Posted on 09/21/2006 8:24:09 PM PDT by Pyro7480
His [Mohammed's] many and cruel executions, his craftiness in planning and allowing assassinations, his treachery, in his attacks on the unarmed during the sacred months, his insatiable hatred towards Jews and Christians, his raids and highway robberies, distinguish him among the most notorious brigands, and make him a tyrant of no mean degree. His unimaginable cruelty as well as the debauchery of his private life, go to show in him a very great degree of moral degeneracy and height of self-delusion, which are scarcely compatible with the practical wisdom of many of his actions.
We find him, after his early struggles and the commencement of his preaching, constantly imbued with fatalistic ideas; he believed in predestination, he had many superstitious beliefs and was guided by omens and prognostications. His many inward struggles, his moral debates, and his aspirations seemed to him the very voice of God speaking to him. Although he pretended to denounce idolatry, and to preach the worship of the one true God, still his conduct towards the Kaaba and the superstitious practices he ordained to be practised there, his veneration of the black stone at Kaaba; his superstitious belief in the water of Zem Zem well, all make us doubt whether he really denounced idolatry generally or denounced only such idolatry as did not meet his taste.
However, his denunciation of idolatry on the whole, his preaching the one true God, the equality of man before God, his precepts of charity and fraternal love; his injunctions forbidding the use of liquor and other spirits as well as of the practice of usury to his followers, really distinguish Mahommed [sic] honourably as a great religious teacher; though on the other hand his sensuality, deception, cruelty and intolerance stain the Prophet's life to the highest degree and prove him to be both an erring mortal and in no sense an infallible model of conduct.
It is simply astonishing to see over 180 millions [in 1912] of the people of the globe, quite ignorant of the true life and character of the Prophet of Islam, blindly and fanatically profess the religion taught by the Prophet besides promising them heavenly paradise after death, gives them full scope in this world to lead a life as easy as one could desire and to satisfy their sensual pleasures to the highest imaginable degree.
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Now I need the book!
I think I'll order it too. But I need to see if they have it at the library first (hah).
What's the source of the online review? Maybe they have a footnote.
Here's the link to the review - it was a regular reader, not a pro, so no notes. Search the page for "only catholics"
http://www.wndbookservice.com/products/popreview.asp?prod_cd=c6614
Ping me if you find anything...
Yes. Is this the normal way in which Jesus' body is present in the sacrament? No. Normally his body is present spiritually and substantially under the appearance of bread and wine.
Your link dosen't mention ... did the priest at the time chow down ... or did he reject the "body of Christ" ?
Why the quotation marks? Whose body do you think it is?
Interestingly, the blood type in the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano is AB, the same as on the Shroud of Turin. It occurs in 3% of the population. It also matches the blood type on the Sudarium of Oviedo.
The priest who confected the sacrament at the time of the miracle was doubting the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It was at that time that the miracle occurred. The apparent purpose of the miracle was to convince the priest and other scoffers of Christ's real presence. The priest was convinced. There was no reason for him to consume the flesh.
John 6:53AWTTW.Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
No reason ?
Didn't he just request ( or whatever it is they do ) that the bread become the flesh so he could eat it ?
Are you talking about John 6? Some of Jesus' disciples took Jesus' teaching at face value and permanently left Him. Their error was not in their human reasoning, but their failure to put their trust in Jesus. The Apostles were confused, but nevertheless remained with Jesus. Peter said, "to whom can we go?" Peter didn't understand Jesus' (somewhat paradoxical) "hard saying," but put his faith in Jesus.
Transubstantiation is an interesting concept ... kind of like homeopathic medicine. You change the substance of something without changing any perceivable properties, in effect, simply redefining what the word substance means.
The term "transubstantiation" derives from the Aristotelian terms "substance" and "accident." The change in substance is not of the natural order; it's miraculous.
Given an understanding of these terms, the following becomes understandable:
The dogma of transubstantiation teaches that the whole substance of bread is changed into that of Christ’s body, and the whole substance of wine into that of his blood, leaving the accidents of bread and wine unaffected. Reason, of course, can’t prove that this happens. But it is not evidently against reason either; it is above reason. Our senses, being confined to phenomena, cannot detect the change; we know it only by faith in God’s word.Thus, transubstantiation is miraculous. The miraculous is possible for God.After the priest consecrates the bread and wine, their accidents alone remain, without inhering in any substance. They can’t inhere in the bread and wine, for these no longer exist; nor do they inhere in Christ’s body and blood, for they are not his accidents. The Catechism of the Council of Trent says: “. . . the accidents which present themselves to the eyes or other senses exist in a wonderful and ineffable manner without a subject.”5 St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that God directly sustains the quantity of bread (or wine) in being, and that the other accidents inhere in the quantity.6 For quantity is the fundamental accident: the others, such as color, exist as quantified—as having extension. There is no such thing as a non-extended color.
Well, they would know.
The further I read, the more I could see Clinton reading this, and trying to figure out the meaning of "is".
"The substance is the essence, the nature, of a thing which exists in its own right."
"exists in it's own right" ?
Dosen't the "essense" or "nature" of the wheat used to create the bread cease to exist when baked ?
I suppose we can dispence with the old adage ... "If it walks like a Duck ... "
I wonder if O.J. could use that excuse ... It may look like my DNA, and test like my DNA , but it's essence or nature is of a fruit pie.
Speaking of miraculous signs :-)
John 6
v. 30 "So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe in you?" And they picked the example of manna in the desert. And Jesus came up with an analogy for them. The 'miraculous sign' is ME! I'm the living bread of life that came down from heaven! "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day".
I don't think he's saying, since you asked, here's the miraculous sign I'm going to give you: when you take communion, I'm going to turn the bread and wine into my flesh and blood, and when you eat and drink that, it will turn into my real flesh and blood, and that help give you eternal life.
John 6 is pointing to Jesus. He's talking about the importance of faith in Him in order to live forever.
It reads like a metaphorical lesson.
And then some disciples turned away. But not because they were grossed out by eating flesh and blood, but because they didn't believe in Him, because the Father had not enabled them. And He pointed it out and they left.
bump
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