The Last Supper
In my last post, I talked a lot about how Muhammad never mentioned that a covenant with Ishmael existed. The idea of a covenant seems foreign to Islam, however they’re very important in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testament. They actually show why Muhammad is not a Prophet by Biblical standards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdEZbHYG5eY&t=5626s
I recently re-watched one of my favorite debates which included David Wood and Zakir Hussain. The debate took place many years ago and was called Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and the Covenant. I remember being impressed with a lot of David Wood’s answers. However, in re-watching the debate, I was a bit disappointed in something that David Wood did, or rather didn’t do.
I recently read this article about the decline of the mainline Protestant religion in Minnesota. It also talked about the Catholic Church. The three Protestant groups it mentions are the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the United Methodist Church, and the Presbyterian Church.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRLFeldPG3Y
In 2014 when I was in Albania, I noticed something interesting. While 60% of the Albanian people are Muslim, 10-15% of the people are Catholic and 10-15% belong to the Orthodox Church. The Muslims are not religious in the slightest. It seemed that the Christians were more devout. Either way, I could tell the difference between the Orthodox and Catholic churches with ease. They simply had different architecture. The Catholic churches looked more like a Church one would find in Italy or France and the Orthodox Churches looked more like the churches that I had just seen in Serbia a few days prior.
As one can gather from the title, I have published my first video on Youtube. Yesterday my country turned 151 years old so there was a festival downtown. I found out on Facebook that some Muslims were going to set up a dawah booth. I thought that this was a good opportunity for some debate. I took a little walk downtown and engaged them in debate. How did I do? Well, the viewers can look for themselves and make their conclusions but I want to share how I thought that I did.
The Alhambra in Grenada
One very controversial act in history was the expulsion of the Jews and the Moors from Spain in 1492. From then until the early 1800’s, Spain was a bastion for Catholicism in the world. They probably did more than any other country in history for Catholicism and for that I’m thankful. Their greatness was not only in political, military, and colonial power, but in faith as well. They were able to produce amazing saints such as St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and so many others. Imagine a country as Catholic as Poland with the military power of the United States. That’s what Spain was for over three centuries.
The Hagia Sophia
A Christian Church turned into a Mosque by Muslims, turned into a Museum by Masons.
When trying to spread the Catholic faith, one of the biggest problems that arises is betraying the religion of the tribe. Catholicism can easily be shown to be a universal faith. It has a dynamic presence on every continent and is therefore compatible with any culture in the world. It’s not affiliated with a certain culture or regional area. However, for many cultures, Catholicism is completely foreign.
St. Ignatius of Antioch who struck out three times….
I remember back in the day when I was in elementary school. I wasn’t the greatest student and always feared report card day. In the teacher’s comments I often got “Disruptive in Class” next to my percentage grade.
The Temple of Dushares in Petra
Some opponents of Islam have dug deep into revisionist history. One of them is Jay Smith who has been working with Dan Gibson in developing a theory that the real Mecca is actually Petra. Do I accept this theory? Right now I don’t because there is simply not enough evidence. Now, they seem to bring more and more evidence every time they present but in my opinion it’s still insufficient.
The place to start
I’ve read quite a bit about the early Church. The works of the early Church Fathers have always been a delight to read. I’ve been thinking recently that if I would give a list of my favorite books to read of the Fathers, it would be an interesting list. However, recently I’ve been thinking that in terms of apologetics, there is a completely different list.