| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| spaxx |
Posted - 04/21/2008 : 09:57:16
These two commandments forbid adultery, and whatever is contrary to the holy virtue of chastity, and are the most difficult to keep.
The sixth forbids,
(1) all external acts of impurity, all conversations, looks, touches, or other actions contrary to the virtue of purity
(2) all occasions that lead to impurity, such as bad company,free intercourse or familiarity between the sexes, dangerous dances, immodest fashions, indecent pictures or statues, and also plays, songs, newspapers, pamphlets, books, and novels of a licentious and immoral tendency.
The ninth commandment forbids interior sins, that is to say, thoughts and desires contrary to purity. We sin by evil thoughts
(1) when we consent to them and desire their accomplishment
(2) when we take pleasure in them even when we have not the will to accomplish them
(3) when we willfully neglect to put away such thoughts as soon as we perceive them
There are three distinct parts of an evil thought:
(1) the suggestion, or the simple idea of the evil which comes to the mind, and which in itself is not sin
(2) the delectation, or the sensual pleasure or agreeable impression which generally accompanies an evil thought
(3) the consent
If the will advertently and deliberately takes pleasure in the impression felt, there is mortal sin ; but if the will gives only an imperfect advertence or a half consent, there is venial sin ; if the will does not Consent to all, there is no sin.
Every sin against holy purity is mortal when it receives full consent. The sin of impurity, disgraceful in the sight of men, and abominable before God, especially when committed by a Christian, is ruinous in its effects and terrible in its punishments. The effects of impurity are relapse, bad habits, sacrilege caused by the shame of confessing this vice, scandals, and a multitude of other sins, incredulity, hardness of heart, and final impenitence. The chastisements which follow it often, even in this life, are the loss of honor, goods, and health, and a premature death ; and after death, the eternal flames of
hell.
That the majority of souls are damned because of the sins of fornication and adultery is incontestable. One need only look at the world around us today, flooded with pornography which has even invaded the crib, where even the young have not been spared. St Alphonse Liguori says that the greater number of the damned in hell owe their condemnation to fornication and adultery. In a number of cases, during the solemn roman catholic exorcism, demons have reveal that the greatest majority of people in hell are damned on account of sex related sins. In his book titled Reinigung der Erde (Cleansing of the Earth, pp 71 – 76, ISBN 3 85406 005, Mediatrix - Verlag), Josef Stocker narrates of an Exorcism that happened in 1880, during which the demons revealed that the goal of the inhabitants of hell is to lead as many souls as possible to eternal damnation. The demons claimed to have archived phenomenal success in attaining this goal by:
1) Tempting men into committing acts of fornication and adultery, homosexuality, bestiality and every filthy acts one can imagine
2) Spreading religious errors and heresies which has lead to the birth of thousands of religious sects and denominations, other than the one and only Church established by Jesus Christ
The demons also revealed that they use men to help them, and that Freemasons are their chief helpers in the promotion of vice.
Moreover, they attest that, in the name of science (Parapsychology), or out of dangerous curiosity, or pleasure, mankind experiments with the Occult and Spiritism. Humans attempt to directly contact the spiritual world, yet these spirits are but the Demons. By this direct contact, through own indebtedness, humans permit demons to exert their evil and terrible influence on earth. Stocker narrates that during the exorcism, the Demon scoffed, saying: "you call that science", said the Daemon, "and they work for us". |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| spaxx |
Posted - 11/11/2009 : 08:49:28
Series on Purity – Part IV
The Material Man vs. the Spiritual Man
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Someone could raise this objection: You stated that every people which surrenders to immorality deteriorates from the intellectual point of view [see Part IV]. Does this apply also to England? Are you telling us that the country that produced Shakespeare, the ceremonial of the Royal Court, the Tower of London and the Parliament building does not have spiritual gifts?
The answer is not difficult. From the moment England became Protestant, a stream of immorality began to flow into it. First, it was divorce; then, it opened the door to countless other kinds of immorality. Since England had many strong traditional values born in Catholic Civilization – the English Monarchy, solemn ceremonials, great universities and many other institutions with long histories – England’s spiritual life continued, fed by those factors. But the country’s energy and force were corroded by an incessantly growing immorality.
Today England is expressed much more by a youth like the Beatles than an old aristocrat attached to the Crown. This Beatle-type of youth finds his paradise in England. He is an asinine person, dirty, irrational, living from impulses and dominated by matter. He is a slave of his own nerves, a slave of matter. This translates as a man whose body imposes a tyranny over his soul. Preaching an anarchical liberty for the passions, the Beatles became idols of an entire generation
This explains the gigantic explosion of the Beatle phenomenon, which is taking over the new generation and will not leave one stone unturned in England.
Impurity, therefore, diminishes the influence of the spirit in man, making it slow to act, and gives priority to matter. Scripture calls this type of man, animalis homo, an animal-man. He acts more like a beast than a man; he has lost entirely the sense of the things of God.
In a classroom, the impure pupil does not pay attention to the lecture. He catches a fly and starts to play with it: He puts it in the ink bottle and makes it walk over a blank sheet of paper. He makes paper wads to throw at other students to tease or bother them.
I remember when I was a child, the moral behavior of the better pupils in class was good. The worse ones were those who were impure. They were the ones who remained seated at the end of the class, who ate or drank when the teacher was not watching them, who lacked any interest in the subject being taught. The only time these students became interested was at recess, when soccer would be played. Many of them were good at soccer. They were great at playing with their feet, poor at using their heads…
These are, unfortunately, the devastations of impurity. This is why when impurity dominates, civilizations are destroyed.
The strength of the spiritual man
The opposite happens with purity. It gives a strength of soul that makes a man love what is spiritual and its own dignity. The spirit has a dignity immensely superior to matter. Our likeness to angels comes through the spirit; we are related to the beasts through matter. This explains why the spirit is much more elevated than matter.
The spiritual man likes to think; his will delights in making decisions; both his intelligence and will like to fight and dominate matter. These attitudes characterize the spiritual man. Since he likes to dominate over matter and keep it within its proper boundaries, he likes to prevent the strong waves of impurity from overpowering him.
From this comes the strength of the spiritual man. He does not despise matter, because matter is good and was created by God. Therefore, he knows how to take care of his health and get the proper rest and nourishment necessary for “brother body” – as St. Francis of Assisi used to call it. He takes a reasonable pleasure in things.
But such pleasure has a limit, since he knows that he was conceived in original sin and that the body is always wanting things it should not have. Sometimes it wants to eat too much, other times to drink excessively, yet others, to sleep more than necessary, to listen to music without stop, to take too much pleasure in perfumes, and so on. At every moment the body asks for what is beyond the due measure. The spiritual man knows how to keep his body within its legitimate boundaries.
To achieve this goal, his primary fight is made against the lowest of the senses. Do not misunderstand me, please, I am not censuring the sense of touch per se. I am saying that it is necessary to fight against disorders that occur with this sense.
The best way for a man to win this fight is to maintain the state of perfect chastity. If a man remains entirely chaste, refusing any occasion to yield to impurity – never consenting to a bad thought or a bad look – he is in an excellent condition to make his spirit triumph over matter. Doing this, he deserves glory, the glory of a man who shines with a nobleness of spirit.
This is why the Catholic Church gives great importance to virginity. When someone says, “That lady is virgin,” what is he praising in her? He is commending how she has ordered her spirit and admiring how she tamed and dominated her unbridled tendencies. She became a spirit, so to speak, light and transparent.
In his pictures, Fra Angelico painted the virgins shining with a clarity that comes from within and illuminates the exterior. Why? Because the spirit is luminous, while matter is opaque. He wants to represent this radiating translucence of the spirit.
To be continued |
| spaxx |
Posted - 10/21/2009 : 04:55:33
Series on Purity – Part IV
Why Impurity Leads to a Materialist SpiritPlinio Corrêa de Oliveira
We have seen that the Catholic Church recommends to those who do not marry to maintain virginity and perfect chastity. This counsel applies not only to priests, but also – and this is my point in this series – to lay people living in the world, like you and me.
Why does the Church recommend this? Why is this state nobler?
As you know, man has five senses. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that the criterion to classify the senses is to see how they lead us to knowledge. The more noble a sense is, the more it leads us to a higher level of knowledge. Of our five senses, the most noble is the sight, because it the one that gives us a greater knowledge of the external reality.
We can have an idea of the nobility of the sense of sight by contrast. No one commits suicide when he becomes mute, deaf or loses his smell. There are people, however, who commit suicide when they become blind. The man who becomes blind – brutally deprived of the sight that gives him knowledge of the external reality of life – suffers such a great loss that life becomes like death for him. Hence, some have a tendency to commit suicide.
To commit suicide is a very bad thing, but the loss of sight sometimes induces people to do so. This demonstrates how sight is the principal sense we have to know the external world.
If I cannot see the face of another person, how can I know his soul? How can I make a generalization about other men and analyze their spiritual lives if I do not know their faces? We see, then, that sight, which gives us conditions to know other men, allows us to make generalizations that apply to all mankind. So, sight is the most encompassing sense, the one that gives us a more noble knowledge.
The senses of smell, taste and hearingWhen we analyze the senses of smell and taste, we see that they provide us with data that allow us to know not only immediate things through physical contact, but also permit us to know some spiritual things by analogy.
Wine connoisseurs have a refined and well-cultivated taste. For example, a man who tastes a fine liqueur, a connoisseur who truly enjoys a good liqueur, does not drink a chalice of it as he would a glass of water. He takes each sip of the liquid as a precious thing. It is an intellectual pleasure. A man with an uncultivated taste could not appreciate that liqueur. A person needs to have formation, culture and education to enjoy the degustation of a good liqueur.
Similarly, a person cannot appreciate an exquisite, high quality perfume if he does not have a well-trained, accurate sense of smell. For a man with this appreciation, discerning the fragrance is a means to understand the human mind and its spiritual characteristics.
It is interesting to note that the Church uses the expression ‘odor of sanctity’ – “This person died in the odor of sanctity.” In this case odor does not necessarily indicate a physical smell, but rather an atmosphere of sanctity. It is an analogy that uses the sense of smell as its first pattern.
In a different application, the Church says that the theses of a theologian have the flavor of heresy. Again, flavor here is not the immediate taste, but an analogy made with the palate to express her thinking – that those theses do not have the healthy taste of sound Catholic doctrine.
Hearing can also allow a man to achieve more knowledge. It suffices to think about the pleasure of music, which is the great consolation for the blind, to understand that the ear can open the door to a comprehension that allows a man to know spiritual things by analogy. It is not difficult to understand this.
These analogies represent normal applications of how these three senses can bring us to higher levels of knowledge. So far, the hierarchy of the senses is: sigth, hearing, smell and taste.
Touch – the most revolted and dominant of the senses When we reach the sense of touch, we see that it is the sense that gives us less knowledge of spiritual things. Of the five senses, it is the one more closely linked to matter. Because it is the least spiritual and most material of the senses, it is the lowest. A man with only the sense of touch would be a kind of living corpse.
Since it is the most material of the senses, it is the one that became more corrupted by original sin. Before original sin, man had complete dominion over the sexual instinct. Man did not have the tendency to use it outside marriage because he was perfectly in order and balanced.
With original sin, all the senses suffered consequences. There are many bad uses a man can make of his sense of sight, hearing, smell and taste. There were also many deficiencies and tendencies toward deterioration introduced in them as consequences of original sin.
However, the most feral of the senses is that of touch. The sense that is most disruptively dominant is the one that is the least noble. The domain where it is most undisciplined is precisely that which involves purity. It is in this realm that the revolt of the sense of touch is most intense, heavy and awful.
A man who wants to be pure can be assaulted by all kinds of solicitations toward impurity throughout his day, because the sexual instinct follows him always and everywhere.
So, the lowest of the senses is the one that most easily dominates man and drags him to all kinds of disorders and illicit actions. Since it is the lowest, when a man delivers himself to it, it is the one that most keeps a man bound to the material level. With regard to matter and spirit, man becomes much more dependant on matter and the spirit loses part of its dominion.
Impurity imprisons a man in material things. Normally, his taste for study fades and his intelligence diminishes because his strength to concentrate on more elevated matters perishes. He loses the pleasure for abstract thought, which forms the basis for the life of the mind. The imagination runs out of control, fantasy begins to dominate his mind. The will becomes soft; the certainty of reason disappears, and it becomes insecure. The man’s spiritual nature wanes as matter increasingly communicates to the soul its animal influence. Then, the spirit deteriorates and fades.
One proof of this is that all the peoples who deliver themselves to immorality decay from the intellectual point of view.
To be continued |
| spaxx |
Posted - 10/10/2009 : 04:58:34
Series on Purity – Part IIIPrejudices against Chastity and Virginity
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
As we have seen, the sexual act is legitimate, licit and honest inside an indissoluble marriage. When practiced outside marriage, however, it is illicit and dishonest, because it goes against the natural order established by God.
For this reason, a sin is committed when a single man practices this act, or a married man practices it with someone who is not his spouse. This latter case constitutes adultery because it is contrary to the natural order of things.
Some of you might raise this objection: “It seems to us that the act in itself is not against the natural order. Why, then, do you say that it is in the cases mentioned above?”
All of Catholic Morals is according to the natural order of things. Thus, it teaches that it is legitimate to kill an ox, but it is not legitimate to kill a man. Why? Because according to the natural order, the ox is an animal without a spiritual soul, made to serve man, but man has a spiritual soul and was made to serve God. Therefore, one man cannot kill another.
Why to lie is a sin? According to the natural order, the word was given to man to speak the truth. If he distorts the truth, he does not use the word in accordance with that order.
Why does a man who gets drunk go against the natural order? Because drinks were given to man to satisfy his thirst and provide him a moderate pleasure. When a man drinks beyond those limits and loses control of his reason, he goes against that order.
Once I was in a restaurant in Rio de Janeiro and a large, fat, red-faced man entered and was seated at a table. I normally have a good appetite myself and am also fat, so this is not the point of my critique. Shortly, several waiters came to serve him, which made me think that he was a regular customer who gave good tips.
Then, the man ordered an appetizer of paté. When the paté arrived, he looked at it with a kind of ferocious cupidity and began to eat it like a rabbit eating lettuce, without stopping and without appreciation. He ordered the same plate of paté several time. Then he ordered many other items on the menu.
As he ate, his red face increased in color, giving the impression that he could have a stroke at any moment. That is, he was putting a pressure on his system – he could well have been having stomach pains – only to enjoy the pleasure of eating. It was a disgusting spectacle to see because he was eating without any proportion, against the natural order of things.
For an analogous reason, the sexual act practiced outside marriage deserves censure and should cause revulsion because it is against the natural order, which is to procreate in a stable marriage. For this reason the Catholic Church is perfectly correct when she requires that a young man be chaste until marriage.
A scandalous error: for men all immoralities are permitted In our society we find a scandalous error, which affirms that all immoralities are permitted for a man, while censure is still made against immoral women (1). A woman who mounts the steps of the altar to marry without being a virgin is covered with shame. She still wears a white veil because she does not dare to say that she lost her virginity. On the contrary, current customs admit that a man may marry without shame after brazenly practicing countless sexual acts before marriage.
This is an injustice, because what is a sin for one sex is also a sin for the other. It is not only the woman who sins in a sexual act. It is not just the women who must follow the natural order while men are dispensed from it. This is an error and a scandalous prejudice that only a few priests combat. The Church turns a blind eye to the man’s lack of chastity, while she censures the woman. The Church should not have this complacence, because both acts – that of the man or of the woman – are mortal sins. The woman who marries having lost her virginity is as greatly dishonored as is the man who lost his. Similarly, the adultery of a married man is as shameful as that of the married woman.
In our society one speaks of an “adulterous woman,” as a horrible thing, and it is. But when it comes to the man, there is no censure. He just “had some adventures” and “had a good time.” How can this be considered consistent? According to this logic, a man could continue to have affairs after he marries. Then, marriage would be indissoluble only for the woman and not for the man. This is a violation of all the principles of justice and all the moral rules of the Catholic Church. It is a position that must be energetically rejected. We should censure a young man who practices an act against chastity in the same way that we censure a young woman who acts this way. There is no difference.
Chastity and virginity: states of life recommended by the ChurchEven when the Church approves and blesses those who marry, why does she reserve her highest eulogies for those who do not marry?
Let me remind you that Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted marriage as a sacrament, giving it a great dignity. There are numerous saints who were married. The married state is one that is according to Catholic Morals and that permits one to reach the apex of sanctity.
If this is so, why is it nobler not to marry? St. Paul used this expression that is applicable to both sexes: "I say to the unmarried and to the widows: it is good for them if they so continue, even as I. But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry; for it better to marry than to burn."(1 Cor 7:8-9)
In order to answer why it is better to not marry, let me first rectify another injustice. As our century is becoming increasingly tolerant toward the woman who sins against chastity, it is becoming increasingly intolerant toward the single woman. To be a single woman is seen as an almost shameful state of life. The single woman is viewed as a person to be scorned because no one wanted to marry her. Her fate is a useless life off in a corner. She is often pictured as a gossiper, a busybody, an intruder in other people's lives, with all kinds of complexes and defects.
While people have pity for a woman who falls into sin and wants to help her, they are rude to and scorn the single woman who maintains virginity for noble reasons. As if vice should produce compassion and virtue should be despised. This is a true aberration!
The Church considers that to be single is a better state than to be married for both the man and the woman. This judgment was always held by the Church as a tradition coming from Our Lord who established the evangelical counsels – chastity, obedience and poverty – as a way to live a perfect life. These are also called the counsels of perfection.
This tradition of chastity was formally approved by Pope Pius XII in his Encyclical Sacra Virginitas where he declared that virginity and perfect chastity are completely adequate for lay persons of both sexes. Even if they are not priests or nuns, should they want to live in the world a more elevated state, the right thing to do is to practice chastity.
Chastity is, therefore, a state of life not only approved but recommended by the Church for both sexes.
Prof. Plinio gave this talk in 1967 for young men in Brazil. Today, unfortunately, one does not see this shame falling upon women, either in Brazil or anywhere else, because they became as immoral as men were at that time. Besides being an expression of the perennial Catholic Morals on this topic, the comment remains as an interesting point of comparison to see how far and fast the Revolution in the civil sphere and Progressivism in the religious sphere have gone to corrupt the customs of women. How much further will the corruption go in another 40 years?
To be continued
|
| spaxx |
Posted - 09/28/2009 : 12:50:40
Series on Purity – Part II
Divorce, Free Love & Damaged Children
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
The countries that admit divorce live in face of a contradiction: first they admit divorce, but then they have to put limits on it, otherwise the family is completely dissolved and society enters into moral chaos.
Even with limits, divorce is always permitted in two cases: when one of the spouses commits adultery and when one spouse beats the other. Once the principle of divorce is accepted in society, there is no escape – these two cases have to be included.
In the case of adultery, one of the spouses – let us suppose the wife – appears before the judge and says: “My husband is committing adultery.” The judge calls the husband, who admits this is true. So, according to the rules of justice, by acknowledging the fact the husband becomes a defendant who pleaded guilty. With this, the judicial process closes. The judge pronounces the divorce and that marriage is ipso facto dissolved.
Since today a man who commits adultery faces no public censure – it is a grave moral error of the public, but this is the way it is – the husband does not lose face for being unfaithful to his wife. Divorce becomes almost a routine without any social censure.
As for the case of violence, let us suppose an elderly couple where the accusation of adultery is less likely to be believed. The wife appears before the judge and says: “Every morning, my husband throws a shoe at me.” It is a thing an old man might do to an old woman. The judge calls the man and asks if he really does this, and he admits it. He says: “Yes, I do. I have been putting up with this woman, who is absolutely insupportable, for more than 30 years. I don’t want her around any longer, so I throw a shoe at her.”
The judge asks: “Then you confess your guilt.” The man replies: “I not only confess it, I proclaim it. And if I stay married to her, I’ll keep throwing a shoe every day at her.” The judge answers: “But she could be hurt.” The man: “I don’t care.” So, in the end the divorce is granted.
In other words, when a society admits divorce into its civil laws, it is granted almost every time a spouse requests it. After a divorce law is approved, the number of dissolution of marriages increases at a galloping speed. At first, the number is small, but it starts to accelerate quickly, heading toward a situation of a kind of free love. That is, for almost any reason one spouse can leave the other.
What are the results of this for the family size and formation of the offspring?
Divorce reduces the number of children
When a husband and wife know that they will stay together for their entire lives, they generally do not have any special worry about having many children. But if the spouses are not sure about the stability of their marriage, they want to have the least number of children possible because should a new marriage occur, the children of the previous marriage become an inconvenient leftover. They are viewed as a source of problems and expenses for the new union.
The indissoluable marriage produces large families and stable societies.
Let us imagine, for example, a couple where the husband is in his fourth marriage and the wife in also in her fourth – a situation not uncommon in countries with divorce. Let us suppose also for the purpose of this talk, that both of them followed natural law and had as many children as they should. What would be the psychological and moral state of the children from the first union?
They saw their mother going through all kinds of different husbands. With each change, they had to adapt to a new orientation of a different head of family. What often happens is that the children are sent to boarding schools and colleges to get them out of the way, or are juggled between the homes of the divided parents. After four marriages, this woman would have a strange mélange of children, each group with different physical characteristics.
When the birthday of one of them comes, she calls the child on the telephone and says: “Hello darling, how are you? I love you so much! You’re going to receive a wonderful present today that I bought for you! You see that your mother did not forget you. Now I’m sending you a big kiss. Good-bye.” This is the kind of maternal affection a child receives. In a certain way it is understandable, because if she were to visit each of her many children from previous marriages, she would spend a lot of time on the road. To avoid this sort of situation, the tendency of almost all women in a society with divorce is to practice birth control.
The father acts likewise. If the man is not wealthy, he has to work harder to pay for his many children from previous marriages. He makes the sacrifice, but often unwillingly since the children remind him of the bitter unions he made in the past. These children become a burden for him, making his situation terrible. So, normally a man will also practice birth control.
When divorce is legal in a country, the parents necessarily avoid their offspring.
Therefore, if it true that one, indissoluble marriage encourages procreation, so also is it true that marriage with divorce leads to a fewer number of the children.
This is why the countries that allow divorce have birth rates that are much lower than those of countries that forbid it.
Divorce and the formation of the children
Nothing is more favorable for the formation of the children than a stable home life, where the father and mother live together, have a mutual esteem for each other and support one another in the education of their children.
Nothing can be more harmful for a boy or a girl than to live in a boarding school and receive different orientations from his father and his mother regarding his formation. This breaks the paternal authority and the unity necessary for a good formation. Our Lord taught, “Every kingdom divided shall perish.” This applies here also. A formation without unity is precarious. Therefore, divorce propitiates the worst possible formation for the children.
How does divorce affect their mental state?
It is evident that a calm home – a home where harmony reigns – has an ambience favorable to the psychological health of the children. On the contrary, if a home is divided, a child at times will take the side of the father and at times, the side of the mother. Or if he is raised outside the home, he will have poor conditions to develop a healthy psychology and stable personality. The child of a broken home is likely to be a nervous or unstable person. It is another bad consequence of divorce.
Thus, birth control and the poor formation of children are the normal outcomes of divorce.
Free love and offspring
If these are the bad fruit of divorce, imagine the results of free love, which is officially supported by the State in communist countries.
Free love from the legal standpoint is a situation where in practice marriage does not exist. What is called a marriage in Russia according to the civil law is when a man and a woman appear before a civil clerk to declare that they are living together in the same place – nothing more than that. If they want to separate, they just need to file a new paper acknowledging that one of them changed domicile. It is understood that that union ended. That is all it takes. This is not much different than what happens in a chicken coop. If a roster and a hen could think, they would be married – according to communist law – until the moment that one was moved to another yard.
Abortion in Russia
Russian women who just aborted their children. The average rate of abortion in Russia is 4 per woman.
Now let us imagine the situation of a woman in Russia. If she follows natural law, in her age of fertility, she could become pregnant almost every year. That is, she would have to pass through all the inconveniences, risks and pains of a pregnancy every year. Would it be worthwhile to do this with every new “husband” that she has? What woman would want such a situation? It is not worth the trouble. The consequence is that in Russia women are very interested in avoiding having children.
The men, for similar reasons, also do not want this responsibility. In a communist State, a “husband” can change “wives” two or three times a year. Let us imagine a salesman who travels frequently from Moscow to Vladivostok. He may have a “wife” in each city where he stops to sell his goods. He could end by having 20 or 30 children, obliging him to have a special notebook just to keep track of them. Who wants a situation like this? The result is that he takes measures to prevent the birth of any child. Otherwise, his immoral life would lead him to untold problems and misery.
Hence another rule follows: if divorce tends toward limiting the number of offspring, free love tends toward not have any children at all.
I know that among some of the simple people of Russia, free love has not taken root. Even though the Schismatic Orthodox Church admits divorce, they still have a religious tradition that inclines them toward indissolubility of marriage. Notwithstanding, for the purpose of this talk what matters is the conclusion: that free love is opposed to procreation and an abundant offspring.
It is not necessary to demonstrate here that free love is contrary to the formation of the children. The children of free love are in much worse conditions than those of divorce. Likewise, in a regime where free love is implanted, the psychological balance of the children are almost always impaired.
Therefore, we can conclude that the only place where the sexual act effectively accomplishes the end for which it was intended by God is inside the one, indissoluble marriage. Divorce and free love prevent – partially or almost completely – the birth of children and their good formation. They are, therefore, against nature and against the will of God.
Divorce and free love are also censurable because, in the end, they are just legal disguises for the practice of impurity.
To be continued
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| spaxx |
Posted - 09/12/2009 : 13:15:20
First Principles on Purity
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Sins against purity
The question of purity should be dealt with clearly in an elevated language and in audiences where only persons of the same sex are present. Young men should know everything that it is necessary for them to know about it.
Therefore, I will address some reasons why one should be pure. What does the Catholic Church mean when she commands her children to keep purity? What is purity? Why should one be pure? Why is this something noble, holy and godly?
If we know the answers to these questions, we will be able to admire this virtue more. Admiring it, we will have more enthusiasm for it and be able to make a stronger decision to practice it.
There are two Commandments of the Law of God that address purity. They are the Sixth, “Thou shall not sin against chastity,” and the Ninth “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”
What is to sin against chastity?
Straightforwardly it is to practice the sexual act outside of marriage. By sexual act one understands here the sexual act with a person of the other sex. It is also understood that the sexual act inside marriage is not a sin, but is part of the plan of God who said, “Go, increase and multiply.” Therefore, inside marriage it is considered an honest, common act. Outside of the marriage one who practices it commits a sin.
Because of the far-reaching understanding of St. John, the evangelist, of the fruit of his purity, he was compared to the eagle. When this act is practiced with a person of the same sex, it is always a sin because this is against nature. Therefore, it is absolutely forbidden on any occasion or in any circumstance.
Also sinful and forbidden is what is called the solitary sin, i.e., when a person by his own action provokes a pleasure analogous to the sexual act. It is what is called masturbation and is also a sin.
These are the basic mortal sins against purity forbidden by the Sixth Commandment.
The Ninth Commandment forbids anyone to desire the wife of his neighbor. Included in this prohibition is any sexual act between a married person and anyone else except for his/her spouse. When one breaks this law he commits adultery.
Sins against these two commandments can be by thoughts, words and deeds. It is a sin by thought when a person voluntarily directs his attention to something immoral; it is a sin by words when a person speaks obscenely or talks with others about immoralities; it is a sin by action when he practices the sexual act.
Why are these things forbidden?
Now we should address the question of why these things are sins and why God forbade them when He gave us His Commandments.
Per se the sexual act is not sinful. It is a physiological act that is in accordance with a natural aptitude God gave to man and woman to fulfill the precept he gave our first parents in Genesis: “Increase and multiply.” Mankind increases and multiplies through the practice of the sexual act. Then, the practice of this act is not sinful in itself.
It is a glory not to practice it – as we will see later in this series – but it is not shameful to practice it. However, like any natural act, this one is only legitimate when it is practiced to reach the end established for it in nature. When it is practiced outside of this end, it becomes a sin.
According to the laws of nature, only through the act of procreation can mankind perpetuate itself. Thus, this act should be exercised in conditions that it will give an abundant and healthy offspring who are also well-raised. This is because the natural complement of paternity is the education of one’s children. Therefore, if the offspring is not abundant, healthy and well-raised, one arrives at the opposite of what is called for by nature. Now then, only inside of marriage can such offspring be raised. This is why marriage is the condition that legitimizes the sexual act.
Marriage, according to the Will of God, is an indissoluble matrimony, one single marriage without any other marriage and, therefore, without divorce. This is the only marriage that is in accordance with the natural function of the perpetuation of the species. Any thing outside this is NOT according to God's Holy Will.
Why this so, will be examined in the next article.
To be continued |
| spaxx |
Posted - 08/18/2009 : 10:11:47
Chastity and Eternal Life
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
Divine revelation prescribes chastity as a condition for entering eternal life. Saint Paul warned the Ephesians that, "Among you there must be not even a mention of fornication or impurity in any of its forms of promiscuity." Indeed, nobody who actually indulges in fornication or impurity or promiscuity – which is worshiping a false god – can inherit anything of the Kingdom of God"(Ephesians 5:3,5).
This may seem rather harsh, but the reality is that without chastity there is not heavenly eternity.
The clearest teaching of the catholic faith on the necessity of chastity for attaining eternal life is in Christ's sermon on the mount. He is telling his followers that the Old Testament prohibition of adultery is not enough. If we wish to reach heaven we must not only control our bodies, we must master even our minds.
Christian Chastity, therefore, requires that we avoid anything that would be a source of irresistible temptation to lust. Our Lord Himself says:
If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell (Matthew 5:29-30).
In order to gain eternal life, therefore, we must practice chastity, including custody of the eyes and modesty of our sense of touch.
If we are going to understand the need for chastity to reach heaven, we must realize that not everyone believes this, especially this modern world we live in. In fact, over the centuries this has been one of the main tests of authentic Christianity. But in our day, whole schools of thought have risen that water down and even deny Christ’s uncompromising teaching on chastity.
We hear the so-called "enlightened" men of this world preach that we must move with the times. This is but only one brand of moral heresy that has deeply pervaded Western society. One of the leading spokesmen of this modern evangelism of "moving with the times", whose writings have reached millions, simply declares:
"Jesus … said nothing about birth control, large or small families, childlessness, homosexuality, masturbation, fornication or premarital intercourse, sterilization, artificial insemination, abortion, sex play, petting, and courtship. Whether any form of sex (hetero, homo, or auto) is good or evil depends on whether love is fully served."
This philosophy has in fact become an international culture, and is one of the principles of the business world. The potency of sex as a sales promoter is no longer used by the advertising industry as a mere eye stopper.
The Price of Eternal Life
No one who understands Christianity has any doubt that reaching heaven is demanding on human nature. The Savior tells us:
Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who enter that way. How narrow the gate and close the way that leads to life! And few there are who find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
Christ tells us that we are His followers if we carry our daily cross. During His three years' ministry, He never minimized the cost He would have to pay if we wish to reach our heavenly destiny.
In His closing discourse before His Passion, Our Lord Jesus Christ spelled out explicitly who would be called to "come possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34) It will be those who during their stay on earth had loved others with selfless generosity. The heart of Christian chastity is the practice of unselfish charity.
Every sin against chastity is an indulgence in selfishness. Consequently, when we speak of the price of chastity, we are really talking about the price of selfless charity.
Perceptive writers in the Christian tradition have never minimized the power of the sex instinct in our fallen human nature. They describe the sexual act as, in a sense, the central act of the body. We might almost say it is the awakening of our corporeal nature, otherwise asleep. It represents the most vital and most intense experience of which the human body is capable. It is the only experience in which all of our bodily powers are brought into action at the same time. Sex represents the greatest power latent in our bodily human nature.
The price of eternal life is high. And the reason is because human nature is so naturally prone to lust. In order to master this tendency of our fallen humanity we must be ready to make any sacrifice which God demands of us.
What makes it so difficult to preserve our chastity is that the world in which we live no longer believes that venereal pleasure, outside of marriage, is morally wrong. In fact it believes just the opposite. The modern world teaches that, chastity is emotional stifling and psychological repression.
Preoccupation with sex has reached an all time high in the Western world. The writings of Freud are twenty volumes of analysis into every kind of sexual aberration. Critics like Julian Huxley testify to the extent to which sex has almost become identified with modern culture and the advancement of sex pleasure a standard of modern progress. Secular psychologists, those agents of Lucifer, claim that withholding knowledge about sex has led to the discredit of religion and the outlawing of God.
Learned books used in prestigious universities call for the revision of our whole philosophy about sex. They say that since men and women today are so constantly and consistently breaking through the morals of sex, we must reappraise the whole structure of Christian ethics and revise its outmoded standard. Of particular concern are the sexual habits of unmarried youth. Is this not the voice of Lucifer?
Over the centuries of Christian history there have been advocates of sexual license. All the departures from Catholic Christianity; every break with Catholic unity, every exodus from union with the Church founded by Christ and headed by His Vicar in Rome, has been caused by scandal of Our Lord's teaching on chastity (anybody familiar with Martin Luther and King Henry VIII cannot doubt this fact).
But something dreadfully new has entered our society. It is nothing less than a sexual revolution. The conflict now is between the legal and social restraints imposed by a stodgy religious culture and the newly discovered spirit of liberty. This Freedom seeks only the maximum of sex pleasure before and after and outside of marriage, and is willing to break through any barriers to find gratification.
The net effect of ignoring moral values has been to fill the atmosphere with a deluge of sex magazines and books, movies and television, and all the means of communication. This incessant pressure places superhuman demands on the virtue of men and women who still keep the ten commandments and hold that Christ was not a dreamer when He enjoined restraint of the passions even in the secret thoughts of one's heart.
However, the most serious aspect of this sex revolution is not the amount of pornography or the ease which it is propagated. The worst feature is the complacency that a radical change of moral climate finds among the people and the difficulty of getting the State to convict anyone who is making a fortune on his neighbor’s concupiscence.
Implicit in the rise of this sexual epidemic is the denial of original sin which, by definition, means that we have lost our dominance of the passions and therefore the sex urge should be controlled rather than stimulated for the pleasure it gives.
Even more fundamental is the practical denial of a life after bodily death. Unless you believe that our behavior on earth is a condition for our happiness in eternity, why should anyone be concerned about sexual restraint or the practice of chastity?
Saint Alphonsus Liguori has written that most of the souls in hell are there because of sins against chastity.
As we are speaking on the price of eternal life, it is worth reminding ourselves that the alternative is eternal death. Saint Ignatius Loyola had lived an unchaste life before his conversion. A large part of his conversion was due to his fear of losing his soul. In the Spiritual Exercises which he wrote during his year of repentant seclusion in the cave of Manresa, he made sure that those who wish to follow Christ first reflect on the justice of God in punishing sinners who do not repent.
In the first week of the Exercises, Ignatius proposes a meditation on hell, which comes in several parts:
First Prelude: This is a representation of the place. Here it will be to see in imagination the length, breadth, and depth of hell.
Second Prelude: I shall ask for what I desire. Here it will be to beg for a deep sense of the pain which the lost suffer, that if because of my faults I forget the love of the eternal Lord, at least the fear of these punishments will keep me from falling into sin.
This sermon is on "Chastity and Eternal Life." It could just as well be on "Unchastity and Eternal Death." The experience of directors of souls has been uniform. The single deepest problem of most young people and adults in the western world is with chastity.
Having said this, one important conclusion follows. In our sex-intoxicated culture, the price of maintaining one's chastity is nothing less than a living martyrdom. Ordinary adolescents will not survive the demonic pressure on their purity. Ordinary men and women will not survive, ordinary priests and bishops will not survive. Ordinary religious will not survive. Nothing less than heroic chastity is necessary, and the price of heroism is a deep faith, even at the sacrifice of one's life, in Christ's teaching that only the pure of heart shall see God.
The Joys of Eternal Life
Before we conclude this conference, the last of our series on chastity, one thing should be made clear. Eternal life is not only heavenly beatitude with God. It is fullness of life which the believer possesses already here and now through participation in the life of God.
If there is one thing that our Lord stresses in the Gospels it is the joy that we are to experience, not only in heaven but also here on earth.
It was all explained in great detail by the Savior at the Sermon on the Mount, when He taught the disciples of all future ages what we commonly call the beatitudes, but that could more literally be called the eight-fold path to happiness. In plain language, Christ assured the happiness here and now, and not only in heaven later on, to all who believe in him strongly enough to take Him at His word. The beatitudes bring happiness infallibly, provided they are taken seriously and put into practice literally,
Then at the Last Supper, Christ went out of His way to tell us of the joy that awaits us if only we listen to His teaching.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete (John 15:11).
Saint Paul understood this well. He often exhorted the Christians to spiritual joy and warned them against sadness and worry of any kind. "1 want you to be happy," he insisted, "always happy in the Lord. I repeat, what I want is your happiness" (Philippians 4:4).
To be strongly emphasized is that this joy is not absolute but conditional. The condition is the faithful following of Christ. If we are faithful, we shall be happy in our practice of fidelity; if we are not, we cannot expect God to keep His part of the covenant unless we keep ours. Moreover, we can establish a proportion: the more faithful we are, the more joyful we shall be, since there can be no spiritual joy without sacrifice.
On these premises, we can make this unqualified declaration. Only chaste people are happy people, no one else is. Our spiritual joy depends on our chastity. Of course this requires sacrifice. We must sacrifice not only unlawful sexual pleasure. We may have to sacrifice friendships that are a danger to our virtue. We may have to give up many things that the world offers us as a substitute for the joy that only God can give. |
| spaxx |
Posted - 01/01/2009 : 17:01:00
Since this thread is about the 6th and 9th commandments, I thought that the following catechism on Impurity taken from the Little Catechism of the Curé of Ars, St John Vianney (Patron Saint of Parish Priests).
THAT WE MAY understand how horrible and detestable is the sin of impurity, which the demons make us commit, but which they do not commit themselves, we must consider what a Christian is. A Christian, created in the image of God, redeemed by the Blood of a God!; a Christian, the child of God, the brother of a God, the heir of a God! a Christian, whose body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; that is what sin dishonors.
We are created to reign one day in Heaven, and if we have the misfortune to commit this sin, we become the den of the devils. Our Lord said that nothing impure should enter into His kingdom. Indeed, how could a soul that has rolled itself in this filth go to appear before so pure and so holy a God? We are all like little mirrors, in which God contemplates Himself. How can you expect that God should recognize His likeness in an impure soul? There are some souls so dead, so rotten, that they lie in their defilement without perceiving it, and can no longer clear themselves from it; everything leads them to evil, everything reminds them of evil, even the most holy things; they always have these abominations before their eyes; like the unclean animal that is accustomed to live in filth, that is happy in it, that rolls itself and goes to sleep in it, that grunts in the mud; these persons are an object of horror in the eyes of God and of the holy angels.
See, my children, Our Lord was crowned with thorns to expiate our sins of pride; but for this accursed sin, He was scourged and torn to pieces, since He said Himself that after his flagellation all His bones might be counted. O my children, if there were not some pure souls here and there, to make amends to the good God, and disarm His justice, you would see how we should be punished! For now, this crime is so common in the world, that it is enough to make one tremble. One may say, my children, that Hell vomits forth its abominations upon the earth, as the chimneys of the steam engine vomit forth smoke. The devil does all he can to defile our soul, and yet our soul is everything. . . our body is only a heap of corruption: go to the cemetery to see what you love, when you love your body. As I have often told you, there is nothing so vile as the impure soul. There was once a saint, who had asked the good God to show him one; and he saw that poor soul like a dead beast that has been dragged through the streets in the hot sun for a week.
By only looking at a person, we know if he is pure. His eyes have an air of candour and modesty which leads you to the good God. Some people, on the contrary, look quite inflamed with passion...Satan places himself in their eyes to make others fall and to lead them to evil. Those who have lost their purity are like a piece of cloth stained with oil; you may wash it and dry it, and the stain always appears again: so it requires a miracle to cleanse the impure soul. |
| spaxx |
Posted - 01/01/2009 : 10:49:03
quote:
Salvation isnt really about knowledge of God, it is about acceptance of God's saving power and total repentance. Knowing that Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead. Knowledge that Christ is the Son of God.
However, in Matt 7:21 our Lord tells us that: Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. In langauge understandable by even a simpleton, our Lord, tells us what we must do to be sure of salvation. And what He says is completely different from your statements. Any creature endowed with reasoning capabilities must necessarily reject your statements.
quote:
Denominational bibles are biased and I would advice anyone against basing on them fully
As if insinuating that all religion is bad is not bad enough, you are about to fall into the absurdity of suggesting that all scripture should be abolished. And you believe yourself to be a Christian. You are a mass of contradictions.
Without religion, the world must necessarily fall into paganism. This is precisely what the synagigue of satan, that is freemasons, atheists, homosexuals, and all those marching under the banner of lucifer, are striving to accomplish. Abolishing all religion, will be archived in stepas, first by making all religions equal. The vehicle for this is the United Nations, and European Union. IN fact the EU has made its intentions clear, and would like religion to be abolished alltogether.
The UN and EU are satan's main battering ram against the bastions of the true Church. Notice that the Catholic Church alone, opposes the designs of the UN and EU (decriminalizing homosexuality and abortion, promoting contraception, feminism, destruction of the family etc). And it is the Catholic Church alone, and Her doctrines, that the synagogue of satan attacks. Why ? Because Lucifer knows exactly in which Church the Holy Spirit dwells. He need not attacking other denomination, since they already belong to him ; he is their real originator.
The way that leads to heaven is the knowing and doing of God's Will. But it is God alone who can teach us his will; that is, what he requires us to believe and to do, in order to be happy with him in heaven. God himself came and taught us the truths which we must believe, the commandments which we must keep, and the means of grace which we must use to work out our salvation. Based on this, I have already showed why the doctrine of "accepting Christ as personal saviour" cannot lead to salvation. What you say is no different, it is just a slight variation.
Here are some more scriptural verses, old and new testament, that clearly refute your statements. Please answer the questions that follow, if you dare.
Deuteronomy 5:29
Who shall give them to have such a mind, to fear me, and to keep all my commandments at all times, that it may be well with them and with their children for ever?
Proverbs 7:1-2
My son, keep my words, and lay up my precepts with thee. Son, Keep my commandments, and thou shalt live: and my law as the apple of thy eye: Bind it upon thy fingers, write it upon the tables of thy heart.
Psalms 88:31-32
If they profane my justices: and keep not my commandments: I will visit their iniquities with a rod: and their sins with stripes
2 Esdras 1:9
But if you return to me, and keep my commandments, and do them, though you should be led away to the uttermost parts of the world....
John 15:10
If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and do abide in his love.
We see that keeping God's commandments is a prerequisite for eternal life. This is repeated in the new testament; the same voice speaks in the OT and the NT. How does this square up with your statements?
John 6:55
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.
How does partaking of Christ's flesh and blood equate to "knowing that Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead"?
Apocalypse 21:27
There shall not enter into it any thing defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb.
Isaias 35:8
And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor shall any mischievous beast go up by it, nor be found there: but they shall walk there that shall be delivered.
How does "knowing that Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead" square with not commiting fornication, adultery,drunkenness, unnatural acts like sodomy, lesbianism, bestiality? How does it stop me from lying, theft, murder, abortion ?
Matthew 5:20
For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
How does "knowing that Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead" make me better than the scribes and pharisees who were considered keepers of the law?
Matthew 18:3
Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Innocence is a hallmark of children because they have no vices. How does "knowing that Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead" make me innocent like a child?
Matthew 19: 23
Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Do those preoccupied with amassing wealth and living in luxury not "know that Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead"?
Galatians 5: 19-21
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, Idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, Envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God.
Does Gal 5:19 mean the same thing as "knowing that Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead" ? Certainly not. Only a simpleton would think so. In fact, Gal 5:19 simply reiterates the importance of keeping God's commandments. Consequently, they who heed this, and all the teachings of the Apostles, actually do God's Will.
Scripture, when explained by THE Church, which is the institution divinely appointed to guide us, spells out the conditions for salvation in a language that cannot be misconstrued.
That millions of men prefer perverse doctrines rather than clear and concise teachings, clearly shows the seductive nature of such doctrines. They are seductive because they are alluring, or posses tempting qualities, offering a way to heaven that requires absolutely no effort on the part of men. Hence the mass appeal.
It also shows the unbelievable power, influence, and intelligence of that dark and malignant spirit, Lucifer, that primieval enemy of God and men; father of lies and heresies.
|
| amadeus |
Posted - 11/23/2008 : 03:40:00
I have been trying to read through the discussion and am really confused.
What exactly are we are trying to say?
We are saved by grace,all of us have fallen short of the glory of God,its by grace that we (I) stand.
Salvation isnt really about knowledge of God, it is about acceptance of God's saving power and total repentance.Knowing that Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead. Knowledge that Christ is the Son of God.
It is that simple.
YOu can go on and evaluate the people who wrote the Bible but I assure you,it will not take you closer to God.
Understanding the Bible is a personal thing.It is you and God. All man is prone to make mistakes but that doesnt happen with God. All scripture is God breathed, the word of God in this case the Bible is inspired by God. The translation may not be perfect but it surely points us to God.
Let us take the word of God as it is without looking at it through lenses of religion. Christ didnt bring religion, He brought salvation and if someone does not believe in Jesus Christ as His Lord and Saviour, they are not born again.
We are Christians(those who believe in the birth, death and resurrection of Christ who is the Son of God) not anything else.
Denominational bibles are biased and I would advice anyone against basing on them fully.
The world is searching for a Savior(someone to redeem the economic,political and social situation), let us lead them to a healer, redeemer,provider......our Savior Jesus Christ
Let us stand for what we believe in not religion.I believe in Christ, not some religion.
CHRIST ALONE IS LORD
May the Lord go before you as you seek for more of Him
"The blessings of the Lord make one rich and He adds no sorrow with it"Proverbs:10:21 |
| spaxx |
Posted - 11/22/2008 : 09:31:29
quote:
Salvation is free for everyone. It's only necessary to believe in Jesus ... that He's the Son of God,and desire to make Him the Lord of your life.
If this were true, then the demons should be saved since they, too, believe in Jesus. The demon's knowledge of scripture is far superior to that of humans. This is because, inspite of having fallen from their glorious heights, they were allowed to retain the angelic nature, which is far superior to human nature. Psalms 8:6 and Hebrews 2:7 bear witness to this:
What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour... (Psalms 8:6)
What is man, that thou art mindful of him: or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels... (Hebrews 2:7)
Nowhere in Scripture does Christ explicitly command us to read a Bible in order to be certain of salvation. And rightly so, because He Himself knows that not only did a compiled Bible not yet exist, but that also the majority of men are illiterate, and would remain so right up to the end of the world. However, most, if not all, men can HEAR.
More to the point, for those who are literate, Scripture is abundantly clear, in the OT and NT, on the requirements for salvation. For example:
Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord: or who shall stand in his holy place? The innocent in hands, and clean of heart, who hath not taken his soul in vain, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour. (Psalm 23)
Here, God, speaking through the royal prophet, King David, tells us that only they who have kept God's commandments, shall ascend to heaven
Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21).
In order to attain salvation, Christ Himslef says we must DO, not just believe.
And behold one came and said to him: Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting? Who said to him: Why asketh thou me concerning good? One is good, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments (Matthew 19:16-17)
Again, Our Lord reiterates the importance of action, of DOING, in order to be certain of life everlasting. He explicitly commands us to keep the commandments.
Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:3)
And God indeed having winked at the times of this ignorance, now declareth unto men, that all should every where do penance (Acts 17:30)
Do penance therefore for this thy wickedness; and pray to God, that perhaps this thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee (Acts 8:22).
And going forth they preached that men should do penance (Mark 6:12).
Here, we see that penance is enjoined to keeping God's commandments.
Consider the verse,
For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil (2 Corinthians 5:10).
What we do in this life determines our eternal destiny.
These unmistakable words do not square at all with the belief that for salvation, "it is only necessary to believe in Jesus".
Belief in Christ is much more than paying lip service; belief is demonstrated by DOING what Christ commands us to do. So, dear Christian, for the sake of your own soul, flee them who teach pernicious doctrines. For, they wish you to lose your soul. Jesus Christ, God and Teacher of mankind, always taught by example. Christ, the source of all virtue, always practiced what he preached. Is it not Christ Himself who said that:
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it (Matthew 16:24).
And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me (Matt 10:38)
By these words, Jesus meant to say that, He who wishes to enter Heaven must imitate Him. Jesus exercised the virtues of humility and chastity in the highest degree possible.
From this, it follows that only two kinds of people will make it to heaven, namely the very humble, and the very chaste shall enter Heaven.
Moreover, the constant teaching of the Church Fathers, is that the majority of men are damned because of the sins of PRIDE and IMPURITY. This should not surprise us, for the apostate angels, comprising one third of the angelic host, got kicked out of paradise because of pride. Later on, an additional third were kicked out, for sitting on the fence, waiting to join the victorious side (a very important lesson to learn here is that indifference cannot lead to salvation).
Concerning the 6th commandment, which is what this thread is all about, it touches on purity. It was in punishment of the sin of impurity that God sent on the Earth the universal deluge, which was caused by continued rain for forty days and forty nights. In this deluge, the waters rose fifteen cubits above the tops of the highest mountains; and only eight persons along with Noah were saved in the ark. The rest of the inhabitants of the Earth, who were more numerous then than at present (abortion was unknown then).
Can we conclude that not a single outside the ark believed in God?
We find in the Scriptures, that in punishment of the sin of impurity, a deluge of fire descended from Heaven on four cities, and in an instant, consumed not only the inhabitants, but even the very stones.
And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth (Genesis 19:24-25)Millions "believe in Jesus", yet are living in open adultery, in blatant mockery of Christ's teaching in Matthew 5:32
But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.
How many are in their 2nd, 3rd, 4th..... marriages, and even go as far as bragging? God shall not be mocked; the consequences, for those who depart this life in a state of mortal sin, are horrible beyond description. After all, is it not written that:
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Corinthians 2:9).
This verse holds true also for those who defy God's commandment. It holds true in the sense that, the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, what things God has prepared for those who defy His commandments.
quote:
Repenting of sin is the next natural step that happens if one is sincere in embracing Jesus.
Repentance in the true sense of the word consists in perfect contrition for an offense, and a firm resolution not to commit it again. It is from the bottom of one's heart, and entails reprehending oneself for offenses in the same manner one would reprehend another whose education was entrusted to you, and in making a firm purpose and resolution never more to relapse into them. Without a firm resolution, repentance is vain. One does well to remember that God not only sees the deepest recesses of men hearts, but even the most hidden thoughts. Scripture also warns
us that in the day of judgment, these hidden thoughts will be brought to light.
Perfect contrition implies a hatred of the sin, not from any motive, other than that it has offended God. It implies intense sorrow for having sinned; the will to make full reparation of the harm done; and the firm purpose to avoid committing a sin again.
A Catholic goes to confession when he wants his sins forgiven. He knows that if he merely pretends sorrow or deceives the priest in serious matters, not only are none of his sins forgiven, but he goes away with an additional mortal sin of sacrilege.
What certainty is there that he possesses such dispositions? Is his sorrow supernatural? Is his conviction of forgiveness merely self-persuasion; a case of the wish being father to the thought? He has no definite and personal revelation that he is forgiven. Catholics who receive sacramental absolution are at least not left in such doubts and anxieties, for even though their sorrow be not as perfect as it should be, the Sacrament itself will supply for certain defects.
But in the case of an adulterer, true repentance requires retruning to his first wife. Is this likely to happen, especially if he has sired children out of his other marriages?
The situation is further complicated if his first wife is comfortably married, and has had children since then from her other "marriage", and/or is unwilling to come back. Talk of being stuck in a "creek full of crap without a paddle".
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| JesusFreak |
Posted - 06/23/2008 : 05:43:46
"...And the Word was God and the Word became flesh..."God exalts His word above His own Name..and everything else shall pass away..but the Word of God lasts forever...
The Word is like a hand-book for living lives that lead to salvation.God has overlooked the days of ignorance.
"When God 4gives a Sin, he never brings it up again."
"Love Comes Softly." |
| dexter |
Posted - 06/01/2008 : 14:29:24
Salvation is free for everyone.
It's only necessary to believe in Jesus ... that He's the Son of God,
and desire to make Him the Lord of your life.
Repenting of sin is the next natural step that happens if one is
sincere in embracing Jesus.
A desire to know the Bible will come as a natural result too.
"honor is so sublime perfection and so refinde;that when God was alone and creatureless at first,himselfe had none: but as of the elements,these which we tread produce all things with which we are joyed or fed and, those are barren birth above our head" |
| spaxx |
Posted - 05/08/2008 : 08:35:09
Is biblical knowledge a prerequisite to salvation? If so, please show me the relevant biblical verses that confirm such a belief. |
| JesusFreak |
Posted - 04/29/2008 : 07:34:11
oh wow!..now this is really hot in here..DExter...think it was fine u stopped here.lol..or anymore plans to do some further write ups following such "facts"??hahahaha....as for the facts given by spaxx...am pretty sure he's a bit too gullible with material written down by just about anyone no matter how authentic and convincing they might seem to be.and all he does is copy and paste in here,which tells me he has no meditative God-inspired mind of his. But not being able to quote rightly which is the 6th and the 9th commandment potrays lack of biblical knowledge...point blanc.il na rien a discuter.
"When God 4gives a Sin, he never brings it up again."
"Love Comes Softly." |
| spaxx |
Posted - 04/23/2008 : 05:14:37
And morally what kind of man was King James I?
First of all we know that King James I was a sodomite, a fact clearly proven by history, such as the following testament of Sir. John Oglander in 1617, before the privy council England:
"The king is wondrous passionate, a lover of his favorites beyond the love of men to women. He is the chastise prince for women that ever was, for he would often swear that he never kissed any other woman than his own queen. I never yet saw any fond husband make so much or so great dalliance over his beautiful spouse as I have seen King James over his favorites, especially Buckingham." (Queen James and His Courtiers 1997)
A large number of love letters from Queen James to one of his lovers the Earl of Buckingham, who was later promoted to the post of "gentleman of king bed chamber" have been preserved (Encyclopedia American 1995). King James called Buckingham his only sweet child, his sweet child and wife, thy dear dad and husband and dear dad (King James VI of Scotland I of England 1974). Their relationship parallels modern homosexual "father/son" associations. Most of these letters are so perverted and sexual that they cannot be printed in any public media.
There is also a painting of Queen James I who commissioned Daniel Mytens the elder to paint of him. It now hangs in the national portrait gallery, London. For this portrait (one of his favorites) James poses in Queen Elizabeth I ’s coronation gown. Making King James to the best of this authors knowledge the first "Royal Drag Queen" in English history.
If this is not nauseating enough, King James in 1617 addressed the honorable privy council with a official affirmation of his love for Buckingham. This deplorable king tried to justify his homosexuality with one the worst kinds of blasphemy. He officially asserted that he believed Christ was queer, when he said,
"I, James am neither a God nor an angel, but a man like any other. Therefore I act like a man and confess to loving those dear to me more than other men. You may be sure that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else, and more than you who are her assembled. I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defeat, for Jesus Christ did the same and therefore I can not be blamed. Christ had his son John, and I have my George." (King James VI of Scotland I of England, Antonia Fraser,1974)
It is truly sin against God to call this wicked evil king "most sacred" as the official press does. This is another example of the horrible dishonesties of the writers and printers of the King James Bible through out the ages.
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