If you want to really pull the rug from under him, focus your energy on the Liturgy.
Your link is broken, but thank you anyway. We have not begun the debate yet because he is preparing as well. It will be back and forth messages through pm’s on another forum. I hope you and others can help me refute him and find good sources to defeat his arguments when the time comes.
The link is having issues, by adding an “S” to httpS it causes problems. Here is the fixed link:
Thank you, it works now.
Just don’t.
He is strongly against OSAS and does believe salvation can be lost, but he does also seem to espouse a monergistic doctrine of Sola Fide in regards to soteriology.
Think of it not as a debate, but an opportunity to be calm but sturdy in witnessing to him… don’t give up on yourself nor this person. It’s his soul that is thirsting/searching under the surface for answers about God in a sense for a reason- why else would he be confronting you?. I truly believe there is something hidden within this person’s soul that just needs some consolation about Catholicism in simpler terms (perhaps) for this person to comprehend the goodness & prosperity of our faith. In my experiences with Protestants questioning Catholic teachings & my faith, they would try getting under my skin to share their misunderstandings of particular concepts- but I didn’t let them bother me most of the time. Guard your words & actions with humility and patience in Christ, otherwise this person will assume all Catholics are like you…don’t let this person’s opinion of you matter because God alone is enough. Most importantly, pray for this person’s heart, mind, & soul to draw closer to Christ and be open to exploring Catholicism truly for what it is without judgement. With God the Father, God the Son, & God the Holy Spirit- you can do this. I will pray for this person wherever he or she is at along his/her faith journey & that he/she finds Christ because there’s no greater adventure, seeks Christ for there’s no greater achievement, & learns to truly love Christ for there’s no greater love than to be loved by Christ Himself. Hope that helps a bit.
Thank you! God bless!
Believe it or not, Catholic Answers & other Catholic resources have great advice in defending the faith from those who are against. Check out YouTube videos like these:
You can also explain to him that the communion of saints is not communicating with the dead.
He does not believe in praying to saints because the KJV does not have Tobit which states that Raphael took Tobit’s prayers up to God and supplemented for him (Tobit). KJV has 66 books. The balance 7 which the Catholic Bible has were in the KJV when it was first published in 1611. However, around 1800 they mysteriously disappeared from the KJV, There are all kinds of excuses why they disappeared including that the printer thought it would be cheaper to print if the 7 books were omitted. There are even versions of KJV that have the 7 books in the index but not in the body of the Bible.
You are probably wasting your time but I do have one thing that I use with such people.
You never told us which topic you will be debating. Is it Sola Scriptura or something else? As soon as you settle on a topic, make him stick to it. Once folks get cornered or run into something they can’t answer, they’ll try to change topics. If you see that you’ve found something he can’t answer, press him with questions to show him that he has no answer for them.