I just read the book, Roman Catholics and
Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences (Baker: 1995) by Norman Geisler
and Ralph MacKenzie. Overall, the book was okay in terms of an interaction with
Roman Catholicism. I thought it was better than some of the more
sensationalistic, poorly-researched works on Catholicism (e.g. the works of
Richard Bennet; Robert Zins; Lorainne Boettner; Jack Chick), but there are works that
are better critiques of Catholicism (e.g., Eric D. Svendsen, Who is My
Mother? The Role and Status of the Mother of Jesus in Roman Catholicism and
Evangelical Answers; George Salmon, The Infallibility of the Church). Indeed, a number of their arguments have been soundly
refuted by Catholic apologetic works that have come out after the book (e.g.
Robert A. Sungenis, Not by Faith Alone; Not by Scripture Alone and
Not by Bread Alone; Stephen Ray, Upon this Rock).
Regardless of its shortcomings, its critique of the
Marian doctrines (pp.299-330) is very well done, though more interaction with the
patristic literature would have been appreciated. On p. 314 n. 55, there is an
excellent comment on the common Catholic appeal to Old Testament “Marian types,”
most notably the Ark of the Covenant (they are responding to Patrick Madrid’s
article, “Mark, Ark of the New Covenant: A Biblical look at the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary”):
One Catholic apologist calls this the “most compelling type of Mary’s Immaculate Conception” (see Madrid, “Ark of the New Covenant,” p. 12). It is only compelling if one makes the unbiblical and unjustified assumption that it is a valid analogy. One can note certain similarities between many things that prove nothing (e.g., there are many strong similarities between good counterfeit currency and genuine bills). Thus, even proponents of this view have to admit that none of this “proves” the immaculate conception (ibid.). The ineptness of these kinds of analogies surface in Madrid’s question: “If you could have created your own mother [as God did in Mary], wouldn’t you have made her the most beautiful, virtuous, perfect woman possible?” (ibid.). Sure, I would have done a lot of things differently than God did. If I were God and could have created the most beautiful place for my Son to be born it would not have been a stinky, dirty animal stable! God, however, chose otherwise.
