Month: October 2004

For Catholics to take a “pro-choice” view toward abortion contradicts our identity and makes us complicit in how the choice plays out. The “choice” in abortion always involves the choice to end the life of an unborn human being. For anyone who sees this fact clearly, neutrality, silence or private disapproval are not options. They are evils almost as grave as abortion itself. If religious believers do not advance their convictions about public morality in public debate, they are demonstrating not tolerance but cowardice.

The civil order has its own sphere of responsibility, and its own proper autonomy, apart from the church or any other religious community. But civil authorities are never exempt from moral engagement and criticism, either from the church or its members. The founders themselves realized this.

Continue reading “No Such Thing as Separation of Church and Politics” →

Several nights ago, I was attending a committee meeting which was being addressed by the Superintendent of the Castleberry school district. The Superintendent was addressing a possible bond election, which some believe is desperately needed to improve the schools. He was asked what could be done to facilitate the passing of the bond issue.

His answer was very interesting in that he stated that the school could do nothing to ensure the passage of the bond issue. The school system is relegated, by law, to educational issues. It can’t get involved in politics. Continue reading “Let’s Meet at the Church!” →

• (Note: This article was written in reference to a sermon on Sanctification which had as its application the necessity of a child of God, who has been sanctified by God, to live a life of consecration and holiness. SC)

My sermon last Sunday morning, on Sanctification, was very well received. I appreciate so much the willingness of all to listen carefully, and receive the words spoken. There are many places where such a lesson would not have been well received. The brethren here are to be commended when they hear the truth, and respond so well.

What I speak of is initial response. No doubt the principles established from God’s word touched a cord in many hearts. Continue reading “The Call to Holiness” →

Below is an exchange from last Friday night’s presidential debate between Senator John Kerry and President George Bush. In the exchange we have a statement from the moderator, a question from a citizen, and the beginning portion of Kerry’s response to the question:

GIBSON: Going to go to the final two questions now, and the first one will be for Senator Kerry. And this comes from Sarah Degenhart.

DEGENHART: Senator Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person?

KERRY: I would say to that person exactly what I will say to you right now.

First of all, I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I’m a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.

But I can’t take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn’t share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can’t do that.

Analysis:

Actually, there is more reason to respect those who take the position that a fetus is not human, than the position stated by Senator Kerry and his ilk, as related in the quote.

Continue reading “Senator Kerry on Abortion” →

There will come a day ~ the day of Judgment ~ when every responsible person will give an account for himself before the Almighty God of heaven. Beyond that day of Judgment lies a never ending existence ~ an eternity. There are only two eternal abodes. One offers peace, the other offers eternal agony. This article is intended to note several facts about the place of eternal punishment, Hell. Continue reading “Some Facts About Hell” →

A study of the derivation of the greek word (gehenna) which is translated in our New Testaments as “hell” is very helpful toward understanding the abominable nature of that eternal torment. Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30). Continue reading “Gehenna (Hell)” →

An archaeological discovery in 1979 revealed that the Priestly Benediction, as the verse from Numbers 6:24-26 is called, appeared to be the earliest biblical passage ever found in ancient artifacts. Two tiny strips of silver, each wound tightly like a miniature scroll and bearing the inscribed words, were uncovered in a tomb outside Jerusalem and initially dated from the late seventh or early sixth century B.C. — some 400 years before the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.

But doubts persisted. The silver was cracked and corroded, and many words and not a few whole lines in the faintly scratched inscriptions were unreadable. Some critics contended that the artifacts were from the third or second century B.C., and thus of less importance in establishing the antiquity of religious concepts and language that became part of the Hebrew Bible.

So researchers at the University of Southern California have now re-examined the inscriptions using Space Age photographic and computer imaging techniques. The words still do not exactly leap off the silver. But the researchers said they could finally be “read fully and analyzed with far greater precision” and that they were indeed the earliest.

In a scholarly report published last month, the research team concluded that the improved reading of the inscriptions confirmed their greater antiquity. The script, the team wrote, is from the period just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent exile of Israelites in Babylonia.

Ft. Worth Star Telegram, October 2, 2004

Analysis:

Some modernists believe that the Old Testament is fiction, written in the 4th century B.C. by the inhabitants of Canaan who rose to power at that time. The claim is that the intent of those individuals was to give the new rulers a place in the history of that land, and thus give credence to their claims for power.

This inscription serves to illustrate the bias of these claims. The text is written in the ancient form of the Hebrew language, and as one expert noted, “‘The new research on the inscriptions suggests that that’s not true,’ (the claims of these modernists), Pitard said. In fact, the research team noted in its journal report that the improved images showed the seventh-century lines of the benediction to be ‘actually closer to the biblical parallels than previously recognized.'”