The Christian Vanguard

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)

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. 

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.”

Note: I started this post as a non-Catholic. But then I stopped. I converted, and thought it wasn't necessary for me to finish this anymore. I want to review two other books, and I want to finish this review before I move on, for integrity's sake. Ferguson’s next target is the priesthood. This is not a doctrine that especially thrills me, and I suspect there is much equivocation happening on Ferguson’s part, looking at words and what they mean to denote what a thing is over looking at what the function of a thing is first and then putting its title secondary.  Also, Ferguson dismisses the Catholic explanation as “just human reasoning” and so debating the issue is not necessary; the topic is ceded. But I will briefly touch on it and move on.

I began to wrap up the intellectual fight. When I realized that what I had learned must turn into actions, I asked one of the shepherds of my Church to sit down with me. He wanted to know what our talk was going to be about, and I told him it was going to be about authority. 

While this has been, so far, a negative review, I do want to say, to start off a critical look at chapter three, that I’m quite glad Ferguson recognizes, “Any leader in any group who says he is not tempted [to enjoy the limelight and praise] is either out of touch with his own heart or dishonest.” The famous Lord Acton dictum is, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” So I am quite happy with the way this has started.

    Chapter Two discusses what is perhaps the sharpest dividing line (though not the most important one) between Catholics and non-Catholics, and it is that of authority. What do Catholics and non-Catholics consider authoritative?

    In my journey and exploration with the Catholic faith, I have become convinced of much of their doctrines and dogmas. I do so without any shame, though many have tried to shame me. My obedience is to truth, and nothing else. In attempts to have me drop some of my Catholic beliefs (and by Catholic beliefs I mean those doctrines and dogmas typically unique to the Catholic church, and perhaps the Orthodox church as well, that I have individually adopted, not beliefs I hold because I have or intend to join the Catholic church) some disciples have loaned me Gordon Ferguson’s book “Prepared to Answer”. The following is a response to his section on Catholicism.