by Dave Armstrong | Our Protestant friends in Christ often challenge us to find “proofs” of our doctrines in the Bible. When it comes to the doctrine of the Assumption, almost all of them think or say: “there is nothing whatever in the Bible about that!”
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Why Suffering *With* Christ (Not Just For Him) is Biblical
by Dave Armstrong | Most educated, serious Christians understand that suffering is to be expected in the Christian life. It's not an anomaly or interruption in an otherwise “normal” life. It's to be expected; even welcomed.
Read More »Did the Church “Murder 50-68 Million” in the Inquisitions?
by Dave Armstrong | Non-Catholic Christians and the secular world have used the Inquisitions, the Crusades, and the Galileo incident, as “clubs” to bash the Church for almost 500 years. I did so myself, in my Protestant apologist days. But such critics almost invariably distort the known facts in order to do so.
Read More »Full of Grace: Mary’s Immaculate Conception and the Bible
by Dave Armstrong | A Catholic asks, “what does it mean to be full of grace?” For St. Paul, grace is the antithesis and overcomer of sin...
Read More »New Testament Proofs of Noah’s Historical Existence
by Dave Armstrong | The film Noah has made quite a splash. I have not yet seen it, as of this writing. I'm particularly interested in judging how true to the Bible it is. Most Catholic reviewers have given mixed reviews in that regard and also in the artistic sense, with various degrees of approval or disapproval.
Read More »Purgatory and the Bible: God Purifying His People In the Here and Now
by Dave Armstrong | I've often used what I call the “nutshell” argument for Purgatory: we must be without sin to enter into God's presence (Eph 5:5; Heb 12:14; Rev 21:27; 22:3, 14-15). Therefore, God must purge or wash away our sin to make us fit to be in heaven with Him. All agree so far.
Read More »The Abundant Biblical Support for Lent
by Dave Armstrong | My specialty as an apologist is “biblical arguments for Catholicism.” I enjoy that aspect of my work a lot because the Bible is the great “common ground” that all Christians share (and I strive to be ecumenical). We all reverence Sacred Scripture and believe it is inspired revelation.
Read More »The Bible vs. Contraception: God Opens the Womb and Blesses Parents with Children
by Dave Armstrong | We can learn a lot from words: especially if we go back to the Latin roots of many of our English words. All Christians are familiar with the notion of God being the Creator. He made all things from nothing (theologians describe this with the wonderful Latin phrase, creatio ex nihilo).
Read More »The Bible vs. Contraception: “Be Fruitful and Multiply”
by Dave Armstrong | Some things are so obvious that we take them for granted. We don't feel that we need to “argue” them because we casually assume that everyone “knows they are true.” The old Frank Sinatra song comes to my mind: “Love and marriage: go together like a horse and carriage . . .”
Read More »Mary the “Spouse of the Holy Spirit”: Blasphemy or Biblical?
by Dave Armstrong | Having a child conceived by the Holy Spirit has no direct analogy, because it was a one-time extraordinary event, in order to bring about the incarnation.
Read More »Signs in Jerusalem: How God Can Speak to You Through ‘Coincidence’
by Dave Armstrong | I emerged from Hezekiah's Tunnel in my swimsuit and rubber sandals (the water is almost three feet deep in some places), and met the rest of our party sitting by the side of the Pool.
Read More »Martin Luther and the “Immaculate Purification” of Mary
by Dave Armstrong | One of the most fascinating of Luther's beliefs has to do with the question of Mary's Immaculate Conception (her being preserved from original sin from the moment of her conception). Luther had a rather “high” Mariology in many respects.
Read More »Debunking the Myth of the Invisible Church
by Dave Armstrong | Our Protestant friends often tell us that “the Church is the invisible sum total of all true believers.” The Bible teaches us that the Church is a visible, identifiable institution.
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