fineca:
I found this book by Dave Armstrong on amazon. Has anyone read it? Any comments? Anyhow there was a reviewer who wrote the following agains the Church that I’d like to get some Catholic Answers for…:
*The 5-fold ministry of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher was smoothly integrated with the 3-fold church offices of bishop (the head pastor and head elder of a local congregation), elder, and deacon.
*There was no distinction of “clergy” and “laity,” and the word “priest” only applied to the priesthood of all believers.
*Paul states husbands and wives should not stop having sex except for rare instances which they both agree upon to devote to prayer (I Cor 7:3-5). Rome teaches period continence (the rhythm method) as birth control.
*Jesus states “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me” (John 6:45) and “No one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). Rome teaches that all religions lead to God (CCC 842).
Thank you
Emil
First, Dave Armstrongs book (and his other ones) are very good and worth reading. It won’t give apologetics answers to everything (neither will Karl Keatings “Catholicism & Fundamentalism” which I’m reading at the moment). If you can stand to read books from a computer monitor Armstrong’s books can be bought direct from him here:
socrates58.blogspot.com/ The site seems to be down just at this moment but hopefully will be back soon and it’s just a temporary blip (or my server is playing tricks again). There’s masses of good articles on that site too.
Second, the last of the questions. Hopefully I’m not about to increase confusion levels and can be of some help. Whenever you hear someone trying to say Catholicism is wrong and gives a Catechism reference, always check the reference. According to the problem, in CCC 842, “Rome” teaches that all religions lead to God. Ok, here’s CCC 842:
The Church’s bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place the common origin and end of the human race:
All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs extend to all against the day when the elect are gathered together in the holy city. . .331
This doesn’t say that all religions lead to God does it? It does say that the common destiny of all people is God - but whether that will be for salvation or not is not stated, just that the elect will be gathered together in the holy city.
Paragraph 843 reads:
The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life."332
And paragraph 845 reads:
To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son’s Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is “the world reconciled.” She is that bark which “in the full sail of the Lord’s cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world.” According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah’s ark, which alone saves from the flood.334
Other relevant paragraphs in the section can be read here:
scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a9p3.htm#III
That’s fast becoming a favourite website even though I have a proper book copy of the Catechism.
You can form your own answer to the question from the Catechism quotations.
It’s amazing how the Catholic Church is being accused here of saying that all religions lead to God. The normal accusation is that the Catholic Church says that if you’re not a Catholic, fully submitted to the Pope, then you are damned for eternity.
Other people can answer the other questions - or reanswer the last one. If anyone has good links to material to defend the concept of an ordained priesthood when confronted with the accusation that “there is only the priesthood of all believers now”, please let me know too. It’s not something covered in most of the regular apologetics places and I know that when converting I struggled with this very issue.
