Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 26

Ireland 4: Mass in Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Muckross Park, Dinner & Dancing

After a full Irish breakfast, Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney. Fr. James is loved by all! which we then follow with and Optional horse and buggy ride through the National Park.

Gorgeous drive with frequent stops thru Ivergah Peninsula known as the Ring of Kerry. I give my short talk on creation as a proof of God‘s existence!

We return through Sneem and onwards over the mountains to Muckross Park and free time to explore the Gardens. Some returned to our hotel and prepared for our traditional Irish evening at Muckross Quills Farmhouse in Muckross traditional Farms and we are met by the lady of the house and enjoyed the traditional Irish food, music and even dancing in the Farmhouse Kitchen.

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Is Faith Alone the Basis for the Final Judgment?

Is Faith Alone the Basis for the Final Judgment?  By Steve Ray

Dear Jerry:

I had no intention of writing you again this soon but after having dinner with your brother the other day and picking up a copy of a booklet you gave him entitled Studies In Contrasts: The Doctrine of Salvation (by Herb Vander Lugt and published by the Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, MI.), I thought I’d drop you a short note.

I was not surprised, but I was again disappointed in the obvious dishonesty (or ignorance) and the unfounded assumptions of the booklet. I decided to write a short note to ask you a few questions to see if you agree with me.

First, I will be honest, I did not read the entire booklet. I first flipped to page 18. The title was Everyone / Not Everyone Will Be Judged. The first passage of Scripture quoted was John 5:28, 29, which was prominently placed in a text box at the top of the page.

But first, before we look at John 5:28, 29, let’s take a look at the contrast that Herb Vander Lugt sets up. He says under the heading Explanation: “. . . we are told that all people, believers, and unbelievers [here is his contrast] will be resurrected and appear before Christ for final judgment.” He makes the opposing categories believers and unbelievers, but this is not what the Bible says.

What contrast does the Bible set up? This booklet is written by those who are supposed to be the “Bible-people” who do not interpret the Bible on the basis of “tradition” but objectively, based on the supposed perspicuousness of the Scriptures. Let’s see how honest they are, or how blinded by their tradition they are . . .

If the reader goes to the text box to read the passage of Scripture referred to, they will find this: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth . . . to the resurrection of life, and . . . to the resurrection of condemnation.” John 5:28, 29. Now, what do the three periods ellipses ( . . . ) delete from the text? An ellipsis is defined as by the American Heritage Dictionary as “The omission of a word not necessary for the comprehension of a sentence.” The unwary reader might expect believers and unbelievers to be the words cut out. Am I correct? This is of course what the author expects you to read and understand. He deceives his readers.

Yet, get your Bible out and read for yourself the words of our Lord that the author “cut out” or deleted.

 “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28, 29).

My question to you is this: why did he remove words to hide the meaning of what our Lord Jesus was saying? And why do you condone such actions by believing and perpetrating the material?

Why do you think Vander Lugt cut these essential words out? Was he trying to put words into our Lord Jesus’ mouth? Why did he want the readers to misunderstand what Jesus was actually saying? The author could not come up with a verse in the Bible that describes the final judgment in terms of faith vs. no faith, or belief vs. disbelief could he?

There are no verses in the Bible that discuss the Judgement in these terms. In fact, isn’t it true that every time the judgement is discussed, the basis for judgement is deeds or actions or works? One must be careful of playing with our Lord’s words and especially careful of misrepresenting His intent. He condemns the Pharisees in no uncertain terms for doing exactly that.

For the whole article, click here.

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Ireland 3: Bunratty Castle, Limerick, Adare and KIllarney

Traveled south to the village of Bunratty and time to explore the medieval castle and Medieval-themed Folk Park. Onwards around Limerick City. We didn’t stop in Limerick to make sure people had enough time at the castle.

Today we put up the challenge for everyone since we did go past Limerick, to write their own limerick to share on the bus tomorrow, and there will be a competition for the best and the most creative limericks. So everybody is excited and writing theirs down for presenting tomorrow.

Celebrated Mass in the Trinitarian Church in Adare. We stepped back in history in this church, which was an Augustinian Catholic Abbey built in 1316. Later it was confiscated by the protestant church of Ireland. But it came back into the hands of the Catholics, who restored to its original beauty and we had Mass there today with the thousands of masses that have been celebrated there over the centuries.

Arrived in Killarney for dinner and overnight in the lovely Scott’s Hotel in Killarney.

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Ireland 2: Our Lady of Knock, Galway and Westport

After our first full, good nights sleep, everyone was in high spirits. Our lady of Knock is really not an apparition of Our Lady, per se, but a Eucharistic apparition. It featured John the evangelist, Saint Joseph, are assumed lady and the Lamb of God standing on an altar with a cross surrounded by angels.

It was raining so I gave a very abbreviated version of my talk on the bus to explain how this apparition is straight from the Book of Revelation and how profound the meaning really is. ( A copy of my full talk last time is below on YouTube.) I have not seen it written anywhere so it was fun for me to research all of this and share it.

After Mass and tour (and confession) we went to Galway for free time to explore this famous city, find great places for lunch pubs and restaurants and then back to our lovely coastal city of Westport for a free evening.

On this second full day of the trip we tried to give people some free time after their long flights and full first day.

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“First Confession” – the Hilarious Story of a Seven-year Old Irish Boy

Since we are in Ireland for two weeks, I wanted to share this classic from a previous pilgrimages.

Batt Burns is one of the premier story tellers of Ireland. He was our guide many times as we toured the Emerald Isles. He has retired since then and no longer leads pilgrimage groups, but this is a classic that is well worth the watch. Sit back for 14 minutes and prepare to laughs with good Irish humor. He had us all mesmerized.

One evening he performed his one man show “Whisperings of Ireland.”

Part of this show was the enchanting and hilarious story of the seven year old boy going to his first confession with his older and nasty sister.

Unhappily, YouTube limits the length of videos so some of the beginning had to be cut. I think you will enjoy it!

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Arrival in Ireland, drove through the Midlands lunch at Shannon River, Mass at 1,200 year old Clonmacnoise, Westport

Great first day even with flight issues. We took off from the Dublin Airport in our elegant bus and drove through the Midlands of Ireland. Our guide, Owen is exceptional and explains everything to us and does so with a great Catholic emphasis.

We stopped in Athlone in the center of Ireland on the Shannon River for a short time of wandering through this old town. Many of us went to the oldest pub in Europe that’s been there 1100 years and also visited the Church of Saints Peter and Paul.

Then to the ancient Abbey of Clonmacnoise started in 800 for Mass where Pope John Paul II prayed. People said they couldn’t believe how beautiful it all was. Then to the West Coast at our elegant hotel on the coast in the flower-bedecked village of Westport.

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Granddaughter Crawls and Laughs! Joys of Motherhood!

Our youngest granddaughter learns to crawl—but the laugh and tease is the BEST! The cutest thing ever!

The inexpressible joys and rewards of motherhood, fatherhood and being grandparents!

God knew what he was doing when he created families!

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The Humanist Manifesto – Reality and Life without the Intrusion of the Divine

This Manifesto is sad. Consider really where it leaves people in the end. This is certainly where our society is today, or certainly heading in that direction.

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Who Started Your Church – and Where and When?

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Do the Sacraments Need A “Digestive Juice”?

At a recent conference, I mentioned that when we eat we need digestive juices in order to make our food do for our bodies what it was intended to do. I said sacraments are the same. The digestive juice of the sacraments is faith.

A listener honestly and respectfully questioned my comments. She asked her friend to contact me with the questions. Below is what she wrote:

I can’t go tonight or I would ask Steve this question myself but maybe if you get a chance, could you ask him to clarify something he said about Baptism. He talked about Baptism being somehow dependent on the faith of the one being baptized. Maybe I misunderstood him? I don’t think it’s proper to speak about Baptism in “receptionist” terms but maybe I’m missing something?

My response follows:

Dear Friend:

First, I want to say that I did mean what I said in my talk about faith required for Baptism—and the other sacraments. The two go hand-in-hand and both are necessary. I have heard said that in baptism, if one does not have faith or believe—he just gets wet. For example, would an atheist who gets baptized for a joke, have the grace of salvation conferred?

Now, with infants, faith is still expressed through the intention of the parents. Even here it is not allowed, if I remember correctly, to baptize an infant against the will—thus the absence of faith and intention—of the parents.

For my whole response, click here.

 

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