The Christian Vanguard

I have this thing, where when I get mad, I demand an explanation. Sometimes, this is more important than an apology, though it probably shouldn't be. So for example, if someone calls me, with malicious intent, "Fatty", and once they have expressed sorrow, regret, and everything else, I usually ask, "Okay, but why'd you do it?" I now see that asking such a question may be futile.

After dozens of pages and a span of multiple months, I’m finally done with the Ferguson project. When I first picked up his book I had a sense of hope, a sense of discovery, a sense of adventure. I began to read it when I was seriously considering the claims of the Catholic Church, and I thought Ferguson, a trusted in name in my old church, would clear up many of my misconceptions, and point out an obvious mistake that I missed. I didn’t think I would end up clearing up Ferguson’s misconceptions and pointing out his obvious mistakes. 

Chapter five begins differently than the other chapters. Whereas the other chapters has a paragraph or two slowly working into Catholic doctrine, this chapter begins with a bang, with no introductory remarks whatsoever. It goes straight into Confirmation. And so to Confirmation we go. (This is 13 pages, so, brace yourselves)

Pacifists exists, despite my best efforts. Pacifists are those who hold that violent acts are not permissible, and so acts such as war are also not permissible. This view is popular among the secular left and mixed within Christianity, though notably in the Anabaptist movement. It occurs me to though that there might be some ambiguity in the word “violence” that, without clarification, may lead to either absurdity or inconsistency. 

The following entry is taken out of what was going to be a much longer entry dealing with Ferguson's last chapter directly dealing with Catholicism. But as I was writing, I realized the entry entry might take about ten pages, and that's not okay. This entry deals with the Apocrypha, which would have been about in the middle of the original entry, and so now, the next entry is going to be about two or three pages shorter. Yay. 

You’ve heard the term “safe-sex” before, most likely with the verb “practice” preceding it. What does that even mean? “Practice safe-sex” as if sex were intrinsically dangerous. Isn’t that what this assumes? So, what is so dangerous about sex? Well, as far as I know, there are three possible outcomes of sex (which are not mutually exclusive), which are children, diseases, and a emotional charge.

Chapters four and five deal with the same theme: soteriology, or, salvation, and the relationship between faith, works, grace, repentance, etc. I’ll be dealing with chapter four and appendix II here, and chapter five in my next post. It doesn’t take a paragraph before Ferguson begins to salivate at the thought of straw-men. He writes, “Although their theologians can quote certain writings which seem to support a more biblical position regarding works and grace, the average Catholic has little grasp of the biblical message.”