The Hagia Sophia
A Christian Church turned into a Mosque by Muslims, then turned into a Museum by Masons.
Muslims and Christians both believe in Jesus Christ. We both believe He is the Messiah and born of the Virgin Mary. The two biggest differences are his divinity and the crucifixion. Muslims claim that he didn’t die based on the Quran.
Dr. White responded to my post about him last week. I’ve linked to the Dividing Line above and the relevant portion starts at 13:00 and goes for over an hour. I can’t respond to everything since I don’t want to be writing on this topic for a month but I’ll respond to some things.
Dr. White is at it again. Yesterday on the Dividing Line he talked about the development of the Catholic Priesthood. The important part of the above video is at about 19 minutes. He mentions that in the 300’s during the Donatist controversy the question was ex opere operato vs ex opera operantis. He said that no one believed at that time that priestly ordination left an eternal mark on the soul and that this is a later development. I will admit that the theology of the Priesthood developed over time. I have no problem believing that Christians in later centuries knew more about the Priesthood than they did in the fourth Century.
On A Mission: Lessons From St. Francis de Sales
In being an effective debater you need two things. You need proper debating tactics and you need information. Information comes with time and reading but if you never master the proper debating tactics, it’s almost uselss. The key to debating is not to defeat your opponent but to let your opponent defeat himself. This is done by asking the right questions.
Throughout my years of studying apologetics, I have found one thing to be absolutely disgusting. No party is innocent of this. The crime? Writing mock dialogues where your character makes his or her opponent look like a complete fool. Let me repeat: Every religious group is guilty of this, whether it is in the form of an article, a blog post, a pithy cartoon, etc.
Liberal Heretic Fr. Richard McBrien
Two Protestant apologists have been commenting on my page recently. They are Sam Shamoun and Ken Temple. I just want to say to the two of you that I deeply respect your intellect and am happy that you read this blog. I’m also thankful for the website answering-islam.org. I make use of the website quite often.
On June 12, 2016 in the early hours of the morning in Orlando, Omar Mateen walked into the homosexual night club Pulse and killed several dozen people with an assault weapon. Responses have been of every stripe. In the days following the slaughter, YouTube featured a rainbow heart right next to their logo.
The Pharisees – The Enemies of God
In the days following the mass shooting of homosexuals in Orlando by an Islamic supporter of ISIS, I have some thoughts. It’s quite amusing to look at the angry anti-Christian leftists in the media. They simply don’t know what to do. If this was a fundamentalist Christian who killed these homosexuals, there would be no problem. Since it was a Muslim supporter of ISIS they’ve had problems. The media will fall on its sword for Islam and for homosexuality. The poor leftists are confused. It’s kind of amusing to watch them running in circles like a dog chasing its tail.
St. John The Baptist
A common criticism leveled against the New Testament is that it gives the reader contradictory instructions on Baptism. This is often used by atheists and Muslims. The two instructions are baptism in the name of Jesus or baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The second one comes from the lips of Christ Himself.
St. Robert Bellarmine
Today is the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine. In my opinion he is the greatest Christian thinker, Biblical scholar, apologist, and theologian in the last 500 years. I would also say that he is the second greatest Christian theologian of all time after St. Thomas Aquinas. In other words, better than St. Augustine of Hippo, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. He was born in 1542 when the Protestant “reformation” was in full swing. He eventually became a Cardinal of the Catholic Church and participated in three papal conclaves. He is a canonized Saint and a Doctor of the Church. There are only 36 Catholics who hold the title Doctor of the Church and it is only reserved for the greatest theologians.