DAY 27

CHALLENGE

“The deuterocanonical books don’t belong in Scripture. They are not written in Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament.”

DEFENSE

The language that a book was written in doesn’t determine whether it’s Scripture.

Hebrew was the national language of the Israelites for much of their history, and many Old Testament books were written in it, but the Israelites’ language changed over time. Sometimes it changed through the incorporation of loanwords from other languages. Thus we find Egyptian, Akkadian, and Persian loanwords in books of Scripture written when the…

DAY 26

CHALLENGE

“Acts is not a reliable account of the history of the early Church. It is a work of ideology.”

DEFENSE

Acts is an extremely reliable history. Every historian has a point of view, and the fact that Luke was writing from a Christian point of view does not mean he was inaccurate.

The book of Acts is based on the evidence of eyewitnesses, like Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:2).

It is easy to tell who the eyewitnesses in Acts were: Peter is a ma- jor source for chapters 1 to 12, Paul for chapters 13 to 28, Philip for chapter 8, and Priscilla and Aquila for chapter 18. Luke himself w…

DAY 25

CHALLENGE

“The Church covered up Jesus’s marriage to Mary Magdalene. The Gospel of Philip says they were married, and Jewish men didn’t stay unmarried in Jesus’ day, so he wouldn’t have been celibate.”

DEFENSE

There were celibate Jewish men in Jesus’ day, and the evidence shows that Jesus stayed unmarried.

The Gospel of Philip is a second- or third-century writing in the Coptic language. It does not contain reliable history, and it does not describe Mary as Jesus’ wife but as a companion, which she was, along with others (see Luke 8:1–3).

There are several women named Mary in th…

Day 24

CHALLENGE

“Why shouldn’t I believe in scientific materialism—the view that only physical matter and energy exist and that science is the key to all knowledge?”

DEFENSE

Because morality points us beyond the purely material and beyond what science is capable of establishing. Moral values are real. Some things are objectively right and some are objectively wrong. Showing compassion for the poor and the weak is good; torturing babies for fun is evil. Belief in moral values is a human universal that exists in all cultures. It is built into human nature, and it cannot be suppressed. Even thos…

Day 23

CHALLENGE

“Matthew and Luke contradict each other. Matthew says that the Jewish priests bought the field of blood (Matt. 27:7–8), whereas Luke says that Judas Iscariot did (Acts 1:18–19).”

DEFENSE

Matthew and Luke are in fundamental agreement, and there are many ways the different attributions can be explained. Both authors agree that Judas Iscariot’s betrayal led to a field in the area of Jerusalem becoming known as the field of blood. Both also say that this field was paid for with the money that the chief priests had given Judas to betray Jesus. Both are thus agreed about the basic …

Day 22

CHALLENGE

“Catholics should not regard Mary as the “Queen of Heaven.” The Bible speaks of devotion to the Queen of Heaven and condemns it in unequivocal terms (Jer. 7:18, 44:17–19, 25).”

DEFENSE

The “Queen of Heaven” that Jeremiah refers to is not Mary. Therefore, he was not condemning Marian devotion. The fact that Jeremiah was not referring to Mary is obvious, since he was writing around 600 B.C., not the first century A.D. In his day, the title “Queen of Heaven” was used to refer to various pagan deities. There were many such deities, as every pagan pantheon had a major, ruling deit…

DAY 21

CHALLENGE

The Gospel of John is not historically reliable. It was written in the A.D. 90s and is markedly different in style and substance from the other Gospels.”

DEFENSE

Actually, the Gospel of John is very historically reliable. Arguments to the contrary do not prove their case. Even if John were written in the A.D. 90s, that’s within sixty years of the events it records. Historically speaking, that is quite close to them, and it poses no barrier to the accuracy of John. But John likely was written earlier. It refers to architecture in Jerusalem as still standing (5:2), but Jerusale…

Day 20

CHALLENGE

“Baptism is not needed for salvation. It is a symbolic ritual that represents an inward change that has already taken place.”

DEFENSE

The New Testament links baptism to salvation. Baptism is not just a ritual. It communicates God’s graces, such as the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus Peter told the crowd on the day of Pentecost: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Similarly, when he was converted to the Faith, Paul was to…

Day 19

CHALLENGE

“Peter was not the first pope. Even if Jesus appointed Peter as leader of the apostles, he would have been disqualified later by his sins—particularly when he denied Jesus.“

DEFENSE

Jesus foresaw Peter’s denial, took it into account, and afterward confirmed him in his office. Peter’s denial was very grave. According to John, he denied being a disciple of Jesus (John 18:25). That was a public denial of the Faith (albeit an insincere one, since Peter did not abandon the Christian movement). Despite this, Jesus had foreseen Peter’s denial and told him in advance to take a pastora…

DAY 18

CHALLENGE

“Early Christians believed that the world would end shortly after Jesus’ ministry. It didn’t. Therefore, Christianity is false.”

DEFENSE

This overestimates belief in an imminent end. It also confuses hope and expectation with assertion.

The idea that the early Christians believed in an imminent end of the world has been exaggerated due to a misreading of key texts in the teaching of Jesus (see Days 69, 104, 154, and 167). Having said that, some did hope for or even expect an early end. Thus in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Paul refers to “we who are alive” at the end, suggesti…