[Apologetics] Purgatory is key issue

[Art Kelly]

Karl Keating has mentioned that almost all of the
Christian denominations consider Catholicism their #1
rival.

He thinks that is because they know that, if their own
variation of Christianity is not valid, then it
follows that the Catholic Church must be the true
church established by Jesus for the salvation of the
world.

Hence, for many Protestants and Eastern Orthodoxers,
there is a lot of emotional investment in being
anti-Catholic.

Art

--- Bret Bellamy <bbellamy at mindspring.com> wrote:

> "They really believe that "all Catholic doctrines
> are unbiblical - even the ones I agree with". 
> Pressing on the contradiction tends to make them
> prefer heresy (God never disciplines true believers)
> to admitting that they might agree with Catholics on
> just a few points."
> 
> I've noticed the same things, even back when I was
> still Anglican and on Dave Armstrong's old lise
> serve some ten years ago.  That list serve had a mix
> of Catholics, different Protestants and some Eastern
> Orthodox (who were sadly so ugly that I turned off
> crossing the Bosphorous as an option).  There were
> cases where some (but not all) Protestant agreed
> with a Catholic doctrine, but because it was
> Catholic, they had all sorts of issues and hangups
> about it.  
> 
> Bret
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: "Stuart D. Gathman" <stuart at gathman.org>
> >Sent: Apr 10, 2008 10:57 AM
> >To: apologetics at gathman.org
> >Subject: [Apologetics] Purgatory is key issue
> >
> >I think the purgatory issue is the key to ending
> the Catholic and 
> >Evangelical straw-man massacre.  Evangelicals will
> repeat the doctrine of 
> >purgatory over and over again in their own words,
> but continue to denounce 
> >the Catholic doctrine - even when presented with
> the same vocabulary! 
> >There really is a suspension of reason.  They could
> reasonably claim that 
> >I am mis-representing the Catholic position (and I
> have gotten that on 
> >occasion - those Catholics are tricky, they pretend
> to use words in a 
> >different way just to deceive you!).  But instead
> there is a cognitive 
> >dissonance with affirming a doctrine when
> attributed to Evangelicals, but 
> >denouncing the same doctrine with same words and
> same scriptures when 
> >attributed to Catholics.  Amazing.  They really
> believe that "all Catholic 
> >doctrines are unbiblical - even the ones I agree
> with".  Pressing on the 
> >contradiction tends to make them prefer heresy (God
> never disciplines true 
> >believers) to admitting that they might agree with
> Catholics on just a few 
> >points.
> >
> >Sugarman just hit me a slow high return just asking
> for a slam dunk:
> >"The bottom line is if no doctrine can be back up
> by scripture then its 
> >not true."  Boy could I have fun with that.  But
> I'll restrain myself. 
> >I'll just lament with the Professor in Narnia:
> "Logic!  What do they teach 
> >in schools these days?"  It may be that apologetics
> is useless without an 
> >introductory logic course first.  It may be better
> to just quote a few 
> >scriptures and leave it alone.
> >
> >-- 
> > 	      Stuart D. Gathman <stuart at bmsi.com>
> >Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703
> 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
> >"Confutatis maledictis, flamis acribus addictis" -
> background song for
> >a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from
> here?" commercial.
> >_______________________________________________
> >Apologetics mailing list
> >Apologetics at gathman.org
> >http://bmsi.com/mailman/listinfo/apologetics
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 


ART KELLY, ATM-S
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