Baptized in 1991. Confirmed Roman Catholic 2015. I am married and the father of two sons. My education includes a B.A. in Geography and Urban planning. My interests are in reading the Bible and good books like Will Durant's, The Story of Civilization.
“Throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ”
2 Corinthians 10:5 WEBBE https://bible.com/bible/1204/2co.10.5.WEBBE
Religion demographic polls treat Catholicism like a monolith, as if all Catholics are the same, while they break down Protestantism in detail based on beliefs and social positions. The truth, however, is that Catholicism in America is not nearly as unified as the typical demographers would have us believe. About a year ago, the Pew […]
“ROME WILL LOSE THE FAITH AND BECOME THE SEAT OF THE ANTICHRIST.” La Salette Prophecy
After Satan said (in Leo XIII’s vision in 1888), that he could destroy the Church in 100 years; Pope Leo composed the prayer to St. Michael and inserted it into the Rituale Romanum. Here is the key passage:
Ecco la Chiesa, Sposa dell’Agnello Immacolato, saturata di amarezza e abbeverata di veleno da nemici molto astuti; essi hanno posato le loro empie mani su tutto ciò che c’è di più sacro. Laddove fu istituita la sede del beato Pietro e la cattedra della Verità, là hanno posto il trono della loro abominazione nell’empietà; in modo che colpito il pastore, il gregge possa essere disperso.
Ecclesiam, Agni immaculati sponsam, faverrrimi hostes repleverunt amaritudinibus, inebriarunt absinthio; ad omnia desiderabilia ejus impias miserunt manus. Ubi sedes beatissimi Petri et Cathedra veritatis ad lucem gentium constituta est, ibi thronum posuerunt abominationis et impietatis suæ; ut percusso Pastore, et gregem disperdere valeant.
Translation of the Italian version:
Behold the Church, saturated with bitterness and watered with the poison of most astute enemies; they have laid their wicked hands on all that is most sacred. There where the seat of the blessed Peter and the Chair of the Truth was established , there they have raised the throne of their ungodly abomination, so that the shepherd being struck, the sheep may be dispersed.
Translation of the Latin version:
Behold the Church, the Spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, filled with bitterness and inebriated with gall by the most crafty enemies; who have laid impious hands on all that is most sacred. Where the See of the most blessed Peter and the Chair of the truth, was constituted as the light of the nations, there they have set up the throne of their abominable impiety, so that the shepherd being struck, the sheep may be dispersed.
Fundamentalist “Catholics” think such a prophecy violates the indefectibility and visibility of the Church. They err by making an overly strict application of literalism in their interpretation of dogma that contradicts scripture, the Fathers, and the common belief of Catholics through the ages.
So many ignorant and cowardly “Catholics” would bow down in obedience to the devil, if he were clad in a white cassock; rather than apply some basic common sense in their judgment of conscience.
These are the kind of people who are too cowardly to make a judgment of conscience; and prefer to blindly follow an authority figure. They will pay for their sinful, cowardly fear with hell fire — because what ultimately determines whether one will be saved or damned is how they made the proper judgments of conscience. One can seek to inform one’s conscience on the advice of another, but ultimately the law of God demands that we make a judgment of conscience and follow it. Those who deceive themselves by saying, “Who am I to judge?”, damn themselves. You cannot say, “this is for a future pope to judge”, while the vicar of Satan dressed in white cassock demands your submission, and the law of God demands you reject him.
Cardinal Manning wrote: “The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts very new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatize from the Faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. …Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible; hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.”- Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90)
The eminent scripture scholar, Fr. E. Sylvester Berry writes on the Apocalypse:
““The dragon is seen in heaven which is here a symbol of the Church, the kingdom of heaven on earth. This indicates that the first troubles of those days will be inaugurated within the Church by apostate bishops, priests, and peoples, — the stars dragged down by the tail of the dragon “ . . . The dragon stands before the woman, ready to devour the child that is brought forth. In other words, the powers of hell seek by all means to destroy the Pope elected in those days.”
Fr. Berry continues: “The ‘mystery of iniquity’ gradually developing through the centuries, cannot be fully consummated while the power of the Papacy endures, but now he that ‘withholdeth is taken out of the way.’ During the interregnum ‘that wicked one shall be revealed’ in his fury against the Church.” “It is a matter of history that the most disastrous periods for the Church were times when the Papal throne was vacant, or when anti-popes contended with the legitimate head of the Church. Thus also shall it be in those evil days to come.”
“The Church deprived of her chief pastor must seek sanctuary in solitude there to be guided by God Himself during those trying days . . . In those days the Church shall . . . find refuge and consolation in faithful souls, especially in the seclusion of the religious life.
“ . . . Our Divine Savior has a representative on earth in the person of the Pope upon whom He has conferred full powers to teach and govern. Likewise, Antichrist will have his representative in the false prophet who will be endowed with the plenitude of satanic powers to deceive the nations. “ . . . As indicated by the resemblance to a lamb, the prophet will probably set himself up in Rome as a sort of antipope during the vacancy of the papal throne . . .
“ . . . The ‘abomination of desolation’ has been wrought in many Catholic churches by heretics and apostates who have broken altars, scattered relics of martyrs and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. At the time of the French Revolution a lewd woman was seated upon the altar of the cathedral in Paris and worshipped as the goddess of reason. Such things but faintly foreshadow the abominations that will desecrate churches in those sorrowful days when Antichrist will seat himself at the altar to be adored as God.” “. . .Antichrist and his prophet will introduce ceremonies to imitate the Sacraments of the Church. In fact there will be a complete organization – a church of Satan set up in opposition to the Church of Christ. Satan will assume the part of God the Father; Antichrist will be honored as Savior, and his prophet will usurp the role of Pope. Their ceremonies will counterfeit the Sacraments . . .” Published in 1921 by Father E. Sylvester Berry in, The Apocalypse of St. John.
S. Hieronymus: “Abominatio desolationis intelligi potest et omne dogma perversum: quod cum viderimus stare in loco sancto, hoc est in Ecclesia.”
Illuminati “By this plan we shall direct all mankind. In this manner, and by the simplest means, we shall set in motion and in flames. The occupations must be allotted and contrived, that we may in secret, influence all political transactions … I have considered everything and so prepared it, that if the Order should this day go to ruin, I shall in a year re-establish it more brilliant than ever.” -Adam Weishaupt, mastermind of the Illuminati Occultist Adam Weishaupt (1748-1811), was Professor of Canon (Vatican) Law at Ingolstadt University in Bavaria, and proclaimed the birthday of his project known as the Illuminati as May 1, 1776. The Illuminati had been in the process of coming together for 5 or 6 years before this, but the reason this particular day was picked as the birth of the Illuminati is because it is an occult holiday known as Beltane. Beltane is the occultist’s New Years Day, with all new occult endeavors aspiring to begin on this unholiest of days. This is also why Communists celebrate Mayday, which is also on May 1—in honor of the founders of Communism and occultists-in-chief the Illuminati. It was the Illuminati who planned, funded and orchestrated the rise of Communism, which we will go over soon. Weishaupt was originally born into a Jewish family, with his father a rabbi, but “abandoned” Judaism when his father died, and converted to Unholy Roman Catholicism after being raised by Jesuits. He then defected from Catholicism and embraced his true occult calling. Ultimately his only allegiance was to the Great Plan. “. . . it was this same remembrance, preserved, or perhaps profaned in the celebrated Order of the Templars, that became for all the secret associations, of the Rose-Croix, of the Illuminati, and of the Hermetic Freemasons, the reason of their strange rites, of their signs . . . and, above all, of their mutual devotedness and of their power.” -Albert Pike, 33rd degree Freemasonic “prophet”, from his book ‘Morals and Dogma’ Enlisting in its initial membership the highest ranking, most influential and most wealthy Freemasons (occultists) of the time, the secret society within a secret society was born called the Illuminated Seers of Bavaria or “Illuminati” for short. The path to the completion of the Great Plan was “illuminated” by the guidance of their god Lucifer, their god, who is also referred to as “the light bearer”. The entity called Lucifer showed them (illuminated) the plan of action to undertake by which they would be able to take over the world and complete the Great Plan, hence their name the “Illuminati”. The main path of action needed to be taken was to install Illuminati-owned central banks in all of the Western nations….which they did. Money is power, and through the control of the nation’s money systems the Illuminati would by default control the nations themselves. This is exactly where we are at today. The Illuminati allegedly began as 13 families, and the heads of those families still run it today. Out of those original 13 small families, however, grew dozens and hundreds and thousands of descendents who today are a large number of people in politics at the federal level, the people running all the international banks, owners and heads of huge multinational corporations, and etc. etc. etc. They are all in place to promote the Illuminati agenda, which is globalism. This is factually why most of our Presidents of the U.S. are related—even Obama, tracing their shared ancestry back to European royalty. European royalty today and in the past are full-fledged participants of the Great Plan. The original families’ descendents also head up and staff covert organizations you will come to know such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome, and the Trilateral Commission. Again, much disinformation about the true origin and agenda of the Illuminati has been intentionally put forth by Hollywood and the Mainstream Media lately as a result of Pandora’s Box of truth that was opened via the independent internet truth seekers. Do your own research as I have and you will see why they are so desperate to muddy up the waters regarding the Illuminati. Contrary to what you may have heard, the Illuminati are real, and the organizational hierarchy they began in the 18th century exists today, carried forward in time by the bloodline families who run it and the cronies they have been able to hire with the immense amount of money under their control. With the backing of the growing Rothschild international banking network, the occultists, through the Illuminati-Rothschild money power, now had the financial means to carry out their evil plans. As a result of the Rothschilds’ money power, the occultists were able to regain the banking prominence—and therefore the political power—that they once held under the Knights Templar. The Illuminati decided to use the existing occult-themed Freemasonry lodges and members as a front, and for all intents and purposes the Illuminati pulled off a hostile takeover of Freemasonry. There were already high-ranking Freemasons when the Illuminati officially formed in 1776, but by infiltrating their own agents, the Illuminati were able to gain total control of the highest levels of Freemasonry, and therefore of Freemasonry itself. The Illuminati basically took over the highest degrees, 33rd and above, and in effect were a secret society within a secret society. Freemasonry was already the modern day incarnation of the Great Plan, but it needed to be super-charged with a fiat money system ala the Knights Templar in order to be expedited to the finish line, hence the creation of the Illuminati and involving the money master Rothschild Banking Dynasty. In 1782 in Wilhelmsbad, Bavaria (Germany) at the first meeting of the newly formed Masonic Congress of Wilhelmsbad, Weishaupt’s Illuminati were able to certify their position among the European Freemasonic lodges as the new undisputed leaders of the Great Plan. By the time of the third Masonic Congress in 1786, the Illuminati controlled all of the Masonic lodges across Europe, and they revealed their stated goals for the world at this meeting as this: 1.) Pantheism (Babylonian Mystery Religion) for the higher degrees; atheism for the lower degrees and the populace. 2.) Communism of goods, women, and general concerns. Remember, back in those days, women were considered second-class citizens and virtually the “property” of the men who took care of them. 3.) The destruction of the Church and in particular all forms of Christianity, and the removal of all existing human governments to make way for a one world government. However, all was not well within the Illuminati power ranks and some started to quit the organization. Some even started to talk, and this was the beginning of the end of the Illuminati as they had been operating, at least of having their operations semi-public and vulnerable to attrition. In October 1783, Joseph Utzschneider, a lawyer who had dropped out of the Illuminati in August, presented to the Bavarian Duchess Maria Anna a document which detailed the activities and goals of the Illuminati. He had an ax to grind because he felt he had been promoted too slowly, and was constantly prodded to prove his loyalty to the organization. The Duchess took the information and gave it to the Duke of Bavaria. It is through actions like this that have been passed down in history to us that we have been allowed access to the goals of the Illuminati. Duke Karl Theodore Dalberg, the Elector Palatinate of Bavaria, after discovering from the Utzschneider document that the goals of the Illuminati were to take over the world by overthrowing all civil government, issued a proclamation on March 2, 1785 identifying the Illuminati as a branch of the Freemasons, and ordered that their Lodges be shut down. The government launched an offensive against the Illuminati by initiating judicial inquiries at Ingolstadt. In an attempt to preserve the secrecy of their motives, the Illuminati allegedly burned many of their documents. However, the Bavarian government was able to seize many of their papers when they raided the Freemasonic lodges. Weishaupt felt the heat coming and fled across the border into Regensburg, settling in Gotha, where he found refuge with another Illuminati member, the Duke of Saxe-Gotha. In April, 1785, Utzschneider was able to convince three other members of the Illuminati to come forward with information. They were fellow professors at the Marienburg Academy who had doubts about the validity of the organization’s principles when they discovered that they would receive no mystical powers. This is because the true occult power of the supernatural is solely reserved for the top tier echelon of the Luciferians, the Illuminati. They were also disgruntled over Weishaupt’s arrogance lording over the Illuminati. Professors Cossandey, Grunberger, and Renner went before the Bavarian Court of Inquiry on September 9, 1785, where they supplied valuable information, such as membership lists, and revealed the Illuminati’s aims and goals, which they consolidated into the following six points: Abolition of the Monarchy and all ordered government. Abolition of private property. Abolition of inheritance. Abolition of patriotism. Abolition of the family, through the abolition of marriage, all morality, and the institution of communal education for children. Abolition of all religion. The purposes of these six points were to divide the people politically, socially, and economically, and to weaken countries to the point where they were ready to accept a one world government to take care of the problems that the Illuminati had caused to start with. The disgruntled ex-Illuminati testified that “all religion, all love of country and loyalty to sovereigns, were to be annihilated…” The government pardoned all public officials and military leaders who publicly admitted membership. Those who didn’t, and were discovered to be members, lost their rank and standing, were removed from office, and societally blacklisted as traitors. The actions of the Bavarian government barely had any effect on the in-motion plans of the conspirators however……. Weishaupt, during the government investigation into the Illuminati, was preparing to set his plans into motion for the French Revolution, which was slated to begin in 1789. In July of 1785, he instructed Xavier Zwack, one of the Illuminati’s most prominent leaders, to put their plans in book form. This book contained not only the plans for the execution of the French Revolution, but also contained a history of the Illuminati and many of their ideas for expansion and future endeavors. A copy of this book was sent by a courier, identified as Jacob Lanze, to Illuminati members in Paris and Silesia. However, after leaving Frankfurt and riding through Regensburg on horseback, Lanze was struck by lightning and killed. The local authorities found the documents and turned them over to the Bavarian government, which further fueled the importance of their investigation of the Illuminati’s conspiratorial activites. This is another source of the factual plans set into motion by the Rothschild banking dynasty and their Illuminati co-conspirators. These are the exact same plans they follow today. Zwack, whose name was on Renner’s list that was handed over to the Bavarian authorities, had his house in Landshut searched by the police in October 1785 and all his papers relating to the Illuminati were seized. He was immediately dismissed from his position as a lawyer for the government. Many books, documents, papers and correspondence were discovered including over 200 letters written between Weishaupt and the members of the Illuminati which dealt with matters of the highest secrecy. The following year more information was taken from the houses of Illuminati members Baron Bassus and Count Massenhausen. Among the confiscated documents were tables which contained their secret codes and symbols, secret calendar, geographical locations, insignias, ceremonies of initiation, recruiting instructions, statutes, a partial roster of members, and nearly 130 official seals from the government which were used to counterfeit state documents. Suffice it to say, all of this information shed even more light on the Illuminati and what they were up to, and the danger first realized by the government had now become a full-blown national emergency. In 1786 the Bavarian government gathered together all of the confiscated documents and published them in a book called “Original Writings of the Order and Sect of the Illuminati”, which was circulated to every government and crowned head in Europe, including France, to warn them of the impending danger from this highly funded, highly motivated, and highly secretive occult organization. The leaders of the Illuminati who appeared before the government’s Court of Inquiry testified that the organization was dedicated to the overthrow of church and state. However, these revelations and the publication of their documents did little to alert the public because of their unbelievable claims. Remember from the start of the book, the first couple lines of the Secret Covenant????……… “An illusion it will be, so large, so vast it will escape their perception. Those who will see it will be thought of as insane.” Or how about FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover’s blunt statement regarding the New World Order conspiracy: “The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst.” With the release of the government’s tell-all book on the Illuminati, new measures were immediately taken by Bavarian government officials. The leaders of the conspiracy were arrested and formally interrogated, then forced to renounce the Illuminati. The final blow came on August 16, 1787, when Duke Dalberg of Bavaria issued his final proclamation against the Illuminati. Anyone found guilty of recruiting members were to be executed, while those who were recruited, would have their property confiscated and then be deported. Zwack, who was banished, sought sanctuary in the Court of Zweibrucken, where he was later appointed to an official position in the principality of Salm-Kyburg. He contributed to the Illuminati movement in Holland, and was later summoned by Dalberg, as the government tried to deal with the problem of fugitives who might attempt to reorganize the Illuminati. Zwack immediately fled to England. On November 15, 1790, the heat kept coming and another edict was announced against the members of the organization. Anyone found to be an active member was to be put to death. The following year a list of 91 names of alleged members was compiled. They were hunted down and executed. This persecution didn’t end until 1799 when Dalberg died. The “apparent” demise of the Order of the Illuminati was a minor setback, who continued to operate unabated underground, just as they do today. Weishaupt wrote: “The great care of the Illuminati after the publication of their secret writings was to persuade the whole of Germany that their Order no longer existed, that their adepts had all renounced, not only their mysteries, but as members of a secret society.” Point of fact, Weishaupt was more motivated than ever, and wrote: “By this plan we shall direct all mankind. In this manner, and by the simplest means, we shall set in motion and in flames. The occupations must be allotted and contrived, that we may in secret, influence all political transactions … I have considered everything and so prepared it, that if the Order should this day go to ruin, I shall in a year re-establish it more brilliant than ever.” The Illuminati soon grew into a worldwide network by infiltrating and using the Masonic lodges as a front, and have been behind nearly EVERY major political event since their inception—keep this in mind as we go over the various wars and other major historical events that happened by their clandestine guiding hand later in this book.
Source: The rise of the New World Order: the culling of man, by Michael Thomas Hays.
To know God and to be justified in His sight is the age old struggle of sinful man reaching out into the abyss of wonder that is the life of faith.
The search for God begins, not with man, but in the mind of God who initiates the relationship with man by His general revelation; through the natural creation that He uses as a preparative means to His initial grace, or actual grace, that he imparts to those He has elected before the foundations of the world in His divine sovereignty. General revelation is just one means God uses; as scripture says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” (Psalm 19:1)
God also has given us the gift of His primary means of grace, which is the special revelation of the Divine Word of God: the Bible. “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) Also, together, with the tradition of the Church, God has delivered to us the complete “deposit of the faith.”
Justification is the act of cleansing us from our sins, and to communicate to us the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ and Baptism. It detaches man from sin. Justification has been merited for us by the passion of Christ. Justification establishes cooperation between God’s grace and man’s freedom. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches us that “Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God.”(CCC 1996)
Eternal life is supernatural and depends entirely on God’s gracious initiative. However, “we cannot put God in a box”, as they say, so it is God who has the prerogative to work outside the parameters of what we understand as the sacramental system (extrasacramentally).
“Concerning this doctrine the Pope of Vatican I, Pius IX, spoke on two different occasions. In an allocution on December 9, 1854 he said:
“we must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for this in the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds, and the rest?”
Again, in his encyclical Quanto Conficiamur Moerore of August 10, 1863 addressed to the Italian bishops, he said:
“It is known to us and you that those who are invincibly ignorant of our most holy religion, but who observe carefully the natural law, and the precepts graven by God upon the hearts of all men, and who being disposed to obey God lead an honest and upright life, may, aided by the light of divine grace, attain to eternal life; for God who sees clearly, searches and knows the heart, the disposition, the thoughts and intentions of each, in his supreme mercy and goodness by no means permits that anyone suffer eternal punishment, who has not of his own free will fallen into sin.”(Outside the Church There is No Salvation, EWTN.com)
For an example let us look to scripture where we find in Romans 2:14-15
“For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature those things which are of the
law, such persons, not having the law, are a law unto themselves.
For they reveal the work of the law written in their hearts, while their conscience renders testimony about them, and their thoughts within themselves also accuse or even defend them.” (CPDV)
This is the most convincing evidence. For the Apostle Paul, himself, allows for God’s mercy to work outside the parameters of the known, established Church; Seeing that Gentiles can also be saved, who do not have any knowledge of the law, and yet if they do what their conscience tells them is right, they are either accused or excused by their own conscience. Paul goes on to say in verse 16, “on that day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”
Also, John 15:22
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.” (RSV)
In the context of this verse, Jesus is talking about the world’s hatred toward him and those who choose to follow him. But we can also see an implicit meaning in what he says about those who he came and spoke to not being under as great a judgement as those who have heard; we who have the knowledge of the truth, are under a greater judgement, and have no excuse. But if we follow the logic of this argument, we see those who are ignorant of the Gospel, are said to not have sin.
John 9:41
“Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”(RSV)
Spiritual blindness is being discussed in this passage, and Jesus again implies that if we were blind we would have no guilt. This does not mean that they were free of sinful nature inherited from Adam, but that they would have no guilt for violating specific teaching or commands that they had received. Because the Pharisees thought they had great insight into the law of God and were able to see, they had more guilt than the person who had no knowledge.
And, Acts 10:1-4
“Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, named Cornelius, a centurion of the band, which is called the Italian, a religious man, and one that feared God, with all his house, giving much alms to people, and praying to God always: He saw in a vision manifestly, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to him, and saying to him: Cornelius. And he beholding him, being seized with fear, said: What is it Lord? And he said to him: Thy prayers, and thy alms, have ascended for a memorial in the sight of God.”(Douay Rheims)
“A religious man and one who feared God. He was not a Jew, yet believed in God.—always, that is, frequently praying, and giving alms. In the Rheims Testament we find this note: ’hereby it appeareth, that such works as are done before justification, though they suffice not to salvation, yet are acceptable preparatives for the grace of justification, and such as move God to mercy….though all such preparative works come also of grace. Cornelius religiously observed the law of nature, and the principle points of the Jewish moral law, though he did not profess Judaism. He was an admirable example of virtue before his knowledge of Christianity.” (Haydock’s Catholic Bible Commentary)
Also, in all three of the synoptic Gospels Christ uses this phrase, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”(Matthew 9:13, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:32) How may we understand this? Did Christ only come to call sinners? No! He came, suffered, and died for the whole world: his sacrifice was sufficient for everyone. So, if we allow, as the Church does, for two senses of interpreting scripture, literal as well as spiritual, then it can be implicitly argued that Jesus was saying, there are some who through their faithful righteous lives will be saved. “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”(James 2:24 RSV) Although, we acknowledge that these preparatory works come only from God’s grace.
The Church fathers also have something to say on this issue.
Justin Martyr
“We have been taught that Christ is the first-begotten of God, and we have declared him to be the logos of which all mankind partakes [John 1:9]. Those, therefore, who lived according to reason [Greek, logos] were really Christians, even though they were thought to be atheists, such as, among the Greeks, Socrates, Heraclitus, and others like them…. Those who lived before Christ but did not live according to reason [logos] were wicked men, and enemies of Christ, and murderers of those who did live now according to reason [logos] are Christians. Such as these can be confident and unafraid.” (First Apology 46[A.D. 151]).
So we see that through reason we can find our way to God; this I would also call one of God’s means of grace, leading us to Him. If we are guided by our reason and seek God diligently, this is a type of faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Origen
“There was never a time when God did not want men to be just; he was always concerned about that. Indeed, he always provided beings endowed with reason with occasions for practicing virtue and doing what is right. In every generation the wisdom of God descended into those souls which he found holy and made them to be prophets and friends of God.” (Against Celsus 4:7[A.D. 248]).
In the book of Job we read “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil.” This book is one of the oldest in the Bible, and as yet there is no clear belief in the afterlife with its rewards and punishments; still less is there anything coming close to the revelation of the New Testament as in the time of Christ. The book takes its name from a holy man, who is probably of the race of Esau. So, he was not a Hebrew, but an Edomite from the kingdom of Jobab (Genesis 36:33). The time of the Job is most likely during the Egyptian bondage, or the wilderness wanderings. [Hadock’s Catholic Bible Commentary]
If it is said that Job was blameless, upright, and feared God, then how did he obtain his faith? He had no scriptures (direct revelation), he was outside the people of God, the Israelites. No one to preach to him. How? My point of all this is to say that God chose Job by his sovereignty, and then by his general grace drew Job to himself, and finally made him blameless. How? How was he made blameless? In verse 5 we read “Job offered burnt offerings” for his sons and daughters, in case they had sinned. Somehow God imparted this knowledge to Job; whether it was oral tradition or common knowledge passed on from the time of Cain and Able. Regardless, God found a way to impart wisdom into the soul of Job, and justify him.
The Necessity for Membership of the Church
Membership of the Church is necessary for all men for salvation(De fide.)
Dr. Ludwig Ott talks on this subject in his “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma” This book is a conspectus of all Dogmatic Theology.
“Nevertheless equally certainly it is to be held that those who suffer from invincible ignorance of the true religion, are not for this reason guilty in the eyes of the Lord”(D 1647). The last proposition holds out the possibility that people who in point of fact do not belong to the Church can achieve salvation.
The necessity for belonging to the Church is not merely a necessity of precept (necessitas praecepti), but also a necessity of means (nec. Medii), as the comparison with the Ark, the means of salvation from the biblical flood, plainly shows. The necessity of means is, however, not an absolute necessity, but a hypothetical one. In special circumstances, namely, in the case of invincible ignorance or of incapability, actual membership of the Church can be replaced by the desire (votum) for the same. This need not be expressly present (explicite), but can also be included in the moral readiness faithfully to fulfill the will of God (votum implicitum). In this manner also those who are in fact outside the Catholic Church can achieve salvation….That those who, in innocent ignorance, do not know the true Church of Christ, but who are never the less ready to bow to the demands of the Divine Will, will not be cast out, springs from the Divine Justice, and from the doctrine of God’s general will of salvation, which is clearly proved in the scriptures.” [Fundamental of Catholic Dogma, P.312]
“Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4).
Saint Irenaeus wrote that:
“In the efficacy of the spirit all those have no part, who do not hasten to the Church; rather they, by their evil teaching and their evil deeds, rob themselves of life. For where the Church is, there is also the spirit of God, and where the spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace.” (Adv. Haer. III 24,I).
“In view of the stress laid upon the necessity of membership of the Church for salvation it is understandable that the possibility of salvation for those outside the Church is mentioned only hesitantly.” [Fundamental of Catholic Dogma, P.313] “Saint Thomas Aquinas, agreeing with Tradition, teaches the general necessity of the Church for salvation. On the other hand, he concedes that a person may be saved extrasacramentally by baptism of desire and therefore the possibility of salvation without actual membership of the Church by reason of a desire to be a member of the Church.”[Ibid] The holy synod professes that “God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world, by the natural light of human reason” (Romans 1:20). [Vatican Council I, Dogmatic Constitution on our Catholic Faith]
A distinction needs to be made here between dogmatic tolerance and civil tolerance. Dogmatic tolerance is rejected by the Church which would legitimately make all religions of the same value, when it comes to justification; also known as indifferentism. Civil tolerance is propagating the commandment of love of neighbor towards all men, even those in error.
by Jules Gomes • ChurchMilitant.com • July 6, 2020
‘No absolute religious freedom since Henry VIII’
LONDON (ChurchMilitant.com) – Protestant England never enjoyed absolute religious freedom since Henry VIII broke with Rome, a top evangelical leader is conceding, as 25 Christian leaders — including a Catholic theologian — challenge the churches’ lockdown as a breach of the Magna Carta.
Church leaders who have launched a judicial review of the lockdown are contending that the state criminalized Sunday worship for the first time in centuries — despite the government allowing churches to reopen July 4 under strict guidelines.
Top evangelical Stevens supports the state closure of churches
Churches should never have been shut in the first place and “this is about helping the government to understand the principle of church autonomy and freedom from state control,” Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of Christian Legal Center (CLC), told Church Militant.
Williams, who is leading the challenge, says the judicial review is “also about helping many church leaders to understand the very same thing.”
“Sadly, far too many have been happy to cede too quickly their freedom to the state,” invalidating the historic freedom of the church enshrined in the Magna Carta, she lamented.
Protecting Church Liberty
In England in 1215, a coalition of nobles and all Catholic bishops, imposed the Magna Carta on King John, severely limiting royal powers.
Williams notes that the Magna Carta “is still celebrated as the foundation stone of English democracy and rule of law.” Its first chapter reads: “First, we have granted to God, and by this our present Charter have confirmed, for us and our heirs forever, that the Church of England [the ancient Catholic Church in England] shall be free, and shall have all her whole rights and liberties inviolable … .”
“Most of the other provisions of Magna Carta have been repealed by now, but not this one,” insists Williams.
“The Magna Carta did not protect religious freedom, but the liberty of the Church,” Catholic Oxford academic Dr. Joseph Shaw told Church Militant. “The right of the Church to proclaim the gospel was not regarded as applying to heresy or false religions.”
‘Never’ Unqualified Right to Worship
However, in what critics are viewing as a scandalous split among English Protestants, national director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) John Stevens has hit out at CLC’s judicial review, asserting that “there has never been an unqualified right to freedom of worship” in England.
The supremacy of the Crown over the church was finally established when Henry VIII broke with Rome and declared himself the supreme governor of the Church of England.
“The supremacy of the Crown over the church was finally established when Henry VIII broke with Rome and declared himself the supreme governor of the Church of England,” Stevens maintains in a June 30 blog post.
“We easily forget that religious freedom in England was won by violent protest and iconoclasm,” he writes, noting that even Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights gives the state “the right to limit the freedom to manifest one’s religions or beliefs in the interests of public health.”
“Personally, I do not consider that the lockdown restrictions imposed on churches have been an illegitimate restriction of our rights to religious freedom under the Human Rights Act,” Stevens stresses.
Interpretations of Lockdown
“I have to say that a statement from a Christian leader that seems so shaped by fear may well not reflect what God is saying to the churches today,” writes Dr. Peter Sanlon, a minister from the Free Church of England, responding to Stevens.
Stevens replies to Sanlon: “What are we prevented from doing in practice? The answer is very little except sing and baptize by immersion,” completely ignoring the biblical stipulation to regularly assemble for Holy Communion.
We easily forget that religious freedom in England was won by violent protest and iconoclasm.
“There remains a great confusion in the response of many evangelicals to lockdown,” Dave Brennan, director of pro-life Brephos, told Church Militant.
Bishops are imposing needless regulations on the faithful
Brennan, who has written a detailed riposte of Stevens’ position, explained:
Some say we need to obey the government unquestioningly — it’s about submission to authority. Some say it’s in the interests of health — they believe the government’s guidance is well-evidenced. Some say it’s so as not to cause offense in a society that supports a strict lockdown. My question is: Which is it? For John Stevens it appears to be a (convenient) mix of all three, and whenever one of these bases is challenged, he simply hops to another one to continue his defense.
“What is even more ironic is that here is a ‘non’-conformist acting rather like Church of England clergy, as if we look to the government to tell us how to worship!” writes Brennan.
There was a difference between the attitude of Protestant and Catholic states to religious freedom in the 16th and 17th centuries, explains Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales.
“Catholic states acted to suppress Protestant religious violence — the vandalizing of religious images, the stealing of the Blessed Sacrament from churches, the disrupting of professions and so on,” Shaw notes.
“Protestant states saw Catholic practice as idolatrous and this often led to persecution of private religious practice. Houses were searched for Rosaries and other religious items, and it was treason for priests ordained abroad to return to England, even to minister in secret,” Shaw observes.
These mysterious restrictions go to the heart of the episcopal culture of deceit that has emerged with unnerving clarity since the pandemic.
“Devotional art and liturgical vestments were burnt, while those who used them were hanged, drawn and quartered, imprisoned, or reduced to poverty by repeated fines,” he adds.
Three Patterns of Response
Catholic theologian Gavin Ashenden, one of the leaders challenging the churches’ lockdown, clarifies by outlining three patterns of Christian response.
“The first is highly secularized and spiritually incompetent, which says, ‘Places don’t matter; your private thoughts are everything, corporate worship is overrated,'” Ashenden notes in an article on his website.
Prof. “Pantsdown” Ferguson caught breaking his own rules
The second response is “more literate historically but still underdeveloped spiritually” and says: “‘Yes, it looks authoritarian and apocalyptic, but check out the facts. It was a pandemic. It was medicine and science, not politics. Calm down. Nothing to worry about.'”
The third response says, “There is no value-free science” and “whether there was intentionality or not, the state took upon itself the right to close churches” and prohibit worship.
“And although this was a temporary measure (it seems) it set a precedent which should have been exposed, challenged and repudiated,” the former Queen’s chaplain observes.
Ashenden argues that “civil liberties require us to make a distinction between those who want to withdraw from public life in order to protect themselves in a situation that is scientifically and medically ambiguous, and those who chose to take certain risks congruent with a personal value system and the dictates of their conscience.”
Church Restricting Herself
Last week, Church Militant reported that Catholic bishops in England, Wales and Scotland were suffocating the faithful with red tape and unnecessary regulations even though the government guidelines for reopening church were not mandatory.
Church Militant also reported on Professor Neil Ferguson, the scientist whose doomsday models may have bamboozled bishops into closing churches. Ferguson broke his own quarantine rules to shack up with his married lover.
“These mysterious restrictions go to the heart of the episcopal culture of deceit that has emerged with unnerving clarity since the pandemic,” Damian Thompson, associate editor of The Spectator told Church Militant.
“They are entirely self-defeating and will hasten the collapse of Catholicism in the British Isles. I can’t believe that this is what the bishops want, so I must assume that a major factor is their well-established stupidity,” the presenter of the Holy Smoke religion podcast said.
Meanwhile, High Court Justice Jonathan Swift has considered the CLC documents and has ordered the government lawyers to file a response by July 15.
Christian Universal Truth 