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Was Leaving Christianity Punishable by Death in Church History?
Today we take religious freedom for granted — the ability to question, explore, or even leave a religion without fear. But for most of Christian history, that wasn’t the reality. In many eras, apostasy (leaving the Christian faith) and heresy (rejecting essential doctrine) were treated not just as spiritual errors, but as crimes that could…
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From Innocent III to Vatican II: Crusades, Religious Freedom, and the Magisterium
From Innocent III to Vatican II: Crusades, Religious Freedom, and the Magisterium By Michael Lofton I recently read a fascinating paper on the Albigensian Crusade, which shows that Pope Innocent III issued multiple papal documents authorizing the use of force against a group of non-combatant heretics in France. In return, lay participants who took up…
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Was Jehoiachin Eight or Eighteen? A Curious Biblical Discrepancy
If you’ve ever read through the Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles, you may have noticed they don’t always tell the same story in exactly the same way. Sometimes the differences are subtle—emphases, omissions, or phrasing. Other times, they appear more striking, even contradictory. One particularly curious example involves the age of King Jehoiachin…
2 Chronicles 36:9, 2 Kings 24:8, bible difficulties, bible interpretation, Bible Puzzles, biblical history, Biblical Inconsistencies, Biblical Studies, Co-regency Theory, Daniel Wallace, Evangelical Scholarship, Hebrew Manuscripts, Jehoiachin, Kings and Chronicles, Old Testament Contradictions, Old Testament Studies, Scribal Error, Septuagint, textual criticism -
Unity or Dissent? What Catholic Reactions to the Magisterium Reveal Today
I recently produced a series of shows exploring what several popes—and the most recent ecumenical council—have taught about salvation for non-Catholics. The response from online Catholics has been both fascinating and, at times, deeply troubling. The widespread ignorance of magisterial teaching, and the way many Catholics react when confronted with the very doctrines they claim…
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Did the Popes Contradict Themselves on Islam? A Closer Look at Jay Dyer’s Claim
Recently, someone sent me a clip of Eastern Orthodox apologist Jay Dyer claiming that the Catholic magisterium has contradicted itself—specifically on the topic of Islam. According to Jay, some popes have affirmed that Muslims worship the same God as Christians, while others, like Pope Urban II, allegedly declared that Muslims worship demons. Given that my…
