Daily Defense Podcast

DAY 316 CHALLENGE “In the New Testament, Church leadership wasn’t divided up among bishops, priests (aka presbyters/elders), and deacons. In particular, the office of bishop and elder were the same (Titus 1:5–7).” DEFENSE The offices of Church leadership developed during the first century under the guidance of the apostles. Originally, the only office in the Church was apostle. Jesus appointed the...

DAY 315 CHALLENGE “The Catholic Church claims a dangerous and sweeping power for itself when it says that it can teach infallibly. That means it can bind Catholics to believe anything.” DEFENSE There are limits to the Church’s ability to teach infallibly, and it is used far less frequently than many suppose. First, it is limited by topic. Christ didn’t give the Church the charism of infallibility...

DAY 314 CHALLENGE “If the deuterocanonical books were doubted by some early on, shouldn’t we err on the side of caution and omit them rather than risk adding to the word of God?” DEFENSE This is based on a faulty premise that would lead to dramatic consequences. First, the deuterocanonicals weren’t the only doubted books of the Old Testament. At least five additional books were disputed in the Pha...

DAY 313 CHALLENGE “Religion is unnatural. Children are not born as believers but have to be indoctrinated into it.” DEFENSE On the contrary, children are naturally predisposed to religious belief. As scientists have shown using tests that measure the amount of attention babies pay to things, they are aware in the first year of life of the difference between beings with mind and intention (agents)...

DAY 312 CHALLENGE “Catholic teaching on merit is unbiblical. We can’t merit anything before God.” DEFENSE The term “merit” (Latin, meritum) refers to a reward. By extension, it has also come to refer to actions that God chooses to reward. The doctrine of merit is thus the biblical doctrine of rewards under another name. The Bible is clear that our actions in this life can affect the degree of rewa...

DAY 311 CHALLENGE “We know that the Bible teaches we should do theology ‘by Scripture alone’ (sola scriptura) because Jesus and the apostles quote Scripture as their final authority.” DEFENSE This claim is demonstrably false. Although Jesus and the apostles quote from Scripture, all this shows is that they considered it an authority capable of settling questions it deals with, not that it was the...

DAY 310 CHALLENGE “Catholics have committed grave sins in history, including sins of avarice, intolerance, and persecution.” DEFENSE Yes, they have! Jesus did not come to make men sinless in this life but to make it possible for sinners to be saved. Sin is an ongoing reality (James 3:2; 1 John 1:8) against which we must struggle (1 Cor. 10:13). Jesus taught us to pray, on a regular basis, “Forgive...

DAY 309 CHALLENGE “Jesus couldn’t have been crucified on a Friday. He rose Sunday morning, and he said he would be in the tomb “three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40). There aren’t three days and nights between Friday and Sunday.” DEFENSE This fails to understand the modes of speech then used. In the most literal sense, “three days and three nights” means seventy- two hours. The Gospels agree...

DAY 308 CHALLENGE “The only legitimate way to baptize is immersion.” DEFENSE There is more than one mode by which baptism can be performed. Different groups of Christians have baptized using three methods: imimmersion (dunking), affusion (pouring), and aspersion (sprinkling). There is misinformation in some circles about which the Catholic Church uses, with the claim being that it uses sprinkling...

DAY 307 CHALLENGE “God may permit the use of religious images (see Day 179), but we should not kneel before or kiss them. The Bible says, ‘you shall not bow down to them’ (Exod. 20:5; Deut. 5:9), and it condemns those who have bent their knees to or kissed Ba’al (1 Kings 19:18).” DEFENSE These prohibitions apply to idols. If there is an idol—a statue of a pagan god—then you absolutely should not k...

DAY 306 CHALLENGE “Faith and science are fundamentally opposed, as illustrated by Christians’ opposition to the theory of evolution.” DEFENSE The Catholic Church doesn’t have a problem with evolution. Some Christians have read the early chapters of Genesis in a way that would preclude evolution, but the Church recognizes these chapters as using significant symbolism (see Days 90 and 290). The stat...

DAY 305 CHALLENGE “If Jesus and the New Testament authors thought the deuterocanonical books were part of the canon, why doesn’t the Bible refer to them?” DEFENSE They do refer to them. The New Testament contains multiple allusions to the Deuterocanonicals. It does not contain clear quotations from them—or from many protocanonical books of the Old Testament (see Day 288)—but it does contain clear...

DAY 304 CHALLENGE “The book of Leviticus condemns homosexuality (Lev. 18:22), but it also condemns eating shrimp since they don’t have fins and scales (cf. Lev. 11:9–12). If we aren’t obliged to follow it when it comes to the latter, why should we follow it when it comes to the former?” DEFENSE Homosexuality is contrary to human nature; shrimp-eating is not. The Law of Moses (Gen.-Deut.) contains...

DAY 303 CHALLENGE “Why should I think the Church can teach infallibly?” DEFENSE Reflection on Christ’s teaching reveals why. Christ did not reserve teaching authority to himself but established a teaching authority (Latin, magisterium) in his Church (see Day 281). This authority was originally vested in Peter and the apostles, and when they passed from the scene it was inherited by their successor...

DAY 302 CHALLENGE “There is no such thing as mortal sin.” DEFENSE The concept of mortal sin is clearly taught in Scripture. First, the language of the doctrine is drawn from Scripture itself: “If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for...

DAY 301 CHALLENGE “Catholics are wrong to believe that Christ’s Church is a visible, hierarchical institution; it is the invisible union of all believers.” DEFENSE This does not fit the scriptural data. First, if Jesus wished to found an “invisible” Church, he wouldn’t have instituted baptism. As the Christian equivalent of circumcision (Col. 2:11–12), baptism is the Christian initiation rit...

DAY 300 CHALLENGE “Mark’s Gospel isn’t reliable. It was written long after the events, and by a non-eyewitness.” DEFENSE Mark was written within living memory of the events it records, and it’s based on eyewitness testimony. We elsewhere deal with the fact that Mark wasn’t an eyewitness (see Day 44). Biographies are written all the time by people who aren’t eye- witnesses, and Mark was in an espec...

DAY 299 CHALLENGE “Christians are wrong to celebrate Christmas on December 25. Jesus could not have been born then—it would have been too cold for the shepherds to keep their flocks outdoors (Luke 2:8).” DEFENSE There are several problems with this challenge. First, the Catholic Church celebrates Jesus’ birth on December 25, but this is a matter of custom rather than doctrine. It is not Church tea...

DAY 298 CHALLENGE “When you look at all the different religions in world history, the odds of yours being the right one are low. We should conclude that religious truth, even if it exists, is unknowable.” DEFENSE This overlooks both the way religious views are structured and the role that evidence plays. Consider a parallel: Throughout history there have been many scientific theories about the way...

DAY 297 CHALLENGE “The pope cannot be the successor of Peter as the bishop of Rome. Peter was never even in Rome.” DEFENSE The evidence indicates that Peter was in Rome at the end of his career, and that he was martyred there, along with Paul, around A.D. 67. In 1 Peter 5:13, Peter writes, “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark.” This is common...

DAY 296 CHALLENGE “Catholics violate the prohibition against adding to Scripture (Rev. 22:18–19) by including the Apocrypha (what Catholics call the deuterocanonicals) in their Bibles.” DEFENSE The passage in question does not mean what is supposed, and if it did, it would create a problem for Protestants. The passage in Revelation states: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of th...

DAY 295 CHALLENGE “The Gospels contradict each other on the time of the Crucifixion. Mark says Jesus was crucified at ‘the third hour’ (Mark 15:25), and all three synoptics record the darkness from ‘the sixth hour’ to ‘the ninth hour’ while he was on the cross (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44), but John indicates that Jesus wasn’t yet crucified at ‘the sixth hour’ (John 19:14).” DEFENSE John u...

DAY 294 CHALLENGE “Why should I listen to what a Church council says?” DEFENSE “Because Scripture supports the role of Church councils.” Jesus did not reserve teaching authority to himself, but assigned it to the leaders he put in charge of his Church (see Day 281). He thus created a Magisterium (Latin, “teaching authority”) within his Church. Usually this Magisterium is exercised personally—by in...

DAY 293 CHALLENGE “If monotheism is true, why have most people historically been polytheists?” DEFENSE Several factors play a role in this. First, the relationship between monotheism and polytheism is more complex than often assumed. As we cover elsewhere (see Day 153), many classical polytheists acknowledged the existence of an ultimate Creator, who was not typically worshipped. Instead, they wor...

DAY 292 CHALLENGE “If the Church can teach infallibly, why doesn’t it go ahead and teach everything infallibly?” DEFENSE Because it is not God’s will. Consider a parallel: The New Testament authors wrote under the charism of inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16), which is greater than and includes infallibility. If it was God’s will, he could’ve had them write a single, systematic theology textbook with every...