- Why is it completely silent about infant baptism, instrumental music in worship, indulgences, confession to priests, the rosary, the mass, and many other things in the Catholic Church?
This particular question of his stood out to me and I have thoughts but first, an observation: all his scripture references are New Testament. If he is truly a “Bible-believing” Christian as he claims, he ought to be able to reference Old Testament verses to back up his claims as well. Granted, I know he’ll likely say that the OT is all history and the “Old Covenant” and that the NT includes the life of Christ in whom we are a part of the “New Covenant.” In that, he would be partially right but not totally. Christ is not an instigator of a “new covenant” but the fulfillment of the old one. This doesn’t mean we ought to discount the OT though. There is much to be learned from it. For instance (and this brings me to question 14 above):
Infant baptism – baptism is the fulfillment of the old requirement of circumcision. I have no doubt that when God commanded that the Israelite men all be circumsised that it was done not only to the grown men but also the young boys and infant boys as well. There is plenty of OT evidence for circumcision. To the question of baptism though, in Acts 16 (haha! a NT reference!) we find the story of the jailer who Paul witnessed to who believed. Verse 33 says: “then he and
ALL his family were baptized at once” (emphasis mine). Note that Luke (the writer of Acts) says that ALL his family were baptized. Not just the jailer or the jailer and his wife – ALL the family. Back in that day, that was likely a number of people of varying ages too – from geriatric grandparents to aunts and uncles to cousins to siblings and yes, Virginia, even to infants. There is another reference to an entire household believing and being baptised in Acts 18:8.
Instrumental music in worship – I don’t know of any NT verses to support this but there are SEVERAL in the book of Psalms that support the use of musical instruments in worship. Harp, lyre, drums, and timbrel are all mentioned specifically and perhaps a few other instruments. Clearly your friend hasn’t visited the Psalms recently. There are a number of Psalms that even direct the singer to be accompanied on a particular instrument. An example is Psalm 54 which directs one to use “stringed instruments.” So if we don’t discount the OT, then it is clear that instruments are both permissible and encouraged.
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Confession to priests** – Ask your friend how he interprets John 20:23 if he thinks it does not refer to confession – “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” I don’t see how anyone could logically (and with Scripture alone) say that that verse means anything else. I’m sure someone out there has an interpretation for it that is different but I doubt it makes much sense.
As to indulgences, the rosary, the Mass and the “many other things” he is referring to, in my humble opinion, he is sadly misinformed. I can’t speak to indulgences as I know little about them myself, but I can say that the Rosary is very scriptural in its nature. No, the Rosary isn’t “in the Bible” in the sense that the word or practice is mentioned there but its origins (the 150 Psalms) are there and the basis for our meditations is there as well as the words of the prayers we pray while meditating. As for the Mass, well, it is nothing if not scriptural. The prayers that we pray during the Mass come, in large part, from Holy Scripture in addition to the readings that are read directly from scripture. Again, the Bible is silent on the Mass in that there is no mention of it directly (in other words, nowhere does it say, “And thus, they celebrated the Holy Mass…”) but there are examples of the rites and rituals throughout scripture – both OT and NT.
All of the above said, I agree with several other posters who have advised you to make this guy pick one of the list of things to have a conversation with you about or debate. Having a gigantic list of stuff and throwing ninety hundred scripture references at you along with it is a tactic used to overwhelm the person you’re trying to debate with and frankly, it’s weak. If this guy can’t pick one thing (and stick to it) then I wouldn’t engage with him in any kind of debate because it will be fruitless at best and increase your blood pressure at worst. At any rate, good luck and God bless you!
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