God is not like a father (A Father’s Day Reflection)

It’s almost Father’s Day here in the U.S., so I want to use the occasion to remind everyone that God is not like a Father. Stick with me. Read on. Be encouraged. This holiday, along with Mother’s day, is both a wonderful and a difficult time for parents and children alike. It is especially hard for those […]

The Book of Genesis — The Bible’s first story of what God intends, and what people do

I just finished reading through the book of Genesis again — this time with tens of thousands of Catholics who are spending 2021 reading the entire Bible together with Father Mike Schmitz (along with Jeff Cavins) via the “Bible in a Year” podcast. To read Genesis is to read an epic drama! At some points […]

The Book of Job and the Bankruptcy of Misapplied Orthodoxy

People love formulas. Religious people really love them! We love creeds, propositions, systems, and theological conclusions that help us to make sense of the bible, the world, God, life, good, evil, right and wrong. And don’t get me wrong. Sometimes, those things will keep us out of big trouble. When we make conclusions based on […]

Five questions for “sinner’s prayer” evangelism (Update: Video Added)

Do you believe a person becomes a Christian as the result of saying a “sinner’s prayer”? If so, I have five questions. Question 1: Then what?  After I say the “sinners prayer” to be saved, then what? When I went to Navy boot camp in 1987 one month after my eighteenth birthday, and just one […]

The Pusuit of a Good Conscience – Pt. 1 – Every Person’s “Mental Moral Monitor”

INTRODUCTION – The Conscience – Every Person’s “Mental Moral Monitor” “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” – John 8:9 In his popular Catholic Dictionary, Father John A. Hardon […]

AUDIO BOOK: A Catholic View of Protestantism by Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

In September of 2020 I was encouraged by a friend to listen to a lecture by the late Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. on the state of American Protestantism. In his six-hour lecture, Fr. Hardon mentioned books that he had written which had gone out of print. One of them was called “Christianity in Conflict […]

Do Catholics believe in justification by faith?

One of the most often-used and erroneous mischaracterizations of the teaching of the Catholic Church is that the Church teaches “salvation by works,” whereas Protestantism “correctly” teaches salvation by grace through faith alone – or, “justification by faith alone.” In order to correct both errors (the error that the Catholic Church teaches salvation by works, […]