The Church Fathers

I will quote extensively from these men throughout this essay to show a pattern of Catholic belief immediately preceding the death of the Apostles. My first step on this journey was to get familiar with them. I only ask you watch a video or two and read an article or two, as the Spirit leads

• https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/church-history/

Constantine

• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/athanasius-and-the-myth-of-the-great-apostasy
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/does-christs-church-need-to-be-restored
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/how-to-answer-the-charge-catholicism-is-pagan

How ironic – the first Christian Emperor would legalize Christianity allowing it to finally flourish out in the open – developing a real structure and finally forming the Biblical canon (more on that in a bit).

how we’re saved

By believing in Christ (Jn 3:16; Acts 16:31 )
By repentance (Acts 2:38; 2 Pet 3:9)
By baptism (Jn 3:5; 1 Pet 3:21; Titus 3:5)
By eating his flesh and drinking his blood (Jn 6)
By the work of the Spirit (Jn 3:5; 2 Cor 3:6)
By declaring with our mouths (Lk 12:8; Rom 10:9)
By coming to a knowledge of the fruth
(1 Tim 2:4; Heb 10:26)
By works (Rom 2:6-7; James 2:24)
By grace (Acts 15:11; Eph 2:8)
By his blood (Rom 5:9; Heb 10:22
By his righteousness (Rom 5:17; 2 Pet 1:1 )
By keeping the commandments (Matt 19: 17)
By our words (Matt 12:37)
By great acts of service (Mt. 10:42)
By persevering to the end (Matt 24:13)
By standing firm (Matt 10:22)
By feeding the hungry, clothing the sick and visiting the sick or imprisoned (Mt. 25:35-37)

So which is it?

All I was ever told was that I had to ask Jesus into my heart (Jesus never gave that command) and that placing my faith in Jesus Christ would “save” me (that is in the Bible) but the Bible clearly teaches much much more than that. So… which is it? Do we throw away all the other verses, do we try and “interpret” them to all mean basically then same thing (that’s impossible) or do we accept the FULL understanding of the scriptures teachings on it? What I have found in Catholicism is not a “saved by works” theology, but a complete theology that incorporates all of the Bible, including the Old Testament, and all of Jesus’s words into a clear and rich theology of salvation through grace alone by Christ Alone.

• https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/salvation-2/
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/assurance-of-salvation
• https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2012/01/21/who-can-be-saved/

Purgatory

Questions: What really happens to Christians who live committed lives of faith but commit a grievous sin? Why did Jesus often allude to “paying back a debt”? What did Paul mean when he said that some men would be saved but “only as one a passing through a fire”? Is Purgatory some sort of holding station? Nothing imperfect can enter into heaven and Jesus clearly stated that we must be perfect as He is perfect. How is this achieved? What did Christians practice and believe on this matter after the apostles died?

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/purgatory
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/purgation-station
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/did-jesus-believe-in-purgatory
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/purgatory-where-is-that-in-the-bible
• Extra Credit: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/?s=purgatory

Paul prays for Onesiphorus – who is dead.

2 Timothy 1:16-18
“ 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain; 17 when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly[a] searched for me and found me 18 —may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you know very well how much service he rendered in Ephesus.”

Even protestant scholars agree:

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/darmstrong/st.-paul-prayed-for-onesiphorus-who-was-dead

• https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/scripture-and-tradition/
• https://shop.catholic.com/blog/tradition-in-the-early-church/
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/apostolic-tradition
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-old-testament-canon
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-real-bible-church

• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-to-defend-the-deuterocanonicals
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/scripture-and-tradition
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/what-word-of-god-means
• https://www.catholicconvert.com/blog/2019/09/17/differences-between-catholic-and-protestant-approaches-to-the-bible/

First, Protestantism has always claimed that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, the only standard for apprehending God’s saving truth. They cite 2 Timothy 3:16-17 in particular to buttress their claim: “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” John Henry Newman responds in Inspiration that if “this passage proved anything, it would prove too much, viz., that the Scriptures of the New Testament were not necessary for a rule of faith” Why? Because the only Scripture both written and codified at the time of St Paul’s writing to Timothy were the Old Testament books. A good number of the New Testament books had not been written in Timothy’s boyhood (2 Tim. 3:14-15), and none had been placed in the New Testament canon. This further illustrates that the Bible not only requires an infallible Church to interpret it accurately, but the same Church to authoritatively determine which books belong in the Bible as divinely inspired writings and which, whatever edifying counsel they might otherwise provide, do not.

Paul would tell Timothy in 1 Tim 3:15 that the Church (not the Bible) is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” – this is a powerful insight as the Church came before the Bible. Secondly, the “Word of God” as its most often referred to, isn’t the Bible (which wouldn’t be compiled for 4 more centuries). The New Testament hadn’t even been written yet when John 1 spoke of the Word (Jesus) made flesh (which we were to consume as nourishment in John 6). This is the most puzzling stance in the Evangelical world to me. John isn’t talking about The Bible, John is talking about Jesus Christ, the living SPEAKING Word of God. Jesus is not the Bible right? Heb 4:12 tell us: “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” I always thought that was talking about the Bible, but Heb 4:13 continues: “And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” So let’s combine those verses “The word of God is living and active…and before him no creature is hidden”.

Is the Bible a male? The sword that pierced Mary’s heart was Jesus (as predicted to her face by Simeon), and in Revelations, a sword is coming out of Jesus’ mouth – HE is the Word that his sharper then any double edged sword – it could not be more plain. And the Catholic Church has been preaching that for 2000 years. The Bible never even talks about itself. Jesus never told his disciples to write down anything he said. Most of them didn’t for that matter. And it was only 400 years later that Catholic men with exclusively Catholic doctrine would meet in council after council putting together the Scripture. If Catholics are wrong why did God choose them to compile the Holy Scripture? And more importantly, how did Christianity survive for 400 years without a compiled book called “The Bible”? No Christian in AD 245 talked the way I did for most of my life. So back to some previous questions: how did the Church then even read any holy Scripture if most of the known world was illiterate? And why would God wait 1600 years to show us how to make a printing press so that everyone could eventually have their own copy?

Questions: Where does the Bible say baptism is symbolic? Why was Jesus baptized? Why was John baptizing before Jesus’ public ministry? Why was Jesus baptizing before his death and resurrection? If it’s a matter of choice or a symbolic act, why was baptizing part of the final instructions Jesus gave to His disciples before his ascension? Why throughout Acts was baptism ALWAYS introduced after a conversion? What did it mean when “whole households were baptized”? Why doesn’t the Bible specifically forbade infant baptism? Why would God allow erroneous baptisms for over a thousand years if they weren’t necessary?

Baptismal Grace

• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/baptism
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/baptismal-grace

Infant Baptism

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/infant-baptism
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/infant-baptism
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/to-explain-infant-baptism-you-must-explain-original-sin

Necessity of Baptism

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-necessity-of-baptism
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/baptism-saves-you

Questions: If confession isn’t necessary, why would God allow this practice for over a thousands years until the Reformation attempted to do away with it? Why was there no argument against this practice before the Reformation? Why would God allow it to continue today in the largest Christian denomination on earth? Why don’t evangelicals have ANY kind of arrangement for confessions, when the Bible makes it very clear they need to be done to another person? If a child steals, the parent will require that the child give it back, require that the child apologize AND the child most certainly NEEDS to hear forgiveness from the parent – why is this arrangement crucial in the earthly family but not in our relationship to our Father? How can we learn true humility by only privately confessing to God and not to a man?

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/confession
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-forgiveness-of-sins
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-to-talk-about-confession
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/sackcloth-and-ashes
• https://www.catholic.com/qa/penance-is-not-punishment
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/god-chooses-to-uses-human-intermediaries
• https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/12/29/the-god-of-justice-and-of-mercy/

Questions: Jesus said “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age – so where IS He?” If communion is just a symbol, why would Paul, in 1 Cor, mention illness and death as being a direct result of partaking in the bread and blood unworthily? Why would God allow such a confusion for over a thousand years before The Reformation came along and tried to change it? If Jesus said “This IS my body, this IS my blood” why would we try and change it to anything else? If we preach that asking Jesus into your heart REALLY means he comes into your heart, why is it so outrageous to think that He is IN the bread and wine? He said the latter, not the former afterall. What are we missing by simply making it an every now and then remembrance? Only modernists and nationalists seek to take all the supernatural out of the New Testament. Why would we accept Jesus’s miracles of walking on water or feeding the 5000 or driving out demons but not a miracle in the bread and the wine? Do we not CRAVE a touch of supernatural? Is it not built into us? Accusations of cannibalism were leveled against the church in the 1st and 2nd centuries – why would that be the case if the 1st and 2nd Century churches only practiced symbolism in The Eucharist?

• https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/eucharist/
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/christ-in-the-eucharist
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-real-presence
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-eucharist-as-center-of-the-church
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/heres-why-you-can-be-absolutely-sure-that-paul-believed-in-the-eucharist

The Greek word used for “authority” is most enlightening: exousia. It means, literally, “from the being of.” Jesus speaks with the very exousia of God, and therefore, his words effect what they say. He says, “Lazarus, come out!” and the dead man comes out of the tomb. He rebukes the wind and says to the sea, “Be still!” and there is calm. And the night before he dies, he takes bread and says, “This is my body.” And what he says is. “I am the Bread of Life”.

– Bishop Robert Barron

He teaches us to pray for “our daily bread”. The Greek word for “daily” was Epiousios (ἐπιούσιος) which was a new word, translated literally as ‘supersubstantial’ or ‘superessential’. If Jesus spoke so much of feeding us and being bread and asking us to eat His flesh (translated literally as ‘chew’ or ‘gnaw’) then is it quite believable that for 2000 years the largest Christian denomination would take that seriously as well as symbolically and experience a true miracle every day in the Eucharist. They receive Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine at Mass, a reality hinted at in St. Matthew’s infancy narrative, for our Lord is born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1, 5-6), which means “house of bread.” In addition, his Blessed Mother “laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7; see also 2:12), which normally serves as a place from which animals feed, but here indicates, as Scripture later affirms, that Jesus would serve as genuine consumptive sustenance for his followers (see John 6:51-58). I lose nothing accepting this. I keep all the beauty of the symbolism I’ve cherished and I gain the real presence of my Lord and the nourishment He promised along with the touch of supernatural that my soul has been so desperately longing for.

Way too many books on this subject, but Dr. Brant Pitre is an amazing professor of Jewish history and specializes in teaching the Jewish Roots of the Christian faith. I’ll refer to him later, but for now, this is a wonderful overview of the Jewish understanding of the Passover meal, the manna from heaven and what it would have been like to hear Jesus refer to Himself as “the bread of life”.

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.

 – Justin Martyr to Emperor Marcus Aurelius in First Apology, 155 AD

This was incredible. Less than 60 years after the death of John we have a clear, historical example of what a church service was like in 155 AD, and it’s letter for letter the Catholic Mass celebrated today in 2020.

Questions: What is the Mass? Why would God allow a phony version of a church service to exist for over a thousand years before correcting it in the Reformation? Why do a majority of Christians on earth still do it the wrong way?

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-sacrifice-of-the-mass
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-mass-is-profoundly-biblical
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-continuity-of-the-mass

Confirmation

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/confirmation
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/scripture-confirms-it

Bishop, Priest, Deacon

• http://jimmyakin.com/library/the-office-of-new-testament-priest
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/bishop-priest-and-deacon
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-three-fold-ministry
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/priests-share-in-the-mediatorship-of-christ

Anointing of the Sick

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/anointing-of-the-sick

Mary: Ever Virgin

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/mary-ever-virgin
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-case-for-marys-perpetual-virginity

Mary: Without Sin

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/immaculate-conception-and-assumption
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/mary-full-of-grace
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/how-to-defend-the-immaculate-conception
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-immaculate-daughter-of-zion
• https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/12/mary-conceived-without-sin-pray-for-us

More on Mary

• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/mary-the-ark-of-the-new-covenant
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/is-marys-queenship-biblical
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-assumption-of-mary-in-history
• https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/mary-2/

NOTE: I’ve included only one book on the historical roots of Mary, the rest are books on Jesus. To echo Peter Kreeft’s thoughts, I have noticed that the great Christian minds through history who love Mary have written the most exquisite prose on the Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps ever. I’m halfway through these books and know more about my Lord and love Him more than I ever have in my life. Truly to love the mother of Jesus is a gateway to loving Jesus more. This is all I want in my life, to love Him perfectly.

Questions: I know miracles exist but I never talk about it – why? Where are the celebrations of miracles in Protestantism? Where are they through Evangelical history? Where are the verified and revered stories of healings and signs and wonders? Are these only relegated to the charismatics? Big tent revivals? Did they all supposedly end with the death of the last Apostle? Where is that in the Bible?

• https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/12/27/a-religion-abounding-in-revelations/
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/private-revelation
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/do-miracles-still-occur

Questions: the heresy of the Sadducees was that they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Jesus reminded them that God was the God of the living and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – meaning those men are alive. When we die, our bodies cease to function, but we are very much alive according to Jesus no? So does death cut us off from the body of Christ? Where is that in the Bible? Doesn’t being in Heaven with Jesus, now made perfect, mean that we’re home and alive and very much apart of his mystical body? Nowhere does the Bible teach that death separates us from the body of believers on earth. Doesn’t the Apostle Paul care about me and my life here on earth? Or Luke, or David or any of the Biblical heroes? They have perfect knowledge now and exist outside of time, meaning they would have all the time in the universe to intercede for me as friends no? Can they not pray for me? Am I not allowed to speak to them? Wouldn’t they be able to pray more perfectly for me? Wouldn’t they be able to understand all things with perfect knowledge now and come to the throne with intercession for me? If I can ask my earthly friends for intercession, why not my heavenly friends? Why would God allow a deviant practice of “praying to the dead” for over a thousand years if it’s useless? Why is there no mention of any disagreement over this practice before the Reformation?

Daniel 3:84-87
Bless the Lord, you priests of the Lord;
sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, you servants of the Lord;
sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the righteous;
sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, you who are holy and humble in heart;
sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.

Who are these “spirits and souls of the righteous”? Isn’t Daniel very clearly speaking to them?

Colossians 1:11-12
11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us[a] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Who could these saints be but our brothers and sisters in heaven? They have an inheritance – we have not yet received it.

• https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/the-saints/
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-intercession-of-the-saints
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/praying-to-the-saints
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-bible-supports-praying-to-the-saints

Angels

What are angels? What do they do? What is their role in history, both in heaven and on earth? Why do I rarely talk or even think about them?

• https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/guardian-angel
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-science-of-angels

Contraception

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/birth-control
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/contraception-and-sterilization

Abortion

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/abortion

Homosexuality

https://www.catholic.com/tract/early-teachings-on-homosexuality

Marriage and Divorce

https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-permanence-of-matrimony

There is perhaps no greater example of Protestant and Catholic differences than on morality, specifically their deviation in the 20th century. It’s no small exaggeration to say that Protestantism, by and large, showed it’s true colors during the sexual revolution. With no traditions or interpreters to help extrapolate theology from the Bible on sexuality (Jesus never talks about abortion or masturbation) Protestantism was left nearly defenseless in what will be known as the bloodiest revolution in history – The Sexual Revolution. R. Marie Griffith’s book Moral Combat lays it all bare in a devastating (and well documented) history of American Christianity and the Sexual Revolution.

Apostolic Succession

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/apostolic-succession
• https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/apostolic-succession

Authority of the Pope

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-authority-of-the-pope-part-i
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-authority-of-the-pope-part-ii
• https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/defending-the-papacy
• https://www.tfp.org/lets-not-confuse-papal-infallibility-with-impeccability/

Origins of Peter as Pope

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/origins-of-peter-as-pope
• http://www.catholiclane.com/old-testament-roots-of-peter-and-the-keys/

Peter’s Primacy & Successors

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/peters-primacy
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/peters-successors

The Protestantism I have known has, over generations, surrendered its dogmatic, theological, and metaphysical substance in favor of mere morality – fit only to pronounce on questions of goodness or morality, not truth or reality. The Christ that much of Protestantism proposes is a Christ that came to instruct us to “love our neighbor” but not to initiate us into such arcane mysteries as the inner life of the Trinity or analogy of created being to God as uncreated Being. The injunction to be good is nearly all that’s left. Christianity cannot survive as mere morality; our view of what kinds of actions are good for us can only be known if we have first determined to what purpose or end we – as a specific kind of being – are ordered. Evangelicalism has failed to define this using Scripture alone, leaving its defenses on morality and Christian philosophy vulnerable to any new interpretation or idea.

Paul knew this when he wrote the Ephesians:

Ephesians 3:14-21
“14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.”

We are by nature born for the contemplation of truth, goodness, and beauty, and by way of these three “transcendentals” we are summoned to our fulfillment in the contemplation of God. Christianity proposes that man finds his true end only in the contemplative enjoyment, the everlasting friendship, of God. Every last bit of our morality depends upon this conclusion about our purpose and destiny. As Christians lose sight of this, the morality may well stay in place for a while. But, then again, it might not. Our vision of what we are has been shifting altering, often entirely unnoticed. This is the essence of Catholic thought and life and it is sorely missing in Evangelicalism.

By treating as superfluous dogma what was, in reality, the essential truth of Christianity, Protestantism lost first the purpose of its moral dimension and then it fundamentally altered the content of its morality. George Barna’s numbers have made this all sadly clear. Francis Schaffer and John Dickerson have both written about it’s inevitable downfall without being able to see the forest for the trees. Could I suggest that this happened, in large part, because Protestants have made Scripture and NOT the Church, the pillar and foundation of the truth as Paul defined it in 1 Tim 3:15? Either the Holy Spirit has failed at His job of making the Scripture clear, or He has been doing His job, for 2000

years, THROUGH the Catholic Church, with whom Jesus entrusted the deposit of Faith and Christian thought. What’s becoming clear is that we are nearing 3 choices as Evangelicals: compromise morally, go underground and attempt to “start over” (again) OR…become Catholic. Here’s one of many issues demonstrating the lack of depth in Evangelical Christianity (written by a Baptist no less):

• https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/11/the-sentimentality-trap

Jesus himself said that it was better not to marry, and of course Paul agreed with him. So where in the Protestant world is any support or appreciation for the celibate life?

• https://www.catholic.com/tract/celibacy-and-the-priesthood
• https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/01/celibacy-as-political-resistance
• https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/apologetics/priestly-celibacy/the-case-for-priestly-celibacy

Sunday is sacrosanct (or should be) and the chronological measure of life is now made, not just by clock-time and calendar-time, but by sacred time: the rhythms of the liturgical year, its seasons and feasts. And while the liturgical year repeats itself annually, its celebrations of those chapter-headings under “God’s story” gives time, like history, a direction: Time and history are going somewhere, history is not just one damn thing after another, and the “end” or goal of history is the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem. Celebrations! Holidays! Feast! Honoring Saints! Why do we celebrate the 4th of July with big Pomp and Circumstance, or even days honoring our founding fathers but not our forefathers and brothers and sisters in the faith that have gone before us? Why not make a rousing celebration out of Easter the way the Catholics do with all of their bells and organs?

• https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/12/08/the-primacy-of-jesus-and-the-churchs-liturgical-year/
• https://www.patheos.com/blogs/elflandletters/2013/10/05/a-life-of-rhythm-the-church-calendar-and-the-divine-hours/

First, where is the silence in Protestant prayer? How can we hear God without silence? Second, I’ve NEVER met anyone who prays as much as my father, except for maybe my mother and this is largely what separated them and isolated them in the Evangelical community – their pious living and how HARD it is to achieve that kind of life, but when I looked into history guess what? I found my parents there – in the saints and in their radical devotion to prayer. Repetitious or “rote” prayers however were always frowned up. So even though we could sing the same worship chorus a hundred times in a row, speaking and praying to God through music, when it came to prayer, only expository prayer was acceptable – but is that Biblical?

• https://www.catholic.com/bible-navigator/repetitious-prayer
• https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=264

Where is the rich, thorough and satisfying doctrine in Evangelicalism on the sexes? Why is there SO much constant bickering over “roles”? It’s exhausting. Half the saints are women (as far as I can tell) and after a fully year of deep study I’ve concluded empirically that only Catholicism has a true and satisfying answer for the sexes. Too much to cover here, but these articles are brilliant:

• https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/08/09/catholicism-masculine-and-feminine/
• https://www.firstthings.com/article/1999/12/the-holy-feminine
• https://www.catholic.com/tract/women-and-the-priesthood

The Church is a body, a body starts as a baby and grows into a man, ergo doctrines can develop and grow over time even if not specifically named or thoroughly drawn out in Scripture.

• https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/11/four-ideas-about-development

Salvation is from the Jews. This leads to some interesting questions: when Jesus resurrected did he truly intend to do away with ALL sacred practices and liturgies? Can’t a knowledge of Judaism inform us of our own faith as children of the Jews? Where is the Evangelical theology on the Old Testament? I have never in my life found a better and more clear picture of Christianity than when viewing it through the eyes of Catholicism’s window into the Old Testament. I have referenced Brant Pitre quite a bit already, but here’s a wonderful article illustrating this even more:

• https://www.thesacredpage.com/2008/08/resurrection-of-lost-ark-and-assumption.html?m=1

Plenty more here if interested

• https://www.thesacredpage.com/search?q=Jewish+roots