Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - May 12, 2021

which would be a major drag on the overall market if it takes hold commodity prices are rising including copper platinum gasoline and crude oil for more news with a catholic perspective visit ewtnnews.com i'm theresa tomio and call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation on the 1-833-288-3986 global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters if that is you if you are not a catholic perhaps not a currently practicing catholic or you've never been a catholic and yet you have questions about the catholic faith this is a great place to get those questions answered we would also like to know why you are not a catholic what is keeping you from becoming a catholic here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response which will be a very quick uh a robo type thing and then just text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may for some folks apply also you can send us an email ctc at ewtn is the address ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer and uh michael birchfield is our phone screener we also have jeff burson on social media if you want to post a question via youtube or facebook we are we're streaming there right now put that question in the comments box jeff will shoot that to us here in studio one i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how are you my friend oh you know reasonable reasonable you're nursing a headache i'm very sorry to hear well you know they come and go it's just part of the human condition right we soldier on that's that's what you do now i'm actually going to lead off with a personal question here for you this is from christopher who says dr anders i've learned so much from you about the catholic faith i've always thought you would do excellent in a debate looking on youtube i was surprised to not find any videos of you debating people is there any particular reason why you don't participate in these thanks christopher i have i have participated in exactly one public debate during the entire time i've been involved in public catholic apostolate yeah and uh i requested the resolution and the debate was on whether or not the doctrine of sola scriptura the protestant doctrine of soul scripture whether or not that is an article of faith in the christian religion you know we have articles of faith i believe god i believe in jesus resurrection and that's that's exactly the proposition i wanted to debate is sola scripture an article of faith is some are we bound by divine authority to believe it now obviously i'm a catholic so i took the negative position and my interlocutor was to defend the proposition solo scriptura is an article of faith yes and i i i really worked hard on my side of the bid a lot of preparation and i was sort of proud of what i had produced and my experience was the guy on the other side of the debate treated it as a good opportunity to evangelize catholics and i felt like we were talking past each other and uh and i was frustrated that it i don't really think it realized the goals that either one of us ought to have you know brought into the debate right which is to give an honest and fair-minded presentation of two sides and uh so that doesn't mean i would never do another one um i do have some reservations about the format because i think it tends to generate triumphalism among the adherents of various you know ideologies that sit in the audience and you you kind of you're you're you're cheering for your team yeah you know you want your guy to win yeah and uh and the format itself maybe not doesn't lead to sort of dispassionate objective evaluation of of questions it can but it can also lead to that sort of us against them kind of triumphalism yeah um so i wouldn't say i'd never do one again but um you know but i have sort of mixed feelings about debate as a format understood i am kind of curious though did you call the person on it did you did you say hey you're not answering my you're you're not defending your your position or you're not answering anything that i'm saying it yeah it was it was kind of like herding cats didn't work so well yeah exactly oh well all right well there you go christopher thanks so much for your email a quick one here from mark who says a few weeks ago we had the reading where the sanhedrin is told to leave the apostles alone since if their teachings are from man and not god the movement will just collapse like the examples that are given in the reading well i have heard catholic apologists use this point to the truth of christianity since the church is still around to this day my question is what about islam what about the protestant reformation clearly these beliefs came from men and not god and yet they still exist and are actually growing any thoughts yeah so so the historical existence of a religious tradition is no proof of its divine authority and the fact that gamaliel advises the sanhedrin not to persecute the apostles because if their movement is from god it will succeed well that was gamaliel's position right yeah i don't know that i would i don't think i would start with gamaliel's proposition and infer from that the conclusion that any that any historical religion that perjures for some arbitrary length of time is necessarily divine i don't think there's any reason to hold that and i mean you know there are a lot of religious traditions and cultural traditions around the globe and many of them survive for the patently obvious reason that people teach them to their children and people teach their kids some really crazy stuff have been known to i mean you see that rock over there on a hill that's a god people teach their kids crazy stuff and it endures for a long time it's no proof of its divine authority now the way i would bring the question to bear on the on the endurance of the christian faith it's not simply it's antiquity or age but two factors number one the church's identity is the fulfillment the culmination of old testament prophecy and expectation right because the hebrew prophets clearly clearly prophesied a time in the new covenant when god would draw in people from all the nations to worship the god of abraham and when you think about it at the time it was a tremendously unlikely thing to happen maybe much more reasonable to say the time is coming when we're all going to worship marduk the god of the babylonians i mean after all the babylonians were the guys that were really running the show back then or the persians the assyrians maybe the romans or the or alexander's empire i mean these would be much stronger contenders for sort of running the religious life of the universe than this tiny little you know cult from judea in the first century and yet it happened exactly as the prophets proclaimed the through the preaching of jesus the nations did in fact come to acknowledge the god of abraham and then what christ said would happen with the coming of the kingdom of god has unfolded righteousness truth peace justice reason these things have spread throughout the world due to the influence of the catholic church mark thank you so much for your question in a moment we'll be talking with bob in port st lucie florida we have a line with your name on it at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 833-288-3986 for call to communion people always ask me father how should we pray well there's several ways we can do it but the most important is through the power of the holy spirit we have to pray from our heart we have to pray honestly and sincerely we have to allow the holy spirit to work through us so that we're not just simply saying words but we're saying words that can actually change us prayer if it changes us then we're doing it right [Music] my wife and i are former protestants who are considering converting to the catholic church and we wanted to ask you about what the catholic view of purgatory would be i have a religious teacher who tells us women should be priests how long do you have to be in that school mother angelica answering the call sunday two and eight p.m eastern exclusively on ewtn radio [Music] check out ewtn's official youtube channel just follow the link on our home page at ewtn.com or go to youtube.com ewtn watch ewtn's live shows or today's homily from the daily mass click the upload button to see our most recent clips you can also find all of ewtn youtube content by clicking the playlist button it's all on the official ewtn youtube channel at youtube.com ewtn visit it's called a communion here on ewtn how are you listening to us today you know a lot of people like to listen to us via a smart speaker i'm here to tell you that ewtn radio is indeed available on smart speakers like the amazon echo you may know it as a a-l-e-x-a or the google assistant and there are others too for example you can listen to this program just by saying alexa ask ewtn to play call to communion and boom there you go fantastic way to tune in to this program and a lot of others right here on ewtn radio if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with bob in port st lucie florida listening on prince a prince of peace radio hey there bob what's on your mind today there he is bob what's on your mind sir okay i am living with some friends who are not of our faith and one of the people i live with has a friend who left the church and is now with their church and we got talking about religion and bottom line she referred to mary as an idol okay and i am sort of taken back by that and what's ironic is her name is mary sure sure okay yeah i appreciate the call bob thank you so much this is not an uncommon opinion among many non-catholic christians they often regard catholic devotion to the saints and especially our devotion to our lady as idolatrous and the reasons that they do are historical but it sort of boils down to this that they think that to show reverence to some invisible person that's just what worship is that's just what worship means and so if you're showing reverence to some invisible person or power and it's not the lord god that must by definition be idolatry that's the way they understand it well the catholic response to that is well you don't know what worship is like we we agree yeah we should definitely show reverence to mary and the saints absolutely hands down no doubt about it but to show reverence is not the same thing as the the adoration owed to almighty god i'll prove it to you ever salute the flag sure right uh ever stand uh in a courtroom when the judge walks into the room you better have better right um you know ever uh ever take the pledge i said that right yeah um have you ever uh been in favor of erecting a monument say in your nation's capital or your state capital to honor some fallen hero or heroes or civil rights leader or early presidents or commemorate something like ever ever bought a commemorative edition of blank right but we we honor people and things and events all the time and reasonably so you know saint paul says in the book of romans he says render honor to whom honor is due custom to whom custom and this is what justice means it means you render to someone what is their do what is their right and for some people that means honor um you know when i was a i'm a southern boy and when i grew up we were always taught to address our elders as sir and ma'am and i would never have dreamed of not speaking to my grandfather in a respectful way all these are forms of reverence and honor none of them constitute the worship ode to almighty god right so if if merely showing reverence is not what we mean by worship what do we mean by worship well in sacred scripture and for that matter throughout the history religious history of mankind worship has always meant primarily offering sacrifice and one thing that we don't do as catholics is we don't offer sacrifice to the blessed virgin mary or the saints that's not what we do that we do offer sacrifice we offer the holy sacrifice of the mass to god to god the father offer the body and blood of christ to him but if you attend to the words of the mass when mary and the saints are invoked they are mentioned as as co-offerers along with us they're they are participants with us in this one sublime act of worshiping almighty god through the sacrifice of the mass we're also told to uh to offer ourselves our own bodies as as living sacrifices to god that's the spirit in worship and in truth that jesus talks about and and we're on we're offering this not to mary and the saints but through their prayers and intercession we're offering them to god now we do pray to the saints we pray to the blessed virgin mary but to pray simply means to ask to petition you know we we ask people and petition people for things all the time uh you know could you pass me the salt it's not an act of worship it's a petition uh you know if i if somebody's in a position to help me maybe in a position of authority um you know in my own diocese i worked for for the bishop of birmingham um i can't just waltz in his office and demand an audience i i've got to go through the his his administrative assistant sure and uh you know i mean her name is donna and sometimes i feel like you know princess leia i'm like help me donna you're my only hope i've got to get word to the bishop can i talk to him please you know she's my intercessor if you will right right it's not i mean it's not an act of worship right and it's not no more so with the saints if they're in heaven and they're united to god in charity they've been made holy it's perfectly reasonable and scripture teaches us to do this uh to ask for their prayers and intercessions just as i would ask somebody on earth okay bob is that helpful for you yeah i think it is thanks guys you are most welcome that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 called the communion in progress on this a wednesday afternoon here on ewtn radio let's go to david now in hesperia california listening online ewtn.com hey david what's on your mind today hello um well i was born and raised in seventh-day adventists until about 20 years ago that was age uh let's see 48. um and um god just started showing me things and he got my attention to what i heard they called the title they could call it a universalism but i didn't know that was it but he kept showing me things that that made it kind of almost overwhelmingly obvious that he's going to save everybody so the first the the two that i'd like to prefer for um david to answer with um coming on are romans 5 10 and 18 those two verses i can read it real quick for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to god by the death of his son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life and then verse 18 therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life okay so your question then david is i i got it tom i understood the question okay go right ahead then so so what he's asking is in view of these texts the text would seem to suggest that if we all die in adam and we're all remade in christ then why would the fruits of christ's death the fruits of the redemption not be applied to everyone doesn't that imply the salvation of everyone universalism now that that line of thinking has actually a long history in in christian history and there were some early fathers of the church like origen of alexandria who who took that so seriously he applied it even to the devil he thought the redemption of all rational beings including satan and it was the theory was called apocatistasis and the councils of the church rejected that position and according to saint thomas aquinas one of the reasons in the creed we say you know for us men and for our salvation the language for us men was specifically to exclude uh origins belief in the salvation of the fallen angels now the redemption doesn't extend to them that was the church's position um and uh and so it's it's you know it's been something that's been discussed in church history and some of the reasons that you've brought forth were have been considerations uh so here are some here's another perspective the church itself prays for the salvation of everybody it's actually built into the liturgical prayer of the church there are a couple of prayers in the liturgy where we in fact ask for the salvation of everyone and as some theologians have pointed out it seems unreasonable to ask for what you know can't happen right and so kind of maintaining a hopeful attitude i'm never going to walk up to somebody and say well i just know for sure you're going to hell you know i'm going to approach everybody with the openness that god could save this person it's reasonable to hope that they're saved now that's on sort of one side of the equation here's the other side of the equation i don't immediately lay hold of the grace that christ has won for me on the cross without without some sort of personal appropriation without some sort of cooperation or collaboration with god and that also is constantly referred to in sacred scriptures so saint paul book of galatians for example chapter 5 after he's told the galatians and you guys received the spirit you sure did by the hearing of faith you better keep in step with the spirit and then he lays out for them a list a vice list here here are the disqualifiers fornication adultery factions hatred disobedience to parents you know acts of rage drunkenness carousing he gives a big long list he says if you live like this you will not inherit the kingdom of god and in the book of romans itself i mean chapter 8 is all about this it's all about well you don't have to follow the mosaic law by the hearing of faith you can receive the gift of the spirit and have this newness of life the fruits of the spirit love and joy and peace and patience kindness goodness could flow into your life but then paul goes on to say you better keep stuck with the spirit you better keep in step with the spirit yeah and and he issues a warning well you guys that have been incorporated into christ through faith especially you gentiles you're like you're like a branch that's been grafted into an olive chute man olive branch your chute has been grafted into the olive branch this is good for you but we can graft you right back out again yeah and he warns that that can happen right uh and so these admonitions to take heed and to be careful and to watch and to keep in step with the spirit and to avoid fornication and adultery and hatred and factions lest we lest we fail lest we not receive the kingdom of god those warnings would have no effect if they were not also real possibilities saint paul tells us in romans chapter 2 he says to those who by patient endurance and seeking good seek glory honor and immortality god will give eternal life but to those who are disobedient wrath and punishment christ himself matthew 25 we talked about the last judgment he clearly delineates the company of the sheep from the company of the goats and you can you can live the life of mercy and follow christ or you can do otherwise and it's not going to end well for you revelation chapter 20. so the last judgment something that's constantly mentioned in sacred scripture as a real possibility so to sum all that up i think it's wise to keep in mind that god's universal will to save which is clearly the teaching of the bible to pray for the salvation of everyone to maintain a lively hope in the salvation of any individual soul that you meet you meet somebody you say well you know this person can be saved and god christ died for them and grace is available to them and i'm not it's not my job to pass judgment on their soul and and that's god's job and i'm you know i'm just going to treat them charitably and hopefully but when it comes to my own case when i look at me am i you know test myself am i in the faith am i walking is jesus walked am i staying stuck with the spirit am i avoiding these vices that paul says can disqualify me from the life of heaven there you go david thank you so much for your call call to communion in progress here on this wednesday afternoon our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six we have one line open here is chase in mount holly spring pennsylvania checking us out today on youtube a first time caller hello chase what's on your mind today hello um i'm part of an apology before i begin tom is that you speaking spanish when i called the radio no that was not me no espanol la key definitely not i would uh congratulate you for that but um i'm part of an apologetics group on facebook and um there was a lady who said that her doctor said she might die if she gets pregnant again and so the people commenting were recommending natural family planning and you know i i guess that's better than nothing but um so that gets to the context of the question what i wanted to ask is under that circumstance what does the catholic church teach is it still categorically immoral to use contraception in that result or perhaps surgery such as a uterus yeah thanks i appreciate the question so um first of all an intrinsically immoral act does not become intrinsically moral simply because it has a desirable consequence an intrinsically immoral act does not become moral because it has some desirable consequence that makes sense you know i mean like if i needed a liver transplant i couldn't run over and grab tom's liver you know i couldn't slice him open and grab his liver and run away i'm glad to hear that i need a i might need a new liver but i can't just go take toms because i feel like it you know uh be intrinsically immoral for me to do that it wouldn't be rendered justifiable simply because it had a beneficial outcome for me right and uh and so the unlawful use of the sexual faculty is unlawful by its nature doesn't become lawful because it produces some outcome that is desirable now uh so there that being said there are some medical interventions that have undesirable outcomes that are that are allowable that are listed uh because they're not pursued for the sake of the immoral outcome it's called the principle of the double effect right and so um you know i don't know what the situation is here but let's say this woman had a medical condition that could be treated by hysterectomy well that has the effect of rendering her infertile well we don't want the we don't want her to be infertile but if it's necessary to save her life for some other medical purpose that's a that's a unintended secondary consequence um that uh that is that's conceivable it's can be allowable under the circumstance certain circumstances i won't speak to this one because i don't know the case understood chase thanks so much for your call it is called a communion on this wednesday afternoon glad that you're with us do stick around [Music] for register radio i'm matthew bunson this is monte alvarado from ewtn news in depth hi i'm brian patrick with the catholic sphere get trusted catholic news every day on ewtn television and radio living the beatitudes with father bjorn blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted this strange beatitude reminds us that jesus is challenging us with his ways to heaven on a new exodus we're leaving behind the egypt of this world to find the eternal paradise of heaven when we tend to think of happiness we tend to think of it in a self-centered way a possession of a temporary good or passing fancy but jesus is calling us into eternal happiness and actually morality is a search for happiness says dominican priest surveys pink hairs we're looking to be happy and a lot of times we end up in dead end roads that don't lead us to where we want to go how can we be blessed when we mourn in sorrow and difficulty hardship and cross we are called closer to jesus it's god's fingerprint in our heart reminding us that we're made for eternal happiness blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted for more about the beatitudes visit ewtnrc.com ewtn helping people grow in their love and understanding of god others that i would say definitely made an impact now is ewtn and i go and walk at the park every day at lunch listening to you guys and being able to learn a lot more about the faith learn a lot of other perspectives that i may have not thought about so i just want to thank you all for being a big influence ewtn live truth live catholic what are some of the things you love about your oldest living relative share them with us tomorrow on take two with jerry and debbie on most of these ewtn stations now we return to call to communion [Music] what's stopping you from becoming a catholic uh is it purgatory is our belief in purgatory or is it a devotion to mary is it faith alone is it the pope the holy father is it perhaps a confession to a priest we can help on all these things and lots more if you give us a call at 833 288 ewtn that's what we do answering those kind of questions right here on call to communion here's marcy in omaha now on the great spirit catholic radio hey marcy what's on your mind today thank you dr anders my question has to do with evolution really i have a friend who and she's a faithful catholic who is convinced that the earth is six to ten thousand years old and that you cannot believe in theistic evolution and she's been greatly influenced in these ideas by the colby center for the study of creation which is a catholic organization named after maximin colby i believe i just wondered um what does the magisterium of the church teach about this i my understanding was that you could believe in this as long as you believe that god created this process called evolution but she's adamant that no that's not the case you cannot believe in theistic evolution and that that's the reason we're in such a mess now because if you get creation wrong you get everything else wrong yeah i'm familiar with the colby center and hugh owen the founder i'm familiar with this position and it is a fringe position to say to say the least it's very fringe um at one time the colby center had on its website articles defending geocentrism right in addition to attacking evolution they were actually attacking the copernican view of the universe they may not take that position anymore but at one time they were they were behind that as well so it is needless to say a very fringe position and and owens perspective this is his point of view yeah is uh he he thinks that since many of the fathers of the church held a different cosmology that's a kind of a view of how the universe is constructed since their cosmology was different from ours we had to default to the patristic cosmology that's his that's his argument now against that is well first of all the scientific evidence uh and secondly the fact that the magisterium of the church absolutely does not agree with him emphatically does not agree with him and uh the cardinal shernborne who was the editor of the catechism of the catholic church john paul ii who promulgated the catechism of the catholic church uh pope benedict who who was the prefect for the congregation for the doctrine of the faith before he became pope um all personally believe in biological evolution through through natural selection and and have explicitly said in in in speech and writing uh following the teaching of pius xii that it is certainly permissible for catholics to follow the scientific evidence wherever it might lead even if it leads to uh darwinism right and and the reason why is you have to understand first of all what why would someone not do that well yeah well why would somebody not follow the scientific evidence and follow what what reason demonstrates why would they not do that well the only one reason that i can think of uh is that they misunderstand what the bible is now inherited in the modern world from fundamentalist protestantism which is basically an early 20th century invention following on the heels of a very peculiar theory of hermeneutics that's a theory of biblical interpretation that arose in 19th century anglo-american protestantism uh people of the modern world some protestant people the modern world began to think that the bible was a kind of well what should we say sort of like a textbook and that it was a repository of facts in much the same way that you might approach you know empirically say you know nature as a repository of facts simply to be explored and catalogued and arranged you know uh kind of you know in a wooden level way like a like a holy encyclopedia exactly yeah not only of christian doctrine and morality but of like anything that it touched on would be had to be interpreted in this way and that's just not uh and so they you know take quite literally you know god creates a firmament well you know in the context of the story the form of it is literally a glass dome that surrounds a sphere right that separates the planet from essentially an ocean above the above the sky right that's what the firmament refers to in the context of the book of genesis and uh in statements like that had to be taken at face value as literal descriptions of cosmology and this is just not how the catholic church has ever read the bible nor how it understands it and the the overwhelming perspective of the new testament writers and the early church fathers is that the the sacred scriptures are through and through allegories through and through not only allegories but they are never not allegorical and so when saint augustine who wrote a book actually called the literal meaning of genesis when augustine approaches say the first 11 books of genesis he says well this is an allegory for the creation of the church wow now i'm not saying that that is the right or wrong way to read it i'm just giving it to you as an illustration of the kind of thing that the church fathers did with the book of genesis or origen of alexandria who really is sort of the chief allegorist in the catholic tradition who when he approaches the story of god creating adam and eve and walking in the garden points out quite obviously god doesn't have feet he can't walk right this is figurative language sure and when it when it does come to sort of cosmological questions saint thomas aquinas who is the chief theologian in the catholic tradition greatest thinker theological mind in the whole church there's an interesting thing if you read his uh his uh his treatise on the seven days of creation thomas looks at the creation narrative and then he compares it to what was in his day the the best scientific theories on cosmology now those theories are woefully outdated today of course uh but there were more than one of them several different theories um but are presented as being sort of rational hypotheses about how the heavens and earth might be arranged or how they you know come to be historically and what time rather than just saying well these contradict the bible we're going to throw them out what thomas does is he says well let's look at how any one of these or each of them might be reconcilable with sacred scripture and so he's always seeking to harmonize faith and reason not set them in opposition to one another and even in the galileo controversy which is probably the most notorious uh case of interaction between a sort of antagonism between science and the catholic church that even that story is badly mistold either by the opponents of of science or by or or of the church what actually happened in that case was cardinal bellarmine who was the sort of chief doctrinal enforcer at the time uh called galileo aside and says okay galileo put up or shut up let's see the empirical evidence and if you know anything about the story you know at that time it was just a it was a mathematical theory hadn't yet been empirically verified right right and bellarmine's position was the church will certainly endorse your position if you can prove it to be true but at this point it remains simply a hypothesis that that mathematically fits the data so galileo talks to pope urban viii and urban took what i regard as a tremendously modern position on the relationship of science actually on the epistemology of science how we know things scientifically and what urban tells what urban says to galileo is well you have presented a mathematical model that seems to capture the phenomena that doesn't necessarily indicate that you've understood the inner structure of of reality right because there might be other mathematical models that can also capture the phenomena now if you know anything about the history of modern physics that is the copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics right that we have an instrument science gives us instrumental knowledge of phenomena not the inner nature of reality and uh and so the pope says to galileo much like niels bohr would say let's okay let's let's take it at that level you've done a good job with the math we'll present it as a theory it needs empirical confirmation so in the meanwhile hold off from asserting it as a settled fact because it's like it's socially potentially disruptive and we just had the protestant reformation and you're going to tell people the you know the world is spinning around in the universe is kind of destabilizing we don't really know that yet it's a theory it's a working hypothesis and the jesuits were the first people to hop on board when the scientific data became flowing in because after all they were the guys with the telescopes pointed at the sky jesuit astronomers but a major contributor to advance of the modern scientific revolution so church's attitude has always been faith and reason are always in harmony and they can't possibly contradict because the same god that wrote the bible made the earth yep you know and and when you are faced with a contradiction well what appears to be a contradiction you withhold judgment you qualify you add a distinction you seek further clarification and you don't determine at the outset that you just dogmatically know the right answer right you you work with the data you you work dialectically towards first principles not demonstratively from some assumed first principle there you go marcy thank you so much for your call call to communion here on ewtn well you know what i i want to tell you about a wonderful program that we have on the weekends it's relatively new i think it's been on the air a little less than a year now it's the miracle hunter and if you've never heard it it is fantastic we air it on saturdays at 1 pm and 7 p.m eastern time michael o'neill our host the miracle hunter himself he interviews guests who give a look into the fascinating world of miracles including miracle news we do that every week also 365 days with mary and there's also a might be saint of the day it's a fascinating program again check it out on saturdays 1 pm eastern 7 p.m eastern on most of these ewtn stations back to the phones right now for jennifer in elkhart indiana listening on the great redeemer radio a first-time caller jennifer what's on your mind today hi there um first of all i'd just like to say thank you so much for this show it is just amazing dr andrews i don't know how you are such an intellectual brain and you make me feel smarter along with of course building my faith but i'm just so grateful for this show and i'm also a convert my husband and i are both converts [Music] so we grew up protestant and all of my family our family on both sides is protestant as well and of course growing up protestant it was very um important aspect of our faith to have revelation and jesus coming returning you know the end times all of this was very uh um i guess emphasized much growing up and so being catholic now i've heard uh several different theories and i'm just i'm curious what are um what are truths of the church and um you know uh what it what's taught about that specifically and and what are where are some areas you know where i know it's not a dogmatic truth that there are some you know different aspects that might vary i guess what what that might look like yeah in terms of our catholic faith sure thanks i appreciate the question so the essence of catholic eschatology view of the end times is that first of all you're going to die and so am i so my own end time is going to come you know i'm 50 so actuarially probably within the next 30 to 40 years that's that's the that's the end of my world right and and that's the that's the end that i have to be most concerned with because then i'll face the particular judgment christ judging my soul um christ will come back at some point in the future we don't know the day or the hour no one does only the father that's what jesus said so we don't need to be concerned about times and seasons um and uh and between now and then um all you know what is going to break loose as it's been doing for quite a long time oh yes right and so saint john says in his epistles that you've heard that antichrist is going to come and by the way lots of antichrists have come that's what the sacred scripture says right and uh and when you read in the book of revelation these shadowy figures of the beast from the land and the beast from the sea and they would seem to represent tyrannical religious and political power and in my opinion and that of many scholars is that the historical reference here are two events and characters in the first century they're rendered symbolically but they're really talking about uh things that happened in the first century like the rise of nero caesar in the persecution of the church which which happened but the reason they don't just say nero caesar is because nero is really a type of a kind of repressive political and religious authority that's always going to recur throughout history it's why apocalyptic visionaries get such traction when they rise up and they say well this political leader or that movement is obviously the antichrist well yeah it is just like the last 22 of them that we've seen you know and uh and you know so you cannot you you make a general statement then somebody draws a specific you know particular interpretation to it i mean that's the way that's the way you know spiritism and tarot card reading and stuff work people say well i you know it seems to me that you know you've come into some money recently and then that they prompt the the participant to come oh yeah well my my buddy gave me back 50 bucks yeah that was it yeah that was it you know if you cast a wide enough net you're gonna the description will fit any number of particular circumstances i think apocalyptic prophecy works that way uh uh you know there's gonna be some evil shadowy political figure that that sells you know uh anti-christian ideology oh take a number yeah exactly that's not what you're always gonna find that in every era it doesn't mean this guy or that guy so jesus will come back historically don't know the day of the hour when he does he'll judge the living and the dead uh there'll be the resurrection of the flesh resurrection of the body and the second that general judgment and the point of the general judgment is not just to condemn the wicked but also to vindicate the righteous and you know you read the psalms and the psalmist is always saying you know how long oh lord are you going to hold off judgment on these guys that have been really beating up on me and and and your people who are trying to follow you and we're just taking it on the chin when you're going to come to our defense and and in the final judgment christ will pronounce judgment on the wicked but it'll also vindicate the righteous well done good and faithful servant they'll do it in a public sphere the same sphere in which they were martyred or he was dishonored he'll now be honored and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord that's what philippians chapter 2 says and after that the end when it's either heaven or hell and purgatory will get emptied and and will enter into that eternal state of uh in an embodied way in a resurrected body but of the beatific vision if we're blessed which is the vision of god in his essence that satisfies every conceivable longing of the human heart and then some eye has not seen ear has not heard what god has in store for those who love him so those are the main outlines of the of the of the teaching our death our particular judgment christ's returning glory uh the final judgment and and heaven and hell is the final destination of the human soul now beyond that um in terms of the interpretation of specific biblical passages the catholic church has never or almost never dogmatically defined the meaning of some particular verse and and so catholic biblical scholars have for centuries been permitted to apply different hermeneutics different interpretive methods to gain different insights from the bible and as is beautiful and quite wonderful and it would be very restrictive if the church said well this can only mean this but that's not why that's not the way the bible views itself you know the new testament authors engage the old testament creatively and draw new insights out of old text so the same thing is true of catholic biblical scholars all right jennifer thank you so much for your call we do appreciate hearing from you in elkhart beautiful beautiful town there let's go to martha now in uh lima ohio also a beautiful town listening on the ewtn app hey martha what's on your mind today hi thanks for taking my call i was raised catholic and i've been away from the church for 28 years because my protestant husband couldn't accept some catholic teachings and it was getting too hard to keep going to both churches as we had more children come along so i didn't know my faith well enough back then to defend it but i've been reading and you know looking into things more and i want to come back to the church but my husband is still not receptive and he's bringing up articles and videos that try to refute the church's teachings you know typical ones like you know mary and so one of my questions is specifically addressing mary typology especially i guess as scott hahn presents it and the the objections that i've heard from the protestant point of view seem logical so how do i make sense of mary being the new eve the new ark of the covenant the queen mother when the new testament references for the typology don't seem to make sense to me is there a resource that would help yes okay thanks i appreciate the question so several things here first of all thank you so much for your call and for your desire to understand the catholic faith and perhaps to come back and we'll help you any way we can and i'm sorry for the strife in your home that's terribly painful and i'm sympathetic and i've been there and my heart goes out to you and so we'll help however we can um i i love dr scott hahn he is i mean i'm a big groupie and i've got to be his man he's got a bunch of his books on the shelf um and uh and i i hope you read all of them it is not necessary however to follow dr han's exegesis on every biblical point in order to be an authentic and fulfilled catholic right i mean i just got finished saying that within the history of the catholic church catholic biblical scholars are permitted to to look to different readings and and draw different insights out of sacred scripture and that's just as true about dr hahn as it is about anybody else he would say the same thing absolutely and so you know if you if you say well i read this in queen of heaven and i'm not seeing it well you know your catholic faith doesn't hang on page 86 of one of of one of dr hans books however good and edifying they may be so um if i might let me let me deal with this a slightly different angle right and that is what does the church teach about the blessed virgin mary what am i actually obligated to believe as a catholic and then how how might i look to scripture and sacred tradition and the devotion of the church to to sustain that right so you're correct the earliest doctrine on mary in sacred history outside of scripture is this her identity as the second eve and i think the parallelism is suggested by the bible you know eve is the one that said no to god and brought wreck and ruin through to her physical progeny the human race and in revelation chapter 12 the woman who gives birth to christ uh is presented as in confrontation with a that ancient serpent the devil so the parallelism to eve is quite explicit and she's described as the mother of all those who believe in christ so i mean there you go the mother of physical progeny and those you know in the spiritual vein who have been reborn in jesus which is not natural birth but birth and through water in the spirit and christ used that language in john chapter two and so in that same gospel in saint john's gospel john chapter 2 john chapter 19 jesus seems to indicate this by referring to his mother not his mom but as woman which is that sort of typological identification mary herself recognizes uh her unique role when she says all generations will call me blessed and and in her magnificat she draws on the language of these old testament types these holy women of old and several old testament themes of god coming and throwing down the mighty and raising up the weak and all of these are associated with these uh with these women of zion pope benedict you asked for resources cardinal ratzinger's book the daughter of zion would be one that develops those in a slightly different way from dr han and you know when you say that well when i look to the church's interpretation of the text i maybe don't see it as vividly in the text as uh as as i'd like and here i'd like to offer another point of view about how we engage the bible as catholics if you're talking to a protestant about the meaning of a scripture verse they assume what's called grammatical historical exegesis right they assume that the way to read a biblical text is through the lens of grammatical historical exegesis try to find out precisely what the words meant in that context that the sacred author intended and that's it that's it now if i would suggest that's not the way the new testament reads the old when you when you read the new testament citations of the old testament new testament authors do not use grammatical historical exegesis as they approach the old testament evidence saint paul says well our our ancestors were followed around in the desert by a rock and that rock was jesus well i would challenge you to go back and read the book of exodus read the account of the the water the rock that's that's struck and water comes forth and tell me where in the book of exodus moses identifies this rock as jesus he doesn't it's not that's that's that's going beyond the grammatical historical sense of the text or when christ is challenged and said why did the prophet say that that elijah must come first and jesus says well if you're willing to accept it it's john the baptist well you know go back and read malachi he doesn't say john the baptist will come first you know it's a there's a there's a more sort of dynamic and creative engagement with the text than that now the church fathers who who of course they're not just reading sacred scripture they're reading scripture informed by the tradition of catholic liturgical and devotional practice that they have inherited from the apostles they're bringing to bear the weight of sacred tradition as well and the guidance of the holy spirit engage the text sometimes creatively right in ways that exceed perhaps the the literal grammatical historical meaning of the text but they do so in a way that's perfectly consistent with the catholic ethos and with the mind of the church and so these things are confirmed to us by the teaching authority of the church by the magisterium when something when some point of mariology is mary really the mother of god well should we really use that title well what does the church do well i mean she looks to sacred scripture she looks to sacred tradition and finally she looks to the magisterium itself to infallibly define that doctrine so you can't just rely on the historical reading of the bible alone to arrive at your christian faith okay martha thank you so much for your call and we do appreciate hearing from you today from lima ohio i want to give a little shout out here to irene in waco texas my goodness she was on hold for looked like 26 minutes that's a long time to be on hold and you know what we just ran out of show as you can hear the music is playing irene please call us back tomorrow i promise that when you call just identify yourself as uh irene and waco and our our screener michael birchfield will put you at the head of the line and we will get your question answered because it's a very important question hey dr david anders thank you sir thank you tom don't forget we do the program monday through friday here on ewtn live at 2 p.m eastern with an encore at 11 pm eastern uh that same evening we also bring you the wonderful podcast which is available pretty much anytime at ewtnradio.net ewtnradio.net on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david anders thanks for joining us see you tomorrow right here on ewtn radio's call to communion

Channel: EWTN

Views: 2,552

Rating: 4.9529409 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: jzefXynDcI4

Length: 54min 15sec (3255 seconds)

Published: Wed May 12 2021