Apologetics for the Masses - Issue #59

Bible Christian Society

General Comments

It seems the ex-nun, Mary Ann Collins, mentioned in one of the questions in my last issue, may not even exist. She may simply be a figment of someone’s imagination. This may be yet another instance – there have been several in the last 150 years or so – of folks inventing “ex-nuns” and then making up stories about them and their supposed experiences as nuns, in order to bolster their arguments against the Catholic Church. Well, it seems to me that if you have to make up folks to support your arguments, then your arguments must not be very strong ones. Plus, whatever happened to “Thou shalt not bear false witness?”

Introduction

I did receive a reply from Matthew Janzen for the next round of our debate on Jesus’ divinity, but I’ve been consumed for most of this week by IRS filings for the Bible Christian Society and did not have an opportunity to reply to him. Hopefully, I’ll get that reply to him and have both his comments and mine in next week’s issue.


So, one more Q&A this week.

Challenge/Response/Strategy

John,


I was chatting with a friend today about the seven books that Protestants exclude from the bible – and was asked a question I could not answer. I took your advice and did not “wing it”. He asked where those books were quoted by writers of the new testament. How should I respond?


Paul M.


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Paul,


The correct response to that question is: “What does it matter if those books are quoted by writers of the New Testament or not? Is being quoted in the New Testament the criteria for determining whether or not an Old Testament book should be considered part of the inspired canon?”


If he answers, “Yes,” then all you have to do is say, “Well, let me ask you this: Do you consider Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Judges, 1st Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Lamentations, and Nahum to be part of the Old Testament?” He will, of course, answer that he does. Then you simply say, “Well, none of them are quoted in the New Testament, so, by your criteria they cannot be considered part of the O.T. canon.”


Then, ask him by what authority Martin Luther threw out those 7 books of the Old Testament that all Christians, everywhere, had considered as part of the Bible since the Bible was put together in the early centuries of Christianity?


Then, after all of that, you can tell him that there are a number of places in the New Testament that refer directly or indirectly to passages from these O.T. books. For example:


Heb 11:35…2 Maccabees 7:24-29


Matt 6:14…Sirach 28:2


Matt 27:39-42…Wisdom 2:16-20


Rom 1:20…Wisdom 13:1


Rom 1:20-32…Wisdom 13 and 14


Heb 1:3…Wisdom 7:26


James 1:19…Sirach 5:11-13


1 Peter 1:6…Wisdom 3:1-3


I would also suggest you go to www.catholic.com and type “deuterocanon” or “apocrypha” into their search engine and read some of the articles that pop up.


Hope that helps.


God bless!


John Martignoni

In Conclusion

I hope all of you have a great weekend! Please let all your friends, family, and fellow parishioners know about the Bible Christian Society and all of our FREE resources (www.biblechristiansociety.com).

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Apologetics for the Masses