Answers To Mr. Comfort

As I talked about in the article, “Is the Church the Woman of Revelation 18?” there are many Evangelical Christians that believe that the Catholic Church is anti-Christ and that we Catholics are deceived biblical ignoramuses who pray to idols, pray to the dead and worship Mary. They depend on the lack of knowledge on the part of the average Catholic about what the Church and the Bible teaches on many key doctrines.

I ran across two things online in the last few days that got me thinking about this subject. One was a video posted by Father Leo Patalinghug of “Grace Before Meals”, the Catholic Channel on Sirius XM 129 and EWTN of a group of street evangelists in Philadelphia accosting him on his way to lunch and telling him in no uncertain terms that he was going to hell. You can watch the video here. The other was series of postings on Facebook by the man that many of these street preachers pattern themselves after, Ray Comfort.

Ray Comfort is a man from Australia who has a ministry, in which he is partnered with Kirk Cameron, which focuses primarily on accosting people on the street and using the Ten Commandments as witnessing tools. The postings in question are both very anti-Catholic and depend on Catholics not being well informed to counter the propaganda they present. One of the purposes of these articles here on Catholic365.Com is to help to equip Catholics to know what they believe and why they believe it. One video that I want to specifically address is called “How To Share the Gospel With a Roman Catholic” which is chock full of anti-Catholic misinformation.

“Catholic Church changed the Ten Commandments”

Many Evangelical Christian believe that because the list of the Ten Commandments differs between Catholic and Protestant listings that the Church changed them to eliminate the Second Commandment concerning graven images. Mr. Comfort brings up this point in his video and cites the Catholic Catechism. In doing so I’m not sure if he is playing on our ignorance as much as on the ignorance of the average would be street evangelist. The Catechism is a simplified teaching tool for instructing Catholics in the basics of the faith. It’s not a through dissertation on doctrine.

If one looks at Exodus 20 in what many Evangelical Christians probably think of as “the Catholic Bible”, the Douay–Rheims Bible, verse 4 is still there and quite intact. The average Catholic should know better than bite on this one since we’ve been taught the Catechism and know that this verse is covered in talking about the main point of the Commandment, verse 3 “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”. It doesn’t even make literary sense to make verse 4 a separate Commandment if you don’t also make verse 5 one. If the Commandments were written in modern form verse 3 would be the main point and verses 4, 5 and 6 sub points. But at no point did the Catholic Church remove verse 4 from the Bible.

It’s arrogance on the part of Mr. Comfort and his ilk to assume the Protestant version (500 years old) is right and the Catholic version (2,000 years old) is wrong. Worse than that, by teaching that, he is violating the 9^th Commandment about bearing false witness.

Mary Had Several Other Children

Mr. Comfort falls into the same trap that most Evangelical Christians do…that Catholics are ignorant of the Scripture and that if they just show us the verses we’ll immediately disown the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary. The verses in question are Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, Mark 6:3, and Luke 8:19-21. You’ll notice that in every verse but Mark 6:3 the word “brethren” is used. There, and there alone, the translators chose to use the word “brother”. The Greek word used in all the verses is the same: “adelphos”. This word can mean a brother or it can mean a close family member…like a cousin, for instance. The word sister only appears in Mark 6:3 and the Greek is the same word except in the feminine. So which is the accurate translation of it? The answer lies at the foot of the Cross.

In John 19:25-27 the Apostle John is at the foot of the Cross with the Lord’s mother Mary. Jesus looks at Mary and says, “Behold your Son” and to John He says, “Behold your mother”. Then we are told that John took her into his home (assumed responsibility for her care) from that day forward. But why would Jesus do this if He had younger brothers and sisters? By the Jewish Law it would have been their responsibility… not John’s (who many Bible scholars believe was a cousin of Jesus). To believe that Mary had other children is to believe that Jesus committed a violation of the Law at the last minute on the Cross…thereby sinning and negating His worthiness as the Lamb of God.

The Church also teaches that it’s possible that Joseph had children from a previous marriage, but this is a matter of Sacred Tradition and shouldn’t be cited in dealing with folks like Mr. Comfort.

The Church that Mr. Comfort and so many of his brethren believe was apostate idol worshippers is the Church that gave the world the very Bible which they try to use against us. But if you are a good student of both the Scriptures and the Church you won’t be fooled and fall prey to them. God bless you as you serve the Lord in the fullness of fellowship of the Church founded by and preserved by the Lord Himself.