Keeping our readers informed
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Keeping our readers informed |
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The
"Great Debate" Was Great! Dear Friends, I'm happy to report
that the debate I had on July 11 with James White went very well, and
the video and audio tapes of the event will be available soon. You can
advance order your video or audio copies of this dramatic, hard-hitting
Catholic/Protestant exchange at www.surprisedbytruth.com.
The debate was a
great opportunity to contrast the Catholic and Reformed Protestant views
on the nature and meaning of the communion of saints. One frustrating
thing for me was that the debate thesis ("Prayer to and veneration
of the saints, as well as the veneration of sacred images that represent
them, is compatible with Scripture and Christian Tradition")
was far too broad to adequately address all the elements that
were brought up that evening.
I concentrated primarily
on the biblical and patristic evidence showing that the Church is the
Body of Christ, that there is only one Body (not one in heaven and one
on earth), that death does not separate the members of the Body, and that
all members of the Body of Christ are commanded to pray for and spiritually
assist one another, including the saints in heaven. I also focused on
the testimony of the early Church to show — especially through
the words of St. Athanasius, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom,
and other important early Church Scripture scholars and bishops —
that the Christians universally venerated the saints and invoked
their intercession. My opponent focused primarily on the meaning
of the Hebrew word "Avad" (worship) in relation to the Greek terms "latria"
and "dulia" in an effort to show that any veneration of the saints
or their images, as well as invoking their intercession, was contrary
to God's will and constitutes idolatry.
Based on the overwhelming
number of positive reviews and comments via e-mail and regular mail that
we've received from Catholics (and even a few Protestants) who attended
the debate, as well as from several who subsequently have studied
the video, I am confident that you'll find this debate to be a great
boost and encouragement to your Catholic Faith and a helpful primer on
understanding how some Protestants attempt to critique this fundamental
teaching of the Communion of Saints. My opponent was articulate, vigorous,
and gentlemanly throughout the evening, the audience was polite and
spirited without being overly rambunctious, which substantially enhanced
the quality of our debate. The exchange was dramatic and exciting without
being marred by obnoxious or rude behavior. In short, I believe you'll
really enjoy and benefit from seeing this spectacle of two veteran
apologist — Catholic vs. Protestant — go at it in a clash
that kept the audience on the edge of their seats!
The-cross examination
section, in which each of us had about 15 minutes to grill the other on
the biblical and historical issues at stake, was especially enlightening,
and you won't want to miss the intense 50-minute Q&A session with
the audience (there were about 900 folks in attendance, about equally
divided between Catholics and Protestants). Most of the questioners were
Protestant, their questions being aimed squarely at me. You'll learn a
lot from watching this debate and learning how many Protestants view
the Catholic Church and the specific criticisms they level against it
— and you'll also learn how to respond to them, using Scripture
and the facts of history.
There was one
bump in the road. It turns out that there was a technical glitch with
the video equipment being used that night by Alpha & Omega Ministries
(James White's organization, which recorded the event), which caused
a brief gap in the video during one of my presentations — the
audio was completely unaffected, so for those few minutes where the
screen goes blank, you can still hear everything I said. The normal
video image resumes again after a short time, but as a way to ensure
the best quality of the tapes, our video reproduction people have
extracted several still images of me standing at the podium during other
sections of that debate and those images will appear in sequence
on the screen during the brief gap in video. Those of you who order
the audio version of the debate won't notice the glitch at all.
Once again, I'd
like to take this chance to express my heartfelt gratitude to all
of you who so generously prayed for me before and during the debate.
It was truly through God's grace and your prayers that
things went as well as they did. I thank you for your prayer support.
Remember, you can
place an advance order for the video and audio versions of the debate!
Just call 800-234-1161 or visit us online at www.surprisedbytruth.com.
Best wishes in Christ,
Get the most out of this debate — order a personally autographed copy of Patrick Madrid's book Any Friend of God's Is a Friend of Mine, in which he lays out basic outline of the biblical and historical evidence for the Catholic doctrine of the communion of saints. This apologetics work was his "playbook" that he followed in his July 11th debate with Protestant author and apologist James White, on the communion of saints. Read this book in conjunction with watching or listening to the tapes of the debate to get the maximum impact! In Any Friend of God's Is a Friend of Mine, Patrick explains the biblical and historical basis for the Catholic teaching on venerating and praying to Mary and the saints, asking for their intercession, praying for the souls in purgatory, what Scripture says about the use of religious statues and icons, and much more! Help Envoy's Apostolate
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