Customer Reviews

The Facts on Roman Catholicism (The Facts On Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Another reviewer "Sean" accused another reviewer "Matt C" of isolating scriptures(However, Sean has since changed his review). But, this book isolates scripture to try and disprove the Catholic Church(it doesn't include St. James's teaching on justification or certain other writings of St. Paul and the teaching of Jesus on faith and works). If you take the whole of scripture I believe you will see that the Catholic position is true and biblical. Protestants will isolate certain writings of St. Paul to try and prove their point, but St. Paul clearly emphasized that both faith and works will affect our relationship with God such as in Romans 2 where he says God will reward each person according to their deeds and to those who persist in doing good--eternal life. St. Paul also strongly condemned sinning so that grace may further abound. Even the Lord Jesus himself implied faith and actions when it comes to the realtionship between us and God. This is not the "faith alone" theology of Protestantism that this book trys to show is true and that the Catholic Church is wrong. If you search the Scriptures entirely I think you will see that the Roman Catholic Church is not mistaken on the issue of the relationship between God and humanity. God calls us to faith with repentance and confession of sin and to overcome evil with good and to those who endure to the end they will be saved. That's what the Bible says and the Catholic Church teaches. This book avoids practically all scriptures that pertain to that in an attempt to condemn the Catholic Church. Also this book is careful not to tell the whole truth that the Catholic Church condemns that we get to heaven by our own strengths and works associated with that. That heresy was condemned by the Catholic Church many years ago.

This is a great little book but unfortunately the authors have the title of the book wrong. A more fitting title would have been "The facts on a make-believe Church". The so called "facts" have nothing to do with reality. Most of their "research" it seems, has been done internet websites without much credibility.

The authors have gone as far as blatantly adding their own opinion and presenting it as a "fact". For example, the book states something like this:

"Mary may be venerated in the Catholic Church and any Catholic will tell you that worship is given to God alone, but to us it looks like Catholics worship Mary".

This is laughable and pathetic methodology.

Other places of the book has blatant lies, for example, in the section of the dogma of Papal Infallibility and the history behind it. There is not a shred of truth in the way they have presented this and if I were the authors I would be embarrassed to have such a weak straw man book out bearing their names as the authors.

The saddest thing about this book is that it is on sale and multitudes of less informed Protestant Christians will read it and accept it as "fact".

If I want the facts on Islam, I won't go to a Jehovah's Witness and likewise if you want facts on the Roman Catholic Church, don't go consulting Protestant books. Especially not this one.

Two thumbs down for this book.

The authors need some improvement in their approach to submitting facts on other faiths. I became aware of Ankerberg and Weldon's poor methods when reading one of their critiques of the Mormons. In that book, the authors accuse the Mormons of rejecting two millenia of history, which is false because Mormons do make use of the Bible and other ancient Christian sources to help defend their doctrines. Now how does that apply to this book about Roman Catholics? Because now the authors are attacking a church which does make reference to two millenia of history. Such behavior on the part of these authors cannot be lightly excused. Ankerberg and Weldon are victims of their own methods of critique. They have set up a double standard and can't even play by the rules they've devised. They claim Mormons have conflicting doctrine, yet they compare Mormons and Catholics to their own idea of what they call "Biblical Christianity," but even those who claim to be Bible Christians have different and at times opposing traditions and doctrines. Mormons and Catholics use the Bible just as much to prove doctrines(this doesn't make them correct or free of error, however). Being Protestant myself, I of course have doubts about some Mormon and Roman Catholic belief and practice(to me they both place their current and past teachers, prophets and popes before Jesus and the Apostles, the focus seemingly out of place), but at the same time Ankerberg and Weldon appear to be deeply buried in incosistency and lack of balance, their way of discussion being rather unfair. A revision would be nice, maybe changing some terms and phrases(like 2 millenia or 2,000 years to the record of Scripture or something to this effect) and focusing on other areas of disagreement instead of fallacies such as opposing viewpoints which most any faith has within its ranks.

I am a born-again Christian, and a convert to the Catholic Church and I can promise you that this book is nothing but half-truths and lies. Don't waste your money because if you know nothing about the Catholic Church, this book isn't going to help you. If you disagree with the Catholic Church, this book isn't going to tell you anything new. If you ARE Catholic, this book is just going to make you laugh at how ridiculous they *try* to make us sound... and then when you're done laughing, you'll probably be angry. So honestly, don't bother.

Like the other book written by the same author on Protestant and Catholic, this book too, has no value whatsoever in helping anyone understand the differences between Catholics and Protestants.

As is usually the case, this book is filled with inaccuracies and outright untruths about the Catholic Church.

If we are to seek understanding, we need to do so with accuracy and not prejudice.

The best part of the book is when he implies that Pope John Paul II preaches a "false gospel" and "proves" the implied claim with a cite of the Pope quoting the Bible. Hilarious!

An excellent book which lays out why the Roman Catholic religion has actually drifted away from orthodox Biblical teaching. Using sola scriptura the authors show the errors of Roman Catholic theology, straight form the doctrines taught by the Word of God itself. Catholics have been instructed by their Dioceses to give this and similar books low ratings, which is why you see so many Roman Catholics piling on the one star ratings.

When people are going to tracts for their information on the Catholic Church, they are begging to be misinformed. This booklet is 58 pages and it claims to present "facts" on the Catholic Church. The obvious problem with that is that 58 pages is probably not sufficient for some of the single issues dealt with in a half a page (which are about half the size of normal book pages).

The book is full of lies and half truths. Papal Infallibility is "demonstrated" false, because of what August Hassler said. The section on papal infallibility ends with the author saying the history of the Church has demonstrated that it is not infallible. That is literally what the last sentence says That is a decieving line, because any serious Catholic knows what Ankerberg and Weldon are getting at. They are implying that because the Church has acted immorally it must not be infallible. No, the Church teaches that it will not teach error, not that it's members won't sin. Beyond that, the authors do not give one example of how the history of the Church proves the pope to be fallible when speaking ex cathedra.

They also give blatant disregard to the standing of Mary in the Church. They devote about 2 mini pages to her. Volumes have been written on the topic, but we are supposed to be convinced with 2 pages. The fact that they do not understand the Church's position does not bother them either.

Basically, Weldon and Ankerberg do not know what they are talking about. They claim the Church errs, because it accepts tradition over the Bible, even though it is only through Church Tradition that we even have a Bible. Regardless of what the authors want to tell themselves, the Church established by Christ made the Bible. The Bible did not make the Church.

There is a reason they didn't write a book on the topic, only a large tract that can be read in about an hour. It is because these little books are generally not taken serious by serious Catholics, but people who know nothing about the Catholic Church will be convinced that it is not the True Church.

Only read this if you are already convinced that the Catholic Church is wrong and you will do anything to support you view. Otherwise, this is a good fire starter.

I noticed this at local Catholic College Bookstore. This book back cover leads one to believe this short book would give the facts on Catholicism in a concise manner and fair manner. Inside the authors often quote catholic sources out of context or quote selectively to show the Catholic faith is in collision with the text of the Bible. It never gives the Catholic Answer to these charges. Its fairly obvious that this book was written to dupe the less informed. The cleverly written back cover description obviously fooled some people at my local Catholic college into purchasing it. I have since brought it to attention of the bookstore manager to ensure its removal.

Even more Protestant, Fundamentalists, Evangelical nonsence! The answers to the Faith and Works questions are all revealed in the Holy scriptures James 2:17, James 2:24 and Philippians 2:12. Not to mention John 5:29/Titus 2:7/ Titus 3:28/ 1 Peter 4:7-11/ Romans 2:6-13/ 2 Corinthians 5:10/ Revelations 20:12/ Luke 17:10/ Matthew 10:22.
When the certain ruler asks the Lord "how do I inherit eternal life?" What did the Lord tell him? read Mark 10:17-19 & Luke 18:18-20 to find out. The Lord ment His work was done! Not our work! It's all there in your Bibles folks.
Unfortunately, there are many people that try to present themselves as being pro-Bible when actually they are anti-Roman Catholic.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are Justified by Faith alone. Take note that the doctrine of sola fide is NOT pro-Bible it is anti-Roman Catholic. NOTE: Notice reveiwer David S. Connner does not site one verse from the Bible to support his oppinion? He's a DISGRUNTIlED! EX-Catholic thats like asking a Nazi to tell you the truth about Jews.