Pope Francis confessed Thursday that he took the rosary cross of his late confessor from his casket and wears it to this day in a fabric pouch under his cassock. He said he did so telling the late priest, “Give me half . . . Continue reading →
Roman Catholicism
Rome: “Pay Now Or Pay Later”
(HT: Dabney Olguin) More On This Topic Selling Indulgences In Case You’re Worried About Purgatory Indulgences Are Back Has The Roman Doctrine of Justification Changed? The Treasury Of The Church
Justification And Sanctification: Conjoined, Coherent, But Distinct
For he means, that not an individual among mankind will be found in whom the promise of salvation may be accomplished, if it involves the condition of innocence; and that faith, if it is propped up by works, will instantly fall. This . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Rome Is A Bird With Borrowed Feathers
Having ascertained Paul’s meaning, let us return to the Papists. First, by applying this eulogium to themselves, they act wickedly; because they deck themselves with borrowed feathers. For, granting that the Church were elevated above the third heaven, I maintain that it . . . Continue reading →
Christ Is The Mark
…Christ is the mark whereat faith must aim; and, therefore, men’s minds do nothing else but wander when they turn aside from him. Therefore, no marvel if all the divinity of Popery be nothing else but an huge lump and horrible labyrinth; . . . Continue reading →
Black Friday, Subjectivism, And Christian Liberty
On 24 November, the Roman Bishop, Francis, issued a document, Evangelium Gaudii which the Vatican classifies as an “Apostolic Exhortation.” It’s a book, a really long (217 pages) sermon. Rome is a complicated creature with seemingly endless categories offices, canons, decrees, laws, and . . . Continue reading →
Where Was Our Church Before Luther And Zwingli? (10)
From the confession of our opponents, who cannot deny that before Luther and Zwingli, there were innumerable persons who professed our faith and protested publicly against the papal errors. See what is related of the Waldenses and Albigenses, Hussites, Wycliffites, Lollards and . . . Continue reading →
You Are What Rome Says You Are Even If She Openly Contradicts Herself
On every front, then, the Council redrew the boundaries of what had seemed to 1959 a fixed and immutable system. For some Catholics, these changes were the long-awaited harvest of the New Theology, the reward of years of patient endurance during the . . . Continue reading →
What Is True Faith? (3) The Romanist Condemnation Of True Faith
In part 2 we considered the nature of assent. There is a third aspect to the Reformed definition of faith: trust. This is the crux of the disagreement between Rome and the Reformation over nature of faith in the act of justification. . . . Continue reading →
Crums! You Mean Rome Isn’t Completely Unified?
So just when Jason and the Callers thought they had escaped the unsatisfying clutches of Protestantism, they entered a communion riven by the same kind of divisions that characterized the modernist-fundamentalist controversy. One side wants the church to continue to adapt to . . . Continue reading →
We Find It In The Gospel
One of the more frustrating things about getting older is that I seem to spend more time looking for things. It’s such a waste of time. It would be great if someone would just tell me where my keys are. Because we . . . Continue reading →
Where Was Our Church Before Luther And Zwingli? (9)
From the conformity of our church to the primitive apostolic Church. For since no one can deny that the primitive church was instituted by Christ and the apostles neither can it be denied that our church, if it is conformed that both . . . Continue reading →
Digital Indulgences
The UK Guardian reported yesterday that Rome has reached a new low in reaching out to the Romanist equivalent of low-information voters. Low-sanctity penitents perhaps? Rome is now offering plenary indulgences to Romanists who follow Pope Francis’ tweets from Catholic Youth Day . . . Continue reading →
Where Was Our Church Before Luther And Zwingli? (8)
XVII. From the faith of history which exhibits multiple worshipers of God and witnesses of the truth, who repeatedly opposed themselves to the papistical errors and bore testimony to the truth. For if there are granted many who by words, deeds and . . . Continue reading →
Good News (Not): Indulgences Are Back (Again)
Darryl Hart posted this today: Pope Francis will grant a plenary indulgence – a remission of all temporal punishment due to sin – to World Youth Day Catholic participants, the Vatican announced July 9. Great lots of folk assume that, after Luther . . . Continue reading →
How Many Mediators?
In a 15 May essay in The Christian Century, Richard Mouw argues that we Protestants should perhaps re-think the question of praying to deceased Christians. He confesses that he wasn’t really well acquainted with the Roman doctrine of prayer and the intercession . . . Continue reading →
Where Was Our Church Before Luther And Zwingli? (7)
XV. But we add further that our church was in the papacy itself, in as much as God always preserved in the midst of Babylon a remnant for himself according to the election of Grace (to wit, true believers who, groaning under . . . Continue reading →
Where Was Our Church Before Luther And Zwingli? (6)
XIII. Third, as to place, the question can be understood in two ways. It may be understood definitely concerning the certain and constant seat of the church (such as Rome is) and in that continued series of bishops or pastors which the . . . Continue reading →
Where Was Our Church Before Luther And Zwingli (5)
X. Nevertheless, that we may not seem to shun the question (as if it were insoluble [alytos] by us), we can answer directly that the question puts on a fourfold relation or has reference to four things: (1) the doctrine and faith . . . Continue reading →
Where Was Our Church Before Luther And Zwingli? (4)
VIII. Fifth, the injustice of the demand appears also clearly in this—that they treacherously corrupt the writings of the fathers and endeavor to destroy whatever of candor remains and extinguish all memory of antiquity as far as they are able (most base . . . Continue reading →