The One-Minute Apologist: Essential Catholic Replies to Over 60 Common Protestant Claims

by Dave Armstrong

Overview

Fast answers to anti-Catholic claims!

If you're looking for solid Catholic answers to common Protestant challenges, but don't have lots of time, then reach for The One-Minute Apologist.

Here renowned Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong (author of A Biblical Defense of Catholicism and The Catholic Verses) has assembled over sixty of the claims and arguments that Protestants (of all stripes) most frequently level against the Church. Drawing on a lifetime of study — in Scripture, history, and the works of Catholic and Protestant theologians — he delivers the essential Catholic replies to each claim, packaged for you in a compact and uniquely usable format.

And since he's a convert from Evangelicalism, Armstrong presents these anti-Catholic claims with an insider's accuracy — using the special terms, references, and follow-up arguments that you're mostly likely to hear in real-world encounters — and responds to them in a way Protestants can understand and appreciate.

The One-Minute Apologist is concise, but never superficial. It cites or quotes more than a thousand Scripture verses, along with the words of scores of saints and scholars — including many respected Protestant sources. Packing centuries of learning and wisdom into just a few tightly structured pages, The One-Minute Apologist decisively refutes common Protestant claims such as:

• “The Bible is the only infallible source of theological truth.”
• “Peter is not the ‘rock' to which Jesus referred.”
• “Celibacy for priests is unnatural and unbiblical.”
• “The Catholic Mass is an abomination.”
• “True Christians cannot fall away from salvation.”
• “Mary had other children besides Jesus.”
• “Indulgences allow Catholics to ‘indulge' in sin.”
• “Venerating the saints is a form of idolatry.”
• “The Catholic ban on contraception has no scriptural basis.”
• And over 50 other pervasive Protestant objections to Catholic doctrine and practice!

More accessible than thick theological tomes, more substantial than tracts, and better organized than other “quick answer” books, The One-Minute Apologist is the one source you'll find yourself turning to whenever you have the need to defend the Catholic Faith quickly, credibly, and well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933184234
Publisher:	Sophia Institute Press
Publication date:	05/01/2007
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Dave Armstrong is a Catholic writer, apologist, and evangelist who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity for more than twenty years. Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Armstrong was received into the Catholic Church in 1991 by the late, well-known catechist and theologian Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. Armstrong's conversion story appeared in the best-selling book Surprised by Truth, and his articles have been published in a number of Catholic periodicals, including The Catholic Answer, This Rock, Envoy, Hands On Apologetics, The Coming Home Journal, and The Latin Mass. His apologetic and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of Envoy. Armstrong is the author of the books A Biblical Defense of Catholicism and More Biblical Evidence for Catholicism and of forty-four apologetics articles in The Catholic Answer Bible. His website, Biblical Evidence for Catholicism (www.biblicalcatholic.com), online since March 1997, re

Table of Contents

Introduction     xiii
Common Protestant claims about
Scripture
The Bible is the only infallible source of theological truth     4
The Bible is clear, or "perspicuous," in all its broad teachings about salvation     6
The Catholic Church added illegitimate books to the Bible     8
We can know which books belong in the Bible simply by reading them     10
Catholics are taught not to read the Bible for themselves     12
The Church
The notion of bishops and a hierarchical Church is unbiblical     16
The Church is the invisible sum total of all true believers     18
Catholicism is a half-pagan religion, blending non-Christian beliefs and practices with the gospel     20
Miracles and the supernatural gifts ceased after the death of the Apostles     22
The Catholic Church believes it can damn people to hell by excommunication     24
The Church can contain only the holy and saved     26
Denominationalism is not condemned in Scripture     28
The Galileo incident proves that the Catholic Church isn't infallible     30
The Papacy
The Bible doesn't teach that the Church had one leader     34
Jesus did not make Peter the leader of the Apostles     36
Peter himself is not the "rock" to which Jesus referred     38
Paulrebuked Peter     40
How can a mere man be infallible?     42
The case of Pope Honorius proves that popes are not infallible     44
The Priesthood
The Bible says we're all priests     48
Celibacy for priests is both unnatural and unbiblical     50
The Catholic Church's male-only priesthood is sexist     52
The Sacraments
The thief on the cross proves that sacraments are unnecessary     56
Holy Communion was meant to be a symbolic rite only     58
The Catholic Mass is an abomination in the sight of God     60
The Catholic Mass is a form of idolatry     62
It is wrong for Catholics not to allow everyone to receive Holy Communion     64
Baptism is merely a symbolic rite     66
Infants cannot be baptized because they're not able to choose Jesus     68
The Catholic Church teaches that a baby who dies unbaptized will go to hell     70
Confession to a priest is an unbiblical concept     72
Salvation
Works play no part whatsoever in salvation     76
The Catholic system of "merit" is no different from works-salvation     78
True Christian believers cannot fall away from salvation     80
Justification is external and imputed, not internal or "infused"     82
There is no difference between "mortal" and "venial" sins     84
Original sin is not taught in the Bible     86
Eternal hellfire is not taught in the Bible     88
The Church teaches that all non-Catholics will go to hell     90
The Bible says nothing of a third state besides heaven and hell     92
Our sufferings have nothing to do with those of Jesus     94
Theology of God
God is not three-in-one, as in the irrational doctrine of the Trinity     98
The Holy Spirit is neither a person nor God     100
God could not have become a man     102
Jesus had to grow into the understanding that He was God     104
Mary and the Saints
Mary was not sinless throughout her whole life     108
Mary had other children besides Jesus     110
Calling Mary the "Mother of God" makes her greater than God     112
Mary could not have been "assumed" into heaven     114
Calling Mary the "Mediatrix" of graces makes her equal to Jesus     116
There's no reason for Christians to pray for the dead     118
Praying to saints is wrong     120
"Venerating" the saints through statues or icons is idolatry     122
Other Topics
Indulgences are a way for Catholics to buy salvation and "indulge" themselves in sin      126
Formal ritual worship is opposed to a vibrant spiritual life     128
The Rosary is "vain repetition"     130
Crucifixes prove that Catholics believe Jesus is not yet glorified in heaven     132
Catholic "sacramentals" and relics are unbiblical magic     134
Marriage is not absolutely indissoluble     136
"Annulments" are just the Catholic rationalization for divorce     138
The Catholic ban on contraception is an arbitrary, unbiblical restriction     140
Dave Armstrong     143