If you became an Atheist would you still say that, if the New Testament were true, the words cannot mean anything else except the Catholic interpretation?
Yes.
New Testament
53 articles from the existing collection.
Why did the Church withhold that honor from Mary for so long a time?
Since Mary always possessed that honor the Church did not withhold it from her. The definition that Mary did possess such an honor was given by the Church when necessity demanded it. There was no real dispute about this matter in the early Church. In the middle ages theologians attempted a deeper analysis of the privileges of Ma…
Old Testament teaching is barbaric in parts; not in keeping with the New Testament; nor would God inspire such a record of outrageous crimes.
Things were permitted in the Old Law not in keeping with the more perfect New Law. But the change is in the Law. There is nothing in the Old Testament which violates any attribute of God, save, of course, the sins of men described in the Old Testament. These latter are recorded, not with approval, but as evil to be reprehended, …
St. Paul says that One died for all, and therefore all were dead. II.Cor. V., 14.
Such texts must be interpreted in the light of other passages where God reveals that Mary was never under the dominion of Satan. Mary is included in these words of St. Paul juridically in so far as she was born of Adam, but she was not allowed to be born in sin to be afterwards redeemed. She was redeemed by prevention.
But even granted no real inconsistency in the numbers, there seems to be a great inconsistency as regards the names. Also, how could Jacob be the father of Joseph, as St. Matt. says; yet Heli be his father, according to St. Luke’s account?
Many scholars have replied that Jacob and Heli were half-brothers. Upon Heli’s death without issue, Jacob married his widow in accordance with the Levitical law to provide children to Heli. Joseph would thus be the natural son of Jacob, and the legal son of Heli. In this case, since St. Matt. gives the natural genealogy, and St.…
To prove Davidic descent both Matthew and Luke give the genealogy of Joseph, useless were not Joseph the father of Christ.
The genealogy of Joseph was that of Mary also. They were kinspeople of the same Davidic stock. The Jews as a rule counted their generations only in the male line, and such a generation alone would appeal to the Jews for whom Matthew above all wrote. The same St. Matthew records that the angel told Joseph that the child was conce…
The Gospel of Christ is simplicity itself.
In one way it is. It tells us clearly that Christ established a definite Church which He commissioned to teach all nations. It is very simple from this point of view, for men have but to accept the Catholic Church, and be taught by that Church. But the Gospel is not simplicity itself in the way you intend. Men have devoted their…
I do not mind admitting that the Gospels are historical. But you claim much more than that. You wish us to accept those books as the inspired Word of God. And if we accept the Gospels, we must accept the whole Bible as being the Word of God, for the New Testament quotes the Old Testament again and again as having the authority of God.
All that you say is true. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. There may be difficulties in the interpretation of the Bible, but the fact of its inspiration is certain.
You suppose, of course, the validity of your dogmas concerning the person and work of Christ.
Those dogmas are valid. I do not suppose their validity.
Might not Christ have been mistaken?
No sane man could so delude himself. Such an hallucination, being not temporary but permanent, would suppose in him a pathological state of insane enthusiasm. But Christ’s wisdom and balance of mind absolutely excludes this. His wisdom at the age of twelve astonished the doctors of the Law. The people were lost in admiration of …
You cannot deny His words9 “The Father is greater than I.”
I do not wish to do so. Christ was at once God and man. In His created human nature He had deliberately subjected Himself to God’s will. But, since in Him there was but the one personality, He had to use the personal pronoun “I,” whether referring to His divinity or to His humanity. If He referred to His divinity He wag equal to…
Did not St. Paul say, “I have laid the foundation .. .but let every man take care how he buildeth thereon”? I. Cor. III., 10.
St. Paul declares that he personally laid the foundations of a particular branch of the Church at Corinth. But Christ had founded the whole Church upon Peter. Each must take care how he builds, and St. Paul took care that the Church at Corinth would be in full accordance with the universal Church founded upon St. Peter. Anyone w…
Do the Gospels Meet the Standards of Historical Reliability?
The Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are the primary sources for the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, forming the cornerstone of Christian faith. To assess their historical reliability, one must consider the standards applied to ancient texts. Historical reliability hinges on factors like authorship, proximity to events,…
Did not St. Paul acknowledge the various individual churches of his time?
The churches to which St. Paul wrote were as much united as Catholics in London today are united in one Church with the Catholics in New York, Berlin, Italy, and Australia. Non-Catholics, however, are not united, have not held fast to the traditions, believe practically as they please, and have made shipwreck of the faith as wel…
St. John tells us, “Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection. In these the second death hath no power.” Rev. XX., 6.
The first resurrection is the mystical resurrection from the death of sin. We rise with Christ in Baptism, and those who die still retaining the grace of their baptismal rebirth possess a permanent title to the glorious second and actual resurrection of the body at the last day. On such as these the second death will have no eff…
The evangelists never made reference to the miraculous birth of Christ.
They certainly did. The angel reassured Joseph in his bewilderment, “Fear not to take Mary … for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” Matt. I., 20. To Mary herself God had revealed, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall…
St. Paul says, “The cross to them indeed that perish is foolishness; but to them that are saved the power of God.” I. Cor. I., 18.
All, whether good or bad, perish as far as this earthly life is concerned, by natural death. But the cross is folly to those who are spiritually dead in sin. When a man commits serious sin he drives God’s grace out of his soul. His soul is then dead to a spiritual and supernatural life until he recovers God’s grace by repentance…
I have heard that he is Anti-Christ, and that he teas described by St. John as 666, the numerical equivalent of the Latin words of the Pope’s title, Vicarius Filii Dei.
That interpretation is absurd, and rejected by all reputable scholars, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. In any case, St. John wrote in Greek, and there is no warrant whatever for the transition to the Latin language. Moreover, whatever be the true interpretation of this mystical number, it certainly refers to some one individual…
Are there not difficulties in the New Testament as well as in the Old Testament?
Yes. But there are no real contradictions. To prove a contradiction you must show that the texts are undoubtedly authentic, and that they admit of no possible conciliation. When supposed contradictions have been urged by adversaries, expert defending scholars have advanced various quite probable theories by which the difficultie…
St. John knew the Mother of Christ better than the others, yet he does not mention her Immaculate Conception!
In Rev. XII. he shows clearly his knowledge of the deadly opposition between Mary and Satan. His Gospel he wrote to supplement the Synoptic accounts, and sufficient details had been given concerning Mary herself by St Luke. Omission to mention a fact in a given book is not proof that the writer did not know of it, and above all …
Matt. XIII, 55-56, says, “His brethren James and Joseph, and Simon and Judes and His sisters, are they not all with us?”
The Jewish expression “brothers and sisters of the Lord” in Scripture merely refers to relationship in the same tribe or stock. Cousins often came under that title. In all nations the word brother has a wide significance, as when one Mason will call another a brother-mason without suggesting that he was born of the same mother. …
But does not St. John, in Revelations, call Rome the Babylon of sin?
No. He describes a city of abominations which he terms Babylon. The early Christians, therefore, regarded pagan Rome, with its idolatry and sensuality, as a very Babylon. Thus St. Peter, writing from Rome, called it by that name. But once the city had given up its paganism for Christianity it ceased to be called by that name whi…
Must I believe the miracles recorded in the Gospels? Believe a thing which cannot be substantiated in order to be saved?
You are not asked to believe anything which cannot be substantiated in order to be saved. By what rule of evidence, then, can the miracles of the Gospel be substantiated? By sworn affidavit, or in other words, by written declaration on oath. If, in a modern court, I offered documentary evidence given by my friend Jones, the cour…
If it be a sin to doubt Catholic dogma, how can you weigh evidence for and against? St. Paul tells us to prove all things.
To admit that Christ is God, and then to doubt an exact statement of His teaching is certainly a sin, for that implies a denial either of His knowledge or of His veracity. But we do not need to doubt a thing before we can begin to study it I do not doubt the fact that the earth moves round the sun, yet I am perfectly free to wei…