help!

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Scott Shahan

Puritan Board Sophomore
I have a friend that is being influenced by some devoted Roman Catholic guys, and I fear that he is being presuaded by their doctrinal teaching. These guys don't care for me all that much because I am not Roman Catholic. I fear that I am going to lose my friend over this. Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Or any helpful links ect.......

Thanks, :um:
 
You might want to start by asking your friend what is attracting him to Roman Catholicism. It might help to know where you could immediately focus your apologetic energies to discourage his interest in Roman Catholicism. Your friend obviously needs the Gospel if he's at all attracted to the RCC.
 
Lorraine Boettner's book on Roman Catholics is really good, and I believe you can access it online.
You can also view several of James White's debates with catholic priests on you tube
 
I've seen this happen before - young RCC's are not above love-bombing people they want to convert. I fear they learned this from evangelicals. Don't forget to pray for this guy - it's the best form of spiritual warfare.
 
I have a friend that is being influenced by some devoted Roman Catholic guys, and I fear that he is being presuaded by their doctrinal teaching. These guys don't care for me all that much because I am not Roman Catholic. I fear that I am going to lose my friend over this. Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Or any helpful links ect.......

Thanks, :um:

Brother, I was raised Roman Catholic and almost became a Papist priest, so I understand your concern. I would encourage you to get your friend in a solid church or Bible study and get him saturated in the word. You may ask him what is the attraction. Many are flocking to Rome because they are disillusioned with "Protestantism" and are attracked to the false authority they see in the Roman system. Many like the smells and bells of the liturgy that appeals to their spiritual quest. I suspect that these papist guys do not really know their own doctrine and why they believe what they do. If they are being influenced by Scott Hahn, Marcus Broady, or Patrick Madrid, who are converts to Rome, email me. These guys are strong Roman apologists and are very convincing. I would recommend several resourses. 1. The Reformation's Conflict With Rome by Robert Reymond. It is published by Focus. 2. Rev. Geoffrey Donna is a minister in Florida who has a ministry called Reformation Christian Ministries. They are supporting a Reformed work in Italy where nuns and priests are being converted to Christ. He has a link on his website that has a great number of resoures. The site is Reformation Christian Ministries 3. Dr. Ian Paisley in Northern Ireland has a great website with some sources. I certainly do not subscribe to some of his teaching, but he certainly has a great passion for seeing Roman Catholics converted. He gets bad publicity by the U.S. press and is labled a "Catholic Basher", but this is not an accurate depiction. I cannot recall the website but you can do a google search. Just be careful with some of the comments that people send in to him. Much of it is "off the wall." I hope this is helpful :)
 
I've seen this happen before - young RCC's are not above love-bombing people they want to convert. I fear they learned this from evangelicals. Don't forget to pray for this guy - it's the best form of spiritual warfare.

Thanks, brother. This is the same tactic that is used by the Mormon cult. :(
 
I've seen this happen before - young RCC's are not above love-bombing people they want to convert. I fear they learned this from evangelicals. Don't forget to pray for this guy - it's the best form of spiritual warfare.

Thanks, brother. This is the same tactic that is used by the Mormon cult. :(
turmeric's a sister, Brother. ;)


Scott:

From what I understand, Boettner's work is a little dated. I suggest getting James White's The Roman Catholic Controversy, as I have heard several of my friends claim its extreme helpfulness in situations as you have described. :2cents:

I am terribly sorry for the freudian slip :oops: Please accept my apology, sister Meg. Junior Alzheimers is setting in too quickly. :)
 
Alpha and Omega Ministries, The Christian Apologetics Ministry of James R. White

The Roman Catholic apologetics section will probably be a great help. He has dealt with the popular Roman Catholic apologists since around the time they started comming out of the wood-work, and primarily with those Roman converts who used to be "Protestant" (read:non-Roman Catholic). His debates are shining examples of the failure of Rome at every turn to be able to defend herself consistently under criticism.

From what I understand, and I don't run into this a lot because Romanism is very, very weak in my area (there are plenty of Papists, but they don't try to convert anyone, my main battlefield is pluralists/atheists), many of the new apologetics tactics of Rome are emotionally based, something they probably did learn from post-evangelicalism. They appeal to peoples emotions; what people like, how people "wish" it was. In reality, they are pandering to the sinner's idols, and raising them up to be the actual authority embodied in mater ecclesia. It's such a sham.

Other tactics include faulty logic in attempting to destroy the authority of Scripture (this is a BIG ONE), mis-quoting church fathers (I don't want to say lying because often the guy on the street didn't go look up the church father, but they read it in one of the above mentioned author's books and THAT author is the one that is lying about them), and even mis-quoting Martin Luther (the blog of James Swan, Beggars All: Reformation And Apologetics can help with this. Mr. Swan is a Luther scholar extraordianaire).

I'll try to think of some other resources, but I know that both Dr. White and Mr. Swan are excellent in these two respects, and everything is available online for free.
 
Here is a very helpful, to-the-point sermon by Dr. Bahnsen entitled, "The Road to Rome, Was the Reformation Right?" Be forewarned - he is extremely blunt and harsh in this piece. But regardless of what one thinks of Van Tillian apologetics, theonomy or the like, today I would say this sermon is indispensable when studying Rome from a Reformed perspective.
 
I don't think anyone could presume to speak for Bahnsen. The more I hear about him the more quirky he seems to have been. Such a strange fellow it would seem.
 
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