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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I suspect that they do allow historical evidence,
but only that that serves their belief system. Anything else, as you say,
is tainted by the evil Catholic organisation. So the early Christians, by
definition, aren't permissible evidence, while Samuele Bacchiocchi's 1975 thesis
with it's Imprimi Potest (not Imprimatur) from the rector of Gregorian
University is the historical evidence that IS permitted. Or so it would
seem from the e-mails he has sent.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>God bless,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Stephen</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=stuart@bmsi.com href="mailto:stuart@bmsi.com">Stuart D. Gathman</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=skorsman@theotokos.co.za
href="mailto:skorsman@theotokos.co.za">Stephen Korsman</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=apologetics@gathman.org
href="mailto:apologetics@gathman.org">Apologetics Group</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, June 25, 2007 8:12 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Apologetics] My "fan"
club</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>On Mon, 25 Jun 2007, Stephen Korsman wrote:<BR><BR>>
"Catholics have drunk and are unable to see this false religion as it
really<BR>> is, one of the instruments of Satan to dishonor the name of God
on earth."<BR>> <BR>> If you take a look at the first (bottom) post,
you'll see some strict<BR>> criteria for my answers to his questions - such
as a maximum of one (1)<BR>> citation from the Bible for each answer.
And historical evidence is<BR>> excluded.<BR><BR>I must be drinking from
the same well. (Reference to an Assembly of God<BR>pop singer Carman
song about getting "drunk in the Spirit".)<BR><BR>When people ask me how they
can know Christianity is true, I tell them<BR>that it is based on history -
with the Bible being a divinely inspired and<BR>preserved historical
document. God's instructed Israel and the Church<BR>to create memorials
to preserve the memory of His visible actions.<BR><BR>Excluding historical
evidence puts any discussion on a purely metaphysical<BR>level. I'm not
a strict logical positivist, but I don't put much stock<BR>in pure metaphysics
either.<BR><BR>If they truly reject all historical evidence, I'd say this
group is right up<BR>there with the church in my area that proclaims "all
creeds are an abomination"<BR>on their "statement of faith".<BR><BR>It is
possible, that they are open to historical evidence - as long as<BR>it isn't
"tainted" by that evil Catholic organization. The blog, however,<BR>uses
the phrase "Church Fathers" to refer to the rejected evidence.<BR>The
difficulty is, the argument is over the actual practice of
early<BR>Christians. The early Christians are by definition "Church
Fathers".<BR>Since they already admit that the Bible does not address the
issue,<BR>that pretty much rejects all possible evidence in the matter.
Unless,<BR>that is, Mr. Reis is claiming that all of Christianity, not just
<BR>the Catholic Church is the "false religion".<BR><BR>--
<BR> Stuart D. Gathman <<A
href="mailto:stuart@bmsi.com">stuart@bmsi.com</A>><BR>
Business Management Systems Inc. Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703
591-6154<BR>"Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis" - background
song for<BR>a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?"
commercial.<BR><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>