The Heart Of The Romanist Appeal To Protestants: Skepticism

…If the Roman Catholic Church is infallible, in other words, if the Roman Catholic Church cannot possibly teach error, then it obviously makes sense to say what Ignatius said. If you want certainty about being right, you simply go with whatever this infallible church says, even if what that church says contradicts your own senses or reasoning. If something looks white to you and the church says it is black, you have to believe it is black. You can’t have any certainty if you trust your own sensory or rational faculties. Your sensory and rational faculties are fundamentally unreliable.

Many Roman Catholic apologists use some of the principles underlying Ignatius’s statement when they are attempting to convince Protestants to cross the Tiber and join the Roman Catholic Church. These apologists regularly point to the differences of opinion among Protestants to hammer home the idea that epistemological certainty resides only in Rome.

Protestants are told that they cannot trust their own interpretations of Scripture, church history, the church fathers, or anything else for that matter. They cannot trust their own evaluations of the evidence. They cannot trust themselves to tell the difference between black and white. Their sensory and rational faculties are attacked at every point. Those who buy into this way of thinking start to doubt everything, and they start to wonder where they can find stable ground. The Roman apologist is waiting to tell them that the only ground of certainty is Rome. Rome will tell you what is black and what is white. Read more»

Keith Mathison | The Roman Catholic Call To Confusion | Light In Dark Places | September 7, 2021

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  • R. Scott Clark
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    R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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