Know Thy Enemy

William Whitaker was one of the greatest Protestant apologists of his age. This truth was borne witness to by the fact of a picture hanging in the study of a Roman Catholic Cardinal.

Donald Lupton, History of Modern Protestant Divines (1637), pp. 358-360:

I have heard it confessed of English Papists themselves, which have been in Italy with [Cardinal Robert] Bellarmine himself, that he procured the true portraiture and effigies of this Whitaker to be brought to him, which he kept in his study. For he privately admired this man for his singular learning and ingenuity; and being asked of some of his friends, Jesuits, why he would have the picture of that heretic in his presence? he would answer, Quod quamvis haereticus erat et adversarius, erat tamen doctus adversarius: that, "although he was an heretic, and his adversary, yet he was a learned adversary."

Presuppositionalism: A Poem

Although I am a presuppositionalist myself, the following poem, entitled "Presuppositionalism," written by an anonymous contributor to The Bible Today, Vol. 42, No. 8 (May 1949), p. 261 (quoted by Scott R. Burson & Jerry L. Walls, C.S. Lewis & Francis Schaeffer: Lessons for a New Century from the Most Influential Apologists of Our Time, pp. 147-148, and John R. Muether, Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman, p. 114), in response to the then-ongoing debate between Cornelius Van Til (presuppositionalism) and J. Oliver Buswell (evidentialism) over apologetic methods, seems fitting for a Funny Friday post.

I do not like your Presuppositionalism controversy; it is getting acrimonious, and doesn't show much grace, common or special. But I know you both could sing...

Scotch is Scotch,
And Dutch is Dutch,
But Calvin was French, you see,
And died at the age of fifty-five,
Not older than "B" or "Van T."
He wrote in the language of 1509 --
He wrote in the words he understood
And has been translated much.
And the mind of the Scotch interprets Scotch,
And the mind of the Dutch sees Dutch;
But God's great grace is working on
And souls respond to His touch.
And when the glorious crowning day
The Scotch and the Dutch shall meet,
They both will say "It is all of grace;
We have reached the Mercy seat."
But Buswell still will drive his "Bus"
And Van Til his "Van" will drive,
But whether thru tunnel or over bridge,
By grace they will both arrive.

Matthew Poole's Dialogue

A Puritan classic of Roman Catholic apologetics is soon to see the light of day once again thanks to Dr. Don Kistler of Northampton Press. First published in 1672 by Matthew Poole as A Dialogue between a Popish-Priest and an English Protestant: Wherein the principal points and arguments of both religions are truly proposed, and fully examined, Poole's work will shortly be republished under the title A Dialogue Between a Catholic Priest and a Protestant. It is available for pre-order now for $10 + $5 shipping until June 1st, after which time the price will go up, so order today.

Dr. Kistler writes:

Matthew Poole is a highly-regarded Puritan scholar and preacher. This work of his has been out of print for nearly 200 years. It is a dialogue between a Roman Catholic priest and a Protestant, old friends who meet after many years and decide to discuss the differences between their various religions. Poole uses official Roman documents for the arguments of that faith, and the Protestant appeals to Scripture and logic in answering back.

There are many polemical books one can buy that present each side's case, but I've never seen or read one where it is an actual back-and-forth, where both sides are presented. It is like watching a debate. And Matthew Poole says in his introduction to the book that he has not set up the priest as a straw man with weak arguments, but has actually taken the Catholic position from official Romanist documents that have that Church's imprimatur.

Some of the topics covered include transubstantiation, the authority of the church, praying to saints, justification by faith alone, the role of Mary, and many other key issues.

This book should be ready to ship by June 1, 2010.

Be a Berean

Johannes Vanderkamp (1664-1718), The Christian Entirely the Property of Christ, in Life and Death, Exhibited in Fifty-Three Sermons on the Heidelberg Catechism, Vol. 1, Preface, p. viii:

But the Reformed teach altogether differently from this: they require that all men should, like the Bereans, search the scriptures daily, whether the things, which their pastors teach them, be agreeable to the word of God; they enjoin upon every one to live by his own faith, and not by the faith of his teachers; and therefore certain marks, which are taken only from the Bible, are proposed to him by our people, that he may see for himself, whether he be in that church, which is described in the book of God, as his beloved people. But what a listlesness hath seized even upon many of God's people, that they do not so much as inquire, but suppose in a careless manner; that they are in the true church: this matter, they think, is too high for them; they conceive that their parents, who procured their incorporation into this church and educated them in it, knew what they were about, and they think that their ministers are too wise, and too pious to mislead them. Is this thy conduct also, reader: hast thou then a better proof and ground for thy faith than a heathen, Jew, Turk or Papist, and wouldest thou not be one of them, as thou are now one of us, if thou wert only educated among them? and if a persecution should arise against us, and thou shouldest be obliged to suffer reproach, pain, and shame for the doctrine of our church, wouldest thou then indeed have a single reason, why thou wouldest not forsake us, and join thyself to our adversaries?

The Battle for Hearts and Minds

It is always helpful to clarify truth by distinguishing it from error, that is, to better define what truth is, it is useful to determine what it is not. "Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error" (1 John 4.6b). This has been done in credal statements, catechisms and other works by the Church since its earliest days. The genre of literature which specifically focuses on this apologetic task is known as heresiography. Early examples of this include Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies; Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies; and Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics.

Puritan heresiography too reflects an interest in upholding the truth and combating error. The 1640s, in particular, was a time of competing claims to truth, and while the Westminster Assembly succeeded in vindicating truth more eloquently than anyone, the battle for hearts and minds continued and many took up the challenge to refute error. Notable examples from the Puritan era include Thomas Edwards, whose Gangraena was published in three parts, the first and second of which was titled, The first and second part of Gangraena: or A catalogue and discovery of many of the errors, heresies, blasphemies and pernicious practices of the sectaries of this time, vented and acted in England these four last years (1646); Robert Baillie, A dissuasive from the errours of the time vvherein the tenets of the principall sects, especially of the independents, are drawn together in one map, for the most part in the words of their own authours, and their maine principles are examined by the touch-stone of the Holy Scriptures (1646); Ephraim Pagit (his father was a Puritan and he was a royalist sympathetic with Presbyterianism), Heresiography; or a description of the Hereticks and Sectaries of these latter times (1645); and Johannes Hoornbeek, Summa Controversiarum Religionis; Cum Infidelibus, Hæreticis, Schismaticis: Id Est, Gentilibus, Judæis, Muhammedanis; Papistis, Anabaptistis, Enthusiastis et Libertinis, Socinianis; Remonstrantibus, Lutheranis, Brouvnistis, Græcis (1653) [see here].

Catechisms also provided a launching pad for catalogues and refutations of particular errors such as David Dickson's Truth's Victory Over Error (this is the first sympathetic commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith prepared from lectures given c. 1650 and first published in 1684; the first published commentary on the WCF was published in 1651 by an opponent of the Assembly, William Parker, although often misattributed to Henry Parker) which includes An alphabetical List of the proper and patronymic Names of the Authors of the old and late Heretics, confuted in the foregoing Treatise (a most useful reference, although among modern editions it is to be noted that the 2002 Presbyterian Armoury Publications edition includes page references, while the 2007 Banner of Truth edition does not); and a Compendium of the Principal Errors of Those that are Outside the Reformed Church was added to Abraham Hellenbroek's A Specimen of Divine Truths (one of the features constituting the expanded "big Hellenbroek" edition of his Catechism, although the Compendium was not authored by him).

In 1647, the London ministers of Sion College issued A Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ, and to Our Solemn League and Covenant, as Also Against the Errours, Heresies and Blasphemies of these times, and the Toleration of them. Wherein is inserted A Catalogue of divers of the said Errours &c. This Testimony was a powerful witness against the spiritual tumult of the 1640s, yet the 1650s required that this witness be expanded and clarified for the common man. Puritan Presbyterian William Lyford took up the challenge with a work that would be later be titled The Instructed Christian, or The Plain Man's Senses Exercised to Discern Both Good and Evil being a discovery of the errors, heresies, and blasphemies of these times (1655), and the toleration of them, as they are collected and testified against by the ministers of London, in their testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ. This book was reprinted by Soli Deo Publications, and I commend it to the reader as both a worthy exposition of the 1647 London Testimony, and a helpful guide to many of the errors of our own day as well.