Baby Steps Towards Christendom: Step #2: Homeschooling

Previous posts in the series: Introduction   Step#1: Quit Pimpin'

(note: Step #2 was going to be about contraception, but I decided this is too rudimentary to mention. Faithful Catholics will not use it, and other Christian groups who ignore their conscience on the issue will (imo) eventually either self destruct or become Catholic. Along with my sentiment in Step #1, on contraception I stand with St. Augustine in saying that men who use it make their wives whores. If that sounds harsh, take it up with St. Augustine, not me. "...you try to take from marriage what marriage is. When this is taken away, husbands are shameful lovers, wives are harlots, bridal chambers are brothels, fathers-in-law are pimps." Augustine, Against Faustus 15:7 (A.D. 400). See here for further reading.)

So many of the “baby steps” towards Christendom can be written off as unnecessary.


“Do I really need to have my wife work at home?”


“Cant I stay in my cubicle working for a paycheck?”


“Will video games kill my kids?”


“Will public school kill my kids?”


“Will making my own beer or soap really bring me closer to God?”


“Do I really need to pray with my family every day?”

The answer to most of these questions is no, you don’t have to do that. It is possible for a Catholic to send their kid to public school. It is not a sin in and of itself. But it is unwise and foolish to do so if other options exist. By themselves many of these baby steps seem trite and unnecessary. But how many of us fail in most of them? These little failures can easily add up to major failure. Our culture laughs at this list and it is easy for us to get worn down bit by bit and give in to all of them. We can easily go from using our liberty by eating meat sacrificed to idols to no longer even recognizing that it has been sacrificed to idols. We then go from being “in the world yet not of the world” to just simply being worldly. Once we cross that line, I think we need to seriously consider giving up the “liberty” we formerly had. Like the alcoholic who gives up his liberty to drink for the sake of his soul, we need to get off the worldly path in many areas of our lives, and get on the paved road to the eternal city. And I am including myself in this! Just last night I was confronted with the decision to use my liberty to watch the TV series Game of Thrones or not. I watched the pilot episode and was both thrilled and disgusted. I loved 90% of it. But 10% was graphic nudity. I decided to not use my liberty in watching it (perhaps writing that here will keep me honest!). Why expose my mind to filth just for entertainment? I judged that no good could come of it. It is how we navigate the thousands of small choices like these that will determine if our great-grandchildren keep the faith or not. If we let ourselves be worn down like a smooth stone in a riverbed,  tossed about by our culture, what makes us think our children will do any better? After all, daddy watched that show, so it cant be that bad right? Daddy played video games 10 hours a week, so I can too, right? This is the morphing of liberty into license.

OK, mini-rant over, on to homeschooling!

And when I say homeschooling, I am not saying that a good private school is not OK. They do exist, and if your situation is good for sending your kids there, then great. There are advantages to that over homeschooling, and disadvantages as well. What you will have to keep constantly in the forefront of your mind when your child is in a private school is that you as the parent are responsible for their education. With homeschooling, this is much harder to forget, as you are the one buying all the books and such.

Overall, I think the renewed Catholic culture of the future needs to see homeschooling as the "norm", however. Why? Because it already is the norm. By that I mean that parents are already the teachers of their children. So in that sense, even the parents of public school kids are homeschoolers. They are just homeschoolers who are outsourcing badly. What those kids learn they mainly will learn from their parents. If they take algebra at the public school from an instructor who never prays with them or mentions Christ, it is their parents who have just taught them a lesson. They taught them that math is a subject that does not reflect God's beauty and order, and that we need not give honor to God for math. This is a powerful lesson.

Likewise for a private school student, the school should always be self-consciously seen by parent and child as an extension of the parents training in the home. Perhaps in many areas it is able to specialize more because of knowledgeable instructors, so the private school should be seen by us as a specialized arm of the home school, not as the norm itself. One thing a homeschool cannot easily do is attend daily mass. This is perhaps the single biggest advantage of a private school, and well worth considering.
The practical reason homeschooling should be (and I would argue is) the norm for a new Christendom has to do with Distributism. If Distributism is all about bringing the productive property back into the hands of the family, making the family the most powerful unit of government in society, then it naturally follows that the family is the default educational institution. And if Dad and Mom are not cogs in the corporate machine, but running their own productive enterprise, what better place for the children to learn about life than within such a healthy environment? The ONLY necessary things for a child to learn are who God is, who man is, and how they relate (I stole that from RC Sproul Jr.). We may bristle at that at first glance, but it is true. All other knowledge is secondary and supplementary. And the family is the best equipped for meeting that need. Who better than a mother and father to teach a child about life? Catholic schools can be great (I even considered sending my oldest to my parish school), but we need to have a clear vision that the home is the source and center of all education for a child, and the family should have the pride of place over other educators.

Next up:

Step #3: DIY: Become a Brewer.

Baby Steps Towards Christendom: Step #1: Quit Pimpin' Bro!

"Oh, and pick up some Trojans while your out. Thanks honey."

Heck, I may as well kick of the first "baby step" towards Christendom with one that is sure to offend.

This post is directed at men whose wives work outside the home. Prepare for tough love.

When I say you are a pimp am I just using hyperbole? Nope.
Is it really pimpin' to have your wife work outside the home? Yep.
Am I saying that it makes her to some degree a .... er uh... yep.
Am I saying it makes you less of a man? Yep.

Ask yourself this question:

"Why did my great grandfather not need to send his wife out to fish for a paycheck but I do?"

There are a dozen excuses you might give, but it is unlikely that any of them are valid. Which is why I don't think the statement "Stop Pimpin'" needs qualifiers attached. It's like saying the sky is blue. Well, sometimes it is purple during a sunset or grey during a storm, but in general, we don't need qualifiers every time we say that it is blue. Nevertheless...

The Qualifiers:

Obviously some women are forced to take on the traditional role of men by working outside the home. My mother worked for a paycheck outside the home for all but my first 2 years of life. She was forced to do the job of a man because... there was no man around. You see it was the mid 70's and the flowery fields and the age of aquarius were calling... The man of the house just couldn't be tied down by the baggage of a wife and 4 kids. So there was no choice for my mother. And neither was she being pimped, for the simple fact that there was no man around. This situation is a valid qualifier, and there is no shame in a mother working in this situation. In fact, I respect my mom more than any living person for her courageous actions. She is a lioness not to be tussled with.
There are times of hardship where strange things need to be done. But we should still see them as being strange. Some people may find themselves starving so bad they are forced to eat shoe leather for instance. If it gets that bad for your family, I recommend your wife going out and bringing in a paycheck. Perhaps you become a paraplegic and your wife needs to provide the income. Notice the trend here? These are all extreme cases.
Many cases don't even need qualification, because they do not apply. Such as when a wife is working in the context of a family business. Selling beer at her husbands brewery, or bread from the counter of the family bakery, or driving a tractor mowing hay on the family farm... these are all situations where a wife's role as helper is being fulfilled, not ignored. By working within the husbands calling, she is working inside the home not outside of it.

So there are exceptions. There are some good reasons. Yours isn't.

Go ahead and try to say it is. Please, by all means, leave a comment and tell me how your wife has to work. How your children have to go to daycare. How you just simply have to have that second paycheck because things are more expensive now than they used to be... and after all we need two cars... and cable TV is really expensive... and we need to have vacations...

Please let's not kid ourselves men. (no pun intended) In nearly all cases, if our wives are being pimped out to bring back a paycheck, it is because we as men are simply chauvinist pigs who are too lazy to take the leadership role in the family. We could take charge, but it would mean a lot more hassle and responsibility for us. It is much easier to let the woman take over. What's that? She is over by the tree talking to a snake about an apple? Oh well, what can I do anyway? May as well let her eat it. It is God's fault for giving her to me anyway, not mine. I guess I may as well eat it too then. Perhaps she can sell apples and I can get a new Porsche with the cash? Sweet!

This is a chauvinistic view of wives because it treats them like objects, and it assumes that their role is not as good as the husbands role. This is the failure of feminism: it glorifies the (perceived) role of the husband and degrades the work of the wife in the home. Feminism tells wives that they are not as valuable as the husband if they are homemakers whose joy is to raise children and bake good bread. What a lie! Just as men and women physically have differences and neither is "better" (although I have my opinion about that), neither are the roles that we are designed for "better" or worse than each other. In fact I would say it is quite obvious that the hand that rocks the cradle in fact does rule the world. There is no greater calling on earth than motherhood. Which is why the greatest human creature who ever lived is a mother. By telling women they must leave the home in order to have fulfillment, feminism has told fish that they need to walk on land with 2 feet to have fulfillment. It is a lie which ironically despises women. Like calling baby killing "family planning", feminists call their hatred of women (and of the feminine) "women's liberation".

Why should Catholic men buy into this evil mentality? The world is totally lost when it comes to family matters now. So why should we assume we can do as they do and it is not going to end badly for us? Let us start to cherish and respect our women.

Do what I did in 2002. Tell your wife to quit her job and come home. If she is on contraceptives of any kind, throw them in the trash. Apologize to her for treating her like an object. Apologize for the children you just murdered, then go to confession.

Now that you are a man, you can begin to treat your wife like a fellow worker in God's vineyard, instead of treating her like an object to be used like the pimps of our culture treat their wives. Now that you are a king, you can recognize your queen for who she is. Overall, this is a baby step you will never regret. It will improve your marriage, and it will separate you from the worldliness that surrounds us in a real way.

Next up:

Be a man, not a dog with a random leg: No more contraception!

Baby Steps Towards Christendom: Introduction

This is the introductory post in a series I will be doing focused on small steps we all can take towards Christendom.
I am no expert. The list is long and I have only done a few things on it. And generally I have done the easy things rather than the hard. So I will be encouraging myself with this series, and perhaps that will spill over and help others as well.

By Christendom, I mean that state of life where as Catholic families, we are living in the kingdom of Christ. Or more truly- more fully in the kingdom of Christ. My emphasis in moving towards this ideal is focused on keeping things generational, meaning this is something we pass on to others, and in particular to our children, and in even more particular fathers to their children, so that the next generation does better than we have done. So many generations before us have failed in this way! So this must be our top priority.

So all other considerations must serve this primary one: dynasty. Generational faithfulness. This begins with a rejection of the world, the flesh and the Devil in all its modern pomps (Secular humanism, Protestantism, relativism) and with a submission to the faith of the apostles, and it ends with us in our grave and handing on... something... to the next generation. I want to ask myself: "what can I do to ensure future generations have the best chance possible of doing better than I have?" I don't want to merely pass on the faith to my children and encourage friends to keep the faith yet all the while we are living in an environment that is toxic to the faith. That is crazy. That is not taking life seriously. Instead our cultural environment must also be a reflection of faith. So this will entail Distributism, agrarianism, and anything else that moves the family closer to a lifestyle where we can more easily live the faith and pass it on to the next generation. So this includes considerations such as:

What I do for a living.

What my children do for school.

Where I live.

Who I associate with.

How I handle money.

What I do for "entertainment".

How does my marriage function, Etc.

In these and many more areas, we can choose to go with the flow of our culture, or we can take up our cross and follow Jesus by examining why our culture does things that way and truly questioning whether we have become worldly in that area. Sadly, by simply doing the opposite of the culture, we will oftentimes be on the right path. This is only a rule of thumb though, and we should always attempt to have a reason why we do things. And many of these areas require deep examination of conscience to realize that we are on a dangerous path away from Christendom. Although perhaps not overtly losing faith, or overtly or formally sinning in these areas, we can be choked by the brambles of our godless culture to the point we are of no threat to our Enemy.

So I hope I can give some encouragement where I have succeeded, and I hope you can encourage me where I am failing. Please feel free to comment with items from your own list, whether small or big. I will be listing items in no particular order of importance or difficulty, but just generally as they occurred in my own experience.

So on to the posts!


Next up....

Baby Step to Christendom #1:

 Stop Yo Pimpin' Bro! 



The Modern Christian Man



Ouch. Thomas á Kempis hits really hard.

Imitation of Christ, by Thomas á Kempis: Book 1, Chapter 1
Of the Imitation of Christ, and Contempt of all the Vanities of the World

He that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness (John 8:12), saith the Lord. These are the words of Christ, by which we are admonished, how we ought to imitate His life and manners, if we would truly be enlightened, and delivered from all blindness of heart. Let therefore our chiefest endeavour be, to meditate upon the life of Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of Christ exceedeth all the doctrine of holy men.; and he that hath the Spirit will find therein the hidden manna (Apocalypse. 2:17). But it falleth out that many who often hear the Gospel of Christ, feel little desire after it, because they have not the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). But Whosoever will fully and with relish understand the words of Christ, must endeavor to conform his life wholly to the life of Christ.

2. What doth it avail thee to discourse profoundly of the Trinity, if thou be void of humility, and art thereby displeasing to the Trinity? Surely profound words do not make a man holy and just; but a virtuous life maketh him dear to God. I had rather feel contrition, than know the definition thereof. If thou didst know the whole Bible by heart, and the sayings of all the philosophers, what would all that profit thee without the love of God (1 Cor. 13:2), and without His grace?

Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity (Eccles. 1:2), except to love God, and to serve Him only. This is the highest wisdom, by contempt of the world to press forward towards heavenly kingdoms.

Conforming to Christ

From True Devotion To the Blessed Virgin Mary, Nos. 120-121
Nature of perfect devotion to the Blessed Virgin
or perfect consecration to Jesus Christ

 

120. As all perfection consists in our being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus it naturally follows that the most perfect of all devotions is that which conforms, unites, and consecrates us most completely to Jesus. Now of all God's creatures Mary is the most conformed to Jesus. It therefore follows that, of all devotions, devotion to her makes for the most effective consecration and conformity to him. The more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated to Jesus. That is why perfect consecration to Jesus is but a perfect and complete consecration of oneself to the Blessed Virgin, which is the devotion I teach; or in other words, it is the perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy baptism.

121. This devotion consists in giving oneself entirely to Mary in order to belong entirely to Jesus through her. It requires us to give:

(1) Our body with its senses and members;
(2) Our soul with its faculties;
(3) Our present material possessions and all we shall acquire in the future;
(4) Our interior and spiritual possessions, that is, our merits, virtues and good actions of the past, the present and the future.

In other words, we give her all that we possess both in our natural life and in our spiritual life as well as everything we shall acquire in the future in the order of nature, of grace, and of glory in heaven. This we do without any reservation, not even of a penny, a hair, or the smallest good deed. And we give for all eternity without claiming or expecting, in return for our offering and our service, any other reward than the honour of belonging to our Lord through Mary and in Mary, even though our Mother were not - as in fact she always is - the most generous and appreciative of all God's creatures.

Letter to Doug on Sola Scriptura, Mary, Succession

Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.
Song of Soloman 4:7

Doug said:

Holy Mackerel David...
Excuse the pun during Lent.

I'm having a real hard time wondering if you haven't lost something here.... or is that part of dying to oneself? You need to step back, take a big breath of fresh air and read what you posted and compare it to what the Holy Bible has to say.
Consider what your dear friend has posted in comment #1. His last sentence is something you should ponder.
Remember, the seed can make it all the way to the ground and sprout and then get tangled up in weeds and hence bear no fruit.
Consider this scripture, (it is Christ in us that does the work):

Gal 2:20-21 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

David, you need to get back to the basics...maybe quote some scripture to back up your thought process here.

Love ya brother,

Doug

Doug,

Hey, believe me, when I read guys like C.R. Stam, I am saying "Holy Mackerel" the whole time too! Stinky stuff to my nose. By the way, it is stinky stuff to literally 99.999 percent of Christians as well. Of course just saying that does not convince you to abandon your Ultradispensationalism. You believe that your micro-small sect is correct, and all other Christians have gotten some pretty major things wrong. You could be right. We will let inquiring minds examine and decide how likely that is, and if Pauline or ultra Dispensationalism best represents Christian Truth.

 I again want to say that the issue of authority will be at the root of any discussion between us. I submit to the living, breathing, Magisterium of the Catholic Church, and you submit to your interpretation of the Scriptures. So when those two authorities clash, we of course will each point to what we see as our higher authority. So our discussions will invariably always be funneled into that narrow alley. Perhaps we should just stay in that alley? But I suspect you may not desire to spend much time discussing these things because of farm business etc. If not, please ignore all that follows and go have a great day! The weather is great out there! How bout' them Vikings?!
As for me, I would rather have a slow, methodical conversation than the cluster bomb of scripture verses and topic changes like with Jed and Kendra. Also them having opinions on topics they could not even define was out of control. Like saying Vanilla is the best ice cream, and then asking what Chocolate and strawberry ice cream taste like.

Keep in mind that I believe every single verse of the bible. So simply quoting scripture will just make me nod my head in agreement. What counts is your interpretation of it.
Simply put, your comment was condescending. There also was very little real content. There was one scripture verse, with your interpretation of it, but the rest was just saying: "Wow, you are really screwed up and going to hell, bye." So again, if you want to actually talk, I am game. But if it will just be more of this type of throw-away comment, I will pass on further discussion. I take my time and put a lot of effort into these conversations, so I dont want to waste time like the last time. I did days of reading and research, and then a couple sentence throw away response from you. 9 months ago I took time and responded to you, and you never replied. You had called me out to prove a claim, I said I would reply with the proof, and then instead of a retraction from you, I got nothing.

So like I said, if you want to discuss, lets do that. Pick a topic from my post here or whatever you want, and let's focus like a laser beam on it.

If not, or if you don't have the time, that is fine as well, and I won't hold it against you! You are a busy guy!But If that is the case, please just disregard the following.


Anyway, on to your comment:

You said:

“I'm having a real hard time wondering if you haven't lost something here.... or is that part of dying to oneself?”

Doug, I don’t think you are really having a hard time with this! You disagree strongly. I get that. But I also already knew that. So it would be better to say something to convince me of the truth rather than to just say that I am wrong. I mean, I am not offended if you say I am wrong about something… not at all... iron sharpening iron and all that. But just saying we disagree or saying that I have “lost something” doesn’t help the “sharpening”. You need to show me what you believe I have lost. Until then, this is just handwaving.

You said:

“You need to step back, take a big breath of fresh air and read what you posted and compare it to what the Holy Bible has to say.”

Nah. I like to just make stuff up and ignore the Bible. More fun that way. Plus it says stuff that I dont like. So I like to just make crap up. ;-)

Come on Doug. This is just more handwaving.

And of course, as you might suspect, I have done that! And I do not see any contradiction with any of the 72 books of the inerrant and infallible written Word of God and Catholic teaching.

So again, I do not think your admonition here really has any traction. I have “compared it to what the Holy Bible has to say” and I believe it fits like a glove! Your incredulity at my belief does not in itself convince me to change my mind. We can debate specific passages I suppose, and get into the interpretation and exegesis and what-not, but the fundamental question of interpretive authority will always be the elephant in the room for us. At the end of the -what- of iron sharpening, who gets to decide which interpretation is true? Who am I? Who are you? Whose authority do we speak with? And yes, if you want I can show you from scripture where I believe you are wrong if you wish me to with a shower of verses and exegesis of each one. But I think this “authority” issue is really the root level disagreement between us. Doctrines about Mary are a leaf way out on the tip of a branch compared to the root issue.

Can you picture me saying:

“Doug, you need to step back, take a big breath of fresh air and compare your doctrine to what the Holy Bible has to say.”

I hope you said yes! Because I can see myself saying that same thing to you! My point is not that we should not disagree, my point is that just stating our disagreement gets us nowhere!

Doug, I think you need to step back and re-examine your paradigm. Not sure what saying that to you acomplishes.

 Heck, we both disagree with tons of professors with multiple degrees in scripture and theology. Godly men like Wilson, Sproul, Billy Graham, Wesley, Luther, Calvin, etc. Would you advise them to "take a big breath of fresh air and compare their doctrine to what the Holy Bible has to say"? I think they might chuckle a bit at that one. If they all just read their bible again they would become your specific subset of Pauline Dispensationalists?

You said: “Consider what your dear friend has posted in comment #1. His last sentence is something you should ponder.
Remember, the seed can make it all the way to the ground and sprout and then get tangled up in weeds and hence bear no fruit.”

I’m not exactly sure what you mean here, but I think you are referring to the “sufficiency” Bob mentioned and how he thinks Mary makes Christ insufficient for Catholics and they end up worshipping Mary.

Again, Doug, I have “pondered” it. Do you think I have not considered these things at length? Do you think that I believe they contradict the bible and yet don’t care? No way. Everything I believe is consistent with scripture and can be either implicitly (Christ’s full humanity and divinity) or explicitly (the resurrection) found there.

Mary does not get in the way of Christ any more than my wife, or you, or Melissa, or Jed does. I have asked all of you to intercede for me to God before, and I do not believe that puts you in a position of me worshipping you. In fact, being an intercessor is exactly what St. Paul commands in 1Tim. 2:1-8, especially verse 1. Mary is just really good at it.

You apply Jesus’ parable of the Sower to me and warn that I may be the seed that is suffocated by weeds. I genuinely thank you for the concern Doug. I think every one of us needs to take Jesus’ words to heart there. Ironically, as far as I know, as a Pauline Dispensationalist you would apply that parable to the Jews and not to the gentile Church? Can a gentile believer like me who trusts in Christ be choked with weeds and go to hell? As a Catholic, I believe I can, but I thought you did not believe that. So I am confused with your admonition. Perhaps you believe my current belief about Mary means I never did really have a true faith? I can only guess what you are trying to say. Having said that, I will cautiously say that I don’t think the parable currently applies to me, although sometimes I do feel like I am in a jungle with a machete! I daily examine myself to see how I can conform myself to Christ in the sense of Galatians 2:20 (which I still have memorized KJV style by the way!) I trust in Christ for my salvation. He is the only way, His is the only path to get to heaven. And only by His merit will I get there! That is what I believe, and having that hope, I believe I have the hope of heaven. Everything, including intercession of saints, Mary, or you, or Melissa, etc… is SECONDARY to Christ’s FINISHED work of salvation on the cross. So again, thanks for your concern. And please pray for me! And I will pray for you bro! Lord knows we need it!

You said:

“Consider this scripture [Gal. 2:20-21], (it is Christ in us that does the work):”

1 Cor. 3:9 says we are God’s “sunergoi”, or co-workers. I will say it again, Christ did it ALL on Calvary. His finished work is what brings us salvation. YET, He also asks us to join in his work to bring His finished work to the world (including ourselves). He doesn’t need our help, but he does consider us co-workers. It absolutely IS Christ in us that does the work Doug! I agree! The Holy Ghost goes before our works and “tills the soil”. Without the Spirits work, our efforts and prayers are filthy rags. This is what Gal. 2 verse 21 is referring to.
By the way, Catholics believe that in Galatians St. Paul is warning against trusting in the Jewish ceremonial law. And righteousness does not come by that law. So that someone who just obeys with a rotten heart, without agape, can still be on the fast track to hell. Agape is love for God and neighbor by willing the good of the other for the others own sake. So this may be a fundamental interpretive difference between us. Catholics view Galatians and much of Romans as referring to the CEREMONIAL law when it talks about “the works of the law”.

You have no problem asking other people to pray for you. That makes them an intersessor, and a co-worker with Christ. Consider how God desires and responds to our mediation and intersession:

Scripture Catholic is a good source for the Catholic interpretation of many scriptures. The following can be found here.

James 5:16; Proverbs 15:8, 29 - the prayers of the righteous (the saints) have powerful effects.

Mark 16:20

Romans 8:28 God "works for good with" (the Greek is "sunergei eis agathon")

2 Cor. 6:1 - "working together" (the Greek is "sunergountes") with him.

Heb. 12:1 - the “cloud of witnesses” helps us on our journey.

1 Peter 2:5 - we are a holy priesthood, instructed to offer spiritual sacrifices to God.

Rev. 1:6, 5:10 - Jesus made us a kingdom of priests for God. Priests intercede through Christ on behalf of God's people.

James 5:16; Proverbs 15:8, 29 - the prayers of the righteous (the saints) have powerful effects.



Consider more of these scriptures about our mediation/participation with God.

You said: “David, you need to get back to the basics...maybe quote some scripture to back up your thought process here.”

Which thought process? Is there something specific you had in mind? Many of the scriptures I just quoted back up the fact that creatures can be mediators and intersesors.
Doug, I could say the same... "you need to get back to the basics... etc." But what are the basics, and who gets to determine them? What do you think they are? Are you sure we disagree about the basics? Which "basic" have I left behind? While your at it, please show me your credentials to determine these things!

And I am not sure how quoting scripture will solve our disagreement Doug, although I have done so, and can quote more if you like. Who has the authority to declare the true meaning of the passages we both affirm yet disagree on?

From your perspective, the Bible says X, and Dave needs to listen to X.

From my perspective, the faith of the Apostles (in the Bible, Tradition and magisterium) says Y, and I need to listen to Y.
Who gets to decide who has the trump card Doug? Notice I didnt say who has the trump card, which is a secondary question, and of course we both think we have it. But who gets to decide who has it. What authority do you stand on when you make your claim to the trump card?

It really is the most simple and fundamental question:

"Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

If you ask me that question, I will refer you to my bishop. He believes the same stuff as the other 5100 bishops around the globe. He believes the same stuff that the guy who laid hands on him did. So on and so on back to the apostles. I believe whatever they believe, because they have the authority from Christ.

Anything I say here I encourage you to compare with the faith of the Church of all ages. Compare with the Word of God in both Scripture and Tradition. Look in the universal Catechism and correct me. I am speaking under authority not as an authority. I fully submit my every word to the living Magisterium of the Catholic Church, which can physically trace its line of succession to the apostles. This living Magisterium can say to me "yes, that is what we believe." or "No, that is not of the faith". The "authority" you claim in pronouncing the meaning of scripture can not do that. Your authority strangely seems to speak with a voice that sounds a lot like Doug. It doesnt sound like my brother, or my former pastor Josh Moon, or R.C. Sproul, or Billy Graham, or any other people claiming and preaching by the same authority. In fact there are some big diferences in belief. Hmm. Why is it that this "authority" seems to produce different adherents, different faiths? Well, it aint the authority's fault, that's for sure. The scripture says one thing. It is true. So it must be the ones claiming it as their authority that are wrong. And they must then also be wrong that it was ever meant to be their authority in the first place. Because God is not the author of confusion, and would not pretend to give them a reliable authority, but then pull the rug out from their feet. So again I say:

"Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”


From my perspective, my Church put together the table of contents of your Bible. Unless, that is, you want to show me your inspired table of contents (you would be the first Protestant to claim that). Show me where the Bible even makes the slightest, weakest, in-passing attempt to say what the bible even is! Catholics know what it is because the successors of the apostles wrote the inspired table of contents. How do you know what it is without referring to that Tradition? Obviously that Tradition is not laid down in scripture, so how can that possibly fit with Sola Scriptura? And I agree with you that the Bible is great for doctrine, reproof and correction, but show me where your Bible says that only the Bible can be used for those purposes.

Because my bible says the opposite!

2 Thess. 2:15:

“Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.”

Over and over the scripture itself points to the apostles and their successors as the ones we should listen to in preference to our own interpretations, and shows that the laying on of hands by a legitimate bishop in succession is necessary:

http://www.scripturecatholic.com/scripture_alone.html#scripture-I

Go ahead and read the bible, it is very profitable. But when you disagree with the bishops in succession, the scripture tells you to obey the bishops. When the Jerusalem council ruled on the circumcision controversy, they didn’t then send out a memo of their “interpretation” as a suggestion to all the Churches! They had the legitimate authority, and they demanded obedience, as was their right. The ones who disagreed (possibly many, many, Jews) were required to obey… even if they disagreed!

My Bishop, who can trace his ordination by laying on of hands to the apostles themselves, is Archbishop John Nienstedt, who’s apostolic throne (cathedra) is in the Cathedral of Saint Paul in St. Paul MN. Who is your Bishop? And per 2Timothy 2:2, can I see his credentials please?

Luke 10:16 - Jesus tells His apostles, "he who hears you, hears Me."

2 Tim. 2:2 – You will find FIVE levels of apostolic succession in this verse! This is how St. Paul commands that authority be passed down- NOT through each person interpreting scripture on their own.

1 John 4:6 - whoever knows God listens to us (the bishops and the successors to the apostles). This is the way we discern truth and error (not just by reading the Bible and interpreting it for ourselves).

Luke 22:29 - the Father gives the kingdom to the Son, and the Son gives the kingdom to the apostles. The gift is transferred from the Father to the Son to the apostles.

John 13:20 - Jesus says, "he who receives anyone who I send, receives Me." He who receives the apostles, receives Christ Himself. He who rejects the apostles and their successors, rejects Christ.

John 14:10 - Jesus says the Word He speaks is not His own authority, but from the Father. The gift is from the Father to Jesus to the apostles.

Many, many more examples from scripture showing how authority is passed down (Apostilic succession through the laying on of hands) in the Church. There are so many, I really should just put the link instead of writing them all down:

http://www.scripturecatholic.com/apostolic_succession.html#apostolic-II

That is what the bible says about our authority. But for proving sola scriptura, you will find nothing. The only verses you can provide will simply say how great scripture is. That it is inerrant, infallible, and useful for use in and by the Church. You will show Bereans using the Old Testament to verify Paul’s account of Jesus. Great. But Catholics already believe all that. What you must show is that scripture is the ONLY thing Christians can use for our authority.

It bears repeating. For sola scriptura to be true, What you must show is that scripture is the ONLY thing Christians can use for our authority.

And that “only” is exactly what the scripture never says or implies. In fact it says the exact opposite in 2Thess. 2:15 and elsewhere.

First I challenge you to respond to the evidence I provided on the mediaval Bible availability.

Then I challenge you to show me, using only scripture, the "Sola" (only) in sola scriptura in your Bible. And I challenge you to show me the divinely inspired table of contents in your Bible.

Show me even one of them and I will renounce Catholicism on the spot.

Peace to you and the whole family!

David

I need to step up my game this Lent. Starting today.

Sometimes I really amaze myself with how spectacularly I can fail at being a Christian. It really is something I know how to do quite well! Join me in not pleasing the enemy by having a pity party but by manning up and getting down to the spiritual warfare that Lent is all about. Forward, march.

True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Nos. 81 and 82
We Need Mary in order to Die to Ourselves

Secondly, in order to empty ourselves of self, we must die daily to ourselves. This involves our renouncing what the powers of the soul and the senses of the body incline us to do. We must see as if we did not see, hear as if we did not hear and use the things of this world as if we did not use them. This is what St. Paul calls "dying daily". Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain and does not bear any good fruit. If we do not die to self and if our holiest devotions do not lead us to this necessary and fruitful death, we shall not bear fruit of any worth and our devotions will cease to be profitable. All our good works will be tainted by self-love and self-will so that our greatest sacrifices and our best actions will be unacceptable to God. Consequently when we come to die we shall find ourselves devoid of virtue and merit and discover that we do not possess even one spark of that pure love which God shares only with those who have died to themselves and whose life is hidden with Jesus Christ in him.

Thirdly, we must choose among all the devotions to the Blessed Virgin the one which will lead us more surely to this dying to self. This devotion will be the best and the most sanctifying for us.

http://www.fisheaters.com/totalconsecrationday15.html

Example of a Homestead Site

I wanted to see what I could come up with after cross referencing some of my data for homestead considerations. After some very minimal searching, I came up with something, which is encouraging. This place in Oklahoma fits a number of categories for a good homestead. Here is the map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=E1020+and+N3710&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl

The actual location is outlined in yellow here:

Here are it's assets:

1. Oklahoma is a great state for homeschooling.

2. The location is 1 hour west of Tulsa, and 1.5 hours east of OK City. So within distance to do a CSA or some selling to two large populations, yet not to close to either one.

3. The property is $2125/ac, which for arable land in the eastern half of OK is not a horrible price. And the terms seem good.

4. It has pasture, woods and a pond.

5. It is on a county highway.

6. 35-40 inches of rain a year.

7. 3 Catholic Churches within easy driving distance.


Problems:

1. Only 20 acres.

2. For someone who needs to work in a city while getting things going, the drive is too far for a commute. So this is an "all or nothing" location.

3. Not sure I like Oklahoma that much. Flat, and not enough winter. But who knows.


Anyway, that was fun. In about a half hour I came up with a place that fits a really good amount of my criteria. That gives me hope that there are probably loads of places out there just waiting for me.

"Fresh" documentary available free until Saturday, March 3rd.

"Fresh" documentary available free until Saturday, March 3rd. Joel Salatin is featured. I havent seen it yet but it looks to be good. See it here. Also highly recommended is Food, Inc. I think it can be seen full length on You Tube with a little looking.