Virtus In Medio Stat

PROTESTANTS CATCHING UP: THE ETERNITY OF HELL, KIRK CAMERON, AND RUSLAN I watched the entire video from Kirk Cameron and commented on it a few days ago. I thought maybe Ruslan added some further substance here. Not really. He's a bit more forgiving to Cameron than more academic or more traditional Protestant thought leaders have been towards Cameron.  Cameron and Ruslan appear to agree here that the details of the "eternity" of hell is a "non-essential" doctrine or non-essential component of the essential doctrine of hell, that is, either it means "eternal conscious torment" or the finality and eternity of the outcome of annihilation of the soul after a proportionate punishment in hell, then the "second death". Honestly, it's really entertaining and cute to observe Protestants engaging in stimulating and exciting "new" discussions on topics that the Catholic Church has been been debating and concluding on for almost ...

In reaction to:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUvYCV_y6bo Francis Chan is still in ecclesiological limbo, huh? I made a video that I streamed over for FrontlineTV about 4 or 5 years ago now about my thoughts on Francis Chan on the Eucharist. Not sure what he's still stuck on but he's clearly in the feels category. I think the Catholics around him need to focus more on the feels than the thinks, because the thinks have obviously not done the job. As for Gavin, I know it sounds so true to think well, there are true believers in all ecclesial flavors of Christianity, and that's because true believers exist in spite of ecclesial affiliation. That's the Protestant ecclesiology, or the underlying practical experience. Of course there are stricter flavors that are concerned with adherence to doctrinal confessions. For those folks, membership in the church has to do with intellectual assent to doctrinal propositions and not ecclesial affiliation. But Gavin "knows" ...

In response to:  https://www.facebook.com/tuckercarlsonTCN/videos/1118802183510925  Tucker Carlson the Catholic view on the elect and reprobate, is a balance of both predestination (Rom 9:22) and free will (1 Cor 10:13), as both are true and Biblical. God knows who is elect and who is reprobate (but we don't), as he has positively chosen the elect (Rom 8:30), and he has not chosen the reprobate. That is a nuanced distinction from the Calvinist view that God also positively chose or predestined the reprobate to hell. That's why the heresy, according to the Catholic Church, is called "double predestination" or predestinarianism. The Jewish people were the chosen people of the Old Covenant (Deut 7:6); however, with the advent and death of Jesus, the covenant with the Jews was revoked and superseded by the new covenant (Heb 8:13), and the identity of the chosen people was shifted from the Jews to the new covenant church (Rom 11:11-31), which is the Catholic Church. Salv...

ENVY is more than jealousy. It's me wanting what you have, especially fueled by the thought that you don't deserve what you have. It is a deadly sin when you want to cause harm towards others who have what you want.  This is what makes social media so problematic for many of us, especially those whose primary vice is Envy. We see the best of people's lives on social media. We hardly see the struggles behind the good posts. Life is filled with ups and downs. For all of us. Matthew 5:45 English Standard Version 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. I'm here at Calvinist Coffee aka Landmark coffee roasters in Redlands. Christian owned, so support them. Unless you're reprobate, go to Coffee Bean. No time for your depraved dollars ;-) (jk, of course)

THE GIFT, NOT THE WRAPPING PAPER, OF THE EUCHARIST Most of the parish mission talk tonight was spot on and excellently delivered. Then he had to do a little side eye towards my Trad friends. I can pick on them a little bit since I spent some time in that community,. But I'll sometimes defend them when the mood is right. Father made the point about some in the church who seem to get into more of a focus on how the liturgy is executed rather than what's really important. He goes on to say that it's like these folks have missed the gift and focused on the wrapping paper. Seems a bit unfair of a judgement to describe them all, but he might have a valid point too. If you know the community of the Holy Name of Jesus parish, you'd probably know that the vast majority of folks won't know what he is talking about. But with the sensitive ears of a former traditionalist, I know he's clearly talking about the liturgy war, so-called. Without really taking a defin...

From the Laurence Gonzaga archives... Sunday, February 1, 2009 Church and Society - Avery Cardinal Dulles Church and Society: The Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, 1988-2007 (Hardcover) Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ Chapter 38 - Who are saved? Sold at Amazon.com here. I went into B & N to read the next few chapters of a book I started there last month by Dinesh D'Souza, What's so Great about Christianity? But, alas, they are out of stock. So, this book caught my eye. I perused through the pages of the book, as well as the Table of contents, and this chapter caught my eye. I read through it and was thoroughly impressed by this theologian's brevity and clarity in presenting this topic. I think he makes very little of his own assertions, but did well to present the established and popular treatments of the issue, as the doctrine of "extra ecclesiam nulla salus" developed over the centuries. He goes through it chronologically. He points out that early on, the...

ALL PATHS LEAD TO THE ONE TRUE GOD?  Of course I didn't read the whole thing from Pope Francis to the Singaporean Junior College students.  Who has time for such things?  Aren't there already enough church documents?  So I searched for the word path and read the sentence in context.  In my view, it's problematic but I think there's enough substance there that's true that doesn't make me lose sleep over it.  I agree that all religions are in some sense a pathway to the true God. It's at least further along than being an atheist or an agnostic. Even those could be part of a pathway in a person's life towards God eventually.  I was raised Catholic to some degree, went to Catholic school, and got the early sacraments, but became an atheist, then became a theist, then became Catholic again, then Protestant, then Catholic again, then almost Sedevacantist, then Catholic again. But don't ask Gerry Matatics about that last step. :-)  Francis af...