One of the charges I often hear from my non-Catholic Christian friends is that I seem to be undermining the inspiration and sufficiency of Scripture in my constant critique of the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura. Nothing could be further from the truth! To quote the Catechism of the Catholic Church: The inspired books teach […]
Before I was a Catholic (and the entire 12 years I was the senior/teaching pastor at our congregation) I encouraged people to judge everything they believed and to judge what I was teaching them on Sundays, by the Bible — especially if there was a dispute between two contrary ideas that needed to be resolved […]
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 […]
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE PHRASE, “THE BIBLE IS SUBJECT TO INTERPRETATION?” I’ve heard it more times than I can count, and honestly it makes me wonder what the people who say it think the Bible actually is. My own passion to learn to interpret the Bible carefully and properly led me to take both […]
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 […]
A reflection on the Gospel reading for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time. Matthew 11:25-30 (NABRE) At that time Jesus exclaimed:“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,for although you have hidden these thingsfrom the wise and the learnedyou have revealed them to little ones.Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.All […]
When I felt the Holy Spirit calling me and my family to fully reconcile with the Roman Catholic Church, I sat down and made a list of all the things about Catholic Doctrine (as I understood it at the time) that I had a serious problem with. And trust me when I tell you, I […]
Before we jump in here, just a reminder that there are actually five great commission texts (at least) in the Gospels and Acts. This post is about the one in Matthew’s gospel. In my post surveying the Greek text of Mat. 28:19-20, I noted that I think Matthew 28:18 is actually a key to understanding the […]
Did you know that there are five texts in the New Testament that contain different facets of the “Great Commission” – and without each of them, there may be something lacking in our understanding of what Jesus wants to do through His Church? I have personally come to see all five texts together as a composite […]
We’re all familiar with “The Great Commission” in Matthew 28:18-20. Yes, that’s right, verses 18-20 (most people leave verse 18 off, though I think that’s the most important part – but that’s something covered at length in this post). What about verses 19 and 20? What do those two verses really say? What are the […]