Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 46

Capernaum where Jesus Lived 3 Years, Boat Ride, Visitation & Jerusalem

Today is a big transition from Galilee to Jerusalem. We start out with Mass at the synagogue where Jesus said “Eat My Flesh, and Drink My Blood.“ It’s always very moving for folks to celebrate the Eucharist here. I give my talk entitled “Defending the Eucharist“ before we head out on a real boat to sail on the Sea of Galilee.

We arrive back at Pilgerhaus to eat Saint Peter’s Fish for lunch, and then drive south for two hours to Jerusalem.

Along the way, we stop for refreshments and restrooms that I give our conversion story on one leg of the trip.

Then we climb the hill to the Church of Visitation before arriving at the Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem for dinner, and a good nights sleep.

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Did St. Ignatius of Antioch REALLY Believe in Transubstantiation in the 1st Century?

A friend and fellow pilgrim got in a row with a friend on Facebook and asked for my help. You might enjoy the question and the answer.

My friend wrote: “I have a quick apologetic question.  A Protestant Facebook page was denying the Eucharist and I pasted St Ignatius’ quote about the Eucharist, “Let us stand aloof from such heretics. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again.” (Ignatius of Antioch, “The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnæans).   (Picture to right: Ignatius of Antioch eaten my lions in 106 AD).

The antagonist guy responded with this:

“Mike, I have a homework assignment for you.  I want you to find out who “those who hold heterodox opinions” are.  I want you to find out what they believe.  I want you to read this letter from beginning to end and look for the context of what you posted.  Can you confirm in the affirmative that Ignatius had Aristotelian concepts in mind when writing his letter?”

“Any idea what he is referring to and how to respond? If you don’t have time to respond, I understand.”

Mike is a friend so of course I had time to respond:

“I am not sure what he is referring to other than that in the 1200’s Aquinas defined Transubstantiation in terms of Aristotelian philosophy of substance and accidents. It is a trick question to get you to admit that St. Ignatius did not know about transubstantiation in Aristotelian terms and therefore did not believe in transubstantiation. 

The truth is — doctrine develops over time. For example Ignatius would not have described the two natures of Christ in terms of the hypostatic union nor the Trinity in the sophisticated words of “generation,” “proceeds” and “spiration” that were later used to more carefully and philosophically define what orthodox Christians had always believed but were later developed further to combat the heretics. 

Even the canon of the New Testament took 400 years to develop and close; neither St. Paul nor Ignatius could have rattle off the 27 books of the NT since that also took time to develop into the canon used by your Protestant interlocutor, though he doesn’t realize that. By trying to trick you he steps in his own trap.

Ignatius believed in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the two natures of Christ, the Trinity, etc. though he would not have used the sophisticated words later developed to define these things more precisely and deeply.

The little sapling doesn’t look like the big oak tree but they are organically the same thing.  The baby pictures of your challenger may not look like him as a full-grown man but he’s developed over time and is still the same organic person. Theology also develops and takes on new words and explanations but is only a further development of what was already believed by the early Christians. 

Hope that helps. I feel sorry for the deluded Protestants who are so “wise” in their disputations. I used to be one of them and thank God those days are in the past.”

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Day 3: Beatitudes, Banias, Golan Heights, Syria, Sea of Galilee

Another beautiful day in northern Israel, as we traveled around Upper Galilee. Mass at on the Mount of Beatitudes is always a favorite.

That up to the Lebanese border to visit Caesarea Philippi and I give my talk called “Peter, the Rock, the Keys, and the Chair.“ Lunch in the Golan Heights at a Druze restaurant, and then we drive along the Syrian border and talk about the current situation in the Middle East.

From there we drive back down to the Sea of Galilee to visit the Church of the Primacy of Peter and the place of the multiplication of loaves and fish. Then to Nazareth for one of the finest dinners everyone has ever had looking out over the Old City of Nazareth.

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St. Thomas Aquinas on Mohammad and Islam

St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians and Angelic Doctor of the Church, had a few things to say about Mohammed and Islam:

“He (Mohammed) seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh urges us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected; he was obeyed by carnal men.

As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity.

He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the Contrary, Mohammed said that he was sent in the power of his arms – which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants.

(Picture to left: painting in Santa Maria in Sopra Minerva, “St. Thomas Aquinas Destroys Heresies”)

What is more, no wise men, men trained in things divine and human, believed in him from the beginning (1). Those who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers, utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, through whose numbers Mohammed forced others to become his follower’s by the violence of his arms.

Nor do divine pronouncements on part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts almost all the testimony of the Old and the New Testaments by making them into a fabrication of his own, as can be seen by anyone who examines his law.

It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity.

It is thus clear that those who place faith in his words believe foolishly.”

– Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 1, Chapter 6, Art. 4. Footnote: 1. Sura 21:5, Sura 44:14; Sura 16:103, Sura 37:36

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Israel 9-13 Transfiguration, Cana and Annunciation in Nazareth

Great day at Mount of Transfiguration, Cana and Church of Annunciation in Nazareth.

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Israel 9-13 Arrivals and North to Tiberias

Our group arrives in 1st Class order. Then to our lovely Sofia Hotel in Tiberias.

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10 Pro-Abortion Myths That Need to Be Completely Debunked

1. Abortion is Safe

2. Abortion does not kill a Person

3. “Pro-abortion” and “Pro-choice” are Different

4. It’s okay if you are opposed to abortion, but don’t enforce that on anyone else!

5. Guys don’t have a say on abortion.

6. Birth control doesn’t cause abortion or hurt women.

7. Abortion is a basic human right

8. If you’re a feminist, you need to support abortion

9. Abortion is a simple, easy procedure

10. First trimester abortions are better than late-term ones.

For the full article click here

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If God Is Dead, Who Will Replace Him?

Malcolm Muggeridge said (@malmuggeridge)

“If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner.”

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I love music from Israel and this is one of my favorites – and very clever!!!

This musical piece is entitled “Darbuka la Corona.” It is a group of musicians playing from home and integrated into an orchestra. They did this during the covid hysteria. It is quite nice. Enjoy!

By the way,  Contact our Reservations Team at 866-557-2364, or write them at FootprintsOfGod@ctscentral.net. Join us in 2024 on a pilgrimage. Our four groups in 2023 are sold out. Check our schedule for 2024 at www.FootprintsOfGod.com

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The Dark Side of Luther – by Steve Wood

The Dark Side of Luther  

 

 

This is the last of my newsletters responding to the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. I’m sending you some of the overlooked statements of Luther revealing his thoughts on Catholics, his claim to infallibility, and his hatred of the Jews.

All quotations are from Luther’s Own Statements Concerning His Teaching and Its Results by Henry O’Connor, Benzinger, 1884. Google Books offers a free digital copy. A copy is also available by clicking here.

What Luther Said about Catholics
“The Pope, the Cardinals, and the whole Romish Court and mob, are nothing else but a stable full of big, coarse, stupid, disgraceful donkeys.”

“The Pope, the Cardinals…ought to be taken and (as they are blasphemers) their tongue ought to be torn out through the back of their neck and nailed to the gallows…”

[Bishops under the Pope are] “Wolves, tyrants, murderers of souls, and the Apostles of the Antichrist…”

“…why do we not still more attack with every kind of weapon these teachers of perdition, these Cardinals, these Popes, and that whole abomination of the Romish Sodom, which, without ceasing, corrupts the Church of God, and why do we not wash our hands in their blood?”

“It is clear enough that they (the Papists) are the Christians of the Devil.”

Luther’s Claim to Infallibility
“I am certain that I have my teaching from heaven.”

“Whoever teaches differently from what I have taught herein, or condemns me for it, he condemns God, and must be a child of Hell.”

“…so that whoever does not accept my teaching, cannot be saved…Therefore, my judgment is at the same time God’s and not mine.”

Why Luther Inserted the Word “Alone” in Romans 3:28
“You tell me what great fuss the Papists make, because the word Sola (“alone”) is not in the text of Paul.”

“…If your Papist makes much unnecessary fuss about the word (Sola, alone), say straight out to him, Doctor Martinus Luther will have it so, and says, Papists and donkeys are one and the same thing…(thus I will have it, thus I order it, my will is reason enough). For we will not be the scholars or the disciples of the Papists, but their masters and judges. We must once in a way act a little haughtily and noisily with these jack-asses.”

“…and as to their unnecessary noise about the word Sola, I beg of you not to give those donkeys any other further answer, but simply this much: D. Luther will have it so, and he is a Doctor above all Doctors in the whole of popery.”

“…I knew very well that here, Rom. III, the word (Sola) is not in the Latin and Greek text, and it was not necessary for the Papists to teach me that. It is true, these four letters, S.O.L.A. are not in it, which letter the jack-asses look at as a cow looks at a new gate; but they do not see that nevertheless, it expresses the meaning of the text, and if our German translation is to be clear and powerful; it ought to be put in…”

Editor’s note: To their credit, not a single Protestant English translation of Romans 3:28 inserts the word “alone” as Luther did. This includes the KJV, RSV, NIV, NASB, ESV and several others.

Luther’s Hatred towards the Jews
Luther writes, “Now what are we Christians to do with this rejected, damned people of the Jews? … I will give my honest advice.”

“First, their synagogues or schools are to be set on fire, and whatever will not burn, is to be covered and heaped over with earth, so that never again shall one find stone or cinder of them left. And this is to be done in order to honor the Lord and Christianity, so that God may see that we are Christians…”

“Secondly, their houses are likewise to be broken down and destroyed…”

Editor’s note: No wonder Hitler in “Mein Kampf” names Luther as one of history’s greatest reformers. A copy of Luther’s “On the Jews and Their Lies” was prominently displayed during the Nazi’s Nuremberg rallies.

Family Life Team
In Advent Family Life Team members receive information about a new resource I’ve produced that explains key events preceding the Second Coming. To request this free no-obligation special letter, send an email to team@dads.org.

 

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