Manage Account

<p>As a convert from the <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/jehovahs-witnesses-an-insider-perspective">Jehovah’s Witnesses</a>, I initially had several problems with the rosary. I was hesitant to address petitions to the <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/mary-mother-of-whom">Mother of God</a>, for one thing, and I also had reservations about repetition—at what point did they become “<a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/its-not-vain-to-repeat-your-prayers">vain</a>,” as warned about by Our Lord (Matt. 6:7)? With the help of Catholic Answers and other resources for converts, however, I soon overcame my trepidation and gave it a try.</p>
<p>Even so, it took a while for the rosary to “click.” I took much more quickly to things like <em>lectio divina</em> and mental prayer. Nevertheless, the tradition of the Church is filled with admonition on the importance and effectiveness of the rosary, and so I’ve tried to maintain a faithfulness to it despite my struggles.</p>
<p><strong>In recent years, I feel like the sweetness of the rosary</strong> has finally started to filter into my heart, especially that of the Glorious Mysteries, which are a brilliant summation of salvation. I would like to expound upon that here.</p>
<p>The First Glorious Mystery is the resurrection of Christ. Apart from this being the central proof of our faith, its cosmic significance is breathtaking. The Author of Life and the Ground of Life here enters death, where disobedience and sin had plunged all creation. Think about it: we had created, with the devil’s help, something somehow “separate” from God: a space of dysfunction and decay. And in the midst of our captivity to this awful fate, seemingly untouchable by the deathless Almighty God, comes God’s masterstroke beyond our comprehension: he will follow his lost sheep wherever they have strayed, even into the abyss that exists only as a rejection of him. And what happens? Death is exploded, and Hades is emptied of its faithful prisoners. God, who was already all in all and in all places, has now, in a most wondrous, tangible way, filled his creation and triumphed over even our rejection of him. The Resurrection is the destruction of the last enemy, death (1 Cor. 15:26).</p>
<p>The Second Glorious Mystery is the ascension of Christ. The risen, glorified Christ, still immortally bearing his battle scars, which will remain as a precious testament to his victory, bears his triumphant humanity up through the celestial realms. He ascends in full view of the inhabitants of heaven, with a trumpet blast, heralding that the battle to end all battles is won (Ps. 47:5). He takes his seat at the right hand of God, and there enthroned inaugurates the reconciliation of heaven and earth in his own person. He has tied the cosmos back together and paved the highway to heaven. No one was there to help, least of all we. He has accomplished this himself, and in himself (Isa. 63:3-5).</p>
<p>The Third Glorious Mystery is the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Though accomplished in heaven, how is the marriage of heaven and earth to be realized here in our world, where darkness still reigns? As Christ said, the Helper, the Paraclete, God the Holy and Life-Giving Spirit, would be sent among us. Accordingly, though scared and confused, the rudiments of Christ’s Church were filled with courage and power that Pentecost morning.</p>
<p>The Holy Spirit makes real, present, and manifest the victory won by Christ on the cross for those who are still on the way. This is our access to power over death and sin; this is the antidote given to the faithful for the healing of the world. The Holy Spirit fills the Church, and her sacraments then spill like springs of water over the parched surface of the earth.</p>
<p>The Fourth Glorious Mystery is the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Now we move into the mysteries dealing specifically with the Mother of God. They are important firstly because they reveal God’s glorious work in Mary, the human race’s greatest boast, but also because they highlight the spiritual trail she blazed for mankind as a participant in these mysteries. She, as our sinless exemplar and patroness, goes before us and then beckons us forth: into the light of sinlessness through her immaculate conception, into a share of Christ’s sufferings as Queen of Martyrs, and here as all-holy vessel of God’s grace, raised body and soul into his presence before all others. She is the prototype: flesh and blood made stainless ark of God, now saved from corruption and sharing fully in the victory of her son. Our bodies rest in hope as we similarly await the fullness of our redemption (Ps. 16:9).</p>
<p>The Fifth Glorious Mystery is the coronation of Our Lady as queen of heaven and earth. The mother of God is the singular vessel of devotion, the most spacious cup filled to overflowing with the gifts of God. No other mortal could ever hope to attain to her sanctity, willed so completely as it is by God. Rightly, she is given dominion as the queen mother over all creation. Yet once again she points us to the levels of participation in Christ that emanate down from his throne: those roles of priest, prophet, and king. Though she is queen of all, we will also reign. Even the least among us was called by God to dominion over some corner of creation, to tend and govern it by his permission and in his power. The realization of our salvation is also the realization of this lofty charge to tenderly shepherd that which is under our care. The fifth mystery points us toward the final manifestation of the power unlocked by Christ for us in his cross and resurrection: authority over reality. The God of inexhaustible self-giving will share his royal dominion with us.</p>
<p><strong>The Glorious Mysteries have become my favorites.</strong> They’re a <em>tour de force</em> of the wonders of our faith and a storehouse from which hope can endlessly flow. May we imitate what they contain and, by our august queen’s intercession, obtain what they promise!</p>

The Glory of the Glorious Mysteries

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<p>“Why can’t I, as a Christian, simply choose the beliefs I think are right? Why should anybody else tell me what I should believe?”</p>
<p><strong>DEFENSE</strong></p>
<p>This may be an attractive proposition in our individualistic age, but it wasn’t Jesus’ view.</p>
<p>If you’re going to be a Christian, that means listening to Jesus Christ, and he set up a Church, not a cafeteria. We aren’t allowed to pick and choose our beliefs like we pick and choose dishes in a serving line.</p>
<p>This is evident from the way Jesus teaches. In the Sermon on the Mount, he repeatedly takes on common interpretations of Jewish law and corrects them by his own authority, using the formula, “You have heard . . . but I say . . .” (Matt. 5:21–22, 27–28, 31–32, 33–34, 38–39, 43–44). The authority with which he taught was remarkable even in his own day: “The crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28–29; cf. Mark 1:22, Luke 4:32).</p>
<p>Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. His teaching is backed by divine authority—“My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me” (John 7:16)—and one is not a faithful Christian if one rejects what Christ taught. That has implications, because Christ did not keep this authority to himself. He gave teaching authority to the ministers he put in charge of his Church, telling them: “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16).</p>
<p>He further promised them, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13), and he declared: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt. 28:18–20).</p>
<p>Jesus thus invested his Church with the authority to teach until the end of the world, and if we want to be Jesus’ followers, we cannot simply pick and choose our own beliefs.</p>
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Cafeteria Christianity

<p>Some Protestants believe that the Catholic Church is not just spiritually dangerous—it’s also a threat to the liberty (and even the lives!) of those who challenge its authority. Fringe fundamentalists like Jack Chick have peddled all kinds of lurid conspiracies, one of my favorites being that “the name of every Protestant church member in the world” <a href="/magazine/print-edition/meet-jack-chick">is kept</a> in a “big computer” in the Vatican for future persecutions. And even though most Protestants won’t go that far down the rabbit hole, many are quick to share claims of historical atrocities committed by Catholics.</p>
<p>“Appeals to atrocity” might be good at raising people’s blood pressure, but they aren’t good at raising the level of discourse between Catholics and Protestants. That’s because they suffer from logical and factual flaws—the same flaws we see when we examine similar atheistic appeals to atrocity made against Christianity and religion in general.</p>
<p><strong>In online discourse, you often hear people say things like</strong>, “Religion is the cause of most wars.” Richard Dawkins <a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-god-delusion_richard-dawkins/248257/item/27968715/?mkwid=%7cdc&amp;pcrid=77172150940733&amp;pkw=&amp;pmt=be&amp;slid=&amp;product=27968715&amp;plc=&amp;pgrid=1234751854563929&amp;ptaid=pla-4580771612621121&amp;utm_source=bing&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=Shopping+-+Low+Vol+Scarce+-+%2410+-+%2450&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=%7cdc%7cpcrid%7c77172150940733%7cpkw%7c%7cpmt%7cbe%7cproduct%7c27968715%7cslid%7c%7cpgrid%7c1234751854563929%7cptaid%7cpla-4580771612621121%7c&amp;msclkid=f1694a71166412504adc2eebc023cd0b#isbn=1784161926&amp;idiq=27968715">references</a> “the immense power of religion, and especially the religious upbringing of children, to divide people and foster historic enmities and hereditary vendettas” (257). Other critics say that just Christianity has uniquely contributed to historical violence. The late atheist Christopher Hitchens <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/God_Is_Not_Great.html?id=8kgjU4wbM5oC">claimed</a> that violence was so essential to Christianity that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s commitment to non-violence meant he wasn’t really a Christian (176).</p>
<p>Indeed, we don’t have to go far into history to find accounts of Protestants killing Catholics. This was fairly common in England after the Reformation in episodes like the execution of eighteen priests at the “massacre of Michelade” or the Carthusian monks who were drawn and quartered because they refused to recognize Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church. Protestants have also used violence against other Protestants—for example, the sixteenth-century Anabaptists who said most believers do not possess valid baptisms. The Lutheran theologian Philip Melanchthon published a pamphlet about the Anabaptists, signed by Luther, <a href="https://archive.org/details/historyofgermanp10jansuoft">concluding</a> that, in some cases, “the stubborn sectaries must be put to death” (222-223).*</p>
<p>There are other evils committed by Protestants, too—like Luther’s anti-Semitism and Southern Baptist involvement in the slave trade. Such examples are why atheists would say that Protestants can’t avoid appeals to atrocity by pinning the blame on Catholics. They have to explain their own shameful historical episodes, and in doing so, they leave themselves open to those same defenses being used against anti-Catholic appeals to atrocity.</p>
<p><strong>Now let’s examine the flaws in appeals to atrocity.</strong> First, there is a <em>logical flaw </em>in these kinds of arguments. Even if it were true that Catholicism, Christianity, or religion in general uniquely contributed to violence, that wouldn’t prove that those belief systems were false.</p>
<p>Consider the common yet false claim that religion has been the cause of most wars. The comedian George Carlin once quipped that “more people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason.” But The Encyclopedia of Wars <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Encyclopedia_of_Wars.html?id=1ghxQgAACAAJ">classifies</a> only about 120 out of over 2,000 armed conflicts (or about 7 percent) as “religious wars” (vol. 3, 1484-1485). It turns out that most conflicts in human history involve disputes over resources rather than dogma and are fueled by nationalist pride rather than religious zeal.</p>
<p>Let’s focus on one of those primary causes of war: disputed claims of ownership regarding resources like land. Fighting to reclaim certain lands assumes the truth of the belief that land can be owned. Now, some people might believe that it is never legitimate to have things like borders or sovereign states, but that controversial claim wouldn’t be proven just because large groups of people have frequently fought over land rights. In other words, fighting over a thing doesn’t make that thing illegitimate.</p>
<p>Similarly, many jealous spouses throughout history have killed adulterers because of their passionate belief that marriage is a sexually exclusive relationship. Such acts of violence, however, don’t prove that their belief in monogamy is bad or wrong. Those murderers’ belief in monogamy could be exactly right, even though their actions done in the name of that belief were wrong.</p>
<p>The same is true for religion. That people have, over history, viewed religious beliefs as something important enough to fight over does not prove that those beliefs, or religious beliefs in general, are false or bad.</p>
<p>Then there is the factual problem with these claims. Appeals to atrocity often rely on exaggerated body counts and shoddy historical inferences that claim that one group or idea was uniquely responsible for violence. For instance, the claim that Catholics (and/or Christians, depending on whom you ask) killed 50-68 million people during the Inquisition is laughable, given that 25 million Europeans died during the fourteenth-century bubonic plague (or “the Black Death”), a devasting number that constituted one-third of Europe’s population. The Inquisition’s activities were well recorded, and reputable scholars give much lower numbers. Historian Edward Peters <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520066304/inquisition">says</a>, “The best estimate is that around 3,000 death sentences were carried out in Spain by Inquisitorial verdict between 1550 and 1800, a far smaller number than that in contemporary secular courts” (87). Even thoughtful Protestants like Greg Koukl <a href="https://www.christianbook.com/tactics-discussing-christian-convictions-anniversary-edition/gregory-koukl/9780310101468/pd/0101468">can recognize</a> when an appeal to atrocity against Catholicism defies common sense—“let’s just say this seems highly unlikely” (182).</p>
<p><strong>Vilifying Catholicism because of the violence its representatives inflicted</strong> upon heretics in the post-Reformation period is not at all different from the atheistic tactic of vilifying the Jewish/Christian God because the Bible records his followers executing heretics. Moses, for instance, ordered anyone who worshiped the golden calf to be put to death (Exod. 32:27-29). Steve Wells, author of the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, <a href="https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/ex/16.html">says</a>, “When the people complain to Moses, he tells them they aren’t complaining about him, but about God, making them apostates and heretics, and therefore deserve severe punishment. Religious leaders have used this tactic ever since.”</p>
<p>In their critique of religion, atheists like to bring up episodes of Catholic and Protestant intolerance, including the time when John Calvin executed the Spanish theologian Michael Servetus because he denied the Trinity.</p>
<p>So if it’s true that the Bible can be the word of God even if people used it to justify evil practices that would no longer be acceptable today, then the Catholic Church can be the custodian of God’s revelation even if it provided some people with the rationale to engage in practices that are no longer acceptable today. The Catechism says this about the use of violence in Church history:</p>
<blockquote><p>In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices led to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors (2298).</p></blockquote>
<p>When comparing competing worldviews, we should reject the ghoulish standard of simply asking, “Who killed the most people?” We should also condemn the reduction of a complex worldview to stereotypes that make for easy “gotcha moments” like the amoral atheist, the violent Muslim, the money-grubbing televangelist, and the pedophilic priest. We should instead critically examine the content of the worldviews behind these stereotypes to see if violence is an unfortunate deviation from those beliefs or a natural product of them.</p>

How Many People Did the Catholic Church Kill?

I have trouble with Marian dogmas because I believe they contradict the bible. The Assumption of Mary is never mentioned in scripture. How can Mary be sinless if the bible says that all have sinned and have fallen short.

I’m going to leave Orthodoxy for either High Church Anglican or Catholicism. What advice do you have for me?

I’ve studied Catholicism as a Protestant for years now. Does the Holy Spirit leave you when you commit a mortal sin and get the Holy Spirit back when you repent?

I grew up protestant and was taught that worshipping idols is wrong. Praying to the dead seems wrong.

<p>&#8220;Choosing Anglican or Catholic &#8221; This episode explores the complexities of Marian dogmas and their biblical foundations, addressing concerns about the Assumption of Mary and the concept of sinlessness. Additionally, we delve into the journey from Orthodoxy to Catholicism and the implications of mortal sin on the Holy Spirit, along with the topic of idolatry in worship practices.</p>
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Choosing Anglican or Catholic – Why Aren’t You Catholic?

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<p><strong>DAY 166</strong></p>
<p><strong>CHALLENGE</strong></p>
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<p>“God is simply an exalted man. The Bible says we are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26–27), and it refers to the strong right arm</p>
<p>of God (Deut. 4:34), his all-seeing eyes (Prov. 15:3), and so on.”</p>
<p><strong>DEFENSE</strong></p>
<p>Scripture is clear that God and man are fundamentally different.</p>
<p>Mormonism is known for teaching that God and man are the same species. Mormons frequently use the couplet, “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.”</p>
<p>By contrast, Scripture states: “God is not a man” (Num. 23:19), “he is not a man” (1 Sam. 15:29).</p>
<p>God has always been God; he was never a man: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God” (Ps. 90:2).</p>
<p>There are no other gods. In Isaiah, God declares: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (Isa. 44:6). He also states: “Is there a God besides me? . . . I know not any” (Isa. 44:8).</p>
<p>Similarly, men do not become gods. In Isaiah, God states: “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me” (Isa. 43:10).</p>
<p>The “image” of God that Genesis 1 says we bear is an aspect of our rational soul, which separates us from the animals, which God created in the same chapter.</p>
<p>References to God’s strong arm, his eyes, and such, are metaphors referring to God’s power and knowledge. They are not to be taken literally any more than Scripture’s references to God having feathers and wings (“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge,” Ps. 91:4).</p>
<p>Other verses make the immaterial nature of God clear. In John 4:24 Jesus teaches, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Elsewhere he notes, “a spirit has not flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39).</p>
<p>There is a difference between being a spirit and having a spirit. Jesus indicates that the Father is a spirit, not that he merely has one. This means that the Father lacks a body and is entirely spiritual.</p>
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God as an Exalted Man

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Did the Early Church believe in Sola Scriptura?

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<p><strong><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'segoe ui', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'helvetica neue', sans-serif;">DAY 65</span></strong></p>
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<p>“If God is outside of time and knows everything that we’re going to do, then we don’t have free will.”</p>
<p><strong>DEFENSE</strong></p>
<p>Knowing about an event does not mean causing it. God can know about things people choose without depriving them of free will.</p>
<p>It’s true that God is outside of time and knows both our past and future choices, but this does not determine them.</p>
<p>Consider: You know about many events in the past—in your personal history, your family history, and world history. But your knowledge did not force any of them to happen. They occurred, for whatever reason, and you just happen to know about them.</p>
<p>Some occurred because of the choices of others. For example, your father may have chosen to enter a particular trade. But your knowledge of his trade does not reach back in time and force him to make this choice. It doesn’t deprive him of free will.</p>
<p>You might object that we are talking about the past, but the same applies to the present and the future. Suppose that you know of a place where, right now, someone is singing a song. Your knowledge does not force the person to sing.</p>
<p>Or suppose that you are standing on top of a building, and you see two cars about to collide in the street below. Your knowledge of what is about to happen does not cause it. The choices of the drivers were what led to the accident.</p>
<p>Whether we are talking about the past, the present, or the future, knowledge of an event does not force it to happen or deprive those involved of free will.</p>
<p>Neither does God’s knowledge of events. God dwells in an eternal now outside of time. All times are equally present to him, and he knows what people choose to do in those times, but his knowledge of what people choose does not make their choices unfree any more than our knowledge of their choices does.</p>
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God’s Eternity, Knowledge, and Free Will

<div>Is the kiss of peace an optional part of the Mass—i.e., may the priest remove it without violating any Church law?</div><div><p>Yes, the sign of peace is optional, based on the discretion of the priest celebrant at Mass, whose directive should be followed by the faithful gathered. The <em>General Instruction of the Roman Missal</em> (GIRM) states that the priest celebrant asks the congregation to exchange the sign of peace &#8220;when appropriate&#8221; (GIRM 154). When the GIRM describes a Mass with a deacon (181), it repeats this language by stating the deacon asks the congregation to exchange the sign of peace &#8220;if it is appropriate.&#8221;</p>
<p>It is therefore at the discretion of the priest celebrant whether it is appropriate at a particular Mass to exchange the sign of peace. If a member of the faithful gathered for Mass has health concerns and thus doesn&#8217;t want to shake hands to convey Christ&#8217;s peace to a nearby brother or sister in Christ, he should still comply with the directive of the priest celebrant (or deacon) by turning and wishing Christ&#8217;s peace to those near him through a simple and sincere <em>oral</em> greeting (see John 14:27).</p>
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The Kiss of Peace Is Optional

I come from a protestant family and am about to start OCIA. The obstacle I find is explaining the intercession of saints to my family.

I struggle with not being able to consume from the chalice. Why does only the priest consume from the chalice?

When does Intercessory prayer become a superstitious tradition?

How do I approach my fallen away Catholic friend about returning to the Church?

<p>&#8220;Can saints intercede for us?&#8221; This episode delves into the role of saints in prayer and tradition, addressing common concerns such as explaining intercession to Protestant family members and understanding why only the priest consumes from the chalice. We also explore the line between intercessory prayer and superstition, along with tips for inviting fallen-away Catholics back to the Church.</p>
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When Can Prayer to Saints Become Superstitious?

<p>Joe Heschmeyer, author of <a href="https://shop.catholic.com/pope-peter-defending-the-churchs-most-distinctive-doctrine-in-a-time-of-crisis-digital/"><em>Pope Peter &#8211; Defending the Church&#8217;s Most Distinctive Doctrine in a Time of Crisis</em></a>, is back with more help explaining how to deal with the modern papacy. In this episode, we talk about talkative popes and the proper way to disagree with them when what they say seems out of bounds.</p>

How to Disagree with the Pope

<p>In this special Catholic Answers Live episode, Cy Kellett interviews Dr. Jacob Imam—convert from Islam, founder of New Polity and the College of St. Joseph the Worker. They discuss Catholic education, political renewal, and building institutions rooted in Catholic social teaching.</p>
<p>To watch the entire episode visit the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0WwundQWb8">Cy Kellett Show YouTube Channel</a></p>
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From Islam to Catholicism – Interview with Dr. Jacob Imam

<div>Jskh1993 q1: how was the skull of Jesus pierced when none of his bones were broken?</div><div><p>You ask a worthwhile question, given that Jesus’ head was undoubtedly wounded by his crown of thorns (John 19:2-5; Matt. 27:27-31), and yet John 19:36 conveys that none of Jesus’ bones were broken, because he is the New Covenant fulfillment of the Passover lamb (see Exodus 12).</p>
<p>However, one’s head can be wounded significantly without one’s skull being broken. Consider a concussion, even a severe one that knocks a person out. There is not necessarily an associated  fracture of the skull. In addition, the skin of the scalp is the thickest on the human body, meaning it can be pierced and experience great trauma without the skull/bone beneath it being fractured. The scalp has <a href="https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/834808-overview">five layers</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalp_reconstruction">with the skin being the thickest</a>.</p>
<p>In this light, Christ experienced great head trauma in his Passion, and it’s possible his skull may have been bruised, but definitely not broken as Scripture makes clear.</p>
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Did the Crown of Thorns Break Jesus’ Skull?

<div>Did the Freemasons evolve from the Knights Templar?</div><div><p>There is no historical connection between the <a href="https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/knights-templars">Templars</a> and the <a href="https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/masonry">Freemasons</a>. These entities are centuries apart and share no common foundation. It is true that the accusations against the Templars outlined in the decrees of the Ecumenical Council of Vienne sound a lot like some the accusations commonly made against the Masons, but surely the Masons are not interested in that connection.</p>
<p>What the Freemasons want to do is to identify with those whom they hold were mistreated by the Catholic Church and to spread teachings against the integrity and authority of the Church, and that is why they try to co-opt the Templar name.</p>
<p>Read more: <a href="https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-does-the-church-say-about-freemasonry">What Does the Church Say about Freemasonry?</a></p>
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Are Freemasons Related to the Knights Templar?

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<p><strong>DAY 366</strong></p>
<p><strong>CHALLENGE</strong></p>
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<p>“This book doesn’t include my objection to the Faith!”</p>
<p><strong>DEFENSE</strong></p>
<p>A single book can only do so much. Therefore, let me recommend some more resources that may help.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Handbook of Catholic Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli: This is an excellent survey of the general evidences for the Christian faith, written by a pair of scholars who communicate in a manner easily accessible to all.</li>
<li>Scaling the Secular City by J.P. Moreland: This was one of the first apologetic books I read when I began studying the field. Dr. Moreland is an outstanding scholar who carries the discussion to a level satisfying for those who want to go deeper.</li>
<li>Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis: This is another popular-level work that covers the basics of why one should choose to be a Christian, written by one of the greatest Christian authors of the twentieth century.</li>
<li>Miracles by C.S. Lewis: The topic of miracles and how they relate to science is one of the most misunderstood subjects in apologetics. This book contains valuable insights.</li>
<li>Hard Sayings by Trent Horn: There are many books about passages of the Bible that are difficult to accept for one reason or another. Trent’s book is written from a Catholic perspective and takes advantage of the current state of magisterial thinking.</li>
<li>The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin: As we’ve seen in this book, the Church Fathers are an important witness to the teaching of Christ and the apostles. My own book on the subject shows what they taught on numerous subjects and how this corresponds to the teaching of the Church today.</li>
<li>The Drama of Salvation by Jimmy Akin: One of the most sensitive subjects between Protestants and Catholics is how we are saved. This book discusses the subject in what I hope is a calm and constructive manner.
<p>I hope these recommendations help. God loves you; may he reward your further studies and bless you richly!</p>
<p>Your pal,</p>
<p>—Jimmy Akin</p></li>
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What This Book Doesn’t Cover

Questions About Mary (Encore)

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<p><strong>DAY 218</strong></p>
<p><strong>CHALLENGE</strong></p>
<p>“Christians are a bunch of hypocrites.”</p>
<p><strong>DEFENSE</strong></p>
<p>Yes. And?</p>
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<p>Consciousness of the fact that we don’t think and act the way we should is a human universal. So is the desire for others to think well of us. Everyone wishes to save face and, at one time or another, either shades the truth or flat out lies to appear better than he is. This makes hypocrisy another human universal, and it applies to Christians and everyone else.</p>
<p>When confronted with the fact that we don’t live up to our moral standards, we have several options. One—which is not good at all—is to abandon our standards. Reviewing them to make sure they are correct is one thing, but tossing them aside so we can indulge in im- moral behavior is another. It also will not work in the long run, for we cannot escape the moral law written on our hearts. We can only temporarily suppress it.</p>
<p>A second choice—also not good—is to pretend we are better than we are. This is the option of hypocrisy. It is not good because it’s an offense against the truth. Hypocrisy is a form of lying—specifically, lying about our own behavior, using either words or deceptive actions (CCC 2483). Hypocrisy is also risky, because in the long run the truth tends to be found out, and people will see you for the hypocrite you are. For Christians, hypocrisy takes on added gravity because it can push people away from God (Rom. 2:23–24).</p>
<p>The third choice—and the only good one—is the hardest. It means maintaining our moral standards, being honest about the fact that we don’t live up to them and seeking God’s grace to do better in the future. This doesn’t mean telling everyone everything we’ve done wrong (CCC 2489). Frequently, it is none of their concern, and in some situations knowing could even hurt them (e.g., marriages can be harmed by a naive and imprudent sharing of information about one’s sexual failings). However, it does mean being humble and willing to admit the fact that we are sinners.</p>
<p>Christians may share the universal inclination to hypocrisy, but that doesn’t mean Christianity is false. Christianity teaches that we are all sinners. The good news is that there is mercy, even for hypocrites like us.</p>
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Christian Hypocrisy

<p class="p1">One of the most common objections to the idea of hell is that it&#8217;s incompatible with the idea that God is both all-powerful and all-loving. But is that the case? To answer this, we need to reconsider what we mean about God, heaven and hell, and goodness.</p>

Is Hell Consistent with the Idea of a Loving God?

<p>It’s almost Valentines Day so what better topic than how to keep marriages together! Trent and Leila discuss the culture of divorce outside and inside the Church and her upcoming book Impossible Marriages Redeemed.</p>

Overcoming the Culture of Divorce (with Leila Miller)

<p>In a world where one man had to pick a great topic for free-for-all-Friday, he chose the secrets behind our favorite commercials for upcoming films.</p>