Defenders of the Catholic Faith | Hosted by Stephen K. Ray | Author of St. Johns Gospel, Upon This R

Time 2020-07-15 07:06:05

Web Name: Defenders of the Catholic Faith | Hosted by Stephen K. Ray | Author of St. Johns Gospel, Upon This R

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Mass with 2 Protestants and 1 Crucifix by Steve Ray on July 14, 2020 A while ago we went to Mass with two Protestants.  As we walked in the door there it was, as big as life a CRUCIFIX with the Body of Our Lord hanging over the altar.I knew what the Protestants were thinking I used to think the same   CATHOLICS ARE WRONG, JESUS IS NO LONGER ON THE CROSS, HE HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD AND IS IN HEAVEN.   Of course they think Catholics are wrong to keep Jesus on the cross as though he had not risen and ascended into heaven.Are they right?  Well, YES and NO.  Jesus DID rise and ascend into heaven and He IS glorified at the right hand of the Father and we are mystically seated there with him (1 Pet 3:22, Eph 2:6).  BUT the Catholic Church is ALSO correct to show Jesus on the Cross not only to remind us of His suffering and death and to show what happens during the Mass but because in a mystical way He IS STILL on the Cross.God the Father sits on His throne in heaven.  And what does God see from his throne every time he opens his eyes ?  He sees Jesus on the Cross!  Really?  Yeah, really!Jesus is our Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7).  In the Old Testament the lambs were slain on Passover to save the Israelites from death.  The lamb was held over the altar, his neck was slashed with a knife and the blood was drained onto the altar.This is why we have an altar in the Catholic Church! The altar represents the Cross (among other things). An Altar is where a Sacrifice takes place!  Jesus was slain as our Passover Lamb to save us from eternal death and to appease the wrath of God.  That sacrifice is re-presented at the Mass (see my talk Defending the Eucharist!).Take a look at Revelation 5:5 and ask yourself what John is telling us?  It reads,Between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain . . . Who IS the slain Lamb that is still standing?  Jesus is the Lamb!  Standing on a altar before the throne of God the Father is a Lamb still bearing the wounds of slaugher.  Jesus is that Lamb and he still bears the wounds of His sacrifice. That is what God sees when He opens his eyes   Jesus the sacrifice Jesus on the altar Jesus on the Cross.Charles Wesley, the great Methodist minister and hymn writer agrees. In his hymn Arise, My Soul, Arise in which he says the very same thing in very poetic terms. Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears; The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears, Before the throne my surety stands, My name is written on His hands. He ever lives above, for me to intercede; His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead: His blood atoned for all our race, And sprinkles now the throne of grace. But wasn t Jesus crucified once and for all, never to sacrificed for sins again?  Yes, of course!  In   space and time  Jesus was crucified once and for all in AD 30.In God s eyes in eternity which is not limited by space and time Jesus was crucified before the foundations of the world (see endnote 1) and in  eternity future  He is still seen by the Father as a slain lamb on the alter in heaven, as the crucified Lord on the Cross. All salvation past, present and future is based on this one historical event.In the Mass, Jesus is NOT re-crucified, but we partake in a mystical way in the re-presentation of the ONE ETERNAL SACRIFICE which is ever before the eyes of the Father (see Endnote 3).I used to say Jesus WAS our sacrifice. He cannot be crucified again on Catholic altars, so Catholics are wrong!   But the Bible says, Yes, he WAS our sacrifice, but he also IS our Sacrifice. Look at what John says in his first epistle: [Jesus] is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (RSV-Catholic Edition).The Protestant NIV renders this He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The Greek word for IS (eimi) is in the present tense. Today, right now He IS our propitiation, our sacrifice. After His resurrection with His new spiritual body Jesus still has the wounds of his crucifixion (Jn 20:27). He has a body in heaven and still bears the wounds of the Sacrifice. He is presented before God as slain sacrifice yet now alive.So, what does God see when He opens his eyes ?  He sees Jesus on the Cross!  If this is what God sees in heaven, then it is certainly proper for us to show Jesus on a Cross to remind us what he did for us and to see what God sees every day and has from eternity.  So Catholic are right after all. Suprise!  Surprise!By the way, once a Baptist said to me, You are wrong, Jesus is no longer on the cross, He is in heaven.   It happend to be Christmas and I noticed they had a Manger Scene (creche) on their table.  I said, Why do you have Jesus in the manger?  He is no longer in the manger he is in heaven. And oh, I said, isn t that a cute statue of Mary!  I thought you Protestants considered statues to be idols?  Why do you have a statue of Mary in your house? ****************************Endnote 1: There are two ways to translate this verse, but either way it comes out making the point. The best Protestant translations of Revelation 13:8 read: All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world (NIV New International Version). All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (NKJV New King James Version).Endnote 2: Pictures: 1) Crucifix; 2) Passover Lamb slain by the modern day Samaritans; 3) Image of Jesus the Passover Lamb sacrificed on an altar before the Throne of God (could not make out the name of the author) 4) Caravaggio s famous painting Incredulity of St. Thomas. 5) Creche scene.Endnote 3: Catechism paragraph 1367:   The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different. And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner. . . this sacrifice is truly propitiatory . { 23 comments } Hagia Sophia in Istanbul: No longer a church or museum; it is now a mosque by Steve Ray on July 12, 2020 Sad news indeed, but certainly expected. Turkey has no desire to open itself to the world nor do they have a clue what to do with their national treasures. The only goal of the new despot Erdogan is to re-establish the old Muslim Ottoman Empire.For 1,000 years the massive Hagia Sophia was the largest church in the world and people thought the dome was held up by a miracle of God. But after 1,000 years as a church, the Muslims conquered it, painted over the gorgeous mosaics and defaced all the Christian symbols. They turned it into a mosque.We have been in the Hagia Sophia many times (watch one of our videos inside the church; actual video inside church starts at 4:52) and my imagination takes me back to what it must have been like for the pig farmer up to his knees in pig excrement who arrives on Easter Vigil for Mass!! The smells, the bells, the music, the ambiance, the truth preached the glory of it all. He must have thought he’d died and gone to heaven. No wonder pagans were rushing to be Christians.Here is a beautiful experiment to demonstrate what it might have sounded like. https://www.npr.org/2020/02/22/808404928/listen-the-sound-of-the-hagia-sophia-more-than-500-years-agoAnd, listen here:After the national hero Ataturk (now discarded by the Muslim resurgence) the church was changed from a mosque to a museum. It was the No. 1 tourist attraction in Turkey. On our pilgrimages, we could imagine and sense its former glory as a church. But now Erdogan has turned it back into a functioning mosque.Imagine if Christians took a huge iconic mosque and turned it into a church. The international outrage would be deafening. Why the silence here? How sad.I am happy that Pope Francis and  UNESCO have spoken out against this ill-advised and disastrous decision. You can read about that here was a short history of the Hagia Sophia here.If you want you to understand what happened in Turkey read my article Prepare for the Skyline of the Future which is a warning to the West. Constantinople, renamed Istanbul, was the capital of the Byzantine Christian Empire. It was all Christian and the Hagia Sophia was its cathedral. but now Turkey is 99.9% Muslim with less than 60,000 Christians in a country exceeding 80 million people.If you don t think this can happen to the West, think again. Live-Virtual 2-day Conference with Steve Ray by Steve Ray on July 9, 2020 For the time being events, talks and conferences have moved on-line. It is sad in a way because we lose the face-to-face interaction and personal touch, but in another way, it makes events open to a much wider audience around the world.Next Monday and Tuesday I will be giving 5 talks for a yearly conference of the Sisters at Our Lady of Peace Retreat. This was planned well over a year ago as a live on-site conference in Oregon, but due to restrictions on travel and gatherings, it is now available to everyone online for free. Visit www.olpretreat.org to register and get your free pass for the four-day conference.Steve s talks include: Defending the Eucharist Mary: Real Girl Woman of Mystery parts 1 and 2 Swimming Upstream and From Baptist to Catholic: the Unintended Journey. { 0 comments }

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Author of "St. John's Gospel", "Upon This Rock", & "Crossing the Tiber"

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