You are invited to Sunday Dinner.

October 2008 Ministers Schedule

Bring your lawn chair and join in the fun

Thanks to the Stewardship Committee, the volunteers and all parishioners who donated so generously!  A beautifully successful day of sharing.

You are invited to Sunday Dinner.

REMEMBER TO BRING FOOD FOR OUR CATHOLIC CHARITIES SNACK PACKS,

October 2008 Ministers Schedule

I soon realized that it was better to rebuild than repair, and if you’re a regular visitor to the site, the change is probably a little put-offish. It has a radically different look than the old site. I like to say it looks a little less churchy and a little more webby. Things evolve, and Web sites are no different. Over the Years, Web designers like myself have learned what works a little better and what makes people avert their eyes like casino carpeting. Simply put, the new design is easier on the eyes and therefore easier to read.

As part of the new design, I’ve made it easier to leave comments: just type in your name and leave your remarks. No need to register as a user first.

I hope you find the new site useful and informative.

Peace,

Brett Barnes

This popularized belief states that “true Christians” will be secretly and invisibly whisked away in order to be spared the great tribulation, as described in Revelation, prior to a literal one thousand year earthly reign of Christ. The belief in a literal one thousand year reign is referred to as millenarianism and has been soundly rejected by the Catholic Church (CCC 676). The Church has always taught that this one thousand years is the long period, but not a literal millennia, between the first and second coming of Christ when Jesus reigns imperfectly through his kingdom on earth, the Church. (See Rev 20:1-10)

This “secret rapture” is also contrary to what the bible tells us. As Paul Thigpen points out in his book The Rapture Trap, “No one who reads [Revelation] can reasonably claim that God keeps Christians from suffering the great tribulation of the last days.” He’s right. And we can go well beyond just the book of Revelation to see his point. Christians will not escape the persecution. ( See John 17:15, Matt 10:38, Matt 13:21, Acts 14:22, Rom 8:17, Rom 8:35-38, Rom 12:12, Phil 3:10, 2 Tim 1:11-12, 1 Peter 1:6, 1 Peter 4:12-13, Rev 2:10, Rev 6:9-11, Rev 7:13-14. See also 2 Thess 1:5; Heb 12:1-11; Rev 1:9.) Jesus will return after the tribulation (See Matt 24:19-30.) once and visibly (See Dan 7:13, Matt 24:27, Matt 24:30, Acts 1:11, Rev 1:7.) and, the rapture will occur at the second coming, not before. (See Matt 24:29-31; 1 Cor 15:51-52; 1 Thess 2:1,3,8.)

Even with all the evidence to the contrary, secret rapturists will still try to use the bible and other means to prove their point. Here are a few of their methods:

• They’ll claim that experts have interpreted the bible in such a way that confirms the secret rapture belief. The Nazis had experts who confirmed the belief in a master race so just because a person claims to be an expert, it doesn’t mean they are, and it doesn’t mean they’re right.
• They’ll give empirical value to numbers that are meant to be symbolic. In other words, if Revelation states that Christ will have a one thousand year earthly reign, they will claim this means that Christ will literally and physically be enthroned on earth for one thousand thousand years. This is an easy mathematical sleight of hand since our modern western culture doesn’t use numbers in symbolic fashion.
• They’ll take phrases out of context and make them absolute. They’ll take a phrase like “the end” and claim that the phrase always means the end of the age when in fact it could be referring to the end of a battle or the end of a life.
• They’ll take similar words and phrases and claim that because they are different they must be referring to different events. For example, imagine that a writer has written a book about the Grand Canyon and in this book the writer refers to the Grand Canyon as the “awesome canyon” and other times as the “huge canyon”, under the methodology applied by secret rapturists, they would claim that the author is referring to three different canyons; the Grand canyon, the awesome canyon, and the huge canyon. A particularly offensive trick is to take similar Greek words and claim they have different meanings. This is an easy lie to get away with since so few of us are versed in ancient Greek. It’s helpful to point out to the secret rapturist that under this flawed logic it could be implied that Jesus was born more than once and crucified four times.

Of course all this maneuvering is wrapped in irony since secret rapturists deny the teaching authority of the Church and claim that bible interpretation should be based on the “plain sense” of its meaning. The scriptural dance they have to perform to try to prove their flawed theology goes well beyond the “plain sense” of scripture.

The secret rapture isn’t a biblical tradition or Church tradition, it’s a human tradition—and the tradition of just a handful of humans at that. Around the year 1830 an ex-Anglican apocalyptic preacher named John Nelson Darby met fifteen year old Margaret MacDonald who claimed to have had a private revelation of a secret rapture. Not all Christians would be rescued, only certain faithful ones. From this beginning, Darby and his followers started teaching that all true believers will be rescued in a secret rapture distinct from the second coming of Christ. Although they never came right out and said it, this amounted to two second comings. By the year 1909 a self appointed biblical scholar (He was actually a Kansas lawyer.) by the name of C.I. Scofield published what quickly became the most popular study bible in America—the Scofield Reference Bible, its notes always explained the passages from the secret rapturist perspective. By the early to mid-20^th Century schools like the Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Talbot Seminary produced new pastors and bible study materials that promoted the immanence of the secret rapture and that it was the core message of the gospels.

So why is the secret rapture so popular? Well, who wants to suffer? It’s easy to believe that the end is near just by watching the news or reading a newspaper. It makes coping with this televised turmoil easier to bear just knowing that Jesus is about to whisk away and save true believers. Many secret rapture promoters point out the gloom and doom of the modern world to legitimize themselves and their beliefs to huge arenas full of the fearful and faithful. But any cursory glance at history tells us that times have always been bad. Imagine being in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. when the Roman army razed the Jewish temple to the ground, or being in Rome at its fall in 476 A.D., an event that plunged all of Western civilization into a dark age. Our imagined fears pale in comparison to these historical realities. It’s also nice to be in-the-know, and secret rapturists can feel secure with a wink and a nudge that they know true revelation and will be spared suffering. But, again, neither the bible nor the Church has ever provided such assurances.

As Christians we need to speak out against the false teaching of the secret rapture; any teaching that takes people away from God’s true message to humanity is damaging since God is the Truth (See John 14:6) and apostasy from the Truth is apostasy from God. In particular, we need to speak out against the Left Behind book series. The books are written by avowed anti-Catholics, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and the books often contain anti-Catholic storylines. In one book of the series, the hero is a Pope who rejects the church’s teaching in favor of Luther’s. The Left Behind series is unashamedly anti-Catholic in its theology, storyline, and authorship.

We need to ask the secret rapturist where in the bible it states specifically and clearly, in the “plain sense” of the scripture, that there will be a “second” second coming and then be prepared to point out the passages and points listed above that will refute this false belief. Finally, don’t get discouraged, as Catholics we are not alone—mainstream Protestant denominations have never promoted, believed in, or taught of a “secret rapture” either.

If you would like to learn more, I would recommend either “Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind” By David B. Currie or, “The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to ‘End Times’ Fever” by Paul Thigpen. I have found the latter to be less clinical and more charitable.

Totus Tuus for students going into grades 1 through 6 is July 9th—13th from 9am—2pm (will need sack lunch). Grades 7-12 will be in the evening.

Vacation Bible School (”Saints Alive”) for students going into grades Pre-K (4 by November) through 5th grade is July 16-20 from 9am-12pm.

VIRTUS. The next Virtus class scheduled at Madalene is on Tuesday, May 29th at 6:30 pm in Aquinas Hall. Call Mary at 294-1904 to sign up.

Baseball Camp Bishop Kelley Baseball will hold their summer baseball camps the weeks of June 13-16 & June 18-19-20. A 4-day combined camp will be held June 13-16 with both morning and afternoon sessions. Specialized hitting, pitching and defensive clinics will be June 18-20. For details and enrollment forms go to www.bkelleyhs.org/studentlife/athletics/summercamps/ baseball. If you have any questions or would like to have a brochure mailed to you contact Coach Scardino 627-3390 or 857-8363.

Do you reject the glamour of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin?

Do you reject Satan, father of sin and prince of darkness?

We renew our baptismal promises every Easter. I thought it might be a good idea to keep them handy for the rest of the year. After all, we are surrounded by the “glamour of evil” throughout the year…

There has been a lot of talk in the popular media lately about the family of Jesus Christ, particularly about his “brother” James. A few years ago a book boldly titled “The Brother of Jesus” claimed to have found a bone box (ossuary) inscribed with the name “James” with the additional inscription “brother of Jesus”. As the Israeli Antiquities Authority put it, the box is real, but the inscription is a fake. And just a few weeks ago Discovery Channel aired a movie claiming to have found more bone boxes of Jesus and some of his family members, this so-called documentary has so many factual holes, I’ll leave it to others to comment.

So did Jesus have brothers? No, he didn’t, and here is how we as Catholics can prove the point:

In the New Testament mention is made several times of the “brothers” and “sisters” of Jesus (Mt 12:46, 13:55, John 2:12, Acts 1:14, I Corinthians 9:5, Galatians 1:19); Four of his “brothers”—James (the Less: Mark 15:40), Joseph (or Joses: the spelling varies in the manuscripts), Simon, and Jude—are named explicitly in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3, the “sisters” of Jesus are referred to, but not named.

In this question, we must distinguish between what is certain, what is probable and what is uncertain. It is certain that these people are not brothers and sisters of Jesus in the strict sense, that is, they are not children of The Virgin Mary, but they are cousins of some form or another.

It is true that the original language of the New Testament is Greek and that the words for “brother” and “sister” have about the same meaning as these words have in English—children of the same parent. However, we are justified in considering these terms as literal translations of the Semitic languages (Aramaic and Hebrew) which were used in Palestine at the time of Christ, and consequently have the same meaning in the New Testament as they do in Aramaic and Hebrew. The fact that the Semitic usage of the word “brother” (’ah) differs from that of English and other European languages is clear from its usage in the Old Testament. For Example, Lot, who was really Abraham’s nephew, is called his “brother” (Genesis 13:8, 14:14-16) as in kinsmen, not as in brother of the same parents. Hebrew and Aramaic have no simple term for “cousin”; there is the Hebrew phrase ben-dod meaning “the son of the brother of a paternal uncle,” but for other kinds of cousins a person would have to use some extravagant , roundabout language such as “the son of the brother of his mother,” or “the son of the sister of his mother,” Therefore, the regular Semitic word for “cousins” is ‘ahÄ«m, “brothers.”

The most famous of “the brothers of Jesus” are really His cousins and can be proved from the following facts:

The four men named in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 as “the brothers of Jesus” can be shown to be of a mother other than Mary the mother of Jesus. The first two of these brothers, James and Joseph, are mentioned in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 in connection with the Lord’s death on Calvary, and they are then called the sons of another Mary completely distinct from Mary the mother of Jesus. When an author names two brothers and repeats their names in the same brief literary work without further qualification, the presumption is that he is speaking of the same men. It follows that the third and fourth “brothers” of Jesus (Simon and Jude) of Matthew 13:55 are also merely cousins of Jesus, even though their relationship to the first two is uncertain; they were probably cousins, not brothers in the strict sense, of James and Joseph, since only these two are mentioned as brothers in the strict sense in Matthew 27:56. This “other Mary” is specifically referred to as the mother of James and Joseph (Joses) (Matthew 27:56), and the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, and wife of Clopas (sometimes referred to as Cleophas or Alpheus) (John 19:25). Since it’s easy to assume that parents would not name two daughters the same name, it is speculated that this “other Mary” is The Virgin Mary’s sister-in-law. Either way, this makes this “other Mary” an aunt to Jesus, and her children, James and Joseph, in fact, Jesus’ cousins.

These conclusions can be supported by the following facts: 1) Mary was a virgin at the time of Jesus’ birth (Matthew 1:20-23, Luke 1:26-35). 2) At the age of twelve Jesus was apparently the only son of Mary and Joseph (Luke 2:41-52). 3) The “brothers” of Jesus, who appear only after his public ministry, are never called the sons of Mary and Joseph. 4) When dying, Jesus commends His mother to His Disciple John (John 19:26) which is understandable only on the assumption that she had no other children but Jesus.

Finally, if there are still doubts, take a look at Luke 2:48. If the term “brother” absolutely means true, familial sibling, then this same simple reasoning means that Joseph, not God, is the father of Jesus. No Christian can make that claim and still be considered a Christian. In fact, early Christian heretics made just that claim, based on the fact that the bible said Joseph was Jesus’ father. Now, today, we have some making the claim that Jesus had brothers based on the same simple-minded, flawed reasoning.