For the biblical and logical arguments used against the Catholic Church I give the book 1 star (the lowest rating). That produces an average of about 2 stars which is what I rate this book overall.

I am a Catholic and appreciate the author's sincerity in his attempt to show the "unbiblical" nature of the Catholic Church which he left, but the major problem with all the supposed Biblical arguments in the book is the same as with any of the over 20,000 denominations of Protestantism:

Why should we accept the author's interpretation of the Bible on any of the many doctrines he discusses?

It is the perennial problem of authority and the author assumes the Protestant principle of Sola Scriptura from the start. He does not address the authority question in the book (except briefly in an appendix) but simply advances what he thinks are probable arguments (in his "Biblical Response" sections) for the many verses of Scripture he seeks to interpret (which he interprets from a modern Evangelical "baptistic" perspective).

He ignores the obvious Catholic rebuttal to his whole book that the "Christianity" he advances as true Christianity was unknown for at least 1,500 years. That is a simple historical fact demonstrated by the writings of the Church Fathers, the Saints and Doctors of the early Church up to the 16th century Protestant Reformation. But given the publisher is Harvest House this is not surprising (which is mainly Fundamentalist/Dispensationalist and publishes similar works by anti-Catholic critics like Dave Hunt).

There are also a number of misconceptions or misunderstandings of Catholic teaching in the book which can easily be discovered (and refuted) by reading Catholic sources (found on many excellent sites on the web). Although I acknowledge the author does quote from some Catholic sources in his book, generally the arguments advanced against Catholic doctrine are quite weak given the differences in Protestant belief on the very subjects discussed (e.g. Baptism, Eucharist, nature of Church government, and even Justification/Salvation).

What we are given primarily in the book is the Gospel According to James McCarthy. For the Gospel According to Rome please find the Catechism of the Catholic Church (which is indeed cited by McCarthy) for the whole truth about the Catholic Church.

A much better critique of Catholic teaching from an Evangelical perspective is the more fair work by Norm Geisler/Ralph Mackenzie _Roman Catholics and Evangelicals : Agreements and Differences_ published by Baker Books the same year as the McCarthy book (1995).

For a Catholic response the two books by Robert Sungenis (Not By Scripture Alone and Not By Faith Alone, both Queenship Publishing, 1997) are also available from Amazon.Com

Phil Porvaznik

Yawn! Old wine in a new wineskin
Review date: 1998-12-12 Rating: 2 out of 10

What McCarthy does right is to update classic anti-Catholic literature (see Lorain Boettner or Alexander Hislop)in a modern style. McCarthy wisely removes the vicious verbal attacks and tones down the absolute claims of Satanic control over the Catholic Church. Regretablly his text is simply a rehash of the same old errors and misrepresentations of Catholicism. While I sense McCarthy is sincere in his commitment to Christ, he needs to examine Catholicism from the original documents, authors and events. Too often McCarthy relies on misquotes, authors of questional repute, and revisionist history.