Today’s question: Why do I deserve to burn in hell for eternity? If God is love, how can such a thing even be possible?

Question: Why do I deserve to burn in hell for eternity? Please explain how I deserve to burn in hell, from a human perspective and how can I possibly follow a religion that doesn’t make sense?

Answer: The problems related to “The Human Condition” are probably due as much to “circumstance” as to the personal “guilt” of we who are alive on earth, today.

That said, the problem of sin is and always has been, deadly serious!

Due to the Fall of Man (in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden) the default state of all humanity is to be born estranged from God; totally lacking the divine grace that is necessary to enter Heaven; perpetually enslaved to Satan, sin and death; having a natural attraction to sin, as well as an all too human propensity to commit sin.

The only known antidote to perpetual slavery and eternal damnation, is faith in Jesus Christ, the divine man who has demonstrated (as one of us and on our behalf) his total mastery over Satan, sin and death.

The fact that Jesus voluntarily took on flesh, became man, willingly sacrificed himself and then, rose again from the dead, in order to destroy Satan’s power over us (the power of death and hell) while asking nothing in return, except for our faithful allegiance, should be more than sufficient proof of God’s abiding love and tender mercies.

Christians typically swear faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ by being Baptized into his Holy Catholic (Universal) Church.

The Sacrament of Baptism, followed by a regular program of personal prayer and study, along with a lifetime of full, faithful participation in all the work, worship, sacraments and devotions of the Holy Catholic Church, is the time-tested, “Jesus Approved” method of first, being justified by the grace of God and then, proceeding to live a holy life that will serve to glorify God, while preparing us to (hopefully) spend an eternity with him, in Heaven.

The bottom line: Nobody “deserves” Heaven. An invitation to Heaven is a free gift from God, subject only to his divine will, his justice and his mercy.

God typically reserves the gift of Heaven for those who are (or who will be) faithful to Jesus Christ – the one who redeemed all of mankind from Satan, sin, eternal death and hell.

Absent faith in Jesus – or a great miracle/divine exception – there’s only one other choice available.

So what will it be: The Smoking Section or The Non-Smoking Section?

A technical question about the Bible, ransom and redemption, in Jesus Christ

Question: Does the bible describe the purchase of righteousness as a purchase like money?

Answer: Not exactly. The Bible describes the salvific act of Jesus Christ as that of a Kinsman Redeemer purchasing his enslaved relatives/family members from bondage: Not by paying a ransom to the slave holder, who illicitly obtained control over the slave(s) through malice and larceny (and hence, deserves nothing) but by selflessly offering himself as a propitiatory sacrifice to a just and righteous God, in order obtain justice for all and righteousness, for many.

The reason for our joy: Christmas is proof that God always keeps his promises

by Doug Lawrence

The first thing God did after Adam fell from grace was call a meeting. (That probably explains why meetings have always seemed like a form of punishment, to many of us.)

The Old Testament Bible Book of Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 15, duly records the promise God made to Adam at that meeting … the promise of a redeemer … who would one day come to repair the damage that had been done … something that Adam could never hope to accomplish on his own.

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

Until that day, all of mankind would remain enslaved to Satan, sin, and death … except for the Virgin Mary, who was, by special privilege of God, conceived without sin, in order to make it possible for her to become the mother of our holy Savior, Jesus Christ. (That’s also why the above Bible verse has both a decidedly masculine as well as feminine “sense” to it.)

When Almighty God sets out to fulfill a promise, there’s nothing in the universe that can stop him … hence the joyous and absolutely confident proclamation of the angels, on that first Christmas:

Luke 2:10-14 And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people: For, this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will.

As we all know, within the space of some thirty-three short years, that mild babe in the manger went on to perfectly fulfill all the prophecies and promises that God had ever made, concerning him … destroying Satan’s evil dominion, reconciling sinful mankind, opening the gates of Heaven, and permanently establishing the Kingdom of God, on the Earth.

Thanks to Christ, the state of war that had existed between Satan dominated, sinful mankind and God, was over. From that day forward, God’s grace would trump sin and death, while Satan, the former slave master and undisputed “Prince of this World” would remain a tragic, desperate, fugitive on earth, waiting for his sentence to be ultimately carried out, much like the late Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein, who spent his last days cowering in an underground “spider hole”, until justice finally caught up with him.

Now (and forever) Jesus reigns
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Merry Christmas!

 

Today’s question: Why do I deserve to burn in hell for eternity? If God is love, how can such a thing even be possible?

Question: Why do I deserve to burn in hell for eternity? Please explain how I deserve to burn in hell, from a human perspective and how can I possibly follow a religion that doesn’t make sense?

Answer: The problems related to “The Human Condition” are probably due as much to “circumstance” as to the personal “guilt” of we who are alive on earth, today. That said, the problem of sin is and always has been, deadly serious!

Due to the Fall of Man (in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden) the default state of all humanity is to be born estranged from God, totally lacking the divine grace that is necessary to enter Heaven, perpetually enslaved to Satan, sin and death, having a natural attraction to sin, as well as an all too human propensity to commit sin.

The only known antidote to perpetual slavery and eternal damnation, is faith in Jesus Christ, the divine man who has demonstrated (as one of us and on our behalf) his total mastery over Satan, sin and death.

The fact that Jesus voluntarily took on flesh, became man, willingly sacrificed himself and then, rose again from the dead, in order to destroy Satan’s power over us (the power of death and hell) while asking nothing in return, except for our faithful allegiance, should be more than sufficient proof of God’s abiding love and tender mercies.

Christians typically swear faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ by being Baptized into his Holy Catholic (Universal) Church.

The Holy Sacrament of Baptism, followed by a regular program of personal prayer and study, along with a lifetime of full, faithful participation in all the work, worship, sacraments and devotions of the Holy Catholic Church, is the time-tested, “Jesus Approved” method of first, being justified by the grace of God and then, proceeding to live a holy life that will serve to glorify God, while preparing us to (hopefully) spend an eternity with him, in Heaven.

Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers. Edited for clarity and content.

A question about the Holy Eucharist

Question: To any normal person, this sounds very much like the script of a gruesome horror film. The whole idea of “eating Jesus’ body” and “drinking his blood” is grotesque in the extreme. What do you believers have to say about this?

Answer: The Jews were required to eat the flesh of the Passover Lamb, ever since God liberated them from slavery, in Egypt.

Christians have been required to eat the risen and glorified flesh and blood of Jesus Christ – the true, Lamb of God – ever since he liberated all of mankind from perpetual slavery to Satan, sin and death by his atoning sacrifice on the cross, at Calvary and his subsequent, glorious resurrection from the dead.

This is an essential part of a uniquely powerful Eucharistic Celebration/Commemoration (known as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) where we Christians joyfully, thankfully and powerfully receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ (known as “The Real Presence”) under the more palatable and aesthetically pleasing auspices of ordinary bread and wine.

To put it even more simply:
This is merely one more extraordinary and awesome example
of God’s total self-giving for our salvation.

For those in the know, who possess at least a modicum of true faith, this is historically and traditionally consistent, logical, rational and supernaturally nourishing.

For others, it remains a total mystery and a scandal.

Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers. Edited for clarity and content.

A technical question about the Bible, ransom and redemption, in Jesus Christ

Question: Does the bible describe the purchase of righteousness as a purchase like money?

Answer: Not exactly. The Bible describes the salvific act of Jesus Christ as that of a Kinsman Redeemer purchasing his enslaved relatives/family members from bondage: Not by paying a ransom to the slave holder, who illicitly obtained control over the slave(s) through malice and larceny (and hence, deserves nothing) but by selflessly offering himself as a propitiatory sacrifice to a just and righteous God, in order obtain justice for all and righteousness, for many.

As answered today on Yahoo!Answers (edited for clarity and content)

The NAACP has never taken a position on abortion. We simply support a woman’s right to choose.

That sounds like a position, to me!

Read more

We built the global economy — by gutting our own.

Not long ago, the shirts, skirts, suits and dresses Americans wore were “Made in the USA” — in plants in the Carolinas, Georgia and Louisiana, where the lower wages, lighter regulations and air conditioning that came after World War II had attracted the factories from New England.

The American idea was that the 50 states and their citizens should compete with one another fairly. The feds set the health and safety standards that all factories had to meet, and imposed wage and hour laws. Some states offered lower wages, but there was a federal minimum wage.

How did we prevent companies from shutting down here and going to places like today’s Bangladesh to produce as cheaply as they could — without regard for the health and safety of their workers — and to send their products back here and kill the American factories?

From James Madison to the mid-20th century, we had a tariff.

Read more from Pat Buchanan

The Equivalence of Slavery and Abortion

In order to condone slavery, you must dehumanize the slaves…render them either not human at all or not fully human.  Similarly, in order to condone abortion, we must completely dehumanize the infant in the womb.  The two crimes are equally abhorrent, yet at least the slaves were given, in most cases, life, family, food, shelter, and occupation.  The aborted unborn are given a horrible death in a cold, metal trash bin.

More text and video

Father Pavone explains why abortion is really a civil rights issue

Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, addressing the recent (July 16) Couples for Christ National Pro Life Summit, in Chicago, delivered an inspiring, well informed and thoroughly Catholic speech to hundreds of attendees, who also got to hear from a number of other prominent pro-life leaders. (For more about this event, click here.)

Father Frank spoke of many things, but one particular comment, explaining how the issues of slavery, abortion, and civil rights are inextricably linked, was particularly noteworthy. To paraphrase this great pro-life activist and defender of human rights:

Many women seem to think (and many men apparently agree) that the fetus is the property of the woman, and she has a right to do with it, whatever she wishes.

I thought we had resolved that issue (the ownership of one human being, by another) a long time ago!

Blatant violations of human rights, freedom of conscience and religion in Pakistan

Catholic woman kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, and worse…

The little known Divine Law that predates all others is also the key to our salvation in Christ.

(Click on graphic to enlarge)

From the Catechism:

407 The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man’s situation and activity in the world. By our first parents’ sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free. Original sin entails “captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had the power of death, that is, the devil”. Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social and morals.

So it was that Satan gained control over the whole world and certain dominion over man. The entire process was, in a technical sense, legal but it certainly wasn’t right. God wasn’t pleased, either. Here, we learn of Satan’s destiny:

Genesis 3:14 – 15 And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

The most important part (for us, at least) is the last line, where God speaks of a woman; the seed (offspring) of the woman and the head of the serpent being crushed by the woman’s heel (many texts translate this verse as HE shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for HIS heel). Either way, the Catholic Church has always interpreted this verse to be God’s first promise of a Redeemer or Messiah. One who would come and restore all things; forgive sins, heal the rift between God and man, reinstate man’s dominion over the world and finally, put Satan in his place (hell) forever.

For a number of reasons, sending a Redeemer would not be easy, even for God. In fact, thousands of years would elapse before the exact time, place, and circumstances for Messiah would come. Complicating matters still further, only one person in the entire universe was qualified for the job.

Galatians 4:4 – 5 But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons.

A Baptist waxes eloquently on the matters of slavery and abortion

In these two great blights in our nation, a common pattern emerges. First, one group in power decides its needs are greater than the rights of others. The powerful thus dominate the powerless. In the 19th century it was the white slave owner dominating the black slave. In the next two centuries, it has been those who are born dominating the helpless unborn.

The rationale for the domination of a group of people is the needs of the dominant. For slave owners, it was economic need. For those who participate in abortions, it is a need for convenience. In order to justify this domination, the helpless are given new labels to dehumanize them. They are thus called slaves or the “n-word.” Or they are called tissue or fetuses. They must be identified as something less than human or the actions cannot be justified.

Finally, the dehumanization of a people becomes a right of another group. The right to hold men, women and children in the bondage of slavery is called owners’ rights and states’ rights. The right to kill the unborn is called reproductive rights.

Read more

Blacks aborting blacks: Abortion kills more than 300,000 black people every year.

A representative of Life Always, Marissa Gabrysch, says her group, which paid for the billboard, is trying to draw attention to the fact that abortions kill 300,000 black unborn children annually.

“There’s a grave disparity and just a huge disproportion that African-Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population yet represent 36 percent of abortions in the United States,” she told NBC NY. African-Americans are claimed in abortions twice as frequently as they lose their lives to violent crimes, AIDS, cancer, heart disease and motor vehicle accidents combined.

Life Always board member Pastor Stephen Broden told the Catholic News Agency: “During Black History Month, we celebrate our history, but our future is in jeopardy as a genocidal plot is carried out through abortion. We have seen the heartbreaking effects of opportunists who happen to be black abortionists perpetrating this atrocity; it’s not just babies who are in danger, it’s also their mothers, and our society at large.”

Read more

The problem with abortion

Dred Scott declared that human persons with black skin were not actually human persons, but only 3/5 human. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis decided that human persons who were of Jewish heritage were not actually human persons, but some kind of pest or rodent that needed exterminating. Roe v. Wade pronounced that human persons who were in the first nine months of their human development were not human persons unless their mother decided they were.

Read more

Hello God. Nice to Meet Ya!

God has a Holy Name and He wants you to know it.

Sometime around the year 1500 BC the great prophet, Moses, was tending sheep in the Midian desert when he came across a bush that seemed to be on fire but wasn’t being consumed.

The “Burning Bush” then spoke, explaining to Moses the initial details of his mission to free the Israelites from slavery.

Amazed by this unexpected turn of events, Moses still had the good sense to ask, “What will I say to the people when they ask who sent me to them?” At that, the One, True God of all creation revealed His Holy Name to Moses.

Read more (and pay particular attention to the above illustration)

Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

As many know, there once was a great boxer named Cassius Clay. He converted to Islam in 1964, seemingly bothered that Jesus was portrayed as “a white with blond hair and blue eyes,” as he put it, and took the name “Muhammad Ali.” Of course, the irony of this is that despite being intensely aware of his slave roots, Ali rejected the name of an abolitionist (Clay) and took the name of a slave-owner (Muhammad). It also perhaps eluded him that Christians were the first ones to outlaw slavery, while Muslims give black Africans rope and chains to this day.

But I mention this because Ali’s path is a common one in the black community; it is why we’ve long had the Black Muslims and why Islamic names are so common among American blacks. Many blacks have bought the bill of goods that Christianity is the white man’s religion, the faith of oppressors. And they embrace Islam as part of a rejection of “white” society.

Obviously, being part of this milieu could only have reinforced Obama’s affinity for things Muslim and antipathy for things authentically Christian — of which Western civilization is one. And if Americans hadn’t been brainwashed with political correctness, they would understand this. With foreign and domestic Muslim influence; attendance at a Black Liberation Theology, pseudo-Christian church; and alliances with ex-terrorists and declared communists, Obama perfectly fits the profile of an America-hater.

Read more

Haiti cannot be understood apart from the voodoo that is everywhere. And Haitian voodoo is like nothing else in the world.

Modern voodoo traces back to the arrival of the first slaves to the former French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in the second half of the 17th century. These slaves were predominately from the empire of Dahomey — a region that is today comprised of Benin, Togo, and Nigeria. By the late 1700s, there were nearly 500,000 slaves in the French colony.

Sold into servitude by their own people, most were believed to be criminals and prisoners of war. Others were tribal priests “that resisted the total reign of the monarchy over the empire’s religious life,” writes Shannon Turlington, author of Voodoo. These holy men brought their religion to Haiti. And it caught fire. Religion was the one thing the masters couldn’t take from their slaves. Continuing the tribal worship was the one link they had to the lives they led before they were taken. Over time, though, the rites evolved and combined, as the various tribal groups mixed and merged with one another. In Secrets of Voodoo, Milo Rigaud notes, “The result of such tribal fusion was that two different groups more or less combined their beliefs, thereby creating in the new slave community a voodoo rite, which to this day is not ‘pure.'”

Read more

… today, half of all black children are aborted.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A Republican member of Congress has released a new video showing him talking about the status of abortion in the United States. Rep. Trent Franks, an Arizona republican, is generating controversy by saying that abortion has been more devastating for the black community than slavery.

Franks, who has sponsored legislation responding to the high rate of abortions in the African-American community, released his comments to liberal blogger Mike Stark.

“In this country, we had slavery for God knows how long,” Frank says. Nowadays, he says Americans look back and ask about society for allowing it: “What was the matter with them? You know, I can’t believe, you know, four million slaves. It is a crushing mark on America’s soul.”

“And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted,” Franks continues.

“Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery. And I think, What does it take to get us to wake up?” he adds.

Read more

The reason for our joy: Christmas is proof that God always keeps his promises

by Doug Lawrence

The first thing God did after Adam fell from grace was call a meeting. (That probably explains why meetings have always seemed like a form of punishment, to many of us.)

The Old Testament Bible Book of Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 15, duly records the promise God made to Adam at that meeting … the promise of a redeemer … who would one day come to repair the damage that had been done … something that Adam could never hope to accomplish on his own.

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

Until that day, all of mankind would remain enslaved to Satan, sin, and death … except for the Virgin Mary, who was, by special privilege of God, conceived without sin, in order to make it possible for her to become the mother of our holy Savior, Jesus Christ. (That’s also why the above Bible verse has both a decidedly masculine as well as feminine “sense” to it.)

When Almighty God sets out to fulfill a promise, there’s nothing in the universe that can stop him … hence the joyous and absolutely confident proclamation of the angels, on that first Christmas.

Luke 2:10-14 And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people: For, this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will.

As we all know, within the space of some thirty-three short years, that mild babe in the manger went on to perfectly fulfill all the prophecies and promises that God had ever made, concerning him … destroying Satan’s evil dominion, reconciling sinful mankind, opening the gates of Heaven, and permanently establishing the Kingdom of God, on the Earth.

Thanks to Christ, the state of war that had existed between Satan dominated sinful mankind and God was over. From that day forward, God’s grace would trump sin and death, while Satan, the former slave master and undisputed “Prince of this World” would remain a tragic, desperate fugitive on earth, (much like the late Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein, who spent his last days cowering in an underground “spider hole” until justice finally caught up with him.)

Now (and forever) Jesus reigns
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Merry Christmas!