Question: What is the main philosophy of Christianity?
Answer: Redemption from perpetual slavery to Satan, sin and death, through the grace and merits of Jesus Christ, true man and true God.
Question: If god loves us so much why does he go through all these games and shenanigans? Why did he send his son to jump through hoops and die?
Answer: The Fall of Man unwittingly transferred dominion over the whole earth from Adam to Satan, with mankind ending up hopelessly and perpetually enslaved to Satan, sin and death.
So, mere forgiveness would have changed nothing.
The only hope for mankind
was divine intervention of a very particular type,
something only God was capable of accomplishing, for us.
Once redeemed from perpetual slavery to Satan, sin and death by Jesus Christ, it would be supremely foolish and wasteful for man to be voluntarily compromised by sin, once again. That’s why God holds us to high standards, yet mercifully forgives, so long as we remain faithful (to him) and are truly repentant.
God typically accomplishes this for us by means of his grace and through our full, faithful and consistent participation in all the work, worship, sacraments and devotions of his Holy Catholic Church.
Asked and answered on Yahoo!Answers. Edited for clarity and content.
Question: So god required a sacrifice and then he sacrificed his son who was also himself?
Answer: Not exactly.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three divine and distinct persons who essentially constitute the one, true God.
1 X 1 X 1 = 1
The 2nd person of the Holy Trinity (the Son) took on flesh and became man, while never ceasing to be God. We know him as Jesus Christ.
Jesus did for the human race what Adam failed to do: He remained totally and completely obedient to God the Father, even unto death on the cross.
Since Jesus is the eternal God, it is impossible for him to commit any type of sin, so Jesus is immune to the wickedness and snares of the devil. Jesus’ act of total obedience to his heavenly Father, as one of us and on our behalf, served to appease God’s wrath (due to our sins) redeem mankind and “make” the peace between man and God.
When Jesus permitted the forces of evil to unjustly put him to death, he became the perfect and spotless sacrifice for the sins of the world and the forces of evil became subject to divine judgment, subsequently forfeiting the dominion over all the earth that they enjoyed after “the fall of man”.
When he rose again three days later, Jesus defeated death and proved his claim to divinity, as well as his mastery over Satan, sin and death. Jesus is now the King if Kings and Lord of Lords, wielding all power over heaven and earth, death and hell.
Fallen mankind does not have that type of power. Only Jesus does.
Through faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ, along with baptism into his church, the power to overcome death becomes available to all who truly seek it. This is primarily a function of divine grace, which is a free gift from God.
All we need do is accept God’s saving grace (which Jesus deliberately obtained for us by his life, death and resurrection) and make a free will choice to cooperate with that grace, as a full, faithful member of his church, and then, hope for the best.
God will do the rest. His grace is sufficient.
by Doug Lawrence
Nowhere in scripture do we read of Satan tempting Adam at any time, prior to the existence of Eve.
In fact, nowhere in scripture do we read of Satan directly tempting Adam, at all. All we can do is a bit of exegesis, based on the fact that Jesus Christ, “The New Adam” – was tempted by Satan – and based on that, we can assume that Adam was tempted, as well.
But I digress!
The point is … humanity was going nowhere until God created Eve. Only then did the possibility exist of an entire race of human beings – numbering greater than the stars in the heavens and the sands on the sea shore (Genesis 22:17) and only then did Satan make his move: first, on Eve. Then, Eve quite easily enlisted Adam in their offense.
Consequently, mankind soon found himself evicted from Eden, in addition to being permanently and hopelessly enslaved to Satan, sin and death. If not for the saving work of Jesus Christ, our Holy Redeemer, it would have remained so, for an eternity.
Satan continues to concentrate on Eve’s “daughters – sisters” to this very day. And except for the superabundantly graced, totally sinless Blessed Virgin Mary, “The New Eve” – most women tend to remain extraordinarily easy marks! I trust it is unnecessary to name names and cite specifics.
Not that men – except for Our Bless Lord, Jesus Christ – are any better. Most are just bold, recidivist sinners of a different gender. And life goes on.
Get wisdom, because it is better than gold:
and purchase prudence, for it is more precious than silver.
The path of the just departs from evil:
he that keeps his soul keeps his way.
Pride goes before destruction:
and the spirit is lifted up before a fall.
(Proverbs 16:16-18)
Something to think about, this Advent!
Thanks to his finished work on the cross at Calvary, Jesus Christ, eternally enthroned in Heaven at the right hand of God the Father, already personifies the supernatural reality of human perfection …
a state of being which all Christians hope to achieve, according to the power of God’s grace.
(616 – From the Catechism of the Catholic Church)
We know this is true because Jesus is not a mythical figure.
Jesus Christ is in fact, a real, well documented, historical person.
Jesus fulfilled every Messianic Bible prophecy, to the letter.
No one else has ever done so. No one else ever will.
Jesus demonstrated the power of God by His perfect, sinless,
earthly existence, by His (truly) charismatic personality,
and by His miracles.
No one else has ever done so. No one else ever will.
Jesus demonstrated His divinity
and His mastery over the power of death
by raising Himself up again from the dead,
just as he said he would.
No one else has ever done so. No one else ever will.
This Saturday, December 8th, is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It celebrates an important point of Catholic teaching, and it is a holy day of obligation.
Here are 8 things you need to know about the teaching and the way we celebrate it.
1. Who does the Immaculate Conception refer to?
There’s a popular idea that it refers to Jesus’ conception by the Virgin Mary.
It doesn’t.
Instead, it refers to the special way in which the Virgin Mary herself was conceived.
This conception was not virginal. (That is, she had a human father as well as a human mother.) But it was special and unique in another way. . . .
Dr. Frank Agnone, a Catholic internal medicine physician, has stood many times at the bedside of patients facing the end of their lives. He said the advance directives issued by the Phoenix Diocese are based on the magisterial teaching of the Church and will be a big help to the faithful.
“None of us is equipped to put something this profound and this insightful together about human nature and natural law as God would have us live it out in His plan for creation, redemption and our salvation,” Dr. Agnone said, “but the Magisterium of our Church has and it makes so much sense.”
Dr. Agnone said the time during which patients and their families face the end of life is sacred and shouldn’t be rushed.
“We want to create the most sacred environment in which to finish the journey,” Dr. Agnone said. “We don’t prolong death but we respect that there are still some final chapters, some final moments of this life that can be carefully observed.”
The One selected to become the Mother of God was given a unique kind of preservative so that She would not be in any way contaminated and thus unfit for Her divine maternity. This intervention of God, this reaching out into history to interrupt the normal flow of the ‘bug’ of original sin is given its precise theological name in the prayer that I will say after the Offertory; the name for it “prevenient grace.”
I dare say that the word ‘grace’ alone is a word that, while common enough in our language, is little understood by the majority of Catholic people. When one adds to that the rare word ‘prevenient’ many will not have a clue to the meaning. And while this usage of some uncommon terminology was one of the major criticisms of the new English text (it is supposed to be too lofty for the comprehension of the lay people), one cannot on that account omit or dismiss the realities such theological words signify.
‘Prevenient grace’ is a gift that God gives ‘before’ or ‘in anticipation of’ some benefit. In this case, God gave to Mary beforehand the gift of sanctifying grace which was not yet given to the rest of humanity until Christ’s redeeming death on the cross.
She’ll answer your Catholic questions
right here, every Thursday.
Email responses will also be provided, as time permits.
*** Alice is off this week – Doug is “sitting in” ***
Skeptical Christian asks: Notwithstanding the awesome power of God or the holiness of his divine son, Jesus Christ, can someone please explain precisely by what mechanism the killing of Jesus served to reconcile fallen humanity with God? Thank you.
Doug Lawrence answers: Your question is one that is rarely explained, these days. But the answer is absolutely essential for a proper understanding of the basis of the Judeo-Christian faith tradition, and especially, Catholic Christianity.
On the most basic level, Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice was a divine “do-over”.
Adam, the first man, miserably failed. Having failed, all his natural offspring (without exception) would be consigned to his fate … eternal slavery to Satan, sin, and death … unless and until God personally intervened, to remedy the situation.
But many ask, “Why was it necessary for God to redeem man? Couldn’t God have simply decided to forgive and forget?”
There’s simply no way a just and loving God could go along with such an evil compromise. Besides, with Satan, the “Prince of this world” … totally opposed to God … still in charge on earth … forgiving and forgetting would accomplish absolutely nothing.
Satan would first have to go.
While Satan’s dominion was all encompassing, it was not without limits. That limit was defined by sin.
Satan held the virtually unrestricted power of death over every sinner. But regarding one with no sin, Satan had absolutely no power at all.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his divine humanity, was sinless and totally immune to the powers of hell. Satan had no right to harm the sinless Christ, in any way.
So, the moment Satan and his minions .. the Pagan Romans and the corrupt Jewish Pharisees … put Jesus to death … Satan’s dominion was crushed, everything he gained from Adam’s fall was forfeit, and his (official) power over mankind was at an end.
Once Satan was out of the way, God’s plan for the reconciliation of mankind would proceed, without further delay.
The resurrected Christ … the New Adam … would be crowned the new head of all mankind … King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Satan would have to rely only on stealth and lies for any power he might still have.
Anyone willing to swear allegiance to Jesus Christ would be able to obtain true freedom, along with grace, peace, and forgiveness, from God … typically through baptism, and a lifetime of faithful participation in all the work, worship, sacraments and devotions of the Catholic Church.
For much more on this rather complicated subject, click here.
Our Lord finished His work, but we have not finished ours. He pointed the way we must follow. He laid down the Cross at the finish, but we must take it up. He finished Redemption in His physical Body, but we have not finished it in His Mystical Body.
He has finished salvation, we have not yet applied it to our souls. He has finished the Temple, but we must live in it. He has finished the model Cross, we must fashion ours to its pattern. He has finished sowing the seed, we must reap the harvest. He has finished filling the chalice, but we have not finished drinking its refreshing draughts. He has planted the wheat field; we must gather it into our barns. He has finished the Sacrifice of Calvary; we must finish the Mass.
The Crucifixion was not meant to be an inspirational drama, but a pattern act on which to model our lives. We are not meant to sit and watch the Cross as something done and ended like the life of Socrates. What was done on Calvary avails for us only in the degree that we repeat it in our own lives.
If one goes to Google now and types in “Pope on Jews” you will find that this article is now cited numerous times among the first items, suggesting that this “exoneration” by Benedict of “the Jews” for blame in the execution of Jesus is the central point of Benedict’s teaching on Jews and Judaism. (Don’t think so? Click here.)
But this is not an accurate presentation of what Benedict is saying.
Rather, what Benedict is saying, clearly, is that the blood of Christ will bring about the redemption of the Jews from their sins.
Here again is what the Pope writes: When in Matthew’s account the “whole people” say: “His blood be on us and on our children” (27:25), the Christian will remember that Jesus’ blood speaks a different language from the blood of Abel (Heb 12:24): it does not cry out for vengeance and punishment; it brings reconciliation… These words are not a curse, but rather redemption, salvation.
The Pope certainly does not hold to a theory that all the Jewish people without exception were complicit in and guilty of the decision to execute Jesus (the theory of “deicide”). This is clear.
But, in fact, the teaching that the Jewish people, as a whole (corporately) committed “deicide” has always been a distortion of true Christian teaching, has never been the established doctrine of the Church, and this is why the teaching of Nostra Aetate (drafted and promulgated in 1965 at the close of the Second Vatican Council) — which makes clear this point unambiguously — is not an innovation, as is sometimes alleged, not a “new” teaching of the Church, but a clarification of the Church’s perennial teaching. (At least as clear as any church document written around that time could be. Hence, all the various, subsequent distortions and misappropriations. – Ed.)
So Benedict does not “exonerate” the “Jews” for “Jesus’ death”; nor is it in his thought to do so.
Editor’s note: So … to Dr. Robert Moynihan … publisher of “Inside the Vatican Magazine” … I say, “Amen, brother! Good job … and God speed.”
She’ll answer as many questions as possible,
right here, every Thursday.
Email responses will also be provided, as time permits.
Mike S. Asks: If Heaven is perfect (without sin) how could there be a war between the good angels and the bad angels? If Adam and Eve had not sinned, what would have happened to Jesus Christ?
Alice Answers: Heaven is the perfect state of existence. It is the eternal home of God, angels and saints. There are no devils in Heaven. The evil spirits were banished to hell during a war between the good and bad angels which occurred before God created Adam and Eve. The mighty battle, led by St. Michael the Archangel against Satan, is described in the book of Revelation.
“Then war broke out in Heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. Although the dragon and his angels fought back they were overpowered and lost their place in Heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent known as the devil or Satan, the seducer of the whole world, was driven out; he was hurled down to earth and his minions with him.” (Revelation 12:7- 9)
There are no conflicts in Heaven, since no one can enter Heaven with hate in his or her heart. The souls of people who refuse to give or accept the love of God and neighbor are in hell.
The good news is that Satan was banished from Heaven! The bad news is, “But woe to you, earth and sea, for the devil has come down upon you!” (Revelation 12:12)
Satan and his demons wander the earth seducing people, such as Adam and Eve, to sin. If our first parents had not sinned, Jesus could have remained in Heaven rather than come to earth as a helpless infant (through the mystery of the Incarnation) to suffer a horrible crucifixion and death to save us from our sins.
However, all human beings have an inclination toward sin called concupiscence. After the Great Flood, God promised Noah and his descendants that he would not destroy all of humanity because of our sinfulness.
“Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21)
Even if Adam and Eve had not sinned, Jesus would have come to earth to save any one of us from the wages of our sins, which is death. “For God so love the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
In Christ’s Love,
Alice
Doug Lawrence adds: Regarding the perfection of heaven and the fall of the angels: Please see paragraph 63 of St. Thomas Aquinas’ treatise on the angels.
63. SIN OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
1. A rational creature (that is, a creature with intellect and will) can sin. If it be unable to sin, this is a gift of grace, not a condition of nature. While angels were yet unbeatified they could sin. And some of them did sin.
2. The sinning angels (or demons) are guilty of all sins in so far as they lead man to commit every kind of sin. But in the bad angels themselves there could be no tendency to fleshly sins, but only to such sins as can be committed by a purely spiritual being, and these sins are two only: pride and envy.
3. Lucifer who became Satan, leader of the fallen angels, wished to be as God. This prideful desire was not a wish to be equal to God, for Satan knew by his natural knowledge that equality of creature with creator is utterly impossible. Besides, no creature actually desires to destroy itself, even to become something greater. On this point man sometimes deceives himself by a trick of imagination; he imagines himself to be another and greater being, and yet it is himself that is somehow this other being. But an angel has no sense-faculty of imagination to abuse in this fashion. The angelic intellect, with its clear knowledge, makes such self-deception impossible. Lucifer knew that to be equal with God, he would have to be God, and he knew perfectly that this could not be. What he wanted was to be as God; he wished to be like God in a way not suited to his nature, such as to create things by his own power, or to achieve final beatitude without God’s help, or to have command over others in a way proper to God alone.
4. Every nature, that is every essence as operating, tends to some good. An intellectual nature tends to good in general, good under its common aspects, good as such. The fallen angels therefore are not naturally evil.
5. The devil did not sin in the very instant of his creation. When a perfect cause makes a nature, the first operation of that nature must be in line with the perfection of its cause. Hence the devil was not created in wickedness. He, like all the angels, was created in the state of sanctifying grace.
6. But the devil, with his companions, sinned immediately after creation. He rejected the grace in which he was created, and which he was meant to use, as the good angels used it, to merit beatitude. If, however, the angels were not created in grace (as some hold) but had grace available as soon as they were created, then it may be that some interval occurred between the creation and the sin of Lucifer and his companions.
7. Lucifer, chief of the sinning angels, was probably the highest of all the angels. But there are some who think that Lucifer was highest only among the rebel angels.
8. The sin of the highest angel was a bad example which attracted the other rebel angels, and, to this extent, was the cause of their sin.
9. The faithful angels are a greater multitude than the fallen angels. For sin is contrary to the natural order. Now, what is opposed to the natural order occurs less frequently, or in fewer instances, than what accords with the natural order.
64. STATE OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
1. The fallen angels did not lose their natural knowledge by their sin; nor did they lose their angelic intellect.
2. The fallen angels are obstinate in evil, unrepentant, inflexibly determined in their sin. This follows from their nature as pure spirits, for the choice of a pure spirit is necessarily final and unchanging.
3. Yet we must say that there is sorrow in the fallen angels, though not the sorrow of repentance. They have sorrow in the affliction of knowing that they cannot attain beatitude; that there are curbs upon their wicked will; that men, despite their efforts, may get to heaven.
4. The fallen angels are engaged in battling against man’s salvation and in torturing lost souls in hell. The fallen angels that beset man on earth, carry with them their own dark and punishing atmosphere, and wherever they are they endure the pains of hell. [Note: For further discussion of angels, see Qq. 106-114.]
What would have happened if Adam had not sinned?
Even if Adam had never sinned, God would still be God, we would still be his human creatures, and there would likely be at least some type of a divinely instituted system of justice. While the nature and the “flavor” of our human existence would be radically different from what we currently experience, any effect on God himself would probably be minuscule, since he is dependent on us for nothing, at all.
Redeemed – certainly. Justified – perhaps, someday.
Pope Francis says atheists who do good are redeemed too.
The Vatican issued an “explanatory note on the meaning of “salvation,” on Thursday, May 23, after media reports circulated indicating that Pope Francis” promised heaven for everyone engaged in good works, including atheists.
In response to the media attention, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said that people who know about the Catholic church “cannot be saved” if they “refuse to enter her or remain in her.”
Rosica also said that Francis had “no intention of provoking a theological debate on the nature of salvation,” during his homily on Wednesday.
May 26, 2013
Categories: Books & Publications, Catholic Q & A, Events, Human Rights, Inspirational, Politics, Religious Ed . Tags: atheists, comments, Jesus Christ, Pope Francis, redemption . Author: Doug Lawrence . Comments: 1 Comment