Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Is Rome the True Church? A Consideration of the Roman Catholic Claim



Dr. Norman Geisler is one of my favorite writers because he writes with great clarity. I was expecting a little more than what was presented in this book, but this book is informative and concise nonetheless.

Allow me to say, that I do not think that Geisler and Betancourt are seperated enough on this issue of Roman Catholicism and Evangelicalism, and I would warn you not to think that the differences between the two religious system to be merely preferential, or superficial. Indeed there is a great gulf fixed between the two, that is the differences are doctrinal. Also I reject Geisler's idea of the body of Christ being the universal church (which is inevitably the ecclisiology of Protestants) thus creating a church within the church.

The strengths of this book lies in the historical and doctrinal refutation of a few albeit major claims of the Roman Catholic church: Papal Infallibility and Peter's primacy. Very interesting read.

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Roman Claim to Be the True Church

Chapter 2: The Historical Development of the Roman Primacy Structure

Chapter 3: The Roman Argument for the Primacy of Peter: Stated and Evaluated

Chapter 4: The Roman Argument for the Infallibility of Peter: Stated

Chapter 5: The Roman Argument for the Infallibility of Peter: Evaluated

Chapter 6: The Roman Argument for Apostolic Succession

Chapter 7: Is Rome the True Church?

Chapter 8: Why Some Protestants Convert to Rome

Appendix 1: Irenaeus on the Alleged Authority of the Church

Appendix 2: A Chronological List of Popes and Antipopes

Appendix 3: The Relation of Tradition to Scripture

Appendix 4: Sola Scriptura

Appendix 5: Iranaeus on Scripture and Tradition

Scripture Index

Published by: Crossway Books (C) 2008; 235 pages soft cover; ISBN-10: 1-4335-0231-3