Christian Apologetics Society

The War on Advent

2011-11-30T07:43:00.000-06:00

Just before Christmas 2008, Mollie posted "The War on Advent" on GetReligion. Mollie's post was triggered by an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, which unfortunately appeared on the last day of Advent and not near the beginning. Better late than never?

We often hear among the larger Christian community about the war on Christmas, but the idea of the war on Advent was a new meme. Upon contemplation of the idea, it seems to us that the war on Christmas, which takes place during Advent, is misnamed and should rightly be called the war on Advent.

The war on Christmas should involve those counter Christmas activities which occur during Chritmas proper (december 25th through January 6th). For example, the now outdated American pseudo-holiday of Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa was deliberately designed to coincide with Christmas.

Related Posts:
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Source: The war on Advent

Infant Baptism Debate Seeks Baptists

2009-03-28T22:55:00.003-05:00

Herb Kraker of Dialogos Studies is in need of Baptists, or at least Baptists learned enough to discuss the covenental aspects of baptism as it relates or doesn't relate to infants:

At first glance the New Testament would appear to teach believer's baptism. The "believe and be baptized" passages seem quite clear. However, closer examination of the Scriptures open up the possibility that baptism could well be the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Currently, that is the direction the evidence in the examination is pointing.

Is infant baptism in fact the Scriptural form? Is this correct?

More input is needed from Baptists to further test this material to see if it can stand the test.

As Always be charitable when visiting others. Refrain from going in with bible guns blazing and shooting from the hip. This is a serious debate, so please download the papers and provide a well reasoned response.

Related Posts:
Rebaptism: Is A Need for Rebaptism Biblical?
Baptism by Immersion Only
Baptism by Immersion - Clothed or Unclothed?

Source: Infant Baptism - Current Status of the Debate

Arabic Bible

2009-03-26T21:44:00.007-05:00

Perhaps we are being overly optimistic, but we have gone ahead and installed an Arabic bible in our free e-Sword Bible study software. We used the Arabic Smith & Van Dyke Bible freely available on the e-Sword site. After downloading and extracting the bible file to our e-Sword installation, we fired up e-Sword and... There it was. The Bible in Arabic. Wow!

We went into our settings and chose to compare the Arabic SVD version with an an English version. Clicking on the compare tab, there they were. A verse in Arabic displayed above a verse in English. Cool!

So. Where to begin? Taking a cue from Julie Andrew's character Maria in the Sound of Music, we decided to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Genesis 1:1.

Now for those unfamiliar, Arabic is read from right to left. Peering at the letters on the right side of the screen we noted something peculiar. We could read the first word! Its was "Fee"! We learned "Fee" just a few lessons back. "Fee" means "in", as in "In the beginning..." Is that just not awesome?

Looking through the verse, we also recognized "Allah" (God) and "wa" (and). We then set about trying to transliterate the verse from Arabic in an attempt to pronounce the verse in Arabic. We were fortunate and found a transliteration of Genesis 1:1 on an Islamic site, and discovered that we were very close. It seems our barrier to reading the Bible in Arabic is vocabulary, or rather the lack of it.

Genesis 1:1

Arabic Alphabet for Christians

2009-03-21T11:15:00.004-05:00

The 2-3 folks searching for "arabic alphabet for christians" while be pleased to discover that the arabic alphabet for Christians is the same as the arabic alphabet for non-Christians and Muslims.

We suspect that those seeking "arabic alphabet for christians" were searching for the arabic alphabet being taught by a Christian, as most of the online tutorials are by Muslims for Muslim chldren and converts. While there are millions of arabic speaking Christians, it seems few have created resources for other Christians. For those in major cities, you might consider searching for a nearby Coptic or Chaldean Catholic church that offers an arabic class. We studied Greek at a nearby Greek Orthodox church and plan to study Hebrew at a nearby synagogue.

For those that don't object to learning from a Muslim, we like the Learn Arabic in English series taught by a Texas convert to Islam. His equating the dot above the arabic letter "noon" as being the sun at high noon stuck, as did many of his other examples.

There's a growing need for more Christians to learn the Arabic alphabet, and more, in order to evanglize among the arabic-speaking population.

Related Posts:
The Arabic Alphabet
Why Men Flock To Islam
Christian Apologetics for Muslims

Source: ARABIC in ENGLISH

Atheism, Arguments and Rationality

2009-03-14T10:34:00.005-05:00

For the past week or so, we have been exchanging comments with Takis of For the promotion of rigour and rationality blog. Takis is a professor in the science industry in Edinburgh, Scotland. Takis introduced himself to the CAS community by commenting with a quote from Deuteronomy 21:18-21 proscribing stoning a "stubborn and rebellious son." We'll leave it to you the reader to decide if the comment was intended to provoke. Takis argues the negative.

One of the things we've noted in our exchange with Takis and with agnostic/atheist commenters and bloggers is often their arguments are based on one or more erroneous assumptions. In our earlier Response to Atheist Missionary, Atheist Missionary made the false assumption that we were sola scriptura. Takis seemingly made the assumption that we thought the deity (God) listened only to us and not to Takis' Muslim friend Mustafa.

Also, in both exchanges, we found instances of positive claims being made without supporting evidence. We find it somewhat interesting that individuals claiming to be more rational and logical than theists are seemingly unaware of the general rules of debate and logical fallicies. Let's be clear. Under the generally accepted rules of debate, the person making a positive claim has the burden of proof. Thus, if you were to state "they (the deities of Christianity and Islam)are in competition with one another" then the burden of proof is on you to prove your positive claim ("are"). The Christian apologist has no burden of proof. However, Christian apologists must be careful not to "consent by silence."

By the way, many readers may not be aware that the university system, the scientific method and the rules of evidence were developed by Christian clergy. Catholics to be more specific. Thus, we find exchanges with university professors in the sciences arguing for rationality versus Christianity all the more interesting.

As always when visiting other blogs, please be charitable and Christlike.

Related Posts:
Response to Atheist Missionary
Atheist Thought Experiment
Atheist Believes Africa Needs God

Source: Comments to 4000,000 Catholics in America Missing

400,000 Catholics in America Missing

2009-03-01T11:15:00.009-06:00

400,000 Catholics in America are missing. The National Council of Churches' 2009 edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches records a slight but startling decline in membership of the America's largest Christian communions. Membership in the Roman Catholic Church declined 0.59 percent. A loss of 398,000 members since the appearance of the 2008 Yearbook. Southern Baptists lost nearly 40,000 members.

Its long been noted among Southern Baptists that Baptist conversions and baptisms have been in decline for several years. Among American Catholics baptisms and conversions have been steady at about 1 million infant baptisms and over 100,000 adult baptisms and conversions for the past decade.

NCC states that they faithfully report those numbers provided to them. On this we have no dispute. There is no reason to assume that the NCC has ever been less than truthful regarding their statistics.

So, where did 400,000 Catholics go?

An article in The Georgia Bulletin, the newspaper of the Catholic the Archdiocese of Atlanta, may shed some light. They report:

The number of Catholics in North Georgia continues to climb. Catholics are growing faster than the overall population in the Peach State as the official count of Catholics in the archdiocese climbs to 750,000, up from 650,000.

Hmmm... There are 100,000 more Catholics in Northern Georgia alone. Well, that's in line with most of America. The U.S. Census Bureau has repeatedly announced the increase in the Hispanic population, which is disproportionally Catholic, in all regions of the United States for many years.

Our own Southern state has also seen an inflow of Hispanic Catholics with many new Catholic churches being built or expanded.

Reading on in The Georgia Bulletin, we found this:

Hispanic people only make up some 18 percent of registered parishioners in the archdiocese. That shows there are many more Hispanics, who are likely Catholic, but who either do not attend a church or attend but are not registered.

Hispanics make up 49% of Catholics in North Georgia, but only 18% of registrations. Houston, we may have found our missing Catholics. If older registered Catholics in the America are dying, but younger Hispanic Catholics are not registering, then there likely is a significant drop in the Catholic population, at least on paper.

So, while Southern Baptists are busy with their new iniative to grow their organization, Catholics seem in need of finding some pencils and getting their Hispanic members registered.

Related Posts:
Evangelism Explosion Among Catholics
Orthodox Church in America Increasing
Search Maps for Denominational Names

Source: NCC's 2009 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches
reports decline in Catholic, Southern Baptist membership

Christian Apologetics Society Readership Increases

2009-02-28T11:35:00.004-06:00

It seems that readership of our beloved Christian Apologetics Society has increased by a further 20-30 visitors daily. When we first noticed the increase, we attributed it to a temporary increase due to either a recent post or a comment on third-party blog. Looking at the monthly analytics report, its neither. The increase has been sustained, shows no sign of dropping, and seems related to Google. No single keyword or phrase stands out and the increase is from just a few extra visits for the many keywords visitors have used for months on end. We suspect a Google dance may have occured.

The increase has had the effect of boosting the Christian Apologetics Society from the top 300-400 Christian sites to the top 200-300 Christian sites at ChristianTop1000.com. With over 12,000 sites listed, Christian Apologetics Society is doing okay. There's a lot of big churches ahead of us. We are just an extra 10-20 visitors a day from breaking into the top 200, so please tell a friend or blogroll CAS.

Finally, goal conversions are consistently in the 10-12% range, some days far fewer and some days twice as many, but seldom zero. While Christian Apologetics Society blog sells nothing, not even advertising (we see CAS as a pure ministry driven by Christian charity), we do have specific goals that we would like visitors to take action on. We measure three actions and monitor their trend lines. We'll leave it to your imaginations as to what the three visitor actions are. (They're not using the church locator nor visiting the Bible Bee.) If you care to think out loud, the comments are right below. (Um, no, one is not commenting, but that a good guess.)

Ash Wednesday Ritual at Evangelical University

2009-02-28T11:11:00.005-06:00

The Tennessean has a detailed article on an Ash Wednesday service held at Belmont University, an evangelical university attended primarily by Baptists. The service was led by Catholic Bishop David Choby and Belmont's vice president of spiritual development Todd Lake. (Catholics may be interested to know that ashes may be imposed by lay persons).

Alaina Reagan, another student, said she'd never been to an Ash Wednesday service before. In the past, she'd seen students with ashes on their foreheads and wondered about it. She appreciated learning more about the practice.

"I think it's good for Belmont to have services like this," she said.

The article points out that college students are familiar with symbols thanks to the many icons on signs, phones, and computers, thus they are comfortable with spiritual symbols as well.

The article also provides some church history behind the Christian ritual.

Some die hard evangelicals will likely be distressed to read:

It's part of a broader trend of evangelicals, who are rediscovering liturgical practices they once shunned.

Harris said that in her three years at Belmont, she's seen Protestant students move from completely rejecting her Catholic faith to being curious about Catholic practices.

Related Posts:
Baptists Recovering Lost Catholic Treasure of Lent
Baptists Observing Advent
Ash Wednesday & Lent: Are They in the Bible?

Source: Evangelicals rediscover Ash Wednesday rituals

Didache Text Contradicts Christian Belief?

2009-02-28T07:37:00.011-06:00

Does the Didache text contradict Christian belief? That seemed to be the question one visitor to CAS had on their mind this past month when we found "didache contradict christian belief" in our analytics report of keywords.

Our immediate thought was, no, the Didache (pronounced die-dah-kay) does not contradict Christian belief as it was written by 1st Century Christians and was widely circulated and used by the 1st Century Church. In fact, it wasn't until the 4th Century that the Didache was formally and forever excluded from the canon of the scripture, not for being false, but for being a church manual. Personally, we would have liked the Didache to have been included in the Bible as it would have saved centuries of fussing over the mode of baptism and whether abortion is permissable.

The Didache is one of our favorite early Christian writings due to its being short and containing instructions for how Christians are to baptise. We suspect the Didache's forementioned instructions on baptism may be one of the key sticking points as the Didache does not support baptism by immersion only. Readers can find copies of the Didache text in several places including Wesley Center Online (our favorite) and the Calvin Christian Electronic Library (CCEL). If you have never read the Didache, take a moment and do so now. We'll wait as you'll be finished in just a few minutes. Try the Wesley Center Online version, it has fewer distracting footnotes and commentary. We'll get a fresh cup of tea meanwhile...

Oh, good, you're back!

One of the more interesting aspects of the Didache is it seems to have been written about the time of the Gospel of Matthew. There are many parallels between the two documents. In chapter 7 of his book "The Influence of the Gospel of Saint Matthew on Christian Literature", Edward Massaux includes a table with parallel texts from the Didache and the gospels of Matthew, Luke and Mark. Massaux points out that one could easily append the Didache to the end of the gospel of Matthew as the Didache seems to start where the gospel of Matthew ends.

So does the Didache contradict Chrsitian belief? No, we don't find the Didache contradicts Christian belief. We do think that the Didache does contradict many individuals' personal Christian beliefs and personal interpretations of scripture, but those are two entirely different things. So what are some of the seeming contradictions?

Baptism

The Didache is the earliest known Christian writing to detail just how Christians are to baptise. The writers of the books of the Bible seem to have assumed that their readers were already familiar with details of baptism and never provided any instructions. So sola scriptura Christians, who have interpreted various passages in the Bible to mean baptism is by immersion only, will experience dissonance where the Didache states:

The Didache

Thus, we have never had any disagreement with those who prefer to immerse converts in cold river water. That preference seems both Biblical and faithful to 1st Century practice. But to insist on immersion only sems to contradict both the Bible and early Christian practice. For some reason, humans like absolutes and tend to insert "only" at the drop of a hat.

Personally, we see the greatest contradiction between the Didache and baptism being that many Christian congregations immerse only once, where as the Didache and all the early texts on baptism indicate three immersions were/are used.

Fasting

Many modern Christian congregations are opposed to fasting, often because it seems Catholic. Thus, those individuals would likely have some discomfort reading:

The Didache

1st Century Christians fasted twice weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays. Who knew? One wouldn't discover that reading the Bible alone. Might be interesting to discover when and why Catholics seemed to have dropped fasting on Wednesdays. The Didache also seems to shed some light on why many Christians meet on Wednesday evenings. Might the modern tradition be related to the fasting practices of 1st Century Christians? Hmm...

Lord's Supper

Fencing the table seems to have been the norm in the 1st Century. Those modern Christian congregations that practice open communion ("Everyone is welcome!") seem to be in contradiction to the instructions left by our 1st Century church fathers:

that which is holy

The Didache

The Didache makes clear that the Eucharist was to be received only by baptised Christians. "Give not that which is holy to the dogs." is a quote straight from Matthew 7:6. No contradiction with scripture there.

Also, the use of "eucharist" in verse 9:10 and the phrase "that which is holy" in verse 9:12 seem to indicate that 1st Century Christians considered the bread and wine to be more than merely symbolic. Some Christians may find this aspect of the Didache to contradict their personal beliefs or what they have been taught by other Christians regarding the Lord's Supper. Those individuals might consider re-reading the gospel accounts of the last supper in light of Isaiah 55:11 and Genesis 1 and ask themselves what happened when the voice of God (Jesus) went forth saying "This is my body." (Matthew 26:26) Why do all the gospel accounts of the last supper use the Greek verb "to be" (is, am are)?

Abortion

The Didache also makes clear that from the 1st century the Christian doctrine concerning abortion is that its wrong, with no exceptions. Those Christians that are pro-choice or make exceptions for rape or incest are likely uncomfortable to read:

The Didache

We find no contradiction with either scripture or Christian belief regarding abortion. Again, there may be some contradiction with personal interpretations or preferences. This is yet another example of why we wish the early church had included the Didache in the canon of scripture. Christian doctrine on abortion would have been firmly set and the early 20th century exceptions on contraception that led to today's abortion controversy would likely have never gained traction.

In closing. We are fond of the Didache as we are of all of God's word. Its easy to to see why the Didache was widely copied and circulated among NT churches and was considered for inclusion in the modern canon of scripture. Does the Didache contradict Christian belief? We don't see it, but your personal interpretations of scripture and the doctrines taught to you by others may prove otherwise. Seek the truth.

Related Posts:
The Geek of Immersion Baptism
Protestants Joining Catholics in Confession Comeback
The Holiest of Nights

Source: The Didache or Teaching of the Apostles

2009 National Bible Bee Sign-Up Now Open

2009-02-26T22:28:00.003-06:00

Sign-up for the 2009 National Bible Bee is open from February 15th through April 30.

The first step in the process of officially “signing up” a contestant for the Bible Bee Competition is to reserve a place by contacting a Local Planning Committee volunteer to ensure space availability.

Check Your Area for Local Bible Bees

The second step in the process of officially “signing up” a contestant for the Bible Bee Competition includes the completion of the online enrollment form (including the Parent/Guardian Consent Form) and the payment of a nonrefundable $20 enrollment fee. Reduced enrollment fees are available for families with multiple contestants.

Enroll Now

Acts 2:39 (New International Version)

Christian Apologetics Radio

2009-02-26T20:52:00.009-06:00

Browsing through the CAS analytics, we noted a search for "Christian Apologetics Radio". The individual "bounced", meaning that they landed on a page and then left after a few seconds. That caused us to consider the topic of Christain apologetics radio further as we listen to several hours of apologetics radio via podcast every day. We have three favorites:

Catholic Answers LIVE - This Christian apologetics ministry airs two hours of apologetics radio every weekday. Topics range from contemporary issues of stem cells and same sex marriage to church history. Callers include atheists, agnostics, muslims, and Christians of all denominations. Once a month that have a special call in day for non-Catholics only and any sincere question may be asked. There's also "Who Wants to be an Apologist?" with some very difficult questions drawn from the "hat of difficulty". The broadcasts are available as podcasts withing 24 hours.

The Journey Home - This show is actually a television show that we listen to as a podcast on Wednesdays. While not intended as an apologetic program, the inspiring testimonies of individuals who have often lost their faith and found their way back to Christ is insightful. Hearing what truths and events motivate people towards Christianity is invaluable to apologists. This weeks show featured a discussion on Lutheranism.

Internet Monk Radio - Again, not a deliberate apologetics program, but the iMonk's pursuit of a "Jesus shaped Christianity" is apologetic by nature. A devout Baptist with a campus ministry in the hills of Kentucky, Internet Monk Radio will have you shaking your head in one direction or another and likely talking back to your favorite Internet appliance. The sample episode below features an apology on "know-it-all preachers" contradicting knowledge using out-of-context scripture.

By the way, we are fond of the open source Juice cross-platform podcast receiver.. Its runs in the background and we schedule Juice to download new podcasts late before o'dark-thirty to avoid internet rush hour. We arrive at the office each morning to fresh audio content.

Related Posts:
The Journey Home - Baptists

Ash Wednesday & Lent: Are They in the Bible?

2009-02-26T20:27:00.006-06:00

That is the question posed by evangelist and revivalist Dr. Lance Ketchum on his blog Line Upon Line. Our response to Dr. Ketchum follows.

>Dr. Ketchum : "There is little doubt about the origins of what we know as Ash Wednesday. This day was part of the ancient pagan celebration centering around Easter."

1. Your post is largely a strawman in that Catholics and other Christians do not celebrate Easter, but Pascha, which is from the Hebrew meaning "Passover". Any use of the term "Easter" is not in reference to the pagan feast, but use of the vulgar (common) English.

2. Twice you claim that Ash Wednesday is of pagan origin, but never cite any proof of its pagan origin. You seem to be arguing for guilt by association. In fact, all the evidence cited (Genesis 3:19 KJV, "from biblical times...") seems in support of Ash Wednesday and not against.

>Dr. Ketchum: "We find the only mention of the word Easter in the King James Version, in Acts 12:4, and that reference is to the Passover, not a Christian observance. Further, it is an improper translation of the Greek word, and most Bible translations have corrected this error."

Interestingly, Luther uses Ostern (Easter) in his German translation of the Bible. Was Luther, the original Reformer, also in error?

4Da er ihn nun griff, legte er ihn ins Gefängnis und überantwortete ihn vier Rotten, je von vier Kriegsknechten, ihn zu bewahren, und gedachte, ihn nach Ostern dem Volk vorzustellen.

Apostelgeschichte 12:4 (Luther Bibel 1545)

Jerome's Latin Vulgate, long used by Catholics, uses "pascha" instead of Easter, or Ostern.

quem cum adprehendisset misit in carcerem tradens quattuor quaternionibus militum custodire eum volens post pascha producere eum populo

Acts 12:4, Latin Vulgate

Its also interesting that you should cite the King James Version as the original 1611 King James Version includes a almanac which lists the dates for the First Day of Lent, Easter day, Ascension day, and Whitsuntide. Apparently, the staunchly anti-Catholic English Reformers had no objections or misgivings regarding the marking of these dates and considered them important enough for inclusion in the King James Bible.

>Dr. Ketchum: "Christians have no command or example that suggests we are to keep the Passover."

Um, do we not read in several gospels that Jesus and the apostles kept the passover? Matthew 26 and Mark 22 seem clear examples and we are told by Jesus to do this in rememberance of him (Mark 22:19) to boot. "This" was the passover. I find Jesus examples in the gospels sufficient. Every Lord's Supper is the Christian remembrance (memorial) of Passover.

>Dr. Ketchum: "The inappropriateness, and even sinfulness, of the Easter season is seen in the three seasons (the Carnival season, the Lenten season, and the Post-Easter season)"

This statement I find the most amazing. I cannot fathom a man of God actively discouraging people from acknowledging their sinfullness, discouraging repentance, and discouraging the opportunity to fall deeper in love with Christ. I find much in scripture that authorizes rejecting sin and returning to God.

Why do you actively seek to keep people from Christ?

God bless... +Timothy

BTW, I note that you go by Dr. (doctor). Does not the Bible say to "call no man rabbi" (Matthew 23:8). Your title of doctor is Latin for "Rabbi" (teacher). How are you authorized to deviate from scripture?

Related Posts:
1611 KJV Bible Available Online
Baptists Recovering Lost Catholic Treasure of Lent
Evangelical Christians Adopting Advent

Source: Ash Wednesday & Lent: Are They in the Bible?

Response to Atheist Missionary

2009-02-22T18:07:00.005-06:00

The following is our response to Atheist Missionary. This is a continuation of the comments to our post answering Atheist Missionary's "Atheist Thought Experiment".

Greetings! Thank you for the invitation to visit and read your response.

A myth is defined as a traditional, typically ancient story ... I cannot conceive of a better definition for Christianity.

I like your definition and fully agree that you conceive of Christianity as a myth, but nonetheless, you have yet to prove your claim.

>"am I correct in assuming that you rely solely on the collection of ancient scripts that made their way into what we now refer to as the modern Bible to confirm that your view is superior to all of the other organized religions that hold views contrary to your own?"

Nope, you are not correct.

While my branch of Christianity did write and compile the Bible for mankind, we believe that all truth is from God and thus use all of the truth available to us, including biology, physics, mathematics, history, etc. In fact, my branch of Christianity developed the university system, the scientific method and the rules of evidence. As truth cannot contradict truth, our Christian doctrines never conflict with secular science.

As I have said before and I will say again: all religions can't be right but they certainly can all be wrong. If you are interested to know which belief systems I find the most intriguing, I would probably choose Zen Buddhism

You do recall the question I was asked was "Why do you put so much faith in a book when there are countless other holy books?"", don't you? So why did you respond with your interest in Zen Buhdism or your belief that all religions can be wrong. Fun rabbits to chase, but they are not the topic of the question. Focus, grasshopper.

Specifically, I commend you to Proof #5 Read the Bible which provides as follows:
Imagine that we are good friends.

Imagine = hypothetical.

Your long diatribe that can easily be answered with a passage from the Bible itself.

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Acts 8:30-31

The author of proof #5 seems neither to understand the scripture nor to have had someone teach them the meaning. For example, the section claiming As you page through the book further you find that it is
totally sexist from beginning to end. ignores history. Christianity was the women liberation movement of the Roman period of history. Christianity liberated women as they had never been prior.

I will grant that a number of American Christians outside my branch have used some of Paul's instructions to Timothy to subjugate women. However they are wrong for the very same reasons stated, they don't understand what they read. Much of Paul's admonitions against women speaking had to do with the disruptive behavior of women who were talking amongst themselves during the service of the day. That behavior is akin to conversing loudly in a modern movie theater. Put in historical context, its not the sexism that many claim.

Regarding creation, the flood, etc., my branch of Christianity finds no conflict with science and archeology. We recognize that the Old Testament is written in different literary styles and not as a science text book. This difference in interpretation is likely what contributes to your regarding the Bible as nonsense.

>"Stephen Law handle the logical problem of evil (for theists) much better than I could ever hope to: http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/2008/12/could-it-be-pretty-obvious-theres-no.html"

Please note that the question was about suffering and NOT evil. They are not the same nor equivalents.

I agree that suffering has plenty to do with holiness.

Hopefully you'll keep that in mind the next time you experience suffering. What's the official atheist explanation for the existence of suffering?

Your God is a masochist.

Um, positive claim with no proof.

If you can show me any recognized experimental study that disproves my bold assertion that prayer is sterile in an experimental setting, please provide it. However, I can save you the time because I know for a fact that no such study exists.

Remember, absence of proof is not proof of absence. That's the informal fallacy of Argumentum ad Ignorantiam / Argument from Ignorance.

>"I am aware of the Bible and, as indicated above, I believe it to be a throughly repulsive."

Again, the topic at hand is "Why don't I get to go to heaven...? My answer is that neither I nor my branch of Christianity have ever stated that you don't get to go to heaven. Sorry you're repuulsed by the Bible. It has that effect on some people. Curious...

>"Pascal's wager is the ultimate intellectual cop-out."

Um, would that be because Blaise based it on the pure sciences of mathematics and probability which are thouroughly rational? I'll take your response as, yes, you are aware of Pascal's wager.

>"If this is the best that you can come up with to support your belief in God, your belief is vacuous."

I wasn't asked "to support your belief in God." I was asked " " Why don't I get to go to heaven...." I answered that I don't know for a fact that you don't. Why chastise me for answering the question I was asked and not answering the question I wasn't asked? Is that rational?

>"The pleasure was all mine."

You're welcome.

God bless... +Timothy

Related Posts:
Atheist Thought Experiment
Why are there Atheists?
Atheist Believes Africa Needs God
Atheist Penn Jillette Receives Bible

Source: My ongoing discussion with a "Christian Apologetic"

Baptist Minister Laments Catholic Converts

2009-02-15T19:33:00.005-06:00

While researching "Ash Wednesday" and "Baptists" in Google's Blogsearch, we chanced upon an interesting story concerning a Baptist minister who had successfully enticed large numbers of Hispanic Catholics to join his church through a Spanish language Bible study program. Its seems the good Baptist minister now rues the sudden influx of Hispanics who were remaking his Baptist church in the Latin American Catholic style:

"He said they were coming in great numbers and changing his church. There was no talking to them. Hundreds of votive candles had started appearing in his church and then the worst of all, little statues in the windows. He would tell them that such things were superstitious and idolatrous. They would smile at him and say, “Yes, FATHER!” and go about their business as if he had said nothing."

According to the account, the minister stopped his Spanish Bible study.

Related Posts:
Baptists Don't Celebrate Christmas
Baptists Observing Advent
Evangelical Christians Adopting Advent

Source: Ash Wednesday (Ashes)

Islamic Religion Challenges Muslim Valentines

2009-02-14T14:04:00.005-06:00

Hand over all your RED! That's an order!

We don't want your blue. You keep. Just give us all your red and no one will get hurt.

Can you imgaine being at the mall, browsing in the Hallmark store, and hearing those words come from a uniformed police officer? Neither can I.

But, according to press reports, that exact thing occurs every February in Saudi Arabia. Islamic religious police go store to store and confiscate any and everything red in the weeks before Valentine's Day.

No pagan Christian traditions for you!

Islamic couples, married and unmarried, have adopted a secularized version of the ancient Christian feast of Valentine in such large numbers that Islam is seemingly threatened in the great kingdom. Never mind crosses and anything that Westerners traditionally identify with Christianity, red hearts are out too, at least in February.

Forget the January white sale, better stock up on red as there's a shortage coming. That's exactly what Islamic couples do. They purchase their gifts in late January and early February in hopes of being temporally ahead of the religious police. No one lnows when the fatwa will appear and the crackdown commence, but occur they will.

Check out the souce link below for a fascinating insight into this aspect of the religious culture of the royal Islamic kingdom.

You there! What's that you're carrying? That better not be a teddy bear with a red bow!

John 13:34-35

Christianity in Eastern Russia

2009-02-14T07:58:00.009-06:00

We download and listen to a variety of Christian podcasts. One of the most fascinating this past week was "The Catholic Church in Eastern Russia". The podcast was a great summary of the revival of the Church in Russia. The program starts with an overview of the demographic collapse of Russia. Then the effects of Communism on the Russian family is discussed. The plight of Russian orphans and "unheld babies" follows. The last half of the podcast is a question and answer period with calls from listeners during the original radio broadcast. Click the arrow below to launch a flash MP3 player with the podcast.

Some of the ear and mind candy includes:

- The Great Russian Far East is one and a half times the size of the continental United States.

- Every year the Russian population is 800,000 fewer than the year before. That's the equivalant of losing an urban city like San Franciso each and every year.

- The primary cause of the decline is the high death rate from alcoholism and traffic accidents. The life expectancy of a Russian is 57 for both males and females.

- Russia was the first country to legalize abortion in 1921.

- Fewer than 10% of Russian orphans have any chance of a normal life. Most orphans end up dead in their 20's from drug abuse and crime.

- If you are older than 50 in Russia, then you know nothing about religion, of any sort.

- Fewer than one half of one percent (.5%) of the population practice any religion whatsoever. The criteria for practicing is attending church or synogogue two or more times each year. Those figures includes the Russian Orthodox Church.

- About 75% of the population has been baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church. That's a dramatic increase from about 10% just 20 years ago. However, most baptised Russians were baptised without even 5 minutes of instruction in the Christian faith. Most of the newly baptised never go back to church ever again, not even for weddings or burials!

The podcast really makes one appreciate the gift of faith that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Western world. We hope you'll take time to listen to the entire podcast.

Matthew 28:19

Why are there Atheists?

2009-02-07T05:53:00.004-06:00

That's a very good question and one that will not be answered in this post. The post title is actually from R.C. Sproul's book If there's a God, why are there atheists? I found this short 150 page book at a nearby Goodwill store, a good source for religious books of various beliefs. I'd seen Sproul's name mentioned in various Christian blogs, so with an interesting title and a half-dollar price, I took the book home to read.

The book is divided into two parts. Part one reads like a typical book and is the best portion of the book in regards apologetics and atheism. Part two is written in typical Christianese style with large bible quotes interspersed with narrative text. I find this format hard to read and would have preferred to have the scripture citations in a side bar so to not break the continuity and flow of the ideas being expounded.

The big take away from the book is the concept that most atheists attack religion versus the existence of God. The first part points out that much of atheist rhetoric is pop psychology aimed at discrediting religion and religious adherents. This first part provides a short history of psychology as it relates to religion and explains why all the arguments citing Freud, Marx, Nietzsche, etc. have no bearing on the fundamental question as to the existence of God. The book points out the limitations of each reknown psychologist.

The book is not a "keeper" for me and will be released back into circulation.

Related Posts:
Atheist Thought Experiment
Atheist Believes Africa Needs God
Atheist Penn Jillette Receives Bible

Source: If There's a God, Why Are There Atheists?

1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Purification of Mary

2009-02-02T06:55:00.002-06:00

According to the February liturgical calendar in the 1611 King James Bible, today is a red letter day. Really. The February liturgical calendar in 1611 KJV Bible has printed in red ink in the row for February 2 "Purification of Mary".

What is the Purification of Mary and why is the event a red letter day in the KJV Bible?

The Purification of Mary is found in the Bible in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke:

Egeria, a devoutly celibate Christian women who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the late 4th Century, wrote:

"The fortieth day after the Epiphany is undoubtedly celebrated here with the very highest honor, for on that day there is a procession, in which all take part, in the Anastasis, and all things are done in their order with the greatest joy, just as at Easter. All the priests, and after them the bishop, preach, always taking for their subject that part of the Gospel where Joseph and Mary brought the Lord into the Temple on the fortieth day, and Symeon and Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, saw Him, treating of the words which they spake when they saw the Lord, and of that offering which His parents made. And when everything that is customary has been done in order, the sacrament is celebrated, and the dismissal takes place."

At the time of Egeria, the Purification of Mary was considered a minor Christian feast. Its was in 541, that a plague killed thousands in Constantinople that the Purification of Mary took on greater importance. Justinian I, in consultation with the Patriarch of Constantinople, ordered a period of fasting and prayer throughout the entire Empire. And, on the Feast of the Purification of Mary , arranged great processions throughout the towns and villages and a solemn prayer service to ask for deliverance from evils, and the plague ceased. In thanksgiving, the feast was elevated to a more solemn celebration.

By the way, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Purification of Mary is one of the twelve Great Feasts, and is sometimes called Hypapante ("meeting"). Other traditional Christian names for the Purification of Mary include Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord. In some Protestant churches, the feast is known as the Naming of Jesus (though historically he would have been named on the eighth day after the Nativity, when he was circumcised).

Interestingly, its not entirely coincidental that Ground Hog Day coincides with the Purification of Mary. Ground Hog Day is not entirely secular and has it foundation in the traditions of German Protestants ("Pennsylvania Dutch"). If your Christian beliefs keep you from enjoying the antics of well known whistle-pig Punxsutawney Phil, then enjoy some crepes for dinner, the traditional French food for the Purification of Mary. Just wait until after 8 to dine.

Related Posts:
Perpetual Virginity of Mary
1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of John

Source: Wikipedia - Presentation of Jesus at the Temple

Atheist Thought Experiment

2009-02-01T10:06:00.010-06:00

Recently, we chanced upon an "Atheist Thought Experiment". The thought experiment is the following hypothetical situation:

Irrefutable evidence is finally discovered that proves, once and for all, whether or not Jesus of Nazareth was the product of a virgin birth. The only person who is privy to this evidence is a rational (but thoroughly evil) gunman who is holding your most loved family member with a gun to his or her head. The gunman asks you to provide the correct answer to whether the immaculate conception occurred or not. No equivocation is allowed - you must answer either "yes, the virgin birth happened" or "no, the virgin birth never happened". You have 60 seconds to make up your mind and give the answer. If you are wrong, the gunman shoots your loved one. If you are correct, your loved one is freed.

A couple of quick observations regarding the above hypothetical:

Use of an absolute ("Irrefutable"). It is usually a bad idea to ever use an absolute (always, all, everyone) as unless the point being argued is indeed an absolute, then an exception will be found. It only takes a single exception to disprove an absolute. Personally, I am incapable of even imagining any irrefutable proof against the virgin birth of Christ that could found in this day and age. Then again, the experiment is a hypothetical, a complete and utter work of fiction (not truth).

A possible contradiction ("rational (but thoroughly evil) gunman"). Atheists themselves seem to provide the contradiction here. Many atheists claim that man can have a moral code that is not based on religion, but based on rationality. Most of those same atheists would likely argue that rational people do not kill or assult others. So, on what basis can a "a rational (but thoroughly evil) gunman exist"? Atheists believe evil exists? Interesting. Oh, yeah. Its a hypothetical work of fiction. Fiction is neither required to be true nor rational.

Misunderstanding of "immaculate conception" ("whether the immaculate conception occurred or not", "whether or not Jesus of Nazareth was the product of a virgin birth"). This is the clear error in the hypothetical. The virgin birth of Christ is not the immaculate conception, which should be clear from the nouns to anyone having studied human reproduction. Conception is not birth. They are nine months apart in occurance. Also, most Christians believe that the immaculate conception occured to Mary, not Jesus. Different people. So, which question needs answering? Imaculate conception of Mary or virgin birth of Jesus?

Definition of terms ("correct answer"). Based on my knowledge of scripture, the testimony of early witnesses in surviving historical Christian documents, and rational thought, I would answer that both events were true. Of course our atheist friend used the term "correct answer" versus "truth". The questions don't ask which events are true or actually occured, but what is the "correct answer". While those could be one and the same, they can also be different.

In any event, based on my belief that both events are true, my "most loved family member" would have been hypothetically shot. That immediately raisies a howl from our "rational" atheist friend "...that you are in dire need of rational salvation before you actually cause some harm or enable others to do so."

First, if rational salvation involves fiction that includes absolutes, contradictions, and misunderstandings, I want no part of "rational salvation", however that is defined. (Since salvation generally involves the existence of a God and an afterlife, and most atheists deny both; rational salvation is an interesting viewpoint for any atheist to hold. Conundrum comes to mind. erhaps we can discuss rational salvation later this year.)

Second, the charge of "dire need of rational salvation" makes clear that the thought experiment has nothing to do with atheism (the existence or nonexistence of God), but is an attempt at applying psychology to discredit either the Christian religion, Christians, or both. So, the title of Atheist Thought Experiment is less than truthful.

This final difference is important for Christian apologists to remember. Due to their inability to disprove the existance of God, many atheists attempt to disprove religion. One may disprove every religion in existence and still not disprove the existence of God. That's the dilemma of atheism. As rational science is inadequate to disprove God, psychology is employed to discredit religion and/or adherents.

Related Posts:
Atheist Believes Africa Needs God
Atheist Penn Jillette Receives Bible

Source: The Atheist Missionary: A thought experiment for fundamentalist Christians

Father Zakaria Botros Radio Broadcast Angers Michigan Muslims

2009-01-31T10:27:00.003-06:00

Father Zakaria Botros, a favorite Orthodox priest here at CAS, has been stirring up Muslim angst here in the U.S.. Its seems Father Zakaria's radio broadcast is broadcast here in the U.S., as well as to Arabic countries. His ability to cite passages from both the Koran and Haddith that are unflattering of the great prophet has caused a write-in/call-in campaign to stop his broadcast. Wow!

A recent Detroit News article states: "In an Arabic-language broadcast Wednesday on WNZK 680/690 AM, the Rev. Zakariah Boutros said the Muslim prophet Muhammad had engaged in necrophilia and gay sex, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations." The Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR as its commonly known in the Christian blogosphere, is avery pro-Islam apologetics agency. CAIR is not without some controversy on its own. The Detroit News article mentions further along "Dawud Walid, of CAIR, which distributed a "national alert" Thursday asking Muslims to contact the radio station to express concerns about the broadcast."

Apparently the offense was Father Botros citing an "Islamic text" that recounted the Prophet Muhammad sleeping in the grave of a dead woman and allowing a man to kiss and caress his chest. Doesn't sound like really sinful stuff to me, but apparently, this is somewhat offensive to Muslims who consider the allegations to defame Muhammad.

Again we encourage those Christian apologists who seek to engage Islam to study Father Zakaria Botros, his apologies, and his sources. The trite charge of "worshipping the moon God" is not effective. Using Islamic sources like the Koran and the Haddith to ask challenging questions is what works.

The Arabic Alphabet

2009-01-28T22:30:00.004-06:00

Here at CAS, we have started an non-credit Arabic language class at the local university. The two lessons this week have focused on the Arabic alphabet, which while confusing to most Americans, actually makes good sense when one considers that the Arabic alphabet was designed to be written in "cursive" script and not printed or type set.

Our first language introduced us to the complete Arabic alphabet which consists of 28 "consonants". Like Hebrew and other semitic languages, the are no "vowels" in the traditional Arabic alphabet, but there are some marks that can be used to indicate particular vowel sounds.

Our second class focused on the first four letters of the Arabic alphabet and included instruction on how to write the letters depending on the letter's location in a word. Similar to the English upper- and lower-case letters, letters in the Arabic alphabet are written differently depending on if the letters starts, ends, or appears in the middle of a word. Just to make the Arabic alphabet interesting, some letters don't have a "middle" and therefore don't connect to the following letter as in English cursive writing.

This is not our first introduction to Arabicand its alphabet. We previously lived among the peoples of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for most of a year. While we never got the hang of the Arabic alphabet during our stay, due to the large English speaking communities in both countries, we did gain much insight into Arabic and Islamic culture.

Our instructor is a young Palestinian man from Gaza and a Muslim. His immediate family came through the recent Israel military operation unharmed, but he has several cousins that suffered some injuries. Among these is a young child who had glass blown into their face and badly cut. Please join us in prayer for the healing of his loved ones.

Hopefully, our mastering the Arabic alphabet will lead to us mastering enough Arabic to read and cite from the Koran in our apologetics ministry. We doubt we'll ever have the Arabic and apologetic skills of Father Zakaria Boutros. But, we have a good benchmark!

Related Posts:
Father Zakaria Botros Radio Broadcast Angers Michigan Muslims
Answering Zakaria Botros
Christian Apologetics for Muslims

Source: YouTube - ArabicEducation - Arabic Alphabet Part 1

Vatican YouTube Channel Announced

2009-01-24T17:19:00.006-06:00

While one often reads much criticism of the Vatican for being stuck in the Dark Ages, the Vatican is definitely well into the 21st Century in regards to technology. Catholics and others can now watch Pope Benedict XVI on YouTube via The Vatican channel.

The channel is difficult to locate for new YouTube users. Searching for "Vatican channel" locates dozens of non-official homemade videos, some pro-Vatican and others anti-Vatican. Clicking the Channels link at the top of the page switches the results to a list of matching channels. The Vatican channel is at the top of these results.

The Vatican channel and uploaded videos are available in four languages: English, Italian, German, and Spanish. According to the statistics, the channel has been in existence since November 21, 2005. We suspect the channel was kept private until its recent announcement. In the short time the channel has been public, The Vatican has accumulated 6,052 subscribers and 197,825 views.

The appearance of The Vatican channel on YouTube is not without detractors. YouTube user freedomanddemocracy was less than thrilled. In his video Pope Benedict XVI - Vatican YouTube New Channel? - The fast path to Atheism, freedomanddemocracy complains; "is it too much to ask for a little space?" It may be a simple case of jealousy as freedomanddemocracy video has been viewed a scant 885 times, while most of the Vatican videos have counts over 10,000. As rants go, we'd rate freedomanddemocracy an 8, largely for use of phrases like "the tentacles will spread all over" and "the fake sense of love." Your results may vary.

Always interesting to see the reaction to the light of God being shined in previously dark places.

Related Posts:
Evangelism Explosion Among Catholics
Video - Vote Your Conscience
Video - The Geek of Immersion Baptism
Video - Answering Zakaria Botros

Source: YouTube - The Vatican

Obama Bans Torture, OKs Killing Foreign Babies

2009-01-24T10:45:00.008-06:00

Among his first acts of "hope and change", the Annointed One has banned torture and approved using federal funds to kill foreign babies before birth. The man of peace may be under the impression that by killing millions of Christian and non-Christian babies of color in his ancestral home of Africa, the United States will be spared the future embarassment of either responding to religious black-on-black genocides and/or the shame of watching hordes of predominently white U.S. soldiers slaying freedom fighters of color in the international media.

Scathingly brilliant, don't you think? Pay people today to kill future foreign populations, so we don't have to pay with more American treasure and lives later. Future generations of Americans will enjoy budget surpluses and will rarely have to serve in the Peace Services. Utopian society at last.

Exodus 20:13

Churches of Christ Decline to 1980 Level

2009-01-23T22:40:00.004-06:00

Churches of Christ have declined to just below 1980 levels according to the 2009 edition of Churches of Christ in the United States.

2009
Churches: 12,629
Members: 1,224,404
Adherents: 1,578,281

1980
Churches: 12,762
Members: 1,240,820
Adherents: 1,601,661

One of the more novel explanations is the immigration of millions of Hispanics — most of them Roman Catholics. (Pew identifies millions of unchurched Americans and its all the incoming Catholics that kept the Churches of Christ from growing. Yeah, its the Catholics fault.)

Closer to the truth is "birth rates have fallen as members have become more affluent." How about birth rates have fallen due to abortions and artificial contraception? That would be even closer. Actions have consequences.

Related Posts:
Methodists Decline in England
Australian Baptists Decline
Orthodox Church in America Increasing

Source: Church in America marked by decline

The Annointing of King Obama

2009-01-19T09:35:00.010-06:00

Inauguration fever is at full peak. World events have been supplanted by 24/7 coverage of all things inauguration with nothing too mundane for an exclusive vignette. The list of religious invited to pray at the many events seems to just about cover all the major American faith groups and then some.

While many Americans will watch and hear the many prayers being offered, few will likely realize the historical significance. While the Bible story of Saul annointing Samuel tells us that the Judeo-Christian practice of annointing rulers is over 2,500 years old, the Western tradition dates only from Pepin in about 749. Pepin sought the approval of Pope Zachary for Pepin's overthrow of Childeric III.

Better known is the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III on Christmas Evening, 800, and made famous in the fresco by painter Raphael. The coronation solidified Charlemagne as the most powerful leader of Western Europe.

In more modern times, we have the example of Napoleon. Napoleon brought Pope Pius VII to Paris for his coronation as Emperor of the French. Napoleon took the crown from the hands of the pope, crowned himself and then crowned his empress.

While the tradition of inaugural prayers dates only from 1937 and the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the tradition of Presidents presenting themselves to the Pope dates from Woodrow Wilson in 1920. In the past 89 years, American presidents have visited or been visited by the Pope 25 times. As the world recognized head of the Western Christian Church, these Papal vists serve as a modern annointing that legitimizes the authority of the President. It will be interesting to see if Obama continues the tradition and the timing of the visit (early-, mid-, or late-term).

So, the American inaugural ceremony is actually a remnant of the old coronation ceremony and the long list of American religious participating in the inauguration of Obama constitutes the annointing of the king and solidifies his authority and legitimacy.

God save the king!

War and Proportionality

2009-01-04T04:03:00.008-06:00

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) response to Hamas in Gaza is disproportionate!

This is a common claim among those protesting the recent IDF retaliation against Hamas rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza. What is a proportionate military response? Would Israel similarly launching an equal number of unguided high explosive rockets at civilian targets in Gaza be a proportionate and acceptable response?

The people making the claim of "disproportionate response" either do not understand what a proportionate response under international rules of war consists or are aware and are deliberately misleading others. I suspect the second for those with agendas and the first for most of the world.

When claiming the IDF response is disproportionate, the burden of proof is on the person making the claim. The only proof that has been offered to date has been a comparison of fatality and casualty statistics. Is this proof of lack of proportionality? No, the number of casualties and fatalities is not nor has ever been the standard measure of proportionality. Proportionality is defined in the laws of war as that military force which is necessary to establish the status quo ante (status before combat). Thus, proportionality is not an equivalent number of fatalities or casualties. Nor is proportionality a similar level of warmaking technology. Proportionality is ensuring that only the amount of force needed to reinstate the status quo ante is applied.

The IDF response is neither disproportionate nor outside the bounds of international law, much to the dislike of many. As Michael Totten has pointed out; "Hamas is still firing rockets; therefore, the IDF is not using more force than necessary to disrupt the firing of rockets. Israel, arguably, is using less force than necessary." So, as long as the IDF employs on that force necessary to destroy or capture and remove the Hamas rockets, the IDF actions will remain proportionate under the established rules of war.

We at CAS are not unfamiliar with the laws of armed conflict and the many conventions, having been in combat as a bona fide combatant. We have attended annual training on the laws of armed conflict for many years; as well as, have done independent research to locate and read the various treaties and conventions in the pre-Internet age. (When others read bestsellers or Playboy, we read the four Geneva Conventions. Yeah, we know.) As a Christian warrior we fully respect the rights of others to protest; however, we have a great love of truth and have little respect for those who distort truth for their own selfish purposes. All truth is from and of God and leads us closer to God.

Pray for peace and for Jesus to be merciful towards the dead, injured, and frightened of both sides.

Matthew 5:9

UPDATE

For those Twittering, the TinyURL for this post is: http://tinyurl.com/cas-idf

Source: Gaza and the Law of Armed Conflict

2009 Episcopal Year of Litigation

2009-01-01T07:48:00.003-06:00

David Virtue of the Anglican blog VirtueOnline coined the title of our post. In one of his recent Viewpoints, which are summaries of the previous weeks Anglican events, David writes:

"2009 promises to be the Episcopal Year of Litigation with four dioceses feeling the wrath of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and her attorney David Booth Beers, not to mention smaller legal battles waging inside dioceses like Connecticut, Colorado, Pennsylvania to name only a few."

In December 2008, the national Episcopal leadership lost a major court decision in Virginia regarding the ownership of disputed property. The national Episcopal leadership has pledged to appeal the ruling.

David further notes:

"Last year, four retired bishops asked the Presiding Bishop where the money was coming from and never got an answer. Why make the Diocese of Dallas think they will get one? The only way to get this information is to bring a civil action to compel disclosure.

Meantime, the Presiding Bishop, fearful perhaps that she might not be able to spring money loose from the church's endowments, wrote a letter to members of the ST. IVES GUILD of the Diocese of New York asking for funds 'to litigate and defend and protect Church property against those who wish to secure the property on behalf of a foreign province.'"

For those unfamiliar with the ongoing schism among American Anglicans, David's post is a good summary of what has happened and is scheduled to take place during the coming year. Go read.

John 13:34-35

UPDATE

We wrote this post before Christmas and scheduled it for New Year's Day. Amazingly, today we read in that another Episcopal parish has left the Episcopal Church. Milwaukee Bishop Steven A. Miller has reiterated the "party line" that members can leave a parish, but parishes can't leave the diocese. Uh,yeh. Expect litigation by the diocese and national church to commence in Spring 2009. It seems the congregation owns the land and rectory but is uncertain about the church. I expect the diocese to claim it owns everything.

Looks like Kate Schori will go down in history as the Primate holding the hot potato or lacking a chair when the music stops.

Related Posts:
Episcopal Church Decline Continues
The Shrinking Church of England

Source: Viewpoints : Skeleton Dioceses Reconstitute...PB Pleads for Funds to Sue Dioceses

1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of Silvester

2008-12-31T06:37:00.005-06:00

Continuing our series of posts on the 12 Days of Christmas, we took yet another glance at the 1611 King James Bible's liturgical calendar where it notes December 31st as "Siluefter bith." It took us a bit to discover that the 400 yeard-old English was conveying that on December 31st, Christians commemorate Silvester.

While my generation of American Christians associates Silvester with a certain "puddy tat" in constant stalk of a yellow tweety bird, Silvester was in actuality a Christian in Rome during the 3rd Century. According to Christian tradition, Silvester died on December 31st.

There are many legends concerning Silvester. The most common legend is that Silvester baptized Constantine.

Interestingly, in Germany, the historic seat of the Reformation and Martin Luther, New Years Eve is still referred to as Silvester-Nacht (Silvester-Night) in honor of Silvester. In Austria, New Year’s Eve is called Sylvesterabend, Eve of Saint Sylvester.

An article in the January 1, 1872, edition of the New York Times notes that German churches in New York were filled with church-going Germans on New Year's Eve. In Life Among the Germans, published in 1887, Emma Louise Parry writes of Berliners; "Then the people drink chocolate and eat Berliner Pfannenkuchen. Then they go to church for the beautiful liturgical service;..."

Related Posts:
1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of the Innocents
1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of John
1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of Stephen

Source: SYLVESTER ABEND.; New-Year's Eve Among the Germans.

The Alice's Restaurant Anti-Excommunication Movement

2008-12-30T09:23:00.004-06:00

We were skimming posts in Google Blogsearch looking to catch up on women's ordination and reading about the Anglican women bishop controversies in England, when we discovered a post by The Timman of Saint Louis Catholic. The Timman quoted an article by John A. Colvin of the Advocate River parishes bureau where in John stated; "A Lutcher-born Catholic priest facing excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church for his public stance advocating ordination of women priests has recently received the support of 113 nuns."

Oh, my! 133 nuns! That's nearly every nun in the U.S., isn't it? Many Catholics and non-Catholics would have you think so. Let's check.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the official organization of the Catholic hierarchy in the US, reports in their statistics there are 63,032 vowed religious sisters in the U.S.. According to my calculator, dividing 113 by 63,032 and rounding up (let's be charitable), 113 is .2% of all vowed religious sisters.

Thus, Roy has not received the support of 99.8% of vowed religious sisters. Significant? We think so.

To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie about Father Roy's .2% support:

"Friends they may thinks it's a movement! And that's what it is, the Alice's Restaurant anti-excommunication movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the guitar. With feeling."

Related Posts:
One God in Four Persons
Womenpriests Excommunicated
Ordination Prayer for Women Deacons Differs

Source: Here's a Surprise

Atheist Believes Africa Needs God

2008-12-29T08:45:00.002-06:00

Kendall Harmon of Anglican blog TitusOneNine found an interesting article in the UK's Times Online about an atheist who believes that Africa needs missionaries and not money. In the article, Matthew Parris, the atheist, describes a trans-Africa road trip where he and his friends sought shelter at night near missionary areas for safety reasons. Matthew and his friends noted that people in mission areas were different. The attitudes of the missionaries transfers to the local people and changes them for the better.

During a recent visit to Malawi, Matthew notes that Christians do heal the sick and do teach people to read and write. The work of Christians in Africa is so profound that Matthew writes;

"It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God. ... In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good."

We have long noted that atheists seem only to exist in stable theistic societies. Atheists tend to assume social stability developed naturally versus as the result of theistic influence. The problem with the atheist model of society is that it is only sustainable in theistic societies. The atheist model is not true across all socieites. A universal truth applies worldwide and not just locally.

Take another African society as an example. Somalia is ruled by a-religious war lords who follow neither Islam nor Christianity. Might makes right. The ethics of the war lords conflicts with the ethics of the theistic society atheists. Are both sets of ethics equally moral? If not, why is one group's ethics correct and the other in error? By what authority?

Matthew has learned a valuable lesson. Its one thing to declare oneself an atheist in the relative safety of a theistic society. Its another to live that belief outside of theistic society.

Related Posts:
Atheist Penn Jillette Receives Bible
Non-Christians Celebrate Christmas Too!>

Source: As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God

Most Read Christian Apologetics Articles Of 2008

2008-12-28T17:29:00.002-06:00

Looking over the analytics for our beloved CAS, the following 2008 posts were the most read by CAS visitors. Please consider taking a moment and reading any that you may have missed.

1. 1611 KJV Bible

2. Answering Zakaria Botros

3. NWT for eSword

4. Perpetual Virginty of Mary

5. Father Zakaria Botros

6. Papal Infallibility

7. Scripture Memorization in the Early Church

8. Is Calvinism Another Christian Denomination?

9. Ancient Polish Easter Food Blessing

10. Christian Apologetics for Muslims

Related Posts:
Most Read Christian Apologetics Articles Of 2007
Coming Topics on Christian Apologetics Society
Apologetics Index

1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of the Innocents

2008-12-28T08:17:00.005-06:00

Another peek at the 1611 KJV Bible's liturgical calendar for December, informs us that December 28th is the feast of the Innocents. The Innocents are the children slain by Herod as told in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 2:16-17

There is some arguement among historians as to whether the event took place as described. The Jewish historian Josephus fails to mention the "massacre" in his history. Matthew records the events ocuring in and around rural Bethlehem, which was a small town. Some historians point out that only about 6-20 boys may have been victims and thus the event was not significant enough for inclusion in Josephus' history.

Other historians feel the murdered boys may have been Herod's children. Josephus records Herod's execution of two of his sons by his wife Mariamne because he believed they posed a threat. (The Jewish War (I.535–7) and Jewish Antiquities (16.121–7, 356).

Nonetheless, surviving historical documents from the 4th Century clearly indicate that early Christians did commemorate the event of Matthew 2. Prior to the 4th Century, the rememberance of the Innocents is thought to have been part of Epiphany.

Like the earlier feast days listed in the 1611 KJV Bible, the commemoration of the Innocents varies by church. Both the West Syrians (Syriac Orthodox Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, and Maronite Church) and East Syrians (Chaldeans and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church) observe the feast of the Innocents on December 27th. Western Christians (Latin Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans) observe the feast on December 28th. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the feast on December 29th.

In England, the feast of the Innocants was known as Childermas. A Childermas tradition was allowing the children to be in charge for one day. In monastaries and convents, the youngest monk or nun would become abbott or abbess for the day.

The Coventry Carol was written in England in the 1500's and the carol commemorates the death of the Innocents by Herod. Check your Christmas music collection. Today would be a good day to play and listen to Coventry Carol.

Related Posts:
1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of John
1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of Stephen
12 Days of Christmas Myth

Source: Traditional Festivals

1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of John

2008-12-27T05:03:00.005-06:00

The liturgical calendar in the 1611 King James Bible marks December 27th as the feast of John. In an interesting twist, the Greek Orthodox Church commemorate Stephen on December 27 and John on December 26, just the oppposite of Western Christians. Yet, the earliest Syrian martyrology, dating from 411 AD in Edessa, records December 27 as commemorating John.

John, the beloved disciple of Jesus and caretaker of Mary, is honored with a spot on the KJV liturgical calendar not for his evangelism, but for his virginity. It seems that early Christians not only held that Mary was a perpetual virgin, but also John the Apostle. Augustine of Kent (ca. 604 AD) says, "to a virgin was the Virgin intrusted." The fragmets of Hyppolytus (ca. 980 AD) refer to John as "the virgin and the evangelist." Martin Luther Luther in a sermon of 1527 on December 27 spoke to John's virginity.

One modern author writes:

"Our Lord wishes the children to learn from St. John that they must retain an innocence and purity of life similar to that of His beloved disciple in order to enter the kingdom of heaven."

There is great disagreement among the early Christians concerning the martyrdom of John. Long story made short, John was thrown into boiling oil by Domitian and thus is a martyr. However, God protected John from harm and John resided in Ephesus for an extended time after, and thus is not a martyr. Alan Culpper in his book John, the Son of Zebedee notes that both accounts are legendary and therefore neither may be correct.

Interestingly, the Gospel of John, which is the fourth in our modern cannon of scripture, was not initially considered inspired or apostolic and it was not until about 200 AD that the Gospel of John began becoming accepted among early Christians. The earliest 2nd Century writers (Clement, Ignatius, Irenaeus, etc.) neither mention the fourth gospel nor quote from it. The acceptance of the fourth gospel started among the Gnostics, Montanists, and Orthodox Christians. If you'd like to know more about John, the entire book John, the Son of Zebedee is available online at Google Books.

Finally, in researching John, we discovered a very moving old world custom that perhaps some of you might like to adopt:

"A beautiful custom is some old countries is the drinking of 'St. John's love' on that day. Wine, blessed with a special blessing and prayers, is served in the home before the main meal: the father lifts the cup towards the mother. 'I drink you the love of Saint John'; she having answered: 'I thank you for the love of Saint John,' drinks to the eldest child and so on including guests and servants."
[True Christmas Spirit, by Edward J. Sutfin]

To our beloved CAS readership, we drink you the love of Saint John.

Related Posts:
1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of Stephen

Source: John, the Son of Zebedee

1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of Stephen

2008-12-26T04:25:00.006-06:00

According to the online 1611 King James Bible, today is the feast of Stephen. You may have heard the feast of Stephen mentioned in the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas.

"Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen"

Thus, Good King Wenceslas (Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, 907-935 AD) looked out on December 26th. But who was Stephen and why do present day Christians remember Stephen and continue to name our children after him?

Stephen was the first Christian martyr.

In Acts 6 we read that there was a "murmuring" among Greek Christians against Hebrew Christians concerning the care of widows. The Apostles chose Stephen and several others to attend to the problem.

Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Acts 6:5-8

Acts 6 goes to state that a dispute arose in one of the synagogues and charges were brought against Stephen:

Acts 6:9-15

Acts 7 begins with the elders asking Stephen if the charges are true. Stephen then launches into his famous soliloquy. Stephen's soliloquy is unique due to Stephen experiencing a theophany, or vision of a deity. Just before he is to be martyred, Stephen is granted a vision of Christ:

Acts 7:56

Acts 7 ends with the stoning of Stephen:

they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Acts 7:57-60

By the way, the Saul mentioned in verse 58 above,is the future missionary and epistilist Paul. Acts 8 informs us that Saul, who had not yet had his road to Damascus event, consented to the stoning of Stephen and then made such as havoc as to "scatter" the Christians abroad.

Acts 8:1-4

For those inspired by the story of Stephen and wishing to name a son after him, you may like to know that "Stephen" has Greek roots and means "crown." Also Eastern Christians (Greek Orthodox, Chaldean Catholics, etc.) commemorate Stephen on December 27th.

Related Posts:
1611 KJV Liturgical Calendar - Feast of Stephen
12 Days of Christmas Myth
Baptists Don't Celebrate Christmas

Source: Acts 7 (King James Version)

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T00:14:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Its is now just past midnight and officially Christmas. We have already received a wonderous Christmas present. We attended a Christmas church service with mother. Church was packed, with everyone moving close together to make room for others. The children acted out the Nativity as the minister read aloud the Nativity story from the Gospel of Luke:

Luke 2:1-14

Recalling Jesus healing ten lepers and only one returning to thank him (Luke 17:11-19). After church, we fell on our knees and thanked our Lord and Savior for giving us the grace that allowed us to attend and worship. Without that grace, we'd likely skip church and enjoy a secular holiday as many do. We humbly ask that our Lord provide that saving grace to each and everyone of you.

God bless... +Timothy

Related Posts:
The Holiest of Nights

Bible Games - Scriptogram 2

2008-12-24T08:08:00.002-06:00

Just in the nick of time for both Advent and Christmas, here's a scriptogram featuring a well known Bible verse from one of the Gospels.

Common language version (English):

Zchs 1:28

Sacred language version (Latin):

Oysm 1:28

The American Cryptogram Association offers a free online Solve A Cipher tool. Just copy and paste the cryptogram into the cipher window to start. Instructions are at the top of the tool.

Related Posts:
Bible Games - Scriptogram 1

Non-Christians Celebrate Christmas Too!

2008-12-23T12:01:00.005-06:00

Christmas - It's not just for Christians anymore!

Going through today's cycle of online reading, we discovered that non-Christians, both religious and a-religious, celebrate Christmas, at least in England. By non-Christians, we specifically include Muslims and Hindus.

The TimesOnline published an article revealing how certain non-Christian families are observing Christmas in England. Among the most surprising was the Muslim family.

"We do the works for Christmas dinner. ... We have mince pies but no brandy butter because drink is forbidden for Muslims, so it's a dry Christmas. ... When we were young we decorated the house for Christmas, but as we've got older they've gone up earlier, to coincide with Eid ul-Fitr..."

Equally interesting were the comments, wherein we heard from an atheist who enjoys "belting out carols" and finds "midnight mass quaintly endearing." A humanist from Portland, Oregon took the TimesOnline to task for faiing to ask a Humanist family about how they celebrate Christmas. Unfortunately, said Humanist failed to desribe his keeping or non-keeping of Christmas. Personally, if you're going to take the time to complain, then take the time to provide the information.

There were those in somewhat opposition to the article, including a Christian mentioning that he celebrates a different Christmas than "the secular 'tinsel and turkey' Christmas." Another person of the Jewish faith made clear that he and a good many Jews don't celebrate Christmas in any fashion. No gifts, no turkey, nothing.

Related Posts:
Baptists Don't Celebrate Christmas
Baptists Observing Advent
Evangelical Christians Adopting Advent

Source: How different faiths embrace Christmas

Search Maps for Denominational Names

2008-12-23T07:11:00.014-06:00

Our local free newspaper enlightened us on the existence of StateStats, a free online tool for creating search maps depicting the popularity of search terms by state. The search map tool basically counts how many people searched for a term in the past 30 days and then creates a heat map. Red indicating the most search activity and blue indicating the least search activity. We decided to play with the tool and toss in some of the more common terms used on CAS. You may find the resulting search maps as interesting as we did.

Map #1

Being in the deep South, affectionately (or not) known as the Bible Belt and home to many of the world's 16 million Southern Baptists, the first term used was "Baptist". The search map above was certainly not much of a surprise, except that the activity is clustered at one end of the Bible Belt and doesn't extend evenly throughout the Bible Belt. We were expecting Georgia and North Carolina to appear redder.

Map #2

Our next search map proved a bit more surprising. The second search map above depicts search activity for the term "evangelical." Once again we find the search activity is clustered together in a small group of contiguous states. The surprise was that instead of the cluster being located in the Bible Belt of the South, the cluster is located in the Northern Midwest. With a bit of poking about in Google, we discovered that the above area coincides with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). A Glenmary map of the Largest Participating Protestant Religious Groups is almost a perfect match. Mystery solved. Scooby snacks for everyone.

Map #3

One of the first things you likely noticed about the third search map above is that the nice, neat red cluster of the first two maps doesn't exist. There are red states all over the map. This is a search map for "Catholic". Of course, after the initial surprise, the map makes sense.

While New England (MA, NY, RI) is reknown for being heavily Catholic, those are the same states that are reknown for having the highest concentrations "liberal" Catholics who seem poorly catechized. MD was the site of the first Catholic colony and is home to the mother church of all Catholics in America. LA is the state divided into Catholic parishes instead of counties and recently elected Catholic as governor.

Nebraska as a bit of a surprise as when one says the word "Catholic" anything but "Nebraska" pops into mind. However, Nebraska is the home of the world famous Boys Town founded by Catholic priest Father Edward Flanagan. You may (or may not) recall the black and white movie with Spencer Tracy and a young Mickey Rooney.

I think we were expecting a red cluster from California to Texas as that region is heavily Hispanic Catholic. Perhaps they are searching on "Catolica?" (Or not)

Related Posts:
Evangelism Explosion Among Catholics (links to Glenmary maps of religious adherents)
2008 Evangelical Electoral Map Christian Apologetics Society Readership

Source: StateStats

Atheist Penn Jillette Receives Bible

2008-12-21T19:55:00.007-06:00

The Anchoress brought to her readers attention a YouTube clip by avowed atheist Penn Jillette. Its seems that after one of his shows someone handed him a Gideon Bible or New Testament. In the video, Penn is clearly emotional as he describes the event. Penn, the brilliant man that he is, says something extremely succint and profound, that one expects only from the likes of a G.K. Chesterton:

"How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible, and not tell them that?"

Let that sink in for a moment. An atheist is asking how much Christians have to hate non-Christians to deliberately not tell them the gospel. Penn's reaction is similar to one that a gay Jewish friend once had. My friend was so touched that I loved him enough to be concerned about his salvation. I provided books and patiently answered his many questions over a period of years. He now considers himself to be a Hebrew Christian, much like the early Jewish converts.

Its a short video. Penn remains an atheist, but you can see that the seed has been firmly planted and awaits the nurturing of the Holy Spirit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM

Knowing the power of God, I wouldn't be surprised to one day read that Penn is not only Christian, but Catholic or Orthodox. Similar fates have occured to other atheists.

Please pray for Penn and all atheists.

do it with gentleness and reverence

1Peter 3:15

UPDATE

My critique of the video doesn't seem to be too far off-base. Baptist Ed Stetzer of Lifeway Research posted the video. Among the 35 comments was one about the "seed being planted".

Related Posts:
Evangelism Explosion Among Catholics
The Church in China today
Why People Leave Church

Source: Penn Jillette; slouching toward Bethlehem

Christian Apologetics Society Readership

2008-12-21T16:14:00.004-06:00

While reviewing our web analytics, which steers much of our content, we were intrigued by the U.S. map showing where you our readers were located. Usually we view a shaded map which tells us that most of CAS visitors hail from California, Texas, and New York. We were much more suprised when we opted for a map showing by cities where you our beloved visitors were from:

We may have to conduct some research to discover what topics would interest visitors from the Dakotas and the upper Mountain region of the U.S.

Related Posts:
2008 Evangelical Electoral Map
Evangelism Explosion Among Catholics
Pew and the U.S. Religious Landscape

Source: Google Analytics

Methodists Decline in England

2008-12-21T11:07:00.006-06:00

David of VirtueOnline points us to a good article in the British TimesOnline on the continuing aging and decline of the English Methodist denomination.

The heart of the article states:

"Since several Methodist denominations united to form the British Methodist Church in 1932, membership has been in decline. In 1790, shortly before Wesley died, there were 57,000 Methodist members in Britain. By 1890 there were 726,000 members. A century later membership was down to 425,000, and by 2004 it had fallen sharply to below 300,000. Needless to say, the decline is worrying for Methodist leaders."

We've prevously noted here at CAS the decline of American mainline Protestant denominations, including the American branch of Methodism.

Stephen Plant, the author and a Methodist minister himself, writes one of the best "soundbites" on the decline. He writes:

"If the Methodist Church were to decline at the same rate in the coming decades as it has in the last, by 2040 Methodists in Britain would go the same way as Mohicans in North America."

While we commiserate with our Methodists brothers and sisters in England and around the world, CAS takes the longer strategic view and sees the decline of many Christian denominations as Christ healing the many schisms that have divided His One Church. We must decrease so that Christ may increase. Its an exciting age to be a Christian.

John 3:30

Congress Disproportionally Catholic and Mormon

2008-12-21T09:44:00.009-06:00

Its true. The U.S. Congress is disproportionally more Catholic and more Mormon than the U.S. population it represents. Catholics make up about 30% of Congress, yet constitute about 24-26% of the U.S. population. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints make up about 1.7% of the U.S. population, but comprise about 2.6% of Congress. Of course, its also true that Congress is disproportionally more Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Jewish.

The American Congress underrepresents Baptists, Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus. (If someone is overrepresented, then someone else will be underrepresented. Its a math thing.)

How do we know this? The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The good folks at Pew recently compared Congress to the Pew Survey on Religious Life and made some interesting finds:

"Only five members of the new Congress (about 1%) did not specify a religious affiliation. By contrast, the Landscape Survey found that individuals who are not affiliated with a particular faith make up about one-sixth (16.1%) of the adult population. "

"Protestants account for more than half (54.7%) of the 111th Congress, about the same proportion as their share of the U.S. adult population (51.3%)."

"The number of Catholics in Congress is two-and-a-half times the size of the next largest religious group, Baptists, who make up about 12% of the members."

"Muslims, who account for approximately 0.6% of the U.S. adult population, make up 0.4% of Congress."

"The 110th Congress also saw the arrival of the first Buddhists, Reps. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii)."

"Both houses of Congress have similar shares of various religious groups."

"Differences become much more pronounced at the party level. While 70.8% of congressional Republicans are Protestant, fewer than half of Democrats (43.6%) belong to Protestant denominational families."

Read the entire Pew article, Faith on the Hill: The Religious Affiliations of Members of Congress.

Related Posts:
2008 Evangelical Electoral Map
Orthodox Church in America Increasing
Episcopal Church Decline Continues

Source: Faith on the Hill: The Religious Affiliations of Members of Congress

Why Christmas Is December 25th

2008-12-20T10:41:00.002-06:00

While reviewing our analytics, we discovered that a number of folks have visited seeking the true answer to "Why is Christmas on December 25th?" We also have had one visitor leave the popular, but erroneous myth of Christmas being of pagan origin as a comment.

As we stated in our reply to the misinformed commentor, It's not because "the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25." While that is a happy coincidence, its not the true reason for the season. The true reason for why December 25th commemorates the birth of Jesus is because its about nine months after Easter. Nine months is the gestation period for a human, including God incarnate."

But why take our word for it? Why not read and dwell on what William J. Tighe, Associate Professor of History at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, researched and wrote for Touchstone, a Journal of Mere Christianity. In his article, Calculating Christmas, professor Tighe explains the true reason for how Christmas came to be observed by Western Christians on December 25th and by Eastern Christians on January 6th. Professor Tighe aptly explains "why" far better than we can.

By the way, for those fond of the pagan origins of Christmas myth, while the myth seems to explain why Western Christians celebrate on December 25th, the myth fails to satifactorily explain why Eastern Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on Januray 6th. Thus the myth is true only for one date, but not both dates. If something is true for one date, but not all dates, then one does not have the truth. Its a simple, but effective test.

Related Posts:
Baptists Don't Celebrate Christmas
12 Days of Christmas Song Myth
title

Source: Calculating Christmas

Bible Games - Scriptogram 1

2008-12-19T20:30:00.007-06:00

Some quick research indicates that a significant number of Christians are seeking bible games on any given day. As we enjoy a good puzzle and suspect other Christians do too, CAS will offer bible cryptograms, commonly called "scriptograms", from time to time. For those unfamilar, a cryptogram is a type of puzzle which consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Solving cryptograms is one method for developing critical thinking skills and helps keep oneself mentally alert into old age. The brain needs exercise too! Use it or lose it.

We'll consistently tag the scriptograms so visitors can get a page with just the scriptogram games and nothing extraneous.

So, to start the series, here's a cryptogram for a very well known Bible verse:

Future CAS scriptograms will include both English and Latin versions. Technically, a cryptogram in Latin is called a xenogram. I suspect before long, that a Spanish language xenogram will be added for our Hispanic brothers and sisters and those learning Spanish to minister to the Hispanic community.

The American Cryptogram Association offers a free online Solve A Cipher tool. Just copy and paste the cryptogram into the cipher window to start. Instructions are at the top of the tool.

Have fun!

Source: Cryptogram - Wikipedia

12 Days of Christmas Myth

2008-12-14T15:34:00.006-06:00

Being close to Christmas, the ubiquitous 12 Days of Christmas urban myth is yet again making another round of the world. The basic allegation, like any good myth, has a central kernal of truth. The myth starts by citing the persecution of Catholics in old England. That much is true. The myth further claims that the song is a secret Catholic catechism due to the forementioned persecution of Catholics. This is were the fallacy occurs.

An examination of the twelve verses reveals no distinct Catholic teaching or doctrine, which is not found in any other Christian congregation. Yes, the song is doctrinely sound for Catholics, but it is also doctrinely sound for Anglicans, Lutherans and other non-Catholic Christian sects. Granted, most Oneness Pentacostals would likely take umberance with the three calling birds / Trinity allegory.

The fact that there are only twelve verses indicates the song could just as likely refer to the 12 months on the Western calendar. For example, five golden rings could easily represent May weddings.

The song is, in fact, an old English Twelth Night memorization and forfeit game which was popular several centries ago. Its a party game, not a secret catechism. That said, the underlying tune is not English, but French. As France was largely Catholic at that time, a case could be made for the song being Catholic on account of the underlying melody most likely being of French Catholic origin.

Related Posts:
Singing the Gospel of Luke
Baptists Don't Celebrate Christmas
Evangelical Christians Adopting Advent

Source: The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)

Baptists Don't Celebrate Christmas

2008-12-10T21:19:00.009-06:00

Baptists don't celebrate Christmas, or at least they didn't for the first several hundred years of Baptist history. CAS readers may recall that in our earlier post on Advent wreaths at our local Lifeway store, that we encountered a clerk busy stocking several shelves with Christmas ornaments and cards. A Baptist from Colonial American days would be shocked to discover 21st Century Baptists not only stocking Advent supplies, but hawking Christmas decorations and openly celebrating Christmas. Why, it just wasn't done!

So it was that on our return from Lifeway, we decided to investigate just what Baptist history was in regards to Christmas. Once again, we turned to that repository of all human knowledge, Google. True to past experience, there in the digital stacks of Google Books we found several tomes from the early 19th Century documenting the Baptist history of Christmas, or rather the lack of any Christmas.

In The American Christmas By James Harwood Barnett, we found written:

"In general, Puritans, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers strongly opposed the religious observance of Christmas,..."

One must remember that the English Puritans passed an Act of Parliment in 1647 banning any observance of Christmas or Easter. The Puritan fathers in New England likewise enacted a law to punish those who "kept Christmas." As historical points of reference, Jamestown, VA was settled by Anglicans in 1607, Plymouth by Puritans in 1620 and Roger Williams founds his Baptist church in Rhode Island in 1639.

Penne L. Restad, author of Christmas in America, writes the first recorded Calvinist to dabble in Christmas was the Reverand Ezra Stiles who attended Lutheran Christmas services in Newport, Rhode Island in 1769 and 1770. The first Baptist congregation to keep Christmas seems to be the Baptist Church of Newport under Mr. Kelly, according to Stiles' diary. Kelly prophesied;

"This will begin the Introduction of Christmas among the Baptist Churches,..."

Restad further details that Baptists would often mask "their 'sin' of Christmas visitation by using it as a pretext for an asthetic critiques on Roman Catholicism." The big Baptist turn towards Christmas seems to have begun just after 1820. Restad writes that Congregationalist Thomas Robbins kept a diary and mention in 1823 the turning of yet another Calvinist congregation to Christmas.

Baptist history regarding Christmas gets scarce after 1820. The Suthern Baptist Convention comes into being in 1840 and the first Lottie Moon Christmas collection occurs in 1887. I suspect that just as WWII standardized the traditional Thanskgiving menu, that the Civil War in the early 1860's may have played a part in standardizing the observance of Christmas among Baptists.

Related Posts:
Baptists Observing Advent
Evangelical Christians Adopting Advent

Source:
Christmas in America: A History
The American Christmas
Christmas: A Candid History‎

Singing the Gospel of Luke

2008-12-08T21:19:00.009-06:00

This past week, the nearby university held their annual Christmas Concert. Not surprisingly, most of the music was in a foreign language and that language was Latin. The university fields several choral groups and its seems that each had one or two selections in Latin.

Weeks ago, I was discussing the upcoming concert with one of the singers, who was busy practicing his Latin selection, Regina Coeli. Our young friend was blissfully unaware that Regina Coeli translates as "Queen of Heaven". Regina Coeli is an ancient Latin Marian Hymn that is traditionally sung during evening prayers.

What I really found fascinating while listening to the evening's opening music is, that due to our location in the deep south, much of the choir was likely Baptist and likely unaware of the true meaning of the words they were singing. How many college students today have a background in Latin, particularly those with Southern Baptist backgrounds? So it was with some bemusement that I listened to the beautiful hymn having full knowledge that, outside of the concert hall, more fundamental Baptists were excorating Catholics for using the term "Queen of Heaven." The more Biblically literate know that "queen of heaven is found in both Jer 7:18 and Jer 44:19 and refers in that particular book to a pagan goddess. Not so the hymn.

As part of Regina Coeli, the group also sang the Sanctus. As more liturgical Christians know, the Sanctus is a prayer of worship which generaly precedes the consecration of the bread and wine. Again, our young singers were likely singing with little thought to the origin of the hymn. As a bit of trivia, the word sanctus, or Holy, is sung three times because in Isaiah 6:3 we find that God is thrice holy.

Later, another choral group sang a version of the Ave Maria that I had never heard before. Ave Maria being Latin for "Hail Mary", the traditional Catholic prayer to Mary, which is found at Luke 1:28 and following. The lyrics were faithful to to the Latin Vulgate Bible.

After the performance I spotted a young friend of the family who is a self-proclaimed agnostic. She remarked that the concert was like attending a Catholic mass. She had no trouble following the Latin and was fully aware of how Catholic the selections were.

Related Posts:
Perpetual Virginity of Mary
Scripture Memorization for Catholics: Prayers

Source: Regina Coeli

Evangelical Christians Adopting Advent

2008-11-26T05:05:00.004-06:00

Apparently, we were on to something when we noted the presence of advent candles, wreaths, and books in our local Lifeway Christian Store. Its seems that not only Baptists, but evangelical Christians in general are re-discovering the liturgical season of Advent. Perhaps some have read our post on the original 1611 KJV Bible and discovered that it contained an almanac givingthe dates for the First Sunday of Advent.

USA Today followed our post with their story on "Evangelicals Adopting Advent." They report:

"Popular evangelical authors are offering readings and composing prayers for the Advent season. And Family Christian Stores, the nation's largest Christian retailer with 301 stores nationwide, has seen sales of Advent-related items climb 35% in the past year."

Wanna-be missional, reformed evangelical and thawing-out seminary grad Jeff Wright has assembled about a dozen links to non-Catholic Advent resources on his Pursuing Truth blog. Among Jeff's links are online Advent devotionals from Lutheran Hour Ministries and Discovering the Truth About Santa Claus from the St. Nicholas Center. Jeff plans to add more links as he discovers additional Advent resources. If you know of any, please take time to comment on his blog.

Perhaps after spending four weeks preparing to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus, these same eangelicals will feel shortchanged by a one day celebration of Christmas and re-discover that Christmas is actually a 12 day liturgical season with similar opportunities for prayer and to fall deeper in love with Christ.

Of course, there are those evangelical Christians that see Advent as 100% Catholic and will reject the opportunity to grow in prayer solely for its Catholic roots. We fully expect that Ken Silva hear of the trend and add Advent observance to his growing list of activitites contributing to the apostacy of the "Christian" church.

Related Posts:
Baptists Observing Advent
Baptists Recovering Lost Catholic Treasure of Lent

Source: Evangelicals adopting Advent

Obama Unchurched?

2008-11-24T22:11:00.009-06:00

It seems that Senator Obama, the soon to be President Elect¹ may be unchurched.

Allegedly, in the three weeks since the national elections, the senator has decided to workout on Sundays, but has not attended church. This is a marked change from past presidents who largely attended church both before and after their inagurations. We and other Christians find this behavior troubling as the senator is not modeling behaviors for the current and future generations of American Christian youth. This strikes us as a distinct lack of moral leadership. What is a parent to answer when a teenager points out that even the President skips church, so what's the big deal?

When asked about the senator's Sunday behavior, an aide stated:

"Because they have a great deal of respect for places of worship, they do not want to draw unwelcome or inappropriate attention to a church not used to the attention their attendance would draw."

Attention hasn't seemed to have been an impediment to past Presidents. Why suddenly now? There are any number of ministers, priests, rabbis, and/or imams that would make "housecalls" and hold a private worship service for the Obamas and their transition staff.

Already at least one pro-Obama site has stepped in to the senator's defense. The site notes that the reporters "ignored numerous reports of Bush's infrequent church attendance over the past eight years, as well as his reported lack of membership in a Washington congregation."

Since when does poor behavior by another mature adult excuse the behavior of another mature adult? Where does one find that teaching in scripture? One doesn't.

The current defense of the senator's Sunday behavior, or lack thereof, is to claim that the senator has not yet "shopped" for a church in Washington D.C.. To which we would ask the good senator, where have you been attending church the past two years that you have represented your state in the senate? Surely the senator has remained in D.C. over a weekend while the senate was in session. Where did the senator attend church previously?

Personally, when someone tells us about "shopping" for a church, we would ask where is that taught in scripture. No where in scripture does one find the teaching to "shop" for a church. Shopping for a church is unbiblical.

Numerous D.C. area ministers have offered to host the Obamas at their church. Most notably, the Episcopal Church has offered the National Cathedral citing their "inclusiveness". With the recent layoffs of personnel at the National Cathedral, we have no doubts that they would like the first family as congregants and the security funding that may accompany the family. The cathedral is in need of repair and maintenance.

In closing, we ask the senator to reconsider his behavior and the message it conveys to current and future Christians. We ask that you, our readers, take a few moments right now to join us and other readers in praying for the senator and for a change in behavior.

[¹ For the civics challenged: During the November elections, the American people voted for their state's electors. The electors have yet to vote, thus Obama is not yet the President Elect. It seems safe that he will be elected by the electors, unless the Supreme Court determines that he is ineligible due to not being a natural born citizen.

² Also, in the interest of full disclosure, we did not vote for either Senator Obama nor Senator McCain, but voted our conscience for the best Christian candidate on our ballot. Our state went for McCain's electors by a large margin.]

Related Posts:
Barack Obama Faith Tour Flops
Obama for Catholic Women Ordination?

Source: Obama skips church, heads to gym

Banned Again!

2008-11-23T12:58:00.005-06:00

It seems we have been banned again. The first was satire, this time it's not.

We were visiting Baptist Board, a Baptist bulletin board, which we do monthly. They generally have a few interesting things to read, particularly in regards "Baptist History" and "Other Christian Denominations". They had a particularly good discussion regarding some Catholic voters being excluded from communion for their support of Obama. Rather than the usual shrill anti-Catholic diatribes that populate many Baptist sites, the discussion was charitable and stayed on message. Several even agreed with the "appropriateness of this priest's comments and actions."

It was after attempting to create an account to respond and give kudos that we discovered that we, in fact, had an existing account. It was after recovering our password and logging in that we encountered the following screen:

Well, that certainly seems charitable and Christian, doesn't it?

To the best of our knowledge we have never posted on Baptist Board and do recall being turned down for an account many years ago on account of not being a Baptist. Strange that we were not banned for our behavior and that there is no chance of redemption. We find that particularly interesting as Christ taught that one may always repent of their sins. There is no "never" with Christ. Not so with our Baptist brothers at Baptist Board. We'll keep them in our prayers as I hope you will too!

Related Posts:
Banned!

Source: Obama's effect on Catolic Communion

Baptists Observing Advent

2008-11-22T21:28:00.005-06:00

Today, we visited out local Lifeway store. Lifeway is the commercial arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. So, there we were circling the store, when just past the Bibles, we spotted Advent candles on the top shelf. Advent candles in a Baptist bookstore, who knew?

We inquired of a clerk stocking Christmas decorations if there were any Advent wreaths for the forementioned candles. She replied that "No" she didn't recall seeing any. Imagine our suprise moments later when returning down the center aisle we found an end-cap displaying not only more Advent candles, but Advent wreaths and two advent books. One of the books was actually a pre-advent book and listed activities to be followed during the four weeks of November in order to prepare oneself for the liturgical season of Advent.

Growing up in the American South, I don't recall any observance of Advent among the many Baptists of the day. Certainly, those King James Only purists would have known of Advent as the dates for Advent Sunday were included in the Almanac inside the original 1611 King James Bible as we have previously noted here at CAS.

I would love to hear from Baptists regarding your congregations observance of Advent. Please feel free to comment below.

Related Posts:
Baptists Recovering Lost Catholic Treasure of Lent

Source: The Everlasting Light Advent Wreath

2009 National Bible Bee to Encourage Scripture Memorization

2008-11-16T12:24:00.003-06:00

Here's a good idea whose time has come. The 2009 National Bible Bee is a brand new program to encourage and motivate children to memorize scripture. The competition will begin with Local Contests in communities nationwide on September 12, 2009. The top 100 finalists from each age group will advance to the National Contest in Washington, D.C. to compete on November 5-6, 2009. Curriculum for the chuldren and their coaches will be released in May 2009.

Basically, the Bee will consist of a written test and an oral round. There are two versions of the written test for each age group. In each oral round, contestants will be given 12 minutes within which to answer multiple questions, some of which will be Bible Memory questions and some of which will be Bible Knowledge questions. When answering Bible Memory questions, contestants will state the reference to a passage before and after reciting the passage. Points are deducted for words that are omitted or erroneous and for answers that are incomplete.

As part of the enrollment process, contestants must specify one of four versions of the Bible from which to quote Bible passages in response to Bible Memory Questions: King James Version, New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, and New International Version. Bible Knowledge questions will be phrased in such a way that the version studied by the contestants will not affect their ability to answer.

Volunteers are needed to start Local Planning Committees. Local Planning Committees are guided in their preparations by a Local Contest Procedure Manual, as well as the assistance of Bible Bee Event Planners. If you are interested in hosting a local Bible Bee or starting a Local Planning Committee, please call one of the Bible Bee event planners toll-free at 888-324-2532.

As this is the first year and no one is familiar with the contest, anyone could win. Wouldn't it be something if a Catholic child were to win!

Related Posts:
Scripture Memorization in Early Church History
Scripture Memorization for Catholics: Prayers

Source: Bible Bee

Australian Baptists Decline

2008-11-08T15:49:00.003-06:00

Steve Addiison, a fellow blogger and member of the Baptist Union of Australia, wrote a short, but very succinct post on the status of the Baptist Union of Australia. The BUA experience seems to parallel that of the Southern Baptist Covention on this side of the Pacific.

Steve writes:

"Baptist membership has been falling since 1992.
The gap between membership and population growth has been widening since 1911.
Church attendance has been growing since 2003 but the numbers may not be accurate.
The number of churches is increasing.
The gap between number of churches and population growth has been widening since 1911.
Mainline Protestant churches are in serious decline which outweighs the growth in evangelical churches.
The Australian population is growing at unexpectedly high levels and will continue to do so.

Conclusion: More of the same will result in steady long-term decline in relation to Australian population growth."

Steve's unofficial report, Future Prospects, is available online as a PDF.

Related Posts:
Why People Leave Church
Episcopal Church Decline Continues
Methodists Drop To 1820 Level

Source: The future of the Australian Baptists

Waldensians Not Baptists

2008-11-08T15:10:00.009-06:00

One of the more common historical errors we find about the Christian blogosphere is the persistent myth of Dr. JM Carroll's Trail of Blood. The now disproven tract had a wide circulation around the late 19th Century and gained much traction among Christian congregations during the anti-Catholic No Nothing period of American history. Modern Baptist historians like James Edward McGoldrick, author of Baptist Successionism, have used scholarship to soundly refute the "landmarkism" myth perpetuated by Trail of Blood.

One of the myths perpetuated by landmarkism and Carroll's Trail of Blood was the myth that Waldensians are part of the apostolic continuity of Baptists. Nothing could be further from the truth. While Waldensian congregations still exist in Europe and the America's, the post-Reformation doctrines of modern Waldensians differ greatly from the doctrines and practices of Waldensians of the 12th and 13th Centuries. One of the advantages of living in the 21st Century is that we have the advantage of the collection of docuents known as the world-wide web. Among those 10 billion documents can be found at the University of Michigan a short tome entitled Waldo and the Waldensians Before the Reformation.

Among the pages of this short, but well footnoted book are documented evidence of some very non-Baptist practices. Among these are:

1. Transubstantiation (p.41)

2. Acceptance of the Apochrypha (p.54)

3. Salvation by faith and works (p.56)

4. Prayed mostly repeating the Lord’s Prayer (p.60)

5. Admitted the seven sacraments (p.61)

6. Did not exclude the confessional (p.61)

7. Veneration of the Mother of Jesus (p.61)

Yeah, the 12th and 13th Century Waldensians sound just like the present day Baptist conventions. The world can hardly tell them apart.

Related Posts:
Saint Patrick a Baptist! Not!
Scripture Memorization in Early Church History

Source: History, Homeschooling, and Religious Persecution

2008 Evangelical Electoral Map

2008-11-08T07:38:00.011-06:00

Christianity Today has cobbled together a very clever electoral map depicting the evangelical Christian vote for the 2008 election. Christianity today used CNN's 2008 election results for the data. Hat tip to Kendall Harmon at TitusOneNine.

Click View Larger Map to open a larger map in a new page.

View Larger Map

The darker the shade of red, the fewer the number of evangelical Christians voting for McCain. Pink depicts heavy McCain support. Deep red depicts lowest McCain support. There are no blue states as Obama did not carry a mjority of evangelicals in any state.

If only there were a map of the 2008 Catholic electoral vote, perhaps many of those non-attending Catholics might reconsider practicing their Christian faith.

Related Posts:
Vote Your Conscience

Source: The Evangelical Electoral Map

Top 50 Biblical Studies Blogs

2008-10-30T16:40:00.004-05:00

Kevin Edgecomb of Biblicalia linked to a first in the Christian Blogosphere, the Top 50 Biblical Studies Blogs. Kevin's Biblicalia blog appears in the list at number 24. The Biblioblog Top 50 ranks each biblical studies blog, or ‘biblioblog’, by the total number of unique visitors it receives each month.

Kevin also posted on Biblical Studies Carnival XXXV. I wasn't aware of the Bible Studies Carnival. Judging from the selection of articles, the Biblical Studies Carnival may be one of the best means of keeping abreast of the best posts among the Top 50 Biblical Studies Blogs.

Its going to take us some time to wade through all these highly recommended Bible studies blogs. We're sure that serendipitous Bible treasure awaits your and our discovery. Why not check out a few and leave some comments on what you find below?

Source: Biblical Studies Carnival XXXV

Christian Apologetics Society Milestones Reached

2008-10-25T09:07:00.006-05:00

CAS reached two blogging milestones ths past week. Almost two years of faithful blogging for the world at large, we are pleased to announce:

CAS receives over 1,000 visitors a month. More importantly, over 12% of those visitors accomplish our goal of reading specific content during their visit to CAS.

We recently posted our 100th post, a significant achievement, as we don't copy and paste other people's articles, but write original content for you our faithful readers.

Please join us in thanking God for the success of this ministry.

Orthodox Church in America Increasing

2008-10-25T08:47:00.004-05:00

Kendall Harmon of the Anglican blog TitusOneNine, a CAS must read, notes a recent USA Today article on a welcome trend among the Orthodox Church in America. Namely, their congregations are increasing. Not only are they increasing, but the congrgeations are swelling with both Catholic and Reformation Christian converts.

According to a study by the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley, CA, 29% of Greek Orthodox in America are converts. Amazingly, as many as 56% of clergy among the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) are converts.

A commenter Ad Orientem on TitusOneNine noted:

"The fundies generally come to Orthodoxy when they start discovering church history. By which I mean the part between the end of the New Testament and Martin Luther / John Calvin. To read the Fathers is to end forever the weird ideas that so called “Bible Christians” have about things like sola scriptura etc. I have yet to meet a fundamentalist Protestant who was well read in the Fathers and early Church history. It is absolutely impossible to square Protestantism with the faith of the first millennium."

If you'd like your voice to be part of the discussion, click over to TitusOneNine. Don't forget to set a bookmark while you're there.

Related Posts:
Pew and the U.S. Religious Landscape
Ordination Prayer for Women Deacons Differs

Source: Study finds more U.S. Orthodox Christian converts

Military Family Needs Your Prayers

2008-10-22T06:08:00.007-05:00

From the Anchoress herself:

"Folks, I cannot go into a lot of detail, but a military family and good friend to this blog has written an email they never wanted to write - because of the inability to give details I can share only this:

“[he] has been wounded very badly. The doctors have said I need to be prepared to lose him. If there’s a positive, they said most other men would have died because of the severity of wounds. At present, he’s under heavy sedation.”

The wife of this serviceman - who is a formidable and talented woman of some skill and education - has been with him in hospital for a short time; she is understandably distraught. Those children who can be there, are. ...

I cannot tell you his name - but if you could storm heaven for “Beloved and his family” at this time - for miracles if God wills them, for peace and consolation if not. The need is great."

We're currently in tears and having trouble posting this. Please pause and pray right now...

Source: A Military Family in need of prayers

Catholics Exceed Methodists at SMU

2008-10-19T15:18:00.007-05:00

The El Paso Times reported on an interesting outcome at Southern Methodist Seminary in Texas. It seems that Catholic students now outnumber Methodist students by about 200 students. The bumper crop of Catholic students comprise about 25% of the student population, which coincidentally is just slightly more than Catholic-sponsored University of Dallas, which has a 19% non-Catholic population. Catholics make up 81% of the student body at UD. Methodists make up about 25% of the 11,000 student body at SMU.

Personally, I would have thought this story would have been picked up and reported on across the Christian blogoshere, perhaps on a Methodist blog. Since it hasn't and we follow religious demographics, its here.

Related Posts:
Methodists Drop To 1820 Level
Pew and the U.S. Religious Landscape

Source: Survey says more Catholics than Methodists at SMU

Islam and Child Pornography

2008-10-19T12:54:00.006-05:00

Disturbing news from the Britain, Italy and Spain indicates that Islamic terrorist are using child pornography to hide and distribute messages among themselves.

"Secret coded messages are being embedded into child pornographic images, and paedophile websites are being exploited as a secure way of passing information between terrorists. ... It is not clear whether the terrorists were more interested in the material for personal gratification or were drawn to child porn networks as a secure means of sending messages. In one case fewer than a dozen images were found; in another, 40,000."

This may explain why, after several Islamic jihad websites went dark, the sites never came back up. Its now appears the jihadists may have chosen to move their operations to the Darknet.

As the security services personnel noted, there is considerable contradiction between the tenets of Islam and any use of child pornography. As one who has spent considerable time among our Islamic brothers and sisters in their lands, I grieve for those faithful Muslims seeking to love and be obediant to the one God of all. These children of the most high God will suffer and bear many unjustices that rightfully should befall their errant brothers.

Pray.

Related Posts:
Muslims Leaving Islam

Source: Link between child porn and Muslim terrorists discovered in police raids

Episcopal Church Decline Continues

2008-10-19T10:43:00.010-05:00

As many CAS regulars know, we read widely among the Christian blogosphere. The major news event of the past week for our Anglican and Episcopal brothers and sisters in Christ is the continuing decline of the Episcopal Church in the USA. The Episcopal Church released its 2007 membership statistics and the Anglican blogosphere is ablaze. CAS readers may not be aware that a second Episcopal diocese, Pittsburg, voted to break communion with the Episcopal Church and join with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

Matt Kennedy of Stand Firm penned:

"According to the latest statistics (for 2007) released last week (and now mysteriously taken down from the Episcopal Church website) only four dioceses out of 111 experienced growth."

David Virtue of Virtue Online recently stated about the Episcopal diocese of Michigan:

"The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is in free fall.

The liberal diocese is faced with declining church attendance, and dwindling income. The diocese is going to launch a plan aimed at revitalizing the "diocesan household."

A report at their website said the diocese must face stark realities. A task force says that "the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is in steep decline." Charts included in the document reveal that average Sunday attendance has declined by 22% since 2000. During the same time period, "pledge and plate revenues" for all congregations combined has decreased by approximately $2 million, when adjusted for inflation."

The term "death spiral" is being used with increasing regularity.

Amidst the hand wringing, various reasons for the decline are discussed. Chief among these are unbelief, ordination of an actively gay bishop, heavy handedness of the Presiding Bishop, and demographic winter. We at CAS see things more holistically and find multiple contributing causes.

That said, the largest contributing cause is likely the turn the Episcopal Church took afollowing the 1930 Lambeth Conference when Anglicans reversed centuries of doctrine and allowed artifical birth control by married couples. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Episcopal children were never born.

Discussing the low Episcopalian birth rate, Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori has previously opined that Episcopalians are not much interested in breeding. Mrs. Schori said:

"[Episcopalians] tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion."

Decisions have consequences, as countries and now ecclesial communities are discovering long after the unintended results.

CAS would like to remind readers that this is not the time for un-Christian triumphalism. Please pray for your Anglican brothers and sisters in Christ.

Related Posts:
The Shrinking Church of England
Why More Catholics Than Protestants
Demographic Winter

Source: The Shrinking Episcopal Church

Automatically Link Bible Verses with RefTagger

2008-10-19T10:03:00.008-05:00

This past week we discovered a new tool for Christian bloggers and apologists that relieves the tedium of building links to online Bibles by hand.

RefTagger is a short fragment of javascript that easily enables most major blog and portal systems to support the automatic linking of Bible references to your favorite version of the Bible, provided its one of the eight available. You set your preferred version in the script fragment. RefTagger provides an online tool for creating a unique custom fragment for just your blog.

For fellow Blogger users, the installation was quick and painless. We simply selected our template tab, scrolled to the bottom of the textarea box, and pasted the script just above the closing body tag. Save the template and RefTagger works. RefTagger converted every Bible reference in every post since our start two years ago to a rollover showing the referenced verse.

Now if Logos would only add the public domain Douay-Rheims version of the Bible for outreach to Catholics, we'd be cooking with gas. A Greek New Testament would also be handy for those few times we need to examine the underlying Greek.

In closing, remember the words of Isaiah 55:11.

Related Posts:
Scripture Memorization in Early Church History
Apologetics - eSword for Catholics
NWT for eSword

Source: RefTagger

Why Men Flock To Islam

2008-10-08T20:57:00.007-05:00

“If Christianity required women to walk behind their husbands and wear burquas, then we’d have a church full of men.

No, that's not the real answer as to why. That was an answer by a woman to a rhetorical question posed by David Murrow of Church for Men.

A comment over at the Internet Monk, pointed us to an article by David Murrow in the March 2007 newsletter of Church for Men entitled, Why Men Flock To Islam. According to David DeMeo, professor of Middle Eastern and Arabic studies at Harvard, the answer can be sumed up as: Islam is a religion that delivers results for men. Too often, Christianity does not.

Its a short article, so take a moment to click over and read Why men flock to Islam. Men folk might also take a moment to look over the Church for Men site.

Related Posts:
Muslims Leaving Islam
Comparing Islam and Christianity

Source: Why men flock to Islam

Why People Leave Church

2008-10-08T20:17:00.004-05:00

Chris Rosebrough over at Extreme Theology recently posted a short video featuring Julia Duin of the Washington Times discussing her new book, Quitting Church: Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What to Do about It. Julia cites George Barna as saying that about one million people drop out of church each year. Julia goes on to list several reasons why people are leaving churches. The video is just under three minutes.

In the video, Duin cites her forthcoming article. You can read her article, Why even the pious are leaving, in the Sunday, September 21, 2008 edition of The Washington Times.

Related Posts:
The Shrinking Church of England

Source: Leaving Church in Droves

Evangelism Explosion Among Catholics

2008-10-05T09:17:00.007-05:00

One of the better Baptist blogs is Timmy Brister's Provocations & Pantings. Timmy describes himself as "a Christian who finds his passion around the gospel of Jesus Christ and communicating Christ in our culture."

In one of Timmy's recent posts, Timmy discussed "the work of exegeting culture, especially in regards to church planting." Timmy briefly described how he uses demographic research to determine where to plant churches. We critiqued Timmy's math and proposed an equation that might provide more accurate numbers on which to base church planting decisions. In response, Timmy asked me to summarize Catholic efforts "evangelize the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ". Our response to Timmy was as follows:

>Timmy Brister: "I would be interested in hearing what Catholics are doing to evangelize the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you mind sharing?"

Sure, But I don't know if I can do the topic justice as U.S. Catholics only make up about 4-5% of the worldwide Catholic Church. I only know a little about what's going on in our 5% of the Catholic Church.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops coordinates evangelization through their Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis.

The primary Catholic agency conducting most of Catholic evangelization in the U.S. is Glenmary and their Glenmary Research Center. Glenmary compiles most of the maps and data used not only by Catholics, but by other denominations as well.

Catholic Church: Adherents as a Percentage of Total Population

U.S. Counties With High Percentages of Unclaimed/Unchurched

U.S. Counties With Low Percentages of Catholics

U.S. Counties With Mission Need

Based on the mapping, Glenmary missionaries have been working largely in the Southern and Midwestern U.S. on church plants and other missionary activities. You can find reports on their missionary activities on the Commission on Evangelization site. Its chock full of resource on evangelization, discussion starters, reaching out to seekers, etc. They also have an article on "Why Catholics and Baptists Should Evangelize Together",.

Another Catholic evangeliztion group, to which I belong, is the Pope John Paul II Society of Evangelists and School of Evangelization. The immediate goal of the Pope John Paul II Society of Evangelists is to recruit 69,000 members, who are committed to winning at least one soul for Christ and His Church each year. All baptized Catholics who are fourteen years of age or older, who are in complete harmony with all the teachings of the Catholic Church and the Magisterium, are eligible to become members. There are no fees or dues of any kind. The Society has an online library of reprintable apologetics pamphlets and tracts that we download and pass out during our day to day activities. There are also free Catholic apologetic and prayer CDs, which you are most welcome to order.

In addition to these two major Catholic evangelization ministries, Catholics now have their own cable channel Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), thanks to Mother Angelica in Birmingham, AL. EWTN offers 24-hour Catholic programming to most major markets. A lot of unchurched, unclaimed, and non-Catholic Christians are watching EWTN and realizing that most of what they have been taught regarding Catholicism is wrong and they are converting.

Catholic radio has been growing every year with more and more Catholic stations standing up. Catholic Answers LIVE, a 2-hour apologetic program is very popular. They feature special days for only non-Catholics to call in with their questions. The Catholic Answers program is available as a free podcast, which I listen to at the office, often 2-3 times each.

In new media, Catholic Answers is THE outreach website. Catholic Answers Forums is where you find the greatest number of discussions on all aspects of Catholicism by Catholics, Baptists, Muslims, atheists, agnostics and others. Catholic Answers also pubishes a great Apologetics magazine, This Rock. Furthermore, there are about 1,624 Catholic blogs as of today. Each one written by a Catholic seeking to share his/her faith with others.

Catholic institutions also play a large part in Catholic evangelization. Catholics run the largest system of schools in the nation with 6,266 elementary schools educating 1,576,301 students and 1,352 high schools educating 680,689 students. 557 Catholic hospitals treated 83,795,186 patients. More than 1,735 local Catholic Charities agencies and institutions provided services to 7,854,104 unduplicated individuals in need of help in 2004. (Catholics invented the hospital and the university)

But the best and most effective Catholic evangelists are the many Catholics who quietly go about living their Catholic faith with humility and charity. As Saint Francis of Assissi said: "Preach the gospel at all times -- If necessary, use words."

In total, Catholic evangelism is fairly effective. About 1.1 million children and adults enter the Catholic Church every year in the U.S.. Worldwide, the Catholic Church grows by about 17-18 million. That growth is about the size of the entire SBC, every year, sustained. The number of Catholic priests is increasing as is the number of nuns. Several religious orders, such as the Dominicans in Nashville, TN, are overflowing with novices.

I hope that gives you a better perspective on Catholic evangelization. With 25% of the U.S. population Catholic, we only need every Catholic to help bring just 3 people into the Church to make the U.S. 100% Catholic. Want to be one of my three? ;)

God bless...

+Timothy

BTW, while writing this comment, I received a call from a friend of mine. He was raised Baptist but converted to Judaism. He told me that as a result of our long talks that he now considers himself a Christian. Please pray for him.

UPDATE

Jim West, pastor of Petros Baptist Church in Petros, Tenn., has penned a similar, but much shorter article on Baptist presence on the web entitled, Oh What a Baptist Web We Weave. The Facebook group mentioned and linked to seems a good idea worth replicating by others.

Related Posts:
New Catholic Evangelism Video

Source: Cultural Exegesis and Contextual Research

Vote Your Conscience

2008-10-01T10:30:00.000-05:00

We encourage everyone to watch this short three and a half minute video produced for Catholic voters. The video is actually non-denominational and does not contradict any Christian doctrine that we are aware of. The video depicts candidates of both major U.S. political parties and neither supports nor derides either. Other than four brief depictions of the word "Catholic", the video could have been made by any Christian congregation and targeted to any Christian congregation.

This is likely the best Christian outreach video of this political season. Thank you Arlington Countryside Church for bringing it to our attention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61wj4tJICcc

Pretty incredible, huh? Please tell others and help spread "the Word". Embed this video on your own blog or church website. This video ought to run night and day as a continuous infomercial on its own cable or satellite channel.

UPDATE

It seems Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk himself, has found this video and has posted it on his blog as well. Ditto for the Anchoress. As of this moment the video has been seen 2,116,821 times. Your vote and your actions in the few remaining days can effect history. Make a difference. Vote your conscience. Spread the word and pray.

Related Posts:
Barack Obama Faith Tour Flops

Source: The Catholics Nailed It

Rebaptism: Is A Need for Rebaptism Biblical?

2008-09-28T10:21:00.008-05:00

Michael Spencer, the iMonk, is hosting a very good discussion on rebaptism and questioning the need for rebaptism. Michael plans a multi-post discussion on rebaptism and the many apologies for and against the practice of rebaptism among many Baptist and evangelical congregations. Michaels says the practice of rebaptism is "an issue that has deeply affected and weakened my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention,...". With the continuing decline in Southern Baptist adherents and baptisms, Michael's discussion is timely and much needed.

What does the Bible say about rebaptism? Well, rebaptism is not demonstrated in any of the New Testament. There are many examples of baptisms, but no examples of rebaptism. Paul seems to implicitly instruct against the need for rebaptism in one of his letters:

one baptism

Ephesians 4:4-6

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians seems very clear that there is one and only one baptism. This section of his letter reinforces the oneness of God and the one faith established by Christ. Combined with the fact that there isn't a single example of rebaptism in the Bible, I am unable to understand how sola scriptura Christians can wander into the error of rebaptism and the confusion and doubts it creates in their congregations. But, then again, so many early Christians wandered into the error of rebaptism that the second Ecumenical Council in 381 specfically addressed rebaptism in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins

The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381

In the interest of full disclosure, our congregation recites the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 at most services and also holds the early Christian doctrine of one baptism, as do we.

I encourage CAS readers to click over to the Internet Monk blog and join in the conversation taking place regarding the need for rebaptism. As always, be charitable!

Related Posts:
Baptism by Immersion Only
Baptism by Immersion - Clothed or Unclothed?
The Holiest of Nights

Source: Rebaptism: What Is It?

Barack Obama Faith Tour Flops

2008-09-27T23:08:00.004-05:00

Steven Ertelt of LifeNews.com is reporting that an Obama faith event in Lynchburg, Virginia failed.

"The Obama campaign has signed up evangelical author Donald Miller, Pepperdine University professor Doug Kmiec and former Indiana Congressman Tim Roemer, for the "Barack Obama: Faith, Family and Values Tour."

The trio made a stop at Liberty University, which is home to over 10,000 evangelical students from across the county and a conservative bastion..."

15 people showed up for the rally. Not good.

I suspect one of the problems was the campaign's selection of Rev. E. Terri LaVelle, senior adviser on Religious Affairs. I fail to see how a non-Catholic can advise on Catholic outreach. Ditto for how a women minister can design outreach for fundamentalist Christians who oppose ordination of women. Its like the Obama campaign is tone deaf regarding Christian outreach.

No comment on how this failure might impact the Virginia election as Virginia is very close in recent polls.

Related Posts:
Obama for Catholic Women Ordination?

Source: Barack Obama Faith Tour Flops With Pro-Life Voters in Jerry Falwell's Backyard

Video: Pro Abortion Protest Turns Violent

2008-09-27T19:35:00.009-05:00

Stand Firm, a favorite Anglican blog, posted the following YouTube video showing pro-abortion protestors harassing and provoking pro-life Christians preaching the gosplel by their witness of peaceful and unceasing prayer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp0oMKGFTyk

One of the most surreal moments comes midway when the pro-abortion protestors begin chanting "Killers! Killers! Killers!" at the peaceful pro-life counterprotest group. One cannot begin to fathom what logic went in to deciding that pro-life Christians are "killers."

Also, burning the pro-life banner and throwing the glass bottle are sure fire methods of losing the moral high ground.

Source: Pro-abortion Protestors Attack Youth Prayer Group

Lifeway Christian Stores Pull Gospel Today Magazine

2008-09-20T10:36:00.017-05:00

Fox News is reporting that over 100 Lifeway Christian stores have pulled the current edition of Gospel Today magazine from their shelves and are now selling the magazine "under the counter". Lifeway stores are Southern Baptist bookstores and Southern Baptists are the largest block of Reformation Christians in America. Gospel Today is the largest Christian magazine. So, we have the largest group of Protestants hiding the largest Protestant magazine.

The controversial edition features five female Baptist pastors and an article on the growing trend of Baptist congregations ordaining women as pastors. Previous editions of Gospel Today featuring T.D. Jakes, a Oneness Pentacostal minister, were displayed and sold. Oneness Pentacostalism denies the Trinity. Lifeway either didn't have a problem with Jakes' denial of the Trinity or were unaware of his beliefs. But a feature on female Baptist ministers is beyond Lifeways' threshhold.

According to Fox News, Chris Turner, a spokesman for Lifeway Resources, said the cover was not the reason the magazine was pulled from Lifeway's shelves.

"The buyers said the statements that were in it took positions that were contrary to what we would say," Turner said. "It wasn't so much that there were women on the cover."

In the words of Fox's Bill O'Reilly, "what say you?"

Update

Wade Burleson, who has spent the last twenty five years pastoring Baptist in Oklahoma, has a really good post entitled "The Southern Baptist Convention Is Not a Cult: We Just Sometimes Act Like We Are". Recommend reading Wade's article and the 185 comments on it.

Related Posts:
Baptist Ministers Historically Unpaid

Source: Magazine Featuring Female Pastors Pulled From Shelves, 'Treated Like Pornography'

Baptism by Immersion Only

2008-09-18T21:45:00.008-05:00

During one of our routine patrols of the Blogosphere for all things "baptism", we chanced upon a comment citing a portion of a Nineteenth Century Bible dictionary. The dictionary was compiled by M.G. Easton M.A., D.D.. M.G. Easton was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and writer, whose best known work is Easton's Bible Dictionary, published in 1897, three years after his death. A quick search for "Easton's Bible Dictionary" indicated that the tome was available in digital form at one of my favorite online Christian libraries, the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College.

Here's the excerpt that caught our attention:

The mode of baptism can in no way be determined from the Greek word rendered "baptize."

Illustrated Bible Dictionary

It was the sentence "The mode of baptism can in no way be determined from the Greek word rendered "baptize." that caught our eye. As regular CAS readers know, we are located deep in Southern Baptist territory. Local baptists are quick to state the the Greek word baptizmo means "to dip" and nothing else. Therefore, baptism is by immersion only. The fact that a learned mainline Reformation minister not only took exception to the rigid Baptist definition of baptizmo, but also listed some very strong polemics against the limited definition is somewhat amazing.

We'll have to test Doctor Easton's arguments with our Baptist friends. We'd be curious to hear the Baptist response, other than the rote baptizmo means "to dip".

Related Posts:
The Geek of Immersion Baptism
Baptism by Immersion - Clothed or Unclothed?
The Holiest of Nights

Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

Orissa News: List of Damaged Churches, Institutions

2008-09-14T12:28:00.006-05:00

Amy wellborn points CAS to Orissa Burning, a news blog documenting the anti-Christian persecution, mobs, and destruction occuring around Orissa, India.

Orissa Burning's latest post provides a List of Damaged Churches, Institutions to date. While the majority of the destruction involves catholic churches and institutions the list also includes several Baptist, Pentacostal and "believers" churches as well.

If you are not familiar with the destruction being committed by several Hindu mobs in and around Orissa, take some time now to become familiar. Please be charitable and remember that the destrution is by mobs and not by the majority of peaceful Hindus living in Orissa. Please remember the perpetrators in your prayers along with the victims.

Source: List of Damaged Churches, Institutions

Scripture Memorization: Matthew Begats

2008-09-14T10:43:00.008-05:00

Stand Firm, one of three Anglican blogs we read regularly, pointed readers to an interesting YouTube video featuring Behold The Lamb of God singing the "begats" from the Gospel of Matthew. In light of recent interest on memorizing scripture, the BTLG video seems a good match to CAS readers' interests.

Take just over two-minutes and watch a simple song that you can use to memorize the genealogy of Christ from Matthew:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5O8h-pkrqM

Pretty sweet, huh? Now listen to it again with the lyrics for Matthew's Begats.

"Abraham had Isaac
Isaac, he had Jacob..."

Related Posts:
Scripture Memorization for Catholics: Prayers
Scripture Memorization in Early Church History

Source: video: An easy way to memorize Matthew’s geneology

Leaving Jesusland for Chicago

2008-09-13T12:06:00.008-05:00

My apologies to regular CAS readers for not posting this past two weeks. I left what "Blue Staters" call "Jesusland" for the very urban environs of Chicago. Chicago, I discovered is remarkably Catholic. (Settled by French Catholic fur traders. Makes sense.)

Here in Jesusland, Catholics are a minority. My state is in competition with Mississippi for the fewest Catholics. Baptist and Pentacostal churches predominate. Country crossroads often sport two or more Baptist churches. Catholic churches are about 20-30 miles apart. Some counties lack a single Catholic church entirely.

By comparison, downtown Chicago seems to have Catholic Churches spaced 20-30 blocks apart. Some city crossroads seemed to have several Catholic churches at their intersections, one Roman and another one or two Eastern. The view from an elevated deck showed tall cross adorned spires announcing the presence of Catholic churches in every neighborhood.

I discovered that Old Saint Mary's Catholic Church on Michigan is actually a very modern structure. The Catholic Church in Chinatown offers worship in Chinese and four other languages, including Italian. The Lithuanian parish in Bridgeport offers Mass in Latin. I'm sure local Chicagoans could add to my list of observations.

To be fair, I know that all religions are likely found in Chicago. North of the river, we found a Jewish area. That was before driving along Devon and through its Indian and Pakistani communities. Along the way we passed at least two Episcopal/Anglican churches and a lovely Lutheran church. I did eventually spot a Baptist congregation.

Somewhere south of the corn belt in Illinois, Catholic churches disappeared and Baptist churches dominated. I thought to myself. Jesusland! I'm almost home.

Father Zakaria Botros Increases Visitors

2008-09-13T11:35:00.008-05:00

Father Zakaria Botros must have put out a damaging apologetic against Islam on Middle Eastern TV recently. CAS visitor statistics have doubled this past week and most of the visitors seem to be Islamic, judging from the high bounce rate and keywords. Keywords like "zakaria botros ", "zakaria botros disasters of the koran", "answering christian", "answeringzakaria", and "coptic apologist islam christian" are conspicuous in the CAS analytics.

For those not familiar with Father Zakaria Botros, Father Botros is a Coptic priest. Not Catholic, but ~~Eastern~~ Oriental Orthodox. Father Botros engages Islam through an Arabic language satellite television program watched by thousands (if not millions) of Muslims. Father Botros is very popular among everyone but the Imams and Islamic apologists.

As previously mentioned, Father Zakaria Botros has been very effective in challenging Islamic clerics head on with some very difficult arguements regarding the Koran and Islamic teaching. So much so, that many Islamic regions have chosen to retaliate physically against Christians, Copts in particular. Please remember Father Zakaria Botros and our Coptic brothers and sisters in Christ in your prayers.

Update

As several CAS commentors have noted, Father Zakaria Botros is Orthodox, but not Eastern Orthodox. Father Botros, as a Coptic Orthodox, is part of the Oriental Orthodox Church. Wikipedia has a good introductory article on the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

Related Posts:
Answering Zakaria Botros
Christian Apologetics for Muslims

Source: source

Maps of the Apostles

2008-08-21T21:39:00.009-05:00

An anonymous CAS visitor sought maps of the Apostles. Presumably, what our Christian brother, or sister, was seeking was a map showing the areas that the Twelve evangelized. While there are dozens of maps depicting the voyages of Paul, maps depicting the travels of the Twelve are rare and difficult to locate.

One of the better maps is found on the site of the Calvin College Electronic Library (CCEL), a good source for patristic literture and commentary. CCEL's Fate of the Apostles includes a small gray scale map showing traditional locations where the Apostles preached and died. The map is shaded to indicate the boundaries of the Twelve's evangelization efforts. Small crosses indicate the approximate final resting place of each Apostle.

CCEL also offers a second map of the Apostles, showing locations where the original Apostles preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to various ancient traditions. Similar to the first map of the Apostles, this shaded map does not include crosses depicting the place of death of each apostle.

Source: Fate of the Apostles

Obama for Catholic Women Ordination?

2008-08-20T03:52:00.009-05:00

Sister Catherine Pinkerton, a founder of the Cleveland Women’s Ordination Conference, has been selected to be the Catholic prayer voice at the Democratic Party Convention in Denver. Sister Catherine has been an "advisor" to the Obama campaign on all things Catholic.

A few observations on this:

- Other invited religious are ordained clergy, except for Catholic religious. An Orthodox Archbishop was invited to speak while the local Catholic bishop was invited only to "observe."

- The elevation of Sister Catherine as an ordained clergy equal seems to be an implicit endorsement of women's ordination by the party and campaign. Non-Catholic individuals and organizations should avoid any perceived intanglement in the tar baby of women's ordination.

- Sister Catherine is from Ohio, which has a significant Catholic population and which did not support Kerry in 2004. I don't see how the selection of Sister Catherine improves things in Ohio. It likely will result in more anti-Obama Catholic activity.

- Canon law 1371 has sometimes been invoked by bishops to restrict speaking by dissident nuns. What actions Archbishop Chaput may take or consider is unknown at this time. Similar past events by others have resulted in the issue of a precept of obedience.

While there is much to admire concerning Sister Catherine's work on social justice issues like immigration and globalization, Sister Catherine's clear dissent with Catholic teaching on women's ordination marks her as outside orthodox Catholicism. The blatant attempt to target poorly catechised Catholics speaks volumes regarding the desperation of the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party.

The campaign and party should have recruited Catholic advisors from Steubenville versus Cleveland.

Source: Nun from Cleveland, Catherine Pinkerton, to offer prayer at Democratic National Convention

Scripture Memorization for Catholics: Prayers

2008-08-17T23:12:00.004-05:00

One of the more interesting aspects of Christian apologetics is dealing with the many urban legends and myths that many Christians hold and teach to others. Among the many Christian urban legends is the myth that Catholics don't know the Bible (for various alleged reasons), and certainly have not memorized it like Reformation Christians.

The truth is that, percentage wise, about as many Catholics as Protestants read the Bible regularly. Less known by Protestants is that most Catholics hear more of the Bible read at a typical Catholic Sunday sevice than they do. Catholics have also memorized large portions of the Bible. Where Catholics are at fault is in not recognizing that they not only know and understand much of the Bible, but that they have memorized much of the Bible.

Out of Christian love for our Catholic brothers and sisters, CAS will assist Catholics in matching the many scripture verses which they as Catholics have memorized with their Biblical source. In this first part of the series on scripture memorization for Catholics, we match Catholic prayers to their corresponding Bible verses.

The Sign of the Cross - Matthew 28:19

All Catholic prayer typically begins with the sign of the cross, an ancient Christian custom. While tracing a cross over one's body, the prayer "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" is said. This Catholic prayer comes from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19.

Matthew 28:19

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

A simple technique to memorize Matthew 28:19 is to recite the entire verse and make the sign of the cross at that part of the verse. After making the sign of the cross, tell yourself "Matthew 28:19"

The Our Father - Matthew 6:9–13, Luke 11:2-4

Catholics recite the Our Father from memory. What many Catholics haven't memorized is the Our father is found in Matthew 6, verses 9–13 and in Luke 11, verses 2-4. The Our Father is a "two fer".

Matthew 6:9–13

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.

Luke 11:2-4

Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.

Did you know that the prayer first chosen for the Catholic Rosary was the Our Father, and, depending on circumstances, it was said either fifty or a hundred times?

The Hail Mary - Luke 1:28, Luke 1:42

Catholics have long prayed the Hail Mary; however, many Catholics are unaware that they have been praying the Gospel of Luke. The first "half" of the Hail Mary consists of two overlapping verses from the first chapter of Luke.

Luke 1:28

Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women

Luke 1:42

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Did you know that when the Hail Mary was added to the Rosary in the 12th Century that it consisted only of Luke 1:28 and Luke 1:42?

Conclusion

Catholics should take heart. You have memorized much more of the Bible than you and many other Christians believe. Start your scripture memorization by learning the citations for your prayers.

In part 2, we'll explore the citations for already memorized scripture from the Mass.

Related Posts:
Scripture Memorization in Early Church History

Source: The Rosary

Why More Catholics Than Protestants

2008-08-13T18:49:00.003-05:00

An anonymous visitor found their way to CAS by asking "Why more Catholics than Protestants?" It's an excellent question and a good topic for discussion at CAS. So, why are there more Catholics than Protestants worldwide?

Time

Catholics got a head start, no matter when you start the clock. Regardless of whether you agree with Catholics that the Church started in 33 A.D. or as late as 600 A.D., the Protestant Reformation didn't start until around 1500. Catholics got anywhere from a 1000 to 1500 year head start depending on your dates. Not just the Church at Rome, but all the Eastern Catholic Churches as well. When the Apostles broke out of Jerusalem and set out on the Great Commission, they did exceptionally well. Thomas didn't stop until he hit southern India. It would be 1500 years before the West would ever learn of Thomas' achievements.

The Age of Exploration

Columbus set sail just before the Reformation. Columbus was Catholic. Ditto for Magellan, Cortez, Balboa, and Cabot. Portugal, Spain, and France were all Catholic and exporting Catholics and Catholicism. English Protestants were late sailing. By the time the Jamestown Anglicans arrived, Spanish Catholics had long since said the Mass up river and colonized Florida.

The Reformation

While the Reformation basically split Europe in half, Catholics got the larger half. Protestants tried to even things up by killing hundreds of thousands of Catholics during the 4th Inquisition. Nonetheless, Catholics still ended up with the more populated southern piece of Europe.

Thomas Malthus

Shortly after the American and French Revolutions, Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population. The age of eugenics and birth control was about to be born. Interestingly, during the Nineteenth Century Protestants passed some of the most stringent laws outlawing most forms of birth control for a mostly Protestant America.

Immigration

While the post-Civil War migration of Irish Catholics increased the number of Catholics in America, worldwide the migration neither increased nor decreased the total number of Catholics. But the Irish Potato Famine and the following immigration waves of Italians and Eastern European Catholics set the stage for the next great influence.

1930 Lambeth Conference

"On August 14 the Lambeth Conference broke away from the anti-contraceptive teaching that had been universal among Christian churches. Until that time, no Christian church had taught it was morally permissible for married couples to use unnatural methods of birth control."

"The Lambeth decision was followed in the United States by a similar acceptance of contraception by a committee of the Federal Council of Churches on March 21, 1931.

The impact of these two actions cannot be overestimated, for they constituted the embrace of the sexual revolution by Christian churches.

Without the support of the dominant religious sentiment, the American anti-contraception laws began to fall, one after another, starting in the mid-thirties."

Actions have consequences. The impact of the reversal by Protestant denominations on contraception, coupled with a eugenics movement inspired by Malthus, resulted in a change in American demographics. More Catholics were now being born than Protestants. The higher birth rate for Catholics continued until the 1960s.

Recent statistics now show 1.64 lifetime births per Catholic woman versus 1.91 per Protestant woman. Catholic women now tend to have fewer children than Protestant women, primarily because they marry later and less frequently than do Protestants. Will this reversal in fertility rates change the status quo? Only time will tell.

Genesis 1:28

Source: Apologetics and birth control, Understanding U.S. Fertility

Scripture Memorization in Early Church History

2008-08-10T10:30:00.009-05:00

A CAS visitor earlier this year was researching "Scripture Memorization in Early Church History." Modern Christians take for granted the current Christian tradition of memorizing verses of the Bible. Often, this memorization takes the form of citing the book name, chapter, and verse; followed by the verse or verses, and then repeating the Book name, chapter, and verse. For example:

John 6:53 -- "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." -- John 6:53

The modern method of scripture memorization would have been largely unknown to early Church Christians. Why? Chiefly due to some scriptures not yet existing, a shortage of easily accessible scriptures, illiteracy, and the inconvenient fact the the modern system of dividing the Bible into chapters and versus wasn't developed until about the Reformation.

In the immediate period after Christ's ascension, there was no New Testament to memorize. The books were yet to be written. So, rather than memorizing Romans, early Christians, who still attended synagogues, memorized the Old Testament. Memorization was achieved en masse by the Old Testament being read aloud to the congregation. Often, the reader of the scroll was not actually reading the scroll, but reciting the passages by memory themselves.

The "books" of the New Testament were actually scrolls of very expensive parchment or papyrus. The scripture was written in scriptio continua style. That is, to save space and economize, the scripture was written without chapter and paragraph breaks. In fact, there were not even spaces between words and verses as in this paragraph itself. Can you imagine trying to read John 6:53 aloud, while looking at:

thenjesussaiduntothemverilyverilyisayuntoyouexceptyeeattheflesh
ofthesonofmananddrinkhisbloodyehavenolifeinyou

While New Testament scrolls existed in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there were few, if any, personal copies. Christians of the day did not arrive at "church" carrying their own copy of scripture. The modern Christian tradition of believers bringing their own personal Bible to church was not an early church practice. Instead the congregation assembled a library of scripture, some in the modern canon and many not found in the current canon. At their gathering, most, if not all, the scriptures were read aloud to the assembly. If an early Christian congregation had acquired a copy of Paul's epistle to the Romans, it likely would have been read in its entirety every Sunday, week after week. That's how New Testament scripture was initially memorized. The Christian tradition of reading scripture aloud in in repeating cycles is still observed in all 22 Catholic Churches and in all Eastern Orthodox Churches.

During the misnamed Dark Ages, Irish monastics would gather daily and recite all 150 Psalms from beginning to end. By praying all 150 psalms daily, new monastics would have heard all 150 psalms repeatedly and been able to memorize all 150 prayers of David as well. Lay people often desired to join in the monastic prayers, but could not devote the time required to pray and memorize all 150 psalms. Eventually, a simplified devotional was developed using a few shorter, more easily memorized verses from the New Testament which were repeated to form a chain of 150 psalm-like prayers. Many Christians know this simplified devotional of 150 prayers as the Rosary.

(By the way, in the early centuries of the Church, presbyters were required to have memorized all 150 psalms. How many modern presbyters have memorized all 150 psalms? How many modern elders or deacons have memorized all 150 psalms? Compared to some early Christian practices, many of us modern age Christians measure as a bunch of slackers.)

It was several centuries after the Great Schism, that "the present chapter divisions in our Bibles were invented in 1205 by Stephen Langton, a professor in Paris (he later became the Archbishop of Canterbury), who put these into a Vulgate edition of the Bible." The current versification of the Bible was developed by Robert Stephanus in 1551, just after the start of the Reformation. The post-Reformation Geneva Bible was the first Bible to be published using the modern system of chapter and verse divisions.

So, it is after the Reformation that the modern Christian tradition of memorizing scripture in the form of citing the book name, chapter, and verse; followed by the verse or verses developed. Over recent centuries, many systems of organizing scripture verses to aid Christians in memorization have developed. We still have our original box of the Topical Memory System developed by the Navigators on our shelf of Bibles.

With the advent of computers and the development of e-Sword software with its scripture memorization tools, scripture memorization enters a new age. Interestingly, that after 2000 years, while the division of scripture into chapters and verses has been standardized, punctuation has not. Perhaps some future Christian will significantly aid in the standardization of punctuation in the Bible.

God bless...

Related Posts:
Scripture Memorization for Catholics: Prayers

Source: Chapters and Verses -- Late Comers

Lutheran Church Planting

2008-08-10T02:23:00.005-05:00

Southern Baptist Ed Stetzer points us to a recent annoncement by the The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod to plant 2,000 new Lutheran churches by 2017. A similar project was attempted by the LCMS in 1979. The 1979 goal was "to plant 1,800 congregations in 10 years, or about 180 a year. The actual number of churches started was less than 100 a year--70 to 80."

As LCMS market share does not exceed 3% in any state, the U.S. will not likely be going Lutheran any time soon. Hopefully the LCMS will target areas of the U.S. with large numbers of non-Christians and make new disciples versus just moving sheep.

Source: Church Planting

Book of Common Prayer for E-Sword

2008-08-08T07:12:00.005-05:00

CAS receives a steady stream of Anglican visitors seeking a digitized copy of the Book of Common Prayer for e-Sword Bible software. "The Book of Common Prayer is one of the major works of English literature. Since its introduction in the mid-1500's it has exerted enormous influence on the religious and literary lives of all who speak the English language."

The Book of Common Prayer is on many e-Sword users' wish lists. While I don't recall seeing a complete copy in e-Sword format, part does exist.

1662 Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer

Andrew on Esnips offers the 1662 Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer. Andrew doesn't offer much of a description, so that's about the limit of our knowledge on his file.

Converting the Book of Common Prayer to E-Sword

As the Book of Common Prayer already exists in in digital text form, no one needs to scan and spell check the Book of Common Prayer. All one really needs to do is start with a blank e-Sword topical (.top) file and copy an existing version of the Book of Common Prayer into it and format the text as desired. Its not an overnight project, but it is possible, especially since there are 70 million Anglicans worldwide and 2 million are here in the United States. Surely there is one dedicated Anglican or a small group of Anglicans willing to transform the Book of Common Prayer into e-Sword format.

There's about 360 pages in the version of the Book of Common Prayer I reviewed online, so that means a lone dedicated Anglican could convert the entire Book of Common Prayer into e-Sword format in one year at a rate of one finished page per day. Up the standard to two finished pages per day and the project is done in six months. Throw a small team at it and the project could be done in a month or less.

e-Sword files are simply Microsoft Access databases with the .mdb extension changed to one of the many e-Sword file extensions. Using Access one can easily import and append tables. If every one on a team had clear understanding of their start and end points, each member could work on their own portion. One team member could be responsible for importing and completing the assembly of the final file.

I will leave comments open on this post to facilitate anyone wishing to undertake the holy quest of converting the Book of Common Prayer into e-Sword format.

Source: Book of Common Prayer

Answering Zakaria Botros

2008-08-07T03:47:00.009-05:00

To the Muslim apologist who searched on "answering Zakaria Botros", I can only say: "Good luck with that! Inshallah." Like John Corapi, Zakaria Botros seems to have been given the rare charisma of apostolic preaching. That's pretty much a no win situation for the Muslim debating Zakaria.

A good many video clips of Zakaria Botros and the Islamic apologists attempting to answer Zakaria have been appearing on YouTube. Most of the clips are video captures from Arabic television stations. Very few clips are in English. Here's a good Zakaria Botros video for first timers that has been overdubbed in English.

The disasters of the Quran_1

Again, note that Zakaria does not waste time and energy arguing about Moon gods or false gods, but goes straight for the many inconvenient, and often embarassing, truths that have developed in Islam over the 1300 years since Mohammed. If you as a Christian seek to engage Islam, you need to spend time reading and studying Zakaria Botros.

As CAS reported earlier, Zakaria Botros has a website and makes available many of his apologetics resources in English for those Christian apologists engaging Islam. Forget the feable "Moon god" and "false god" arguements and go learn some of Zakaria's hard hitting lines of questioning that are causing much grief among Islamic apologists. So much so that our Coptic brothers and sisters in Christ are bearing physical abuse for the sake of the Gospel. Please keep Zakaria Botros and our Coptic brothers and sisters in Christ in your prayers.

Related Posts
Christian Apologetics for Muslims

Coming Topics on Christian Apologetics Society

2008-08-07T03:22:00.007-05:00

CAS recently did an extensive review of our 2008 web analytics, including 1495 search phrases that led visitors to our beloved blog. Thanks to alphabetizing, several areas of interest were clear. We have identified about 30 search phrases that would make for interesting discussion and exploration.

Some of the major topic areas include:

Baptist history
Bible history
Beginning apologetics
Blessings
Byzantine Catholics
Early Church history
E-sword tutorials
Heresies
Lent
King James Bible
Papal polemics
Women deacons
Zakaria Botros

CAS believes in finding our what people want to read and giving it to them. To the over 500 CAS readers every month, thank you for your time and support. Of course, as we run across news and other items of interest, CAS will continue to keep you updated.

Banned!

2008-08-03T18:42:00.009-05:00

Christian Apologetics Society has been banned!

Not by Blogger, Google, Technorati, or anyone else that really counts. No, we have been banned by the more tolerant and open-minded Spirit of Vatican 2 "Catholic" Faith Community [not currently affiliated with the Diocese of Knoxville].

Why have we been banned?

For: PH, T, R, and O.

They consider this blog to contain Phariseeism (PH), Traditionalism (T), Republicanism (R), and Offensive (O, anti-womyn, anti-GLBTNA, etc.) Unfortunately, their site offers no criteria as to what constitutes offenses under each criteria, who makes the determinations, nor any appeal process, if any.

Regarding Phariseeism, one would think that requires someone to observe one's actions and deeds and compare them to one's words. Oh, no! They're watching me! (You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you.)

We suspect the charge of Traditionalism is either because we created some Latin and Greek language files for the e-Sword Bible software or that we quote from the early Christians. We do hold ourselves to the standard of presenting authentic Christian doctrine.

We find the charge of Republicanism interesting in that we volunteered for the Dean campaign in a very cold Iowa.

We suspect CAS tripped the Offensive criteria not because of anti-GLBTNA nor being anti-womyn, but because we routinely post against the Roman Catholic Woman Priest apostates. That doesn't make the site anti-womyn, just anti-womenpriest.

An anti-GLBTNA charge would be pretty amazing considering how many times we have commented on anti-gay posts reminding fellow Christian bloggers that GLBTNA are children of God with an immortal soul made in His image and that God has a perfect plan for their salvation. GLBTNA are most welcome to worship with us.

Any way, looking at the list, we're in good company and must be doing something right. Also banned are Amy Wellborn, Jimmy Akin, and the Cafeteria Is Closed. All favorite reads of ours.

Here's the list of other blogs banned by Spirit of Vatican 2 "Catholic" Faith Community and the SOV2 blog rating codes:

Banned Websites and Blogs

Absolutely No Spin: T,F,C
Ad Dominum: PH,C,T
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam: PH,R,C,F
Adam's Ale: C+,T,EM
Adoro Te Devote: PH,O
Adrienne's Catholic Corner: PH,O,C,T,R,EM
Amy Wellborn: PH,C+,T,O
Astonished, Yet at Home: PH,C,RT
B Movie Catechism: PH,F
Back to Catholicism: PH,T,C
Bonfire of the Vanities: PH,C+,T,F,UM,POD
Cafeteria is Closed: PH,T,C,F,EM,O,R
Called By Name: C+,T,F
Catholic Caveman: PH,O,T,F,EM,R
Catholic Dads: PH,T,O
Catholic Pillow Fight: PH,F,O,R
Catholic Sensibility: P1
Catholics Against Rudy: PH,NC,O,C,T,R
Chironomo's Podium: PH,F,T+,O,EM,C
Christian Apologetics Society: PH,T,R,O
Creative Minority Report: PH,C+,F,T
Dad29: R+,O,T
Digital Hairshirt: PH,T,C,O,F
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam: PH,T,C,R,EM,O,F++
Doxology: PH,C,T
Dyspeptic Mutterings: PH,C,EM,RT,R,F
Everything You Knew is Wrong: PH,O,T,BS,NC
Freelanders: PH,T,C,O
Jimmy Akin: PH,T,C,F
Kyrie Eleison: PH,T,C,F,O,EM,R
L.A. Catholic: PH,C,O,R
Orthometer: PH,C+,T,F,O,R
Overheard in the Sacristy: PH,T,C+,F
Paramedic Golden Girl: PH,C,T
Peace & Quiet: PH,C+,T,O,H
Pope Benedict Fan Club: PH,C++,T,F,NC
Pro Ecclesia: PH,R,C,T,O
Pur Autre Vie: PH,T,C,F,O+
Quo Vadis?: PH,T+,F,C
Recovering Dissident Catholic: PH,C,T
Regular Thoughts: PH,C,T,EM,O,F,R
Rise of the TOB: PH,C,T,EM,F,O++
Roman Sacristan: C,T,F,M
Roving Medievalist: PH,C,T,EM,F
Sci Fi Catholic
Shoved To Them: PH,O,C
Simon-Peter Says: PH,C,T,F
SSLI: PH,C+,T,F,EM
St. Fiacre's Garden: PH,O,T
St. Monica's Kneeler: PH,C,T
Sterquilinium: PH,C,T,F,O,R
The Curt Jester: PH,T,O,R
The Provincial Emails: PH,R,C,O
The Vatican: PH,C+,T,F,O,R,EM
Tom & Jeffy: PH,C,R
Totus Pius: PH,C+,T+,F,EM,RC,RT,O
Troglodyte: PH,C,R,O
Vivificat: PH,F,T,O+,C,EM
Ward Wide Web: PH,T,F,O

Blog Rating Codes

AM - Anti-Marty Haugen
BS - Bells & Smells
C - Clericalism
C+ - Extreme Clericalism
CF - Cathlofascist
EM - Extreme Medievalism
F - Funny Languages
H - Homeschoolers
IT - Intolerant
NC - Neocatholic
NLU - Not Like Us
O - Offensive (anti-womyn, anti-GLBTNA, etc)
PH - Phariseeism
PI - Progressive Level 1
PII - Progressive Level 2
PIII - Progressive Level 3
POD - Pious, Overly-Devotional
R - Republicanism
RT - Radical Traditionalism
T - Traditionalism
UM - Ultramontanism

Source: Spirit of Vatican 2

One God in Four Persons

2008-08-02T16:24:00.008-05:00

"Let us continue our prayer in the name of our God, who is mother, father, son and Holy Spirit."

Thus spoke Mother Marie David, a Roman Catholic Woman Priest, at Saint Mary Magdala's chapel, in Harwichport, MA. Saint Mary Magdala's chapel is conveniently located in Mother Marie's backyard, behind her bed and breakfast. Mother seems to agree with Latter Day Saints and early Baptists eclessiology regarding unpaid clergy.

This is a good example of Catholic objections to the RCWP movement. The RCWP women aren't solely seeking to right a doctrinal wrong against women, so much as to remake the Church in their own image. Unintentionally, Mother Marie has poisoned the well by the introduction of her heresy. Had Mother Marie been content to remain faithful to Church doctrine, Mother might could have served as an example. Now, Mother Marie has justified her excommunication.

Perhaps some charitable Christian in her neighborhood on Cape Cod will drop by and explain the 2,000 year-old doctrine of the Trinity to Mother Marie. Please pray for Mother Marie and all the Mothers of the RCWP that have placed themselves outside of the Church.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell; lead all souls into Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.

Update

It seems that Mother Marie does indeed charge for her services. Mother charges her flock $575 for weddings. An extra $75 if you want her to attend the rehersal.

Mother also dabbles in Reiki and labyrinths. It might be an interesting exercise to build a matrix and see how many of the RCWP have similar interests. I sense some commonality among the RCWP womyn.

Mother is a married to a former Latin Rite Catholic priest, who has since married Mother and is now a priest of the International Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of the Good Shepherd. Neither "priest" offers any thelogy on how an ordained Catholic priest may marry.

Source: A Woman's Parish

Baptist Ministers Historically Unpaid

2008-08-02T08:03:00.007-05:00

Recently, I began reading Religious Revolutionaries by Robert C. Fuller. Its a simplified history of religion in America. Fuller does an excellent job of simplifying and presenting the development of religion in America in an easy to read, yet logically organized manner. Best of all, the book includes little bits of American religious trivia, like the Pilgrims stealing food and crafts from local natives. One bit of trivia that surfaces in chapter 3, Sectarian Heyday, is:

"Baptists often paid their ministers nothing at all."

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Living deep in the Baptist Bible Belt as I do and reading all the Baptist blog discussions on the proper selection and hiring of ministers, this long forgotten fact seemed almost like heresy. Baptist ministers were unpaid! Shocking!

Fuller informs us:

"Baptists and Methodists, on the other hand, relied upon clergy who were 'of the people.' They characteristically had little education, received little or no pay, and spoke in plain but forceful language."

Fuller follows a bit later with:

"Baptist ministers typically earned their living just like other members of the congregation six days a week and then voluntarily preached on the Sabbath."

Fuller then explains that this low overhead is what made the expansion of Baptists and Methodists through the frontier possible. I believe this has implications on the recent discussions among Baptists regarding their problem of declining baptisms and and shrinking membership. Just as a paid clergy was a drag on the early American Anglican and Congregationalist churches and led to their decline as majority denominations, so too the modern Baptist tradition of a paid clergy seems to be hampering Baptist evangelism and contributing to that denominations decline.

Personally, I have long seen a professional, paid clergy as somewhat unbiblical. Never in the New Testament do I ever find search committees, minister interviews, or mention of salaries. Nor do I ever find discussion of the same among the early Ante-Nicean Christians in the centuries that follow.

If any CAS readers are aware of any Baptist, or other Christian, apologetics for a paid clergy, please comment below. I particularly would be interested in the proof texts that support the modern Tradition of a paid clergy.

Source: Religious Revolutionaries

More Christianity in China

2008-08-01T20:53:00.003-05:00

Just finished reading a very good article on Christianity in China in the English version of La STampa. I thought fellow CAS readers might like to do the same. While the bulk of the article focuses on Chinese Catholics, it provides some eye opening insights into how shallow Christianity is in China.

From the article:

"Most of the time, when asked about the meaning of the cross, the bearer will answer proudly and clearly: Yes, I am a Christian. Yet, after that, everything becomes blurred. Most people don’t know the difference between being Christian (“jidujiao,” which in China refers to Protestants) and being Catholic (“tianzhujiao”, a totally different word). Nor are they familiar with the various branches of the Protestant faith."

"In the countryside, there are also many Mormons and Evangelicals. Most just follow whichever pastor they meet out of “yuanfen,” or fate."

"Many pastors mix Christianity with Taoism and Buddhism."

"In sum, many of these new Chinese Christians are new converts to "modernity," which in China is largely tantamount to “Westernization”—or the American way of life. They pray to Jesus as they eat at MacDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken."

"In the same way they add soy sauce or rice vinegar to their food, to Evangelical faith they may add belief in feng shui ("wind and water," traditional Chinese geomancy) and the Yijing (an ancient soothsayers’ manual)."

To be fair, the article does point out that the primary reason for the shallow understanding of Christianity is due to the overwhelming force of ancient Chinese culture. With the upcoming Olympics, the article is a good insight into modern Chinese Christianity. Read it all.

Source: The Catholic "destiny" in China

Christian Apologetics Blogs

2008-07-31T12:34:00.001-05:00

A number of visitors to CAS arrive from search engines looking for "Christian Apologetics Blogs". That behavior got me to thinking about what are some of the better, if not the best, Christian apologetics blogs. Who in the blogsphere is actively engaging atheists, agnostics, Islamists, and others in Christian apologetics? So, leaving out the polemists that engage in apologetica among Christian sects, I arrived at the following list of Christian apologetics blogs.

Steve Ray’s Blog

Source: source

Call No Man Father

2008-07-24T21:21:00.010-05:00

"Good day, Father!" "How are you, Father?" "Good sermon, Father!"

Who is being addressed? A Catholic priest?

Would you believe a Baptist minister in a Baptist church?

Neither would I, but, believe it or not, its true. For the first 300-400 years after the Reformation, most Reformation congregations addressed their ministers as "Father". Also, the honorific "Father" was not reserved for clergy alone. Missionary pioneers were also referred to as "Father" and "Mother". Early American Methodists referred to John Wesley as "Father Wesley".

Strangely enough, before 1840 most Catholic congregations addressed their priests as "Mister," "Monsieur," or "Don", but not "Father".

What changed?

The sudden immigration of Irish Catholics was the catalyst. Irish Catholics called all priests "Father". That was more than some Reformation "Fathers" could stand. Many ministers began forsaking the now tainted title. Scripture was searched and a polemic found. Matthew 23:9.

Matthew 23:8-10

While the Irish were the catalyst, the new 19th Century Doctor of Divinity degree was the fuel. Coveted by Protestant ministers, "Doctor" gradualy replaced "Father" as the common honorific.

Bizzarly, like the word "Rabbi", the word "Doctor" means "teacher". "Doctor" is from the latin verb docere (to teach). Matther 23:8 seemingly forbids the now common Protestant tradition of calling ministers "Doctor". Will this also change, perhaps in response to the many college and university faculty that are atheists and agnostics? Only time will tell. Perhaps "Father" will return to vogue.

Update

Seldom does God allow me to gain knowledge without Him providing me an opportunity to apply said knowledge. Shortly after posting the above, I made my regular weekend visit to Michael Spencer's Internet Monk blog to follow-up on developments there. Michael had posted on ordinations and made the aside comment "(Not calling someone Father or Reverend seems like a can’t-miss teaching of Jesus.)". Knowing the Michael was Baptist and Michael's burning desire for the truth in all things, I commented on the above fact that for the first 200-240 years of his denominations existence that Baptist had called their ministers Father in seeming defiance of the Bible. The ensuing denials and discussions had the unintended consequence of hijacking Michael's intended thread on ordinations. My apologies, Michael.

Secondly, I chased yet another theological "rabbit". Matthew 23:10 basically states to call no man "master". As the days of slaves and masters are largely long past and its now only in movies that one hears "Yes, master", most of us don't give this verse a second thought. But, are the days of using "master" truely gone? Not so. It turns out that "mister" is a cognate of "master". Per Wikipedia, cognates in linguistics are words that have a common origin. Not only is "mister" a cognate, but also "mistress" and all our modern abbreviations of Mr., Mrs., and Ms. So, for the more sola scriptura among us, was Jesus banning all use of the word "master", and its future cognates, or was Jesus expressing something else and using hyperbole to make His point?

Source: Are ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ Appropriate Titles for Protestant Clergy?

The Church in China today

2008-07-13T09:35:00.002-05:00

I listened to a very good podcast on the state of the Church in China today. It was an interview Anthony E. Clark, Ph.D., a professor of Chinese history at The University of Alabama. With the upcoming Olympics in China and all the news reports on anti-evangelism efforts, it was interesting to get first hand information from someone who has spent considerable time in China and has a good grasp of what's happening on the ground.

Some facts from the program:

Source: Catholic Answers LIVE: Catholicism in Present-Day China

The Geek of Immersion Baptism

2008-07-03T12:59:00.014-05:00

Here's an interesting video from a Catholic priest who baptises by immersion. "Father Geek" describes in a YourTube video how their church's immersion pool is constructed and setup. Later, several immersion baptisms using the pool are shown.

I don't know if you caught it, but the converts are immersed not once, but three times. This is in keeping with the early NT church's teaching on how to baptise as described in The Didache and in later ante-Nicene letters.

pour out water thrice

The Didache

descended three times into the water

Cyril of Jerusalem, Of Baptism

Also, by using a pump, the baptisms were able to be conducted in "living water" as instructed by our early Christian forefathers.

Source: Fr. Geek's Video Podcast #6: "The Geek of Immersion Baptism"

God Pie

2008-05-26T00:08:00.005-05:00

Thanks to the Anglican blog Stand Firm, I was made aware of a very good video that effectively demonstrates how we treat the "pie" that God has gifted to us. Please watch and tell others.

Source: http://youtube.com/watch?v=upmyrinWq64

Scotland More Roman Catholic Than Protestant

2008-05-25T23:45:00.005-05:00

From Scotland on Sunday:

"Scotland has become more Roman Catholic than Protestant, with its congregations now outnumbering the Kirk for the first time since records began.

Figures compiled by the independent group Christian Research reveal that in 2005 the number of Catholics who went to Mass surpassed those who attended Church of Scotland services.

A total of 215,000 Catholics went to church, compared with only 208,400 attending the Church of Scotland."

If you recall, sometime this past year the English newspapers reported that Catholics had achieved parity with Anglicans in church attendance in England.

Source: Catholic church moves into Pole position

The Great Commission

2008-05-09T06:07:00.009-05:00

This past Sunday was Ascension Sunday on the liturgical calendar and the Gospel reading was the Great Commission in Matthew.

Matthew 28:16-20

It occurred to me in church Sunday, while I stood and heard these words proclaimed aloud that many Christians were familiar with the first two imperatives of Christ, but few seemed to faithfully follow the third imperative. The three imperatives are:

make disciples of all nations

Overall, Christians have done well spreading the Good News and converting all nations to Christianity. However, are we fulfilling the Great commission to make disciples? Converts are not necessarily disciples. Note how often the Bible refers to Jesus and his disciples and not Jesus and his converts. Who was called a disciple in the Bible? The Apostles, not the crowds that followed. In order to make disciples, we need to be faithfully be implementing the third directive in the Great Commission.

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Catholics and Orthodox immediately recognize these words, as most are recited while making the ancient sign of the cross and recalling their own baptism. Here we have a command from Christ to baptise using a "Trinitarian" formula. Seems pretty clear to me and its also well documented in Christian writings from the Didache forward as THE words for baptism. How some congregations continue to baptise in Jesus name only, I will never understand.

teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

When you hear someone mention the Great Commission, do you immediately think "obey everything I have commanded you"? I didn't. "Make disciples" and "baptise" are what pop into my mind. In fact Sunday, I was almost shocked to hear that there was a third part to the Great Commission.

Obey everything. Its somewhat difficult to obey everything when one may not know everything Jesus commanded. This where my beef with "sufficiency" and "essential" and "non-essential" doctrines comes from. Jesus didn't equivocate. Sufficient is not everything. Sufficient is some lower level. Ditto for non-essentials. According to this portion of the Great Commission there is no such thing as a non-essential. The third imperative is clear: "obey everything I have commanded".

So, let us all go forth making disciples by teaching them everything, so they may obey everything that Christ commanded.

Methodists Drop To 1820 Level

2008-04-21T23:16:00.005-05:00

The United Methodust Church has released their State of the Church report.

"The United Methodist presence in the United States today is the same as it was in 1820. And, if trends in aging and membership losses continue at their current rates, the church will shrink to its size at the time of the first Christmas Conference in 1784."

"United Methodist leaders have been struggling for decades to understand the gradual decline of the denomination's reach in the United States, where membership is almost 8 million, a decline of 19 percent since 1974. Forty-one percent of United Methodist churches in the United States did not report a single profession of faith in 2005."

Source: State of the Church

The Pope has a Message for You

2008-04-13T16:37:00.003-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyaUNK0cgx4

Source: The Pope has a Message for You

Christian Apologetics for Muslims

2008-04-13T15:58:00.008-05:00

VirtueOnline, an Anglican blog, has a very good post on Fr. Zakaria Botros, a Coptic priest, who is having very good results with his own TV show aimed at Muslims in Arabic lands. In fact, Fr. Zakaria is having so much success that he has drawn a lot of Isamic hatred and disdain.

While many of us Christian Apologists don't have access to satelitte TV or are fluent in Arabic, we can adopt the third leg of Fr. Zakaria's system -- irrefutable polemics.

Note that Fr. Zakaria is not attacking Muslims for worshippind a false "moon" God or for disbelieving in the triune nature of God. Anyone seeking to engage Muslims and Islamic clerics in Christian apologetics would do well to read this article and to study Fr. Zakaria's methods and arguements. The article includes a link to Fr. Zakaria's website.

UPDATE

Fr. Zakaria has a website in English. Under his Books link, Fr. Zakaria provides the text of his arguments in both Word and PDF formats. Recommend fellow Christian apologists bookmark Fr. Zakaria's site.

Source: Islam's "Public Enemy #1"

The Shrinking Church of England

2008-04-13T14:53:00.006-05:00

The Rev. Lee Proudlove, chief muser at Anselmic’s Place, has written a ery good post entitled The Shrinking Church of England. Rev. Proudlove has delved into past COE statistics, done some analysis in Excel, and presents some astounding figures and trends. The chart at the left depicts the downward trend in Sunday attendance in the Church of England, from 1968 to 2006.

Rev. Proudlove discusses three trends in the Church of England,:

1) Declining Sunday attendance, at least since 1970.

2) The ratio of Anglicans to the rest of the population.

3) The graying of the Church of England, the decline about to get worse.

While reading the Rev. Proudlove's timely post, I am reminded of a passage in the Gospel of Matthew...

Matthew 16:18

So, if the gates of hell should prevail and the Church of England becomes no more, what does that say about the Church of England and King Henry's disobediance and schism from the ancient Church?

Source: The Shrinking Church of England