It has become evident in recent years that some evangelicals are attracted to Roman Catholicism. For some, this attraction occurs because of the Catholic Church’s intellectual tradition or institutional stability. Others are attracted to the Church’s apologetic certainty or beautiful liturgy. Whatever the reason, it is clear that some evangelicals come to see evangelicalism as inferior to the deeper, richer Christianity they find in Rome.
In Is Rome the True Church?: A Consideration of the Roman Catholic Claim (Crossway, 2008), authors Norm Geisler and Joshua Bethancourt seek to build a response to this growing number of evangelical converts to Catholicism by mounting serious arguments against the Roman Catholic claim of being the one true church. Anyone who is involved in apologetics regarding the Roman Catholic Church (whether for its exclusivity or against) will find this book to be a helpful resource that lays out the issues at stake and explains the areas of disagreement between the two sides.
The book begins by explaining the Roman view of exclusivity and the historical development of this idea. Then, the writers seek to dismantle the arguments that hold the Roman view together: the primacy of Peter, the infallibility of Peter, and apostolic succession. The weight of their argument goes something like this: If one link in the chain comes out, the entire Catholic claim collapses upon itself.
What I appreciate about Geisler and Bethancourt’s book is that they seek to carefully describe the Roman Catholic view. They do not set up straw men that they can tear down. They are careful to describe actual Roman Catholic dogma before explaining their reasons to reject the Catholic claims. The appendices are especially helpful in giving additional resources for those interested in these arguments.
Yet there were two frustrating aspects to this book. First off, large sections dealing with the infallibility of Peter are repeated almost word-for-word in later chapters dealing with apostolic succession. The book is intended to have a logical flow, but because of the repetition, it reads more like a book of essays.
The other frustrating aspect of the book is something that frustrates me in Roman Catholic apologetics as well: the tendency to quote from Church Fathers and make assumptions and inferences about subjects they were not specifically addressing. Both Catholics and Protestants are guilty here. Why not instead recognize the tendency to make the early fathers say or deny things they were not intending to make statements about? It is anachronistic to read our own battles back into the Fathers.
Readers of Is Rome the True Church? should understand that this is a free-church, Anabaptist response to Roman primacy. Geisler and Betancourt do not merely seek to unravel the Catholic claim for apostolic succession; they also seek to show how the episcopal form of church government is unbiblical. (This is most curious when considering that Betancourt received his ordination as a clergyman from an Anglican bishop!) Likewise, Geisler argues for the value of creeds, but does not see them as binding – a suggestion that will raise the eyebrow of a good many readers within other streams of the Reformation.
I do not believe that Is Rome the True Church? will cause Catholics to turn to evangelicalism. At the most, it might draw back a few evangelicals who are waffling on some of these issues. It will strengthen the Protestant (and Eastern Orthodox) reasons for rejecting Roman primacy. Geisler and Betancourt recognize that evangelicals do not convert to Catholicism after having been persuaded by the kind of arguments contained in this book, which makes one wonder exactly why the book focuses solely on the intellectual arguments against Catholicism.
At any rate, Is Rome the True Church? is well worth reading for Catholics and Protestants alike who are interested in the issues at stake and the reasons for the Protestant view.
written by Trevin Wax © 2009 Kingdom People blog
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