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Webcasting around the world from the desert metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona, this is The Dividing Line. The Apostle Peter commanded Christians to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us, yet to give that answer with gentleness and reverence.
Our host is Dr. James White, Director of Alpha Omega Ministries and an Elder at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. This is a live program and we invite your participation. If you'd like to talk with Dr. White, call now at 602 -973 -4602, or toll free across the United States, it's 1 -877 -753 -3341.
And now with today's topic, here is James White.
And welcome to The Dividing Line on a Saturday afternoon, and I'm not sure how many years ago it was now, that we began doing The Dividing Line. Initially, well, of course, we did it back in the 80s on various radio stations here in the Phoenix area, but then we started up again in the late 90s, somewhere along the lines.
And initially, I believe it was a half-hour program, we would frequently record some of those, and then we went live with an hour-long program on Saturday afternoons. And when we decided to go to the webcast, because 98 of all of our phone calls were coming through the internet, and it was very, very, very, very, very expensive to be on a radio station, we kept doing it at 2 o 'clock on Saturday afternoons.
And to be honest with you, it is a pain. You can't do anything on the weekends with your families. You can't go anywhere. You can't do anything. It's right in the middle of the day. So you've got to rush, do things in the morning, and then rush, do things in the evening.
And the timing just isn't all that good, and to be honest with you, I'm not really sure why we did it the way that we've done it. But anyways, we started thinking, given how often I'm gone on weekends, you know, we can do this whenever we jolly well want to, right?
And we can, and we have. We've done Thursday evenings, we've done it at the top of the hour at night, or sometimes we'll just start it whenever we want to start it. And we normally have gone 90 minutes, because that's what you can fit on a cassette tape anyways, at least the cassette tapes that we buy.
And so anyways, we started thinking about, well, since I'm gone a lot on weekends, and when I do leave, I normally leave like on a Thursday, Friday-type situation, gone Saturday, Sunday, come back. I'm teaching Monday nights, and I mentioned last week some of the classes that I'll be teaching on Monday evenings for the foreseeable future for Golden Gate Seminary here in Phoenix.
Some really cool classes. If you haven't heard that program, you might want to listen to it. And so I try to get back as early as I can in the week, obviously. And so what we're going to try to do is go to a new schedule beginning this week.
And ironically, I will be in San Antonio this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning. So it's a good time to do this, because I wouldn't be here to do a dividing line next week anyways. So let's turn all the sounds off.
Thank you very much, Balthazar. That's still playing. Oh, here. STOP. Okay. Now it's safe. Anyways, some op needs to kick. Whoever started the sound in the middle of my discussion and completely disrupted everything.
Needs to be kicked right out of the channel into another hemisphere, in fact. That's what needs to happen. Anyways, so what we're going to do is on this coming Tuesday at 11 a .m. Mountain Standard Time.
And I'm not going to translate that, because no matter what we do with our schedule, those of you on the East Coast who think you rule and run things are going to be confused as to when it is. April 6th, all that changes.
And you all play with your clocks. We do not play with our clocks. And so you just figure it out. And anyways, 11 o 'clock. And here's what we've decided to do. When you do a 90-minute program, you put half of your energy into the last 30 minutes.
Now I know that doesn't sound intuitive, but really it is. You're going really strong for the first hour. That last 30 minutes can get tough, especially if you don't have phone callers. And so we've decided to actually offer you more per week, when I'm here anyways.
And that is, we're going to do two dividing lines per week. One will be Tuesday mornings at 11 our time, which right now would be 1 p .m. Eastern. That'll become 2 p .m. after April 6th, for those of you who are confused.
And then we will do a second, when I'm in town to do it, on Thursday evenings at 5 p .m. Mountain Standard Time. But they will each be one hour in length. So there will be a total of two hours of the dividing line each week, but I get two days between them.
You can sort of recharge your batteries, new things happen, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So we're going to try this schedule for a while, see how it works. We've put them toward the middle of the week because generally, except for really major trips like I did when I went to Long Island recently, or when I'll be going to Sao Paulo, Brazil in October, then we won't be doing any dividing lines at all because it takes, you know, a lot of time.
But generally, I try to limit my trips to a weekend-type thing, and so hopefully, this will cut back on the number of times that I'll be missing. Now, some people are saying, well, the Sorobos have to work during the day, and that was a fairly close imitation of CDS, actually.
But let me try it again. Well, some of us have to work during the day. That's actually sound Australian, didn't it? Anyways, well, what, what? Sad? Oh, thanks. Thanks, Warren. Oh, by the way, Warren is going to sing Elvis today since this is the last Saturday dividing line.
We have tortured you all with the threat of Warren singing Elvis, and we're going to do it today just because we're celebrating this last, this last thing. So anyways, where was I? I have no idea where I was.
Oh, yes. Yes, I know it's during the day. There are regular folks in channel during the day, too. Some people work at night. That's why we have one at 11 o 'clock in the morning and then one at five o 'clock in the evening.
So we didn't put them at the exact same time. So we'll catch different people that way. And, you know, it's interesting, especially radio programs. Most of the real big ones are on. When? When's Rush Limbaugh on?
Is he on it at choice A night or choice B day? Yes. Choice B day. So anyways, so CDS now has another question. Won't the number of calls be greatly diminished since people would be at work? Well, CDS, since you asked that question, how many calls do we get anyway?
I mean, come on, it's Saturday. There is no day during the week other than possibly Sunday that we could do this when we would get fewer calls than on on Saturday afternoon. People are out there doing things.
That's, you know, our families would like us to be out doing things, too. So I don't know that we will or we won't. But, you know, it hasn't seemed to influence Rush Limbaugh's callers. He gets lots of them during the day, during the same time period.
And 5 p .m., interestingly enough, on Thursday is right after, at least for our schedule here in Phoenix, right after the Bible Answer Man broadcast. So I have a feeling that we will do just fine as far as getting phone callers and interaction.
And honestly, there's lots and lots and lots and lots of folks who listen by archive anyways, and they're just going to be happy that they're going to be two dividing lines and they're going to be divided by two days.
And hence, there's going to be a little wider variety of topics discussed and things like that. And that's just how it's going to work. So we're going to try it for now, see how it works, see how, see where it goes.
But Dr. Erkley, won't the number of people badgering other people to call in be greatly diminished? Well, maybe they will. What can I say? Yes. Well, you know, someone just made a good point. Rush Limbaugh broadcasts on radio.
Ever try using Merck while driving? That is a good point. That is a very, very, very good point. No two ways about it. So someone kicked the man who asked the question. Anyways. Anyhow, that's what we're going to do.
And you know what? There's not anything that all of you people in there stop kicking the poor British fellow. There you go. Anyways, that's what we're going to do. So I hope you'll be listening to to the program this Tuesday if you have the opportunity of doing so.
If you don't, it's going to be it's going to be archived anyways. So, you know, it'll it'll work one way or the other. So don't don't worry yourself about it. And if you can't catch it on Tuesdays, you can catch it on Thursdays.
And who knows, maybe people on Thursdays will ask about issues from Tuesday and maybe on Tuesday I'll ask about issues from last Thursday. You know, I don't know. That's that's fine. It'll work one way or the other.
Anyhow, let's move on. And certainly if you would like to comment, in fact, the CBS would like to call in and and whine, we will allow him to whine on the air. And that way it'll also help me to practice my British accent.
And, you know, that's cool. And if you want to hear what a Cajun sounds like, Amphibo can call in. And, you know, if he's done with it, with his cleaning duties for the for the day, he can he can call in.
And if someone would like to wire Balthazar, you know, 100 bucks to call from Australia or something like that, that's that's that's fine, too. Whatever whatever you want to do, that's that's how we'll work it out.
And the number is 877 -753 -3341. 877 -753 -3341 is the phone number. I was informed and I should mention. On let me look at the little note that I left for myself here, March 13th is a Tuesday. No, no, no, that's a Thursday.
Let me close the program down here. Yes, it is a Thursday evening, five o 'clock. We're going to have a debate on on the dividing line. Even the folks in the control studio are not completely aware of this, I don't think.
A fellow in IRC who goes by the name of Aquinas, who's also gone by other names. As well, gave me a name of Steven. But to be honest with you, no one that I know of is really certain what his name is.
But anyways, he has been well, he's been a part of apologetics discussions. He's a Roman Catholic. Interestingly enough, unlike most Roman Catholics with whom we speak. He will make the claim to being a part of the magisterium, a spokesperson for the magisterium.
He says he is a teacher and that he is qualified and authorized by the Roman Catholic Church to teach dogma and doctrine. And therefore, unlike most Roman Catholic apologists who will duck and run when you really want to put something down in writing, he will say, no, this is what the church teaches.
Now, of course, you can find all sorts of other folks, priests and others who would disagree, but that's the nature of the beast. Anyways, a number of weeks or months ago now, a discussion took place in the apologetics channel on the subject of the Apocrypha.
And I have a number of pop-ups that I play in IRC that give information concerning, for example, the early church's view of the Apocryphal books, the mixed bag of views that you have there, Gregory the Great's statement concerning Maccabees and how it was not canonical and so on and so forth, all the way up to the time of the Reformation.
For that matter, you have a number of... In fact, it's fascinating for those of you who are into the issue of the textual history of the New Testament, especially, you know that Erasmus, one of the reasons that he rushed so much...
Most of you know about the situation, the text revelation. Erasmus was under tremendous amount of pressure from John Froben, his printer, to get his work done so he could get it printed. And they sort of rolled the dice, so to speak.
They did not wait for papal approval of the publication of the book. Instead, they basically tried to schmooze the Pope by dedicating the volume to him. And the reason that he was rushing so much was because Froben was aware that Cardinal Jimenez had already printed what's called the Completentian Polyglot.
But it hadn't been published yet because, let's face it, if Vatican protocol and the bureaucracy is slow today, can you imagine what it was in 1515 and 1516? I mean, at least you can make phone calls, use faxes, and so on and so forth.
You can't do that back in those days. So it took a long period of time. So Jimenez's work had been printed, it just hadn't been published yet. It was sitting basically in a storage room someplace. And so what's fascinating is that that particular volume, Cardinal Jimenez's, which was the first printed, not published, the first printed Greek New Testament, in its prologue held to Jerome's rejection of the apocryphal books, and the Pope approved the publication of it.
Now remember, this is, you know, it finally comes out, what was it, late 1516, late 1517? I forget the exact date when Jimenez's was finally put into circulation. It was a superior work to Erasmus' in many senses.
But that particular volume, let's just go with 1517, so you're talking approximately 29 years prior to the decree in 1546 from the Council of Trent on the nature of the canon. And so it's obvious that scholars are correct that there were numerous views on the subject of the canon of the Old Testament, and that there were many, including those at the very highest levels of the Roman Church, who did not hold to the canon as decreed by the Council of Trent.
Well, some of this discussion took place in Channel, not that last particular section, but just sections of it. And Mr. Aquinas, Stephen Person, the own Catholic apologist, you're just all wrong about that.
In fact, I could open up the log from last night, and he was saying, well, so you're backing down. I would love to have the opportunity of correcting you, correcting your misapprehensions on these things, but you're backing down.
You won't debate this, yada, yada, yada. Okay, so we're going to have Aquinas on the program. We may have to go long that night, because if we only do an hour, that's really not sufficient time to do a whole lot as far as making meaningful presentations on the subject of the canonicity of the Apocrypha.
But polyglot, it is an interesting word to say with a British accent. Anyways, but mark your calendars for the 13th. Lord willing, that's all going to work out for us, and you might be ready with your questions and comments on that particular subject as well.
So that'll be coming up in the not-too-distant future. I think I mentioned next week I'll be in San Antonio. Those of you who are always looking to go to debates, the next two debates that we have scheduled are April 4th and 5th, April 4th and 5th at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah at the U of U.
That's where we had the debate just last October, I believe, on the subject of deification, theosis. And on Friday night, April 4th, I will be debating R. Dennis Potter, a graduate of Notre Dame. He is a Roman Catholic.
I'm sorry. He is a Mormon who graduated from a Roman Catholic institution, PhD in philosophy. We will be debating the issue of the role of the atonement and the nature of the atonement as he understands it.
And then the next evening, it is a doubleheader, and that's why some of you might think about this because you've wanted to come to debates, and it's like, man, drive all that way just for one. Well, we're doing one Friday night and doing another one Saturday night.
So the one Friday night is on Mormonism in a Mormon area, obviously. And then the next night, when not nearly as many Mormons could be around because it's the night of General Conference, I'll be debating Robert St. Genes yet once again.
Hopefully, this one will turn out a little bit different than the last one on the subject of the mass. And specifically, I don't have the specific thesis in front of me, but as I recall, it was along the lines of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ includes the Roman Catholic mass.
In other words, the mass is a part of the atoning work of Christ. And so that's what that debate will be about. So you've got two debates in April, and then right now, we are scheduled and still working out all the details of the Long Island debate, great debate.
I think it's eight, isn't it? Isn't this the eighth? I think it's the eighth one. The great debate eight. Actually, that obviously works pretty well. The great debate eight will be on the 29th of May at the Huntington townhouse in Huntington, Long Island, and we are currently attempting to get an opponent, a Roman Catholic opponent who will debate the issue of the priesthood.
Not the current debate over the corruption of the priesthood, but is there such a thing as a sacramental priesthood in the New Testament? Is it, was it established by Jesus Christ, or is it the creation of men?
And obviously, I believe it is the creation of men. It is not something that the New Testament teaches, hints at, or anything else. The only priesthood in the New Testament is the high priesthood of Jesus Christ, and then the priesthood of all believers.
It is not a sacramental priesthood in the sense that Rome has defined those terms and utilizes those terms, so on and so forth. So that's what's coming up in the next couple of months. I don't think, I may, may, there is, there is a very, I haven't heard back from these folks yet, but maybe in normal Illinois, the last weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, which is the 25th, 26th, 27th of April, maybe in the normal Illinois area that has not yet been, been absolutely confirmed and established as of yet.
So just things for you to keep in mind, things coming up, let you know that we remain very busy here at, at the ministry. We keep, keep working. Some of you have asked for a report very quickly. The Dave Hunt Project is, is back online as far as we are working on it.
I can tell you that the old publisher, Loyal, which published Dave Hunt's book, What Love Is This, has been purchased and the listing of all those books has been purchased by Multnomah and hence that project is now a Multnomah project and it is now ongoing.
In fact, they're waiting for me and I told them, I said, look, I've always had my stuff in first, but this has been put on hold for so long because of the sale and stuff that I have some other things I need to do right now and so I'm going to do that first.
I mean, that's, I have to have priorities. I've got a chapter that I need to really get some work done on this week, even though I'm going to San Antonio. It's due by the end of the month, so I only have two weeks left on church governance.
I've done the requisite study. It's time to put all the stuff on paper and that's what I'm working on right now. As soon as that's done, I have one little addition to another chapter to do and then get the next round with the Hunt stuff done and since each section is getting shorter and shorter, it doesn't make it much easier because you actually have to be even clearer and clearer each time you have less words to say it in, but it should be done.
We certainly should be able to see this in the not too distant future. It'll be out. I can't say exactly how, what it's worth is going to be, but it certainly should be out. I need to get it done because I have another book due in September on the subject of sola scriptura, finally getting around to writing that popular presentation on that vital and important subject.
A number of folks asking the question one last time very quickly. The new schedule for the dividing line will be Tuesday mornings 11 a .m. Mountain Time and Mountain Standard Time always and then Thursday evenings at 5 p .m. Mountain Standard Time.
That will change, of course, for all the rest of you who play with your clocks, but those of you who do not, it will be working that way. So how are you going to do Thursday's show in Texas? I'm not going to do Thursday's show.
That's why. And what's the latest about the cruise? Cruise is, of course, ongoing. Still good rates available. I hope those of you who have been thinking about it will take advantage of it. We are still going to be discussing those issues that are central to the Christian apologetic to other religions, obviously, because the fact that the majority of those on the ship, as far as the crew are concerned, are Muslim.
We are going to be primarily focused upon a positive presentation. But since our groups are never overly huge, we will do personal discussions in private chambers or out on the deck, so on and so forth, when we want to get into more specific areas.
For example, when we discuss what the Koran says about Christ, when we discuss the various forms of Hadith and things like that, we will do that in the context of a little more private setting. We're not going to stick a sign outside of the meeting room that says, you know, Muhammad's marriage to a six-year-old discussed today by quoting from Islamic Hadith.
You know, that's a good way to get on a boat and never be seen again. So that's sort of dumb. So anyways, we're still going on with that perspective. But obviously, we're going to try to show some level of wisdom as to how we handle those things on the boat itself in that situation.
So looking forward to that opportunity. It's coming up. It's getting closer. We are very excited about some of the folks who are going to be with us. And we would like to have some more of you who have been thinking about it.
It is a wonderful opportunity to get away. I really don't think you could go to most places like Disneyland or whatever those other places are for a week's period of time for anything cheaper than you can get in regards to this particular cruise.
So keep that in mind as well. So is it going to remain a webcast alone or will it be on a radio station? No, it will not be on a radio station. We do not have the money to be on radio stations. If you want to be on a radio station, you have to have massive funding.
And we've found absolutely no one who has the slightest interest in providing us with massive funding. And we're not going to do the things that you need to do to obtain massive funding, which means massive begging.
And so you either start off with a huge ministry that can absorb the costs of radio and you still have to, I don't care who it is, I've seen anybody who has a radio program has to at times talk about money.
They have to talk about you need to give, you need to do this. If we don't hear from you, we're going to kill you off your station. And I'm just not going to do that in any way, shape or form. Are Presbyterians allowed on the cruise?
Yes. However, if you fall off the side, you will be baptized. Sorry. Yes. Hey, it was asked in channel. What can I say? So I assume the radio station paid you very well. I'll tell you what, Wonka, you start your own radio station and we'll be on it.
We've got people who want to advertise now and everything else. I'll tell you, it's an amazing thing. I'm also told by the powers that be, the high and mighty technical people who sit just across the wall from me.
And most of the time, to be honest with you, they're not listening to a word I say. They're talking to each other. They're doing their own thing. He's just in there talking. We don't have to worry about him.
I'll never forget the time I kept writing him this little note. I was sick. I said, I need water. And I sent it. Nothing happened. So I capitalized, I need water. And I sent it again. And I just kept repeating it.
So the whole screen is filled up with, I need water. And then finally, some of you may recall, I just stopped. I took the headphones off and walked to the door. And I eventually got the water. But anyways, they have fun in there.
Normally, it's because Warren is singing. And that's just something he likes to do alone, generally. And that's probably best for the rest of us. Anyways, they're telling me that it's time for a break.
So if you would like to share some of your memories of Saturday afternoons with the Dividing Line, 877 -753 -3341. We'll be right back.
The history of the Christian church pivots on the doctrine of justification by faith. Once the core of the Reformation, the church today often ignores or misunderstands this foundational doctrine. In his book, The God Who Justifies, theologian James White calls believers to a fresh appreciation of, understanding of, and dedication to the great doctrine of justification, and then provides an exegesis of the key scripture texts on this theme.
Justification is the heart of the gospel. In today's culture where tolerance is the new absolute, James White proclaims with passion the truth and centrality of the doctrine of justification by faith.
Dr. Jay Adams says, I lost sleep over this book. I simply couldn't put it down. James White writes the way an exegetically and theologically oriented pastor appreciates. This is no book for casual reading.
There is solid meat throughout. An outstanding contribution in every sense of the words. The God Who Justifies by Dr. James White. Get your copy today at AOMN .org. More than any time in the past, Roman Catholics and evangelicals are working together.
They are standing shoulder to shoulder against social evils. They are joining across denominational boundaries in renewal movements. And many evangelicals are finding the history, tradition, and grandeur of the Roman Catholic Church appealing.
This newfound rapport has caused many evangelical leaders and lay people to question the age-old disagreements that have divided Protestants and Catholics. Aren't we all saying the same thing in a different language?
James White's book, The Roman Catholic Controversy, is an absorbing look at current views of tradition and scripture. The papacy, the mass, purgatorian indulgences, and Marian doctrine. James White points out the crucial differences that remain regarding the Christian life and the heart of the gospel itself that cannot be ignored.
Order your copy of The Roman Catholic Controversy by going to our website at AOMN .org. This portion of the dividing line has been made possible by the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. The Apostle Paul spoke of the importance of solemnly testifying of the gospel of the grace of God.
The proclamation of God's truth is the most important element of his worship in his church. The elders and people of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church invite you to worship with them this coming Lord's Day.
The morning Bible study begins at 9 .30 a .m. and the worship service is at 10 .45. Evening services are at 6 .30 p .m. on Sunday and the Wednesday night prayer meeting is at 7. The Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church is located at 3805 North 12th Street in Phoenix.
You can call for further information at 602 -26-GRACE. If you're unable to attend you can still participate with your computer and real audio at prbc .org where the ministry extends around the world through the archives of sermons and Bible study lessons available 24 hours a day.
How the pilgrims progress it's not an easy way I have to do something about uh something about our commercials too I mean we've not.
Only have we simply had the same commercials for uh uh forever uh but we're not gonna have room for all of them. I mean we're gonna have to. You know you only got one break in there because we're only doing an hour.
You know my headset didn't stay. You know how these cords get all wound up. Ah much better this little entropy taking place there in the universe it's don't worry about it happens every single day. It's called age.
Anyways I do have a few things to play for you today. Some interesting little things. I was I really don't I wish I had time you know if we had the the big staff of folks just sitting around waiting to do this that the other thing it would be easier to do this but one thing I would do is I would have people monitor things like EWTN or Catholic Answers Live or things like that and so I I just basically this afternoon before the program started I uh scanned the topics on the Catholic Answers Live and they had one with Patrick Madrid talking about scripture and tradition and I knew it wouldn't be too difficult uh to find some interesting things to talk about there and uh I was right.
And again the the main thing that I I was struck with was uh you got to give Patrick Madrid credit uh he's been saying the exact same thing uh since I started studying Roman Catholicism uh his arguments against Sola Scriptura are 100 predictable because they haven't changed.
What concerns me is everything that Pat Madrid says about Sola Scriptura has now been responded to in print uh since let's say you know over the course the past what 13 years um someone channel uh just put Catholic Answers twice the length half the thought well that does sort of fit into what I'm saying right now uh and that is uh well uh you know if um well for example someone once sent me a tape I forget how long ago this was about 19 it's 96 it's 1996 and someone sent me a tape of a call-in program to St. Joseph Catholic Radio that Tim Staples was on this guy called in and he was asking about the white question and it was the question that I had asked Jerry Matitix on WMUZ uh in Boston um on the Jean Graff show uh in 1993 about how a believing Jew um 50 years before Christ would be able to know that Isaiah and Second Chronicles were scripture and uh so I listened intently to the responses that they offered.
And now when I talk about that question I offer the responses I've heard uh I offer Patrick Madrid's response because we corresponded on it. I offered what Matitix said that day which was I don't know um I offer all the different responses I've gotten.
So I've listened to the attempts to answer the question. And now when I present it instead of just throwing it out there and not listening to the replies I throw it out there. And I've made it a stronger argument because I listen to what has been said in response.
Well uh that's not what these folks do because what we're going to hear is again the same regurgitation of the same simplistic arguments against sola scriptura the same simplistic arguments that take no consideration whatsoever not only of the the great works that had been in print for 100 years and more.
Uh people like Salmon and Good and and Whitaker just ignores all that they don't even it's like they aren't even aware that these books exist or could care less that they do. But even books that have been written since then.
I mean I've I've taken on Madrid's perspective in my own written books and he may not like them. He may not even respect the responses. But wouldn't his argument be stronger if he would show a familiarity with it I would think so uh what about the Webster and King books.
Can you imagine being a Roman Catholic apologist today. Someone puts out a 1500 1500 1150 page work on your key issue and you don't even refer to it. I know that you can't write a reputation 1150 pages.
Uh no one's going to publish something like that. That's that's not the issue. The point is you'd have to listen to it and and upgrade. Let's use a computer term. Here you've got to upgrade your system.
You've got to upgrade your replies. Or you're gonna be stuck back in DOS days you know uh and you're not really gonna be able to handle things too. Well so that's that's what I hear going on as and this took place.
Uh let me see here uh minimize the screen here. Uh this was Wednesday this was Wednesday's program. So you know three days ago.
Uh here's here's what Patrick Madrid is saying. And we can verify that from scripture itself. For example if we looked at Luke chapter 1 the very first five verses of Luke's gospel are the place where he tells Theophilus this man to whom he seems to have been dedicating the gospel or at least um writing it to him in mind with him in mind.
And he says that the the message that you heard that you were taught from eyewitnesses is true and trustworthy. And now I'm going to set down in an orderly sequence those things that took place in the life of Christ as a way to verify or vouchsafe those oral teachings that you've already received.
And there we see a glimpse of that point that where we Catholics would say no we're not a Bible church in quite the same way the Protestants are. Because Protestants would say that they go to the Bible and they locate their doctrines and that's what they teach.
They teach what they find in the Bible. The Catholic church says yes we do that. But we also have the added dimension that the church was teaching its doctrines prior to scripture being set down. And when the Holy Spirit inspired the the sacred authors to write the epistles and the gospels of the New Testament that that was a way to further confirm and and spread more widely the teachings that the church was already giving.
Prior to that point now listen very carefully to what is said there I want to I want to take this back here focus in upon this. There's there's nothing. Obviously if you go through the material that has been generated in response to Rome over the past number of of years everyone recognizes that during periods of inscripturation revelation that the gospel was orally preached so on so forth that we've all pointed out that Rome is wrong to say that there was no Bible that of course is is simply in error.
Obviously the church very clearly utilized the scriptures that she had which is called the Tanakh the old covenant scriptures which were hers and they were absolutely authoritative. But there has been of course further revelation that is given and Rome likes to try to focus upon.
Well when scripture was still being written then you couldn't have solo scriptura and the rest was go yeah was scripture still being written. No. Okay let's talk about today. That's the big issue. That's the big big topic that comes up of course.
Oops I had the I have that line forwarded to my cell phone. There guys that's that's not going to work a little technical adjustment here and it was oh stop it hang up there. Star 73. Okay I just fixed it.
It's another reason we don't go on the radio anyways. Um hey I forwarded my cell phone I forward my office phone to my cell phone. That's how people get hold of me. That's you know what. Anyways uh whoever that was they're gonna have to call back.
Um anyways uh what what in the world was this thing. Oh yeah. So let's go turn so we've all talked about that. It was oh it's a pope. Great wonderful. Finally had our chance for the debate and we missed it.
I just hung up on the pope. Yep there's the private line says Vatican right there on my screen on my really cool little Motorola phone. There it says says Vatican has a little hat on it. Um uh thanks thanks everyone.
Uh if this wasn't your last day anyways um oh he just got off the phone with Saddam huh. He's got some information for us. Thought we would be the best way to get this information out to the world. He got off the phone with Saddam wants to talk to me.
Yeah anyhow. Um the key issue of course comes down to what is God's source of revelation. And one of the things that just drives me nuts is we have pointed out over and over and over and over again that Roman Catholic apologists will deal anachronistically with history.
They will read back into history terms and concepts that simply could never have been understood by the early church fathers. Now listen again to what is said. Uh by by Madrid here Catholic Church says yes.
We.
Do that. But we also have the added dimension that the church was teaching its doctrines prior to scripture being set down and when the Holy Spirit inspired the sacred authors to write the epistles and the gospels of the new testament.
That that was a way to further confirm and and spread more widely the teachings that the church was already giving prior to that point. Now what.
Does that mean if it's true now. I i agree. Um the the deity of Christ was being taught before John and Colossians put that into written form. I agree. But you see what then is smuggled into those words in the mind of the person listening.
You know if you've talked with Roman Catholic apologists you know you see when they hear the doctrine of the church it's capital c and therefore the idea that is then communicated by even a statement that at least is technically true is that all the doctrines of the church were being taught.
And you see that is what is self-evidently untrue. I mean can can you imagine challenging any Roman Catholic historian theologian or apologist to demonstrate the peculiar and unique teachings of the Roman Catholic communion prior to the writing of the new testament.
Well they might say well you can't because there's not enough data. Okay uh let's let's let's go. The first 300 years the unique teachings of papal infallibility and the whole complex of Marian dogmas which have become so intertwined with the entire piety of modern Roman Catholicism simply aren't there.
It's not possible to read the history of the church in that fashion. It just doesn't work. And so i think that's one of the reasons that you you constantly hear we've talked about this before. When you listen to EWTN you hear this constant uh reiteration over and over and over again these these converts and this simplistic we need the church.
We have tradition the church of 2 ,000 years and you just keep pounding that into people's church of 2 ,000 years or the church of 2 ,000 years. So when you hear that stuff then you automatically translate even true statements like this into something that that history could never ever ever substantiate in any way shape or form.
Let me try just one other clip here and then uh looks like the the calls are coming in. We've got at least two folks online and um so that's gonna that's gonna work. Even the cardinals have cheerleaders.
Someone just typed to me and it's someone on the side of the wall. Even the cardinals have cheerleaders and i don't have the foggiest idea. What in the rah rah rah. So the cardinals stink and so they have cheerleaders and we are the best.
I think they may have broken out the celebratory champagne a little early. Uh you know before the program was over. You know. Oh we are the church for 2 ,000 years. Oh okay. Okay let's go to this.
So there was never this mentality in the early church that scripture alone was the sole sufficient rule of faith for christians divorced from sacred tradition and the authoritative interpretation of the magisterium.
And that word magisterium of course just means the teaching.
Office of the church now do you hear that. Uh of course it's not. Well you know uh there are there are entire books that have been published uh that uh that dispute this and and provide hundreds of citations uh with full context texts and uh with uh with uh references to means into uh the latin into the greek and and uh none of that.
It's it's it's like let's let's make sure no one even knows those things exist. Actually uh instead it's well of course no one in the early church whenever you hear roman catholicism using terms like no one.
The universal faith of the church you know that they're trying to hide something. It's like when vatican one talked about the universal faith of the ancient church in regards to peter and matthew 16. Anybody who is even marginally familiar with the writings of your church fathers knows that it's not a universal thing.
In fact the majority of interpretations of matthew 16 do not support the roman catholic position that has been demonstrated over and over and over again. So whenever you hear this universal stuff uh the little red flag should go up.
And when i'm so well no one ever believed that that's what i hear all the time no one ever believed these things until luther or if they're really smart until wickliffe and hus or something like that.
And uh it just it's just repeated as a mantra hopefully i guess repeated often enough that people will accept it as a fact without ever ever considering it uh so on and so forth. So just keep that in mind as.
As he's saying because there was never this mentality in the early church that scripture alone was the sole sufficient rule of faith for christians divorced from sacred tradition and the authoritative interpretation of the magisterium.
And that word magisterium of course just means the teaching office of the church that christ spoke about in matthew chapter 28. Sure. And uh it wasn't it wasn't it augustine who even said i wouldn't believe in the the gospels themselves if the church didn't tell me so or didn't.
Yeah that's a rough translation. But actually that's what he meant. What he was saying was that uh the authority of the gospels was an authority that he readily uh accepted and assented to. In other words saint augustine was certainly a scripture man but he was also a man of the church.
And he was a man of tradition. And as any good catholic as any good christian really should look at scripture we should we should be like augustine where we embrace it in reverent scripture and recognize it as as in its own unique way the highest form of revelation for the church.
However the mistake comes when we follow a what i believe is a pernicious tradition of men. And we know the traditions of men that nullify the word of god were condemned strongly by christ in mark chapter 7 and matthew chapter 15 because they they in essence undermine or subvert the meaning of god's word.
And it really is a tradition of men when we jettison sacred scripture in favor of tradition alone as some people do. And the opposite mistake is equally pernicious. And that's to jettison tradition and cling to scripture alone that actually violates what saint paul commanded us in second thessalonians chapter 2 where he says.
You know i urge you to stand fast and hold firm to the teaching you receive from us whether in.
Written form or orally. Well again uh tremendous discussions of that passage from paul have been presented. And if you you know from my perspective if these folks had the truth then they would deal with those presentations.
They would they would say. And and you know uh there are those who say we've misunderstood this. Well let me explain uh how it is that i can use this passage consistently. And and yet i still hold to uh material sufficiency.
And and uh so on. So forth. There would be discussions. There aren't. And someone might say well but these programs aren't for you. Okay. Fine i discuss them on this program. Um and not everybody who listens.
This program is going to necessarily be be focused in upon you know why it is. I emphasize everything. I emphasize the fact. The matter is if you really believe in truth you can respond to the best arguments your opponents have.
You don't have to respond to the least. Um it's just reading into early church history this concept of tradition is so circular this has all been pointed out. But for some reason no one wants to deal with those those issues as to augustine uh whatever they may adduce and wherever they may quote from let us rather if we are his sheep hear the voice of our shepherd.
Therefore let us search for the church in the sacred canonical scriptures. If you will read the section that mr usher massacred uh and took completely out of context you will discover that it is not supportive of the roman catholic use of it that has been documented over and over and over again.
Uh but again just strikes me that for many folks dealing with the issues in that way is not what you want to do. 877 -753 -3341. That's what at least three folks have done. I think our phone lines are all clogged up.
So let's uh first go to new jersey and talk to steve. Steve are you there. Yes i am. Good afternoon. How you doing today. Doing.
Good that reference to the phoenix card to the cardinals having cheerleaders. Was that a reference.
To the phoenix cardinal. Uh we don't have cardinals in phoenix. Uh there is a a refugee nfl football team um that wandered into town and has uh evidently taken the uh the uh church the church fathers.
Yeah the uh the city father is hostage and replaced them with clones and uh. So they play football over at asu uh but we do not claim them. And if you would like to have uh another uh semi-pro football team we would be glad to pack them up and move them out to you send them back um anywhere they want to go.
You bet i missed you at up at harford. I'm hoping to get up there but i was ill that week and couldn't make it uh. Well we uh we had fun. Yeah um. My question.
Was regarding church fathers. The value of the church fathers um in the sense that uh how do you use them appropriately because they often contradicted each other. Didn't august not didn't warfield say that the victory of the reformation was really the victory of augustine's doctrine of of salvation over augustine's doctrine of the church augustine's.
Doctrines of grace over augustine's doctrine of the church. Yes well you know the value. Uh it's a very good question. Um i think you heard some of the value just now. Yeah it was. Some of the answer was there.
Right. And and the value you know it is interesting. Roman catholics get very confused when when we start citing from the early church fathers. A because they think the early church fathers they've actually bought the line that these were a bunch of roman catholics running around.
Therefore they shouldn't have been saying the things that we quote them saying but primarily it's it's simply a matter of of being honest. I'm not referring to augustine as a um as a source of religious authority in the sense that well augustine said this.
Therefore we should believe this um and some of the reformers did. But they did so mainly to demonstrate that what they were saying was not completely new that it had existed in the history of the church.
Um and especially when you deal with religious systems that make authoritative claims based upon uh alleged testimony from the past you need to be able to keep them honest. And when when rome claims that papal infallibility is is based upon uh concepts the papacy that have been the universal understanding of christians from the beginning.
You need to demonstrate that's not the case when when mormons say that there were early church fathers that believed like they do that men could become gods in the way they do. You need to be able to demonstrate that's not the case.
And i don't base um my my my positive belief upon well this early church father said this it can it can sometimes they will have stated things in an excellent fashion on certain topics and i don't think we have to go about reinventing the wheel each generation.
I certainly think that we can learn uh from those who have come before us uh but they were just men. And it's uh you know really the collection of the early fathers writings that we have in the first few centuries is sort of like uh getting a a uh a listing of what books are currently in um you know it's your local christian bookstore that's a really mixed bag.
And just because someone wrote back then doesn't mean that they uh they really had any particular insight. Because i don't know about you i i happened to walk into a christian bookstore this last week and i was shocked where they get the name christian.
Well you wonder where why anyone is buying any of these books. I mean i went up and down the shelves and i'm looking for anything of substance and it's it's just psycho babble uh prayer of jabez level uh silliness i was just i was there wasn't anything in there that was worth even even purchasing it was amazing experience.
But anyways um there's a lot of stuff that's published by people who call themselves christians that isn't worth reading so and some people think that about everything i've written too that's fine. But uh the point is just because an early church father wrote something doesn't mean that he knew what in the world he was talking about.
And just because later centuries happened to like what he said also doesn't mean that it's uh you know overly worthwhile to us. So we have to show some level of discernment. And it's interesting rome does show a level of discernment but it's a discernment based upon the elevation of her own authority.
That is she says that when you know when one early church father uses the term immaculate of mary you can read entire dogmas into that. But you can find entire chapters in books by augustine directly contrary to their views of authority.
And that's just his views as a private theologian. So it's it's all based upon whatever ultimate authority they they have already established and they're just not. They're not dealing with the early church fathers in a fair way i think there's great things to learn from them.
But i think one of the greatest lessons i certainly tried to emphasize when teaching through church history at phoenix reformed over the past number of years was the main thing we learned from the early church fathers is the importance of sola scriptura because when we see them wandering from that that's when they end up getting themselves.
In trouble. Sure. Yeah i have to i have to to thank you for something. I had given up on a lot of the contemporary christian music and i have i have picked up a few of your steve steve camp yes music.
In fact i am just talking to our music director music minister of music about it and found that he actually even uses some of steve camp stuff. They're always looking for some.
Worthwhile and theologically correct. Oh great stuff. So well i got to minister with steve just a few weekends ago and i'm not sure if you heard the program where i talked about that. It was uh. It was a lot of fun.
It was uh very very enjoyable to uh get to open the word talk about the substance of a song and then have him uh have him sing it uh songs like he covers me and things like that are just uh just wonderful.
Have you ever heard of dave boyer. Yes. But boy that sounds like from back when i was like a teenager or something. His brother is our minister of music. Oh okay. And they reformed. Excellent. Well wonderful.
Yeah i think they ought to all get together so we can all.
Get their music and and stop having to dig around for it. In fact um uh his brother was telling me just too long ago they have discovered someone to his other brother the older one. They're in their 70s now it's a missionary to france and they have a letter regarding a copy.
You've got a copy of an original of the original letter um written around the time of of calvin and it was about five french missionary french men who went and actually studied under calvin and went back.
Into france and his missionaries and were martyred. Oh well that happened to a lot of the. Yeah a lot of the reformed folks went back into france unfortunately. Hey thank you very much for your call brother.
Uh hopefully we'll hear from you even with our new schedule in the future. I'll try to. And just remember there's not just one here. All right. God bless brother. Take care. All right all right. We will be taking our other calls here in just a few moments.
First we have to take our break. We'll be. That does. Open up one phone line for you at 877 -753 -3341. We'll be right back.
What is dr norman geisler warning the christian community about in his book. Chosen but free. A new cult. Secularism. False prophecy. Scenarios. No dr geisler is sounding the alarm about a system of beliefs commonly called calvinism.
He insists that this belief system is theologically inconsistent philosophically insufficient and morally repugnant. In his book the potter's freedom james white replies to dr geisler. But the potter's freedom is much more than just a reply.
It is a defense of the very principles upon which the protestant reformation was founded. Indeed it is a defense of the very gospel itself in a style that both scholars and laymen alike can appreciate.
James white masterfully counters the evidence against so-called extreme calvinism defines what the reformed faith actually is and concludes that the gospel preached by the reformers is the very one taught in the pages of scripture the potter's freedom a defense of the reformation and a rebuttal to norman geisler's chosen but free.
You'll find it in the reform theology section of our bookstore at aomen .org. Millions of petitioners from around the world are employing pope john paul ii to recognize the virgin mary as co-redeemer with christ elevating the topic of roman catholic views of mary to national headlines and widespread discussion.
In his book mary another redeemer james white sidesteps hostile rhetoric and cites directly from roman catholic sources to explore this volatile topic. He traces how mary of the bible esteemed mother of the lord obedient servant and chosen vessel of god has become the immaculately conceived bodily assumed queen of heaven viewed as co-mediator with christ and now recognized as co-redeemer by many in the roman catholic church.
Mary another redeemer is fresh insight into the woman the bible calls blessed among women and an invitation to single-minded devotion to god's truth. You can order your copy of james white's book mary another redeemer at aomen .org incorporating the most recent research and solid biblical truth.
Letters to a mormon elder by james white is a series of personal letters written to a fictional mormon missionary examining the teaching and theology of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints.
The book brings a relational approach to material usually presented in textbook style. James white draws from his extensive apologetics ministry to thousands of mormons in presenting the truth of christianity.
With well-defined arguments james white provides readers with insight and understanding into the book of mormon the prophecies visions and teachings of joseph smith the theological implications of the doctrines of mormonism and other major historical issues relevant to the claims of the lds church.
This marvelous study is a valuable text for christians who talk with mormons and is an ideal book to be read by mormons. Letters to a mormon elder. Get your copy today in the mormonism section of our bookstore at aomen .org.
Welcome back to dividing.
Line today uh last saturday program we're going to new schedule starting this week. Next dividing line will be in just a couple of days tuesday at 11 a .m. And then uh in the future when i'm around there will be one on thursday evenings at five.
Just got an interesting email in not to me it's to a list but it's from a minister in england and he's talking about he's answering a question how come nt wright has become so popular with so many in the reformed camp and it is interesting to read a british response this an answer.
Tom wright has brilliant insights into salvation history and how that opens up the reading the four gospels in particular his insights in the nature of the kingdom of god the new testament is about its restoration from destruction under nebuchadnezzar.
Insightful illuminating. His writing style is readable and at times amusing. Having said that his theology of justification owes more to ep sanders and his theological tradition than the bible. Indeed it is quite contrary to scripture.
His exegesis of romans and galatians is good reading but bad theology and excruciating exegesis. It is a rehash of jerome rome and all who think that the works of law that are apart from faith or justification are merely specifically jewish works but in modern language and engaging style and tied in with a modern perspective of salvation history.
Uh that's that's an insightful way of looking at it. I think it is his is um his uh way of speaking uh his way of writing that uh most definitely does uh attract uh individuals to um uh his perspective.
And uh i think that was a that was a good uh good insight there from a british person. Uh though that's truly amazing that a british person would have that kind of insight. Um just a little shot there someone in channel who actually has lots of insightful things to say.
But we just want to sort of take a little shot at them anyways um i'm going to um uh well i'm going to send a message here to the folks on the other side of the wall and once they've got it uh then we're going to take our other phone callers here and let's talk with um the queen of england is on the phone.
The queen of england is on the phone. Oh okay. Thanks warren. I guess this is what happens when someone's on their last day huh. Um actually i think i'm supposed to be talking with rick. Aren't i short timer.
Yeah. Is uh rick there. Hello hello rick. Dr white. Yes sir i was just told that you're the queen of england. Oh yeah yeah that's what they told me. Cool you've been you've been promoted and.
You didn't even know i didn't i didn't uh feel this exchange operation. Well they've got they do it fast. Now the laser thing is just almost not even i think he wants to take a shot at me because i told him i was phoning to take umbridge with you.
Uh actually i think it's.
The canadian thing. That's right. Okay. Well you know we we do have uh you know you have a lot of people who speak french in canada and right now being french is not a real good thing. Tell me.
About it. Um so anyways you live in alberta. Um. Okay we uh of course are uh. We have more in common with houston texas and dallas and denver than we ever do with anything. Well could we adopt you all.
Could we just adopt you all and get you out of that mess. I knew you were going to save you all and i didn't. Say eight not one time.
Anyways you have you you you think that uh that i have been unfair to our lutheran brothers uh because i have said that most lutherans today are more melancholian uh than they are lutheran especially in the context in which i was speaking of the fact that i don't run into.
A whole lot of monergistic lutherans anymore. Oh boy i am. Uh. Well there are some. We are confessional all right. Yes. Uh. Of course. The the the confessional lutherans of course adhere to the to our book of concord.
Yes. Okay. And it definitely is monergistic as a matter of fact. The. Uh i don't know. Do you have a book of comfort. You must. I sure. Yeah. Yeah. The. The final the solid declaration. Right. Half of what is written in there was to correct the errors of the philippines.
The melancholian synergies. Well yeah the problem is um you know maybe you would redefine uh what lutheranism is today. Um. But again i i do know monergistic lutherans. Um i'm talking to one.
Okay um but would you actually put yourself in the majority. Well i guess amongst people who are in the north theologically alive you know what i mean.
Well that's the problem. That is of course. You probably just got rid of the elca.
Of course it is. I mean we actually had a uh a survey that went through a missouri senate. Well in canada it's called lutheran church canada. Okay. Um they actually went when i did a survey on 25 questions soteriology questions right right.
And catholic answers oh of course yeah.
Oh i and that and that's exactly what i was referring to. In fact i don't want to get real specific here but um uh i i know of some. Um actually they're missouri synod lutherans here in the united states who are strongly anti-reformed especially on the issue of the will of man and the issue of monergism versus synergism.
And i could i could name some names. Yeah well i think.
That uh i mean i read your dogmaticians. I don't know whether you read ours. Um are you familiar with francis peeper. Um no i'm not okay. Well he is to to lutheran dogmatics what old charles hodge would be all right.
And uh when when i read him he uh i mean he builds a straw. Man calls it a. Dogmaticians do exactly the same thing. Oh i've been seeing a lot right now. I've been seeing a.
Lot of folks taking on lutheranism on some of the reformed lists uh for some others it's completely different reason but oh there's there's been oh there's lots of uh history there. There's no no two ways about it.
Um i'm just simply referring to the fact that when it comes to uh the main issue that i deal with in regards to monergism versus synergism um like i said i i know a few and they've been good folks to talk to but um it's not the majority report not here in the united states by those who call themselves lutherans there is no question i.
Mean uh uh that you're exactly right. But what is taught in our seminaries is definitely monergism. Now uh our pastors do not um spend the time and energy that calvinist pastors do to explain the doctrines right.
I mean most lutherans don't even are not even familiar with what our confessions are. I mean it's amazing. I've uh i've introduced the book of concord into my church literally you know which is amazing.
I mean it's sad it truly is.
Yeah well that's that hasn't just happened there. I mean there's a tremendous amount of uh of uh disconnection from uh what was historically important and a lot of it has to do with the fact that many in the ministry today uh believe that that stuff is no longer relevant.
They're they're put under pressure to experience certain amounts of growth uh and they feel the only way to.
Experience uh the growth uh is sensitive. Worships. Yep. Yada yada yeah i know it's it's sad but you see i think that uh from a classic a confessional lutheran point of view the difference between us and you is your emphasis on the sovereignty of god which is absolutely true right and ours emphasis is the grace of god all right.
And so the gospel is everything to lutherans. I i've heard it.
Expressed that way i i don't know that i i really agree with that. I mean i've listened to um uh wilkins and and others express it that way like on issues etc and things like that. I don't know that i would i would agree that that's the case.
There is definitely a different um emphasis between us. I'm not sure that it's that it's necessarily that of grace but um i understand what you're saying and i i'm just simply saying there are a lot of folks um who um you know uh just you know there's a wide variety of opinions expressed within what is called lutheranism.
They.
And they're you know so yeah i mean the elca and so on. I mean they're not even lutheran.
Start working. Well see that. Yeah that's you know. And and i you know there are folks who i look at the liberal presbyterians and we're not we're not reformed in the same way that they are.
So you know we look at the same and and quite honestly how many people uh pew warmers in reformed churches are familiar with reform theology. Oh there's no no tways about it no.
Tways about hey we've got a full bank of calls we're going to keep going and uh when when you are all up there want to uh want to uh uh join up with the u .s just let us know we've got plenty of room in the flag for for number 51.
I'm in all right. Ma 'am thanks a lot for calling and oh yeah.
I admire you very greatly sir. Thank you very much for calling god bless you.
All righty let's uh let's continue on here and uh uh johnny you're going to have to be quick. You're going to have to be uh uh fast uh and i'm going to have to be quick and fast in my response. Okay. Okay.
All right let's do it. Uh my question is on images and icons now. Bad very bad bad bad. In fact i'm going to i'm going to give you the rain man answer. Bad very very bad very very bad. All right. Uh well the thing is i posted a on an uh list apologist.
I think he's an apologist. But uh some quotations from uh certain church fathers such as tertullian like tantius origin clement of alexandria and also epiphanius and others uh where they speak out against the usage of uh images.
And i got most of my quotations from a book called author but big brown thing. I'm sorry big brown thing big brown book. Uh i don't remember i don't know for me all right. But the point is uh the book has everything it is the first book ever written politically all of the doctrines of how it was understood by the anthonycine fathers.
And in the book that i quoted from he after they were only talking about the pagans and stuff with the exception of the quote that i did have from epiphanius uh of salamis. And also he valvara. Well he's something that philip schaaf said and he said that the council of alvara something along the lines of that.
Well what you're experiencing is exactly what i experienced when i presented similar citations to patrick madrid. You you look at the council of elvira you have these plain statements that are made. And again when you practice sola ecclesia in your reading of the early church fathers of course anything that's against your position is going to be out of context.
And what's the context. The context isn't what the early church father himself intended the context the teaching of the church. And so it's very easy to throw. Well that's out of context. That's out of context out there.
But did he prove they were out of context when he's talking about the council of elvira where do you get this stuff. I mean i think patrick madrid was just pulling that off the top of his head to be perfectly honest with you.
Um you again have a situation where uh if you were to use the exact same uh level of uh documentary evidence in regards to anything that they pull out in regards to mary every single thing they quote could be made to say uh the exact opposite in regards to mary.
There is no consistency in the roman catholic reading of patristic sources. Uh it's that can be extremely frustrating for you to experience but eventually you just get used to it. You point it out and you move on from there.
I mean you say look an honest reading demonstrates that there was no monolithic view of these things that there were many who opposed these things. Hence it's not an apostolic tradition and rome is wrong.
And you just have to realize those who will not accept that last line rome is wrong um are going to reject what you have to say but they're not going to be able to do so consistently. Well james let me ask you this question very quickly in church history in your in your reading of the early well it depended where you were uh the reason it's an east-west split is because of the presence of islam after the uh 7th century.
Uh that's what precipitates much of the split in uh in uh in the middle of the 11th century and i would say in the primitive period of the of the church it was uh very opposed to the use of images. And then as the church became less and less scripturally focused and more and more uh socially or uh nationalistically focused uh then it became more and more popular.
So it depends on where and when you're talking about so you can't there's no way to come up with uh you know simple answers to majority views without being very specific as to what area you're talking about and what time period you're talking about.
The point is uh that the roman catholic understanding today uh is not some apostolic thing that can be traced back to the uh to the apostles but is in fact the result of uh the practice of sola ecclesia.
Okay. Okay all right. Thanks a lot man. All right. Let's uh i'm not sure who is next but uh i think it's miles in pennsylvania. Miles. You there. Yes ma 'am. Hey we were just talking about the debate that you saw.
Yes you. And uh it was just for you. Oh i remember it. Well well i have um he helped he helped uh in uh at some of the book tables in the back for various of the catholic groups. Yes yeah i just. Well now let me you want to hear the rest of the story.
Sure. Um when uh well after the debate uh warren and the others were working very hard to pack everything up. It's very hard to pack all the equipment you had up and um someone that came in and said man i'm just tired of talking to that guy.
I said who. Well that guy had asked you the question about uh about what uh translation your sister would use. I said he's still out there and i they said yeah. So i went out there and i walked right up to him and he was uh rummaging through some boxes on a table and and i walked right up to him.
I mean we're talking you know four inches and he turned and looked me straight in the face and i wasn't smiling. I'll be perfectly honest with you and i'm a sort of ugly guy and um i'm not real small either.
And so he gets this look on his face and he says i really owe you an apology. Wow. And i said for what. And he said well um i i i shouldn't have i shouldn't have brought up uh the he says let's go over here.
So we went over and he said i shouldn't have brought up the question that i did. And i said i would agree with you. I think that was a pretty cheap shot. And he said yeah you know i was wrong. So we started talking and he started throwing every apologetic argument that he had ever studied at me and i was responding to every single one of them and he became so frustrated that eventually uh he threw up his hands and he said why am i standing here trying to debate a professional.
And the the thing was i appreciated. A his apology. B he didn't have any arguments i hadn't heard before and didn't have easy answers for. But the thing that bothered me the third thing that bothered me was probably 45 minutes or more later as we were leaving the townhouse he was downstairs uh still arguing with protestants and as i walked by him his back was turned to me he was using the exact same arguments that i had just refuted in him right in front of him and he had had no response to with the protestants he was talking to.
Now i don't know about you but if i had just had an argument shredded upstairs by someone i called a professional i wouldn't then turn around and reuse it downstairs against someone that i figure i can get away with it on if he can get a dose of humility or something uh you would think so that bugged me.
Yeah well during the break of that debate um and uh and well that's where you said that's where i'm coming from. That's where that's where he's coming from. Not only that but i've debated patrick madrid on that subject in 1993 and i probably have enough tapes to start a lending library.
Which i which i have been and uh i've been blessed by well excellent. I just want to also tell you um my calvin as far as just observing calvism but well good i i appreciate i appreciate the kind words.
I'm glad the lord has used uh my uh my small efforts uh as uh hopefully something is edifying to you and uh hopefully you'll still be able to catch the program even though we're changing the um the schedule.
Yeah this is the first time i hear you live. I'm usually working on saturdays so this was a oh great. Well we're moving the schedule to uh two programs a week one on tuesday and one on thursday so maybe you'll be able to find one during when the since they're at different times so hopefully they'll catch.
Excellent. Okay thanks a lot. Miles. All right. God bless all right. Real quickly. Uh and yes someone keeps mentioning uh the current main page article is on that subject the solo scriptura. Let's uh talk with chris in evansville indiana.
Hi chris. Hi james. How you doing a little bit jungle somewhere. Well let me ask first what was the context. How was he asked. Was this on his program or. Oh okay you know why not do what's right. And and what do you think is how uh now now he said that that that he'll be judged on the basis of what he would would have done if he had hurt if he had hurt.
Wow i you know it's it's almost uh to me it was almost a denial of well it's out. Yeah i didn't. You know. Well there's certainly there there's certainly a very deep weakness in uh in dave hunt's understanding of uh federal headship and original sin.
There's there's no two ways about that. I mean he argues uh when he argues against calvinism he he argues that there are those who do good uh that paul was not a meaning romans 3 to be taken in a universal sense.
Um and i think it just needs to be you know honestly said that that dave hunt is not a um he he has not taken the time to uh learn from others and in fact his tradition and background is such that that's not something that that would be something he would think that he would need to do anyways.
And so um he frequently will make these statements that we would go wait a minute that's inconsistent with and then you know fill in the blanks. But from his perspective that's not really the issue anyways.
Um you know i've heard that john mcarthur taught mercy view. That's called inclusivism. Yes yeah and i get into that category. Well at that point he would accept very inconsistently inclusivist. I debated one of the leading inclusivist john sanders back in november we have that on our website.
Um their perspective is that any positive move toward god um not what they would have done had they heard but any positive move toward god is a a faith action and that hence that person is going to be saved by that.
That's the you know the uh the wideness in god's mercy uh by pinnock is probably the terminology that that you're referring to there. Um the problem is that that since dave defends libertarian free will uh how could god know how a person with libertarian free will would react.
I mean that's that's taking one concept from from the theory of middle knowledge that god knows us so well that even though we have libertarian free will he knows how we would act and then connecting it something over here and and you know dave's theology is a hodgepodge of all sorts of of very very inconsistent um perspectives sort of sort of cobbled together in in a very strange perspective that that i i don't think you you would find anyone that really held any of those views prior to um uh dave hunt himself.
So it's uh uh very interesting but uh that is that is an interesting response and and it doesn't surprise me because uh whenever i write something in this current book that we're working on i really don't know exactly what the response is going to be and i have been very surprised more than once at what it was.
So uh you know listening uh listening i've listened to you guys talk. Oh yeah well that's true with every uh every conflict that i have uh had to encounter of of of late is the necessity of being a very very focused upon solo scriptura and practicing that.
So hey chris thank you very much for your phone call thanks for listening uh thanks to everyone who's been listening today all the phone callers that called in today uh don't forget the new schedule starting tuesday 11 a .m this week the next dividing line one hour long will be on.
There won't be one thursday because i'm gonna be in san antonio. But so the week after that we should be able to do both programs uh thursday morning a tuesday mornings at 11 a .m thursday evenings 5 p .m mountain standard time i'll let you figure it out from there.
As to what that is that's what we're doing for a while. Thanks for listening. God bless.
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