What the Earliest Recorded Marian Prayer Reveals About the Early Church

Rylands Papyrus 470, containing the Sub Tuum Prayer

The earliest recorded prayer to Mary, dating to about 250 A.D. says: “Beneath your compassion, We take refuge, O Mother of God; do not despise our petitions in time of trouble, but rescue us from dangers, only pure, only blessed one.” Here’s what that tells us about the early Church.

The Case for Infant Baptism

Baptists and various other Evangelical groups believe that baptizing infants is contrary to the Bible. Catholics, in contrast, see it as not only Biblical, but salvific. The stakes are huge on this one, because it might be the difference between a person dying baptized or unbaptized. So let’s consider the case against infant baptism (and why… Continue reading The Case for Infant Baptism

Divorce and Remarriage in Matthew’s Gospel

Looking at Mark 10:1-12 and Matthew 19:1-12, the late Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D., who served as a professor of Theology and Church History at Andrews University, went over all of the possible meanings of porneia and moicheia. (For more on this, click the annulment tag at the bottom of this post — it explains it… Continue reading Divorce and Remarriage in Matthew’s Gospel

GotQuestions: A Negative Development

Those who have just started reading the blog recently may not be aware of an ongoing conversation I’ve been having with GotQuestions.org. They have an article about annulments which grossly misrepresents the Biblical evidence, in my opinion. If you want the full backstory, I’ve added a GotQuestions tag. Because it’s been a while, I’m going… Continue reading GotQuestions: A Negative Development

GotQuestions Update: A Positive Development

As part of the ongoing saga involving me communicating with GotQuestions.org about their coverage of all things (well, two things) Catholic, Shea responded to me today. If you’re not familiar with what’s gone on, here’s: My original e-mail from March, on the issue of annulments; A semi-related followup e-mail from May, on the issue of… Continue reading GotQuestions Update: A Positive Development

My response to GotQuestions

If you haven’t been following this, I’ve had an ongoing correspondence with GotQuestions.org ministry. I criticized an article they wrote on annulments (a very slightly reworked version can be found here), and later, an article they wrote on sola Scriptura (the comment here is my e-mail to them, and it included links to that post).… Continue reading My response to GotQuestions

GotQuestions Gets Angry

I mentioned yesterday that in March, I e-mailed GotQuestions.org about a post which I thought badly misinformed readers on the Biblical arguments surrounding divorce in cases of adultery. The article imputed bad faith to Catholics – NAB allegedly changed the Bible: “There does not seem to be any textual basis for the NAB’s choice of… Continue reading GotQuestions Gets Angry

Does the Bible Permit Divorce in the Case of Adultery?

I mentioned GotQuestions.org yesterday (and will mention them at least once more, tomorrow), but today’s post is only somewhat related to them. This is an e-mail I sent them a while back, but it addresses a topic which I think has been the source of great confusion: does the Bible permit divorce in the case… Continue reading Does the Bible Permit Divorce in the Case of Adultery?

Sola Scriptura, the Protestant View

As a followup to yesterday’s post, I was reading a handful of Protestant defenses of sola Scriptura. One of them jumped out at me, because (a) it was from a source I’ve come in contact with a lot (GotQuestions.org, who I’d already e-mailed a correction to regarding the issue of annulments); and (b) it was… Continue reading Sola Scriptura, the Protestant View