THE PROTESTANT’S DILEMMA BY DEVIN ROSE: A REVIEW

Just a writer, who refuses to typecast his blog by giving it a title ^ | March 18, 2014 | Scott Eric Alt

[rwa265]

If a Protes­tant look­ing into the claims of Catholi­cism were to ask me, “What one book should I read, where I can find a quick answer to any ques­tion I have?” I would tell him to read Devin Rose’s new book The Protestant’s Dilemma. I would also rec­om­mend this book to Protes­tant apol­o­gists, even those of many years, well-skilled in polemics. It will remind them of the heavy bur­den of proof they face, and the weak­ness of their posi­tion on point after point. The truth may set them free and bring them home too. (It has happened.)

All this may seem like over­state­ment — the oblig­a­tory praise from one Catholic blog­ger to another. But it is not.

Con­sider first the range of issues this book takes up. There are thirty-six chap­ters, each one on a dif­fer­ent topic, from the papacy to sola scrip­tura, from the canon of the Bible to Pur­ga­tory, from con­fes­sion to Eucharist to infant bap­tism. If some­thing about the Catholic Church trou­bles you, this book has the answer. If you think you have found the point on which Catholi­cism fails, this book will show you why it is one more point upon which Protes­tantism fails.

Con­sider also the brevity. The book is just over 200 pages long, which means that Mr. Rose’s answers get to the root of the ques­tion with­out a knot of aca­d­e­mic detail. It is harder to do than it might seem. This is the book of a man who has spent a long time study­ing the ques­tions that divide Protes­tants and Catholics, and who knows how to present his case in a way that is easy for any­one to under­stand. At the same time, the book is use­ful for the pro­fes­sional apol­o­gist, for it recalls his mind to the basics.

[metmom]

When you’re accused of *hate*, just declare a victory.

All it does is show that they have nothing left in their arsenal to contend with you about. You’ve posted the truth and they can’t counter it, therefore they have to resort to liberal tactics of personal attacks, trying to discredit the messenger since they can’t handle the message.

[narses]

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[narses]

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum,
et exsultávit spíritus meus
in Deo salvatóre meo,
quia respéxit humilitátem
ancíllæ suæ.

Ecce enim ex hoc beátam
me dicent omnes generatiónes,
quia fecit mihi magna,
qui potens est,
et sanctum nomen eius,
et misericórdia eius in progénies
et progénies timéntibus eum.
Fecit poténtiam in bráchio suo,
dispérsit supérbos mente cordis sui;
depósuit poténtes de sede
et exaltávit húmiles.
Esuriéntes implévit bonis
et dívites dimísit inánes.
Suscépit Ísrael púerum suum,
recordátus misericórdiæ,
sicut locútus est ad patres nostros,
Ábraham et sémini eius in sæcula.

Glória Patri et Fílio
et Spirítui Sancto.
Sicut erat in princípio,
et nunc et semper,
et in sæcula sæculórum.

Amen.

She became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in heaven, and such a Child . . . Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God . . . None can say of her nor announce to her greater things, even though he had as many tongues as the earth possesses flowers and blades of grass: the sky, stars; and the sea, grains of sand. It needs to be pondered in the heart what it means to be the Mother of God.

(Commentary on the Magnificat, 1521; in Luther’s Works, Pelikan et al, vol. 21, 326)

[metmom]

Hey, Catholics themselves have recently posted that the name of Babylon in the book of Revelation is Peter’s code word for Rome and refers to the Roman Catholic church.

It’s not hate when they do it, is it?

Drop the hypocrisy.

[redleghunter]

Amen! All of the verses above in your post are from the Master’s Throne.

[ctdonath2]

“Catholics don’t pray to Mary either. Instead, we ask her to pray for us, and to pass our needs on to her Son.”

And so again is the pattern I see time and again for Catholics to defend themselves from clear transgressions: if X conflicts with scripture, then simply define X as not conflicting with scripture. Pray to Mary? clearly wrong, so we’re just talking to Mary, not praying to her. Worshiping saints? well, that would violate idol worship, so the fact that we’re kneeling in front of a statue lighting candles and fervently begging the dead for favors is, by definition, not worship because worship is defined as something oddly other than what every non-catholic, scripture included, defines it as. Numerous repetitions? clearly condemned by Christ himself, so just define an hour of Hail Marys as not...something condemned. 10,000 years in Purgatory cleanses the not-really-bad of their sins? well, yeah that somehow doesn’t violate “no one comes to the Father but by Me”.

Someone correct me if this slim volume doesn’t take pretty much the same reasoning for some 200 pages.

[narses]

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.

[WVKayaker]

Welcome to the thread. I post this cartoon as a tribute to your work!

[redleghunter]

Don’t forget the title Queen of Heaven. I will admit the title is found in the Bible but not in a positive sense:

Jeremiah 44:16-19 NKJV

“ As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord , we will not listen to you! But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.

But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” The women also said, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission? ”

[redleghunter]

Jeremiah 44:16-19 NKJV

“ As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord , we will not listen to you! But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.

But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” The women also said, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission? ”

[redleghunter]

Seems cakes are baked for Mary as in Jeremiah’s time:

http://www.boldsky.com/cookery/sweet-tooth/cakes-bakes/bake-cakes-mother-mary-feast-035150.html

Jeremiah 44:19 NKJV

The women also said, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission? ”

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Many years ago my father’s boss brought his minister around to introduce him to my father...in the course of the conversation, the minister said, ‘do you know who I am? I am the one in this city, when other ministers who have a question about what the Bible says, come to for an answer.’ My father answered him...’do you know who I am? I am the one, who when I have a question about what the Bible says, I ask the Holy Spirit.’

The conversation was quickly ended by my father’s boss...and they exited for lunch.

[Jvette]

Thanks for the ping. I have already read through a few of the posts and to tell you the truth, those posting here are not worth the time or the trouble of a response.

I am taking the Prayer Life Workshop at my parish and it has given me a new perspective on things like the religious threads at FR. Mostly, I have accepted that there are things I cannot change and by resisting them I am making those things my oppressor.

I have spent too much time obsessing about the untruths and deliberate lies repeated here by anti Catholic Christians. They have been given the Truth and it is up to the Holy Spirit how to use it to bring them home.

Let them rage. It changes nothing about the beauty and truth we have been given by Christ through His Church.

[.45 Long Colt]

There is nothing new under the sun. Same old idols.

[redleghunter]

You nicely scoped the issue. God is clear in His commandments:

Exodus 20:1-6 NKJV

And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

[CynicalBear]

And it is indeed interesting that the Catholics claim the title “queen of heaven” was decided on at the “council of Ephesus” which coincidently was the place where the temple to the “queen of heaven” Diana was located. It’s the place where Paul had no small contention with the businessmen of Ephesus who were worried that the sales of their items relating to the worship of the queen of heaven would dry up if there was no longer a worship of the “queen of heaven”. Why not just make Mary the queen of heaven and all the trinkets could still be sold? It was just a name change.

[redleghunter]

Luke 11:1-4 NKJV

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

So He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”

Matthew 6:7-8 NKJV

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

[WVKayaker]

I have spent too much time obsessing about the untruths and deliberate lies repeated here by anti Catholic Christians.

I am reading this and I see the biggest lie on this thread!

I have also read the posts on this thread and by-and-large, the majority of posts from the Protestants declare God's Word, not some biased interpretation by Rome. The Truth lies in Scripture and the Holy Spirit quickens that within His chosen ones. If anyone has a problem, it is apparently the Roman Catholics herein that cannot accept God's Word as the SOLE authority.

Hebrews 4: 1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”

6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,e just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,f Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

[redleghunter]

I see your “new perspective” is to come by on a thread and call others liars?

Please see the OP. It is a hit piece posted by someone in your caucus.

[redleghunter]

Wonderful Hebrews reference. Thanks.