The Hagia Sophia in Iznik
There is a church in Turkey that I want to visit and that’s the Hagia Sophia. I’m not referring to the grand former Church in Istanbul(which I also want to visit) but one in the little town of Iznik. Iznik is the municipality once called Nicaea. The famous city where two Ecumenical councils were held; the first in 325 AD and the second in 787 AD. Like the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, this one is also now a Mosque/Museum.
I’m very careful about the arguments that I use when dealing with Islam or any other religion. There are arguments out there that will stump the average Muslim, but when used on a Muslim who knows their faith will be shredded. Enter Jay Smith’s coin argument.
An Eastern Orthodox reader of this blog recently posted the following in the comments section on one of my previous posts:
I was recently discussing with a muslim gentleman on twitter, and he constantly stated that Mohammed was mentioned in the Book of the Prophet Haggai, specifically Chapter 2 verse 7. Have you come across this further example of rather peculiar Islamic exegesis?
Yes I know I am a snob but I am a missionary so I am allowed a few vices.
– Fr. James Martin
There is a clip going around of the well known Evangelical Francis Chan saying that for the first 1,500 years of the Church, the unanimous belief was that the Eucharist was the body and blood of Jesus Christ. I want to say that I don’t agree that it was unanimous. It was about 95% but still a strong majority. When Protestants start to read the Church Fathers their jaw drops at the early view of the Eucharist. They clearly viewed it as the body and blood of Christ and Francis Chan sees that.
In the last couple of months there have been two important debates that need to be watched, or specifically listened to as I believe only the audio is available. The first is between two Catholic apologists and the second one is between a Catholic and an atheist libertarian.
About a month or two ago, the former Catholic Michael Coren received ordination as a “deacon” in the Anglican Church. He loves to wear his clerical collar and simply can’t stop talking about it. On the other hand, the Queen’s former chaplain Gavin Ashenden is being received into the Catholic Church on the fourth Sunday of Advent. The Anglican Church got Michael Coren and the Catholic Church got Gavin Ashenden. I’d say that the Catholics won this swap hands down.
Both the Catholic and Orthodox Church have been debating an issue called the Filioque for centuries. Basically the Orthodox Church claims that the Catholic Church has innovated in saying that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son(Filioque in Latin). This caused a small controversy in the 7th century but erupted in the 9th century with a guy named Photios of Constantinople. Today the Orthodox Church reveres him as a Saint and Pillar of Orthodoxy while the Catholic Church doesn’t think much of him. Photios wrote a book called Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit which argues against the Filioque doctrine.
When I had Chris Plance on for the first time we had a great discussion. He said that we should do this again. I was more than happy to have him on again. I had him on because I wanted to have a video where Catholics would get a good introduction to the Bible.
In the morning I had to take care of some business downtown. When I was finished I was walking back and noticed some LDS missionaries. Downtown is pretty empty on the weekends so when I saw them I knew that I’d be able to get a conversation going.