Apologetics notes

Apologetics

Objective: To help people learn to defend the faith in the 3 major areas of Church authority, the Eucharist and Mary.

Testimony
Raised Catholic
Little faith life
Attended protestant youth groups- began to know Jesus
Considered myself ‘non-denominational’
Intellectual journey- did not want to sing the “love songs”
Challenged by protestants
i. Faith and works
ii. Purgatory
iii. Penance
Discovered that the Catholics were right!
Bible School
Attitude towards apologetics
Little red book
Make Love your aim!
Church authority- If they believe this, they’ll believe anything!
Sola Scriptura
i. Play the sola sciptura game in apologetics.
1. Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ!
ii. Taught by Luther
1. 95 Theses
2. Emphasis on Romans and Galatians
iii. Unscriptural- self refuting
iv. Bible history
1. To become deep in history is to cease to be protestant- John Henry Cardinal Newman- Convert from Protestantism
2. Table of contents?
3. Who canonizes scripture?
a. Augustine effectively forced his opinion on the Church by commanding three synods on canonicity: the Synod of Hippo in 393, the Synod of Carthage in 397, and another in Carthage in 419 A.D.
b. there was never any pronouncement by any central authority such as the Pope in all of Christian history as to which books belonged in the Bible, until 1443 A.D. at the conclusion of the Council of Florence.
c. Canon created when people already believed in Eucharist, honored Mary, believed in purgatory, etc. (there is evidence of this even in 4th century)
4. Marty Story
Peter as the Rock
i. Why would God want Popes?
1. Jehovahs Witnesses
a. Jesus is not God, but St Michael
b. Never rose from the dead
c. Only 144000 get to heaven- the rest of the JW’s stay in paradise on earth
d. No Hell
ii. Matt 16
1. 16:13 When Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 16:14 They answered, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 16:15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 16:17 And Jesus answered him, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven! 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.” 16:20 Then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

iii. Primacy of Peter in other scriptures
1. Listed first
2. Peter and the others
3. John defers to Peter
Binding and Loosing
i. Authority to teach infallibly
1. infallibility of individuals?
ii. From HS
Continuity
i. Peter went to Rome- in code “Babylon” (1Peter 5:13)
ii. Recognition of earliest Church Fathers
1. Tertullian (AD 220)"[T]he Lord said to Peter, ‘On this rock I will build my Church, I have given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [and] whatever you shall have bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. . . . Upon you, he says, I will build my Church; and I will give to you the keys, not to the Church" (Modesty 21:9–10 [A.D. 220]).

2. Cyril of Jerusalem (AD 350)"In the power of the same Holy Spirit, Peter, both the chief of the apostles and the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in the name of Christ healed Aeneas the paralytic at Lydda, which is now called Diospolis [Acts 9:32–34]" (ibid., 17:27).

3. Jerome (AD 393)
"‘But,’ you [Jovinian] will say, ‘it was on Peter that the Church was founded’ [Matt. 16:18]. Well . . . one among the twelve is chosen to be their head in order to remove any occasion for division"

4. Augustine (AD 416)

"Who is ignorant that the first of the apostles is the most blessed Peter?"

iii. Successor became Pope
1. Pope Innocent I"In seeking the things of God . . . you have acknowledged that judgment is to be referred to us [the pope], and have shown that you know that is owed to the Apostolic See [Rome], if all of us placed in this position are to desire to follow the apostle himself [Peter] from whom the episcopate itself and the total authority of this name have emerged" (Letters 29:1 [A.D. 408]).
2. Council of Ephesus (431)
a. you joined yourselves to the holy head also by your holy acclamations. For your blessednesses is not ignorant that the head of the whole faith, the head of the apostles, is blessed Peter the apostle’" (Acts of the Council, session 2 [A.D. 431]).
b. "Philip, the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See [Rome] said: ‘There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to today and forever both lives and judges in his successors’" (ibid., session 3).

iv. w/o contradiction!
1. "It is beyond question that he [the pope] can err even in matters touching the faith. He does this when he teaches heresy by his own judgment or decretal. In truth, many Roman Pontiffs were heretics." --Pope Adrian VI, 1523
2. Such was the case, for example, when Pope Clement XI (1700-21) confirmed King Philip V of Spain and then shortly thereafter King Charles III of Germany, both with the same titles and privileges, including the highly prized Bull of the Crusade. As a result, Charles went to war with Philip to claim the crown which the pope seemingly had given him. Clement even confirmed two different candidates, one proposed by each sovereign, for the same bishopric.
One would think that such blatant contradictions would be proof enough that the pope was not infallible.
3. On July 21, 1773, Pope Clement XIV issued a decree suppressing the Jesuits, only to have it reversed by a decree restoring them, issued by Pope Pius VII on August 7, 1814. Eugenius IV condemned Joan of Arch (1412-31) to be burned as a witch and heretic, but she was beatified by Pius X (1903-14) in 1909 and canonized by Benedict XV (1914-22) in 1920.
4. When the Pope (1) intends to teach (2) by virtue of his supreme authority (3) on a matter of faith and morals (4) to the whole Church, he is preserved by the Holy Spirit from error. His teaching act is therefore called "infallible" and the teaching which he articulates is termed "irreformable". (Dogma)

Assent of faith
i. Response of humility
ii. It is harder to submit your mind than to submit your will.

Eucharist
Daryl Story
Explicit at last supper
i. Also Corinthians version
John 6 narrative
6:52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus 79 began to argue with one another, 80 “How can this man 81 give us his flesh to eat?” 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, 82 unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, 83 you have no life 84 in yourselves. 6:54 The one who eats 85 my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 86 6:55 For my flesh is true 87 food, and my blood is true 88 drink. 6:56 The one who eats 89 my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him.

6:66 After this many of his disciples quit following him 112 and did not accompany him 113 any longer. 6:67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” 114 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Fulfillment of OT
i. Melchizedek
1. GEN 14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.)
ii. Bread of offering
iii. Manna- Exod 16
iv. Passover- especially paralleled with John
1. Lamb of God
a. Exod 12:3 Tell the whole community of Israel, ‘In the tenth day of this month they each must take a lamb 2 for themselves according to their families 3 – a lamb for each household.
b. John 1: 29 On the next day John 1 saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God 2 who takes away the sin of the world!
2. Hyssop
a. 12:22 Take a branch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply to the top of the doorframe and the two side posts some of the blood that is in the basin.
b. 19:29 A jar full of sour wine was there, so they put a sponge soaked in sour wine on a branch of hyssop and lifted it to his mouth.

3. No bone broken
a. Exod 12:46 It must be eaten in one house; you must not bring any of the meat outside the house, and you must not break a bone of it.
b. John 19:36 For these things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled, “Not a bone of his will be broken.”
4. Must Eat it!
a. Exod 12:46 It must be eaten
b. John 6
Explanation of Revelation
Historical evidence- Lanciano
Mary
Cloud of witnesses- Can we even talk to Saints?
i. Heb 12:1- “Therefore” makes reference to Heb 11
Why honor Mary?
i. Honor- not worship!
ii. Because God did it in her Luke 1
Mary in scripture
i. “Behold your mother”
ii. Queen Mother
Church has a responsibility to teach the truth even when it is not popular!
i. Immaculate conception, Mediatrix, coredemptorix
Mary as relational.
i. Testimony.
ii. Dare them to pray to Jesus for love of Mary.
Exhortation to love.