Yesterday, I described a class lecture given by a Lutheran pastor, Mark Anderson, on the canon of Scripture and the authority of the early Church. Pastor Anderson showed how rejecting the authority of the early episcopacy would leave you without a Bible and without any reliable way of distinguishing orthodoxy and heresy, admitted that Protestantism… Continue reading Answering Lutheran Objections to Church Structure and Authority
Tag: church structure
Warning Others of the Disease of Sin, or the Dangers of False Charity
If you had a friend who was oblivious to the fact that he was dying of an easily-treatable disease, would you warn him? Would you, perhaps, do even better than that, and tell him how to get treatment? Certainly, I’d hope so. Otherwise, what sort of friend are you? And ideally, you could even bring… Continue reading Warning Others of the Disease of Sin, or the Dangers of False Charity
How the “Robber Council” Establishes the Papacy
At least three groups of Christians – Eastern Orthodox, traditional Protestants, and liberal Catholics – assail the papacy by arguing that the Church Councils should be our highest authority, an idea called “concilarism.” It’s a good argument – after all, Councils can be infallible, they’re part of the Magisterium, and so forth, so don’t Catholics go… Continue reading How the “Robber Council” Establishes the Papacy
An Evangelical Disproves Evangelicalism
Yesterday, I talked about Scot McKnight’s essay From Wheaton to Rome: Why Evangelicals become Roman Catholic, in which he explores reasons people leave Evangelicalism for Catholicism. It’s written from the perspective of a Protestant (McKnight’s an Anabaptist), but one more interested in finding out the real reasons people become Catholic, than on belittling those reasons. Because… Continue reading An Evangelical Disproves Evangelicalism
Milk and Meat: What We Can Learn from Evangelicalism (and Vice Versa)
You can learn a lot from comparing Catholic converts to Protestantism with Protestant converts to Catholicism. Catholics tend to leave because their basic needs aren’t being met. Protestants tend to leave because only their basic needs are being met. I think that the best evidence shows that Catholics need to be better at presenting and living… Continue reading Milk and Meat: What We Can Learn from Evangelicalism (and Vice Versa)
How Did the Puritans Become Unitarians?
One of the strangest religious transitions in American history is that the Puritan congregations in New England became Unitarian Universalists. It would be hard to find a religious group who cared more about getting doctrine exactly right than the Puritans, yet within the span of only a few generations, they’d devolved into something unrecognizable as either… Continue reading How Did the Puritans Become Unitarians?
The Charismatic Movement and the Catholic Church
One of the points of disagreement within Christianity is between “Cessationists” (who believe that some of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit, like tongues and prophesy, died out with the Apostles) and the “Continuationists” (who say that those gifts never died out). I’m not looking to settle that dispute today. Rather, I wanted to point out something… Continue reading The Charismatic Movement and the Catholic Church
The Catholic Answer to Rigorism
Tomorrow’s the feast day for St. Optatus of Milevis. A while back, I gave something of a 20,000 foot view outlining his views on the sacraments, the Real Presence, the Sacrifice of the Mass, the papacy, and schismatics. Short answer: he was incredibly Catholic. Well, Bryan Cross at Called to Communion has a fantastic post on him… Continue reading The Catholic Answer to Rigorism
St. John and St. Peter: Love and the Church
At Men’s Group on Wednesday, Fr. Kelly talked briefly about the roles played by John and by Peter in the early Church. Peter is the “Ecclesiastical Disciple,” the one on whom Christ entrusts authority of the Church, who He generally leaves in charge. It’s Peter that Christ builds His Church upon, calls to be the… Continue reading St. John and St. Peter: Love and the Church
Cardinal George Suspends Renegade Father Michael Pfleger
Cardinal Francis George has done the right thing and suspended Fr. Michael Pfleger again. It’s regrettable, but long overdue. Father Pfleger is the archetypal out-of-control priest. You’ve got all the elements: He’s self-obsessed and self-promoting; promotes heretical views; focuses on power and politics, rather than self-sacrifice or Christianity; promotes a heavily political strand of “social justice” theology,… Continue reading Cardinal George Suspends Renegade Father Michael Pfleger