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.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Over 60 Scripture references in this letter, making up about a half of it, and which make him sound more like Puritan than a RC.

And let us not forget how Ignatius greeted Polycarp!:

“Ignatius, who is [also called] Theophorus, to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, or rather, who has as his own bishop God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ: [wishes] abundance of happiness.” (Epistle to Polycarp)

So much for the Papacy!

[redleghunter]

Your post should be the parting comments for this thread. Excellent summary.

[redleghunter]

Not only 60 scripture references but (as one theolgian counted) he quotes from 17 of 27 NT canon books. Even mentions Paul.

[terycarl]

would that be the Catholic version or the readers digest edited KJV?? Doesn't matter...They both condemn your religion in numerous places which makes your claim quite hilarious...

let's see here, I write a book which condemns my religion..........why would I do that???

[terycarl]

1Ti 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats,

Catholics eat meat....we lve it, pork included (remember that the bible mentions not eating pork)....so when the church asks us to refrain from eating meat on ne day, it becomes a little penance that we endure to honor God by giving up something we like.....We forbid no one to marry except those of the same sex, and those who are already married....

[terycarl]

Speak for yourself! I appreciate the reminder that many of the so-called Vicars of Christ

add up the number of years that these men were church leaders in the last 2,014 years of the church....a miniscule number to be sure.....these men were elected by other men, maybe personal freindship came into play, maybe a few of them were community organizers who lived in chicago, maybe some of the electors were misguided, as were many honest, sincere American citizens.....The Holy Spirit guides, He does not demand....you are always free to ignore God's calling and say "no"....men have done it forever.

[terycarl]

Catholics would rather yell, "Look over there!!" and say something nasty about Luther.

as bad as they might have been, none of them EVER tried to change the teachings of Christ.......EVER.

[Iscool]

let's see here, I write a book which condemns my religion..........why would I do that???

That's the point...The bible clearly wasn't written by any one in the Catholic religion...

The standard argument goes; The bible can't condemn the Catholic religion since the Catholic religion wrote the bible and it would be stupid to do that...

But the truth is; if one can read a newspaper and understand it, the same person can read the bible...

If your religion told you that you can not uderstand the daily newspaper without their interpretation, would you believe it???

[terycarl]

Do you realize how silly this sounds?

it pales in silliness to your original post......really!!

[daniel1212]

So he forgot to remind the disciples to submit to successors of Peter as the supreme infallible head, or even to make that a commendation or a remedy, which Paul and even the Lord failed to do in their letters to the various churches. Not very faithful RCs.

[daniel1212]

The Catholics would rather posit that tradition and Rome are the arbiters of the truth and that Scripture is only relevant with a defining word from their interpretation.

That is because Scriptural substantiation is essentially superfluous as it is not their basis for assurance of Truth, which would make them as evangelicals if it were, but the premise of the assured veracity of Rome is. After all, she has infallibly declared she is.

Thus Scripture is a servant, made to serve Rome, to which all is to be in subjection to. Even FR.

[terycarl]

Christ told us to....whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, whose sins you shall retain, they are retained......pretty clear to me. Where did He tell us to go to priests when in fact, He never established a hierarchy of priests in His church.

whose sins do you suppose that He was talking about....the followers of true Christianity, of course...Catholics!

[terycarl]

Adultery, fornication, bastard children, extortion, abuse of power, etc,.... Minor mistakes????? With an attitude like that it sure explains a lot about Catholics........

it took Catholics 2,014 years to make those mistakes, the Protestants have accomplished them in only about 450 years to do so....nice going!!

[terycarl]

The truth is that Paul, along with the rest of the founding fathers of the Church, were followers of Christ, members of His Church — which consists of all those who’ve been adopted into His family, and is not restricted to those who are members of the Roman Catholic denomination.

the only church present at that time was the church which they had founded...the Catholic church...there were no Lutherans, no Methodists, no Latter day Saints, no evangelical anythings

[terycarl]

hi eagle... That is an easy one since the forgiveness of sins BY ANY PRIEST, let alone the Pope entails three very important conditions PRIOR to forgiveness:

nope....if an islamist comes into your home and kills you because you are a Christian...you are a martyr and thus saved because you died for Christ.....simple and promised.

[terycarl]

The Hebrews who put the Pentateuch to paper will also be surprised. I have to hand it to you, though. You are all-in for your church.

you obvioussly didn't understand myost where I acknowledge that the JJews wrote the old testament and that the Catholics included the old testament in their bible (book) for your convenience...without the Catholics having provided you with a bible, what do you suppose that your chances of ever hearing the old testament would have been......and you would have NEVER heard of Jesus nor anything about Him....the Catholics were the only ones there to write it down....period.

[terycarl]

, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

get to the part where it says for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.......oh that's right, it doesn't say that...

[Colonel_Flagg]

the only church present at that time was the church which they had founded...the Catholic church...

Do you mean to suggest that Christ didn't found the church? Even Matthew 16:18, which you use to claim the primacy of Peter, is clear that Christ founded the church.

Since you claimed earlier in this thread that Catholics wrote His Word too, it has to be asked: do you really mean to place God in such a deliberately subordinate position? Perhaps you're merely being careless with language, because God does not appear to enjoy primacy in your recounting of history.

[terycarl]

Of course the Catholics never twisted scripture......

that is a correct statement...once they had edited the original scriptures, copied them, agreed on them, transcribed them, wrote them in bibles, by hand , for a couple of thousaand years, they did not twist them.....many Protestant revolutionaries did so however.