#catholicism

The Appeal of Roman Catholicism

Over the weekend a member of a mailing list I subscribe to asked an interesting question. Reflecting both on some of the highly-publicized “defections” of former Protestants to Roman Catholicism and some he has witnessed personally he asked “What is the appeal of Roman Catholicism?” I have sometimes wondered the same. Why is it that many Protestants eventually convert to Catholicism? To put things in context, my experience shows that a far greater number of Roman Catholics become Protestants than …

Seminar 1 – Phil Johnson – Is The Reformation Over?

It has become quickly apparent that this conference exists not merely to equip pastors, but also to serve and honor them (and perhaps even spoil them a little). At the close of the earlier session one of the organizers announced that there was an area for “shoe-shining and everything else a pastor needs.” I don’t know too many pastors that need to have their shoes shined (or who need to travel to Los Angeles to have them shined, at any …

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A Short History of Marian Devotion

Christianity Today has an interesting article entitled “Hail Mary” which traces the history of Marian devotion. It is quite short and makes for an interesting read. Here are the first few paragraphs: Mary responded in obedience. She called herself the Lord’s “handmaiden” (Luke 1:38, 48)—a humble title that set the tone for the rest of the New Testament accounts and became the foundation for centuries of Marian devotion. Mary recognized that she had become, like Enoch (Gen. 5:22) and Noah …

Michael Coren Returns Home

Michael Coren, if you are not familiar with him, is a newspaper columnist and television call-in show host in Toronto. Though I never looked into his denominational affiliation, I always assumed he was an evangelical based on the topics and guests on his show. When The Passion of the Christ released several months ago, he wrote a wonderful article about it, pointing out that it was nothing but the mass as a movie. He took issue with Gibson’s motives in …

A Cloud of Witnesses

I found an interesting list of quotes from some of the great Reformers and spiritual giants of the past concerning the Roman Catholic Church. I will post them below for your reading [dis]pleasure. As you read, remember that we may have lost site of the meaning of what the word “antichrist” means. We most often think of the prefix “anti-” as meaning “against,” but in context of antichrist it actually means “in place of.” So these men were not looking …