Called To Communion - 3/22/18 - Dr. David Anders - Why do Catholics Baptize infants?

what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests why do Catholics worship Mary why do I need to confess my sins to a priest where is purgatory in the Bible I think the Pope has too much authority you are called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to called the communion this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith and you're kind of looking around you're talking to this friend or this person that you met at the store about the Catholic faith well there is a better source how about us the Catholic faith is always represented as clearly as possibly right here on EWTN and this program is specifically made for everybody who is a non Catholic perhaps a fallen away Catholic never been a Catholic but you've got questions about the faith here is our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply again that phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN we are waiting to hear from you right now Michael Burchfield is our producer Matt Kavinsky is our phone screener he'll be the first person you speak with Jeff person is handling social media so if you want to oppose your question via Facebook or YouTube you can certainly do that as well I'm Tom price along with dr. David Andrews how are you today couldn't be better how about you my friend all right thank you got a very interesting question here this came in email and they have requested anonymity so anonymous says science proves that the core of the earth is absolute fire could that be hell won't the earth swallow up the people that will go to hell what are your thoughts well thank you very much I appreciate the question so here's what you know about Hell and the afterlife so we know that in the present moment souls that have died soul separation from the body that's the definition of death can either experience a beatific vision directly immediately upon death even without the benefit of a physical body the pains of purgatory or the pains of Hell immediately upon death all right now our state between now and the second coming of Christ is a disembodied State at the end of time it'll be an embodied State we're gonna have the resurrection of the Dead we get our bodies back okay so what is it that a soul in Hell would experience right now okay well first of all I think it's it's very difficult to think about Hell being spatially located when you don't have a body okay yeah so that's one of those mysteries we're gonna have to sort of chalk off to divine providence but the but the pain of Hell the principle pain of Hell that the souls of the the Lost experience in the present moment is the pain of loss all right it is it is the pain of despair and the the complete hopeless realization that one has lost one's greatest good and source of all happiness all right you know we all aim for happiness this is this is one of the facts about human nature that's almost impossible to dispute everyone wants to be happy all right now we have different notions about what happiness consists in and one of the gifts of the Catholic Church is to tell us it's the vision of God all right the fulfillment of all desire and to have your eyes kind of wide open to that and then realize that you've been deprived of that forever that's the the principle pain of Hell the pain of loss all right and with that comes despair and hatred of God and all those are look spiritual se or psychological pains alright now when you get the resurrected body Holy Scripture and tradition would seem to indicate that there's also going to be pain of sense attached to it now scripture speaks about the fires of hell it's an open question how how literally we should those passages and how metaphorically and I'm not competent to make that judgment right now I don't but based on what we know about the experience of Hell I don't think there's any particular reason to postulate that the hell of the Damned after the resurrection will necessarily be located at the physical center of the present plane and I wish we live given that given that the earth itself is going to participate in the renewal that we all experience in Christ at the second coming oh very good hope that's helpful for you we have one more here before we go to break this is from Randi in st. Louis listening to us on covenant radio randy says hello Tom and dr. Andrews I have a question about 1st Corinthians 4 verse 4 when Paul refuses to pass judgment on himself is this acceptable in responding to questions on assurance of salvation thanks Randy Oh so in other words would it be when when asked about questions of assurance would do you for instance have assurance of your salvation mm-hmm should I reference first Corinthians 4 verse 4 in in reference to that yeah I think that's an absolutely appropriate thing to do and it there's a lot more we can say about the question of assurance but this does mark one of the key differences between the way a Catholic would think about assurance of salvation and the way say an original Protestant would think about it within the within the Calvinist tradition which broadly in forms of angelical Protestantism one one concludes that one is saved in in virtue of certain interior experiences right now then and those are differently conceived of depending on which stream of the tradition you're in but basically once you come around to the conviction that you've got real faith mm-hmm then you reason like this well salvation comes through faith alone I now assess that I have real faith therefore I'm saved okay now there's a lot of debate over the last 500 years within Protestantism about how you assess whether or not you have real faith or spurious faith but and because of that there's a lot of introspection all right I'm going to turn inward look you know look within my own interior life to see if I discern within myself the marks of election or the marks of regeneration the marks of true faith or however you do it okay the Catholic Church says that whole thing is misguided all right we don't gain assurance of our salvation by looking inward we gain assurance of our salvation by looking outward at the source of our salvation who is jesus and the objective ground and promise of our salvation which is the universal solvent will of God made manifest to us in the sacraments Christ said if you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have life if you don't you don't okay right and it's one of the reasons he gave us objective signs like the Eucharist like the confessional like baptism so that we know we can we can it's there's no question of introspection it's right there in front of me mm-hm there he is right there all right am i in communion with Christ what's not a vague wishy-washy feeling it's it's eating there he is okay as long as I'm properly disposed I have objective evidence said I'm in communion with Christ but guess what happens I can walk away from that I'm now deprived of objective evidence mm-hmm I come back I get it back jesus said he who perseveres to the end will be saved and so you know Paul seems to address this he's not really talking about assurance of salvation he's now talking about the quality of iced Apostleship whether he's a good apostle or not okay but I think the point would still apply that look we have a job to do orient ourselves toward Christ follow him put her eyes on Jesus leave the judgment of souls up to God exactly Randi thank you so much for your email we do appreciate that by the way if you're watching us today on TV if you would like to send us an email the address is CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com we'll get to the phones as soon as we come back here from our quick break eight three three two eight eight EWTN is our number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it's called a communion here on EWTN cheering the full of the Catholic faith 23 3 2 8 8 EWTN one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six this is call to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network how about this Apple TV allows you to instantly stream EWTN to your TV get EWTN today it's easy all you need is a high-speed Internet connection a TV and the Apple TV player this is life issues with Brad mattis president of life issues Institute yesterday was world Down syndrome day and I'm still celebrating siblings of kids with Down syndrome were asked if it was tough having them in the family Leah responded her sister was instrumental in equipping her for a future as a nurse Gina said this about her brother having Jackson in my life has made me a lot happier and he has given me a more positive view of life Jamie credits his sister with getting him out of his comfort zone on many occasions Rachel dragged him into conversations with total strangers she was a family bonus Victoria said it wasn't all that different citing Amy's attendance and mainstream schools in college please visit life issues org where we have loads of resources and information on Down syndrome like us on Facebook at life issues and stay informed more informed than you've ever been this is Anna Mitchell from the sunrise morning show praying you have a blessed and holy Lenten season Aloha this is Bear wozmak have a blessed Lent from all of us at EWTN radio what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic you are called to communion with a dr. David Anders to eight EWTN one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six hey we're looking forward to taking your call right now eight three three two eight eight EWTN is our number here's a text now from Joshua this just came in someone told me that the Baptist's can trace their tradition back beyond John the Baptist is that true thanks Joshua thank you I appreciate it so this is the theory known as Baptists succession ism and it's it's a modern theory it's basically a theory concocted by some 19th century Baptist apologists and there is basically no serious Baptist academic in the world today that holds this theory so if you went to the Maine say Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is like Southern Seminary and you know Louisville the various others nomination all seminaries within the Baptist tradition you would not find this as the dominant theory among Baptist historians and actually when I was in seminary I had the privilege of studying with a very well-known Baptist historian who that was this field was Baptist history uh-huh and and he utterly rejected Baptist successor succession ISM okay now so so it's not widely held and and the reason it's not widely held is untrue it's just it's untrue and if you go back and read some of the Baptist pamphlets try to make the argument what they do essentially is they cherry pick through history every heretical group that the Catholic Church was opposed to and they go yeah they were Baptists yeah they were Baptist Wow and but I mean if you actually go investigate the content of those groups belief systems there was nothing Baptist about them the history of modern Baptist movement is comes from the 17th century 1609 men named John Smith who was a Church of England minister mm-hmm and appeared in separatists who who made his way to Holland and encountered the Mennonite movement which practiced believers or adult baptism and he had he adapted Mennonite sacramental theology to some elements of his more traditional Protestantism and concocted what became essentially the the theology of the modern Baptist denomination so it's born out of early 17th century separatism it's not something that you can trace in a line of succession you know back 2,000 years and modern Baptist historians recognize this ok very good joshua thanks so much for your text we have a line open for you right now which is 8 3 3 2 8 8 ewtn eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here's an email we received from Betty who says hey dr. Andrews we have a same-sex couple in our family and they have adopted three children who are siblings we are trying very hard to relate to this couple and their children with love but in general this is very difficult for us I would really appreciate any reference you can give us to help us wade through this challenge in our family thanks Betty okay thanks so I have a couple resources for you some that you will directly inform your relationship with this group and some that will more indirectly inform it there is a sociological study published by Mark Regnerus he's a sociologist in Texas yes called the new family structure study mhm and then he has Ragnar's has a more recently a book published and I forget the title but it has to do with sex in America where draws on some of the same research and it's it's a very good analysis of the effect of family structure on children's outcomes okay and the conclusion of the work and it's heavily documented is that kids do better when they're raised by their parents and if they're not raised their other parents they do better if they're raised by you know a mother and a father sure and the closer you can get to that biological norm the better the kids outcomes you know outlier is excluded I mean if see there are such things as abuse of parents and neglectful parents and all that but you know adjusting for you know obvious pathologies kids do better when they're raised by their biological parents and one of the many problems with you know the concept of same-sex relationships setting up shop together in a household that is meant to somehow parody traditional marriage is that it severs the intrinsic connection between child and his parents alright because by definition if you have a gay couple it those children are deprived of at least one of their biological parents by definition okay so I you know you might wanna take a look at recognizes work just to inform your thinking on the matter then there is a book that was published by Ignatius press Oh father Paul check was a contributor is it is speaking the truth in love is that the title of the book I think it is mother Paul is the head of courage we used to be used to be though right exactly and I have to look that up in the break just make sure okay I've got the title right but at any event it's a nation's press title and and it's a series of essays that are on pastoral approaches to counseling people the same sexual attraction that may also be of use to you and then finally reaching out to the courage apostolate of the Catholic Church which father Paul Jack used to be the head up and this is the ministry to those that suffer from same-sex attraction and it also can be of service to their families as well and if you haven't ever seen it check out the film desire of the everlasting hills which is at courage production includes testimonies from a number of people that suffer this affliction and have found hope and healing in the Catholic Church not necessarily a complete liberation right but but coping with an objective state of suffering in the floor sure start with that Betty thank you so much for your email you may have heard that ding just a moment ago we just got an email or a text rather this is from a rod watching us today on YouTube hey there rod rod says if baptism is important why did Paul say he didn't come to baptize in 1st Corinthians 1:17 okay right so but we know that Paul did baptize because he goes on to say in that same chapter he enumerates the various people he's baptized uh-huh but his particular competence as an apostle mm-hmm was not celebration of the sacrament of baptism so he was he was authorized to bath as he did baptized but but you know anybody can baptized even Tom price over here could baptize in the case of an emergency you know in the bathtub if you had to you know and and that's that's allowed I mean in cases of emergency he can't get to a priest or whatever your next-door neighbor's about to expire he says I want to die a Christian boom you baptize him in the bathtub and you're good to go so anybody can baptize but but the Apostles were unique in the church's history they were the pillars the foundations on which the church was built Christ commissioned them directly to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and the message that now the whole world not just the Jews were to be reconciled to the God of Abraham through the Messiahship of Jesus and they were firsthand witnesses to that okay now um that's you know so 5,000 people came into the church at Pentecost or there abouts and and were baptized okay now I don't know maybe Saint Peter was you know lining them up there by the river Jordan going one two three but he could have he could very easily have delegated that task to any number of associates all right sure and meanwhile he still he's going around the business of preaching and exhorting and doing the work of an apostle which is particularly to bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus and and let other people who don't have that particular competence take up the important but but not as important job of baptizing very good rod thank you so much for checking us out today on youtube and we appreciate your question this is called a communion here on EWTN if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we begin with Evra in Asheville North Carolina listening to us on Sirius XM 130 hey there what's on your mind today hey so I and I was baptized when I was about seven years old and I was I grew up learning that in order to be baptized you had to have a public profession of faith and then you would be baptized afterward so I was wondering why does the Catholic Church baptize infants and the reasoning and any biblical reasoning behind that because that just never made sense to me because I always assumed you had to profess the faith before you could be baptized okay thanks I appreciate the question well Catholics continue to connect baptism with a profession of faith and when infants are baptized in the church they do so by making a profession of faith vicariously through their godparents okay and so there's a notion there of corporate identity and belonging right that is also foreign to the Baptist tradition but your your intimation your sense though or your intuition I should say that there's an intrinsic connection between faith and baptism is validated by Catholic tradition we agree it was Jesus who said whoever believes and is baptized will be saved okay so connects faith and baptism in the Catholic Church continues to connect faith in baptism and adult converts to the Catholic faith who are not capable of excuse me who don't who are capable of making a conscious profession of faith do so prior to receiving the sacrament of baptism right so then why should we go through this rigmarole of the vicarious profession on behalf of infants and admit them to the sacrament well first of all because scripture exhorts us to do so in Peters Pentecost sermon when he preaches the gospel and and and the many thousands are convicted and cut to the heart they say what shall we do he says repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins baptism really does remit sins because Peter said what he meant meant what he said right and the promise is for you and for your children the promise is for you and for your children and when we see the unfolding of apostolic history in the book of Acts that is the pattern so the convert here's the murder of the gospel believes and he and his whole household our baptized look at Acts chapter 16 with the Philippian jailer for example okay so the whole household are baptized along with along with the believing parents now why why does that work what does that work out well you know the Old Covenant in the nuke are different in some respects and they're similar in some respects one of the differences between the Old Covenant the Mosaic Covenant or the Abrahamic covenant and the New Covenant is that the New Covenant is more extensive in the scope extent and efficacy of God's mercy all right we get more grace more people get more grace and grace does more for us under the New Covenant than it did under the old now under the Old Covenant God commanded the Israelites to perform the sign of sub of covenant inclusion upon their children and that of course would be circumcision in Colossians chapter 2 st. Paul analogizes circumcision and baptism because baptism is the sign of inclusion into the new covenant which we have in Christ as many as are baptized have clothed themselves with Christ that's what st. Paul says in Galatians 3:27 so if if God wanted children to participate in the promises of the Abrahamic and the Mosaic covenants and the intent of the New Covenant is to massively expand the scope of God's mercy and that's clearly what Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians that's the great mystery that was hidden in Christ that now Gentiles to have been made partakers of the Covenant of promise through baptism in Christ how much more so is he going to include the believers that excuse me that the children of believers on the new covenant yes he included them under the old okay and you might say well well isn't isn't conscious understanding necessary for the faith to be effective in one's personal life and I would say absolutely not alright and I give you all kinds of illustrations but that's well that's not the case so do we for instance imagine someone who understands only very little of the Christian faith much of what they grasp they grasp only implicitly just on because they adhere to Authority so you know take the Baptist for example maybe he's only heard John 3:16 and there's you know 65 books you know or 99.99% of the Bible he's never read but he implicit agrees whatever is in the Bible I believe hadn't read it yet but when I get there I'll believe it all right he's got a faith that's almost entirely implicit all right or take someone who has a tremendous intellectual deficit all right there and disabled in some way so that they're not rationally capable of understanding the content of the faith do we really want to suggest that a person like that is deprived of the grace of God because of intellectual debility not at all what about you when you're asleep if you're not consciously thinking or contemplating the grace or extent of God's mercy are you therefore denied or or deprived of it okay not at all and we know even from what st. Paul teaches about glossolalia or speaking in tongues from the work of first Corinthians that it is possible to pray to genuinely pray he talks about prayer in the spirit that is not intelligible and not intellectually fruitful so he suggests to us in that passage that there is a that there is a mode of spiritual engagement with the mysteries of God animated by Christ's spirit that is that is non intellectual all right and without any understanding at all so lots of ways in which we can see in Sacred Scripture that we can be a participant in the work of redemption of the work of God's Spirit without conscious explicit understanding all right and so that's what happens in in infants they they they have a faith because faith is a gift right it's infused into us they have a faith but it's a faith that's wholly implicit it's entirely implicit but they have the grace of God and as they grow in that grace and are nurtured in the faith that faith becomes more and more explicit over time and therefore more and more fruitful okay now again why would we do this well the effects of baptism are so great we don't don't want to deprive our children of them number one original sin is washed away and they become participants in the divine nature second Peter 1:4 tells us that baptism now saves you first Peter chapter 3 tells us that okay so we don't want to deprive our children of the grace of participation in Christ they become members of Christ's body which is the church and and are therefore entitled to all the graces in mercies that are that are that are there on offer for the communion of saints they become priests in the Catholic Church as well able to offer the sacrifice of their very lives along with that of Jesus ever thank you so much for your call glad you are calling in from Asheville North Carolina when we come back in a moment or two we'll be talking with Adam and pushing the pig a pigeon Michigan got it pigeon Michigan we also have a line open for you right now and that's eight three three two eight eight EWTN eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six [Music] this is a Lenten journey with Timothy cardinal Dolan on EWTN radio our faith tells us that Jesus is true God and true man he's the son of man he's the son of God he's divine in human we also know that the instances where Jesus clearly and dramatically and bluntly proclaims his divinity those are somewhat few and far between of the pages of the gospel in the New Testament but we got one of them in our gospel today for this Thursday the fifth week of let Jesus tells the people before Abraham was I am those are magic words I am remember how God revealed himself to Moses I am Who and when Jesus says I am he's saying he's God a Lenten journey with Timothy cardinal Dolan is available on DVD through the EWTN religious catalogue this DVD includes all forty seven segments for each day of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday to get your copy log on to our website EWTN religious catalogue comm 24 hours a day seven days a week or call one eight hundred eight five four six three one six [Music] EWTN communicating the faint you know you get paid in heaven or the ministry that you do on here I love your show my life has completely changed through God's power and through his revelation I've changed my stuff in my life all my firstfruits go to God and I remain in God I pray all the time your shows in my prayer EWTN live truth live Catholic what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic you are called to communion with a dr. David Anders one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six by the way in addition to answering your questions at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we also ask from time to time what is stopping you from becoming a Catholic yourself if you are listening or watching today and you're not a Catholic we'd like to know why you're not a Catholic you don't have to tell us why you're listening to eatable you TNR watching EWTN we know that a lot of non-catholics do so but we are curious as to why you have decided not to be a Catholic or why you're kind of standing there on the one-yard line should I should I not what's what's kind of driving that decision or decision not to back to the phone's right now eight three three two eight eight EWTN we continue with Adam in pigeon Michigan listening to us on Ave Maria radio Adam what's on your mind today you know dr. Anders um I've been invited to a Mennonite church service and I'm just I don't really know anything about them or much about them and some curious you have any information um history differences that sort of thing and and if you think it's a good idea sure thanks I appreciate it so the Mennonites take their name and their origin from a man by the name of Menno Simons who was a 16th century Tacoma Protestant is not doesn't tell you enough within within 16th century Protestantism they were the major division the major division we're between those leaders that enjoyed the approbation of the Civic community the political leadership there are sometimes called the Magisterial reformers and those would be people like Martin Luther John Calvin Cranmer bullying or boots or they took over with with government approval the so-called Reformation of the church and their territories okay then there was another group that were variously called the anabaptists sometimes called the cata Baptists and a nossa today often referred to under the title of the radical Reformation that that that took a very very extreme and sectarian line they rejected the legitimacy of Christians participating in civil government they rejected the justice of any kind of warfare they were they were radical pacifists they they rejected a lot of the theological doctrine of mainline Standard Protestantism particularly things like the doctrine of predestination and and then with the most distinctive thing was they practiced the baptism of adults rather than baptism of infants and so they believed in the idea of a gathered church right that the church was not a sort of a civil community defined in part by by genealogy or Parenthood or family but it was an entirely voluntary Association and that that I went to highlight their sense that they were separate from the body politic in a kind of radical way and sometimes they they would take other sorts of radical positions not not the Mennonites but others of this group would take in a deeply apocalyptic view towards current events and imagined the end of the world was upon them and you know they would have sort of charismatic phenomenon and you know pretend to prophecies and things like that and sometimes they got into some wacky sexual practices as well but not not that not the Mennonites the Midianites were more staid and so we're kind of brand of anabaptists so that's their historical origin now the Mennonites today are pretty well established a nomination and in some of the sort of wild excesses of sixteenth century and a Baptists some have you know didn't apply to the Mennonites and they're they you know if you go to one of their worship services it might seem indistinguishable to you from a lot of other Protestant worship services you're gonna recognize you know scripture reading and preaching in prayer and so forth and the things that would mostly distinguish Mennonites today would be their pacifism all right they don't believe in in the doctrine of just war varying degrees of adherence of participation in civil society so you know some of them might refrain from voting for instance and and you know and they're kind of shades of conservatism versus liberalism within the tradition on the the further to the right you go with in the Mennonite movement the the more and more they began to look like something like the Amish oh really and the Amish are actually an outgrowth of the Mennonite movement so when I used to live in Iowa there were Mennonite communities in Iowa that were on the more conservative side and they were they were easy to spot because they were they unlike the Amish they would still drive cars and use electricity stuff like that but they would show up at the local Walmart and and you're like here comes Laura Ingalls Wilder you know you know the women would be dressed in a kind of sort of 19th century Prairie type of garb and it was is they you were talking about not looking like you belonged to the civil society they definitely stood out is you know maintaining their own lifestyle sure um that's not the mainstream of the Mennonite movement I mean your your average Mennonite on the street so to speak is gonna look talk smell act eat like you or me and and and mainly distinguished I think by their by their commitment to pacifism so they're nice people we love Mennonites hope they love us back and you know I think it's fine for you to go um if if you're Mennonite friend wants you to come worship with him you might see if he'll return the favor and come worship with you and and invite them to the Catholic Mass or or to some cata catechol event or a lecture or something in the Catholic Church historically Mennonites took a pretty dim view of the Catholic Church historically the Catholic Church took a dim view of the Mennonites but we're getting along better these days so maybe he'll come hopefully so Adam is that helpful for you oh yeah very much thank you so much thank you appreciate that that opens up a line for you now eight three three two eight eight EWTN let's go now to Michelle in Augusta Georgia listening to us on st. Paul radio hey Michelle what's on your mind today hi yeah basic 101 question what is the if you can explain the difference between what the Protestants believe is rapture and what the Catholic Church teaches are the endtime yeah sure appreciate it so first of all not all Protestants believe in the doctrine of the rapture in fact it's only a minority of Protestants the belief in the doctrine of the rapture but I see from the call screener that you live in Augusta Georgia a disproportionately large number of cottons in Augusta Georgia are going to hold to that doctrine in compared to the wider Protestant world so it tends to be associated with Protestant fundamentalism particularly okay but but but mainstream Protestant doctrine for five hundred years knows nothing of this rapture doctrine and rejects it so it's a it's a it's a small minority view all right within the wider world of Protestantism it is there's nothing like it in the Catholic tradition Catholic Church utterly repudiates utterly rejects this idea so let me explain what the rapture is in the mind of its adherents and how that differs from the Catholic position so it was invented the doctrine of the rapture was invented by a man named John Nelson not John us andari yeah darby in the nineteenth century he was a Plymouth Brethren thinker and and he was a he was a literalist he was a biblical literalist a fundamentalist and and he noticed that there were a lot of prophecies in the Old Testament that that made claims about Israel Israel's going to do this and Israel's going to do that and and of course prior to 1948 there was no political state called Israel there was no political state for for Jewish people or he people of Hebrew or Jewish descent and and the traditional understanding of the church is that the church inherits it to a certain extent to a certain extent the the promises applied to the New Covenant I mean st. Paul tells us that the great glory of the gospel is that Gentiles are now to gather together with Jews as heirs to the Covenant promises and this is a New Testament doctrine and so prophecies about specifically aimed at Israel or Judah in the Old Testament are understood in a spiritual sense as applying to the fullness that is within the church but Darby being a strict literalist and for other reasons as well said well if the sacred text says Israel it must mean Israel so there must be some future in which there is a geopolitical state called Israel that can be the the inheritor of these specific promises but he recognized that the existence of the Christian Church was kind of an inconvenient parenthesis in God's plan all right and there are actually dispensationalists that will speak of the church as a parenthesis in God's plan that language has been used well and and so he says well how do I fit the New Testament together with what I see in the Old Testament and he rejected the typological or allegorical interpretation that's the standard Christian way of dealing with the sacred texts and instead he invented this idea of distinct dispensations in God's plan that God acts one way in one ERA and another way and another era okay and then he imagines that at the end of time God's going to recreate the political state of Israel to be the to enjoy the fulfillment of all these literal Old Testament prophecies but then he's got the problem of Christianity in the meanwhile so what he does is he says oh I know what I'll do I'll get him out of the picture so here's where the idea of the rapture comes in the idea is that God zaps the Christian Church out of the timestream like gets them out in outer space so they so you get rid of the parentheses then God fulfills his promises to Israel and then he reinsert the Christian Church back at the end of time and we all come back and and we dance around in Jerusalem and saying Hebrew songs well well well while Jewish priests are slaughtering Bulls on an altar Wow okay that's that's the picture that's the picture all right needless to say so he invents this in the 19th century and it takes off wildly among early 20th century fundamentalists because of their well for one reason because of their peculiar view of biblical interpretation namely their fundamentalists and their literalists also because they had an apocalyptic view of history apocalyptic means I think the end of the world is upon me and it was easy for fundamentalists to view the world that way because it seemed like you know the rise of communism or secularism or Darwinian evolution there all these forces that seemed to be railed against fundamentalist Christianity they were getting kicked out of their own denominations in the fundamentalist modernist controversy of the 1930s and so it fit with their with their view of history the things we're gonna get worse and worse and worse until they got zapped out of there and and and and of course they just went absolutely gaga in 1948 when we get the the modern you know political state of Israel as a result of Zionism they were just all over that which is why you find in segments of fundamentalism today a kind of just uncritical dogmatism about anything that happens politically in in israel they identify almost directly with the will of God and I kind of you know in a sort of very uncritical in naive way now I'm not taking a position personally on this show on you know paly us our international policy towards Israel that's not the point of this I'm just explaining one of the reasons why fundamentalists take such a strong view politically on Israel okay whether they should or shouldn't for other reasons is beyond the scope of this question so that's the that's the fundamentals fee that's the that's the rapture view that's not widely held outside of fundamentalism what's the Catholic understanding well I began to explain how we understand the relationship of the two Testaments alright that that the whole of the Old Testament is ordered oriented towards the coming of Christ the Messiah and and the new covenant which we have in Jesus the outpouring of God's love in our hearts his his spirit shed abroad in our hearts and in our minds the kingdom of God now present among us like a mustard seed the smallest of all the seeds that grows it grows until it becomes the largest tree Jesus says in all the birds of the air come and nest in its branches and the and the and the church is that kingdom of God now present in mystery growing like leaven throughout the dough like the mustard seed that starts small and grows big and has an increasingly important presence and role in civil society so it's the opposite of apocalypticism right and and yet and yet never comes to complete perfection in this side of eternity and and does suffer ups and downs and and periods of persecution and periods of flourishing and it will be like that for till the end of time all right it's it's we're not we're not futurists we're not we're not antiquarians we're not utopian us we think that Christians are supposed to be salt and light in society they're there to witness to the truth of the gospel and to work for justice and peace in real time but we're citizens of another world our citizenship is in heaven and it's to Christ coming back at the end of time that we look for the final fulfillment of these prophecies when the Dead will be raised the souls will be judged the righteous will go to heaven the unrighteous will go to hell and and hopefully you know if Christ judges us worthy will enter into the kingdom with him forever so there's no rapture there's no you know parentheses there's no zapping the church out and bringing them back all that's unbiblical and unnecessary and I'm quite frankly kind of horrific and and instead we have the presence of Christ's sacramentally with us today absolutely Michelle thank you so much for checking in with us in Augusta Georgia we're delighted for your call this is called communion here on EWTN want to take a moment to just talk about podcasting now what on earth is podcasting you may have heard this term and you're thinking now what is that well don't worry about it it's very simply audio on-demand you can subscribe to a podcast or a recording if you will of this show or a number of other shows here on EWTN just like you would subscribe to a magazine and when you turn on your computer there it will be waiting for you so do check it out visit ewtn.com slash podcast to check out all of our podcast today ewtn.com slash podcast we're gonna go in just a moment here to Mike in Frisco Texas first to get to this text from Nelly who says when did the term Pope come to be used do we know yeah we do so so the word Pope in the second century or Papa or you know it's a term of endearment like daddy was widely used for bishops not just for the Bishop of Rome and we agree we have testament of this in the second century and to this day actually the Coptic Church refers to their patriarch the Bishop of Alexandria they refer to him as the Pope all right and and so that's that's this widespread usage throughout throughout church history and I think in the East it's even applied sometimes to individual priests okay really and it was in the fourth century that the title began to be restricted or used in a way that would particularly identify the Bishop of Rome mm-hmm and I believe it was Pope Gregory the seventh who was an 11th century Pope that prescribed the term to be used only for the Bishop of Rome okay so there you go there's the history sounds good there you go Nellie thank you so much for your text as promised let's go to Mike in Frisco Texas just outside of Dallas listening to us on Sirius XM 130 hello Mike what's on your mind today well good afternoon thanks for taking my call dr. Anders I'm I've become a pretty good fan of anglican theologian ng right oh yeah why Kevin oh is it published quite a bit I'm listening to his latest book on call a biography and I hadn't read all of this work so I can't I can't say that this is an exhaustive statement but he seems to at least in this book take for granted James the brother of Jesus was exactly and literally the brother of Jesus and probably the son of Mary and it just takes me back but it strikes me as odd for him to say that he may I don't know if he's being cynical or not but he certainly has to know that with the Catholic understanding of James brother of Jesus in the New Testament is and it just seems like taking it for granted that Jesus had you know a brother of shared DNA and I'm just wondering I don't want to believe she's suitable but what could possibly be someone that area that is empty right and sure I agree what could possibly be an argument okay well first of all you know in in Matthew chapter 13 we read in verse 55 the crowd speaking of Jesus says is this not the carpenter's son is not his mother called Mary are not his brothers are not his brethren James and Joseph Simon and Judas are not all his sisters here with us where did this man get all these things now so there we actually identify James as the brother in the in the mind of the crowd identified as a brother of Jesus couple things to note about that passage one of them as they identify him is Joseph's son mm-hmm all right which of course he wasn't and Matthew himself says that it that's you know that he wasn't right but now flip over to Matthew 27 and we read at the foot of the cross all right ministering to him were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee so now we have the James and Joseph who are previously identified as a brothers of Jesus are now identified as the children of this woman named Mary and we get we got you you can just poke a stick at the New Testament you hit somebody named Mary Mary's had just fallen off the cart in fourth century all right and then you go over to John chapter 19 and that very same Mary is identified as the wife of Clopas all right so not and a relative of the Blessed Virgin so not not the Blessed Virgin Mary so there's there's evidence internal to the text that these characters were were cousins of Jesus not biological siblings and you don't have to go outside the text for evidence of that all right um now as to what would motivate aunty right well you know I'm a big fan of NT right and in tier i'ts one of the reasons that I became a cat like and and that's pertinent to your question because NT right has led a lot of people into the Catholic Church and it from what I understand having read him that just bugs the stew out of him all right it really bothers him it really does I mean he's he's not a Catholic he's not in tension he's intentionally not Catholic he's very impatient with a lot of Catholic claims and he's perfectly well aware that people read his books and from those books they derive a Catholic vision of the church and a Catholic vision of salvation and then make the logical jump and become and become Catholic and that that really gets under his skin all right and he said so he said so okay so now I'm speculating I'm speculating but there are places not just you know the obvious Protestant Catholic differences there are places where we're right takes a position that he knows flies in the face of tradition and right although so many things he says are amenable to a Catholic interpretation he really does believe it's some level although I think differently than most Protestants at some level in the idea of Sola scriptura all right that the data set if you will for deriving the content of Christian faith are the canonical texts and and in fact even within his own tradition with a Anglicanism or thin Protestantism there are those that take him on that really don't appreciate NT right because he takes positions that they recognize as being contrary to their own Protestant tradition and he always comes back and sort of you know pounces fist says look oh you guys Sola scriptura Protestants or not you know I'm not gonna be held captive to any dogmatic formula that's the result that's the fruit of tradition whether that's Calvinist tradition Lutheran tradition or even a Caledonian tradition a Caledonia would be the the doctrine of Christ that came from the Council of Cal Seton which boasts Anglicans adhere to all right that's course Catholic doctrine as well and I think the the the the scariest part of rites theology for me personally is that he seems to me to be Nestorian in his view of Jesus no nestorius was a was a fifth-century heretic who denied that Jesus excuse me that denied that Mary was the mother of God and and set up a kind of division in the person of Christ between the human Christ and then and then the divine law goes united to the person all right and right seems to talk this way because there are times when right will say things like you know Christ suggesting that Christ did not know he was divine or you know that Christ kind of grew in his understanding of his own divinity Arizonan messianic state or something like that that suggests a kind of division in the personality of Jesus and he must know that that's I know he knows because he's brilliant that that's a Nestorian position all right now why would he do that well I you know again I think that while he's really really interesting in what he does with Sacred Scripture I think sometimes right is keen to show how he couldn't sort of exegete his own understanding of Christianity directly from the text of Scripture and is not afraid to thumb his nose at at any traditional formulation no matter who he offends because he really pounds the table and says he's a soldier a Protestant and and again I know that it it bugs him that people read his stuff and become Catholic so maybe I don't know I don't know the man but maybe he's you know he's he's not shy about finding places to poke the Catholic Church in the eye but he does it in a well in a very urban sophisticated British way okay very good Mike thank you so much for your call here's a quick email here from Tom who says my question is about the Shriners it is my understanding correct me if I'm wrong that the Shriners are affiliated with the Masons now I donate to the Shriners Hospital here locally I'm wondering if this is okay in lieu of the fact or in light of the fact rather that Catholics are not allowed to support Masons thanks Tom okay thanks time appreciate it so Shriners are Mason's I mean I'm neither a Shriner nor Mason nor the son of one but my understanding is to become a Shriner you first have to be a Mason right it's like it's like a club within a club okay and so that's off limits for for Catholics in terms of whether or not you can donate to a Shriners but personally I wouldn't personally I wouldn't because if I'm gonna give money to support the local hospital I'm gonna give to the Catholic hospital all right or to some Catholic apostolate administer the chose to the poor something a mini that there's a finite number of dollars in my bank account there are only so many charities that I can support I'm gonna support Christchurch that's where my money is going to go okay is it intrinsically immoral to give to a Shriners Hospital well I would want to know first of all if that hospital is in turn supporting other Shriner activities that are not immediately related to medical care and the extent to which they may you know advance the the mission of the Shriners as a as an outgrowth of masonry and I'd say your cooperation I mean the Shriners and the Masons oppose the Catholic Church it's in their sort of bedrock governing understanding right but I would say that you know by supporting a medical outfit that's that's affiliate with the Shriners your degree of cooperation is pretty darn remote you know you're not in there personally advancing you're certainly not formally cooperating with the intent of the Shriners opposing Catholicism right so you're probably safe from a moral theology point of view you know from a policy just kind of Prudential point of view well why would you why not support the Catholic hospital good point I mean you know this is the Internet age I mean if you don't have one next door you could pick one to town over I mean there's gonna be one on every other block just about we got we got more hospitals in anybody more Catholic schools hey give to Catholic schools absolute right or EWTN or EWTN there you go can't leave that one off dr. David Andrews thank you my friend thank you Tom remember that we do the show here on EWTN radio Monday through Friday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern with an encore that same evening at 11:00 p.m. Eastern for Michael Burchfield Matt Kavinsky and Jeff Burton I'm Tom price see you next time right here on EWTN is called a communion

Channel: EWTN

Views: 2,775

Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: 9gsmqHGWEQI

Length: 54min 29sec (3269 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 22 2018