A favorite story that Brother B. F. Hall loved to tell happened among the Cherokee Indians of North Alabama. A Methodist circuit rider visited the Indian community in the Spring of 1825 to distribute Testaments among them. A young Indian received a Bible and proceeded to read it with diligence.…
Among Jewish people in Bible times, social and religious customs mandated never serving unmixed wine, especially if it was fermented. The Talmud (a Jewish work that describes the traditions of Judaism from about 200 BC to AD 200) discusses in several tractates the mixture of water and wine (e.g. Shabbath…
A few years ago our teaching team was trying to understand the unique challenges a person with a Roman Catholic background has when visiting a Protestant Church, particularly the church I serve. So we asked visitors to CCV with a Catholic background to fill out a brief survey. I thought…
As time went on, the monasteries were just coining in money. After all, they held the keys to heaven, and everyone wants to get there. So they developed many ways to part the rich from their cash. For example, the medieval church advised that everyone go on a pilgrimage at…
John Paul II/ John XXIII John XXIII “Tonight when you go home, caress your children and tell them it’s a caress from the Pope.” “Sinners like the rest of us they had secrets, cut deals, made enemies and played political favorites.” Pope Francis declared his two predecessors John XXIII and…
Catholics would outlaw all abortions, regardless of the circumstances. Protestants are more likely to identify situations in which an abortion might be justified. Surprisingly, Protestants are also more likely to support ending all federal funding of abortions. Protestants are more likely than Catholics to be qualified as theologically…
The Catholic teaching is that priests must remain celibate (unmarried). o Catechism 1579: “All the ordained ministers of the Latin Church, with the exception of permanent deacons, are normally chosen from men of faith who live a celibate life and who intend to remain celibate “for the sake of…
Looking for a Patron Saint? You shouldn’t have much trouble finding one. The 1956 edition of Butler’s Lives of the Saints contains 2,565 named saints. You can find a patron saint for button makers, dairymaids, and pastry chefs; for gravediggers, grocers, and grandfathers; for fugitives, jugglers, and truck drivers –…
Is there a limbo where Jesus descended, when we say in the Creed, “He descended into hell”? The souls of the just of the Old Testament could not enter heaven until Christ “opened the gates of heaven” by His death, resurrection, and ascension. The so-called “descent” of the soul of…
Since justification in the Catholic Church comes by faith and works through grace (which is in contrast with Romans 11 which tells us that there can be no works in grace), part of that justification process is in attending Mass and essentially gaining spiritual points so that they can spend…
