Shameless Popery: Recent Episodes
Catholic Answers
Shameless Popery is a witty, entertaining podcast that informs you about your Catholic faith and equips you to better explain Catholicism especially to Protestant or atheist friends.
Joe Heschmeyer explores the history of the Queen Mother among Davidic Kings and what it reveals about Mary.…
Joe Heschmeyer examines Simulation Theory, it's coherence, and what it reveals about materialistic atheism.…
Joe Heschmeyer addresses arguments against the Papacy made from the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch.…
Joe Heschmeyer addresses the theological implications of false predictions from the Seventh day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses.…
Joe Heschmeyer revisits the problem of essential doctrines and why Protestant apologists all fail to answer it.…
Joe Heschmeyer examines the biblical evidence in support of confessing your sins to a priest.…
Joe Heschmeyer examines the supposed pagan origins of Halloween or "All Hallows Eve" and answers the question: Should Christians boycott Halloween?…
Joe Heschmeyer examines the martyrdom of St. Tarcisius and what it reveals about the early church.…
Joe Heschmeyer explores how the Eucharistic Theology of the early church was used to fight the heresy of gnosticism and what widespread denial of Christ's true presence in the blessed sacrament says about modern Christianity.…
Joe Heschmeyer examines Protestant critiques of papal authority and the problem of personal interpretation.…
Joe Heschmeyer examines the evidence found in Ignatius of Antioch's writings proving that the early church was indeed Catholic.…
Joe Heschmeyer responds to Dr. Gavin Ortlund's claim that Roman Catholics disagree about the essential doctrines of Christianity as much as Protestants do.…
Joe Heschmeyer addresses the way in which we are called to be instruments of salvation in light of Acts 4: 12 "there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved."…
Joe Heschmeyer examines the true biblical meaning of "worship," how it relates to the second commandment, and what Evangelical Protestantism is missing.…
Joe Heschmeyer exposes one fatal flaws in Protestantism that unravels the whole movement.…
Joe Heschmeyer explains why the Catholic doctrine of the papacy isn’t solely based on Matthew 16:18 offering insights from his book, Pope Peter.…
Joe Heschmeyer explores the complex theological implications of Judas' betrayal, examining whether Jesus' choice of Judas suggests a deeper, potentially troubling divine plan.…
Joe Heschmeyer discusses objections to Mary’s perpetual virginity, offering a unique perspective on this Catholic Doctrine in light of Christ’s virgin tomb and the biblical meaning of “holiness.”Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shamus Popery. I’m Joe Hess Meyer and today I want to explore the perpetual virginity of Mary. This idea Catholics and Orthodox have that Mary remained a virgin her entire life, even after Jesus was born and which sounds to many Protestant ears like a totally unbiblical and even anti-biblical kind of belief. Now, my point today is not t…
Joe Heschmeyer explores the unique mystery of the Church revealed by Judas, the apostle who betrayed Christ.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery; I’m Joe Heschmeyer and today I want to talk about the church because I can’t tell you the number of times Protestants have told me some variation of the idea that when scripture speaks of the church, they don’t mean anything visible, but instead that they mean an invisible collection of the saved or those who have a living relationship with Jesus Christ or the predestined or the elect. Depending on the theology, you…
Joe Heschmeyer responds to Mike Gendron’s recent appearance on Allie Beth Stuckey’s podcast “Relatable,” addressing his numerous lies about the Roman Catholic Church.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery; I’m Joe Heschmeyer. Last week, Mike Gendron will an Ellie best show to talk as an ex-Catholic about what the Catholic church really believes. Now that’s a sketchy premise in general. It’s like calling somebody to find out what their ex is like as a way of finding out the truth about them, but it’s particularly a problem in the ca…
Joe Heschmeyer addresses misinterpretations of the prophecy in Danial 2, while presenting a balanced view of it’s relationship to the Catholic Church.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery; I’m Joe Heschmeyer. If you were to ask Christians whether or not the Catholic church makes an appearance in the Bible, you’re probably going to get two answers. non-Catholic Christians like Protestants are going to say no. The Catholic church didn’t exist at the time of the New Testament. So either we don’t see any appearances of the Catholic church in the Bible,…
Joe Heschmeyer addresses one of the most common verses cited in arguments against the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.Transcription:Welcome back to Shameless Popery; I’m Joe Heschmeyer. At the end of the Bread of Life Discourse. Jesus says, it is the spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no avail. The words that I’ve spoken to you are spirit and life. Okay? Does that mean that everything Jesus had just said about eating his flesh and drinking his blood is just a metaphor? In this episode, I’m going to show that reading John six in that way doesn̵…
Joe Heschmeyer addresses common objections to the Assumption of Mary, showing why they ultimately fail.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery; I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So the assumption of Mary, that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven was not declared a dog bomb the Catholic church until 1950. Some of you watching or listening to this were literally alive when that happened. So I completely understand when Protestants are dubious and say, I don’t think there’s a good biblical or historical case for that dogma. What I want to do today is explore what I think …
Joe Heschmeyer addresses Christ’s use of parables in the Gospels and the contention around apparent biblical ambiguities as they relate to Protestants, Catholics, and non-Christians.Transcription:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. I was recently asked a really interesting question, why wasn’t Jesus clearer? And the person who asked me, I don’t actually know their faith background. So I can imagine two versions of this question. One would be the non-Christian or the non-believer of whatever Stripe who says, why doesn’t God manifest himself a …
Joe Heschmeyer tackles wide ranging errors about the differences between men and women, revealing the authentic, Catholic view of male/female difference.Transcription:Speaker 1:Despite the fact that well-formed common sense tells us that men and women are different and that this is good. Our world is boiling over with polarized viewpoints on this topic ranging from neuroscientists to gender theorists, from trans activists to Andrew Tate. The subject of male and female difference is hot in the public arena right now, and people are arguing either that men and women aren’t really differ…
Joe Heschmeyer examines the Old and New Testaments and the biblical proof for Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe, HES Meyer. I want to explore a pretty straightforward biblical connection. What connection is there, if any, between the Old Testament manna and the Eucharist in the New Testament? Because this is a question on which the Bible seems to speak a lot, but is surprisingly controversial among Catholics and Protestants. So in John six, for instance, Jesus says, I’m the bread of life. Your fathers ate th…
Joe Heschmeyer examines the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF), it’s many violations of human dignity, and horrifying implications.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. What is IVF in vitro fertilization all about? And why should everyone but particularly Christians and pro-lifers be against it, be even horrified by it? Now for context, recently the Southern Baptist Convention put out what appeared to be an anti IVF statement. More on that in a second. And I was asked over on Patreon, this is a subtle way of telling you, you should also join Patreon. That what do we…
Joe Heschmeyer dispels confusion about the subject of female ordination, examining the meaning of priesthood and what it reveals about God.Transcription:Why won’t the Catholic church just ordain women as priests? That is one of the most common questions that I as a Catholic get from non-Catholics, and I think it’s unsatisfying to them to hear the first part of the answer, which is that from a Catholic perspective, the church can’t ordain women as priests. Then John Paul II was completely clear about this point where he said that the teaching that priestly ordination is to…
Joe Heschmeyer responds to Alex O’Connor’s claims about Biblical inconsistency in his debate with Dinesh D’Souza.Transcription:Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So I finally got around to watching the debate between Alex O’Connor and Dinesh D’Souza. And let me tell you, as a Christian, it was somehow even worse than I thought it was going to be. For a guy who spends a lot of time complaining about genocides and massacre in the Bible, Alex O’Connor had no problem publicly murdering Dinesh dea. Now that might sound un char…
Joe Heschmeyer addresses theological claims about Trump’s assassination attempt and survival.Transcription:Donald Trump nearly was assassinated and it’s only because he turned his head at the last second that he ended up having the bullet nick his ear instead of ending his life. Does that odds defying survival prove that the hand of the Lord is upon him, the hand of providence is with him, and Christians should get aboard backing Donald Trump? That’s what I want to explore today, and I want to say at the outset a few things. Number one, this isn’t really an episode …
Joe Heschmeyer examines the evidence of miracles and the case they make for Catholicism’s validity.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. What do we make of miracle claims? On the one hand, they’re all over the old and New Testament. On the other hand, I think as Christians it can be a little awkward that it’s like, oh yeah, but miracles sound ridiculous to many modern people and certainly to non-Christians. Miracles can be a source of mockery and derision. Take for instance, Richard Dawkins book, the God Delusion, which he suggests t…
Joe Heschmeyer responds to the popular “one less God” argument for atheism, showing how it fails on many fronts.Transcription:There’s an argument that I see atheists put forward against Christianity that I do not understand why they make it. And it’s the argument that as atheists, they just disbelieve in one more God than Christians disbelieve in. Or to put it another way, they believe in one less God or one fewer God. It’s super confusing as to which one to use. Normally you’d say fewer, but in the case of one, it might be less. I dunno, grammatically the…
Joe Heschmeyer examines the subject of demonic activity, posession, and exorcism and the case it presents for the truthfulness of Catholicism.Transcription:Demonic possessions, miraculous cures, exorcisms. These things play a pretty big part of the New Testament story as Graham 12 tree points out, the academic dean for the London School of Theology. Of all the activities associated with Jesus in the synoptic gospels, Matthew, mark, and Luke exorcism appears to be the single activity that took the greatest amount of his time. Now, you would not know that listening to the way a lot of modern C…
Joe Heschmeyer responds to the “who created God” argument. Drawing on philosophical insights, he challenges atheists to move beyond this flawed argument and explore more substantial discussions about the existence and nature of God.Transcription:One of the most common arguments I hear against Christianity, and against religion more broadly is this idea that we don’t need a creator. If you say, hey, creation needs a creator, the response is also, well, who made God or who created God. In fact, this is such a common problem it has its own Wikipedia entry called The Problem of…
In this 4th of July special, Joe Heschmeyer tackles Christian questions about patriotism and how it relates to our life in Christ.Transcription:Joe:Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans, for those of you not from the United States. 4th of July is of course our independence Day, the day when we successfully declared independence from England, from Britain. Now these days there’s like 65 countries on earth that can say some form of that, but we did it first. And I’m not here to bash on England. In fact, one might say this is a good day for England as well. After all her America…
Who decided which books belong in the Bible? How many books did they decide? Do we today as Christians have the right ones? Joe Heschmeyer covers these questions and more in today’s episode.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery; I’m Joe Heschemeyer. and I want to explore three questions today. Number one, who decided which books belong in the Bible? Number two, how many books did they decide? And number three, do we today as Christians have the right ones? Jessica, over on Patreon, which by the way is in the link below, recommended that I do a response to this video…
Joe Heschmeyer explores what constituted Sacred Scripture in the time of Jesus.Transcription:Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. What did the Bible look like at the time of Jesus? That’s the question I want to explore today. Did it look more or less like the Bibles that we have carrying around our bone, personal KJV or RSV or ESV or NAB or whatever, or did it look radically different than that? And I think we’re going to find out the answer is it looks radically different and in some ways that are really important for how we make sense of the Bible itself. I want to start by j…
Joe Heschmeyer goes toe to toe with Chat-GPT, rebutting the internet’s best large language model’s arguments against Catholicism.Transcription:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. I want to do something different today and specifically I wanted to try out chat GPT-4o. Now there’s a lot of different ways you can do this and I in particular want to look at arguments against Catholicism. So I have not done this yet. I actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever used chat GPT for, so this is a brand new one. I actually had to pay $20 to get a month subsc…
Some representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention announced that they’re going to push for the SBC to officially adopt the Nicene Creed. Creeds are necessary but can Baptists actually affirm the Nicene Creed in good faith? Joe Heschmeyer addresses this question and more in today’s episode of Shameless Popery.Transcription:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer, and I want to explore a fascinating thing going on in the world of Southern Baptist. The Southern Baptist Convention is coming up and there’s a push to change what’s called the Baptist…
Joe Heschemeyer picks apart a popular 101 video on Martin Luther’s revolt, pointing out many painfully common factual inaccuracies.Transcription:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So we’re talking about the reformation, particularly the beginning of the Reformation with Martin Luther. I think a lot of people feel like they have a pretty good grip on the basic story, and the basic story tends to go something like this. On October the 31st of 1517, a Catholic monk and priest named Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germa…
In this episode, Joe Heschmeyer explores the historical evidence surrounding 2 Kings 19 and the mysterious destruction of the Assyrian armies.Transcription:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Hess Meyer. So I want to start with a strange passage from the Old Testament. It’s Isaiah 37, verse 36, and it says that the angel of the Lord went forth and slew 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when men arose early in the morning, behold these were all dead bodies. Then Rab King of Assyria departed and went home and dwelt at Nineveh. So this is a strange passage for a number…
Protestants sometimes object that we shouldn’t (or at least don’t need to) ask the Saints and angels for their prayers, since we can go directly to God. After all, they argue, the Temple veil that once impeded our access to God is now torn… right? That argument, which is also used against the Catholic priesthood, misinterprets this critical moment in the New Testament (and ignores the quite different way that the Epistle to the Hebrews interprets the same event). So what does it mean to say that the veil is now torn?Transcription:Welcome back to Shameless Popery, I’m …
Joe Heschmeyer discusses how we as Catholics can respond to various levels of Church scandals – legitimate and sensationalized. Transcript:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. I want to discuss the issue of responding to scandal today. I’m going to talk about this from a Catholic perspective, but if you’re not a Catholic Christian and you’re some other kind of Christian, I think 99.5% of this you’re going to relate to, even if the examples I use are specifically Catholic ones. But the basic problem is this. If you’ve been Catho…
Modern Christians tend to misunderstand two of Jesus’ most radical teachings: his prohibition against divorce and remarriage, and his teaching about the Church. But what if this isn’t just a coincidence? After all, the biblical texts explaining marriage tend to do so by comparing it to Christ’s relationship with the Church, and vice versa. Does this explain why the Protestant Reformers broke with the earliest Christians (and the New Testament) on both of these doctrines? And also… does getting this wrong open the door to polygamy? Transcript:Welcome back to Sham…
Jesus’ teaching on marriage (and particularly on divorce and remarriage) is so radical that his stunned disciples respond, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry” (Matt. 19:10). So what is Jesus’ radical teaching, and why don’t more Christians know about (or follow) that teaching? And is it true that Jesus creates an “exception” for divorce and remarriage in cases of adultery? (Answer: no.)…
In light of the war between Israel and Palestine, accusations of anti-Semitism in the fight between Ben Shaprio and Candace Owens, and some of your own comments… how SHOULD Christians think of biblical Israel, the Jewish people, and the modern nation-state of Israel? What role, if any, does the Old Covenant play today? And is it heretical to speak of the Jewish people as still the “people of God” in any sense?…
In Acts 5, when the Apostles are on trial before the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee named Gamaliel (the same Gamaliel that St. Paul studied under) provided a simple test to determine if a religion really came from God or not. So what was his test, and what does it mean for the credibility and legitimacy of Catholicism, Protestantism, Mormonism, and Islam?…
As Catholics, it’s easy to point out how divided Protestantism is, with all of its different denominations. But what about all of the divisions within Catholicism between “conservative” and “liberal” Catholics, Traditionalists, Charismatics, or a thousand other possible splits? As it turns out, the objection that Catholics are just as divided as Protestants isn’t a new one… and nor is the problem of unity within the one Church. So here’s how St. John Henry Newman, Cardinal Ratzinger, and St. Paul responded to this argument. Transcript:Wel…
Catholics (and Orthodox) believe that the Church is infallible, whereas Protestants tend to believe that only the Bible is unerring in this way. But which of these approaches looks more like what we see in the Bible itself? Here’s how Jesus’ teachings only work with Infallibility. Transcript:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So I want to do a two-week series this week and next week on the theme of Christian Unity, and I’m purposely syncing this up to tie with next week being holy Thursday in which we have the last Supper because it’s at…
Each year on St. Patrick’s Day, certain Baptists will claim that St. Patrick wasn’t REALLY a Catholic, but was instead a Baptist. But what do we learn from listening to St. Patrick in his own words? And what do we know about the world of St. Patrick from those who lived during his lifetime? As it turns out, Patrick was way more Catholic than you may realize… and he was quite explicit about this fact! Transcript:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, which means I’m wearing a green shirt, …
Christopher Hitchens famously claimed that “religion poisons everything,” and Steven Weinberg argued that “with or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil – that takes religion.” Here are six reasons those are silly arguments.Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So about 20 years ago, we saw the rise of what’s sometimes called New Atheism, although it’s not that new anymore. It was kind of the convalescence of a number of authors and thinkers, people like Richard Dawkins, Christopher H…
To a lot of non-Catholics, it seems obvious that Catholics go overboard when it comes to Mary, and a lot of people assume this is just because of traditions or something. But what if there’s a biblical basis for treating Mary as an indispensable part of authentic spiritual warfare? Welcome back to Shameless Property. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So last week I looked at the fact that the earliest Christians talk a lot about Mary as the new Eve and give a surprisingly prominent place to her. And for many non-Catholics, particularly Protestants, this can be a bit unusual because r…
As far back as we have evidence that Matthew, Mark, Luke,and John are the four Gospels, we have evidence that these same Christians believed that the Virgin Mary had a special role to play in the story of our salvation as the “New Eve,” and that “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what Eve had bound fast through unbelief, thus did Mary set free through faith.” But is this vision of Mary based on the Bible? and what does it mean for Christianity?Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer. A production of Catholic Answers.…
With the recent end to the NFL season and the dawn of a political rematch between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, it seems timely to ask: is it wrong to root AGAINST the other side, instead of just rooting for your own side? Isn’t that the sin of envy? Well… it depends.Announcer:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. It is February 2024 and there’s a lot going on in the United States right now, particularly on the political an…
Should Christians celebrate Lent? or is Lent an unchristian invention of the Roman Catholic Church? …
The Protestant Reformer John Calvin claimed that from all eternity, God has predestined some people to heaven (the elect) and others to hell (the reprobate), and there’s nothing anyone can do to go from one category to the other. In this episode, Joe Heschmeyer asks if this is what the earliest Christians believed. Calvin’s own answer on that question might surprise you. …
While Catholics and Protestants often debate what St. Paul and St. James mean about justification, what if we’re missing the sola fide silver bullet? Here are three basic questions that cut to the heart of the debate over “faith alone” and how we’re saved.Speaker 1:You’re listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today I want to do two things. One, I want to explore this big question, are we saved by faith alone or are we saved by faith a…
For the Protestant Reformers, and for many Protestants today, justification by faith alone (sola fide) isn’t just the biggest issue separating Protestants from Catholics. It is “the central, chief article by which the Christian doctrine and the Christian Church stands and falls,” and without this teaching, Luther claimed that “the church of God cannot subsist one hour.” But is any of that true? Or did the Church subsist for 1500 years before the Reformers invented sola fide? Here’s what the finest Protestant scholars have to say about early Christianity̷…
Protestants sometimes describe the Reformation as a sort of return to the early Church, away from what are claimed to be corrupt Medieval Catholic practices. But is that really true? Let’s take a closer look at six major controversies in the earliest days of Christianity,/ (including the fights against Docetism, Gnosticism, Novatianism, Donatism, and the persecution of Christians by the Romans). The results might surprise you! …
It’s not hard to find bad news for the Catholic Church today, whether it be the decline of Christianity in the West, or the increasingly public infighting within the Church (most recently, over Fiducia Supplicans and the idea of blessing same-sex couples), or any number of Catholic Church scandals. Given all of this, is this a sign that the ship is finally going down? Or does some historical context help to make sense of the present messiness? Specifically, what can we learn from the apparent victory of the Arian heresy in the golden age of the Church?Speaker 1:You’re listening…
Many of us grew up hearing about how “three kings” came to visit the baby Jesus, only to learn later that Matthew actually calls them “magi,” or “wise men,” and doesn’t mention there being only three of them. In fact, much of what we think we know about this passage might be wrong. So who were these men? And is it really likely that they “worshipped” Jesus, as Matthew says? Also: what do we make of their mysterious gifts? …
Maybe you’ve heard the claims that Christmas is on December 25th because of some pagan festival: either Saturanlia, or Sol Invictus, or the birthday of Mithras, or some such. But is that really true? Joe unpacks the lies and falsehood spread by the “Living Church of God” in their video “Christmas Is Pagan—Here’s Why It Matters & What You Should Do About It.”Speaker 1:You’re listening to Shameless Popery, with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. Today I w…
It’s common this time of year to hear about Jesus being born to an “unwed mother.” But is that accurate? Why do some Bible translations say that Joseph and Mary were “espoused,” while others say “betrothed,” “pledged,” or even “engaged”? And if they were only engaged (or dating!), why does Matthew 1 refer to Joseph as Mary’s “husband” and talk about how he considered divorcing her? …
Do you believe the same things about the Eucharist (or Lord’s Supper) that Jesus taught and that the Apostles and earliest Christians believed? Here are 5 ways of knowing — the true teaching is strange, sacrificial, serious, sacramental, and even SHOCKING.Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery, with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today, I want to explore a fivefold test for Eucharistic theology. Because when you look at what the Bible has to say about the Eucharist, whe…
Whether they call it “eternal security,” “perseverance of the saints,” or “once saved, always saved,” many Protestants believe that once a person enters into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, that they can never lose their salvation. And there are Bible verses that DO seem to say that… if you read them a certain way. But if this is what the Bible really teaches, why didn’t the early Christians seem to know about this teaching? And why do so many Christians today read the Bible as denying eternal security?Speaker 1:You are listening to…
If Purgatory is true, how do we make sense of the Good Thief on the Cross? And what about Isaiah’s experience with the burning coal in Isaiah 6? And in any case, didn’t Christ do it all on the Cross? It turns out, there are good biblical answers to each of these Protestant objections.Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. I want to continue the theme of purgatory. At three weeks ago, I think it was, I did a video on the “Subject is …
Fr. James Martin proposes a “minority interpretation” of the parable of the talents (made famous by Sr. Barbara Reid, O.P.) in which the Master is unjust and the third servant is honorable for standing up to him. But is that really what we’re supposed to take from the parable of the talents? Or is there something deeper and more profound at hand? In particular, what can we learn from the biblical context of Matthew 24-25, from the interpretations of the early Christians, and from the liturgical context? And how can we respond to the “entrustment” of God in both th…
How are the Saints a “proof” of Christianity? Can’t you be good without God? You might be surprised to learn what Jesus has to say on this subject… or what it would mean for us to take His teaching seriously.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today, I want to explore the fifth of five arguments that Benedict the XVI, Joseph Ratzinger, later Benedict the XVI made against atheism and for theism and in this case Christianity specifically. So, we’ve already looked at science and intelligibility, the meaning of life, exist…
Does beauty point to the existence of God? Or can we explain it away as a “spandrel,” an unintentional side effect of natural selection? And if beauty DOES point to God, what role should it play in Christian evangelization… and liturgy?Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today I want to explore a different kind of question. So if you’ve been following this, you’ll know that other than a digression I took last week,…
Is purgatory biblical, or is it just a Catholic man-made tradition? In this video, Joe presents four different arguments showing the existence of purgatory IS biblical, and responds to four of the most common criticisms of the doctrine of purgatory.Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So I’m going to actually interrupt the five-week series I’m doing on answering atheism, because it’s that time of year when people have a lot of que…
Stephen Hawking, Pope Benedict XVI, and a lot of other brilliant people considered the Ultimate Question of Life to be: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” Does this argument defeat atheism? And are Richard Dawkins, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Lawrence Krauss right to think “science” proves that something can come from nothing?Speaker 1:You’re listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today, I want to explore a really simple, strai…
Some atheists (like Sam Harris) claim that morality and the meaning of life can exist without God… but other atheists (like Friedrich Nietzsche) said the opposite. So is it possible for atheists to have an objective moral code, and find meaning in life itself?Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery, I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today I want to explore the idea that life without God is meaningless. And I know that might sound like I’m just being insulting or somethin…
How, according to Albert Einstein (and later, Pope Benedict XVI), did science point to a Divine Intelligence who created the universe? And is this claim refuted (or supported) by quantum physics? …
Who are Seventh-day Adventists, and what do they believe? For starters, they’re Adventists, meaning that they believe that Christ is about to return. The “Seventh-day” part of their name refers to their believe that Christians should make holy Saturday, not Sunday (which they view as a compromise with paganism and with Catholicism). And behind a lot of this is the theology and alleged revelations of a woman named Ellen Gould White, who accused Constantine and the pope of changing the Christian holy day from Saturday to Sunday. So how might a non-Adventist respond?Speaker 1:…
Some Baptists (most famously J.M. Carroll, in his 1931 work “The Trail of Blood”) claim that Baptists aren’t REALLY Protestants. Instead, the theory goes, there have been Baptists for 2000 years, and the only reasons nobody had heard of them until after the Protestant Reformation is that (a) they used to go by different names, and (b) the Catholic Church killed 50,000,000(!) of them. So… is any of that true?While I’m focusing on Baptists, other groups (like the Seventh-day Adventists) have their own versions of this kind of history, and most of what I’m a…
Many Protestants object to praying to Mary and the Saints because they think (1) it’s impossible to reach them (are they even conscious in Heaven?); (2) they can’t hear all of our prayers, in various languages, simultaneously; and (3) it’s sinful to try to reach them (how is this any different than a Ouija board?). These objections are reasonable enough… but they’re all wrong. Here’s why.Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Pope. I’m Joe He…
One argument that Protestants like Dr. Gavin Ortlund make is that early Christians like Origen (185-253) denied that intercessory prayers could be made to the Saints. But is that true? It turns out, digging a little deeper reveals a very different picture.Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So if you’ve been following the last couple of weeks and you don’t need to have for this video to make sense, I think, I’ve been looking at c…
Dr. Gavin Ortlund (like many Protestants) believes that prayers to Mary and the Saints are of pagan origin, and not an authentic expression of Christianity. What does the actual biblical and other historical evidence show? …
Does praying to Mary and the Saints draw you away from, or towards, Jesus? Dr. Gavin Ortlund claims that Medieval Catholics’ prayers to Mary prove that they viewed Jesus as far off, and thus needed to appeal to Mary and the Saints. But what do actual Medieval historians – and the writings of the Medieval Catholics themselves – have to say on the subject?Speaker 1:You’re listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So, today I want to explore the firs…
One of the most controversial aspects of LDS (Mormon) theology is what it teaches about “plural marriage” or polygamy. But many times, non-Mormons make bad arguments against this teaching. So here are some arguments to NOT use, as well as three important dimensions to consider in discussing the doctrine.
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Do Mormons worship Jesus? (And why does the LDS Church seem to contradict itself on this point?) Is Jesus YHWH in the Old Testament? And did Mormon prophets really teach that we should only worship Adam? Also… did Joseph Smith teach that there were two or three members of the Godhead? And what does all of this mean for the credibility of Mormonism today?
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You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.
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Welcome Back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today I want to continue a theme. I started last …
Modern LDS Mormon resources claim that Mormons are just another denomination of Christians, sharing a common belief in the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) with Catholics and Protestants and Orthodox. But is that true? In this two-part series, Joe will take a closer look at what the LDS Church REALLY teaches about the Trinity, and about the Father, Son, and Spirit… as well as claims of other divine beings.
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The single BIGGEST doctrine to know for Catholic / LDS discussions is the so-called “Great Apostasy.” If LDS are right about it, it disproves the Catholic Church. But if Catholics are right about it, it disproves the LDS church. So what does Scripture and history say: did the Church founded by Jesus Christ really go into apostasy right away?
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Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. Today, I want to cover a continuation of last week’s …
When LDS (Mormon) missionaries come to your door, how should you respond? And – no less important- how SHOULDN’T you respond? Here’s what we can learn from the Apostle Peter, Blaise Pascal, and St. Dominic on correcting Mormons “with advantage.”
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Is the Bible “self-attesting”? In other words, can we tell which books belong in the Bible from the Bible itself, or do we need the Church? Protestant Reformers like John Calvin argued we only needed the Bible (and the “internal witness” of the Holy Spirit). Here’s why they’re wrong.
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Did a “lost” book of the Bible, lost to modern Protestants anyhow, foretell the life and death of Jesus Christ? And if so, how did this book of the Bible end up getting removed from Protestant Bibles… and why?
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Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today I want to do something a little bit different. Last week, if you remember, I started looking at the question of the Bible. How do we know which books belong in the Bible? Why do …
Catholics regularly accuse Protestants of removing seven books from the Bible… but Protestants like Todd Friel claim that no, Catholics were the ones who added seven books at the time of the Reformation. So who’s telling the truth about history, and how can we know for sure?
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There’s no such thing as “Protestant worship,” since there are huge variations in how Protestants approach Sunday services. But one area upon which Protestants are nearly unanimous is in their denial of the sacrificial nature of the Mass. But what does omitting sacrifice from Sunday do to our ability to call Protestant services “worship”?
Joe Heschmeyer:
Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So I wanted to continue the theme of last week. Last week, I talked about how integral the Eucharist is to understanding Christianity. That if you don…
In anticipation for the the release of my NEW BOOK ON THE EUCHARIST, this week I’m asking: what is the connection between the Eucharist and the New Covenant, and why do we need the Eucharist to make sense of Christianity?
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Mike Gendron calls belief in venial sins a “doctrine of demons,” and Evangelical Protestants often claim that “all sins is deadly.” So why does St. John teach the exact opposite of this?
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Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today I want to explore a question. Are some sins worse than others? Are all sins equally bad, or are there degrees of sin? For instance, are there mortal sins and venial sins? And this is, as you might…
Anti-Catholic Mike Gendron went viral with an hour-long presentation arguing that Catholics aren’t really Christians… but what many viewers don’t realize is that many of his claims about Catholicism and Church history were pure falsehoods. Here’s why he doesn’t want you to read the Church Fathers for yourself.
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Welcome back to Shameless Popery. My name is Joe Heschmeyer. And I want to respond today to an extremely popular anti-Catholic video. And …
National (and even international news) reported that the body of a nun in Gower, Missouri was found incorruptible after being buried for four years, and without having been embalmed. In this episode, we’ll take a look at her up close, and then consider whether she really is incorruptible, and why that matters.Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shamus Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. I want to explore today the role of miracles and evangelization.How big of a deal should we make …
Now that Jesus has ascended to heaven, what do believers do next? Each of the four Gospels answers that question in their own way, focusing on the need for (a) evangelization, (b) the Church, and (c) the pope.Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So throughout the Easter season, I’ve been looking, fittingly enough I think, at the resurrection, all the different resurrection appearances recorded in the New Testament. And the core of that has be…
What does the road to Emmaus encounter (Luke 24:13-35) tell us about (a) the likelihood that the Resurrection appearances were hallucinations, (b) the relationship between Jesus and the Old Testament Scriptures, and (c) the way Christ continues to be present in the Eucharist today?Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Speaker 2:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. As you may know, I’ve been doing a series this Easter season exploring fittingly enough the resurrection. I’m looking at the biblical evidence for the r…
When 1 Corinthians 15 lists the people who saw the risen Jesus, there’s a notable omission: the women who were the first to discover the empty Tomb. So why does their testimony matter, how was it used against early Christians, and how does it help prove the case for the Resurrection today?Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shamless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So throughout this Easter season, I took a break last week to interview Archbishop Nowman. But other than that, throughout this Easter season, each week I’ve been exploring one angle of the resurrection, one bit of evid…
I sit down with Archbishop Naumann to ask questions (submitted by members of Catholic Answers’ monthly donor club, Society 315) on a wide range of topics, like:— divine foreknowledge and the existence of hell (plus: how many people are in hell?);— the role of bishops correcting one another with charity and clarity;— the American and German bishops;— the Eucharistic revival and liturgical reverence;— the need for evangelization in society and in the family, etc.Enjoy! …
In this episode, we look at the little-known story of the “Corinthian Creed” and its implications. So what is the Corinthian Creed, just how old is it, and what does it tell us about the case for the Resurrection?Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So I’m doing a little bit of a theme during Easter where I just unpack particular arguments for the resurrection. Rather than looking at the whole case, it’s going piece by piece.S…
In Acts 2, St. Peter gets up at Pentecost and declares that (a) Jesus’ Tomb is empty because He is risen, and (b) that the Apostles are all witnesses of the risen Christ.Do we have any good reason to believe that this really happened? How do we know that St. Peter was telling the truth? How do we know that Acts 2 is historically accurate? (Did St. Luke just invent this Pentecost sermon?)…
Why do Christians believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? After all, there are several other possibilities: (1) that Jesus didn’t REALLY die; (2) that Jesus’ Body wasn’t really buried in the Tomb, but was left up on the Cross to be eaten by animals; (3) that the biblical language of “resurrection” was just meant as a metaphor; (4) that the story of the Resurrection is a later Christian legend; or (5) that the Apostles were knowingly lying about the Resurrection. So what’s the case against all of those denials of the Resurrection… and…
How does Good Friday “work” exactly? Is the Father pouring out His Wrath upon the Son? Or is there a better way of making sense of Calvary?…
The argument from science (a.k.a. the argument from intelligibility) isn’t that this or that scientific experiment proves God’s existence, but that science itself isn’t possible without God. Here’s how the argument works, and an answer to the most common objection. …
The Lord’s Prayer or “Our Father,” is the most famous prayer in Christian, given to us by Jesus himself. But did you know that there’s a deeply Catholic meaning to this prayer, in what it reveals about formal prayer, about the Church, about the Eucharist, and about the impossibility of “salvation by faith alone”?…
What’s the argument from desire, and how can we effectively use it in evangelization? In this episode, we’ll look at variations from Pope Francis, author C.S. Lewis, mathematician Blaise Pascal, former NFL quarterback Tom Brady, philosopher Peter Kreeft, and Jesus Christ. …
Most Protestants believe that Mary wasn’t a perpetual virginity. After all, doesn’t the Bible say that Joseph and Mary remained celibate only “until” the birth of Jesus? And doesn’t the New Testament describe the “brothers” of Jesus? So what are the biblical reasons Catholics and Orthodox are convinced that Mary WAS a perpetual virgin? …
One objection that the atheist Emerson Green makes against Christianity is that there’s no way to harmonize the merciful God of Christianity, with God in the Old Testament seemingly commanding genocide. So how do we make sense of this apparent contradiction? …
What are the three spiritual traps that St. John warns against in 1 John 2:16, and how exactly are they combatted by the three spiritual weapons Jesus gives in Matthew 6 (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving), and by the three evangelical counsels Jesus gives in Matthew 19 (poverty, chastity, and obedience)? …
One of the most common objections to the idea of hell is that it’s incompatible with the idea that God is both all-powerful and all-loving. But is that the case? To answer this, we need to reconsider what we mean about God, heaven and hell, and goodness. …
A group of Baptist seminary students invited me to speak to them about why I reject the Protestant principle of sola scriptura (that doctrines come from the Bible alone). Here’s what I told them. …
There are stark political divides between the people (including Christians) who care about the environment, and the ones who care about the unborn. But instead of viewing these issues as unrelated (or even as “opposing” issues), is there a Christian case to be made for pro-life environmentalism? Here’s what Pope Benedict XVI had to say.…
Leviticus 18:22 condemns same-sex activity. But who cares? After all, Leviticus condemns things like eating shrimp. So is there any legitimate reason to accept parts of Leviticus as still binding, while treating other parts as obsolete?Speaker 1:You’re listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery, I’m Joe Heschmeyer. I want to talk today about the old law and what its role is for Christians. Is the Old Testament law still binding, the Law of Moses? So, historically people say there’s 6…
What are the biggest mistakes that would-be Catholic apologists make? Joe Heschmeyer sits down with apologist Trent Horn to talk about what NOT to doSpeaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer. A production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer, Catholic Answers. I’m here with my friend and colleague from Catholic Answers, Trent Horn.Trent Horn:Thank you.Joe Heschmeyer:You may know him from the Counsel of Trent podcast or his books or his speaking appearances. And my exposure to Trent was originally …
Should we take the Bible literally? How did the earliest Christians take it? And how can we tell when the authors are and aren’t speaking literally?Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Welcome to Shameless Popery. I want to explore a potentially hot button issue today, the question of taking the Bible literally. So I know a lot of people pride themselves on being biblical literalists. And I know some people have a problem with Christianity because they say, “How can you take the Bible literally?…
How can Catholic priests claim to forgive sins? Doesn’t the Bible teach that “only God can forgive sins”?Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Herschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Herschmeyer:Hi, and welcome to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Herschmeyer. Today I want to explore sacramental confession, the idea of confessing your sins to a priest, and particularly I want to address a really common objection that I’ve heard that is in one sense, a biblical objection that only God can forgive sins.Now I think this is an important obje…
These days, St. Vincent of Lérins is a largely-forgotten Saint and Church Father. But his insights into how we understand both the role of tradition and the “Development of Doctrine” are important for Christians today to seriously grapple with.Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Hi and welcome to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. And today I want to talk about a 5th century French monk by the name is St. Vincent of Lerins. Now, as you might have guessed from that name, he’s a Frenc…
Each December, as we approach Christmas, there are articles proclaiming that the “real reason” we celebrate Christmas on December 25th is because of pagan holidays. So is Christmas based on the pagan feast of Saturnalia? Or is it based on the feast of Sol Invictus? And if not either of these, how did Christians end up celebrating Christmas on December 25th? …
The word “Church” means a lot of different things to different people. But what does the word mean in its biblical context? And what are the common ways that we misuse it today?Speaker 1:You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe Heschmeyer:Hi, and welcome to Shameless Popery. This is Joe Heschmeyer. I wanted to talk today about the church. What does the Bible say The church is? This is a big issue that Christians often either don’t think about or disagree about pretty strongly.Particularly I want to look at six bibli…
Did Martin Luther intend to break with the 16th century Church? And if so, was that necessarily a bad thing? What we can learn from history… and the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”!…
Did the Jews at the time of Jesus know which books belonged in the Old Testament? Here are the basic historical and biblical errors that Protestant apologists like James White keep making. Speaker 1:You’re listening to Shameless Popery, with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers.Joe:Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. Today I want to talk about the Bible, and particularly I want to talk about the Bible in Jesus’s day. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but these days we’ve got mass produced Bibles tha…
Welcome to the Shameless Popery podcast hosted by Catholic Answers apologist, Joe Heschmeyer. New episodes release weekly starting on December 1. …