Understanding 'Understanding Roman Catholicism'

[Melody]

As a follow up to David's suggestion to form a "chapter-by-chapter refutation of these anti-Catholic works" wrt Rick Jones' book "Understanding Roman Catholicism" [which incidentally I must say is such a cheap trick, having the very name of the book mislead] From this link (we're sending lot of traffic his way aren't we?!) http://www.chick.com/reading/books/160/160cont.asp , I found out:

The different chapters of the book are as follows:

Contents

Preface and Introduction
Who is The Final Authority?

37 Roman Catholic Doctrines

1 Salvation Through The Church
2 Salvation Through Good Works
3 The Church Forgives Sins
4 The One True Church
5 Baptism Saves
6 The Pope: Vicar of Christ - done here
7 The Pope: Infallible - done here
8 The Sacraments Save - done here
9 The Sin of Presumption
10 Infant Baptism - done here
11 Degrees of Sin - done here
12 Transubstantiation
13 Eucharist: Preserves from Sin
14 Eucharist: Helps the Dead - done here
15 Mary Saves
16 Mary: Saved from Birth
17 Mary: Perpetual Virgin
18 Mary: Source of Holiness
19 Mary: The Intercessor
20 Mary: Recipient of Prayers
21 Mary: Queen Over All Things
22 The Mass - done here
23 Purgatory - done here
24 Praying to Saints
25 Praying for the Dead
26 Statues
27 Confirmation - done here
28 Confessing Sins to a Priest
29 Indulgences  - done here
30 Interpreting God' s Word
31 Catholic Prayer - done here
32 Penance
33 Are Catholics Christ? - done here
34 Could 850 Million Catholics be Wrong? - done here
35 Reconciliation
36 Celibacy - done here
37 Last Rites - done here
Appendix 1 Confusion
Appendix 2 An Invitation
Appendix 3 God' s Plea - done here
Appendix 4 Liberty or Bondage?


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Here's a few random (& some unconnected) pts from me to you:
* Have I missed any?
* The threads answered are worth going through again to see if you have  anything to add to them, esp. if we're going to be putting up a section based on it.
* Shall we tackle some more chapters? If so, I vote for Mother Mary - surprising that the mother of our God hasn't been discussed here at all!
* Thx to all who gave permission to use their replies.
* David - any idea of the legality of doing such a thing?

All for now,

Melody

[Seeker]

I vote we tackle every chapter as much as possible, but definitely have to defend our Mother in Christ.  I have attached a file that contains a reply of mine to an unsolicited email I received from an anti-Catholic from another forum.  It discusses Baptism.  If anyone has time to read it, please let me know if I made any mistakes.  It may be a good starting place to refute the "Baptism Saves" chapter.  

My guess is that we may even have enough information from all the replies to probably organize a good refutation of just about all the chapters.  For example,  I think some of the information refuting the "Eucharist Helps the Dead" chapter can be used for the "Eucharist: Preserves from Sin" chapter and the "Praying to Saints" chapters.  Likewise, posts on Confession come from a different Anti-Catholic source, but can be used to refute a similar chapter in "Understanding Roman Catholicism".  The hardest part may be organizing the posts by chapter.

[Seeker]

I need to correct a few things from my earlier post.  I looked at our responses again and now realize that the "Eucharist Helps the Dead" response will not help with the "Eucharist: Preserves from Sin" chapter.  Also, Rev Eric already covered Infant Baptism thoroughly in his reply to that subject, although I touch on it in my attached file on Baptism.  

I am attaching a file I put together on the Eucharist that has Scriptural references, quotes from Church Fathers, the Catechism, and JPII's encyclical.  It's a work in progress but may be used as a starting point to respond to "Transubstantiation" and "Eucharist: Preserves from Sin".  It touches upon the relation of the priesthood to the Eucharist.  I put it together after a Protestant friend asked the question why only priests can preside at Mass and consecrate the bread and wine which becomes the Body, Soul, and Divinity of Christ.  He wondered why every believer couldn't do this themself. Of course, comments and corrections are welcomed and encouraged if you have time to look it over.  Thanks again.