The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Roman Catholic Archive

I was just browsing the sight here and came upon the Roman Catholic Archive. I am intrigued about targeted religions. Why is the Roman Catholic Church such a target for this particular website? I read a bit of some of the old forums that dealt with catholic questions and I was surprised with the harshness that they were replied to. Maybe I am misunderstanding, but what is the deal?

Do you have a particular subject you wish to discuss? If not, the Roman Catholicism Archive should be sufficient to address your concerns. If you read with care, you will see why there is a certain animosity against Rome.

K Michaels,

I have not seen the particular material you are referring to, but I have engaged in a fair amount of dialogue with Roman Catholics here and elsewhere over the years.

While I am sure that others will address your questions in a number of ways, I would like to focus on your usage of the terms targeted and harshness.

In particular, I would like to hear if you know of examples in the Bible, perhaps in the Gospels, where a religion was targeted or spoken of harshly by the prophets, apostles, or the Lord Christ?

You haven't given any examples of harshness.
Perhaps you could give some examples and tell us where it misrepresents the Roman Catholic Church.

Tom

This is a Reformed website for goodnessakes. The Reformers sought to reform the Roman Catholic church, and Rome threw them out. The Reformers didn't seek schism, it was imposed on them by corrupt and superstitious ecclesiastical tyrants.

Several of the Reformers actually believed and taught that the Pope was the Antichrist.

This being a Reformed site and devoted to the study and preservation of the Reformation, one is bound to find a little hostility towards Rome in our archives. But believe me, it's nothing compared to the hostility of Rome towards the Reformation!

And by the way, welcome to the Highway from another Floridian.

-Robin

I'll second that <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/applause.gif" alt="" />

What I mean by targetted is that, the only archive that I can see as connected to this blog is one that looks only at catholic beliefs in contrast to calvinism. The harshness I noticed when I looked back into some of the blogs with one user called 'catholicguy'. (I have since tried to go back and copy and paste from it, but couldn't find the blog again, do they 'expire' after a certain date?) I don't know much about either the catholic or calvinistic religion, but because of the obvious contrast, it makes me curious to find out what the opposite angle is on all this. The one article I have been reviewing specifically is the article on Sola Scriptura, the bible alone. One question that I have noted as being raised among the catholics on this issue is, where does it say that in the bible? One catholic put it to me this way, "To paraphrase Protestants, only those doctrines taught in the Bible are to be trusted for our theology. This statement is logically self-destructive! The simple fact is that (according to the protestant critieria) this statement cannot be trusted, because it is not taught in the Bible. The protestant view of the Bible is unbiblical!
Then the catholic likened it to the following examples:
"Another example of this error is the relative hedonist who says,"There are no moral absolutes," The hedonist is in logical trouble because that very statement is a moral absolute. He is saying it is a moral absolute that there are no moral absolutes. His system self-destructs. What he is really saying is "There are no moral absolutes...except for this one." The Protestant is in the exactly same logicaly invalid position as the hedonist. Nowhere does the Bible teach that Scripture is the sole authority for faith. Authoritative? Yes! Only scripture? No! The very concept is unbiblical. The Protestant is really saying, "Only doctrines explicitly grounded in the teaching of the Bible are ultimately trustworthy-except for this one."
What is your take on this I am extremely interested!
God bless!

I recommend you read the following article: "The Authority of Scripture," by William Webster.

kmichaels,

I assume you are responding to my request to elaborate on your definition of the term targeted. Thank you for doing so. (Hint--in the future try using the "Reply To This" button to address a particular user's post.)

As others have mentioned, it should not be surprising, should it, that on a self-alleged Calvinist site, a chief historical opponent of Calvinism--Roman Catholicism--would be the focus of criticism and/or correction?

I still await your response as to whether the Bible refers to harsh treatment of any religion.

In the meantime, touching the critical issue of Sola Scriptura[/i], you should really get The Shape of Sola Scriptura, by Keith Mathison, which was written around 2000 and is in my opinion the finest current reformed treatment of the subject today. It is definitely written for the layman, and contains solid responses to dozens of criticisms of the doctrine by current Roman Catholics, including the common one you cited.

In short, Mathison easily proves that Sola Scriptura as understood by the Protestant Reformers--which is not necessarily the same as is understood by many poorly-trained evangelicals today--was the common and official understanding of the term from the time of the apostles and the generations following them and well into the Middle Ages. Rome actually deviated from her own early acceptance of Sola Scriptura in the centuries immediately preceding the Reformation.

Hi!
I didn't realize I could respond to you directly!
To answer your question about speaking harsly about other religions in the bible, off the top of my head I don't recall any, I do recall Jesus saying something about the Pharasees not practicing what they preached. Do you have any instances of this happening?
I will look into the book you cited. Thank you for your feed-back!

Looking into it! Thanks!

Will the Catholic in the room please respond?

Ought there be a perpetual hostility between us? Perhaps it's because we keep making effigies of each other and burning them. In many cases the misunderstanding is intentional which is why volitionary ignorance cannot be alleviated by education. Perhaps we ought to work the hatred out of our hearts that continues to drive us toward division.

What causes division in this case is the false gospel of the Roman Church.

This is an example of an effigy and the reason for the ongoing war. Thank you for this superb demonstration, Covenant.

Perhaps I can help clarify:

The word hatred is completely accurate. It is burning, passionate, deliberate, willful hostility.

But it is not hatred of people. Rather it is hatred of any false gospel. It is the same bitter hatred that inspired the Apostle to write, "if anyone comes to you preaching any other gospel, let him be accursed!" It is hot jealousy for God, who is Himself a jealous God.

Love and hatred are two sides of the same coin. Our love for God compels us to hate the things He hates (a false gospel, for instance) and love the things He loves (the people who are victimized by a false gospel).

Covenant in Blood demonstrated the latter, not the former.