Many protestant sects argue about some of the sacraments being in the Bible, I feel mostly to downplay the necessity or legitimacy of priests. Now, don’t get me wrong, some people may see certain verses calling out a particular sacrament as a stretch, but those verses do exist. The following is taken from a pamphlet entitled “Christian Doctrine Drills: For use in Parochial Schools,” published by D.B. Hansen & Sons, Chicago, Illinois, publish circa 1964.
Baptism
And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: “All power is given to Me in heaven andin earth. Go, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with your all days, even to the consummation of the world (Matt. 28:18-20)
Confirmation
Now when the Apostles, who were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the word of, 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 as yet come upon any of them; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received, the Holy Ghost. (Acts 8:14-17 and John 16:7)
Holy Eucharist [also known as Holy Communion]
And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke, and gave it to His disciples, and said: “Take ye and eat: This is My Body.”
And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them saying: “Drink ye all of this: for this is My Blood of the New Testament which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.” (Matt. 26:26-28)
Penance
Jesus said to them: “Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.”
When He had said this, He breathed on them; and He said to them: “Receive thee ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23)
Extreme Unction
Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church and let them pray for him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he be in sins , they shall be forgiven him. (James 5:14-16)[Jesus did not say anything specifically about this because it is essentially Penance and the Holy Eucharists with a special blessing and anointing with oil for his hopeful recovery of health but barring that his immediate entry to heaven]
Holy Orders
And taking bead, He gave thanks and broke and gave to them saying: “This is My Body, which is given for you. Do this in commemoration of Me.” (Luke 22:19)
Matrimony
What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder (Matt. 19:6)
Since I was young, I always had only one question in my mind concerning my religion, “why would an all-good God create a place like hell?” I always had faith that it was true (since God – Jesus Christ, said it), that hell existed and I was always determined not to go there, by obeying Gods laws, if possible, and I determined there was a high probability that I would go there because one of the main thing you had to do was “love God.” (see Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). The fact is I never had the strong feeling of “loving God” and still don’t think I have that “feeling.” Then I determined that loving God has nothing to do with having a feeling, just like loving your wife or children have nothing to do with a feeling, it has to do with actions. All of the Old Testament in New Testament law says nothing about what you “feel,” I think because essentially you have absolutely no control over that and the devil, if you believe in him, uses that to influence you to do wrong. If you do not believe in the devil, then flawed human nature persuades you to feel a certain way and thereby to do wrong. The Bible does not say “as a man you can’t feel like you like another man – i.e. be gay,” the King James protestant version of the bible reads: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22) Feeling a certain thing isn’t really the problem, its knowing something is wrong and DOING IT ANYWAY! The thing that is wrong with it is doing that wrong thing. Similarly with loving God, feeling you love God is not loving God, doing what He says is loving God. Specifically, John 14:15 say: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Love is doing what is good for the one loved, no matter what “you feel.” The Catholic conception of love (or more correctly charity toward anyone – God, spouse, parent, child or good friend) is drawn out in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
Bottom line is, based on John 14:15 (“If you love Me keep my commandments”), I knew I could love God based on God’s definition of love not on my feelings (me in this quote referring to Jesus Christ, who is God). I could use my reason to force my self to follow his commandment (well within my capabilities as a reasoning being), my feelings, which by the secular definition of love, are really out of my control and immaterial, according to God’s definition of love.
Because of this I eventually stopped worrying about my feelings and started worrying about making sure I was doing the right things according to God. But this still left the question of hell and an all-good God. In the last clip I include it says Bill Maher was dumbfounded, in my opinion he wasn’t dumbfounded but brought up what he thought was a good question: “If God is all powerful, why not skip all the suffering and just make it so that we [humans] are all the perfect thing?” The answer may well surprise you. He did make humans “the perfect thing,” to start with, therefore Adam and Eve had no suffering. The reason we, humankind, are in the predicament we are in, is that God did make us the perfect thing and as part of that He gave us something that no other material creature had (though all purely spiritual creatures – angles/demons, all arguably already had) and that was free will. Adam and Eve even though they were put in paradise, a place of perfect pleasure and comfort, they choose to go against God’s one law: “And the lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it and to keep it. And He commanded him saying: of every tree of paradise, thou shalt eat: But the tree of Knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.” I assume that God gave them the ability to understand what death was probably at least saw animals die. That was at least the worst actual thing that they thought could happen to them, since they had no other possibly knowledge of evil, only knowing good, except maybe for death, since they had not yet eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Hell is as bad as Jesus Christ gives us a taste of where you are burning for all eternity while being consumed by worms constantly (Mark 9:44-28). My epiphany on hell is that it probably starts out with the same environment as heaven without being bathe constantly in God’s love – the beatific vision, but it is the people who are in it that will create hell, not God. If God had any hand in it, besides just allocating a place where it could exist and where people who by free will rejected him would never be forced to see him, there at least be some mercy there. But if there is any mercy in hell to start with, it will eventually fade from the minds of the eternally damned. All the people in hell choose to live without, or at least ignoring God’s laws in this life and reap what they have sown in the next at the hands of some of their “companions.”
We have a taste of what fire that causes destruction, sickness burning and death I the form of radioactivity from a nuclear weapon. If there are wars in hell, which with the likes of Hitler and Stalin probably being there, wars are unavoidable. Worms that never die cold conceivably be biological weapons. And the demented people there will no doubt become masters of torture (an even worst scenario).
They also lack any respect for any authority like many on earth do not respect not only any secular leaders but don’t believe God would leave us any religious leaders leading to people interpreting God’s word in the bible any way they wand. Some say the Holy Ghost (also called the Holy Spirit by some) guides them but if that’s true, why do members of one bible respecting groups dis agree with so vehemently with other groups?
Kirk defends Christianity
Kirk defends his stance against abortion
Charlie Kirk emphasizes the seriousness of selecting who You Marry and how one should conduct themselves before marriage to have a successful life long marriage.
In my opinion, one of the best books I have read on marriage is “Three to Get Married” by bishop Fulton Sheen.
Publisher : Scepter Publishers (May 1, 1996)
Paperback : 216 pages
ISBN-10 : 0933932871
ISBN-13 : 978-0933932876
Nihil Obstat: John M.A. Fearns, STD
Censor Librorum
Imprimatur +Francis Cardinal Spellman
Archbishop of New York
April 16, 1951
Another book that appears good from what I have read of it is Father Ronald Knox’s “Bridegroom and Bride.” Once again, the Imprimatur is from my 1957 version and the identifying information below is from a modern reprint of this classic.
ASIN : B0BZK67PJR
Publisher : Sophia Institute Press (August 15, 2023)
Paperback : 144 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8889110378
Nihil Obstat: Joannes M. T. Barton, S.T.D., L.S.S.
Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur: + Georgius L. Craven,
Epus Sebastopolis
Vic. Cap. Westmon. Westmonasterii, Die 23A Nov. 1956