The 10 Most Important Things You Can Say to a Catholic

I have a deep love for those who have been raised in the Catholic Church. As a Protestant we share many cherished beliefs and values. However, we have some significant differences of belief as well. In this book Rhodes tackles nine of the major areas where Catholics and Protestants disagree.Here are the nine areas of conflict addressed by Rhodes: (1) Catholics believe that the Apocryphal Books should be included in the biblical canon - Protestants do not; (2) Catholics believe that tradition is authoritative for belief and practice, whereas, Protestants believe the Bible alone is authoritative for faith and practice; (3) Catholics believe that Peter was the first Pope, Protestants on the other hand hold that he was a great apostle (among various apostles in the early church); (4) Catholics hold to the infallibility of the Pope, the Bishops, and the Magisterium of the Church; whereas Protestants hold to the Bible as being infallible, but not the human leaders of the Church; (5) Catholics venerate Mary as a co-redeemer and mediatrix, a perpetual virgin, and various other views that conflict with Protestant views. Protestants simply view Mary as simply the godly mother of Jesus and nothing more. (6) Catholics mix justification and sanctification - adding human merit/works to one's salvation; whereas Protestants view salvation as solely and entirely by grace through faith in Jesus - justification is instantaneous and once and for all. (7) Catholics and Protestants have a very different view on "mass" or the "Lord's Supper." Catholics hold to transubstantiation whereas Protestants hold to consubstantiation or the memorial/symbolic view. (8) In Catholicism Penance must be done to absolve sins, in Protestantism Confession of sin is to be made to God, not a human priest. (9) Catholicism believes in Purgatory (second chance after death); Protestants hold to no second chances after death.For each of these views Rhodes offers the Catholic argument first, followed by a Protestant rebuttal and defense. The chapters are short and only the most salient points are made. For each chapter Rhodes uses different icons to identify points made by Catholics and Protestants. Each chapter contains points to use with caution, helpful witnessing points, and supplementary and more detailed material that can be found in Rhodes' larger book entitled "Reasoning from the Scriptures with Catholics." As of this review Rhodes has written a few other short books of this ilk on Creation and Evolution; Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam, and Masons.I highly recommend this resource. It's short and to the point, and yet delineates some key points to help Protestants share the good news with their Catholic friends.

This is a hard one to grade. I own probably 5 copies - [all used]. We use this as the basis for an adult education class. We never move to the next argument until we have "finished" the previous. The arguments RR uses are classic AntiCatholic rhetoric that have been around for centuries - nothing new here. When we work through each argument - looking up the verses that Rhodes cites but also those he conveniently skips, the number of times that he says "there is no evidence" [the "no evidence" argument is powerful with atheists - yet he uses it too. Odd. ], the selective picking and choosing of the Church Fathers when it suits him [the same Fathers who verify the Eucharist, the Pope, etc!], the amazing number of logical fallacies present, well, I'd give it a "5" for training Catholics how to defend their faith! Yes, my class is at a CATHOLIC PARISH. Yes, this book has been awesome for training Catholic apologists to know their Faith and how to answer the naysayers. Of course the teacher needs to have a solid grasp of the Truth [ours is a well educated priest] - you ARE studying the mind of an author who wants to destroy that faith. But studying one's opponents is the method of St. Thomas Aquinas who studied the writings of others [for the purpose of refuting their error] and to help frame a better understanding of our Catholic Faith. "10 Most" is a collection of such errors - most are easily refuted, but with few complex doozies that need to be teased out also. This book is best if you have spiritual humility and prayer, calling on the guidance of the Spirit - it can be valuable. And definitely get Keating, Madrid, Shea, etc., as "guides." They have addressed all the material here. In refuting this nonsense we have had to delve into Scripture, history, logic, the councils, and the Church Fathers. That is simply invaluable, and its all focused in going argument by argument. That keeps it exciting. I gave it a 2 because he collected so many "gems" for our class.

I think the reason for all this bashing is that Bible believers have only 1 source of their faith, and that is the Bible. There are preachers out there that, possibly unknowingly, teach untruths. Preachers who are schooled in Greek and Hebrew translations are more apt to speak the truth. You can take any 2 Catholics and they will have different beliefs, because they each were taught by a different church, or a different school, parent, whatever. Wow, I can go on forever!I know what I was taught at 12 years of Catholic school. It's too bad they didn't teach me to open up the Bible. Jesus said "Spread the good news" and I never heard that expression. I saw a sign when I was little saying "Jesus Saves" and I didn't know what the heck that meant. I have never been so strong in my faith, so grateful to Jesus words can't describe, since I became a Bible thumper.I can go on forever!

This 2002 publication is a concise review of Roman Catholicism and its system of sacramental grace and merit compared with Biblical Christianity. Evangelical apologist, Ron Rhodes, wrote this book especially for Christians interested in witnessing to Catholics. As more and more undiscerning Evangelicals embrace Catholics as "brothers in Christ" and the Gospel is increasingly compromised fewer books like this one are being published.It's ironic that Rhodes favorably cites Billy Graham a couple of times in the text. Few Evangelicals have done more to accommodate works-righteousness Catholics as "brothers in Christ" than Graham and it's absolutely certain he would not have endorsed this critical examination of Catholicism.In the comments section below are two links to interesting articles regarding Graham's compromise with works-righteousness Catholicism.

Very Good for those who have questions about catholism. Explains both sides of the story. Very informative. I am considering taking the RCIA and this has helped me decide whether to continue on this path or not. I have decided based on the pros and cons provided in this book that I will be continuing, but it has addressed a lot of the issues I had.