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Showing posts from January, 2016

Refuting Matt Slick's "Did the Roman Catholic Church Give Us the Bible?"

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On his CARM website, Matt Slick argues that the Catholic Church did not give us God’s Word.   And so, the Church would agree, because we believe the source of God’s Word is God.   He also is the source of authority in His Church.   However, Mr. Slick seems willing to misrepresent the Church’s claims and teachings, and so is willing to engage in deception in order to make his point.   This deception will be evident throughout his article, and will show itself no more than two sentences into his argument.   The Catholic Church, what many people today call the “Roman Catholic Church”, did indeed decide which books and letters were to be included in the Canon of Scripture.   Martin Luther, one of the so-called "Pillars of the Reformation” made this point clear.   To claim otherwise, there are some things that Mr. Slick is going to have to explain.   Among them are:   1) how did the Church come to know, without doubt, which books belong in the Canon of Scripture; 2) is the kn

Are “Free Will” and “God” Mutually Exclusive Concepts?

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This is a snip from an on-going dialog with an atheist which focuses on an atheistic argument I had not encountered before: whether a theistic model for God is compatible with free will. As the argument goes, God [should He exist] is assumed NOT to have given “free will” to man according to the creation narrative in Genesis. Here’s a paraphrased summary of the position: “If God is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, etc…then the following are true: -He foreknew the fall and His act of redemption; -He allowed His creation to reject Him; -He "authored", (His Word via the hands of men chosen by Him to write them) what we know as the Scriptures; -The "way" it was written is in His control; -The way it's written communicates that God assumes reasoning powers we were supposedly not granted until later.” The last statement in the hinge for this person’s argument. Since theists believe in free will, and since the Scriptures are written in such a way tha