In The Beginning.....then what?

"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth"

That is how history of all time opens, and also probably where the confusion begins for us all. I have been pondering Creation lately and how we all got here and what a miracle it all is.....and how much we don't know and probably never will. The question is how much do we REALLY know about how the earth began, how much we can discover and where we can discover it.

For a large number of Christians, the history of the universe begins in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. This is where we read the account of a seven day creation cycle. In the first two chapters we see the creation of light and darkness; sun, moon and stars, land from water, and most importantly man. All this was done with His spoken Word and God the Father said it was all good. Most Christians who hold to a literal 7 day creation would also believe that the earth is anywhere between 6,000-10,000 years old. Of course, the Bible is note meant to be a history book or a scientific textbook, so this being the case, there are many questions that are left unanswered and this creates holes in our story. This brings us to another perspective.

On the other end of the spectrum we have the scientific community. Some may be be atheists, agnostics and some might be people of faith. I am no scientist and I don't pretend to be one so I won't try to impress people with scientific terms or definitions, but from the scientific point of view, there may or may not be a God (intelligent design) and the humanity that we see on the earth, along with the earth we reside on is a matter of chance or a series of events that have evolved over possibly hundreds of millions--or even billions of years; we just happened to be here. Yet there are holes in this approach as well. Was there a design to this whole system we exist in? Is there a purpose to humanity other than just existing and dying?

So the question is: Is there any merging of these two points of view and are they diametrically opposed? I think that the answer is a resounding YES.

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth."--Pope John Paul II

Let's first look at the facts and the missing links of the account of Creation in Genesis. One of the most important things to remember is that if you are going to read Genesis, you must read it in the context that it was written. Also you must realize that the ancient Hebrews recorded history much differently than what we are used to in the Western world. In other words, Genesis can't be taken at face value. When we in the Western world read a historical document, we are trained to read in a very linear fashion and expect things to flow in an orderly chronological fashion. This is not so with Hebrew history. The writer of Genesis (Moses) and the other ancient authors tend to record history more in an elliptical format. This simply means that they tend to explain what happened more in a conceptual way and then move on to the next concept, without a definite timeline. In addition, there was much more symbolism used than what we are used to seeing in our culture.

Looking at the first chapter of Genesis for example, we see in the very first verse that the earth was already here in existence. This does not mean that God did not create the earth however. As Christians, be believe that the earth and everything we see was created by God "ex nihlo" or out of nothing. What we do see is that at the point were the Genesis account picks up, however, we see the earth was dark, void, without order:

Genesis 1:1-2 (NAB)

1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.

Reading further into the first chapter of Genesis, we see that on "Day 1" God separated the light from darkness...and this was the first day. Now do I believe this was a 24 hour day? I don't think so. The reason I say that is due to this fact: What makes a "day" a "day"? The sun. 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night is what defines a day. According to the first chapter of Genesis, the Sun and moon were not even created until day 4. This leads me very much to believe that instead of a series of "24 hour days" as we are used to believing, that the earth and the universe was created in 7 undefined periods of time.

Is this outlook somewhat heretical, or does it somehow detract from the power of a Creator? BY NO MEANS! Whether God took 7 days or 7million years to create our universe, HE still created it. In addition, if you want to hold to a seven day creation, then do so! The most important and undeniable fact of creation is the human creation. We must believe that the human race was created by God through one man and one woman; Creations that were given life by the very breath of God himself. Creatures that were given the abilities that no other creature on earth has: capacities to know right from wrong, to love and most of all to know God.

The fault, however of many Christians is that they tend to blacklist scientific discoveries. If there are carbon tests that say a fossil is millions, or billions of years old it is blacklisted and denied. Science and faith have the ability to work hand in hand and TRUE science will never contradict the faith, but rather enhance our faith by revealing more and more the intricacies of the Father along with the vast attention to detail that he paid to it.

What is true science? True science in it's purest form comes to us as a method to understand what exists in the world that we live. It comes with no predispositions, but with methods and theories to be proven. True science does not exist to prove there is no God, but rather to research and explain what is.

Taking scientific studies on their own outside of faith can be even more deceptive and dangerous. Science without acknowledging the Almighty leads to a humanity without purpose and left to our own devices. Without God there is no right or wrong, good or evil, but whatever we as humans have decided what is good or evil. Without God we are all happenstance amoebas who happened to gain the time and the ability to "evolve" into something greater. It forces us to search back for the "missing link" that ties us to the past rather than acknowledging that we are creatures of an Almighty God that created us for His love and His purpose.

As Christians, let us not be afraid of looking at true Science...it is the other wing that leads us to understanding

The Veil

Exodus 26
1 "The Dwelling itself you shall make out of sheets woven of fine linen twined and of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim embroidered on them.

2 The length of each shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width four cubits; all the sheets shall be of the same size.
3 Five of the sheets are to be sewed together, edge to edge; and the same for the other five.
4 Make loops of violet yarn along the edge of the end sheet in one set, and the same along the edge of the end sheet in the other set.
5 There are to be fifty loops along the edge of the end sheet in the first set, and fifty loops along the edge of the corresponding sheet in the second set, and so placed that the loops are directly opposite each other.
6 Then make fifty clasps of gold, with which to join the two sets of sheets, so that the Dwelling forms one whole.
This is what we know about the Veil of the Temple. It was ordered by God to be constructed as part of His Dwelling; and behind that veil was the Ark of the Covenant. As Christians it is a foreign concept to us and I believe thoroughly that if we want to fully understand Christianity, we must first understand Judaism and the Jewish culture. At that point in history, God was distant from his children and it was shown as such by the Torah. If you were unclean, you were not able to even be in the camp and surely not approach the Tabernacle. God was separated from his chosen people by their sins. As a matter of fact, His children were not even allowed to utter the name of God from their lips and this is shown throughout the Old Testament.

Tonight I was reading a Bible story to my daughters about how God provided the quail for the children of Israel. The children were complaining to Moses and THEN Moses was relaying the message to God and basically wanted the Lord to take him out of a very uncomfortable situation. Based on the intercession of Moses, God provided for his Children, but they didn't learn because they had no personal knowledge of God. They were not able to speak with God directly and even the Priests were only allowed behind the veil one time a year. Think about that and let that soak in. The Children of Israel were unable to talk to their God.

It is into this mentality and mindset that Christ was born. Christ--"Emmanuel: God is with us". God was not approachable, so how could he be with us? And God would NOT come down to the form of a man; yet this is what He did in the form of Christ. Jesus was not simply "God in a Bod" but rather Christ contained two distinct yet inseparable natures. He was ALL God and at the same time ALL Man. This union has been studied for Milena and is called the Hypostatic Union and was defined at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. This very union of God an Man shows us the Father's intent: to unite himself with us as one and bring humanity back to Himself. God showed us who he was through Christ. Christ Himself said that if you have seen Him, you had seen the Father.

In the Old Covenant with God, there had to be a compensation made for our sins, our disobedience to the laws of God. That was done through the sacrifice of the animals. As a Jew, you would confess your sins to the priest as he slaughtered the animal on the altar and that blood that was spilled and sprinkled on the altar was for your sins. That was the way that God designed it, imperfect as it was. Yet something better was to come.

The similarities between the sacrifice of the animal on the altar and the Crucifixion of Our Lord are staggering, but one of the most riveting is from the book of Mark:

Mark 14:12-12
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"

The very day that the Christ was making preparations for his Passover, they were sacrificing the Lambs for the Passover. There is no clearer imagery of what Our Lord was about to suffer on our behalf. Our humanity had to suffer the repercussions of our sins...and we all deserve it. But the miracle that came through Christ was that God and humanity joined together in the form of Christ to take all the sins of the world upon him--including the separation from the Father that Humanity since the time of the fall had to live with. Christ was now out side of the Veil. He was on our side.

While on the cross however, something miraculous happened. The veil that was dividing God and Man was torn and it is very interesting how. The gospels make a very clear point of noting that the Veil was rent from the TOP to the bottom. Being torn from the top was a clear sign that this was no work of man, but of God. And interestingly enough, it was about the same time that Our Lord was pierced and Blood and water flowed from His Sacred Heart. The Veil was not torn upon his Resurrection, but upon his DEATH. While the Resurrection was a outward sign of Christ's unity with the Father and a promise to us of our salvation, His DEATH on the cross is what reunites us with the Father.

Now there is no direct definition in Scripture of what the implications of the Veil being rent were, yet we do know from History and understanding of the Jewish culture what that meant. It meant that from that moment on, God was no longer able to be kept behind the Veil, separated from his people. Through the sacrifice of Christ all humanity has access to God, through the Sacrifice of Christ. What it did NOT mean, however was that the Old Testament was done away with and God was starting from scratch...all over again with Christ. Let's look at what Christ says to us in Matthew:

Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill."

I like to relay it to people as such. God, being the grand architect that He is had from all eternity plans for a building. The Old Covenant represents the foundation, the steel infrastructure that was to give the building it's shape. Yet it was cold, no shelter from the elements, no walls, no roof, no furnishings. Empty....powerless to do what it was intended to do. When Christ came, his intent was not to wipe the structure away, but rather to fulfill or complete the plans. He finished the walls and the roof of the building and then He sent His Holy Spirit to furnish the building with his gifts.

As a former Evangelical, I am saddened greatly by all the time that I thought the Old Testament and our Jewish roots were only historical in nature. God revealed Himself to us in the Old Testament and he also revealed to us how HE wants to be worshipped in the New Testament. With reverence, awe, and most of all through his Son. I am so humbled to know that the Sacrifice that Christ made is an eternal Sacrifice that transcends all time and boundaries and that he has allowed me to take part in that Sacrifice as often as I can through the Mass. The Mass is where we truly see that Veil torn asunder. At that point in time of consecration, we are as close to Jesus as we will ever be on this Earth. Body, Blood Soul and Divinity are all there under the guise of Bread and Wine. God has withheld NOTHING from us...not even His only Eternal Son.

"Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed."

May the Body and Blood of Christ lead us all to eternal life--AMEN

What about prayer in public schools......

This is about the third blog that I have started in about as many weeks, so I am hoping that I can make it through it completely. If you are reading this now, then you can assume that I did make it.

Before anyone goes any further in reading, DON'T do it before you read this story from the Pensacola News Journal athletic about Frank Lay and the lawsuit brought against him for leading a prayer at an banquet http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909180338.

OK. Now that you have taken a couple minutes to read that, here is my take on the topic of prayer in our public school system. I am aware that not all of you may agree, and some of you might get flustered, but don't...it is just my opinion.

First of all, I do support the right of students to pray in the public school system. What would or should this entail is the question. As a Christian, I try as much as possible to make prayer a part of my daily life. With a family and 3 daughters, it is not always easy, but I will pray in moments throughout the day when I find the time. Our students should be afforded the same rights and privileges. If a student prays before their meal or during a "moment of silence" that is provided by the school, they should take advantage of it. In addition, if a group of students want to start a student led Bible study as a student group after classes, that is a part of their rights and does not violate any so called "separation of church and state" laws. This is what I think of and support when I think of prayer in schools.

OK..since many of you may be waiting for the other shoe to drop, here is my counter to that. I DO NOT or CANNOT support teacher or faculty led prayer in public schools. I have many reasons behind this, so please hear me out on this one.

Teachers by their very nature have a very strong influence in children's lives. We have heard that for years and they are probably some of the most important people that our children will come in contact with in their lives. Younger children especially, believe that their teachers are right on everything and that they can do no wrong. They are not old enough to realize that they are just people too.Their duty and job is to teach the subjects that have been assigned to them and not to evangelize or prostylatize the students. There are two parts of this. First of all, all the students in that class have been given to their parents by God as their children, whether we agree with what they are being taught about God or not. At the end of the day those parents will be held responsible to God for what they did with those children and what they taught or did not each them. We must remember that as Christians we are called to evangelize, but we are also called to use wisdom. Christian teachers and educators have a responsibility to respect the familial boundaries that are in place, again, whether you agree with them or not. As a reminder on our end, we should always be ready and able to answer questions on our faith, but answering questions and leading prayers is not the only form of evangelization. God is the only one who has the ability to change the hearts of people and we must accept that we are not the only source that God would use to show himself to these children.

Secondly, it seems as Christians that sometimes we have a LOT of double standards. We fight for the right of prayer in our public schools, yet we fight if some other religious ideas foreign to our Christian beliefs are brought into the classroom. If we are going to press for the rights for public prayer in schools, then we MUST be willing and able to allow that same opportunity to EVERY other religion: Islam, Judaism, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, the list goes on and on. I know that as a Christian, I do not want my child being led in a Buddhist meditation, or a prayer to Mohammed. And no offense, I also don't want any teacher telling my child that they are "going to hell" or "are not saved" or called "idolaters" or "blashphemers" because of their Catholic beliefs. This causes a lack faith of what the child believes and can also cause distrust of the parents by the children.

Lastly, remember that the spiritual teaching and direction for children comes from the home with their parents and also from their church or religious organization. If you belong to any religion, that priest, pastor, or rabbi is who you feel adequate with instructing you and your family with the ways of your particular faith. I would much rather leave the religious instruction in capable hands rather than trying to undo what a teacher has taught to my children that I don't want them to embrace.

God has given every person on this earth a free will to choose how to worship and what to worship. As Christians we should always take care to take every opportunity to be the hands of Christ to all that we come in contact with, but that does not necessarily mean quoting Bible verses to them or trying to determine the desting of their their soul. Serve them and love them as people and as children of God. From that point, use wisdom and ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit that God has given you to make the most of opportunites that arise that can give those people one more insight into the person of Christ.

He is the one that draws them in anyway...not us.

"You can be good without God......."

So as I was driving into work last week, I was listening to a story about the city of Bloomington, IN. Apparantly they either have or had buses with advertisments posted on them by a local group of athiests that stated: "You can be good without God." Up front, I don't have a problem with athiests wanting to place their signs on the sides of buses or billboards. This is the country that we live in and if I have a right to place signs about my Christian faith, then that automatically gives the rights for others to do the same. I am more secure now in my faith than I ever have been, so neither do signs like that intimidate me or shake what I believe in. I just take it for what it is: the opinion of one group of people who are exercising their rights to free speech. Now that is out of the way......

A bigger subject is the actual subject of the ads: "You can be good without God." Let's think on that for a few moments, "You can be good without God". Is this actually possible? First, What is goodness? Love, peace, care of neighbor? How have we as a society and as a race come to define what goodness is? It seems very unique that if you study all the peoples of the world, with few exceptions the general rule of civilized society was that murder is wrong. Why is that? Who decided to contact each one of these peoples and get them to all sign on to the fact that killing another person is not a "good" thing. Or which society promulgated to all others that the family is the basis of civilization and that families should care for their own? Looking at all civilizations thoughout time, the majority of them have devised a framework of what is morally and socially acceptable. The amazing thing is that how similar they all are, without the ability for centuries to communicate these ideas. Why is this?

The fact of the matter is that within the human psyche, we are all designed with a basic knowledge of God; it is what we call the Natural Law. We may not obey it all the time, and we may get "too wise" for it, "too cool" for it, or "outgrow" it , but it is still there. As humans we know right from wrong.....basically. I would even venture to believe that even the most devout athiest or agnostic would say that we should take care of the poor, the ones that need care, feed the widows and children, but why? If there is no God, from what does this goodness originate and why would we even do such things?

Everything in our universe, with the exception of God the Father, has a beginning and an end; a cause and an effect. Let's take the law of gravity as an example. Gravity just doesn't exist. It is an effect of the centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the earth. We can't see it, and most of the time we probably don't even think about it. Just don't try to defy it because gravity will win every time. In the same sense, Hurricanes dont just appear. There is first a cluster of thunderstorms that move into an area favorable for development and those storms are nurtured and developed into a hurricane. As humans, we don't just exist. We are all born out of an expression of love between a man and a woman. I have thought all day to try to think of something that exists in and of itself in a vaccuum; a force, a thought...nothing fit that bill.

So it is with goodness. God is the source of all that we consider to be good and kind: love, peace, faithfulness, the things that make our world a better place. It is no accident that since our country has tried to isolate and remove God from the public eye that our American society has rapidly deteriorated. The lack of integrity in our leaders and the trust that we put in them in decades past have all but disappeared. Marriages in our country (religous and otherwise) have topped at above 50% that end in divorce. Why? Because we are losing our sense of right and wrong without a foundation to base it on. If there is no God, there is no good. If we do not know God, we do not know good.

Please don't hear what I am not saying. I don't believe that government should force ANY religion, Christian or otherwise on us as a condition of being American. We all have the God given right to worship whatever and whomever we see fit, as we see fit. Having said that, however, there still has to be a set of rules to play by for society. Where do those rules come from? Only one place: the author of goodness: God.

So as Christians, what should our response be to this? Goodness to all. To all humanity, all those that need our help and our love. All creeds, nations, sexes, it doesn't matter. When we reach out with love to our fellow man, we are showing all that God does exist because He is touching those peoples lives.....through you and through me.

Obama and the Church

I am not a conspiracy theorist and I am proud of it:

• I do believe that we DID actually land on the moon
• I am not worried about aliens and Area 51
• I don't believe the President Bush intentionally struck the World Trade Center on 9/11
• I don't necessarily believe that President Kennedy's assassination was in "inside job"
• I don't believe the US government has secretly been back to the moon, and
• I DON'T believe that the Pope, any of them past or future is the AntiChrist.

Having said all that, I am a realist and I do like to observe things that go on in the world, especially in the world of politics. And in the world of politics, I believe that every decision, even down to the most minute detail is planned and has purpose. I am afraid that in the day and age that we live in, the decisions we see going on are much less to do about the "good of the American people" and are more to do with securing voting blocks and instituting power structures. People want to be in power and to have power. And to have that power they must have people to influence their power over. Hence where we are in the US today.


The current debate about the health care system is not so much about health care as it is being used as a way to extend the role of government more and more into our lives. There are many reasons that I don't agree with the health care proposal that is being debated in Congress, but the main one is that our government--any government, gives nothing away free; they will always want something in return. In this situation, they want you to give your privacy away and give your medical records to the Federal Government so they can decide which procedures you will be able to obtain and which ones are too expensive. They want your doctors to give away their ability to refuse to perform procedures (such as abortive procedures) that go against their conscience while taking your tax money to pay for them.


And believe me, it will not stop there. If the Health Care plan passes that the President is trying to pass, the next thing that will be moving through in the next 5 years is the Hate Crimes Bill. Please don't misunderstand me on this issue. THERE IS NO PERSON AT ALL ON THIS PLANET THAT SHOULD BE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST OR MURDERED DUE TO THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATION, NATIONALITY OR COLOR, PERIOD! Every person is a child of God and they deserve the human dignity and ability to make their own choices. On the flip side of this, however, we are all equal under the law. No person's life is more valuable based on their sexual orientation, nationality or the color of their skin, yet this is what a hate crime bill establishes. Any crime that is prosecuted under a hate crimes statute would be prosecuted more severely than the same crime under a normal circumstance. My question is, when is a murder committed that is not out of hate?


A Hate Crime Bill will also punish any church who speaks the truth openly against homosexuality, abortion or anything else deemed as "offensive material". Don't think it can happen? It already is in Canada. Currently Canada has no freedom of speech and any pastor who dares to offend anyone by speaking of the sin of abortion or homosexual lifestyles can be arrested and pulled in before a Human Rights Tribunal. At this point, all violators would be responsible for all your legal expenses and can be imprisoned for future infractions against the Hate Crimes legislation. http://www.narth.com/docs/current.html

Those of us who don't believe we can lose our freedoms need to pay very close attention to the history of Imperialist Russia and also France. These two countries have had very religious, spiritual histories and yet they lost it and today we can see the results.

But what are the obstacles to President Obama and the furthering of the Socialistic Agenda? Let's take a look at what has happened so far in the past six months of President Obama's presidency:

Candidate Obama nominated for his Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden. Joe Biden has been long known as a liberal senator from Delaware who has backed the Pro-Abortion movement for many, many years--and by the way, he is Catholic. A Catholic however who believes that we have the ability to choose what we want to believe and trample over the core issue of every person's right to life.

Next, we have the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, also a professing Catholic whose nomination was questioned because of her questionable ties to George Tiller, the late term abortionist who was murdered earlier this year in Kansas.

Now after these two nominations, there were a couple interesting occurrences that happened. Both of them riled anger of Christians and Catholics nationwide. The first one got some press, but not as much as the second one. April 14th of this year, the President chose to give an economic address at Georgetown University. Now Georgetown is a Catholic University and the White House apparently made a request of the University to mask religious references that might be visible during his speech. There are two wrongs here: 1) the WH request and 2) the University's compliance with the request of censure. What was actually blocked? Looking at the picture below you can see the black drape behind the President covering the IHS on the top of the display. IHS is the first three letters of Jesus name in Greek, so that had to definitely be covered.

Since that time, we have also had the unfolding of the President's speech at Notre Dame. Once again, the ire and anger of Catholics across the nation were raised as Fr. Jenkins, the president of ND not only asked the President to give the Commencement address but also honored him with an Honorary Law degree. I really don't have time to get into all the details, but the short story is that the Catholic Church states that a Catholic University should not give this type of recognition to somebody whose political leanings and philosophy further allows and encourages the disrespect of human life, but it happened anyway.

The latest two incidences would be the nomination of Sonya Sotomayor as a replacement to the Supreme Court of the United States and Dr. Regina Benjamin to be the next Surgeon General of the United States. And.........you got it, both Catholics and both very much supportive of Planned Parenthood and the Pro-abortion Agenda they promulgate.



















So what is my point in all these wild ramblings? The fact of the matter is that there is only one thing that keeps our President and his Administration from pushing forward on this radical agenda: Christianity and specifically the Catholic Church. With all the respect in the world for my protestant brothers and sisters out there, Protestant Evangelical Christianity does not threaten him and cannot stop the agenda. Why not? Because within the realms of Evangelical Protestantism there are so many divisions and schisms, there is no one uniting voice. There are protestant denominations that believe in Abortion, some that don't . Some denominations bless same-sex unions, others don't. Some ordain women, others don't. So you have Baptists, Assembly of God, non denominational, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, and the list goes on and on and on. There is no ONE single voice that speaks for all of them and that all of the members can unite around.

Not so with the Catholic Church. Our President and his advisers know the teachings of the Catholic Church. They know that there is one voice that speaks for the Church and they know that if all the Catholic in the United States voted according to their faith, not only would his health care plans not pass, he would not have even be in office right now.

The problems lies within the Church itself right now. One of the major faults of the Church within the past 2 generations is that the Catholic Church has under catechised it's people. The re is a vast majority of Catholics that don't know what they believe, but they DO know that we should care for the poor and the other social issues that the President stands for. This works out very good for the President and therefore, he needs to keep this voting block, this segment of the population in his corner. The best way for him to do that is to mobilize confusion within the Church to "divide and conquer". If he can place high members of his Administration, visible as Catholics, yet backing his polices, then he realizes that will cause enough confusion and dissension within the ranks of American Catholics to give him a victory and a major obstacle will been overcome. At that point his Health Care plan will pass, more Supreme Court justices will be appointed and we will finally become the nation that he and his advisers envision. A country that truly will be socialistic in our health care, in our social polices and we will eventually loose all the freedoms our nation was based on.

Conspiracy, or smart politics....you decide

Purgatory??? What the.....????

So now, I guess I am jumping into the fire with this post. There are so many teachings I did not understand about the Catholic Church when I was not Catholic, many of which were out of just plain ignorance and some out of misinformation that I was given; and the teaching of purgatory was one of those. I remember thinking: "There is no way that purgatory can be a valid teaching, it is not spoken about at all in Scripture. And there is no need for it: Christ paid it all on the Cross!" Out of all the Catholic doctrines that are disagreed with by Protestants, there are maybe 2 or 3 others that raise just as many questions and ire as the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.


I was on my way home this afternoon listening to Catholic Answers radio and Patrick Madrid was on today taking calls and one of the callers called in to ask about the Scriptural basis for Purgatory and also why as Christians and Catholics we are in need of Purgatory. After hearing the question and the explanation, it inspired me so much that I just had to set out a'bloggin' .


There are many questions that pop into a Protestants mind when you mention Purgatory. 1) Purgatory is a second chance for all those who die. 2) Purgatory is a place where souls "work" or "earn" their salvation, and also 3) a completely false doctrine that was conjured up by the Catholic Church and has no basis whatsoever in Scripture. There has been countless numbers of works written over the past two millenia on the subject and I hold no claim as an expert or a theologian, however I do come from a different point of view and want to give a clear view of what purgatory is....and is not and the SOLID Scriptural basis for the concept of Purgatory.

First, what is the need for Purgatory and what is it? According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1030-1031:
1030
who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
1031
Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.

And in Revelation 21:25-27, speaking of Heaven:

During the day its gates will never be shut, and there will be no night there.
26
The treasure and wealth of the nations will be brought there,
27
but nothing unclean will enter it, nor any (one) who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Matthew 5:48:

48
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Hebrews 12:14

14
Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

So based on what we read here, Puratory is NOT a second chance for people to change their mind on their relationship to and with Christ, so let us be perfectly clear on that point first and for most. In what we see in Scripture and what we read in the previous paragraphs of the CCC, we see that Purgatory is a place of cleansing and purification and also the last part of our Sanctification (being made Holy and being purified from sin).

"Cleansing and purification from what?? Once I believe that Christ died for my sins, isn't that it? It is all done!" I can hear the responses now. The answer is ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY YES!!! (and NO). The reason I say No is that few people now realize that there are two dimensions of sin.

The first dimension is the eternal dimension and this has to due with our eternal destiny. The Sacrifice that Christ made for us once and for all upon the Cross is an eternal Sacrifice that purchased our eternal souls from Hell, this is true and this cannot be earned by us as Christians in any way, shape or form. This is a gift that is given to us as Christians and allows us to join the Father in eternity.


Now for the second dimension, the Temporal dimension. Ever since Adam and Eve and the fall in the garden, every sin has eternally separated us from our Creator, but they have also come with temporal effects (i.e. cause and result). I have two good examples for this:


1)Your child is out playing baseball in the yard and you know that he is an ARod Jr. because he hits a home run....right through your beautiful kitchen window! After your anger subsides you will always offer your forgiveness to your child. Why? Because they are your child and there is nothing they can do to earn it...IT IS THEIRS. But there is another side to this; you still have a broken window. Your child will have to work and work and forego allowances whatever it takes to teach them about reprucussions of their actions.


2)On a more adult scenario, let us suppose that a man goes out and has an affair on his wife and then realizes the error of his ways. He would go to confession and be forgiven absolutely of all his sins. Later he finds out that he has contracted some sexually transmitted disease such as Herpes or AIDS. Does this mean that he is not forgiven? By no means. What this means is that he is suffering the consequences of his actions.

This principle is set forth in Scripture from beginning to end. Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden for their disobedience. Cain was set out as a wanderer as a result of his murder of Abel. Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land after is disobedience. David's son died after his adultery with Bathsheeba. Consequences follow actions. Whenever we willingly choose to disobey the laws set in place by God, there is never a null effect and there is a bit of a stain that is left on our souls. Though our forgiveness is bought and paid for, the stain and effects of sin still have to be accounted for and this is the purpose of Purgatory. It is kind of like a "heavenly mud room" Your mama wouldn't dare let you play in the house after you have been out rolling around in the mud, you have to get clean first. To sum it up, if you are in Purgatory, you are going to Heaven....PERIOD.

Now for the Second Part. Is Purgatory scriptural? Obviously there is nowhere in Scripture that will obviously describe Purgatory. Is it a physical place? Is it a process? Do you spend years or eons there? These are all details that aren't provided for us in Scripture. What we do know is that when we die, if we have these attachments to sin still with us, stained on our soul, that we must be made perfectly clean prior to being presented to Christ. So whether Purgatory is a physical place, an instantaneous process and how it is done, we don't have the answers. Having said that, this is what we do know from Scripture about Purgatory:

Now I realize that some of you don't have the Maccabees in your Bible, but it was there 600 years ago....trust me! :-) And this was what 2Macc 12: 43-44 states:
43
He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view;
44
for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death.

So, here is the question. If the soldiers Judas Maccabeus was collecting an offering for were in heaven, why would Judas be praying for them. If they were in Hell, there would be no use for them either, so why was he collecting an offering for them? (Purgatory) Even if you don't belive in the authority of the Deuterocanonical books, it is worth much attention that the early Jews believed in a final purifcation before they stood before God and furthermore, they believe that Judas Maccabeus acted in "a very excellent and noble way".

I Corinthians 3: 13-15:
13
the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire (itself) will test the quality of each one's work.
14
If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage.
15
But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.


Now this is an interesting passage that Paul writes. So at "The Day" each person's work will come to light and at the end, "the person will be saved, but only as through fire". Again the Scripture begs the question: If you are in Heaven, why would you pass through the fire? And we know that if one is in Hell, then they do not leave...so what is Paul referring to here. We must be made spotless and holy before Christ

Matthew 12:32
32
And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Now in this verse we have Christ speaking about the Unforgiveable Sin. Again, in Heaven there is no need for sins to be forgiven, but Christ is definitely alluding to the fact that there will be a place will sins WILL be able to be forgiven "in the age to come".

And finally 1Peter 3:19:
19
In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,

Here Peter speaks of Christ preaching to the "spirits in prison". Where were they? Heaven? Nope, because if they were in Heaven, Christ would have had no need to preach to them. Hell? Nope, because we know that repentance is not possible in Hell.

All this leads us to believe that yes, there is a Purgatory and THANK YOU LORD that there has been a way provided to remove all imperfections and attractions to sin from our souls before we come face to face with our Blessed Lord.

Finally....can you avoid Purgatory? I think that is for another blog..................

Obama Closely representing American Catholics???

OK....So I just read this article in Newsweek that states that our new President more closely represents American Catholics better than the Pope. Here is the link, so if you want to read it prior to reading further, here you go:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/205961

The summary of the article is that because our President holds a view of allowing abortion, gay marriage, the status of women in the Church and stem cell research that he is a much closer representation of American Catholics than the Holy Father. Let's take a look at a couple things: 1) There technically no "American Catholics". There are Catholics that live in America, but the Catholic teachings are the same in America as they are in England, South Africa, South America and anywhere on the planet. 2) As Catholics, we are not looking, nor do we need to be "defined" by any other person than our Lord.

I may be reading into the article more than it has, but it seems to me that the entire purpose of the article was to paint the Catholic Church as "behind the times" and "outdated" and even more dangerous, "intolerant".

The Holy Father is who we as Catholics believe is the earthly head of the Church that Christ established and he is given special gifts (charisms) that lead that Church and protect the Church from attacks and intrusions of moral and theological dangers. In the day that we live in, it is very refreshing to know that the Church does not falter and does not fail on the moral and theological issues that have guided her for the past 2,ooo years. Not many are aware, but until 193o or there about, ALL Christian churches considered artificial birth control a sin and it was to be avoided at all costs. Now, only the Catholic Church with a handful of others still recognize the danger of artificial contraception. (For more on this issue see Pope John Paul II's encyclial, Theology of the Body.)

If Catholics are more closely represented by President Obama, then I would suggest that as Catholics in America that we re examine our positions and submit them to Christ and the teachings of His Church. We do NOT have the ability to pick and choose what we believe and what we don't. There are certain non negotiables that we must stand behind and if we are having difficulties, May we carry this prayer on our lips and in our hearts with humility and openness: "Lord, help my unbelief...."