Traditional Thomistic Catholic

Author: meerkatcheesephobos55464

  • Necessity of apostolic succession and the purpose of the Roman Catholic Church

             Jesus sent Holy Ghost to help set up and continue the church (John 14:16).  In Acts of the apostles from the New Testament of the bible, the story of Matthias being selected to replace Judas (Acts 1:12-26) shows replacement of apostles, that is succession was expected.   Therefore, the succession of Peter, or the leader of the apostles, the so-called vicar of Christ, was expected as was the monarchical structure of the church.   Christ was the cornerstone which the builder rejected (Psalms 118:22, Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10-11, Luke 20:17), and is the true head, to guide it, through the Holy Ghost, until the end of time with the pope, the vicar of Christ to lead it (Matthew 16:18), until He returned at the end of time.

              The first apostles were given the Holy Ghost as mentioned above to help start the church. The apostles, practically all Christians believe, were given the special grace to interpret what Jesus Christ meant, infallibly.  But Acts 5:14-35 reads:

    And Philip going down to the city of Samaria, preached Christ unto them.

    And the people with one accord were attentive to those things which were said by Philip, hearing, and seeing the miracles which he did.

    For many of them who had unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice went out.

    And many, taken with the palsy, and that were lame were healed.

    There was therefore great joy in the city. Now there was a certain man named Simon, who before had been a magician in that city, seducing the people of Samaria, giving out that he was some great one:

    To whom they all gave ear, from the least to the greatest, saying: This man is the power of God, which is called great.

    And they were attentive to him because, for a long time, he had bewitched them with his magical practices.

    But when they had believed Philip preaching of the Kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

    Then Simon himself believed also; then being baptized, he adhered to Philip. And being astonished, wondered to see the signs and exceeding great miracles which were done.

    Now the apostles, who were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John.

    Who when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost.

    For he was not yet come upon any of them; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

    Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

    And when he saw that by the imposition of hands by the apostles, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,

    Saying: Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.  But Peter said to him:

    Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou has thought that the gift of God may be purchased by money.

    Thou hast no part nor lot in this matter. For thy heart is not right in the sight of God.

    Do penance therefore for this thy wickedness; and pray to God, that perhaps this thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee

    For I see thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity.

    Then Simon answering, said: Pray you for me to the Lord, that none of these things which you have spoken may come upon me.

    And they indeed having testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel to many countries of the Samaritans. 

    Now and angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying: arise, go toward the South to the way that goeth down from Jerusalem into Gaza: this is desert.

    And rising up he went. And behold a man of Ethiopia, an Eunuch, of great authority under Candace the Ethiopians, who had charge over all her treasures, had come to Jerusalem to adore.

    And he was returning sitting in his chariot, and reading Isaias the prophet.

    And the Spirit said to Philip: Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.

    And Philip running thither, heard him reading the prophet Isaias.  And he said:  Thinkest thou that thou understandest what thou readest?

    Who said: And how can I, unless some man shew me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.  

    And the place of the scripture which he was reading was this: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb without voice before his shearer, so openeth he not his mouth.

    In humility his judgement was taken away, His generation who shall declare, for his life shall be taken from the earth?

    And the eunuch answering Philip, said: I beseech thee, for whom doth the prophet speak this? Of himself, or of some other man?

    Then Philip, opening his mouth, and beginning at this scripture, preached unto him Jesus.

               Many protestants posit that they are directly led by the Holy Ghost in their beliefs, but if that is so why are there at least 40,000 different protestant sects?  Logically there should only be one Christian religion with all the same beliefs, all the same dogmas and all the same doctrines all uniformly transmitted by the Holy Ghost. I think the above New Testament quote shows that the decision of who is influenced or given power through the Holy Ghost was, originally by Jesus Christ, meant to be completely determined by the apostles and who they passed these powers onto as Christ’s church the Roman Catholic Church indicated clearly by its head the bishop of Rome, Peter’s successor. It is no mistake that Peter is mentioned by name in this passage to demonstrate his clear authority in all things related to Christs church, the Roman Catholic Church.

              The gift of the Holy Ghost is not automatic, nor can it be given by anyone not selected by Christ through his church and neither can it be bought.  This power is passed from generation to generation through his church first through his first apostles and that is why the church must be apostolic and why there is no salvation outside of the Catholic (which means universal) church.  Mostly pride keeps other Christians from Joining the catholic church but also objections to restriction concerning the prohibition of contraception, prohibition of abortion, the prohibition against homosexual and premarital sex (not against same sex attraction only for actin on it) and the prohibition against divorces and remarriage. The spiritual “descendants” of the apostles, Catholic bishops (there are other non schismatic sects of the Catholic church other than Roman), are the only ones capable of expanding the churches special gifts as in the deaconate, the priesthood, and the episcopate as well as the gifts of the Holy Ghost through the sacrament of confirmation as shown in the passage from acts above. The virgin Mary and the apostles themselves were given these powers and gifts at the first Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) through the Holy Ghost, sent by the Father as promised by the Son of God Jesus Christ (John 14-16).

              In this long passage that I have quoted from the bible it also talks about the Ethiopian who did not understand the bible passage by Isaias (the prophet) he was reading.  When Philip asked if he thought he understood the passage he replied: “and how can I, unless some man shew me?” Philip explains it is about Jesus Christ and speaks to him of Jesus Christ – the Truth.  To me this speaks of the fact that to learn the truth one must seek one who knows the Truth.  The Truth, most especially spiritual truth, is passed on through those that know the truth, the members of the catholic church.  It is the only place people can possibly learn the actual truth.  It may possibly be corrupted by various evil prelates, of all ecclesiastical rank, but the true knowledge in the church validated by long tradition and the magisterium is unchanging. Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to day; and the same forever (Hebrews 13:8).

              The purpose of the Church was never to just write a book like the bible and let everybody “figure it out,” but to teach the world the correct meaning of Christ’s words throughout the ages until his second coming, based on the recorded word, of which the first teacher, the apostles recorded to assist them. To assist in the transfer of grace and the gift of faith they were also to serve as priests to offer the sacrifice and minister to the church through the sacraments (Luke 24:19-53).

  • Found written on the wall of Mother Teresa’s home for children, Calcutta

    People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered

    Forgive them anyway

    If you are kind people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives

    Be Kind Anyway

    If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies

    Succeed Anyway

    If you are honest and frank people may cheat you

    Be honest and frank anyway

    What you spend years building someone can destroy overnight

    Build anyway

    If you find serenity and happiness they may be jealous

    Be happy anyway

    The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow

    Do good anyway

    Give the world the best you have, and it may never be changed

    Give the world the best you’ve got anyway

    You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God, It was never between you and them anyway

  • Basic Theology for Understand-ing the Human Situation Regarding God and Salvation

                The thing every human should remember is that God Created everything from nothing and He, as the First Cause and the Non-Contingent Being, keeps all things in existence – keeps everything from reverting back to nothing.  The most hilarious notion ever is that God is somehow in competition with Satan.  With but a thought from God Satan would disappear from existence.  Satan as with all existing sentient beings are granted by God the greatest wish of 99% of them and that is for their consciousness to exist forever. All their experiences will survive through eternity.  The issue is will they be able to enjoy those experiences forever and if so, how can they insure that enjoyable outcome or is it possible that they could end up in a state where those experiences will not be enjoyable at best and immaterial due to the suffering involved by not doing what is needed to insure a pleasurable eternity.

                As I have discussed in a few of my blogs, the pleasurable eternity is insured by, through the one holy catholic and apostolic Church of God started by Jesus Christ on Pentecost, learning and making habits out of the perfect avoidance of violating any of Gods commandments.  This is necessary if we want to be in the state, or gathered in the place where everyone existing there are people perfect in avoidance of violating any of Gods commandments.  In that place there is no disobedience of authority of any kind (commandments 1 and 4), no attempts to kill one another (commandment 5), no marriages/sex bonds (Matthew 22:30) since all of the citizens of heaven that will every be will have been created in time in this universe before arrival after death (commandment 6 and 9), no stealing or desire to steal (commandments 7 and 10) and no lying (commandment 8).

                  Once again, as discussed in earlier blogs, hell becomes hell through the people there violating the commandments which they did not make the habit or strive to their utmost (later to be purified in purgatory) to make a habit of avoiding violating any of God’s commandments.  The lying and coveting each other’s things or bodies, would lead to wars in hell and eventually design of weapons that would result in eternal fire (maybe radiation) and genetically engineered worms that would plague them throughout eternity. God won’t need to make a hell because anywhere they do not follow His commandments as we see here on Earth (Germany and Hitler in the 1940’s, Russia and Stalin in the 1950’s, Cambodia and Pol Pot in the 1970’s and Russia/Ukraine and Putin in the 2020’s) becomes a hell.

                 But we must remember why man is, in so many cases, so reprobate – Original Sin. According to the bible God created the first man and woman and gave them one law – do not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  All our first parents knew was good.  If we are successful at perfecting ourselves this is all we will again know in heaven.  But the Devil convinced our first parents that there was something to be gained from not only knowing good but also evil, something that would make them like God (Genesis 3:3-5).  In pride they took the bait and ate of the fruit. God created them out of nothing from the goodness of His heart.  This was an offense against the infinite dignity of almighty God the creator, to whom all things owe their existence.

                 Nothing in the created universe could be used to make amends because everything in the created universe was originally nothing which was brought into existence by God. God was the only thing that existed before He created the universe and therefore only God has any real worth to God, everything else is quite literally nothing that was brought into existence by God. 

                  Jesus Christ’s God – Man sacrifice is the only just and adequate amends for original sin.  As a man priest Christ offers himself – God, as a sacrifice to the father for the offense of original sin, giving every man the chance to be saved.  So that man could take advantage of the sacrifice made possible by the Incarnation Jesus Christ established the Catholic church whereby baptism man could be given a chance for salvation.  If man were not to commit a mortal sin all his life, his or her baptism, along with faith would be sufficient to obtain salvation and get to heaven. The creation of a church for men of all time after the incarnation gave man a chance to participate in the infinite sacrifice and in addition gave man the juridical gift of confession where a priest could judge the penance for a mortal sin and restore a man to the possibility of salvation, once again assuming that he was in a state of grace at the time of his death.  Man is only saved through participation in the holy sacrifice of the mass every Sunday but its efficacy is first created on Calvary (and it is the selfsame sacrifice as on calvary carried out in an unbloodied way through out time to take advantage of its infinite worth throughout time by every succeeding generation through the efforts of Jesus Christ’s apostles who he gave the job to teach the whole world before He left as recorded in Mark 28:18-20, the bible being just one tool they use in their mission, to unalterably record dogma) and first transferred in baptism and can be continued given the occasion of mortal sin by confession as mentioned earlier. This life of God restored by God in baptism as it animated the supernatural life of Adam and Eve before the fall and original sin is called sanctifying grace.

                 The power of the holy sacrifice of the traditional extraordinary form of the Latin mass cannot be overstated.  It maintains the key role played by the priest in offering Calvary’s sacrifice (not with the emphasis of presiding over a remembrance of the Last Supper meal as in the novus ordo – the ordinary form of the mass) as priest have done since time immemorial, in almost all cultures.

                 A book that every catholic should read is Theology for Beginners by Frank Sheed.  I will end with the following quote which succinctly shows how much Catholic dogma is wrapped up in the celebration of the Tridentine Latin mass – the extraordinary form of the mass, and hopefully give you some idea of why attending mass every Sunday is so important that missing it without a good reason (deathly ill, in combat, missed a transportation connection etc.) is a mortal sin:

    Between the Washing of the Hands and the Orate Fratres the priest asks the Holy Trinity to receive “this oblation which we offer to the in memory of the passion, resurrection, and accension of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

    After the Consecration the priest says that we offer the sacrifice in memory, not of Christ’s passion only, but also of His resurrection from the grave and, as well, of His glorious ascension into heaven.

    The point of each is the same, but emphasized more strongly in the second: the sacrifice commemorates not only the suffering and death on Calvary, but the Resurrection and Ascension as well.  The Resurrection is not simply a sign that one man has conquered death; the Ascension is not simply a way of letting the Apostles know that their Christ had really left this world.  Both have their function, along with Calvary, in our Redemption. Both belong to the completeness of the sacrifice by which the breach between the race and God was healed, grace was set flowing in a vast new abundance, heaven was opened to the members of the race.

    Let us pause a moment upon this Sacrifice: for us it is of all actions the highest, since by it our race was redeemed. From the beginning men, though they did not know what ultimately would be wrought by it, still saw sacrifice as the highest act of religion.  It was a public act, a ritual act, performed by one for the people; by it something was withdrawn from man’s personal use, made sacred, offered to God in profession that all man had was God’s.

    Of course, that man should offer is not the whole story; unless God approves and accepts, all is vain.  There were occasions I the Old Testament where God showed His approval publicly-as by sending fire from heaven upon the offering.

    But only in the supreme sacrifice of our redemption does Bod show His approval and acceptance publicly, totally.  In the Resurrection God gives the visible sign that the Priest Who offered His own body and blood in sacrifice was wholly pleasing to Him.  In the Ascension God shows visibly that He is actually taking to Himself that which has been offered to Him.

    Christ ascends to His Father, to be with Him for ever, with the marks of His sacrifice still, but now glorious, in His body _ the everlasting reminder that man’s sin has been expiated. That the breach has been closed between God and man, that they are again as they were in the beginning of man, at one.  So the Epistle to the Hebrews (7:26) shows Christ in heaven, “ever living to make intercession for us.”

    At the last supper, Our Lord had told the apostles that he must go; and, answering their anguish, he gives as the all-sufficient reason that if He does not go, the Holy Spirit will not come. For Christ, everything is in that.  The order broken by Adam’s sin has been r-established, or rather, a better order has been established: that was for the Second Person.  Now is the time for such a rich flowing of gifts as the souls of men have never known. And gifts are the fruit of love, and so are appropriated to the Third Person, Who within the Blessed Trinity is the uttered love of the First Person and the Second.

  • Salvation – Its Obstacles and Things God Has Given to Assist Us

               This is another post I hope to be short so you can see God has given us a lot of help to save our souls. My opinion is salvation is only so complicated because God had to ensure humankind had true and complete free will. By this I mean an exact amount of positive influence to negative influence if we live our lives for the full duration God has planned for it.  Suicide is possibly mostly terminal as far as eternal life because had that particular person lived longer, he or she might have had the additional graces needed to succeed in reaching heaven.  The strict restriction against it stems from just another assist God gives us to possibly help save our souls.  Obviously, it is a mortal sin because it is against the 5th commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” 

               Whether or not a certain action is actually a mortal sin depends on 3 things: 1) is it a serious matter, 2) does the person involved understand that it is wrong and 3) does the person doing it do it with full assent of his or her will.  By a serious matter it is usually covered in someway or another by one of the 10 commandments. To disfigure or maim someone is against the 5th commandment, which is why Christ repaired the guard’s ear (Luke 22:50-51) on the night of his betrayal and basically counseled (Matthew 26:51-53 John 17:8-11) Peter on the spot because it would help him not become despondent and lose hope as Judas did when Peter eventually denied Christ 3 times (Matthew 26:68-75).

               In a specific instance, if someone jumps on a grenade in a wartime environment to save a fellow humans life, without regard to who the human is, he is not guilty of suicide.  If, on the other hand, he jumps on the grenade with the purpose of killing himself, even if he saves a saint’s life, is guilty of suicide.  The person’s intent is important. If someone drops a weapon by accident and it discharges and kills someone, he or she is not guilty of murder.

               Fortunately, I have been blessed to rarely, if ever, impugn God’s motives as revealed by scriptural analysis by the church and as is presented in the catechism.  But some may ask why are we left to fight against angelic intellects such Satan and his demons without help?  The truth is if you only read the New Testament, you find that God indeed gives each of us our own angelic intellect to protect us and that angel is known as our guardian angel (Matthew 18:10).

              The machinations of demons are complex and that is why we must have the humility to pray, ask for guidance from our clergy and read not only holy scripture but also what great saints have said maybe read at least the most basic books on theology and philosophy to help guide us as to the tools most effective in our own defense.  We must also trust what holy tradition has passed on as to how we need to act as Catholics and follow customs from our ancestors known to be helpful against evil and our evil inclinations that spring from the wound of original sin.

              But our heart, in addition to our intellect, must also be turned toward God.  God in his eternal love for us, took care of this through the Incarnation.  Whether it was the fact that our God, the Almighty, decided to come to us as a defenseless baby or that he died such a horrific death, once again in essence defenseless, our emotions cannot help but be influenced to gravitate toward him and recognize his love for us.

              To insure our own displine and strength Our Lord has told us that through private observation of  prayer, almsgiving and fasting (Matthew 6:1-18) we can contribute to saving our souls.  But to strengthen us it must be done so that it is not used to portray ourselves to be holy, just for show.  We must seriously want to help others, want to ask God or praise God sincerely for its own sake, and fast to build our own discipline and to offer our fasting for some worthy purpose other than to “value signal.”  Basically, if our aim is to show off and get other people to think well of us then if we achieve that, that is all we achieve.  If we do it for the help prayer gains for ourselves or another, fast for the strengthening of our souls or as a sacrifice to help another or give alms for the welfare of our fellow man, taking care as much as possible that only God knows we are doing it or how much we are doing it will gain us the help which we desire (if God determines it is in our or somebody else’s best interest) from God either directly through actual grace or through angels, people or circumstances.

                But God does not only provide supernatural help and biblical historical guidance but also the natural help of the priest as mentioned earlier and of course the natural help of our parents. For the assistance of a priest or, in the case of school children, a nun we can get the perspective of one that has read to the point of being able to help souls God has put in his or her charge and lived a life open to Gods will. 

    Jesus Christ has also given us a community of like minded friends, mentors and mediator/helpers (nuns, deacons, priests, bishops) who in the early days immediately after His death as today are ready to die with us in defense of Gods plan to save not only the world spiritually but secondarily physically – the Catholic Church. We have priests to offer God the perfect sacrifice in the mass and obtain for us the forgiveness of our sins and restoring our “friendship” with God through penance and subsequently the Eucharist and the restoration of sanctifying grace.

                Our parents who are our first teachers have the most important job of properly forming our consciences.  Pope Francis’ exhortation that our consciences is a good guide is only true if we have properly formed Catholic consciences.  Any other “conscience” will result in damnation.  Truth is truth and immutable like Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life and the only way to heaven and the Father (John 14:16)!!!  Unlike what many very high prelates in the modernist Catholic Church of today say (momento mori – remember you die, and those heterodox prelates will one day die and the good and holy can again return), Scripture has told us the truth and the Truth would never change because Jesus Christ does not change (Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever Hebrews 13:8) and to change the way to heaven would result in the damnation of many from confusion by the negating of 2 millennia of biblical commentary etc.  God the perfect and almighty structured Catholicism this way, totally perfect and unchangeable from the start so humans would not need to worry and be confused by charlatans like Arius, Martin Luther or present-day modernist that say basically that dogma and truth can “evolve.” It can’t evolve.

               But what about progress? We can use electrical lights in churches, preach on TV and radio as bishop Fulton Sheen did, or even create apps to translate Latin dialogue from a Latin mass to the local vernacular but we cannot say divorced Catholics can remarry, if their spouse remains alive, or without the benefit of a valid annulment (Luke 16:18) and worthily receive communion. St. Paul clarifies in 1 Corinthians 7:9-11.  The target of salvation can never change, that target will be the same as the Catholic martyrs dying in the first 4 centuries as in NAZI German concentration camps.  Today it is just as hard to attain heaven because it appears “pie in the sky” and people of our day are more afraid of internet trolls and push back from friends and the public square than the loss of their souls.     

               Where we preach (at other planets if we become either an interstellar or intergalactic race) and how we update how we get the message out there (radio, TV, Internet etc.) can change.  The message, like the mail, cannot be changed, only passed on uncorrupted and possibly clarified from Jesus Christ.  We of our generation must deliver the mail, uncensored from Jesus Christ to the future generation to insure they can secure their own salvation.

  • Truth our Lives and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

               On this Easter day 2022 we will do a short piece about Christs sacrifice, its relation to the mass and life. Christ tells us he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). It seems that Christ is saying in his life is the example (way) of the truth about the significance of life. Life for a Catholic is a life of healing and sacrifice for others.  That is why the Catholic Sunday equivalent of the practice of keeping holy the sabbath, called the mass, is known as the Holy Sacrifice of the mass among Catholics from the time of Jesus Christ until shortly after the end of Vatican II.  This council worked with at least 6 protestant ministers to make the mass “more acceptable” to protestants conceivably to influence a repair of the divide between Catholics and the rest of the Christian world.

              Vatican II tried to reinterpret the mass as a celebration, a commemoration of the last supper instead of an unbloodied sacrifice married in reality (in essence exactly the same sacrifice as Calvary) to the infinite (in that it was made by Jesus Christ who is the infinite God) sacrifice of calvary.  In the communion of the mass, he gives us his actual body, blood, soul and divinity to eat under the appearances of bread and wine.  He can do this because he is almighty God and to be Catholic and “saved” we must believe this and let him work through us to change the world as his hands and presence on earth.  A sacrifice must be consumed and symbolically we lose use of it and is thought to “return to God.” With Christ He is not only consumed by us in the Eucharist and we consumed by his love to help our fellow man but in the ascension He in reality actually does return to the father.

              The changes in the mass and doctrines from Vatican II, has only succeeded in less belief in key doctrines of the catholic church, most notably the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  There has also been a reduction of the number of both converts and number of people applying to become nuns, brothers and priests (this application or calling to become nuns, brothers and priests are called vocations by Catholics) in parishes’ that follow the new mass “constructed” by Vatican II committee.  Those that participate in the mass as it evolved organically for the first few centuries had existed almost unchanged from the 4th century as a sacrifice for all the Christian world (all of which were catholic or universal until then) until the protestant revolution in the 15 hundreds – more than a millennium, on the other hand, has had and increase in their vocations.  Avoiding the practice of contraception, which is in essence against natural law and thereby the first commandment, has arguably resulted in more stable marriages and more children for sure.

               In my opinion the new mass celebration is a move away from the truth. In the catechism we are taught that man was created to know, love and serve God in this life and to enjoy eternal happiness with him in the next. Life is sacrifice to achieve the goal of knowing loving and serving God mostly through sacrifice to bring non-Catholics to the realization and knowledge of who God is as well as what he desires from us and through loving care, support all in danger of harm and poverty (Matthew 25: 36. James 2:14-26, Deuteronomy 15:7-11). The truth is that life is sacrifice not celebration.

               The truth converts.  Christ is the Truth.  In the first few centuries of the Church the pitch was that you had to be loyal to Christ and his Church, precepts, doctrine etc. – the Truth, and you might be persecuted, even tortured and martyred but you would attain eternal happiness after death.  Death was a high probability outcome, yet people flocked to Catholicism and eventually to just the Christian philosophy when people started to believe under Martin Luther that exactly Catholic isn’t necessary (even though Holy Scripture  (The Bible) says Jesus doesn’t change and by implication his church doesn’t change – Hebrews 13:8).  The Truth of Easter is that Christ did rise from the dead, credible witnesses saw it and spread the word.  Christ rising from the dead, on Easter day, was proof, to many, that he was God and the Truth He spoke (knowing what he said was true in that He was God) lead to happiness in this world as well as eternal happiness in the next. His message was one of a God who loves us, of truth and of happiness for eternity. Truth in general cannot change. 2 plus 2 base 10 will always equal 4. Truth is truth.

  • Truth and the Necessity of Being in Christ’s Church the Catholic Church

               The truth is the truth and Christ says you must be in his church and the church clarifies that we must believe in all the first 1.5 thousand years of the church taught (Christ – as a person of the one nature of God in the Trinity, is the origin of all things and the end to which all things in the universe gravitate toward – the Alpha and the Omega (Revelations 22:12-13), the first cause, the non-contingent being upon which all things that exist depend upon to continue to exist, Christ is the same now and forever  (Hebrews 13:7-6)).  The reason for the first millennia and a half is because that’s approximately how long it was from Christ’s birth to the start of Protestantism, the first heresy that was not stopped with regard to Christianity. It split Catholicism into approximately, at last count at least 20,000 different belief systems or at least arguably separate “denominations.”  Why do I say split Catholicism and not split Christianity?  Because what people now call Catholicism (excepting the modernist heretics in the highest levels of the Catholic church, possibly stretching to the top from some things we’ve heard this year – 2022, and recent years with this bishop of Rome).

               If we don’t internalize the truth or “habitize” (this new word meaning make into habits) the original truths of Jesus Christ preserved through his blessing in the Catholic Church, the church and subsequently heaven can’t be a perfect society God designed it to be.  That is why Christ says we must become perfect as His father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). There is only one Truth. Only Christ’s church sees the Truth clearly. I say Christ’s Church because it’s not what just the pope says, or some bishop says or some priests say, or even what some of the laity or Deacon says or the way any of them interpret the bible.  Its how Christ’s Church tradition or the true body of Christ on earth with him as the head and the pope as his vicar interpret it in the one thousand five-hundred-year aggregate. What has been determined earlier can never be changed, clarified yes, but not subtracted from or added to.

              That is the problem introduced by Protestantism, every protestant can add or subtracted whatever they want from the dogma, but mostly they do it for convenience because they want to justify abortion, justify unnatural sex acts, justify any sex outside of marriage, justify contraception, justify the treatment of workers to make more money or justify oligarchs pushing socialism/communism (though not calling it that as in the United States, some people calling it progressivism) saying they are making things better for the “little guy” while all the while pushing their agenda at the “little guys” expense.  Unfortunately, our secular society has declared war on religious society as can be seen by how they are trying to eliminate God from the political conversation by taking or at least trying to take God’s name and his precepts out of everything (e.g. taking down monuments to the 10 commandments, trying to take the word “God” out of the pledge of allegiance, trying to take prayer out of schools even religious ones).

               It was once said by the Greek tragic dramatist Aeschylus that “In war, truth is the first casualty.” We saw the truth in this in the period from 2016-2022 with the Russian collusion hoax perpetrated on General Flynn and president Trump and the hiding of the Hunter laptop story that might have changed the trajectory of the 2020 election.  All these things were done to the profit of the liberal progressives and to the detriment of the world (think the Ukraine war) and the American people. But we as Catholics believe Christ and therefore his precepts and the way He lived is the Path of the Truth, Christ being the living embodiment of the Truth (John 14:6).

              Now by being in Christ’s church – the catholic church, is not, like many in the church believe, just listening to, believing and following everything the clergy or even the pope says. The pope is the vicar of Christ he is not Jesus Christ.  We have an obligation, not to follow what the clergy says per se, but “every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4). The Gospel says in Matthew 16:18 “And I say to thee: That thou are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The gates of hell shall not prevail against “it” (that is the church) not “him,” (that is Peter). The misreading of this passage is what a lot of protestants rebel against. They think this passage puts the pope in the position of absolute authority.  What it does is put the whole church, as the body of Christ in authority.  That is why each Christian that wants to save their soul has to be Catholic with a well-formed Catholic conscience. If, as the current pope appears to believe, if a synod or group of cardinals/bishops decide something that makes it true despite at least one thousand five hundred Catholic dogma/doctrine to the contrary. The Truth is the same always no matter how much or who wants to change it.

               If like what happened with Martin Luther and Calvin continues to happen, splinter groups breaking off constantly so that now there are more than 40,000 separate “Christian denominations,” eventually it will truly be “believe whatever you want” which is what a non-Catholic contingent within the Catholic church called Modernists are essentially pushing.  In essence their concept of God is a pantheistic conception of an immanent God that is in some way part of this universe as opposed to a transcendent God that created the universe, can see everything in the universe and keeps it in existence but is in no real way a part of it. They have the idea that dogma and doctrine can evolve, like biological things, based on “the times.”  Assuming this Catholics would be “of the world” and not just “in the world” which Jesus Christ said we should not be (John 17:11-21). In this passage Jesus says we must be one in belief (from the way I interpret this passage) and in our relation to the world as the asks God the Father to keep us together and basically bless our mission to bring as many men and women back to him as possible.  As God is transcendent and outside this world so is our home heaven and its culture, true Catholic culture not the culture of Modernist worldly prelates who appear to be in many positions of power in the Catholic church in the 21st century.

                Unlike what many modernists seem to be saying, the truth is immutable.  It can never change. The meaning of what Christ said can never change. In John 14:6 “Jesus saith to him:  ‘I am the way, and the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.”  This is the specific case of who the way we accept truth as coming from our father in heaven. In Matthew 23:9 where Jesus says: “And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven.” he is referring to the authority of a father not actually calling someone father. In Hebrews 13:8, St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews assures us that “Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same forever.” Christ is the Truth and as He never changes the truth never changes.  And since in John 10:30 Jesus Christ says I and the father are one, you can also trust in Jesus’ authority.

              You can refine truth but you can never say what was true yesterday is not true today. For divorced and remarried, modernist argue that for some reason they can worthily receive communion. Mark 10: 8-9, in regard to marriage, says “. . . and the two will become one flesh.’ Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” If you disobey this command of God on purpose, which is mortal sin, are you still worthy to receive the real body and blood of Jesus Christ, that was sacrificed to make the infinite reparation for the infinite offense of Adam and of all men that sin, before stopping the sinful behavior and submitting one’s self to the tribunal of confession which God has established to carry out acceptable reparation (penance) ruled by the judge empowered by God as duly delegated executer of his justice? (John 20:23)

              Men and women of today in the church that see how corrupt heretical prelates are trying to infuse their corruption in the church are obligated to call them out and follow Jesus Christ’s and the example of his church which has had the same dogma supplemented by infallible doctrine (not all doctrine is infallible or non-changing especially in the case of displine e.g. fasting rules) for almost 100 generation, almost 2 millennia transmitted not only through Holy Scripture but through Holy Tradition which has enshrined those Holy scriptures in the way the common Catholic has lived their lives through Catholic culture.

              If we in the church disagree, we are obligated not to leave the church but to work to correct it by working to get rid of not only the bad dogma/doctrines (like trying to get rid of the Latin mass which pope St. Pius V said could never be abolished in his papal bull Quo Primum) being pushed on the church but by exposing the bad prelates and their heresies to the benefit of the souls striving for heaven. Who would disagree that if United States of America had let the south secede from the union that the United States would have become so much less than the defender of the moral high ground that it is from almost its inception to today in 2022?

             The biggest reason that supports that The Catholic Church is the one true church of Jesus Christ is supported, using Holy Scripture in the Bible, is one of the four marks (one, holy, Catholic – universal, and apostolic) Christ’s true Catholic Church of Jesus Christ is that it’s apostolic (the fact that every priest and bishop can trace who he got his sacrament of “holy orders,” making him a priest is from someone who can trace the linage of their “holy orders,”) back to an apostle.

             But why is this important? In The Acts of the Apostles (commonly referred to as jus Acts) Chapter 8 of the New Testament of the Bible, we see Simon the magician trying to buy the power to bring the power of the Holy Ghost on to followers apparently to have them as followers for his own benefit. We see only the apostles have this power and transfer it as they will given the power by Jesus Christ on Pentecost.  So not anyone can be a priest or bishop of Christ passing on his teachings and having the extra ordinary power of the sacraments and recognition of Christ’s special followers associated with it.

             In the same chapter 8 of Acts verses 27-38 it appears to me to make clear only these specially selected followers of Christ have the power, given good intention on their part, to accurately interpret scripture.  Specifically in Acts 8:29-30 the apostle Philip says and the eunch replied: And Phillip running thither, heard him reading the prophet Isaias, and he said: Thinkest thou that thou understandest what thou readest? Who said: and how can I, unless some man shew me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.” What is trying to be conveyed here is that a true apostle of Christ must teach another wanting to be a follower of Christ to insure the correct meaning is passed on, to that follower.

             Part of why the current modernists in the church have gotten things so wrong is that they reject the whole concept of sacrifice and that God should have it or even wants it. I see these prelates as the type who would complain, if dying of thirst in the Sahara Desert and suddenly came upon a refrigerator with and icy cold 1 liter bottle of water, they would complain that there was not a lemon in it for flavoring!!! They would prefer life to be simply a celebration, reminiscent of the festival of Bacchus without being overtly lewd – at least for the time being, instead of a life of sacrifice and discipline to improve the lot of our fellow man, as we relive every time we offer the holy sacrifice of the mass.

              Before Christ came to show us what God wanted, people sacrificed animals they could have eaten, sacrificed beautiful virgins they could have married, sacrificed children who could have further the civilization, mutilated themselves through cutting and giving their blood to the gods instead of staying completely whole and healthy. Jesus Christ made the perfect sacrifice himself and basically asked his people, Catholics, to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the un-blooded, co-participatory act with Calvary where He returns truly, body, blood, soul and divinity to feed us.  We as Christs followers are to follow his example of sacrifice to control ourselves to the benefit of others, to visit prisoners, feed the hungry, fight poverty, fight injustice and fight senseless violence.  Our sacrifice is to help our world see Christs as it savior, and enthrone him as King of our mortal world, emplacing His supernatural virtues of faith hope and Charity to bring the world, through Catholic culture, as close to heaven as possible and to save as many souls as possible, preferably all.

            My point in this discussion was that Catholics should work to expel both heterodox dogma and their conspiring prelates and that Christians must come back together accepting Christ’s precepts to once again have one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church to function as a catalyst to bring the world together to accomplish what the elitist, communistic and masonic United Nations cannot – lasting world  peace.

  • Reading on Heaven and Hell

               Heaven and hell are 2 of the last 4 things: death, Judgement, heaven, hell. I have covered them both recently in blogs, but I suggest more reading to get a clearer picture of 2 of these last four things by experts the likes of saints and Roman Catholic priests.   

               One book that speaks of the many joys of heaven and tries to cover some nagging questions like what if my children don’t make it to heaven is:

    “The Happiness of Heaven,” fourth edition, by Father J. Boudreau, Tan Books, 1984

    ISBN-10 :  0-89555-232-9

    ISBN-13 : 978-0895552327

               If you are reading this blog hell is something that you are probably vigorously trying to avoid anyway and really don’t need convincing of the insanely horribly torturous place it is. None emphasize that God is not directly responsible as I have tried to show but the torments it causes that you might not think about are delineated in this short book (so short more like a pamphlet really – about 46 pages) by cardinal, doctor of the church and saint – Robert Bellarmine.

    “Hell and its Torments,” by St. Robert Bellarmine. Tan Books, 1990

    ISBN-10 : 0895554097

    ISBN-13 : 978-0895554093

             If you want a more in-depth book (close to 500 pages) that catalogs apparitions from hell as well as giving a large portion on specifically how to avoid hell:

    “Hell: The Dogma of Hell, Illustrated by Facts Taken from Profane and Sacred History plus How to Avoid Hell by Father F.X. Schouppe and Thomas A Nelson, Tan Books, 1989

    ISBN-10 : 0895553465

    ISBN-13 : 978-0895553461

  • Admission to Heaven

               I have, in earlier post, spent a lot of time on hell.  This is only to give evidence that it is not created by God but by its inhabitance.  The “physics” of hell, I am of the opinion, is the same as heaven (though hell is totally absent of God’s loving presence and its inhabitance still have the unrepaired wound of original sin) but because of hell’s inhabitance’s predilection toward evil, the afterlife’s increased sensual sensitivity, increased mental clarity etc. result in the unimaginably painful existence and the overwhelming sense of guilt of having disrespected their all-good Creator.  The thing that will make it even worst, which I have not yet really discussed is the devil and his demons that will also be there.

               Heaven is the opposite. Their increased sensual sensitivity will make the direct knowledge of God soothing, pleasurable beyond anything ever experienced on earth (1 Corinthians 2:9) and the knowledge of their struggles while on Earth will give the inhabitants of heaven the comfort that they will have done the best they could to bring God’s plan for salvation to all men to fruition.  Trying to bring God’s plan for salvation, as good sons and daughters of God and thereby trying to help Christ save as many souls as possible, through prayer, direct charitable action or through evangelization will guarantee them mental and emotional satisfaction in heaven. But if one wishes their family’s souls to be saved like St. Monica with regard to her husband and son, St. Augustine, they must work and pray with all their might while on earth because I am of the opinion that Luke 14:25 implies that if you wish to follow Christ, you must be willing to abandon your family to follow him, specifically into heaven, that you may be asked to forget them (were they to be unsuccessful in attaining salvation) or follow them into hell.  You must love Jesus Christ more than even your family and life on earth if you want to attain life eternal. But Christ assures us in Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it shall be given you. . .” But we must also remember 1Thessalonians 5:17 and “pray without ceasing.”

                We become adopted children of God (Romans 8:14-17) by being like his Son and by letting his Son work through us (Galatians 2:20) – by becoming His hands on earth in these latter days.  We are adopted Sons of God because we have adopted Christ’s mission are trying to save as much of the world as we can from the grips of the devil.  We are called to help Jesus Christ save as much of the world we can from eternal damnation.  Could Christ have done this alone? Of course He could, but it would likley have been against our free will or might have had some other unintended side effect that an all perfect God would see.  God actually made us independent of Him and able to use our feelings, intellect and free will to pick how we want to live.  If we live against his will, it will lead us to try create world filled with people opposed to God’s precepts and will. If we live against Gods will it will also facilitate more people to choose evil and cause them to be damned.  As we can see, as I have pointed out before, going against God’s will leads to societies like NAZI Germany, the Russian Confederation circa 2022 attacking Ukraine out of pride and lust for political power and Pol Pots Cambodia with millions senselessly killed.  Living according to his will and precepts leads to heaven upon our deaths and if applied on earth in a particular society, a happier society. Also, if Christ is perfectly followed by everyone in the catholic church (unlike those in the Catholic clergy injecting modernism into the church to try and pervert Christ’s teachings make the church “of the world,” as opposed to Christ’s teachings to be in the world but not of it. John 17:15-21) the Catholic church would be a perfect society (but humans are not perfect and Masons and communists against the church have infiltrated it making this impossible on Earth). With perfect people in heaven the perfectly designed society of the church will actually be the perfect society – heaven.

                In heaven, the wound of original sin is repaired by God upon the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42) of the dead, for all those who fought for that repair, in life, by living a life desired by God, a life lived as if man were not wounded by original sin.  This is the essence of the Catholic life, to say yes to God in everything he requires of us and pledge to want and to accept everything he wants for us. How we are to be changed by God, to repair original sin, is indescribable so to receive it we must offer ourselves up to God to be God’s hands on earth by being adopted sons and daughters following in the footsteps of his true Son – Jesus Christ.

               The one, holy, catholic and apostolic church is the model for a perfect society.  Unfortunately, it requires perfect people for it to be not only a model for a perfect society but an actual perfect society. But can an actual perfect society ever exist without perfect inhabitants of that society? No, that is why Jesus Christ says in Matthew 5:48 “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly father is perfect.” But the push back comes that we are imperfect beings with the stain of original sin so we can not be perfect, in fact no one can be.  The sad truth is that for those that do not believe in God, are not in His Church or are in his church but resist his precepts or worst yet decide his precepts are wrong and wish to follow their own, the fact that they cannot be perfect is true.  Fortunately, the happy reality is that though possibly less than 10 percent (Luke 17:11-19 in the story of the 10 lepers that Christ cured and only the one Samaritan returned to give thanks) and probably no more than 11 out of 12 (with Jesus Christ – the Son of God as their personal spiritual advisor only 11 out of the 12 men He advised were saved), will be saved, every man who wants to be save, if he sacrifices, gives alms, fasts and prays for help to achieve the perfection required, will be saved!!!

               That’s the good news which is elucidated on or made clearer as well as fleshed out in detail in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament.  Also 2 Peter 3:9 assures us: “The lord delayeth not his promise, as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.” I read this as meaning the lord tries to give us as much time and inspiration as we need on Earth to turn our lives toward him, in penance, as in the case of Mary Magdalene. In the story of Voltaire he spends his life revolting against God and his church and eventually gets sick and calls for a priest and repents but when he gets well he returns to railing against God.  We learn later in his life that he got sick again, calls for priest but his “friends” keep the priest from him and he dies screaming in horror that he sees Satan coming for him, according to a nurse attending him.  The way I see it God gave him a chance to repent but God is not to be mocked (Galatians 6:7).  Also, 2 Peter 3:9 above shows it is God’s wish that none should perish in the fires of hell but He wishes them to repent and change their wicked ways, have true sorrow and do penance and reparation to not only God, but those who they have hurt.

               Atheists are often times trying to color God as some kind of egotistical jerk who finds some sort of perverse joy in hurting people or damning people, though nothing could be further from the truth.  2 Peter 3:9 above is from the New Testament but in Ezechiel 33:11-20 of the Old Testament God makes it perfectly clear that every man and woman are responsible for his or her actions and “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.” In this group of verses God makes clear if the good man goes bad he is damned, where as if the evil man repent and make reparations for his wrong, he will be saved.  In fact from the parable of the workers who get paid the same if they work all day or just the last hour (Matthew 20:1-16) as well as his promise to the good thief on the cross that he would be in paradise with him that day (Luke23:32-43), we see, if we truly convert and are truly sorry and willing to make amends for our sins, even at our death bed, we can go to heaven (even if possibly needing to go to purgatory for some time).

              When God commands seemingly horrendous things like the “ban” where everybody and everything living is executed in a village, he is trying to make a strong point to hopefully prevent more horrendous things like maybe the use of nuclear weapons. The ban was a statement as to the evil of things such as child sacrifice to the god Baal (see The Worship of Baal – Bible History (bible-history.com) that people this punishment was inflicted on, had been carrying out.  Similarly, the death of Onan for “spilling his seed” to avoid his obligation to his brother was, in my opinion, to highlight the extreme wrongness of destroying the existence of someone God wanted to be in the world, by way of their conception, through either contraception or abortion.

              Contraception is against the natural law and therefore against the first of the 10 commandments (“I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them . . .” Exodus 20:2-5) and specifically worshiping sexual pleasure as an idol (thereby serving Satan), as opposed to obeying Gods first commandment to mankind, immediately after creating them, in the bible, to “increase and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).

               Now. as a couple to both truly voluntarily refraining from sex for a good reason, or using a natural method of possibly limiting the number of children a couple could have, is acceptable according to the bible if you use that time in prayer to better one another (1 Corinthians 7:5).  I must stress this must be by true mutual consent or it is a mortal sin.  Catholic couples do not have the option of finding sexual satisfaction outside of marriage either alone or with someone that is not their spouse.

              To recap, many will probably go to hell (it is definitely not the case that no one is in hell according to our Lord in Matthew 7:13-14), God does not create it (those in it and the devil and his demons do) , and all men can go to heaven even if they are evil if they repent of their sins and do penance for their sins before they die.  They can even be saved at their deathbed.  God wants all men to be saved (go to  heaven) and gives them the , but they must, of their own free, will want to be saved and repent and do penance to be saved. Heaven is the most desirable place for any being to be with unimaginable happiness which will probably improve with time into eternity.

  • The Blueprint for Hell and Who Will Create It. Hint: God Will Not Create It.

             In my second blog I posited that those in hell would create it themselves by their disobedient nature. I also tried to show how this is not an impossible outcome by the example of NAZI Germany and how it became basically a hell on Earth. Similarly, the godless communist philosophy of the former Soviet Union turned Russia in a hell on Earth. But those not acquainted with the Bible will say, God’s book, the Bible, never says anything close to: God will let the people He judges as not suitable for heaven create hell. Some will say, in fact, the Bible never even implies it. To that I would say take a look at Romans 1:16-32. They are as follows with commentary after each verse or group of related verses.
             Verse 16:
    “For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and to the Greek.”
    Commentary: this indicates that what follows is for eternal salvation of all that believe – both Jew and gentile.
             Verse 17:
    “For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faiths it is written: The just man liveth by faith”
    Commentary: God’s justice is meted out, in the next world, in its fullness, but as we saw in my second blog, the lesson, as to what results in not following God’s law is seen to be true in this world, so that it can be extrapolated as a natural result, if the behavior discussed is carried into the next world. In other words, God lets us see, in this world, that what he says is true for human nature in general and, though Catholics know God is incapable of lying, so that those reading the gospels will know what He says is true.
            Verse 18:
    “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice:”
    Commentary: It does not say God’s wrath is visited on man from heaven, it says “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.” I see this as meaning God built his eternal punishment into man’s choice to eat of the tree of good and evil in the garden of Eden. His and her pride in thinking that they could understand things better than God from the knowledge they gained would be their downfall. The Truth (John 15:6), God’s Word (John 1:1) – Jesus Christ who is synonymous with the example of his life, is the only way man has to keep from destroying himself, by creating his own eternal torment in hell. Those that hold themselves to the Truth and are loyal to the Truth are kind to each other, loyal to one another and God and show mercy as God shows mercy and thereby follow the Path and maintain the heaven established by the Truth. In heaven there is no need for police because each person polices his or her self. In hell there can be no effective police because everyone is corrupt, without fidelity to the law, without affection for their fellow man and without mercy for anyone.
           Verse 19 and 20:
    “Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them.”
    “For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable.”
    Commentary: As is pointed out in books such as C.S. Lewis’ Book Mere Christianity, God’s moral law, our sensitivity to injustice, the wrongness of going against the commandments (invisible to the eye) is written on our hearts (we know intuitively). We also have the reasoned facts that 1) God created us from nothingness 2) that He is all mighty and that 3) the success/stability of a society following his “rules” is the reasoned result of Him being all knowing and all good and in addition to “writing it on our hearts” revealed it in the Bible.       
           Verses 21-23:
    “Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened.”
    “For profession themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
    “And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four footed beasts, and of creeping things.”
    Commentary: see the truth of this in Luther’s revolt against the Catholic Church and the wars it spawned and the thousands of martyrs that were killed because of accusations of disloyalty when certain countries went protestant. The stealing of cathedrals and universities built by the Catholic Church was also a result of the revolt. We also see the truth of this from the results of the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau which spawned the bloody the French Revolution and the Masonic order which arguably has done much to destabilize the Catholic Church as well as foment revolutions in Mexico etc.
             Verse 24:
    “Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their hearts unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves.”
    Commentary: Read closely in the verse above that “. . .God GAVE them up to the DESIRES OF THEIR HEART” [emphasis mine]. People who are hellbent on uncleanness and dishonoring their own, bodies God let them have their wishes, He did not force it on them. Hell is created by the people that will be there, NOT BY GOD!!!. As one example we see those who do not accept God as creating them “male and female” (Genesis 1:27) and because of this, these young girls and young women are being cheated out of their self-worth and scholarships in things like swimming competitions by transgender athletes. They are discriminating again against women by forcing them to compete against biological men.
             Verse 25:
    “Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worship and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
    Commentary: The creature in this context is clearly the devil. Because the devil is an angelic intellect and those in hell will be forced to worship him due to his cunning and lack of Gods push back in hell because all there, by definition, have rejecting God. Because those in hell chose to reject God in life he is giving them all their wish. The lack of the love of God  – the rejection of God, and by extension His precepts, is the cause of hell.
            Verse 26 [and foot note  for this verse from the TAN edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible]:
    “For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature.”
    [Footnote – “God delivered them up” Not by being author of their sins, but by withdrawing his grace, and so permitting them, in punishment of their pride, to fall into those shameful sins.]

    Commentary: These sins like abortion (murder destroying possible citizens of heaven) and against the natural law seen in the attraction of man to woman and stated as the first command by God after creation (Genesis 1:28 “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it. . .”), and the use of contraceptives.
             Verse 27:
    “And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.”
    Commentary: The natural “use” of women is to work with God to produce possible citizens of heaven – children. Man to man sex cannot produce children and is for that reason is unnatural. Man to man attraction cannot necessarily be prevented, and is not in itself evil or bad, but the man-to-man interaction as with premarital heterosexual sex before marriage is something that will create hell. The thing in this life that they are most susceptible to is “. . .receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.”  We can see from the CDC that this “recompense” can be, at least partially, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) of not only HIV but also Syphilis and gonorrhea. There is also evidence that psychological anomalies seem to be connected to those engaged in same sex activities (for some information see the article explored in the abstract https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S135311319890133X, for an actual internet posted article more in depth mentioning possible secular remedies see https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01506/full  )  
            Verses 28-31:

    “And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient;”

    “Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers,”

    “Detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,”

    “Foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy.”  
    Commentary: Those in hell (this group also, as in above cases, include those who reject God on Earth and is essentially a warning to those to change their ways to save themselves not only on Earth but in the next life) “liked to not have God in their knowledge,” which is to say they did not want to think about God and by extension what He labeled as right and wrong. In delivering them up to a reprobate state He let them be and do what they wanted. “Inventors of evil things” includes things like novel torture, eliciting extreme fear, attacking a country in the vanity of national pride etc. to be “without affection” is to be without charity or love. To be “without fidelity” is to have loyalty to nobody and basically creates a world where nobody can trust anybody else. Finally, to be “without mercy” is, for example, to be able to torture or assault someone either sexually, physically, emotionally or mentally without pity or respite simply for one’s own pleasure or entertainment.
           Verse 32:

    “Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.”
    Commentary: This is why those that do not positively follow the commandments and hold others in their care or authoritative influence such as children, family, employees or political constituents are condemned also. If you do not, in justice, stop evil you cannot be expected to be spared it. There is an adage that “silence implies consent” but whether or not you are in authority if you do not stop evil or say something about it (i.e., stay silent), you allow it, and in essence consent to evil and its consequence of hurting others. In addition, you will likely, given enough time, probably subject to that evil. And remember time in hell is infinite.

           Just as God gives free reign to our desires here on earth He will give the same freedom in the afterlife, but those in hell will be on their own, rejecting God and is all knowing wisdom as our creator. God will not be in hell to judge or enforce justice, He lets the avarice, murderous intent and malice in hell, allow its inhabitants take care of their punishment. So, the way those in hell create its punishment lie, for the most part, in the lack of compassion there.  It is clear to me that this excerpt from Romans is a blueprint for not only hell in the afterlife but also to create a hell here on Earth.

           But in heaven, these types of things will not be a problem because original sin will be removed as to our revealed desire to have it removed in living our lives committing to follow all of  God’s law (consenting to God’s will without reservation in all things) and thereby giving our consent to change us, to heal the wound of original sin, to allow us to once again use our intellect to do the right thing. Things like concupiscence will be permanently remove or otherwise suppressed by our reason and intellect. In Mark chapter 12 verses 24 and 25 he speaks of God using his power to make those that rise in the glory of heaven “as the angels in heaven.” In our life we must trust God in all things and believe all Jesus Christ and Christ’s church requires us to believe and make our will one with His to desire all He wants for us..

           “Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence.” (Proverbs 3:5 Douey-Rheims)

  • Look at the book/CD reading of Dark Agenda – A look at the Christian Conflict with leftists in America  

            This s a look at the book Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America by David Horowitz.  Over and above what I think is a good explanation of what has caused the great division in United States politics he uses Catholics in at least 3 cases as examples: first how the basis of the lefts philosophy is actually a rehashing of the Catholic heresy call Pelagianism second for a reflection of the catholic soul in a famous scientist and third of unwarranted Catholic persecution in today’s world.  It is a well footnoted book which, I think, clearly exposes the left’s contempt for Christianity and how to move their agenda forward they must utterly destroy it. I will comment and read a series of quotes which should give you a flavor of the book and hopefully influence you to obtain (through a library, a friend owning a copy or purchase) and read a copy. It is a short (only 172 pages) deep dive into the underpinnings that are driving our next elections which pits the ideals of the supposed “civilized” 44th president (and at the publishing of this blog the 46th president) against the media painted “uncivilized” 45th president and show the important points at which they differ.  It explains how the left vilifies its opposition and its opposition is seen by the left’s adherents as bad or evil. Why many evangelicals and Catholics elected the 45th president despite the fact that “he was thrice married, not particularly religious and often vulgar and carrying some unsavory sexual baggage” is summed up succinctly by supporters when they say “My support for Trump has never been based upon shared values; it is based upon shared concerns.” That include free speech, secure borders, pro-business and pro-military though anti-sending-our-children-into-harms-way for stupid reasons, as reflected by more defense stuff and reduced troop presences in the middle east.

            The book begins with the tying the roots of the war between the left and Christianity to the New Atheists like Christopher Hitchen famous for his book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

    in contrast to what he saw as a superstitious con game of religious belief, Christopher envisioned a “scientific progress, un-constricted by religious manacles.” In this utopia, scientific progress would make possible “the divorce between the sexual life and fear, and the sexual life and disease, and the sexual life and tyranny, [which] can now at last be attempted on the sole condition that we banish all religions from the discourse.

    The famous Catholic mathematician Blaise Pascal shows the Christian and more precisely the Catholic counterpoint to Hitchens. In Pascal’s own words:

    When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the space which I fill, and even can see engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and which know me not, I am frightened and astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here?

    The books author goes on to say:

    These questions that only a religious faith can attempt ot answer.  There is no science of the why of our existence, no scientific counsel or solace for our human longings, loneliness, and fear. Without a God to make sense of our existence, Pascal wrote, human life is intolerable. .  . To resolve this dilemma, Pascal devised his famous “wager” which, simply stated, is tat since we cannot know whether there is a God or not, it is better to wager that there is one rather than that there is not.  .  . “Faith” he said, “is God felt by the heart.”

    The author cites the politics of his family being, in a word, progressive and states:

    When Soviet Communism collapsed in 1991, progressives didn’t give up their illusions.  Instead they changed the name of their utopian dream.  Today they no longer call their earthly redemption “Communism.” They call it “social justice.”  Like Communism, social justice is an impossible future in which the inequalities and oppressions that have afflicted human beings for millennia will miraculously vanish and social harmony will rule.  The French socialist Auguste Comte called his faith “the religion of humanity,” to distinguish it from the religion of God. . .

    [his parents] would have been appalled to hear their beliefs described as “religious.” But their politics were cut from the same cloth as a famous Christian heresy called Pelagianism.  . .

    In the language of his faith, Pelagius believed that sins were acts against human nature.  Therefore, he believed, if enough Christians resisted the temptations of this world and followed the path of righteousness, they could create an earthly paradise – and they could achieve this paradise without help from God. The Pelagian heresy is no different from the progressive notion that if human beings can be made to pursue lives that are politically correct, they can bring about a world of social justice.

     Pelagius’s view of human benevolence contradicted the church doctrine that sin is an integral part of human nature. The Church called this doctrine “original sin,” the idea that all human beings share in Adam’s sin and are prone to evil, which makes redemption impossible without God.  Adam and Eve were born in paradise but forfeited their good fortune because they wanted to know evil. If you eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the serpent told “you shall be as Gods.” Seduced by this temptation, they defied God’s commandment and ate the forbidden fruit.

    Their sin was the inevitable result of the free will that was their birthright. Free will gives each individual the power to do good – or evil. Free will makes us the authors of our own choices, our own sins, our own fates – not other people, not classes or races or genders. A corollary of this view is that the potential for evil is present in every individual down through the generations.  Because human beings are rebellious and prone to temptation and evil, they will corrupt every effort of redemption, Therefore, there can be no path to an earthly paradise without divine intervention.

    The chief proponent of this doctrine was St. Augustine who condemned Pelagius as a heretic and cast him out of the community of faith.

    Whether or not God exists, whether or not the biblical account is true, the doctrine of original sin is an accurate diagnosis of the human condition.

    In contrast to the progressive mission of saying “society,” the goal of Christian belief is saving individual souls. Christians see the imperfections and sufferings of the world as the results of acts by individuals who have failed to do good or have chosen to do evil.

    The social redeemers, on the other hand, do not see individuals as agents of their own destinies. They see them as products of “social forces,” as objects of class, race, gender, and religious oppressions.

    The social redeemers view the Christian concern for the salvation of individual souls as counterrevolutionary, a cause of social oppression.  To them, religious believers are obstacles on the path to the future – and must be removed.

    That is why progressives have declared war on religious liberty, which is America’s founding principle. And that is why they seek to silence and suppress its defenders.

    What the Obama administration tried to do to the little sisters of the poor is emblematic of how the progressives have tried to ruthlessly crush religion liberty where ever they can. This is a quote on the subject from the book.

    “What is at stake here ultimately,” explained the Catholic scholar George Weigel, “is whether civil society will survive, and whether voluntary institutions of voluntary associations ranging from the traditional family to multimillion member organizations like the Catholic Church to small businesses will be allowed to function if they imitate the government, only if they imitate the state.”  In other words, what was at stake was whether America would remain a democracy or move in the direction of a totalitarian state.

    As a Catholic organization, the little Sisters could not comply with the Obamacare mandate to provide abortion-inducing drugs and contraceptives to the elderly women they served.

    Because the Little Sisters were themselves celibate and served elderly women, the Obama administration’s position was obviously ludicrous. It was vindictive from the outset. But even when their motives were exposed, Obama’s agents refused to relent.  Imposing their views on others was so important to the radicals, as the essence of the plan to fundamentally transform America, that they forced the Little Sisters to undergo years of costly legal battles to defend the religious freedom that is plainly guaranteed by the First Amendment.

    It wasn’t until 2016, when the case reached the Supreme Court, that the Little Sister finally won their First Amendment religious liberty. By a unanimous vote the justices struck down the Obama administration’s case, so weak were its legal foundations.

    Under the cloak of “social justice,” the government radicals were determined to prove that their mandates must be obeyed.  Not even the First Amendment could be allowed to stand in the way of fundamentally transforming America.

    This book also has a section on how the LGBTQ and abortion agenda has been pushed on America as well as a section on Obama and a section on why the religious right supports what is seemingly such a flawed candidate in Trump was selected to be their champion. Their reason for selection of Trump is summarized in the follow quote:

    Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, explained this phenomenon succinctly: “My support for Trump has never been based upon shared values; it is based upon concerns.”