Christian Apologetics Society

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“Good day, Father!” “How are you, Father?” “Good sermon, Father!”

Who is being addressed? A Catholic priest?

Would you believe a Baptist minister in a Baptist church?

Neither would I, but, believe it or not, its true. For the first 300-400 years after the Reformation, most Reformation congregations addressed their ministers as “Father”. Also, the honorific “Father” was not reserved for clergy alone. Missionary pioneers were also referred to as “Father” and “Mother”. Early American Methodists referred to John Wesley as “Father Wesley”.

Strangely enough, before 1840 most Catholic congregations addressed their priests as “Mister,” “Monsieur,” or “Don”.

What changed?

The sudden immigration of Irish Catholics was the catalyst. Irish Catholics called all priests “Father”. That was more than some Reformation “Fathers” could stand. Many ministers began foresaking the now tainted title. Scripture was searched and a polemic found. Matthew 23:9.

“But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.”
Matthew 23:8-10

While the Irish were the catalyst, the new 19th Century Doctor of Divinity degree was the fuel. Coveted by Protestant ministers, “Doctor” gradualy replaced “Father” as the common honorific.

Bizzarly, like the word “Rabbi”, the word “Doctor” means “teacher”. “Doctor” is from the latin verb docere (to teach). Matther 23:8 seemingly forbids the now common Protestant tradition of calling ministers “Doctor”. Will this also change, perhaps in response to the many college and university faculty that are atheists and agnostics? Only time will tell. Perhaps “Father” will return to vogue.

Source: Are ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ Appropriate Titles for Protestant Clergy?

I listened to a very good podcast on the state of the Church in China today. It was an interview Anthony E. Clark, Ph.D., a professor of Chinese history at The University of Alabama. With the upcoming Olympics in China and all the news reports on anti-evangelism efforts, it was interesting to get first hand information from someone who has spent considerable time in China and has a good grasp of what’s happening on the ground.

Some facts from the program:

Source: Catholic Answers LIVE: Catholicism in Present-Day China

Here’s an interesting video from a Catholic priest who baptises by immersion. “Father Geek” describes in a YourTube video how their church’s immersion pool is constructed and setup. Later, several immersion baptisms using the pool are shown.

I don’t know if you caught it, but the converts are immersed not once, but three times. This is in keeping with the early NT church’s teaching on how to baptise as described in The Didache and in later ante-Nicene letters.

And concerning baptism, thus baptize ye: Having first said all these things, baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. But if you have not living water, baptize into other water; and if you can not in cold, in warm. But if you have not either, pour out water thrice upon the head into the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But before the baptism let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whatever others can; but you shall order the baptized to fast one or two days before.
The Didache

“And each of you was asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and ye made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three days burial of Christ.”
Cyril of Jerusalem, Of Baptism

Also, by using a pump, the baptisms were able to be conducted in “living water” as instructed by our early Christian forefathers.

Source: Fr. Geek’s Video Podcast #6: “The Geek of Immersion Baptism”

Thanks to the Anglican blog Stand Firm, I was made aware of a very good video that effectively demonstrates how we treat the “pie” that God has gifted to us. Please watch and tell others.

Source: http://youtube.com/watch?v=upmyrinWq64

From Scotland on Sunday:

“Scotland has become more Roman Catholic than Protestant, with its congregations now outnumbering the Kirk for the first time since records began.

Figures compiled by the independent group Christian Research reveal that in 2005 the number of Catholics who went to Mass surpassed those who attended Church of Scotland services.

A total of 215,000 Catholics went to church, compared with only 208,400 attending the Church of Scotland.”

If you recall, sometime this past year the English newspapers reported that Catholics had achieved parity with Anglicans in church attendance in England.

Source: Catholic church moves into Pole position

This past Sunday was Ascension Sunday on the liturgical calendar and the Gospel reading was the Great Commission in Matthew.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age..”
Matthew 28:16-20

It occurred to me in church Sunday, while I stood and heard these words proclaimed aloud that many Christians were familiar with the first two imperatives of Christ, but few seemed to faithfully follow the third imperative. The three imperatives are:

make disciples of all nations

Overall, Christians have done well spreading the Good News and converting all nations to Christianity. However, are we fulfilling the Great commission to make disciples? Converts are not necessarily disciples. Note how often the Bible refers to Jesus and his disciples and not Jesus and his converts. Who was called a disciple in the Bible? The Apostles, not the crowds that followed. In order to make disciples, we need to be faithfully be implementing the third directive in the Great Commission.

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Catholics and Orthodox immediately recognize these words, as most are recited while making the ancient sign of the cross and recalling their own baptism. Here we have a command from Christ to baptise using a “Trinitarian” formula. Seems pretty clear to me and its also well documented in Christian writings from the Didache forward as THE words for baptism. How some congregations continue to baptise in Jesus name only, I will never understand.

teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

When you hear someone mention the Great Commission, do you immediately think “obey everything I have commanded you”? I didn’t. “Make disciples” and “baptise” are what pop into my mind. In fact Sunday, I was almost shocked to hear that there was a third part to the Great Commission.

Obey everything. Its somewhat difficult to obey everything when one may not know everything Jesus commanded. This where my beef with “sufficiency” and “essential” and “non-essential” doctrines comes from. Jesus didn’t equivocate. Sufficient is not everything. Sufficient is some lower level. Ditto for non-essentials. According to this portion of the Great Commission there is no such thing as a non-essential. The third imperative is clear: “obey everything I have commanded”.

So, let us all go forth making disciples by teaching them everything, so they may obey everything that Christ commanded.

The United Methodust Church has released their State of the Church report.

“The United Methodist presence in the United States today is the same as it was in 1820. And, if trends in aging and membership losses continue at their current rates, the church will shrink to its size at the time of the first Christmas Conference in 1784.”

“United Methodist leaders have been struggling for decades to understand the gradual decline of the denomination’s reach in the United States, where membership is almost 8 million, a decline of 19 percent since 1974. Forty-one percent of United Methodist churches in the United States did not report a single profession of faith in 2005.”

Only 1 percent of the 34,892 United Methodist churches have a worship attendance of more than 500 people, and those larger congregations represent 20 percent of membership, 20 percent of attendance, 24 percent of professions of faith, 25 percent of youth, 26 percent of children and 29 percent of people of color.

Source: State of the Church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyaUNK0cgx4

Source: The Pope has a Message for You

VirtueOnline, an Anglican blog, has a very good post on Fr. Zakaria Botros, a Coptic priest, who is having very good results with his own TV show aimed at Muslims in Arabic lands. In fact, Fr. Zakaria is having so much success that he has drawn a lot of Isamic hatred and disdain.

While many of us Christian Apologists don’t have access to satelitte TV or are fluent in Arabic, we can adopt the third leg of Fr. Zakaria’s system — irrefutable polemics.

A third reason for Botros’s success is that his polemical technique has proven irrefutable. Each of his episodes has a theme — from the pressing to the esoteric — often expressed as a question (e.g., “Is jihad an obligation for all Muslims?” “Are women inferior to men in Islam?” “Did Mohammed say that adulterous female monkeys should be stoned?” “Is drinking the urine of prophets salutary according to sharia?”). To answer the question, Botros meticulously quotes — always careful to give sources and reference numbers — from authoritative Islamic texts on the subject, starting from the Koran; then from the canonical sayings of the prophet — the Hadith; and finally from the words of prominent Muslim theologians past and present — the illustrious ulema.

Typically, Botros’s presentation of the Islamic material is sufficiently detailed that the controversial topic is shown to be an airtight aspect of Islam. Yet, however convincing his proofs, Botros does not flatly conclude that, say, universal jihad or female inferiority are basic tenets of Islam. He treats the question as still open — and humbly invites the ulema, the revered articulators of sharia law, to respond and show the error in his methodology. He does demand, however, that their response be based on “al-dalil we al-burhan,” — “evidence and proof,” one of his frequent refrains — not shout-downs or sophistry.

More often than not, the response from the ulema is deafening silence — which has only made Botros and Life TV more enticing to Muslim viewers.

Note that Fr. Zakaria is not attacking Muslims for worshippind a false “moon” God or for disbelieving in the triune nature of God. Anyone seeking to engage Muslims and Islamic clerics in Christian apologetics would do well to read this article and to study Fr. Zakaria’s methods and arguements. The article includes a link to Fr. Zakaria’s website.

UPDATE

Fr. Zakaria has a website in English. Under his Books link, Fr. Zakaria provides the text of his arguments in both Word and PDF formats. Recommend fellow Christian apologists bookmark Fr. Zakaria’s site.

Source: Islam’s “Public Enemy #1″