Response to Lorraine Boettner -

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So I’m at the point in life where I’m considering the Catholic church and my relationship to her. I don’t know if I yet buy ALL of the doctrines (some of them are hard to swallow as a recovering fundamentalist… 🙂 but I can say honestly that I think the Catholic church is more right than any other church with which I’ve been involved.

Anyway my folks are fairly anti-catholic, and loaned me a copy of the classic anti-Catholic bible, Roman Catholicism by Lorraine Boettner. It was fairly easy to demonstrate in about ten minutes with google that, for example, the idea of transubstantiation did not start in 1215 as he claims.

However, there are a myriad of accusations in the book, and for me to deal with each one will, I fear, take years. I don’t have all the time in the world on my hands.

Is there a book or volume or something from a catholic source that responds to this book? I’ve ordered Catholicism and Fundamentalism, and I have a few Scott Hahn books at my disposal as well.

Thanks!
 
You don’t have to refute everything in the book. After all, when you’ve caught a person in a dozen mis-statements, where does the burden of proof lay for the 13th statement?

So pick the few most fundamental claims in the book, research those, and judge the rest of the book by what you discover.
 
If he lied and perpuated those lies without blinking his eyes why would you trust him?
If Boettner used calumny for his agenda and it never bothered his conscience- why would anything he states be the truth?He poisoned his own well with his lies and distorted truths and people still want to drink from it? why?
 
gdgross said:
So I’m at the point in life where I’m considering the Catholic church and my relationship to her. I don’t know if I yet buy ALL of the doctrines (some of them are hard to swallow as a recovering fundamentalist… 🙂 but I can say honestly that I think the Catholic church is more right than any other church with which I’ve been involved.

Anyway my folks are fairly anti-catholic, and loaned me a copy of the classic anti-Catholic bible, Roman Catholicism by Lorraine Boettner. It was fairly easy to demonstrate in about ten minutes with google that, for example, the idea of transubstantiation did not start in 1215 as he claims.

However, there are a myriad of accusations in the book, and for me to deal with each one will, I fear, take years. I don’t have all the time in the world on my hands.

Is there a book or volume or something from a catholic source that responds to this book? I’ve ordered Catholicism and Fundamentalism, and I have a few Scott Hahn books at my disposal as well.

Thanks!
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He’s the one who has some kind of a problem with wax candles, right? I’ve never been able to figure him out - and I’m with the person who says to just refute the most glaring errors - say, five or six - and then, once you’ve shown them that you have answers to those ones, ask them to defend why they would believe a guy who can’t seem to read an elementary history book, or use straightforward logic.

Also, please ask them from me what the deal is, with the candles. 🤷
 
I never even heard of Lorraine Boettner, but I’m praying for you as you move toward the Catholic Church. I’m in a similar process myself. I haven’t the words to describe how happy I am with this decision. God’s every blessing to you, L.H.
 
Ditto on Karl Keating’s book. He addresses lots of Boettner specifically.
 
gdgross said:
So I’m at the point in life where I’m considering the Catholic church and my relationship to her. I don’t know if I yet buy ALL of the doctrines (some of them are hard to swallow as a recovering fundamentalist… 🙂 but I can say honestly that I think the Catholic church is more right than any other church with which I’ve been involved.

Anyway my folks are fairly anti-catholic, and loaned me a copy of the classic anti-Catholic bible, Roman Catholicism by Lorraine Boettner. It was fairly easy to demonstrate in about ten minutes with google that, for example, the idea of transubstantiation did not start in 1215 as he claims.

However, there are a myriad of accusations in the book, and for me to deal with each one will, I fear, take years. I don’t have all the time in the world on my hands.

Is there a book or volume or something from a catholic source that responds to this book? I’ve ordered Catholicism and Fundamentalism, and I have a few Scott Hahn books at my disposal as well.

Thanks!
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Oh, I have so been where you are! My entire family is Protestant…and when I became Catholic I found out how rabidly anti-Catholic they actually were. They are constantly coming to me with questions about my faith. It actually forced me to learn as much about my faith as possible as quickly as possible. Believe me, after 19 years as a Catholic, I still get stumped at some of the Questions…sometimes I just look at them and wonder how something that stupid could come out of their mouth. Like when JPII died and Benedict was chosen as his successor… I overheard my brother-in-law say “yes, that IS the dead Pope’s brother…because it is passed down…” I then had to (very carefully and very gently) explain how and why Benedict XVI is actually in no way related to JPII.

Scott Hahn and Karl Keating’s book, Catholicism and Fundamentalism are excellent beginnings. San Juan Catholic Seminars has a series of books on Beginning Apologetics by Jim Burnham and Fr. Frank Chacon. Catholicism and Fundamentalism is excellent because Keating devotes an entire chapter (chapter 2) to answering the silly accusations that Boettner makes…Also, Pope Fiction by Patrick Madrid. I also subscribe to Envoy Magazine you can get an online subscription for about $12. It is wonderful!

John Martignoni has a website where you can download apologetics talks for free - www.biblechristiansociety.com.

I will be praying for you and your family, :gopray:
CC
 
gdgross said:
So I’m at the point in life where I’m considering the Catholic church and my relationship to her. I don’t know if I yet buy ALL of the doctrines (some of them are hard to swallow as a recovering fundamentalist… 🙂 but I can say honestly that I think the Catholic church is more right than any other church with which I’ve been involved.

Anyway my folks are fairly anti-catholic, and loaned me a copy of the classic anti-Catholic bible, Roman Catholicism by Lorraine Boettner. It was fairly easy to demonstrate in about ten minutes with google that, for example, the idea of transubstantiation did not start in 1215 as he claims.

However, there are a myriad of accusations in the book, and for me to deal with each one will, I fear, take years. I don’t have all the time in the world on my hands.

Is there a book or volume or something from a catholic source that responds to this book? I’ve ordered Catholicism and Fundamentalism, and I have a few Scott Hahn books at my disposal as well.

Thanks!
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Do you have the Catechism? Here’s the search engine
scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

Many great links
catholic-convert.com/community/favorite-links/
 
gdgross said:
So I’m at the point in life where I’m considering the Catholic church and my relationship to her. I don’t know if I yet buy ALL of the doctrines (some of them are hard to swallow as a recovering fundamentalist… 🙂 but I can say honestly that I think the Catholic church is more right than any other church with which I’ve been involved.

Anyway my folks are fairly anti-catholic, and loaned me a copy of the classic anti-Catholic bible, Roman Catholicism by Lorraine Boettner. It was fairly easy to demonstrate in about ten minutes with google that, for example, the idea of transubstantiation did not start in 1215 as he claims.

However, there are a myriad of accusations in the book, and for me to deal with each one will, I fear, take years. I don’t have all the time in the world on my hands.

Is there a book or volume or something from a catholic source that responds to this book? I’ve ordered Catholicism and Fundamentalism, and I have a few Scott Hahn books at my disposal as well.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
CA’s reply Catholic "Inventions"
CA’s More Catholic "Inventions"
Response to Catholic "Inventions"
 
Thanks for the responses and prayers everyone!

I’ve ordered a few of the suggested books. (several for a few bucks each from half.com!)

I’ll check out some of the websites when I get a
chance too.

God bless guys (and girls)!
 
The fact that Boettner publishes large books without any references listed basically says it all.
 
Yeah… one need only read Karl Keeting’s Catholicism and Fundamentalism to see how much of the a-C propaganda is taken from Boettner’s lying polemics.

Fortunately, the internet is supplying a massive amount of refutation of that kind of stuff and any honest person will be both astonished and distressed if they discover that they were taught all this baseless propaganda.

May God grant them the graces of true and deep conversion.
 
Something else to keep in mind about Boettner: keep in mind that a half-truth can be as misleading as an outright lie. For example, suppose I said “no one believed in God before the year 1400”; would that be true or false? In the sense that “God” is an English word, and it was not common to write the word as “God” (rather than as, say, “Godde”) before 1400, the statement is true. But is the* idea true? No, and the statement would be misleading. In the same way, the term “transubstantiation” is a medieval philosophical term; and would not have been used to explain how *the eucharist became Christ before a revival in the philopsophy of Aquinas in the 12th Century, because the word did not exist in Latin until that time. However, the *idea *expressed by that term )that is, the bread and wine changed truly into the Body and Blood fo Christ) was believed by Christians from the time of the apostles; indeed, it is expressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians. Since almost nothing Boettner says is completely accurate, the real parlor game to play with his babbling is to determine whether there is some warped or twisted or misunderstood grain of truth in the statement, or whether that particular false claim he is making is without any ghost of a foundation whatsoever.
 
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