Free Republic

Satan’s Greatest Victory: He Has Convinced The World That He Does Not Exist Fr. James Farfaglia - A Christian magazine once surveyed their subscribers regarding the areas of their greatest spiritual challenges. The results showed that their greatest temptation was materialism. After materialism, followed pride, self-centeredness, laziness, anger, lust, envy, gluttony and finally lying. The survey respondents noted temptations were frequent and more forceful when they had neglected their time with God and when they were physically tired. They stated that the ability to resist temptation was made easier by a strong spiritual life, avoiding compromising situations and being accountable...

Christ's temptation and oursFATHER GEORGE WILLIAM RUTLERChrist was tempted three times as an act of love to prepare his Church for three temptations which would assault her in every generation. The Spirit that "drove" Jesus into the desert to be tempted by Satan (Mark 1:12) is the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the bond of love between God the Father and God the Son. Christ was tempted three times as an act of love to prepare his Church for three temptations which would assault her in every generation.Satan tested Christ to figure out if he truly was...

Could Jesus Have Possibly Sinned or Succumbed to Temptation? In a dialogue in 1997, a Baptist friend of mine stated: Jesus Himself was not unable to sin. I realize that God the Father is unable to sin; however, Jesus, though He was in nature God, was able to sin. This is evident in this verse "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin." (Heb. 4:15, NRSV; cf. 2:18). If Jesus could be tempted, He...

One of the key elements in any contest is to understand the tactics of your opponent and to recognize the subtleties of the strategy or moves they may employ. In the spiritual battle of life we need to develop some sophistication in recognizing, naming, and understanding the subtleties of common tactics of the Devil.A 2011 book by Fr. Louis Cameli, The Devil You Don’t Know is of great assistance in this matter. Having read it recently, I think it would be of value to reflect on four broad categories of the Devil’s tactics that Fr. Cameli analyzes.While the four...

Dominican Father Carleton Parker Jones calls it the “greatest temptation” of his life. It happened 21 years ago in the library of the Anglican Centre in Rome, where Father Jones was completing research for his doctoral dissertation on Blessed John Henry Newman. Blessed Newman, an Anglican priest who was received into the Catholic Church in 1845, was one of Father Jones’ greatest heroes. Inspired by Blessed Newman’s writings, Father Jones had followed in the Englishman’s footsteps – leaving the Anglican priesthood to become a Catholic priest in 1982. Deep in the stacks of the acclaimed library, Father Jones pulled out...

In Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World we are given a glimpse of the dysfunctional “utopia” planned by the Progressives. It is a glittering facade, a meaningless wasteland where cheap thrills, drugs, and sexual excess are employed to control and occupy a shallow and largely mindless rabble. The ruling class subjugates the public with complex propaganda schemes, with sleep teaching, mind control, body modification, and sex, sex, sex. Sex is one of the most powerful drives in the human condition. It will drive people to throw away everything they have for a few minutes of pleasure. (Consider the tragedy...

It is the third film installment of the Chronicles of Narnia series. The film begins in England, where Lucy and Edmund are staying with their “personality deficient” Uncle, Aunt, and trouble-maker, cousin Eustace. Eustace is very snotty, spoiled, loud, and hates his cousins. Eustace’s hatred for his cousins causes him to torment them. None too soon, when a painting of a ship on the wall starts “moving,” suddenly water starts filling up the room and Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are from that water, transported into the seas of Narnia. Upon arriving in Narnia, a very large, dragon shaped ship approaches...

Christ's temptation and oursFATHER GEORGE WILLIAM RUTLERChrist was tempted three times as an act of love to prepare his Church for three temptations which would assault her in every generation. The Spirit that "drove" Jesus into the desert to be tempted by Satan (Mark 1:12) is the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the bond of love between God the Father and God the Son. Christ was tempted three times as an act of love to prepare his Church for three temptations which would assault her in every generation.Satan tested Christ to figure out if he truly was divine:...

What does the Devil set up against the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? It's that famous threesome, the World, the Flesh and the Devil. Getting ready for Lent means taking the unholy Trinity seriously, and going out into the wilderness for battle is one way Christians engage in that warfare every year. 'The World' means the Way of the World. This runs counter to the 'Way of the Spirit'. The Way of the World is the way of human power, human planning, human reason, human wisdom. It is the way that puts Man first and assumes that human life and...

In an athlete’s environment, money can be its own pollutant; you can become desensitized to the significance of what it can buy. Typically, if a person spends hundreds of dollars on arrangements to pass time with someone, that someone would be important in his life. But when you have extensive financial resources, it’s easy to send similar signals to people who are meaningful only for a moment. Even worse, you might only concern yourself with what it means to you. As the money flows in, so do the toys — cars, clothes, bling — and once in the stratosphere, a...

"For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John 2:16) I was watching TV last night with my family (if you are curious, it was The Smoking Gun presents: The World's Dumbest). The show is a "countdown" of video clips of accidents or mishaps invovling a common theme, punctuated by commentary from a bunch of B-list actors and ex-celebrities (Danny Bonaduce from The Partridge Family, Leif Garrett, Tonya Harding, Gary Busey and some others(*)). It...

As political corruption goes, news that New York Governor Elliot Spitzer consorts with high class call girls is pretty low on the sin-o-meter. It was, however, a shock to learn a man mentioned in some circles as presidential material could have been so careless and stupid. Just what possesses a man who has everything going for him to become enmeshed in such an embarrassing scandal? We see it time and time again and ask the same questions over and over. The fact of the matter is, these politicians exist in a political (and social) system that makes them feel entitled...

This is a powerful demonstration of God's love and grace toward us, His creation. Although many forces pull at us and allure us, He is all we want, need... our Everything.

The Strategy of the Devil in Demonic Temptations by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. It was divinely providential that Christ allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil at the beginning of His public ministry. He is teaching us one of the most important lessons we need to learn in life. If He, the living God in human form, was tempted by the evil spirit, then we must expect to be tempted as well. In order to imitate Christ, we must resist the devil as Christ, Himself, resisted the devil. As St. John tells us, we are tempted from three...

"LIVE OUT LOUD" 2006 FREEDOM CONFERENCE [img] www.exodusfreedom.org/freedom/images/2006Conf/Box_Subtitles1.3.jpg[img]

Lead Us Not into Temptation . . .    SCOTT HAHN The Lord's Prayer is like a marathon course whose last mile winds up a steep hill. Or it's like a Himalayan mountain whose ultimate peak crowns a sheer, vertical rock face. We approach the end of the Our Father, and still we face the petition that has proven a stumbling block to many great minds in Christian history. The psychoanalyst C.G. Jung's misinterpretation of this petition was a major factor in his break with orthodox Christianity. He cited Jesus' words as evidence that God is not merely "love and...

<p>The following are excerpts from a sermon yesterday by the Rev. Mike Minter at Reston Bible Church.</p> <p>Many who profess to know Christ struggle with a true understanding of spiritual warfare. They either see a demon behind every bush or relegate this whole subject to a superstition of the Middle Ages. The truth of the matter is clearly laid out in Ephesians, Chapter 6. The beauty of Scripture is that it reveals to us things that we would otherwise have no way of knowing through our five physical senses. This is why God gave us His word. If we could discover this on our own, there would be no need for the Bible. Let´s take a look at this difficult subject.</p>

"Sexually Inclusive Christians" Celebrate Victories, Push for More Mark Tooley August 22, 2003 When arguing for church acceptance of homosexuality, most advocates talk about monogamy. But others are bolder. “I am a strong ally of those in healthy, polyamorous relationships,” declared Debra Kolodny. She argued that having multiple sexual partners can be “holy.” Kolodyn was leading a workshop at the WOW (Witness Our Welcome) 2003 convention, an ecumenical gathering for “sexually and gender inclusive Christians.” Hundreds of homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual people gathered under the “queer” banner in Philadelphia August 14-17 to urge religious acceptance of non-traditional sexual behaviors. According...