some to the point of being expressly focused on attacking the Catholic Church.

God Bless
Scylla
 
I want to know WHY you want these books?? Just as references or to do comparisons, or what? I just find this a most interesting seach. I hate reading any book that bashes any faith, but if you’re using them as a research projoect and for general knowledge, I guess it’s ok.

I’m sure you can find something about Luther and the misconception that he formed the Lutheran church if you look hard enough. There are books on the Lutheran chuch and the start, and the changes in the church. Many have some pretty inaccurate statements, and some are written by non-Lutherans. Names, I can’t give them to you now, but I’ll do some searching. Books that bash other faiths were never on the shelf at the chuch library. Doesn’t it make you wonder just what kind of a miserable life someone leads if all they have to do write about is bashing a faith?!

Have a great day!
 
Why would you want to lower yourself to their standards?

I read the anti-Catholic books to prepair myself for the attacks. It really ticks off my brother and sisters of when I defuse their arguments with scripture, and I can do this because I already know their attack plan.

If you arm yourself with truth, you will never have to attack.
 
I think one reason for the laudable paucity of Protestant-bashing books is that when you believe you hold the fullnes sof Truth, you do not need to thow rotten eggs at anybody else.

We have enough to do in pulling the pins out of the grenades launched at us and throwing them back at our accusers.
 
“Catholics believe in salvation by works, You must be good enough to get to Heaven and if you commit sins, then you must confess these sins to a priest, in order to be forgiven. The priest will give you a penance to do which will make up for the sins and then you will be forgiven. If you commit a serious sin, called a mortal sin and die before you confess that sin, you will go to Hell.”

I recently read this in a Sunday School lesson. As a protestant I’d ask for a catholic’s opinon on this statement. I know its simplistic but is it the true basic’s of your faith or a complete misrepresentation?
 
smelton said:
“Catholics believe in salvation by works, You must be good enough to get to Heaven and if you commit sins, then you must confess these sins to a priest, in order to be forgiven. The priest will give you a penance to do which will make up for the sins and then you will be forgiven. If you commit a serious sin, called a mortal sin and die before you confess that sin, you will go to Hell.”

I recently read this in a Sunday School lesson. As a protestant I’d ask for a catholic’s opinon on this statement. I know its simplistic but is it the true basic’s of your faith or a complete misrepresentation?
Click to expand...

It is seriously flawed interpretation of Catholic teaching. And sadly, it hardly surprises me. People who write this sort of thing have done zero research from Catholic sources (oftentimes the excuse being that Catholic sources can’t be trusted :rolleyes: ). So, they simply write what another person ignorant of true Catholic teaching has said or written and so pass on, without a twinge of conscience, the same tired old falsehoods again, and again, and again, ad nauseum. :whacky:
 
smelton said:
“Catholics believe in salvation by works, You must be good enough to get to Heaven and if you commit sins, then you must confess these sins to a priest, in order to be forgiven. The priest will give you a penance to do which will make up for the sins and then you will be forgiven. If you commit a serious sin, called a mortal sin and die before you confess that sin, you will go to Hell.”

I recently read this in a Sunday School lesson. As a protestant I’d ask for a catholic’s opinon on this statement. I know its simplistic but is it the true basic’s of your faith or a complete misrepresentation?
Click to expand...

It is toying with Catholic belief. Salvation by works? Get serious! We do believe in confession to a priest: BEAUTIFUL thing! – (note: God does not leave the room. 😛 ) Penance "makes up for the sins? Puh-leeze! If you die before you repent of a mortal sin and avoid confession, then you risk Hell, but God, not the Church will be the judge of that. The difference is not subtle.

What kind of Sunday school was this? I find it odd that a non-Catholic Sunday school would “teach” about supposedly Catholic beliefs rather than those of its own denomination.
 
smelton said:
“Catholics believe in salvation by works, You must be good enough to get to Heaven and if you commit sins, then you must confess these sins to a priest, in order to be forgiven. The priest will give you a penance to do which will make up for the sins and then you will be forgiven. If you commit a serious sin, called a mortal sin and die before you confess that sin, you will go to Hell.”

I recently read this in a Sunday School lesson. As a protestant I’d ask for a catholic’s opinon on this statement. I know its simplistic but is it the true basic’s of your faith or a complete misrepresentation?
Click to expand...

If you want to know all about the Catholic faith, just ask a Protestant. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
 
smelton said:
“Catholics believe in salvation by works, You must be good enough to get to Heaven and if you commit sins, then you must confess these sins to a priest, in order to be forgiven. The priest will give you a penance to do which will make up for the sins and then you will be forgiven. If you commit a serious sin, called a mortal sin and die before you confess that sin, you will go to Hell.”

I recently read this in a Sunday School lesson. As a protestant I’d ask for a catholic’s opinon on this statement. I know its simplistic but is it the true basic’s of your faith or a complete misrepresentation?
Click to expand...

It is seriously flawed. Catholics do not teach salvaiton by works as this seems to imply. What we teach is salvation by grace through faith and works. Our works do have a direct effect on our salvation because they help us to mortify our desires. Praying(a work) helps us to become more succeptible to Gods grace. The desire to do these things though is the result of grace. Works also show our love for God. As James said, faith alone is dead.

As Revelation says, nothing imperfect shall enter heaven. Therefore you must be perfected in order to enter heaven. But this does not mean that if I do 500 good works I will enter heaven. What it means is that we must work on mortifying our desires. If we are not perfected on earth, we will be perfected in purgatory before we enter heaven.

Confession is necessary if you commit a mortal sin. The council of Trent says that you must either confess your mortal sins or have the intention to go to confession as soon as possible, to be saved.

Penance does not make up for a sin, it helps us to change. It is normally a penance of prayers. It is our response to Gods grace.
 
We do not earn salvation. However, we can lose salvation. “This charge I commit to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophetic utterances which pointed to you, that inspired by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith.” 1 Tm 1:18-19
 
I appreciate the response. I anticipated it not to be a true reflection of your faith but was curious. If someone would could you explain to me the biblical basis and logic behind confession to a priest. I have always been a little baffeled by this and would like to hear the reasoning behind it.
 
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smelton:
I appreciate the response. I anticipated it not to be a true reflection of your faith but was curious. If someone would could you explain to me the biblical basis and logic behind confession to a priest. I have always been a little baffeled by this and would like to hear the reasoning behind it.
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In John 20 Christ comes in to the room. He tells them peace be with you He then goes on to say that whose ever sins you forgive they are forgiven whose ever sins you retain they are retained. Christ is giving the apostles the permission to forgive or retain sins in this passage. Confession is a persons ability to confess what they have done and to get it off their chest. It is their chance to move on and to be assured that Christ has forgiven them. Confession is necessary because it is an act of repentance. You take the courage and go and confess all your sins and leave them with Christ. You are saying please forgive me of this sin Lord. By not confessing your sins you are holding back from Christ. Confession is a complete abandonment of your salvation to Christ. We are giving Christ full access to our souls.

There are other scriptures but this one should be good for now.
 
*Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." John 20:21-23) *
 
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smelton:
I appreciate the response. I anticipated it not to be a true reflection of your faith but was curious. If someone would could you explain to me the biblical basis and logic behind confession to a priest. I have always been a little baffeled by this and would like to hear the reasoning behind it.
Click to expand...
James tells us that we should confess our sins to one another, right? (James 5:16) So that means that in the Church, we confess not just to God alone, but “to the Church.” For practical purposes, we limit this to confession to a priest because priests receive the faculty of “binding and loosing” in matters of conscience from the bishop, who receives it through the laying on of hands at his consecration as bishop. The specific power to forgive sins is God-breathed by Jesus upon the Apostles on Easter night (Jn 20:22-23): And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

The Greek here is straightforward and forceful. Attempts to sidestep this by saying that Jesus is telling the Apostles that if they preach that God forgives sins, and people believe them, then their sins wll be forgiven are squirrely and just plain deceptive. Why would he need to breathe the charism into them for *that? *A lot of Protestants interpret the Catholic view as meaning that forgivenss is taken out of God’s hands and placed into the hands of mere men. Nothing could be further from the truth. ONLY God forgives sins: the Priest acts “in persona Christi” but fully under the authority of Christ.

Since the forgiveness of sins is the core of the Gospel message, the Magisterium of the Catholic Church interprets this verse as meaning that Jesus has given us this concrete means and assurance of forgiveness of post-baptismal sin. (This is one of the very few biblical passages about which the Church has made a formal interpretation, which is binding on the faithful – there are fewer than a dozen). The Church understands this passage (in light of James 15:16) to mean that a confession is necessary: otherwise, how would the priest know what to forgive?

The earliest records of the subapostolic Church (from the middle of the second centry) record the practice of confession – usually before the entire congregation ( :bigyikes: we’re kind of relieved that we don’t have to do that any more) but always in the presence of the presbyter:

In 2 Cor 2:10, Paul refers to having forgiven the incestuous man “in the person of Christ” (KJV) and later refers to being entrusted with “the ministry of reconciliation” and being “ambassadors for Christ” – IOW: entrusted with actual powers to forgive and reconcile from the King himself.

There’s more, but this should give you a start.
 
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