It’s that time of year again. It’s nearing October 31 and Dr. White is talking about the reformation. Ironically, he’s making it less glorious than he’s made it out to be in the past. A bit odd in my opinion. He covered several topics a while back. I want to comment on some of them. The times are for the video above.
Arius of Alexandria
On October 31, 2017, Protestants will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the “reformation”. Truth be told, it’s only the anniversary of Martin Luther posting his complaints of the door of the Castle Church. This event happened on October 31, 1517. It should be fair to point out that when the citizens of Germany woke up on the morning of November 1, 1517, they weren’t debating whether they should go to a Protestant Church since they didn’t exist at the time. Regardless, the reformation is erroneously fixed to this date in 1517 AD just like the Catholic/Greek Schism is erroneously dated to 1054 AD.
Glastonbury Abbey – A Monastery that stood for over 800 years before Cromwell executed the Abbot and looted the treasury
England is a very interesting country. It is a nation who’s Empire once spanned the globe and spread English values to the farthest reaches of the Earth. I live in Canada which was founded as an English colony. The country also has a very rich Catholic history. If you were to visit England 500 years ago, you would have seen about 900 religious houses throughout the country. These included monasteries, abbeys, priories, convents, friaries, and other religious houses. The religious life was by no means restricted to the clergy. They played a large role in the life, culture, and economy of England. What happened to this rich Catholic monastic life?
A lot is going on in our world right now. This year has been brutal in terms of terrorist attacks. The two attacks in London yesterday are only the most recent example. We could also talk about the increasing secularization of Western society which has been plaguing us since the French Revolution, though it seems like recently it’s been put in fast forward. Many things could be talked about. However, instead of talking about the problems, I’m going to talk about the solution.
On a post from a while back, Protestant apologist Ken Temple brought up the issue of the heretic Pope Honorius and how he supposedly disproved the Catholic doctrine of Papal infallibility. I referred him to the 2000 debate between Robert Sungenis and James White. He then responded via comment:
The sunset in my hometown with the Bow River and mountain range in the background.
In Western society, we are brainwashed. We are taught that good is evil and evil is good. Over the last three years, I have spent long hours studying and realizing that the post-enlightenment Western world is demonic. I now oppose modern Western values with all my soul.
St. Thomas Aquinas – The Angelic Doctor
If you’ve ever talked to a recent graduate from High School, you’ll realize how intellectually bankrupt our society has become. Our education is completely shot. Pretty much everything that I’ve learned, has come from reading after University. The enemies of God are having a tremendous amount of success promoting evil since the current generation doesn’t know how to think critically.
Believe it or not, I actually read his writings
Every year in October, we tend to hear a bit about Martin Luther. After all, when he nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church in Wittenberg Germany, it was October 31st. October 31, 1517 is traditionally referred to as the beginning of the Protestant “Reformation”. The reason why I put the word in quotation marks is because it is a mockery of the term. True Church reformers are St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Sienna and Pope Gregory VII. They actually made reforms in the Church and hence are far more worthy of the title than Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Tyndale, Henry VIII or Servetus. Whether you support these men or not, I think we can all agree that it wasn’t a reformation.
Skanderbeg
Yesterday two young Islamic fundamentalists went into a Church in a small village in Normandy, France and murdered the Priest while he was celebrating the liturgy. The attackers were 19 years old and the priest was 86 years old. Fr. Jacques Hamel died a martyr for his Catholic faith.
Fathers of the Church
People often wonder what Church fathers to read. That’s a very important question since the Church fathers were the ones that formed the faith in the early centuries and fought many heresies. As stated on previous posts, I like focusing on primary sources when I read Church history in contrast to people like Dr. James White. What I’m trying to say is that we need to read the Church fathers.