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A member of a group sent this to me in response to a previous posting: Weird to suggest scripture on your side. Jesus made fun of people who accumulate wealth. Nothing in bible suggests Jesus would oppose inheritance or income tax. So many people pretend to be bible scholars without reading the bible. Bible explains unequivocally that all the early Christians lived as communists. So raise he'll about the need for no income or inheritance taxes if you want. You might be right. But you are a liar if you claim Jesus is on your side. New pope seems to...

Full Title: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain! Roman Catholic History and the Emerald City Protocol In the field of Reformation studies, Professor Brad Gregory is somebody for whom I have immense respect.  Those outside the discipline of history are possibly unaware of the ravages which postmodernism brought in its wake, making all narratives negotiable and fuelling a rise in interest in all manner of trivia and marginal weirdness.  Dr. Gregory is trained in both philosophy and history and has done much to place the self-understanding of human agents back at the centre of historical analysis.  Thus,...

April 5, 2014Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent    Reading 1 Jer 11:18-20 I knew their plot because the LORD informed me;at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings. Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:“Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;let us cut him off from the land of the living,so that his name will be spoken no more.” But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,searcher of mind and heart,Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,for to you I...

U2 frontman Bono talks about faith and life

"In the days after Noah hit theaters, people opening the Noah story in Genesis 6 increased about 300% in US & 245% globally on @YouVersion," reported YouVersion on Twitter on Tuesday."Visits to the #Noah story in Genesis 6-9 at Bible Gateway saw a 223% increase over the previous weekend," tweeted Bible Gateway on Thursday.In addition to YouVersion, an app of the Scriptures which hit 100 million downloads last summer, and the website, BibleGateway, Google trends also showed spike in substantial increase in search queries for the Old Testament text. Commenting on the spike in Genesis traffic, Patton Dodd, the editor-in-chief of the...

Does Inaction Politicize the Faith? By Kristina Johannes Friday, 04 April 2014 I recently had lunch with a friend who is a revert to the Catholic faith. Now fervently Catholic, she has maintained the fiery and no nonsense evangelical spirit she picked up during her Protestant sojourn – one of the many reasons I enjoy spending time with her. This particular day she wanted to know why something hasn’t been done about politicians who support abortion or other practices that directly contradict the faith, and then are able to present to the public what amount to Catholic selfies. She...

April 4, 2014Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent    Reading 1 Wis 2:1a, 12-22 The wicked said among themselves, thinking not aright:“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;he sets himself against our doings,Reproaches us for transgressions of the lawand charges us with violations of our training.He professes to have knowledge of Godand styles himself a child of the LORD.To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us,Because his life is not like that of others,and different are his ways.He judges us debased;he holds aloof...

Nearly 1,000 parents gathered at Charlotte Catholic High School on Wednesday night to air complaints about a recent speech to students by a nun who made what many considered inflammatory comments about gays and lesbians, divorce and single parenthood. So many parents lined up to speak that the meeting with high school officials, the school’s chaplain and the Diocese of Charlotte’s vicar of education lasted more than an hour longer than scheduled. Though the gathering was closed to the media, texts and tweets from parents inside the school gym cast the meeting as often heated, with emotions running high on...

April 3, 2014Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent    Reading 1 Ex 32:7-14 The LORD said to Moses,“Go down at once to your peoplewhom you brought out of the land of Egypt,for they have become depraved.They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,sacrificing to it and crying out,‘This is your God, O Israel,who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’The LORD said to Moses,“I see how stiff-necked this people is.Let me alone, then,that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.Then I...

After Rumspringa (running around) is over, the Amish young person returns after being gone for two years, and agrees to live according to the Amish ordnung (rules for living) pertaining to clothing, trnasportation, electrical appliances/power, etc, how do Amish bishops, ministers and deacons deal with the inward person(s) that none can see? Which is a greater threat to an Amish person's salvation - the "English" or the carnal man/sinful nature that we (Christian or non-Christian still possess and have to deal with until we are are glorified in heaven? The Apostle Paul: I do the things that I don't want...

April 2, 2014Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent  Reading 1 Is 49:8-15 Thus says the LORD:In a time of favor I answer you,on the day of salvation I help you;and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,To restore the landand allot the desolate heritages,Saying to the prisoners: Come out!To those in darkness: Show yourselves!Along the ways they shall find pasture,on every bare height shall their pastures be.They shall not hunger or thirst,nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;For he who pities them leads themand guides them beside springs of...

The new film "Noah" stars Russell Crowe as the man chosen by God to collect pairs of Earth's animals on a massive ark to save them from a global flood. The film, which opened March 28, is sizing up to be a Biblical blockbuster, replete with star power and stunning special effects. But how realistic is it? While many people consider the story of Noah's Ark merely an instructive myth or parable about God's punishment for man's wickedness, others believe that the story is historically accurate. To them, Noah's tale describes events that really happened only a few thousand years...

I... After careful prayer and... Sorry. Even though it is April Fools Day I just can't pull this off.

April 1, 2014Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent    Reading 1 Ez 47:1-9, 12 The angel brought me, Ezekiel,back to the entrance of the temple of the LORD,and I saw water flowing outfrom beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,for the façade of the temple was toward the east;the water flowed down from the right side of the temple,south of the altar.He led me outside by the north gate,and around to the outer gate facing the east,where I saw water trickling from the right side.Then when he had walked off to the eastwith a measuring cord...

“[The Church] does not, in the conventional phrase, believe what the Bible says, for the simple reason that the Bible does not say anything. You cannot put a book in the witness-box and ask it what it really means.” – G. K. ChestertonSola Scriptura is the Protestant doctrine that the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness. Under it, only doctrines that are found directly within the Bible or are drawn indirectly from it by simple reasoning are allowed. (See material vs. formal sufficiency & perspicuity.) 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is the primary passage used to defend this...

Cardinal Donald Wuerl has been the most outspoken of those bishops who refuse to obey Canon 915, but all of them are on record, as he is, as endorsing the commission of MORTAL SINS by their priests and other ministers of Communion. Cardinal Wuerl has even punished those who have obeyed Canon 915.

A.) When the vote was taken on July 1870, at the First Vatican Council, with 433 votes in favour (placet) and only 2 against (non placet) against defining as dogma the infallibility of the pope when speaking ex cathedra, did those Bishops possess infallibility when (or at least only when) voting? Did any of them keep this infallibility (did it remain with all of them or any of them) after they left and returned home? Did any of these Bishops possess any infallibility at anytime before the vote was cast? B.) Was Mary's (the Mother of Jesus) mother immaculately conceived...

March 31, 2014Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent    Reading 1 Is 65:17-21 Thus says the LORD:Lo, I am about to create new heavensand a new earth;The things of the past shall not be rememberedor come to mind.Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happinessin what I create;For I create Jerusalem to be a joyand its people to be a delight;I will rejoice in Jerusalemand exult in my people.No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,or the sound of crying;No longer shall there be in itan infant who lives but a few days,or an old man...

Rome's antagonism towards the Reformers, and Calvin in particular, was that what they taught was "new" and "of recent birth." To this charge Calvin responds with evident feeling: "First, by calling it "new" they do great wrong to God, whose Sacred Word does not deserve to be accused of novelty. Indeed, I do not at all doubt that it is new to them, since to them both Christ himself and his gospel are new. But he who knows that this preaching of Paul is ancient, that "Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification" [Romans 4:25],...

March 30, 2014Fourth Sunday of Lent    Reading 1 1 Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a The LORD said to Samuel:“Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way.I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen my king from among his sons.” As Jesse and his sons came to the sacrifice, Samuel looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is here before him.”But the LORD said to Samuel: “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him.Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the...