Communion with the Saints

I don't mean to take sides here in a debate between freedom and authority. I'm neither Catholic nor Orthodox, but the Protestant denial of our doctrine of the "Communion of Saints" just seems too shallow to me. A lot of things changed from the Mosaic era of the Tanakh to the Messianic times of the New Testament. Admittedly, it is true that Saul was not supposed to request a seer to conjure up Samuel for questioning, but he did so, and he suffered for it. It was common practice among the heathen in ancient times to consult with seers to bring up the spirits of the dead for various reasons. Therefore, the Israelites were forbidden to follow such practices because it could also be used to contact more powerful spirits, demons, to seek augury of the future. God's chosen people were only supposed to pray for such wisdom directly to Him. No demon should ever be asked for advice.

By contrast, the doctrines of Mary are safe. They are not an accretion of dogma invented by the Catholic Church. They are old and secure, long predating any schism in the Church. They begin with the writings of the Apostles and the Evangelists, John and Luke, and presumably James, Paul and Peter, and they are found in Scripture: John's gospel and Revelations. When Paul went to Jerusalem, they agreed on what would be the kerygma, and then everyone taught about the virgin birth and such from then onward. Mary was still alive then, and Luke would come back to interview her. 

The Church has always presupposed that the saints are aware of things going on here on Earth, and so we can talk to them. There have been hundreds of visions of Mary contacting us. You can cut away too much by refusing the long-held teachings of the Apostolic deposit in the Early Church. From the very first ecumenical council in 50 AD, we have venerated Mary as the Mother of all the believers. And it is ancient custom, from the millennium before Christ, that the mother of the King is the recognized Queen. It reduced rivalries and infighting when the King had many wives. Further, more than one person who went on to become a saint has claimed to receive visions of other saints who went before them.

We do not hold seánces to bring up the dead or speak to demons. That most definitely IS forbidden in Scripture. There is no parallel in that with praying to Mary or the saints. They stay where they are, and we don't ask for boons, only for intercession. We do believe that God listens to their requests, and takes their faith and ours into consideration. Thus, the "communion of saints" can help us to become better disciples of Jesus. We have no need to ask them to tell us "secrets" of the future, or hidden mysteries, nor to suggest what choices or actions we should make. As believers in Christ filled with the Holy Spirit, we pray directly for such wisdom, and if we receive such from our patron saints, we may choose to confirm it with Jesus in prayer for ourselves. As always, we must be cautious, for the Adversary would be happy to trip us up. Yet all the same, a holy vision should not be rebuffed.

One could wonder why reports of speaking with the saints have become so rare among the Protestants of today. It cannot be due to a lack of infilling by the Holy Spirit. There are plenty of Churches that teach about the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. But nowhere do we see either a statue of Mary or an icon of any saint. It must be that the Commandment to avoid any sort of "graven image" has been taken too far to include the depiction of prior holy believers whom we might do well to remember and emulate. Without any images to remind us of the saints, we are far more likely to forget about them and neglect their examples. Sadly, that seems a shame. It is like forgetting who our ancestors were, and neglecting to pray for our parents and grandparents to be well and rewarded in Heaven. Our forebears may indeed be quite comfortable, and the saints surely are, but their remembrance can only rebound to our own good as we so honor them.

We never worship these images of the great leaders of our faith. They would be affronted and quick to rebuff such idolatry if we did. The statue or icon of a saint is not an idol. It is not a dwelling place of a spirit to whom we can make an offering. Veneration is not of this kind, but rather a calling to mind of a person who deserves respect and honor. We recognize the saints as persons whom we would benefit to learn from, and we recall the lessons they taught. We do not dedicate our lives to their service, because that kind of consecration belongs only to God: Our Father, his Son, and the Holy Spirit. If we touch or kiss them, it is a sign of respect and a token of our desire to meet them one day in Heaven. 

Surely, you can see that such admiration and "veneration" of the saints is nothing like the conjuring of dead spirits that is forbidden in the Bible. We want no part of the counsel of demons. But a prayer offered to a holy resident of the halls of Heaven, requesting a petition to Our Lord upon his Throne, can hardly be equated with those ancient vile practices. The "Communion of Saints" is a worthy practice observed by all Christians right up until the second Schism of the Reformation, and it deserves recognition from everyone who aspires to rise to a place in their ranks.

What about the Immaculate Conception?

The Catholic Church has declared it an essential doctrine of faith to believe that the Virgin Mary was herself conceived without sin, so as to be able to bear Jesus without passing on humanity's original sin. This is the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. They say that it was necessary to back up one generation to single out one woman to be born special, to be chosen for the Mother of God. The reasoning, however, seems a bit flawed. Perhaps, it might have been better to allow us the freedom to figure this out on our own. Let's take a look and see. 

If Mary was not originally "immaculate," then God would have had to intervene to prevent Jesus from inheriting original sin. Surely, the Messiah, Son of the Living God, could never be born with original sin. That would have invalidated his sacrifice for our sins. Only a sacrifice without blemish could possibly make the necessary atonement. Mary had to be without sin in order to bear the Son of God, and that includes even original sin. The enormous significance of this event clearly demands it. 

But what human woman could ever be herself without sin, much less be free from original sin? After all, it was a woman who listened to temptation and ate of the forbidden fruit. It was the first woman, Eve, who caused us all to bear the stain of original sin. But Adonai is omnipotent, isn't He? So, what stops the Holy Spirit from removing the stain from Mary, along with any other sin (presumably venial), at the moment when she consented to conceive? He is eternal, so all time is present before Him to manipulate if He chooses.

If God thus performed such a retroactive miracle to cleanse Mary, then Jesus could be conceived without sin as required. And if Mary never sinned after Jesus' birth, it could also be that the same cleansing would have strengthened her free will and reset her inclinations to desire only the good. It only makes perfect sense that she would be the best mother to our Lord as He was growing up under her care.

It just seems like a pointless overstatement to declare that Mary was first conceived to be immaculate. It begs the question of why she didn't get the stain from her mother. It also implies that the Holy Spirit spent centuries searching for the right girl to choose. He was going to have to do a miracle anyway. Rather, in his own right time, He finds the girl with the right bloodline, and poses the critical question: "Are you willing?" When she accepts, the perfect cleansing is performed. Simple.

Oh! How I would wish that the Holy Spirit would do such a miracle for us! Cleanse us at our baptism (or confirmation) to allow us to consistently recoil from temptation and sin. But then, that would vindicate Pelagius and condemn the rest of us. Instead, we need a continuous condescension of grace to forgive the sins we do not avoid, for whatever reasons, and to bring us back to a proper relationship with God. We may amend and improve our behavior, bit by bit as we grow older, but we never quite rid ourselves of the inclination to sin. We have to trust that Jesus' sacrifice will suffice. Perhaps, in the Millennial Kingdom, we may be gifted with both a resurrected body and a rectified inclination that chooses the good. 

Obviously, I agree that Mary needed to be sinless in order to conceive by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord had to be born without sin, and to live without sinning. If the Son of Man, being divine, could not live on Earth without sin, then Satan wins the argument. Mankind isn't able to be worthy of Heaven. But Jesus did manage to beat Satan and resist temptation. And He did go to the cross willingly to die as a sacrifice for our sins. He shed his blood so that He could give us his righteousness. 

Of course, He knew He would rise again, but his flesh didn't know that. Still, if Jesus had had to bear the stain of original sin, and the broken inclination that misaligns our free will, it would have been a much more formidable challenge for Him to live without sin up through the day of his Crucifixion. Even God didn't want to risk that much. It was enough that He had to become a mere human, when He was God walking among us. God had to exercise grace and mercy as never before to take on the mission of being our Messiah, and He earned his place to be our King for 1,000 years. 

We can now look forward to the days when we shall see Jesus' Mother as Queen beside his throne. Mary is also our mother, just as Jesus asked the beloved disciple, John, to care for her as He hung on the cross. Her place is assured by miracles, bestowed according to her humility and acquiescence to the divine will, and we know that she lived in the light of his grace all the days of her life. It just doesn't make logical sense to declare that God was waiting, looking for a girl who would be born without original sin, when He could fix that all at the same time when He covered her with his Holy Spirit. 

Hail Mary, full of grace! Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. 

Ecumenism will Ruin our Faith

Ecumenism is the attempt to meld all of the world's religions into one. But to do that, they want to split off the divinity of Jesus Christ, making Him into just another "inspired" Prophet. Jesus is not merely a prophet! He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God! This has been God's plan from the beginning, and we can't change or subvert it. We try to do so at our peril. 

Why is this the way God wants history to go? From the beginning, God has wanted to live here with us. God wants to be our first Love and first concern, our Prime Motivator, if you will. But somehow, we lost our trust in Him, and decided to go our own way. The result was disaster after disaster. Without God, we have no moral compass, no objective right or wrong, and we behave shamefully toward each other. All through history, He has been trying to call us back, to listen to Him. But He gave us free will, and we want to follow our own desires and devices. The problem is not just selfishness and sin, however, but the fact that we have no plan, and our vision is too small to see the "big picture." We need Him to spell it out for us. We need revelation. 

Just look at the histories preserved in the Bible, especially if you have never looked at them before. After the Exodus, throughout the Judges, and into Samuel, God never wanted Israel to crown a human king. He wants us to follow and obey Him, not to bow to any human authority. He allowed it just to give in to our demands, and it proved to be generally a bad idea. Only King David did his best to truly love and serve the Lord. So God promised that the Messiah would follow, in the proper time, from his line. Thus, Jesus was born in his line, and was known as the Son of David.

Jesus is our Messiah, our Saviour and our King. As one third of the Holy Trinity, He is the Son of the Divine Ruler of the Cosmos. He was incarnate as a fully human person, and came down to be our Compassionate and Merciful King. Jesus is the fully Divine God who truly understands what it means to be human, and He knows why we need mercy and forgiveness. From the first days of the uncorrupted Garden of Eden, God has always wanted to walk among us, and now He can. He only wants us to believe in Him, to desire to be near Him, and to Know and Love and Trust Him... in other words, to have faith in Him. He counts that faith as righteousness. 

We can't allow ourselves to be fooled by this emasculated version of "acceptable religion." It is "New Age" political correctness, and it won't work. This will be nothing less than a reprise of the northern Kingdom of Israel's whoring after foreign false gods. This new "Woke" theology is nothing more than a mish-mash of mediocre "cafeteria compromise," selected solely for its potential to intrigue and titillate our selfishness and sound pretty to our ears. In other words, we will have chosen to listen only to what we want to hear, and to censure anything that could challenge or offend us or our neighbors. That kind of religion does nothing to guide us to a better life, and it encourages sloppy thinking. It calls us to follow stupid slogans and to champion the wrong causes, without ever seeking to understand either the relevant history or the fundamental moral significance of the situations. False gods, indeed. Such foolish stiff-necked refusal to listen only ever ends with God's anger and abandonment, if not to his eventual wrath.

I am not so blind as to allow blind fools to lead me. I have already seen where this goes. I concocted my own version of it 30 years ago, and it was quite effective. And then a friend told me, "Yeah, you included a bit of everything, so that everyone could accept it, so that it comes out sounding universal. It even sounds very Christian, except for one thing, you left out Jesus." I was pleased to hear it. I had started out as "Christian," and seen how He was the stumbling block that the world stubbornly refused. I even thought of converting to Judaism, because that was the closest real religion to what I already believed, and I wanted to be among the "chosen people." 

But a few years later, I began to ask, how then does one get saved? And I realized, Jesus said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but by Me." And no one else has any access to God's mercy and grace to forgive sins. God showed us that He had given Jesus full authority to teach by letting Him do the miracles that so amazed everyone. And then, when we had given Him over to be crucified to death, God raised Him back up from the grave as proof of his divinity. You can't get rid of Him that easily. 

We need Jesus. So I abandoned my heresy. I now attend the Catholic Church, although I still have my reservations concerning the schisms, and accept some Protestant and Orthodox views. You NEED Jesus. You can't get to Heaven without Him. 

The best you can do with the ecumenical hybrid religion (it's not a faith) is to achieve peace in this world. And when has the best possible outcome ever materialized? You don't want to see the persecutions that will come first to enforce it. It's going to get crazy out there, so stay with Jesus. God will be watching to protect you and save your soul.

In the meantime, while we watch the world declare its heresies, it will be good to say the Rosary, and repeat the Jesus prayer always in our hearts. Read your catechism, preferably an older edition, and learn the history of the early ecumenical councils from before the Great Schism of 1054 AD. This you can teach. The Catholic version of the Nicene creed is correct, with the Filioque, and the western saints are true to God. But don't dismiss the spirituality of the Early Church Fathers and the Orthodox Church, nor the protests about the abuses that caused the rebellion of the Protestant Churches. They all have valid points, or God would have let them wither. Watch for and discern the heresies. 

The Catholic Church has as its main problem the assertion of the paramount authority of the Pope. He is not infallible, even in the "limited capacity" of Papal Bulls. The Pope needs to humble himself and step down, to admit that he is the equal of all the other Patriarchs. The Chair of Peter is not the epitome of authority, and the Pope is no more the "Vicar of Christ" than any other Patriarch. Jesus had twelve disciples, and they all recognized James as the leader of the Church in Jerusalem. 

But for now, there are many Patriarchates scattered around the globe, and some newer congregations that lack focused leadership. We cannot let our pride dictate division in the Body of Christ. The other Churches must find a way to allow the Catholics to retain some dignity, and accept that they have not been astray for a thousand years. If we must ignore separated councils in order to stand together, we can let them be valid for those who need to follow them, and disregard their points of disputation insofar as they avoid outright heresy. In all the essentials of faith, let us seek unity, but in the parts that don't directly affect our salvation, we can allow for flexibility. 

But we can never call an ecumenical council with the goal of accommodating the world's variety of cultures and religions. That kind of outreach is not true evangelism. It is merely capitulation, deposing our King in order to welcome foreign invaders. That can NEVER be acceptable. We might as well all bow down to Muhammad and accept subjugated status as dhimmis, because they will never compromise to accomodate us. Their clearly stated aim is to bring the whole world to worship their Allah under Islam and Sharia law, and the pressure of that would eventually end all dissent.

The only True faith is belief that Jesus is both God and Man, the Messiah promised to the Jews, and the only begotten Son of God. And He shall be the One True King of the Kingdom of God, on Earth as it is in Heaven, for the Kingdom and the Power, and the Glory is his, now and forever. 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Help me to amend my ways, and lead me to follow thy path. Lord Jesus, teach me thy Way of Truth, and let me share thy Life, now and forever. Amen. 

Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end. Amen. 

Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who most need thy mercy. Amen. 

Come quickly, Lord Jesus! The tribulations are about to begin. Do not let us be forced to receive the Mark. Amen! 

Stand for Israel's Right to Exist!

Israel deserves to exist because it values its citizens. The Jews love each other and share a democratic government, even though they are divided about how to be a proper Jew. They even accept Christians, who haven't always been the best neighbors, and nearly a fifth of Israelis are Arab Muslims who, by the way, don't want to destroy Israel. 

Muslims under Israeli "oppression" are treated better than the Palestinians treat each other when given their own Islamic government. We will never believe that Palestinians want a two-state solution. They just want an excuse for hating Jews. They have been offered their own state many times, on the one condition: Acknowledge Israel's right to exist. Nothing else. They refuse every time. Instead they chant, "From the River to the Sea," a call for renewed genocide.

Even if you don't believe that God gave the Jews this land 3700 years ago, you have to see that a people who have been persecuted, murdered and chased from their homes, simply because they have a different faith, for 2000 years needs to have a homeland. They suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis, so much so that the terms "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" had to be invented, not to even mention "Holocaust." What kind of person so despises the Merciful God that they would refuse to allow them to live in the one place on Earth that they have always called "Home"? You claim that your God is merciful and compassionate, but you have none of it. The only attribute of Allah that you emulate is his lying.

And don't even go on about the "Nakba." Your grandparents ran to leave the country so that their Arab friends could invade and destroy Israel, and they wouldn't be in the way. They expected to return to clean up the slaughter and claim the spoils of war. I feel ZERO sympathy for the Palestinian refugees. Every Arab Muslim who stayed was given citizenship in Israel, and they are happy to be Israeli. The so-called refugees, after 75 years of self-imposed exile, need to disperse and take new citizenship with any Arab country that will accept them, if any will. Go live under your Sharia law, if you want. Or maybe, petition Israel to accept you, and swear to accept and defend Israel's existence. Your plight is your own fault.

There is no excuse for terrorism, no excuse for teaching your children to hate Jews, no excuse for hiding your fighters under hospitals, no excuse for sending your children out with bombs in toys to explode and die. Your young men throw rocks at soldiers and run away like cowards. And you subsidize terrorist "martyrs" by paying the families of those who commit suicide attacks. If any people on Earth deserve no sympathy, and no homeland of their own, it has to be the Palestinians. If the rest of the Muslim world objects, let them take them in and give them citizenship. They are rich, and they share their Islamic values. It would be no burden at all. Who wants to shelter some terrorists? But I guess, if anyone needs mercy more than they deserve it, it must be those who gave us Hamas.

So now, the situation has developed into war. We must pray that our God will make his ruling from Heaven with justice, mercy and love. For those who have truly suffered, justice; for those who deserve reproach, mercy; and for all involved, love. 

Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who most need thy mercy. Amen. 

Are Bible Stories Really True?

Why argue over whether we all agree that God created the world in just six days? Have you never heard or used the words "eon" or "age"? An "eon" is like a billion years, more or less. For God, who is eternal, any long "open-ended extensive period of time" could be viewed as a single day. But since we are mortal and of short duration, we look at time very differently. The Bible, which tells about history, says that for God a thousand years is like a day and a day can be a thousand years. We too often think that God must think like men, when we need to learn how to think like God.

Science knows nothing about meaning or purpose. It only shows "how" God manages to do things. He observes the physical laws that He set down during creation. If you don't like God's methods, just remember that the world has been corrupted by an alien influence called "evil." There was already a war in Heaven before we were created. Still, God works everything together to fulfill his plans and insure that the final results will be good. We have to trust Him.

Always judge Man's ideas by God's Word. But, you also have to understand that the kind of Word reflects the kind of information being relayed and how the question was being asked. Four thousand years ago, they were not asking for scientific facts the way we do today. They wanted to know and understand God, his plans, and what He was doing in the world. So God explained in a fashion that they could grasp.

You're making a controversy over how the authors intended to pass on knowledge and wisdom, whether they were using metaphor or speaking literally. Most authors, and especially Moses, use both according to the subject and the need to accomodate the audience's worldview. His aim was for their edification first. Later, passing the stories on became enculturation.

Here's my take on the books of Torah: 

*Creation of the Cosmos & Earth* -- metaphorical. Moses wasn't a witness and would not have grasped the science if God had given him details.

*Adam & Eve* -- probably metaphorical, allowing that God chose one specific couple to use as an example to reveal our common problem with sin.

*The Great Flood* -- literal fact, within a limited point of view. This occurred all over the world. Lots of survivors, but only Noah and his family were chosen for a covenant.

*Tower of Babel* -- mixed facts with metaphor. Many people built ziggurat temples, but their deeds and intentions were not acceptable to God. So God kept them divided.

*Calling Abraham* -- a literal covenant, fact mixed with moralizing storytelling to establish God's purpose in history.

*Joseph & Hebrew captivity* -- late memory of literal facts. Akhenaten may have been Joseph's Pharaoh. Persecution of the remnant monotheists led to their escape. 

*Exodus* -- mostly literal, a return through the wilderness under Moses' reformation leadership. 

*Leviticus & Numbers* -- a literal collection of Moses' laws given to establish a national identity, and a record of the people who were to be included.

*Deuteronomy* -- a reformed copy of the covenant Law found in the Temple precincts during the reign of King Josiah.

*Conquest of Canaan* -- recounted in later books. Mostly literal fact, with moralizing content & point of view context. God is keeping his covenant by confirming it with historical deeds.

The entire Book of Genesis was inspired by God to tell the origin stories of the world, mankind, civilization, and the beginnings of the Hebrew people. It often glosses over scientific ideas that were too advanced, and occasionally writes history with a particular point of view. The author's intention was to develop a unifying story, and establish an authority adequate to allow the discipline of the Law, a legal system meant to instill an advanced sense of morality and a peculiar identity of the people of YHWH. Moses established a cult of Atonement, under the ostensible leadership of a singular God who hates idolatry but loves righteousness. Given a prophetic outlook, the nation conquered their territory and established a monarchy under that God, YHWH.

Further prophecies promised that a great leader, a "Messiah," would come to rescue us from oppression, and eventually establish a perpetual theocracy under the spiritual leadership of the transcendent Presence of the Creator/Word/Comforter who dwells in the human heart. Jesus came to fulfill the demands of the Law and the cult of Atonement, and to establish the spiritual dimension of love as moral emulation of God's justice and mercy. He gave us the Church as the basis for our growth in faith and love, and to comfort us during our inevitable contest with the surrounding pagan cultures. He promised to complete the remaining historical prophecies upon his return as the King of Heaven. 

And this is the Gospel proclaimed by those He chose as disciples:

God (YHWH) promised us a Messiah to lead

   us to goodness and Heaven. 

Jesus (Yeshua) is that Messiah (Christ). 

He is both fully God and fully Man.

He preached repentance & forgiveness. 

He did miracles as signs of his authority.

He was crucified and died to forgive us.

He was buried, and rose again from death.

He visited his disciples to show them that

   He is alive again, on several occasions. 

He ascended to Heaven. 

YHWH and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit down

   to dwell in us and guide us.

He promised to return and establish his 

   Kingdom, and to fulfill God's plan and 

   purposes for the world. 

That is the simple core of the Gospel, and it is the literal Truth. You can refer to either the Apostle's Creed, or the Nicene Creed. The message is the same. It comes from the Bible, especially the eyewitness Gospels in the New Testament. All of these have been examined and acknowledged as trustworthy. If you read them, you will see all of this with enough detail to lead you to faith and salvation in Jesus.

Don't divide the Church over squabbles about literal or metaphorical interpretations of the Torah. We are not omniscient now, and we never were. God gave us stories that we could understand 4,000 years ago. To insist that his words must be teaching undeniable scientific facts is absurd, and it's trying to put God in a box built of our own inadequate intellect. We need to learn how to think as God thinks, and to accept each other as his children. Don't presume to say that our salvation hangs on such minor details. Salvation comes only from God's mercy and grace, granting us the faith to put our trust in Him.

How is Hell God's Justice?

Let us see what Hell is. Hell is the final abandonment of God. God is the source of all that is good. So Hell is a place where there is nothing good. Can anyone endure such torment without ceasing? Even our simplest existence is a good from God, because we are contingent beings. So, eventually, when we give up clinging to "immortality," we will cease to exist. God does not torture us in fire. Fire is the element of destruction and disintegration. 

How long is eternity? Time is different from our linear sequential experience of it here. Eternity can seem like it endures forever in every moment, because God's time is utterly unlike our own concept of time. How long does a sugar cube feel like it's burning? In Hell, you can endure the pain of suffering, or choose final destruction and experience disintegration. If you turn away from God, don't expect anything good. 

Hell is a place of unending regret, self-loathing and pain for the remainder of your existence. Even if it ends, you suffer forever. Don't go there by stubbornly refusing to accept Jesus. He took your penalty for sin, to save you from Hell.

"My God! My God! Why have you abandoned me?!" These were Jesus' words, spoken on the cross, just before He died for us. It's more than just a reference to Psalm 22. He fully experienced every moment of it. For that one moment of time, dying on the cross, Jesus felt what sin does to us -- separating us from God -- and He found it to be unbearable. True, the Father only let Him go for a short time, but He felt our loss. 

Later, after his burial, the Father (as part of the Trinity) raised Jesus up again. Jesus said, "I have the power to lay down my life, and to take it up again." But for that moment, those three hours on the cross, He felt the total emptying of how it feels to be human and apart from God. That's what sin does to us. It removes the core of our lives.

Please, don't let his suffering go for naught. Don't turn your back and walk away. He did this for you. Hell is real. But so is Heaven.  God wants you to choose eternal life, and He can make Heaven last without any ending.

"But what about the fallen angels?" you may ask. Doesn't it say in the book of Revelations that Satan will be released briefly after Jesus' millenial reign on Earth? Why would God release Satan from his prison after 1000 years of peace? It is because He is infinitely merciful, and recognizes his angels' free will. God will allow Satan one final chance to repent and humble himself, or choose to be abandoned to Hell. We all have the choice to be rebels or obedient, and so do the angels. God loves his creatures. But angels don't die, so if Satan chooses not to be reconciled, he will suffer forever without end for eternity in a place where there can be nothing good, and never another chance to beg for mercy or forgiveness. Maybe he knows that, but still he struggles to avoid his just punishment. 

Satan persists in a contest to thwart God's promises to us and judgments against the fallen angels. He surely must know that he will lose, but he doesn't want any of us to be saved. All along, this has been about Satan's pride and jealousy over the status of "these human animals," being unworthy of God's favor. So this war has to play out to its end. The final question is about whether Satan will be humble in defeat and admit that his pride doesn't deserve to be forgiven. And then, how many fools will again rebel with him, though they should know better after the millenial kingdom, and go into perdition? Someday, we shall see. 

Let the Truth Lead the Church

If you don't agree with the first point of the Catholic Church's "foundational arguments" for Petrine Primacy, the others don't even make sense. Jesus wasn't trying to set up a monarchical structure to govern his Church. Peter is our point man, perhaps, but not the Boss. Jesus is the head, and the Holy Spirit is the breath that supports the collective speech of ideas. The Bishop of Rome need have no more authority than any other Metropolitan Bishop who leads the Church. 

The Orthodox feel offended, and wish to divide, over theoretical verbal expressions, like the "filioque," like the way the Miaphysite Churches did earlier over the nature of Christ's person. But the West can recognize whatever degree of leadership we choose to confer on the Pope, if we really want to be doctrinal conformists. The problem emerges when we forget that the Church is larger than just the Catholic Church. We need to be in agreement with a consensus of faith, accepting valid viewpoints, not just a numerical majority.

Let the Protestants demur to follow if they want because they recognize no umbrella of authoritative leadership. That is no different from the Orthodox denial of Papal authority, and no less essential in doctrine than the Miaphysite disagreement and retreat from communion. But in conscience, they should also seek to find a place within the whole consensus of communion.

The argument stands or falls upon a disagreement over a particular interpretation of Scripture, and an arrogance that assumes no need to exercise proper humility. When Jesus said, "and upon this rock I shall build my Church," He meant the verbal confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." The foundation is the Truth and the Faith, not the person who expressed it. Peter got his name only because he was the first to say it, without any hesitation. So Jesus knew he would make a good teacher. But then, ten seconds later, Peter wanted to argue with Jesus about being crucified. 

I wonder how many times Jesus has wanted to tell the Popes, "Get thee behind me Satan! You are thinking as men do, not as God does." Probably every time they asserted their "designated petrine authority" to tell everyone to fall into lockstep with the "Catholic Church." The desire to be great among men was one of Jesus's pet peeves, which He denounced repeatedly. And the Orthodox Bishops have not been wholly immune to this failing either.

The Church that Jesus built needs to depend on the consensus of opinion flowing from the Holy Spirit through the approved canon of scriptures and the ecumenical councils, up until the Church split apart. We need to allow for a sectarian variety which recognizes that each branch still remains "Christian." At no point, however, can the authority of the plain meaning of Scripture be denied, especially for any self-serving usurpation of authority. Let the accretions of the Magisterium be submitted to the consensus of scriptural interpretation, in open council if necessary, so that the Holy Spirit may prune back its excessive ambitions. 

Indeed, insofar as we all have gone astray in our separate ways, we should all observe the opinions of the whole Church, and seek to curb our peculiarities. Let us all lend deference and weight to the very oldest of traditions, as to the traditional deposit of the teaching of the Apostles and the faith of the Early Fathers and saints. The historical ecumenical councils are a codification of consensus, occasionally pointing out one or more irreconcilable disagreements over theoretical issues. 

If the potential practical results of varied understandings lack significant differences in behavior and virtue, perhaps we should gloss over the verbal disagreement, so long as we can agree to affirm the same creeds. What we want is to develop a relationship of trust in Jesus, as one person of the Divine Trinity, who died for our sins and rose from the dead. We need a continuing growth of faith, hope and love, and to build our personal virtue by using our individual talents within the Body of Christ. 

Every differing faction wants to say that their position is supported by Scripture and tradition. It seems obvious to me that there are significant logical holes in the arguments on both sides. That is why they haven't been solved in so many years. But those weren't the main points of either the Schism or the Reformation. The protesting Churches were in disagreement with the authority of the Papacy when it presumed on its hereditary right to interpret scripture to support its claims, and then insisted on infallibility. The Catholic magisterium then used that spurious authority to create dogmas that are unsupported by Scripture. These "necessary teachings" are pious and good, until they are abused and people get excluded for not taking them seriously. 

There are many issues in the Church that need to be addressed. Sola Fide is just one of them, and declarations of infallible dogma are not going to solve the problems, but only make them worse. All sides have used the hiatus in unity to accumulate ideas that make fellowship more difficult. The only way we are going to reconcile the whole Body of Christ is to allow the differences and assume that we all hold to the essential points of the Gospel. We need to be humble and have a teachable spirit. 

And no, we don't need universal agreement on what are the essential points, but only full submission to the necessity that everything must be in accord with the Scripture. That is the only infallible source of authority. There are other authorities, but they must bow to Scripture. The Word of God is our only safety and certainty.  You support your argument, and I support mine, and we agree to remain in fellowship even if we disagree. "Love one another as I have loved you." Only in cases of poisonous heresy that threaten the whole Body do we need to "cut off the hand" or "pluck out the eye" that causes us to sin. 

Finally, the question remains: Why are there so many denominations of Christianity? It's because we care about figuring out the Truth. It makes a difference in how we choose to live, and who we choose to live with. But just remember this: Differences do not make contradictions. This is just who we are as human beings. We are prideful, fractious, and self-willed, and we all have our own points of view. If you give us enough time we disagree, because we all know that the other person doesn't know everything. But if we are not allowed to have honest disagreements, it isn't an association based on freedom and understanding. Without the freedom to think for ourselves, it would become a cult. 

We all have our own interpretations of the facts, even when we are agreed on what those facts are. Truth claims are based on facts, reasoning, and interpretation. The final result is a puzzle solution, called up by our own intentions and best judgment. 

But we still have to remember that God does not think the way human beings think, and we don't see clearly what He is doing in every case. 

The Gender vs. Biology Debate

Some people following the ideology of "Woke" inclusiveness have proposed the idea that gender is a separate category from biological sex, and one's mind can have a different gender identity from the biology of the body. If this is so, then why are these "Woke" and LGBTQ+ ideologues so intent on chopping up kids just to make the two separate identities match? If you feel like your gender doesn't fit with your biology, maybe that's just the way it's supposed to be. Or maybe you just need therapy to adjust your mind to fit reality. Or, if that is still "changing one identity to fit the other," then maybe you should just get used to having both sides of the same coin and learn how to appreciate it.

I'm okay with allowing you to say that gender is fluid or a spectrum. It sounds odd, but that still doesn't change the FACT that biology is binary. If one child in 500,000 is born as a hermaphrodite, then let the parents choose which biology to "assign at birth." That child will probably be infertile anyway. He/she is going to have to decide which gender will predominate eventually, regardless. No one should presume to "fix" a child to be infertile when they grow up, if that's not the original problem already.

Our souls were created male or female, but they are incomplete without the body. It is likely, however, that our genitals were not intended, when God created Adam and Eve, to function exactly as they do now. In a fallen world, where we must struggle to stay alive, there is more need for an emphasis on children, so we have an unbalanced interest in sex. It is our obsession with it that is wrong. We ought to accept our bodies with the genitals we were given by God. This obsession with the flesh is driven by Satan prompting us to create chaos through pride and lust, and promoting child abuse and perversion. Chastity is the proper response to Satan's temptations. 

The LGBTQ+ transgender ideology is doubly wrong because it is not only a selfish and prideful rejection of God's intention; it is also an intrusion into other people's personal business and interference in their God-given identity. Why should anyone have the right to interfere with a family, or to cause harm to a child? Causing infertility is indubitably a great harm, and such intention is evil. There is no kind of surgery that can rebuild your body to become a fully-functional fertile member of the opposite sex. They don't care if you can't have kids! 

Only God has the right to say what is real and what is right. If you disagree, you are wrong. God says that sexual relations belong solely in a marriage between a man and a woman. And, marriage is supposed to be a loving covenant for the sake of procreation and raising children. How else were we meant to fill the Earth, to discipline and steward it? There have been many objections raised in this regard, but they always miss the point. God is the One who sets the rules. 

Anyone who claims that they were "born this way" deserves to hear the words of Jesus saying, "you must be born again." It applies equally to all of us because we have all been corrupted by the influence of Satan, ever since the Fall. If this is the way your own "inclination to evil" is bent, it is no worse a problem than someone suffers who has an inclination to anger, or pride, or greed. We suffer from an implanted inclination to serve our own desires, rather than having the orientation to love and desire fellowship with God. It is our duty to suppress this inclination toward evil, and to feed and support the inclination of our better nature in its search for God. "You must be born again of water and the Spirit" in order to enter the Kingdom of God. "The way you were born" of the flesh is irrelevant.

If you cannot bear the thought of living your life in a normal heterosexual fashion, in a family with children, do not feel that any disdain or contempt is being heaped upon you. There has always been a proportion of people in society who have chosen to live alone or to pursue a different calling. It is only our obligation to avoid such behaviors as would lead us to sin and thus to offend God. Chastity can be a calling to sainthood, offering a life just as filled with joy as the life of a parent, and perhaps gifted with more freedom. 

The life of a single person can be dedicated to service to the needy in society, or in search of a solution to some problem that has plagued us for millennia. As one with a religious calling, we can cultivate the Kingdom of God among the brothers and sisters, or we can teach other people's children the basics of how to live a good life. One does not have to suffer the pains of loneliness merely because one chooses to refrain from illicit sex. God has a plan and a calling for each of us, with the intention to help us to build a life full of joy, and a promise that our greatest hope might be fulfilled in the not so far future.

An Invisible Tower of Babel

After the Great Flood, when Noah saved humanity from extinction, God commanded us to be fruitful and multiply and go out to populate the whole earth. We were given one task to accomplish. But we didn't want to do it. Instead, we conspired together, having all one language, to build a great tower, like a ziggurat, high into the sky. This tower would be to unite us as one people, and we would stay together, all close within range where we could see the tower on the horizon. 

Then we would worship at the tower, calling upon God, drawing Him down from Heaven, so that we could counsel with Him about how we wanted the world to run. We wanted to bring God down from Heaven, to tell Him what to do! But that's not the way God runs things. Yes, He loves us, but his ideas are not like our ideas. He knows better how things should go for the long-term health of the land and the development of his big plans for us in history. He doesn't need our counsel. 

This was nothing less than pure human pride, so God stepped in. He came down, but instead of listening to our voice, He confused our one language into many mutually unintelligible tongues. No longer could we plan together to build the tower. So the project was abandoned. The people began to wander away, getting away from the crowded city before it broke down into chaos and violence. 

Mankind cannot make God listen and change his plans to serve our small immediate interests. God has big plans that run on and on for many thousands of years. They are meant for our own good, our development into a better kind of people. They always consider the long run. So the best that we can do is to just be obedient and patient. But that, of course, is something that we never want to do. 

Those events happened some four or five thousand years ago. Long in the past, so far back that we begin to seriously question the very existence of God. And when we assume that there is no God, we look up to the Heavens and imagine that maybe we should contrive a way to go, to get ourselves up there. If we can get up there, we can look around and see if we can find God. Then maybe He will have to listen to us, and allow us to make our own plans for our future. 

We don't say it in those words, of course, but claim that we are looking for life on other worlds. We say that we want to know how life begins, but what we really want is to prove that there is no need for God. We want to make ourselves at home in Heaven, without having to pledge obedience to God. All of our "science fiction" stories presume to base our great human accomplishments upon the assumption that the one great God who created the universe by fiat does not exist. It is a precocious hope.

But at last, if we are forced to draw the final conclusion that God does exist, we still owe Him our allegiance, and we have to acknowledge that his rules are made for our own good. We can't just make up whatever rules may suit us for our own purposes and pleasures. God gave us his rules because they are eternally valid and perfectly good. And if we are honest with ourselves, we will tremble in our shoes to acknowledge that we have stepped beyond our bounds. We will have risen up in our pride to take up our dwelling in God's house before He has offered us an invitation. 

We would do well to remember that God is especially angered by pride. We must remember that we are small, and our place in the universe is only what God has planned for us. He loves those who are humble, however, and prepares many good things in abundance for those who love and obey Him. He has already promised us a place in Heaven. We do not need to be so arrogant as to climb up there without his help. If He wants us to build rockets or ladders into Heaven, He will tell us. And then we may be assured of success.

I have eagerly watched the great technological leap into space for over fifty years. I bought into the rationale for the space race, and longed for the day when we would build permanent bases on the Moon and Mars, and then out among the asteroids and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. But I never gave up my faith in God. Today, I look at the new race to climb beyond the sky, and I look at humanity with all of its faults and pride. I am forced to say that we are not ready. We must not carry our power struggles and competition into Heaven. 

Look carefully at our history. The very rockets that we built to go into space came from weapons that we devised for the mass murder of our so-called enemies on the other side of the world. Those people never threatened us, but they built the same weapons to fire at us because they were scared. We both feared that our leaders wanted to subjugate us into economic systems that would make us into slaves. And, at times, when the leaders didn't know how to make those systems work, it seemed like those other people were indeed becoming slaves. 

We don't want to be afraid to speak up, or be forced to do only what the government demands. Nor do we want to be chained to a mountain of debt, worried that we could lose our jobs and have all that we have worked for taken away from us. We don't want government policies saying that we have to work on other things than those we will need to feed and clothe our children, so that we suffer through the winter. And we don't want rich and greedy people to determine the prices of our necessities without mercy, based only on how much they can wring from our meager pockets.

Both sides of this argument have legitimate concerns. But our leaders keep talking about pure ideologies, forever unreasonably opposed to compromise or experiment. What might we work out in practice that could work better than either system does now? Ideologies should not be allowed to condemn innovators for heresy. We don't want to be afraid that intellectuals may be purged or despised for trying to imagine how things could improve. We need to put our hope into human good will, as much as we do into technology and authority.

However, I see little hope that this new space race will not raise those ideologies up into the new homes we want to build. Why are we bringing our pride up into the Heavens? Do we not remember that, although God promised never to destroy us with water ever again, He didn't say He would prevent us from destroying ourselves with fire. Those rockets for space still have the capacity to destroy the world. We had better give some thought to learning our place, and humbling ourselves before God, before He decides we have already gone too far.

Either we find a way to make peace, through compromise, respect and harmony, or we may find that the Heavens can become a battleground from which all of our prideful hopes may be smashed to the ground. If that terrible conflagration happens, we may find that the gates of Heaven will be closed forever. We have the rules that God has given us, but will we summon the humility needed to accept and follow them? They aren't nearly as hard to bear as those we make for ourselves. And if we use them as a guide for right thought, at least we only have to answer to God for our transgressions, and He is merciful to forgive.