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Show 107: The Divine Attributes, part 3 · The Uncensored Catholic

0:41
The f A. Hey, y'all, welcome to today's show. I hope
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you're having a wonderful Wednesday evening. It's bitterly cold here, but it should
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be in December. I can't complain about that, you know. I did
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want to mention one thing, you know, I well, I not only
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write books and sell books and all that, but I carve spoons and make
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baskets and all and I've been doing a lot of sets of spoons and special
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gifts for people for Christmas. Well, people have been ordering them for me
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to give them as gifts. That's what I mean to say. And I
1:34
can't take any more orders for Christmas gifts with I mean, it's just I
1:40
put my last order in the mail on Monday, had to stand in the
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post office for like a long time, and I cannot guarantee that any of
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them are going to get to the people on time. So no more orders
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for Christmas gifts. If you have Amazon Prime, you may still be able
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to get one of my books from Amazon and paperback if you need a last
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Carrol maaster Rblist, that's Dsincarrol dot com. As a paid subscriber for even
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My Conversion Story Confirmation autobiography, Autobiography of Faith. I'm already getting tongue tied
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be. Actually, I don't know. Maybe somebody would really enjoy it,
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but I would sure appreciate it. But anyway, y'all, like I just
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wanted to say, you're welcome to go if you if you see something on
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a site, you know, justin Carroll Woodcraft dot substack dot com that you
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like, go in order it if you want some spoons or a basket or
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you know whatever. But I can't guarantee it's going to be there by Christmas
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anymore. So anyway, I hope you are absolutely set and ready to have
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a wonderful Christmas now let's get into today's show. We'll start with radio replies,
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and you may remember the person yesterday was questioning the priests about the nature
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of faith, and they are obviously very dubious as to the reality of religion.
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Person says, I cannot understand how highly intellectual men can accept obvious legends
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and fairy tales as historical facts without question or doubt. It's you know,
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you talk with any secular st atheist, agnostic, you're gonna have to answer
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that question. Here's how they do it. Highly intellectual men do accept the
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doctrines of Christianity, is certain being highly intellectual. They have not done so
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without profound investigation of the reasonable grounds for their position, and knowing that such
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men are convinced it is not highly intellectual conduct to reject his legends and fairy
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tales the doctrines they accept without making a similar investigation. Person says, I
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myself refuse to accept anything which will not stand the acid test of reason.
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Faith may be a virtue, but it is no use bearing one's head in
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the sand. The priest says, I fully agree, faith is a virtue
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and the great and is a great gift of God, but it does not
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imply the bearing of one's head in the sand. It teaches a number of
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things which are above reason, for the revealed truths known only to God must
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be a little above ordinary human thought. But whilst faith teaches some truth so
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profound as to be above natural reason, it never teaches any single doctrine which
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is opposed to the sound and rational. Prove any given doctrine to violate correct
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principles of reason, and I shall cease to believe it at once. That's
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fairly unique to the Catholic faith. Actually, uh, you may remember when
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I was a certain Southern Baptist university, I would point out such things as
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old. When the preacher said that we believe that even drinking one drop of
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alcohol drop one sip of wine is a sin, I said, but wait
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a minute. Jesus made wine, and he said it was worse to lead
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someone into sin than to sin yourself. And he drank wine. So if
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Jesus, who is God, drank made and drank wine, then drinking wine
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can't be a sin. And they said to me. A college professor with
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a doctorate said to me, we'll get into it all right. Let me
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just say, if someone's gone to a Protestant college of Bible college. I
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don't care if it's a Presbyterian college, a Baptist college, whatever. And
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they have a PhD in something that isn't a hard science. I don't think
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it's really worth a kindergarten certificate of completion. Honestly, this man, who
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has doctorates and has written books, said, we don't believe that's really wine.
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We believe it was grape juice. And I said, was the Jews
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pressed from a grape? Yes, that's grape juice. I said, but
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okay, my family makes wine. There are yeasts presents present on the skin
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of the wine. The minute you crush the grape, the yeast begins to
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convert the sugars in the grape into alcohol. It's the way God intended.
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It's a natural way. In the hot Middle East, this would happen very
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rapidly, and within in just an hour of pressing the grapes, it would
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be some alcohol present in the and within twenty four hours most of the alcohol
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would have already been formed. There is There was no pro pastorization, there
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was no refrigeration, there was no sterilization. There is no scientific way,
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no human way possible that crush grapes could produce a non alcoholic grape juice two
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thousand years ago in the Middle East. And he looked at me and he
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said, we don't believe that's true. We believe it. We believe this
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to be grape juice because our doctrine says that drinking alcohol is a sin.
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That is why I don't respect any degree from a Baptist university in Virginia or
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anywhere else for that for that matter, or a Pentecostal college or a Presbyterian
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college or a Methodist college without if you you cannot make your doctrine agree with
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the universal teachings of the Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ as taught for the
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last two thousand years, and science and regison and logic did in your doctrine's
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faults. We can say, as Catholics, God can perform miracles that we
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can't explain. That's part of our doctrine, and that's logically sound if we
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understand that God is not limited by human capacity. But we cannot sit here
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and say that grapes pressed into grape juice two thousand years ago in the hot
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temperatures of Palestine without any means of preventing sterilizing them from the yeasts that were
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present did not become wine very quickly. And we know for a fact that
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Jesus' strength made wine. You know I turned water into wine. It says
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that it says you save the best wine for the last. You know it
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wasn't grape juice. That was aged wine. We know that Jesus drank wine.
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He turned the wine into his blood in the Eucharist, and we know
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there'll be wine in heaven because he said he would drink again of the fruit
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of the grape in heaven. We know that the Jews were instructed to drink
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wine in the Passover feast. If you have a book I don't remember if
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it was Wisdom or syrac If you have a Catholic Bible that has the real
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books of the Bible in it, it says that wine gives joy to the
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heart. It may be asking Ecclesiastes. Actually, yeah, you got that
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in your Protestant Bible. Does grape juice give joy to your heart? We
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know that Saint Paul told I guess it was it Matthias. I think it
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was take a little don't drink water, only take a little wine, it's
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good for your stomach. By the Baptist doctrine, and the Pentecostal doctrine,
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and several any of your Reformed, Lutheran or Presbyterian doctrines that says that drinking
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alcohol is a sin. Jesus committed sin, Abraham committed sin. To go
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down the list, David No, I mean, well, we know,
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you know they had their issues. But Jesus is God, he can't sin.
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Saint Paul committed sin and instructed another to sin. If so, if
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you believe that drinking alcohols of sin, you have just undermined all Christian doctrine
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because Jesus can't be God, and his apostles can't be believed in God instructing
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the Father. God, the Father instructing the drinking of wine and the Passover
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meal can't be God. You cannot believe something that is antithetical to all Christian
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teaching, the very words of the Bible and the science and still be a
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Christian in this instance. I mean in many others. You know how many
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things. I mean, you got Christians so called that say abortion's okay.
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Well, you know, the Bible says I knew you in the womb I
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mean, just tomorrow in the Gospel, we'll hear about the infant in the
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womb, Saint John the Baptist leaping in the presence of Jesus in the womb.
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You have Christians that say homosexuality is okay. You have Christians to say
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divorce is okay. The very words of the Bible say not, and two
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thousand years of teaching say not. You can't have it both ways. You
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cannot believe things that are absolutely in opposition to the teachings of Christ and his
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Church and the words of the Bible, and to science, reason and logic,
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and have anything sound. So someone says, I got a agree from
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a bit in Virginia that you know, famous Southern Baptist College, that I
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had the very I had the displeasure to attend for two semesters. Yet it
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caused me to investigate Catholicism. Well, anyway I had. If someone says
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I have that degree, I'm to say, you know what, you probably
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could have gone to your local community college and saved a lot of money and
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kind of better education. First of all, because when I went there,
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they were said the saying in the admissions departments will admit anyone with a heartbeat
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and the wallet two. No, the larger point, the more important point.
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There are no coincidences in life. And because I was confronted very quickly
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with the flaws in Protestant doctrine, I had to begin to investigate Catholicism and
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I converted. So I am very grateful even for the people who were very
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very unkind to me at that school, people who ostracized me, who made
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me like a pariah, you know, who insulted me, who tried to
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steal, set me up in a way that I would be kicked out of
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the school and they could keep my tuition instead of letting me leave them on
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my own terms and give me a refund. I was treated very badly by
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so called Christians, but I have to be grateful because it let me become
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Catholic. Everything happens for a reason. Everything. So the person goes on,
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do you not maintain that faith in Christianity is necessary for eternal salvation?
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And they answer, those who do not know the facts are not required to
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believe doctrines of which they are unaware. Those who do know the facts cannot
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be saved unless they believe. For refusal is to insult the God who designed,
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who deigned to reveal the truth to men. That's probably a good place
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to leave it. I think you could see that in two different lights.
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At least you can reject Christianity, or you can be a Christian and reject
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the truth of Catholicism. Either way, you're rejecting the truth as revealed by
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God. Now let's get into Father Spirago's exhaustive explanation of the Catechism, and
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I hope to wrap up this section on the divine attributes today. He gave
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I think a total of thirteen, and we've gone through ten of them.
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If I'm not mistaken. In fact, I may have gotten through eleven yesterday.
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Let me see where I left off. Yes, it was ten.
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We'll start with eleven, so that makes sense. I usually do things in
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whole numbers for some odd reason, probably given the way I was raised by
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my mother, who has some issues with the details that I am. I
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lack. I'm as like laid back on everything, and she's a little bit
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bit more meticulous. I would not have stopped on number eleven. I would
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have stopped on number ten, which is a whole number. If I could
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not stop on ten, I would have gone to twelve. It's just the
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way I was taught. And for some reason those things tend to stick with
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you. I don't know why. So anyway, he says, God is
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infinitely just. He rewards all good and punishes all evil deeds. God's justice
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is identical with his goodness. He punishes men to make them better and to
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make them happy. God punishes and rewards men partly on earth, but chiefly
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after death. Good actions bring men respect, sometimes riches, health, and
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a peaceful, conscious conscience. Bad actions bring just the opposite. Abraham,
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Noah and the patriarch Joseph were rewarded in this life. Absalom, the sons
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of Heli and Antiochus of Epiphanes were punished in this life. But it is
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in the next life, and especially after the resurrection, that body and soul
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alike will receive their full reward. If all sins were punished in this life,
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men would not believe in the judgment day. If none were punished here,
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they would not believe in God's retributive retributive I think he's wily pronounced it
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justice. That's a reference to say Augustine. God rewards the least good actions
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and punishes the smallest sin. Christ tells us that even a cup of cold
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water given in his name will have its reward. A mere look or gesture
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will meet with its due reward. Christ tells us that we shall give account
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for every idle word, and said Matthew, God punishes men for the most
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part in kind, I e. In the same way they have sinned by
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what things a man sineth, says the wise man, by the same he
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has also tormented. That's rather terrifying. I think doctor Scott Hahn who said
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that one of the most the most frightening thing he read in the Bible was
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when I think he was talking about Sodomon. Gamara may have been another one
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of the cities that God punished. He said, he gave them over unto
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their own devices. God did not prevent them from sinning. He let them
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have their will and destroy them. We Spirago says Absalom prided himself on his
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long hair, and it caused his death. Was it he the one that
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was caught in the tree in a battle. I think that's right. The
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rich glutton sin with his palate, and it was with his tongue and palate
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that he was tormented In the fire of Hell. Antiochus was tormented, who
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tormented the seven Maccabean brothers brethren, He said, actually by tearing and maiming
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their flesh, and his own flesh was eaten by worms against from Maccabees.
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Get a good Bible that has the books of Maccabees in it, and you
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will, even if you don't convert to Catholicism, if you disagree with everything
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I have to say. A real Bible, like a real complete Bible that
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we've had for two thousand years. And for some reason Martin Luther started tearing
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books out of You. Get the book that has the books of Wisdom,
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Sirac and mccabee first and second, Maccabees, et cetera, tobitt. You'll
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thank me, honestly, these beautiful, wonderful, instructive books that are the
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Word of God, and no one had the right to remove them from the
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Bible. No one Aimon wished to hang Murdecai, I think, say you
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pronounce it, and prepared a gallows for him, and on the same gallows
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he himself was hanged. Mordecai was at it anyway again post brougers using old
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spelling, and I can't get it phonetically, he has it spelled mardocci Ai,
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So you can see my frustration. The women of Bethlehem would not shelter
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the Mother of God and the Divine Sign, and their children perished at the
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revengeful and cruel hand of Herod. That statement shot me, It really did.
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I never thought of this. We know the horrible story of after you
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know, the Christ child was born, and Herod learned and he sent his
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soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem. According to Father Spirago, in
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part at least, that was a punishment for the way the Holy Family was
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treated, not being given shelter. Someone should have had enough charity to take
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in, you know, a pregnant woman about ready to give birth. That's
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a that's a very very harsh and hard teaching. But you know, we
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have to remember that part of the reason Sodom mcghmara was destroyed was lack of
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hospitality to strangers. The Bible repeatedly says that it's it was a Jewish and
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a Christian duty to take care of aliens and strangers. We're definitely not doing
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a very good job with that in our country as we encourage people to risk
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their lives be abused by cartels coming here, giving them promises of a welfare
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state and putting them in a legal limbo in which they cannot be citizens.
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They're here illegally encouraged by our own government, not given the full protections of
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citizens, to be exploited by organized crime. I mean, you either have
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a law and uphold it or you don't. You can't have it both ways.
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I mean, look at what happened in Prohibition. They made alcohol illegal
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and then turned a blind eye to the mafia and other you know, organized
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crime, and there was blood in the streets. This what's happening in our
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legal immigration our in our immigration system. It's our government's fault. It's not
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the immigrant trying to come here for a better life. Is our government that
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hangs out these enticements and puts these people in such a horrible situation. And
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Catholic charities is facilitating this. And like I've said many times, not a
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penny for Catholic charities. They're doing nothing but enriching the cartels. They're they're
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aiding. They're a betting and drug trafficking and human trafficking, I mean,
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yeah, pornography, prostitution, the rape of children, slave labor. That's
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what happens when you put someone in that that category of not not a citizen
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here on our invitation, but not given the protections of waw in in the
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shadows. You you make them live in the shadows and on the streets to
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be taken advantage of by every you know, predatory criminal out there. It's
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not right anyway. And this was also interesting. Napoleon the Pursed, Well,
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there was only one Napoleon. I don't know why they always put the
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first there, but anyway, Napoleon imprisoned the Holy Father and in turn was
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imprisoned first on Elba and then in Saint Helena. In these and many similar
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events, the Christian sees the finger of God. I never really connect those
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dots about Napoleon, but yeah, that makes sense. In rewarding and punishing,
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God has regard to the circumstances of the individual, and especially to the
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intention with which he acts, and to the talents that he possesses. Men
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judge from the outward appearance of any action. God judges from the heart.
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The poor widow who threw in only two mites into the treasury of the temple
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had more merit before God than many rich men who gave large gifts. The
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servant who knows of his Lord's will and does it not will receive more stripes
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than the servant who did not know the will of his Lord. The more
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knowledge anyone has of God, the more severely God will punish him for his
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sins. God is no respector of persons. Many who are first in this
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world would be last in the world to come. The story of the rich
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Glutton and the poor Lazarus is an instance of this. Many who have their
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names in the mouths of men and in the records of their country would not
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have their names written the Book of life. Because God is a God of
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perfect justice, we have good reason to fear him. God exhorts us to
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fear us to fear God, who is able to cast both body and soul
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into hell on account of one single sin, that of our first parents.
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Millions of men have had to suffer pain and death, and countless numbers will
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be forever miserable. Thence we gather how God hates sin. The same conclusion
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follows from the fact that our Lord had to die in agonizing death to a
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tone for sin. Who then can fail to fear God? But our fear
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of God must be a filial, not a servile fear, for we must
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fear not so much. The punishment of sin is the offense against God.
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A filial fear is the result of a great love of God. Yet we
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must try and avoid from fear of punishment those sins from which the love of
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God is not sufficient to deter us. The fear of God is a great
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advantage to us. It keeps us back from sin and leads us to perfection,
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and ensures for us peace and happiness, both in time and in eternity.
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The fear of God keeps us back from sin. It was the fear
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of God that held back the aged Eliazar from eating swine's flesh again from Maccabees
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wonderful heroic passage in Maccabees in which the old man goes to be tortured to
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death rather than to eat pork because he was a faithful Jew. He who
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fears God knows no other fear. As the wind drives away clouds, so
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the fear of God drives fleshly lusts and enables us to escape the snares of
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the devil. He who fears God cast sight all attachment to things of the
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earth. As the mariner in danger throws overboard the wares that otherwise would sink
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his ship, as the needle pierces the stuff and makes way for the thread.
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So the fear of God prepares the way for the love of God and
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for every virtue. The fear of God, says the Psalmist, is the
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beginning of wisdom. The fear of man is full of bitterness and makes a
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man a slave. The fear of God is full of sweetness and makes him
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a free man. The fear of God brings with it honor and glory.
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It is crowned with joy and happiness. It gladdens the heart and gives strength
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and happiness and long life. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.
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As from Psalms, the more we fear God now, the less we shall
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fear His judgment in the last day. The fear of God is a special
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grace given to God, given by God to those who love him. The
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fear of God is a special gift of the Holy Ghost. God says of
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his people, I will give my fear in their hearts that they may not
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revolt from me. Hence our prayer should be pierce thou my flesh with thy
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fear. That's from Psalms as well. Point number twelve. God is a
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God of perfect truth i e. All that He reveals to man is true.
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God cannot error, He is omniscient, he cannot deceive, or he
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is all holy. God is not as a man that he should lie,
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nor as the son of man that he should be changed, nor the son
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of man that he should be changed. It's from numbers. Hence, we
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must believe all that God has revealed, even though our feeble understanding cannot comprehend
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it e g. The mysteries of the Christian religion, the Blessed Trinity,
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the Incarnation, the blessed sacrament of the alter etc. We believe it even
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though we cannot quite understand it. God is faithful, He keeps his promises
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and carries out his threats. This iso point thirteen and the final one for
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today. See how exactly God carried out his threats of threat of death to
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our first parents and his subsequent promise of a redeemer. See again how exactly
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our lord's prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem was just was fulfilled, and how
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the prophecy of Daniel that the temple would never again be rebuilt was accomplished,
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for when Julie and the Apostate made an attempt to rebuild it, an earthquake
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destroyed the foundations, and flames issuing from the ground compelled the builders to flee.
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Promise that that's part of history. Most people probably don't know. And
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you know, if you know a little bit more about the history of the
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destruction of the Temple, the end of well, I mean, that's from
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Dan, I think. But if we actually get into the destruction of the
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temple, you know, around seventy a d the destruction of Jerusalem, we
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can understand the Book of Revelation a whole lot more promising and threats are necessary
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to move our feeble wills. Lord used the fear of punishment as an incentive
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to virtue. Ordinary men are more influenced by fear than any higher motive with
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them. The fear of hell is stronger than the motive for virtuous living and
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the hope of heaven. God threatens us out of mercy. The man who
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cries beware does not want to strike, so God threatens punishments that he may
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not have to punish. Hence, all that our Lord and the prophets have
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foretold, either has already happened, or will happen in the future. The
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time will therefore never come when the Catholic Church will be destroyed or when the
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papacy was ceased to exist. Reference to Matthew sixteen eighteen. The Jews will
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be converted before the end of the world. And I think that is from
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Hosea, the Book of Hosea, which in foros Virago's older way of writing
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was o csee but look for a Hoseiah three five. And our Lady has
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come several times in apparitions, especially in the last one hundred years or so,
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to tell us that Jews and Muslims will convert to Christianity before the end
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of the world. So hey, we're not there yet, and we're not
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gonna be there for a long time. Don't be listening for that trumpet tomorrow,
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but live as if you were. But don't worry, don't fear.
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No one knows the day or the hour, and we're not there yet.
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If we trust our fellow men, they give us their promise on paper.
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How much more should we trust Christ? Since He has left us whole books
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i e. The scriptures filled with his promises. All right, y'all,
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I'm gonna cut off there. We just wrapped this chapter up, so talk
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to you tomorrow. Have a great one. Remember the words of Saint Padre
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Pio, pray, hope, and don't worry.