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Show 96: The Motives of Faith, Part 2 · The Uncensored Catholic

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A, Hey, y'all, welcome to today's show. I just wanted to
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a brief one today. I wanted to finish up on the chapter from father
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Sipiagu's book that we were discussing yesterday. Don't want to leave you hanging over
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the weekend. Obviously, it's you know, it's nice. A lot of
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people they may not get a chance to listen to my podcast during the week.
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We'll listen to a couple of them on the weekend. You know by
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their comments inside, I can tell that's what's going on. So I just
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wanted to, you know, be a little resolution, and with that in
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mind, we will continue on well beginning well the beginning of this show,
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we will continue with the Questions and Answers and Radio Replies, that classic book
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from the nineteen thirties where atheists and anti Catholic Protestants, et cetera, communists
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the Whole Gamut submitted questions to priests that hosted a radio program, one from
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America and one from Australia, and there are three volumes of radio replies.
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The first one was published in nineteen thirty eight. I think the last one
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ended up around nineteen fifty. I mean it really runs the gamut of political
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and social issues. I can't recommend these highly enough. Now, you know,
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some of it is a little antiquated. You know, it's definitely pre
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Vatican two. You know, there was a lot of controversy in questioning before
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that doctrine was officially dealt with about limbo and I okay, so before the
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Church really dealt with the issue of limbo, there was a big question of
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whether unbaptized children would go to heaven. There was never an official statement on
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it whatsoever. Some scholars speculated they would, and some speculated that they would
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kind of hang out in a limbo like the Jews did. Who are religious
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Jews who loved God and you know, before Jesus came and opened the gates
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to heaven. Really that's been very much clarified, especially by several visions of
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the Blessed Mother, who says that she actually goes and takes those children to
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heaven and has a special fondness for them and cares for them, whether it's
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you know, a miscarriage, an abortion even or you know, a child
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that dies in infancy, they are under her special protection. So obviously,
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if someone picks up this book from nineteen thirty eight, and maybe they've had
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a miscarriage or something and they read the discussion on that topic. It could
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be quite upsetting, quite upsetting. You know. I got some issues with
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that in my family for various reasons. You know, I got a brother
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and sister in heaven. So I don't doubt that. And I'm glad the
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Church has clarified that because it was very upsetting to a lot of people.
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Cannot remember the name of the saint wrote very eloquently on the subject, you
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know, and really church teaching was moving in that direction for a long time.
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I mean, the Saint said, and this was hundreds of years ago,
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in a letter to the parents who had lost a child, that that
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child was baptized with the waters of the mother's womb, and you know,
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was now in heaven and would pray for them, and one day we'll call
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meet again. So let's jump into it. The person who has been asking
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them about the Bible says, are there not difficulties in the New Testament as
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well as in the Old Testament? And they say, yes, but there
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are no real contradictions. To prove a contradiction, you must show that the
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texts. You must show that the texts are undoubtedly authentic, and that they
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admit no possible conciliation would suppose contradictions have been urged by adversaries. Expert defending
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scholars have advanced various quite probable theories by which the difficulties would be solved.
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They are not obliged to prove one or the other of their theories certainly true.
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The one who asserts contradictions declares that there is no sense in which both
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accounts could be true. The moment, competent scholars offer a reasonable and probable
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explanation by which difficulties would be reconciled, necessary contradiction is excluded. Even if
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rationalist critics prove that every suggested explanation be unreasonable and certainly faults, they would
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not necessarily have proved a contradiction in scripture. At most, they would have
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proved that interpreters had not yet discerned the correct method of reconciling an apparent divergence.
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That's a very complicated way I'm saying. If someone says in the scriptures,
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this can't be true or this doesn't make sense, and someone comes up
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with a logical, reasonable way that it can be shown true, or or
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logical or reasonable. Then the two kind of cancel each other out, and
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it's actually the onus is on the critic. Onnus is actually Latin. You
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know. My grandfather used to use that phrase. It means the burden is
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on you to prove its faults. It's it's sort of a legal term.
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But I don't know Wory. You know, he was a justice of the
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peace for a while. Maybe he picked it up there, but he always
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he would always say the onus is on you, and that means it's is
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your responsibility. Oh, he was a great man. The person asks,
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if the Gospels are inspired, why the inconsistencies on all important it matters?
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So that's an idiotic statement. There are no inconsistencies in any single important matter.
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Each Gospel is a fragment or fragmentary account, and each writer gives complimentary,
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not contradictory details. I suppose that I went from London to Rome for
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a three months holiday, but on the way I broke my journey for a
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week in Paris. Later, I might write to a friend I spent my
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holidays in Rome. Yet to another friend I could say during my holidays,
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I stayed in Paris, there is no real inconsistency, although although the friends,
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on comparing my notes might find an apparent inconsistency, but almost at once
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they would say he might have done both. The one does not exclud the
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other. The omitted mention of Paris in one account, and Rome and the
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other. So two with the gospels. One gospel will mention details which the
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other passes over in their brief accounts. Do you maintain that mistake and interpolations
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That's a hard word to say. Interpolations by a copyists were not possible in
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the transcription of the Bible. And they answer mistakes and interpolations will That's not
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a word I've ever used in conversation. It doesn't roll easily off the tongue.
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So mistakes and interpolations were certainly possible, but by comparison of independent copies
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these are discoverable. Yet remember, the Catholic Church does not say that copyists
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were inspired. Inspiration has claimed for the original evangelist. In so far as
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later copies or versions exactly correspond with the original writings, they give the inspired
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word of God, in so far as they are not exactly they or not
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person continues the genealogists of Christ. With genealogies of Christ, I should say,
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as given in the Gospel, afford one much difficulty. If Jesus was
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not the son of Joseph, why is his genealogy traced through Joseph. Jesus
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was not the natural son of Joseph, but Mary, who was the mother
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of Jesus, was related to Joseph, whose genealogy was also her own.
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It was a Jewish custom to record dissent only through the male line. That
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is true. However, it is also a Jewish custom even in the present
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day. As I mentioned before, I've had many Jewish friends have a great
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love and kinship with the Jewish people in general. If your mother's Jewish,
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you're Jewish. They literally they may trace the genealogy through the male line,
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but the mother kind of rules the religion. And trust me, if your
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mother's Jewish, you're Jewish. That's honestly probably. You know. I dated
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two Jewish girls very seriously, at two different times years apart. One was
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in college, beautiful Redhead. She was actually a licensed psychio address when I
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was still in college, even though we were a few years apart. That's
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how smart she was. And yeah, I liked her a lot. And
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then there was actually a little blonde with blue eyes from Tel Aviv who was
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a sort of a I guess, an Israeli activist, one might say,
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or I probably shouldn't elaborate on what else she might have been doing, because
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I don't know. You ever watch NCIS, You remember ZeVA David. She
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probably could have had a little bit in common with ZeVA. And I mean,
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you talk about impressive. This little five foot tall if even that ninety
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pound, if even that girl probably could have kicked my butt. I mean,
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and here I am, you know, six foot four, trained in
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kung fu, and you know, two hundred ten pounds lean. She was
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tough. She was tough and really had a great deal of feeling for both
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of them, both of them. I mean, would have had things worked
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out, I would have happily married either one of them. For both.
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Religion was a big issue one the Redhead. She came from atheist parents,
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but her tradition was still completely Jewish. For her to marry a Catholic would
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have meant extreme problems with her parents, who were atheists and Einran types.
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I mean, they weren't you know, they were very libertarian, very reasonable
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people. And we can have a good rational discussion. Got along great,
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But no, that meant insulting their quasi religious beliefs, I guess, but
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also her whole family tradition as an Ashkenazi Jew, I mean tracing impact in
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like Germany and Poland and Ukraine, and I mean, you know, those
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people went through Hell many times over, and they're very proud of their tradition
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and their cultural beliefs. And to become a Catholic, or to agree to
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marry a Catholic, which says the children have to be raised Catholic, was
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just an insult to even though she was really, you know, essentially Christian.
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She believed in Jesus Christ. She just the cultural pressures were such she
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wasn't able or ready when I knew her, to officially convert and to marry
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me would have been well, I mean, she said that her family would
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never speak her name again. It would be she'd be raised essentially from the
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family tree, cut out like a race, from the documents in the synagogue.
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Even her atheist parents were still you know, culturally Jewish. She would
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be absolutely astra size and it was hard. I understood. We parted on
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wonderful terms and I wish her well, you know, I don't know what
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became of her. She moved out to California, who knows, but really
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smart and so much fun to be around, and we had a great time.
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And then the other one, you know, she she was both culturally
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and religiously Jewish, and it's it's not a barrier one can get over.
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You can't be both Christian and Jewish or Jewish and Christian this whole, like
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Messianic Jewish movement has nothing to do with Judaism. These are Protestant, like
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fringe Protestants, sometimes fringe Jewish. I have known one or two Messianic Jewish
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Jewish folks, but uh or or seven, you know, to to observant
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Christians, Jews don't want anything to do with them. Uh, not in
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means so I mean in terms of joining their religion. Like I said said,
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every now and then there's one who kind of you know, tries to
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find a compromise on middle ground, et cetera. But you can read Saint
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Paul and you know the two are not reconcilable. If you read Jewish writings,
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you'd see even more that they're not reconcilable. Yeah, most I will
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say, ninety nine point nine percent of Jews don't have anything to do with
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Messianic Judaism or seven or well, I keep saying seven d avedists because it's
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so related. But Torah observant Christians, and they think they're incredibly offended by
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the entire notion. But yeah, my friend from Tel Aviv tough as nails,
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prettiest little thing you've ever seen in your life, but tough as nails.
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I mean she was a little Barbie Doll, no doubt about it.
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And I mean we loved Western swing music. She was a huge fan of
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Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Her boss actually was Kinky Freeman's girlfriend,
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And I mean we connect on so many levels. And we love Melbrooks movies
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and we loved a good Kasher, Telly Sandwich and some biggles. But no,
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it's it's just it's not reconcilable. I mean, it's it's a shame.
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Eventually, you know, according to visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
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it will all be sorted out and we just have to hope for that day.
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You know, there should be you know, there should be no divisions
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in the body of Christ among Christians. We should not have different denominations.
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Jesus said, I pray that they be one, like you and I are
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one. He was speaking to the Father. There should only be one church.
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Well, the whole family of man is made in God's image. You
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know, we should pray that Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and atheists,
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et cetera an end to the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Universal Church. I
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mean, that's you know, that's the ultimate goal. That's the end in
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mind. That's the commission that Jesus gave the apostles. But anyway, I
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don't even really remember what sent me down that road. Remembering ex girlfriends.
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I'll not do that very often, not that I've had that many, But
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yeah, those those two are still very special to me, very special to
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me. All right. So Father Spirago said, prophecies are clear and definite
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predictions of future events can be known to God alone. Prophecy also includes the
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prediction of future events which depend on the free will of man. This is
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a very difficult point. We don't mean you state that prophecy includes the prediction
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of future events which depend on the free will of man. For such events
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can only be foreseen by God himself. The most thorough knowledge of material causes
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avails nothing. They are often just the opposite of what previous knowledge would have
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led us to expect. For example, eg. As he put it,
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what does that stand for? E g. Examply anyway it means for example,
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anyway, don't need to get into that. He denial of Our Lord
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by Saint Peter. He predicted Saint Peter would deny him. He knew he
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was going to do it. Saint Peter still had to freely choose to do
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it. For knowledge is not predestination. We might say which Our Lord predicted.
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Prophecies may be called miracles of omniscience, of the omniscience of God,
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as distinguished from the miracles of his omnipotence. For prophecy requires an acquaintance with
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the heart of man, such as God alone possesses. See he knew Saint
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Peter's heart. That's why he knew. Well, I mean he's also omnipotent
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and omniscient, but I mean, you know, he knew Saint Peter's going
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to do it. Because Saint Peter's going to do it. He didn't make
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Saint Peter do it. That's you know, he didn't make a judas to
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betray him. He knew he was going to. He didn't stop him,
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but he didn't make him do it. The oracles of the Heathen correspond to
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the false miracles with which we have already spoken. They were mostly obscure and
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sometimes ambiguous, as when the oraclet Delphi told Crocius that if he crossed the
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river Hayley's with his army, he would destroy a mighty kingdom, but did
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not say whether that kingdom would be his own or that of his enemies.
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That's so interesting if you go back to you know, ancient Greek works.
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The oraquit Delphi was essentially a woman who would sit essentially in a cave over
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a fissure or a crack in the ground, and the gases would rise from
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that crack, and she would begin having visions and she would prophesy so called,
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and she had I don't remember how the number of other women around her
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that would write down what she said. And she said she had no idea
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what she was speaking. It was like she was possessed by some spirit and
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was speaking really I mean interesting, but you know, probably informed by demons
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and the demons didn't know the outcome of what was going to happen. They
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just knew something was going to happen. Always confused, always very ambiguous,
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and you know, like if someone uses a Ouigi board today, it's like
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this, you know, vague, stupid message and look, don't use weezy
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board shaw. And that's probably one of the most common ways people become possessed
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by demons. They're really not healthy. Let me tell you about another ex
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girl for the mine. So eighteen years old, maybe seventeen, I was
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probably seventeen. I had and graduated high school early. I couldn't go to
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college for a year because in the stay I could cause for a couple of
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years. Actually, North Carolina had a law at that point where if you
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graduated high school early because you were, you know, particularly intelligent, you
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couldn't go to You couldn't start college until a year after your graduating class graduated.
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So they basically punished the intelligent people and tried to keep us stuck in
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the institution we call public education. Well, anyway, I went on,
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I took some classes from community college that was allowed, and I started working
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and started dating college girls. So, you know, my girlfriend at the
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time, was a grad student. I guess she was about twenty four.
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I was seventeen, and she hadn't been into Wicca and different things. And
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you know, I wasn't a good Christian, but I was baptized. I
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wasn't Catholic yet, but I had been baptized. As I have said many
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times, bad just protects one against unwilling demonic possession. So she and her
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sister and their friends are like in their apartment one night and messing with a
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Ouigi board, and I walk in and it stops stop giving them messages.
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I sat down and it said, make him leave. Goes it again,
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the same message three times, make him leave. You wonder why I say,
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every child needs to be baptized at the earliest possible moment. There's a
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perfect example, a perfect example. And they said that was the most clear
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message they had ever gotten from Aluigi board. It wanted nothing to do with
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me. Why because I've been baptized. Yeah, I mean, I mean
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yeah, I think I know. She was raised Episcopalian, she was Baptist,
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but she had willingly, you know, participated with the Ouiji board,
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so you know she was trafficking with that spirit. Willingly. I was not,
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and I want nothing to do with it, and I basically want my
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presence put an end to their little party. That was it, that her
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witchy friends went home, and that you know, they didn't want to have
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anything to do with me. So that eventually happened. Several times in my
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life, I've had many you know, I'm an herbalist. I practiced herbal
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medicine. That's sort of my profession, as well as being a writer and
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a woodcarver and such. I encounter, you know, witch is wickens all
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the time. And they're not all bad people. I mean, seriously,
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some of the really nice people. They're just misguided. And you know,
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usually we get along very well with mutual respect, just as I do anyone,
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just as I would with a Muslim or a homosexual. You know,
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I don't insult people, and you know, I try to give people the
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respect that God asks us to do. But yeah, always, they almost
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always, like witches, will essentially say that I have a spirit about me
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that's very different than anything they ever encountered. Usually they love it. They
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want to be around me. They say to me that they feel peaceful around
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me, they feel calm around me. They feel happy around me. Well,
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that's because the demons that are tormenting them. I don't know, maybe
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my guardian angels just goes and smacks them in the face and makes them go
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away. I have no idea, but I've been told that for years.
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And gosh, one of the most beautiful women I ever met was a witch,
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a man six feet tall, withe and slender, long red hair,
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green eyes, very irish, and she just she was even older than me
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than the one I was just telling you about. I was also about,
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you know, college age. I think she was about twenty seven, and
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you know, we dated a little. And she just said, you know,
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when she was in her regular life, she had all kinds of anxiety,
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which was why she was always trying to cast spells. She was trying
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to control her environment. And when she was me, she was calm and
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peaceful and happy. And yeah, I mean that. I think it's a
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real sign of you know, what God can do for people. It's like
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I said, I wasn't even a good Christian at the time, but I
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was a Christian, so as a Catholic now, I mean, I think
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we can have even more influence in this world. So many people are being
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led astray, and I mean, what do we have to do but just
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get out and spend time with people. And you know, anyway, where
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was I. I was just talking about the oracle at Delphi. So as
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I said, they said, the oracle told him he would destroy a mighty
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kingdom, but not say whether it was his own or that of his enemies.
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Those are the tricks that demons play. They give you just enough information
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to get you in trouble. Many predictions were given by the oracles and the
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Heathen seothsayers which were not true prophecies, which were guesses made from a knowledge
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and the laws of nature, and from the laws that regulate general course of
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human development. The evil spirits, through their superior knowledge, were often able
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to foretell events that men could not foresee, such as the approach with storm
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or pestilence, or the death of some individual. Point number six. God,
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for the most part in trusts the prophesying of the future events to his
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messengers for the confirmation of the true faith for the benefit of men. Thus
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God entrusted the prophets of the Jewish Covenant with the prophecy of a redeemer to
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come in order to confirm the belief in him to convince those to whom he
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came that he was the true Messiah and those who have lived since his coming
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of the truth of the Christian religion. He sent to Noah the prophecy of
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the flood in order to lead men to do penance. Sometimes he revealed the
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future to wicked men, such as when to Balthazar Baltizar, I guess he
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foretold the coming of the destruction by the handwriting on the wall. Sometimes he
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employed wicked men as the instruments through which he foretold the future, such as,
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I guess it's pronounced blayml L no b A L did twice, didn't
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I b A L A M. That would be a prophet of the demon
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vail ball whatever. In general, he only employed as an instrument of prophecy
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for his own faithful servants, revealing the future either through a vision or by
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an angel, or through some interior illumination. Thus, the archangel Gabriel was
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sent to instruct Daniel during the Babylonian captivity. Respecting the time of the coming
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of the Messiah. The prophecies of the apocalypse were put before Saint John in
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the form of a vision. Such communications were given to the prophets only from
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time to time. None of them had a permanent knowledge of future events.
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Thus Samuel did not know to who was to be the future king of Israel
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until David was actually presented to him. The gift of prophecy is therefore,
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generally speaking, a proof that he who possesses it is a messenger from God.
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The fulfillment of prophecy is of course necessary before we recognize it as proof
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that he who utters it is a messenger from God. It must not contradict
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anyed revealed doctrine or be inconsistent with the holiness of God. It must be
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edifying and profitable to men. It must be uttered with prudence and calmness,
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for it as a mark of false prophet to show no control of self.
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And we must also, I'm speaking of my own words now, I'm not
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reading his. We must also remember that at the close of the Book of
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Revelation, Saint John the Apostle says there shall be no further revelation, so
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any prophecy is never going to be a new teaching. That's one of the
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big ways we can tell the difference between a true prophet and a false prophet.
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Like all the scary stuff Saint John talked about in the Revelation and such,
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there are going to be, you know, demon possessed individuals who come
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forward with all kinds of prophecies. But if they're changing the teachings of God,
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if they're getting some new revelation, their faults on their face. You
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know. So after I started college, well no, I was actually still
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at the community college when I injured my back and I was paralyzed for two
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years. And there's a pretty girl friend all left me with out a doubt.
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Yes, I went from being you know, I was a tall,
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strong, fairly good looking kid with long blonde hair and you know, kind
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of looked like you remember the Beast Master that was a movie in the eighties,
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you know, that's kind of the way I looked. I had this
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long, curly blonde hair, and the girls like me, especially the grad
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students and everything. And then I found myself paralyzed almost completely in one leg
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in about eighty percent in the other and intense pain in two years, unable
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to really get out of bed more than a crawl across the floor and get
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some pain medicine. And it was horrible. It was awful. You know,
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when I went off the meds, thought I was getting dependent on him.
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I went ten days and nights without sleep. The pain it was intense.
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I was healed by a miracle and that eventually led me to be come
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Catholic. But in the meantime after that, I went to the University of
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Georgia for a while. And while I was down there, I worked in
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a Methodist youth ministry. And if you've read my book, you know the
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story. The preacher was a complete utter con man. I mean, he
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was embezzling, he was stealing, he was doing everything he could, and
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basically the only reason there was a youth ministry was to cut back on the
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work he actually had to do himself. He just wanted to be out golfing
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and smoking his cigars and eating at I mean, my gosh, these people
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ate. He was probably about three hundred pounds. His wife was probably four
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hundred pounds. They adopted five sons, all of whom they only adopted to
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get the money from the state for being a falster parent. They were each
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about three hundred pounds. And let me tell you, these folks would plow
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into a buffet lunch like you've never seen in your life. But one of
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his things was to say that he had visions and prophecies, he had prophetic
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dreams, and he read a whole book about him. He had a lot
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of people suckered, but they eventually figured him out. When someone starts telling
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you they've had a prophecy where they've had a dream, you know, as
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the Bible says, you better check the fruit on the vine. That's a
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very good way for people to manipulate others. I know of a so called
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Baptist ministry that started like a little cult in South Carolina, and the minister
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would say he had prophecies, and he was always doing all this stuff,
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and people gave him a lot of money, and eventually they started sending him
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their troubled teenage daughters and he you know, pumped him up on drugs and
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raped them. So be very careful when some people start talking about prophecies.
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Definitely, definitely you'll know the tree by its fruit. Ah. Yeah.
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Anyway, y'all, in the words of Saint Padre Pio, pray, hope
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you don't worry. I will talk with you next week. Have a great
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week. Ind