Posted on 03/16/2014 6:29:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
We live in a time of the anti-hero. Too often, the good guys are the bad guys and vice versa. Celebrities are often held up as heroes, until we learn too much about them.
But to see a true hero, look at the real St. Patrick, who has a day dedicated in his honor. Unfortunately, many people only observe his holiday, March 17, by drinking themselves silly, which is totally contrary to the spirit of the man who Christianized Ireland.
In fact, Patrick shows what God can do through someone who is committed fully to Him.
Thomas Cahill, author of the book, How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, notes that Patrick and the Irish came at the moment of a cultural cliff-hanger and played a key role in helping to save civilization.
In the 5th century, barbarians overran the Roman Empire---which was the repository of much of Western civilization---until it finally collapsed. Meanwhile, through the missionary work of Patrick (387-461), the gospel was brought to Ireland; and numerous men became monks as a result, who meticulously copied manuscripts of the Bible and of many of the writings of antiquity.
Cahill writes: “For, as the Roman Empire fell, as all through Europe matted, unwashed barbarians descended on the Roman cities, looting artifacts and burning books, the Irish, who were just learning to read and write, took up the great labor of copying all of Western literature---everything they could lay their hands on.”
He notes, “These scribes then served as conduits through which the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian cultures were transmitted to the tribes of Europe, newly settled amid the rubble and ruined vineyards of the civilization they had overwhelmed.”
Cahill adds, “Without this Service of the Scribes, everything that happened subsequently would have been unthinkable. Without the Mission of the Irish Monks, who single-handedly refounded European civilization throughout the continent in the bays and valleys of their exile, the world that came after then would have been an entirely different one---a world without books. And our own world would never have come to be.”
The man at the center of all this was St. Patrick.
Many of the details of his life we learn through a document he wrote late in his life, Confession. This was not a book of confessions of his sins, but rather a statement of his beliefs. It is autobiographical in nature.
Patrick (to the surprise of many) was not Irish by birth, but rather grew up in England as a nominal Christian. He said in Confession, “I did not know the true God.”
At the age of 16, marauding Irish pirates laid waste his city and captured slaves, including Patrick. Later he would write of this: "As a youth, nay, almost as a boy not able to speak, I was taken captive, before I knew what to pursue and what to avoid."
Patrick said, “I was taken into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people---and deservedly so, because we turned away from God, and did not keep His commandments."
For six years, he worked as a slave for a landowning chief. Cahill notes that during this time, Patrick had two companions---hunger and nakedness.
While he served as a shepherd, he remembered his prayers of his youth and came to know God truly through Christ. After six years of captivity, he was able to providentially escape from Ireland.
The late Dr. D. James Kennedy notes, “[Patrick] vowed revenge---the noble revenge of sharing the gospel with the people who held him captive. He believed that he had been called by God to return to the land of his slavery.”
So Patrick, after some theological training, eventually returned to Ireland where he spent the rest of his life (about thirty years) as a missionary. Patrick may well have baptized about 120,000 souls. Some scholars note that he was the most successful missionary since the Apostle Paul.
Patrick wrote this, "Daily, I expect murder, fraud or captivity…but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God almighty who rules everywhere.”
There’s a famous prayer attributed to Patrick that was inspired by him---although in its present form, it was likely written later. This beautiful statement of faith is called “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.”
Here is a portion of the prayer: “I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me: God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me…Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me…”
So remember the next time you see someone get drunk on St. Paddy’s Day, they dishonor the memory a great hero of the faith and of the ages.
Some democrat idiot told me he chased snakes out of Ireland. Thanks for truths, something of which we don’t have much of in this day and age.
Patrick: Son of Ireland by Stephen Lawhead
"Born of a noble Welsh family, he is violently torn from his home by Irish raiders at age sixteen and sold as a slave to a brutal wilderness king. Rescued by the king's druids from almost certain death, he learns the arts of healing and song, and the mystical ways of a secretive order whose teachings tantalize with hints at a deeper wisdom. Yet young Succat Morgannwg cannot rest until he sheds the strangling yoke of slavery and returns to his homeland across the sea. He pursues his dream of freedom through horrific war and shattering tragedy—through great love and greater loss—from a dying, decimated Wales to the bloody battlefields of Gaul to the fading majesty of Rome. And in the twilight of a once-supreme empire, he is transformed yet again by divine hand and a passionate vision of "truth against the world," accepting the name that will one day become legend . . . Patricius!"
The late Dr. D. James Kennedy notes, “[Patrick] vowed revenge-—the noble revenge of sharing the gospel with the people who held him captive. He believed that he had been called by God to return to the land of his slavery.”
And Kennedy himself did not believe in the gospel either.
FROM CATHOLIC ONLINE
St. Patrick of Ireland is one of the world’s most popular saints.
Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 461.
Along with St. Nicholas and St. Valentine, the secular world shares our love of these saints. This is also a day when everyone’s Irish.
There are many legends and stories of St. Patrick, but this is his story.
Patrick was born around 387 in Scotland, probably Kilpatrick. His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa, who were Romans living in Britian in charge of the colonies.
As a boy of fourteen or so, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids and pagans. He learned the language and practices of the people who held him.
During his captivity, he turned to God in prayer. He wrote
“The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same.” “I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain.”
Patrick’s captivity lasted until he was twenty, when he escaped after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britian, where he reunited with his family.
He had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him “We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.”
He began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, whom he had studied under for years.
Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland. He arrived in Ireland March 25, 433, at Slane. One legend says that he met a chieftain of one of the tribes, who tried to kill Patrick. Patrick converted Dichu (the chieftain) after he was unable to move his arm until he became friendly to Patrick.
Patrick began preaching the Gospel throughout Ireland, converting many. He and his disciples preached and converted thousands and began building churches all over the country. Kings, their families, and entire kingdoms converted to Christianity when hearing Patrick’s message.
Patrick by now had many disciples, among them Beningnus, Auxilius, Iserninus, and Fiaac, (all later canonized as well).
Patrick preached and converted all of Ireland for 40 years. He worked many miracles and wrote of his love for God in Confessions. After years of living in poverty, traveling and enduring much suffering he died March 17, 461.
He died at Saul, where he had built the first church.
Why a shamrock?
Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and has been associated with him and the Irish since that time.
In His Footsteps:
Patrick was a humble, pious, gentle man, whose love and total devotion to and trust in God should be a shining example to each of us. He feared nothing, not even death, so complete was his trust in God, and of the importance of his mission.
RE: And Kennedy himself did not believe in the gospel either.
Can you elaborate?
St. Patrick taught the gospel. Kennedy was a Protestant. St. Patrick was not. The gospel was not. Both were Catholic.
BEAUTIFUL. Thanks for sharing that with us!
RE: St. Patrick taught the gospel. Kennedy was a Protestant. St. Patrick was not. The gospel was not. Both were Catholic.
So, a celebration of St. Patrick’s life now becomes to you, a thread to bash other Christians as non-Christians heh?
Firstly, explain to us what the gospel is.... then we’ll continue from there...
“So, a celebration of St. Patrick’s life now becomes to you, a thread to bash other Christians as non-Christians heh?”
1) I bashed no one.
2) I didn’t say anyone wasn’t a Christian. Believing in Christ and being baptized makes you a Christian. Being a Protestant means you believe a false gospel, not that you are not a Christian.
3) For Protestants, like Kennedy, to pretend that St. Patrick - a Catholic saint - believed the same false gospel Protestants invented a millennium after his death sounds more like bashing than anything I said.
“Firstly, explain to us what the gospel is.... then we’ll continue from there...”
If you have to ask what the gospel is, then that just proves my point: Protestants believe a false gospel.
St Patrick kicked out of school
St. Patrick
Apostle to the Irish (Who is the REAL St. Patrick ?)
Patrick: Deliverer of the Emerald Isle
Breastplate of St Patrick [Poem/Prayer]
Confessions of St. Patrick (In his own words)
Feast of Saint Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland
St. Patrick(Happy St. Patrick's Day!)
St Patrick's 'day' moved to March 15th (in 2008)
St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer
St. Patrick (Erin Go Bragh!)
History of St. Patrick's Day
Patrick: The Good, the Bad, and the Misinformed
The Lorica of St. Patrick
Orthodox Feast of +Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland
St. Patrick
St. Patrick's Breast Plate
Orthodox Feast of St Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland, March 17
The Lorica of St. Patrick
To Truly Honor Saint Patrick, Bishop and Confessor
Apostle to the Irish: The Real Saint Patrick
St. Patrick
Saint Patrick [Apostle of Ireland]
Was St. Patrick Catholic?....Of Course!! [Happy St. Pat's Day]
RE: I bashed no one.
OK, I admit poor choice of words, however you declared those whoa re not ROMAN Catholic as non-believers in the Gospel, which in effect makes them not Christians.
RE: I didn’t say anyone wasn’t a Christian. Believing in Christ and being baptized makes you a Christian. Being a Protestant means you believe a false gospel, not that you are not a Christian.
Excuse me? How can believing in a false gospel make you a Christian. A believer in a FALSE gospel makes a person a FALSE Christian, in effect making him non-Christian.
RE: For Protestants, like Kennedy, to pretend that St. Patrick - a Catholic saint
Patrick is a SAINT as in saint -— a person acknowledged as holy or virtuous and typically regarded as being in heaven after death. You don’t have to be ROMAN Catholic to believe that.
Also, Patrick was NEVER canonized officially by the ROMAN Catholic church. St. Patrick died around 461 A.D. The first saint formally canonized by the pope—for which we have a record, anyway—was St. Ulrich, bishop of Augsburg, Germany, in the year 993.
RE: If you have to ask what the gospel is, then that just proves my point: Protestants believe a false gospel.
Nope, since I don’t want to misunderstand you, or misquote you, want YOU to explain to us what your idea of the gospel is, then we’ll continue from there. That is why I ask the question. The question is not addressed to others but to YOU individually.
So yes, please explain to us what the gospel is according to your understanding, and then we’ll see whether or not men like James Kennedy believe in it or not.
Below is the statement of faith from Coral Ridge PCA church which is the Gospel as they and Kennedy (and I) see it....
We believe in one God, the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. He who is true God became true man united in one Person forever. He died on the cross as sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, where, at the right hand of God the Father, He now is our High Priest and Mediator.
The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts. He convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior. Indwelling our hearts, He gives new life to us, empowers and imparts gifts to us for service. He instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption.
Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God's free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, thereby justifying them in His sight. Only such as are born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
The true church is composed of all persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit are united together in the body of Christ. The church finds her visible, yet imperfect, expression in local congregations where the Word of God is preached in its purity and the sacraments are administered in their integrity; where scriptural discipline is practiced, and where loving fellowship is maintained. For her perfecting, she awaits the return of her Lord.
Jesus Christ will come again to the earth - personally, visibly, and bodily - to judge the living and the dead, and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
If this is not "the Gospel", then I would like to hear from vladimir998 what is.
RE: If this is not “the Gospel”, then I would like to hear from vladimir998 what is.
Thanks, that makes the two of us, and I’m sure I speak for others who happen to read this thread as well.
“OK, I admit poor choice of words, however you declared those whoa re not ROMAN Catholic as non-believers in the Gospel, which in effect makes them not Christians.”
False. I am not “ROMAN Catholic”. I am just Catholic. Also, not believing in the true gospel does not “in effect makes [Protestants] not Christians.”
“Excuse me? How can believing in a false gospel make you a Christian.”
I never said it did. I said BELIEVING IN CHRIST AND BEING BAPTIZED did. I suggest you spend more time actually reading what I post rather than making things up out of thin air.
“A believer in a FALSE gospel makes a person a FALSE Christian, in effect making him non-Christian.”
Nope. Believing in a false gospel makes someone a heretic. Believing in Christ and being baptized makes you a Christian.
“Patrick is a SAINT as in saint -— a person acknowledged as holy or virtuous and typically regarded as being in heaven after death. You don’t have to be ROMAN Catholic to believe that.”
No, but St. Patrick was Catholic. To pretend otherwise is intellectually dishonest.
“Also, Patrick was NEVER canonized officially by the ROMAN Catholic church.”
He didn’t have to be. He was canonized by acclamation. That was common in his time.
“St. Patrick died around 461 A.D. The first saint formally canonized by the pope—for which we have a record, anyway—was St. Ulrich, bishop of Augsburg, Germany, in the year 993.”
So? As I said, St. Patrick was canonized by acclamation. That was all that was needed.
“Nope, since I don’t want to misunderstand you, or misquote you, want YOU to explain to us what your idea of the gospel is, then we’ll continue from there.”
R-I-G-H-T. You’ve already admitted one error (”OK, I admit poor choice of words”) and you’ve committed more. I never said “those whoa re not ROMAN Catholic [are] non-believers in the Gospel”. So, even when I write very clearly - and that’s all the time - you can’t help but “misunderstand” and “misquote” me. That won’t change no matter what I do so I see no reason to do what you want. I will post what I want, when I want, where I want and how I want - within the rules of the board. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Get used to it.
“That is why I ask the question. The question is not addressed to others but to YOU individually.”
I know. And I’m still going to ignore it. My reason is simple: I see you are already completely inventing out of whole cloth things I’ve never said or believed.
“So yes, please explain to us what the gospel is according to your understanding, and then we’ll see whether or not men like James Kennedy believe in it or not.”
Nope. I will merely continue to post what I want, when I want, where I want, and how I want - within the rules of the board. Based on your misrepresentations of what I’ve said already I have no reason to believe you will get any better.
Is there a reason that you are having a difficult time telling us what exactly you do believe the Gospel to be? I have never met a Christian who would not relish the chance to share the “Good News”. I am not accepting the thought that maybe you are too shy or too stubborn to tell us what you do believe. I think there is another reason .....possibly one which you have little control over. Prove me wrong!
“Is there a reason that you are having a difficult time telling us what exactly you do believe the Gospel to be?”
There’s reason - already stated - but no difficulty whatsoever. Care to make something else up that is completely false?
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