The Bible Teaches The Catholic Faith

We can see from the writings of the early Church fathers, particularly those who walked with Jesus, that the Church came before the New Testament, and consequently, the Bible as we know it today. The Word of God preached during Jesus’ day came from inspired writings and traditions that were handed down to the Apostles from the Old Testament and from Jesus Himself.

Since the beginning of time, God has revealed things to man through various means which he wants all of us to believe. And man is bound to believe everything God has revealed under the pain of eternal damnation. Thus, we must believe all that Christ has taught. Christ said: ‘He that believeth not shall be condemned’.

The Catholic Church, for over 2000 years, has taught from both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. All of these things, came from God, and were handed down to man by the Apostles and consequently, by the laying of hands, passed on down through the centuries to the popes, bishops and priests by authority of Christ. So that man wouldn’t be condemned by not knowing the Word of God, Christ gave us the means to know what He has taught and that all things must be within reach of all people - the Catholic Church. Logically and historically, this tells us that the Catholic Church, then, preceeded scripture.

A non-Catholic Christian may say that the Bible holds all things that we need to know, but the Bible alone tells us that the Bible does not hold all that was revealed. John 21:25 says 'But there are also many other things which Jesus did which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.’

Second, God wants all men to know what He has taught and these teachings are meant for the learned and unlearned alike. The unlearned also need the means to learn the truths God taught so that they may believe them and be saved. The means God gave us had to be infallible so it would lead no one astray. Again, the non-Catholic Christian will say the Bible is the only infallible way to learn, but we say what about those who can’t read or don’t access to a Bible? Are they going to be condemned for that? No. So God gave us an infallible Church to teach all men the written Word of God (sacred scripture) and the oral Word of God (sacred tradition).

In fact, Jesus instructed that all men hear the Word of God, not read the Word of God. Mt 17:5 says: ‘And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him’.

Or this: Luke 8:21: ‘Who answering, said to them: My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of God, and do it’. In other words, if God had intended that man should learn his religion from a book, in this case, the Bible, Jesus would have handed them out. But He didn’t do this. He also didn’t say ‘sit down and write Bibles and scatter them over the earth and let every man read his Bible and judge for himself.” In fact personal interpretation is forbidden in the Bible. 2 Peter 1:20: ‘Understanding this first, that no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation’.

However the 16th century reformers decided that was exactly what man was to do, interpret scripture for themselves, which has since become kind of a man-made tradition for non-Catholic Christians. For the past 500 years, over 30,000 denominations have arisen thanks to people interpreting scripture for themselves. This has left us with many errors from the one Book they all claim to follow.

We see one church teaching infant baptism, another doesn’t. One teaches ‘once saved always saved’, another one doesn’t. One teaches Saturday Sabbath, others teach Sunday and on it goes.

In fact since the 16th century religion upon religion, church upon church, have sprung up, all fighting and quarrelling with one another and all because of private interpretation. So, how do we know who to go to when individuals have taken the bible, studied it for himself and have come up with so many interpretations that we have lost count?

The Church.
Matthew 18:17: 'And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican’. And who is the Church? Scripture alone tells us the house of God is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.' People are not the pillar and ground of the truth, but the house of God is. And it's not 30,000 different houses, but one house - one faith, one baptism, one body. 1 Tim 3:15: 'But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.’

The only Church that fits this criteria is the Catholic Church, which was given to man by Jesus while He walked the earth. Mt 16:18: ‘And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’

It was not until the 4th Century, that the Pope of Rome, the Head of the Church on earth, the successor of St. Peter, assembled together the Bishops of the world in a council to decide which writings would be put into a book that we now call our Bible.

In addition, before the printing press was invented, Bibles were rare things and very costly. To get a copy of the Bible everything had to be done with the pen upon parchment or sheepskin. It was a tedious and slow operation. So again, would Jesus have left the world without that book if it was necessary to man's salvation? We know that He did not do this. Jesus left us a Church, the Catholic Church, the House of God, the pillar and ground of truth.

Ave Maria by Seraphim

By Seraphim - found on You-Tube

Election 2008 Draws Near!

It seems hard to believe but Election 2008 is finally almost over. And who can say that it hasn't been an exciting time in the history of this country?

For the first time ever, we have an African/American running for president and a woman running for vice-president. One of the political parties will most definitely be making history.

But as Catholics, we all need to sit down and think a little bit on how we are going to vote this year. And as South Dakota Catholics, we have a little more at stake than just the presidential race.

Once again South Dakota has a measure on the ballot to try and limit the number of abortions that are performed here in this state. Statistics show that around 800 unborn children lose their lives every year at the hands of the abortion Dr. Mengeles of our time.

Dr. Joseph Mengele was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. He gained notoriety for being one of the SS physicians who supervised the selection of arriving transports of prisoners, determining who was to be killed and who was to become a forced laborer, and for performing human experiments on camp inmates. He was also known as the Angel of Death. Some of the horrors documented included numerous acts of cruelty - the dissection of live infants; the castration of boys and men without the use of an anesthetic; and the administering of high-voltage electric shocks to women inmates under the auspices of testing their endurance. He attempted to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations of limbs and other brutal surgeries. And sad as it is, some of this is nothing different than what the abortion doctors do at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls. (Wikipedia.org).

What baffles me is why our country allows cruelty to be performed on unborn infants, while their mothers sit back and do nothing to stop it. And how any doctor could suck the brains out of a living human being, is hard to understand.

Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls, where all of the state's abortions are performed, told us in 2006 that if South Dakota included three exceptions to the law, they would be all for ending abortion. But, how soon they forget. Planned Parenthood is not for the end of abortion because to do so will mean thousands of dollars of lost revenue by which they run their clinic. Their clinic is not interested in providing free health care to women. Their clinic is only interested in providing abortions and raking in those big bucks to pay the Dr. Mengeles of today's world.

Bishop Paul Swain has told the people of our diocese that it is ok to vote for this law because it is the first step in the process of ending all abortions. I guess I can live with that. After all, there aren't all that many women who get pregnant after a rape and really, having an abortion after being raped is only going to cause more trauma on the woman and forever end the life of another living being inside her womb. And there aren't that many people who get pregnant from incest, thank God. As for the health of the mother. How many women do we know who have lost their life giving birth or from being pregnant? Every hospital in this country has the capabilities to save not only the mother, but the baby as well. And whatever happened to death by natural causes? Why have we let the doctors become gods over us choosing who will live and who will die, when the main purpose of their job is to save lives?

In the beginning, abortion proponents began the campaign to take away the humanity of the unborn child. And through deceitful practices, they have convinced women that an abortion is getting rid of a glob of cells rather than butchering a living, human being, who did nothing but become created by God. And when I say butcher, that is exactly what is done, everything from suctioning the brain out, collapsing the baby's skull, to tearing off limbs, to injecting burning solutions - all intended to kill this child. What did this child ever do to us? And tell me how this is different by what Dr. Mengele did in Nazi Germany? It's not different at all.

With prayer abortion can be defeated. But it is going to take Catholics around the world praying for the end of this atrocity and it can be done. But first all Catholics need to come to the understanding about what abortion really does - and that is, it destroys the life of a living human being and make the mother, the mother of an eternal dead child.

If people want to continue on saying this is all about choice - fine. But there are other choices. There is abstinence, number one. There is adoption. There are many other choices that don't include murder.

God's commandment of Thou Shalt Not Kill should be the first clue that something is wrong with abortion.