02/13/06
On Historicism@yahoogroups.com
someone posted the following information:
“The
apologists of Rome sometimes make some excellent points.
From Scott and Kimberly Hahn's book Rome Sweet Home:
pg 6"Let's face it, anti-Catholicism can be a very reasonable thing. If
the wafer Catholics worship is not Christ... then it is idolatrous and
blasphemous to do what Catholics do in bowing before and worshiping the
Eucharist."
pg 62 "Both of us [Hahn and Matatics] shared the conviction that the
Catholic Church was totally unlike certain Protestant denominations, such as
the Methodists, the Lutherans or the Assembly of God--all of which we thought
were a little off here and there, on this or that point of doctrine.
But if the Catholic Church was wrong, it was more than a little
off, because no denomination on earth made the kinds of outrageous claims that
Rome made for itself. For instance, the Methodists never claimed to be the one
and only true Church founded byJesus; nor did the Lutherans claim to have as
their head a Pope who was Christ's infallible vicar on earth; nor was the
Assembly of God run by leaders claiming an unbroken line of succession going
all the way back to Peter.
Like Cardinal Newman before us, Gerry and I could see that if the
Catholic Church was wrong, it was nothing less than diabolical. On the other
hand, if it was right, it must have been divinely established and preserved;
but that was hardly a serious option for either of us."
pg 142 "This situation [says Mrs. Hahn, deciding whether to kneel before
the monstrance at Mass] highlighted what Scott had said all along: the
Catholic Church is not just another denomination--it is either true or
diabolical."
Also, David Armstrong, writing on justification in his Biblical Defense of
Catholicism, says: "When Protestant denominations reject Calvinism,
they are taking a step back in the direction of Catholicism." [from pg. 35
n. 19]”