DAY 247

CHALLENGE

“Tradition may be valuable in some ways, but it can’t be allowed to play a determinative role with respect to Scripture.”

DEFENSE

It is precisely by Tradition that Scripture itself is determined.

How do we know what belongs in Scripture? Various criteria have been proposed, the most fundamental of which is inspiration, for Paul says, “All scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). It’s true that if a book is inspired then it is Scripture, but this is not a practical test, for inspiration is not an objectively verifiable literary property (see Day 229).

Another tes…

DAY 246

CHALLENGE

“Christians use God to explain what currently can’t be explained by science (i.e. ‘the gaps’). But as scientific knowledge grows, what’s left for God shrinks to nothing.”

DEFENSE

Christians understand God as the ultimate explanation for everything, not just things science can’t presently explain.

God causes some things directly and some indirectly, using created things as secondary causes. “The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes…

DAY 245

CHALLENGE

“The Catechism states that men can become gods (CCC 460), but this is false.”

DEFENSE

The Church’s teaching is biblically grounded and doesn’t mean we become equal to God.

The Church emphatically teaches there is only one God (CCC 200– 202, 2112). There is a single, uncreated Creator, but the term “god” can be used more than one way. In addition to being used of pagan deities, it is used to refer to angels and some humans (see Day 263).

Thus Jesus quotes the statement “You are gods” (Ps. 82:6), which he interprets as a reference to those “to whom the word of God cam…

DAY 244

CHALLENGE

“The infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke contradict each other. For example, Luke has Mary living in Nazareth before going to Bethlehem, while in Matthew they don’t go to Nazareth until later.”

DEFENSE

The infancy narratives don’t contradict each other. In fact, they fit together very well. Here we provide an interwoven narrative.

Initially, Gabriel appears to Zechariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5–25). A few months later, Gabriel appears to Mary in Nazareth to announce the birth of Jesus (Luke 1:26–38), and Mary goes to visit Elizabeth befor…

DAY 243

CHALLENGE

“Jesus is a created being. Paul describes him as the ‘firstborn of all creation’ (Col. 1:15).”

DEFENSE

Without knowledge of the relevant context, the phrase “firstborn of all creation” could suggest Jesus was the first created being. However, context makes it clear this isn’t the case.

The term “firstborn” had a special meaning in Jewish society. A first-born male was sacred to God (Exod. 13:1, 11–15) and had special rights (Deut. 21:15–17).

With time, “firstborn” became a title of privilege that didn’t necessarily indicate a literal firstborn male. Thus God says he…

DAY 242

CHALLENGE

“We shouldn’t believe anything that can’t be verified by science.”

DEFENSE

Authentic science does not maintain this.

Science involves the use of a particular method (i.e., “scientific method”), the principal steps of which are:

Observing some aspect of the world

Formulating hypotheses to explain the observed data

Making predictions about further observations based on the hypotheses

Performing experiments to test the predictions (particularly by trying to falsify them).

This general method has proved useful for investigating many subjects, but, as we cover elsewhere …

DAY 241

CHALLENGE

“St. Jerome (c. 347–420), the foremost Scripture scholar of his day, didn’t accept the deuterocanonical books as Scripture.”

DEFENSE

Jerome’s attitude is ambiguous and may have changed over time. Furthermore, no one Church Father can settle the canon.

While learning to translate Hebrew, Jerome was in contact with non- Christian Jews who were intellectual descendants of the Pharisees and therefore rejected the deuterocanonicals (see Days 255 and 257). Under this influence, he at least for a time rejected their canonicity.

This is indicated in the prologues to the Vul…

DAY 240

CHALLENGE

“The Church is obsessed with sex—premarital sex, divorce, contraception, homosexuality. Why can’t it shut up about this subject?”

DEFENSE

The Church isn’t obsessed with sex. Our culture is.

The Church has remained constant in its teachings on sexuality. It proposes the simple and beautiful understanding that God designed humans to express their sexuality in marriage—the lifelong partnership of man and woman, oriented to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children.

But our culture has undergone dramatic changes. The last hundred years have see…

DAY 239

CHALLENGE

“The God of the Old Testament is depicted as angry and jealous, but the God of the New Testament is depicted as loving and kind.”

DEFENSE

This claim has elements of both truth and falsehood.

It has an element of falsehood because God is depicted as both just and merciful in both Testaments. Anyone who reads the Old Testament encounters many descriptions of God as loving and kind: “The Lord [is] a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6; cf. Num. 14:18, Deut. 4:31, 2 Chron. 30:9, Neh. 9:17, Ps. 86:5). And…

DAY 238

CHALLENGE

“Matthew and Mark contradict each other on when Jesus cursed the fig tree.”

DEFENSE

The challenge involves the sequencing of three key events (in italics, below).

Here is the sequence of events in Matthew:

Jesus visits the temple (21:12a)

Jesus clears the temple (21:12b–16)

Jesus stays in Bethany that night (21:17)

Returning, Jesus curses the fig tree (21:18–19a)

The disciples see the fig tree withered (21:19b–22)

And here is the sequence in Mark:

Jesus visits the temple (11:11a)

Jesus stays in Bethany that night (11:11b)

Returning, Jesus curses the fig tree (11:12–1…