Catechesis and Cafeteria Catholicism (by Danny Manthei)


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Why is there Temporal Punishment for Sin; Didn't Jesus Pay Our Debt?

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I was discussing Penance, purgatory, and indulgences (among many other topics) with a friend, and the topic of temporal punishment came up. Temporal punishment happens to be closely linked to indulgences, which happen to be linked to the effects of Sacramental Penance, so it was only natural that it be next in line for discussion. In case you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about: " An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven ..." ( CCC 1471 , emphasis mine). Anyone not familiar with that might respond with, " Whoa! Hold up there on the 'temporal punishment'! What's that all about? " I'll explain what it's all about, but you can also get a good idea by reading the very short Catechism paragraphs 1471-1473, especially in light of the three paragraphs immediately preceding those, and 1478-79. ( HERE's that link.) Anyway, my friend actually read
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Refuting Mike Gendron's "Are Catholics Deceived?"

Mike Gendron will be quoted in black; my responses will be in red . Deception will always be exposed by Truth. Have you ever realized that you could be deceived and not even be aware of it? Those who are deceived will never know it unless they are confronted with the truth. Many go to their grave deceived about the most important issue we all face, and that is, locating the narrow road that leads to eternal life. Who are you trusting to show you the way and the truth to eternal life? What is your source for truth? Is it absolutely trustworthy? Will it protect you from the schemes and lies of the master deceiver?    The prophet Jeremiah gave us wise counsel for choosing whom we should trust. He said if you trust in man you will be cursed liked a bush in the parched places of the desert. But if you trust in God you will be blessed. You will be like a tree planted by water always bearing fruit, whose leaves are always green. No worries or fears will come upon you in a year of drought
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The Early Christians Believed in Hell - Refuting John Lilley

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I was recently directed to a website belonging to John Lilley, an author of at least three books on Christianity. One of those books is titled “ Hell is a Mistranslation ”. One article on his website, titled “ The Early Christians did not Believe in Hell ” served as a sort of prologue to the book, explaining why Lilley believes “hell” to be a mistranslation and explaining that neither Christ nor the early Christian writers from the first several centuries believed in “hell” as we understand it today. I have attempted several times to re-access his webpage lately, but have been unable. I continue to get a message that the webpage (johnlilley.org) has expired. Whether the page will come up again, I do not know. What I do know is that there are at least a handful of people who have recently read his article and were misled by it, and so I am going to refute it. Actually, I’m going to let Jesus and the early Christians refute it; I’ll just post their words. Christ, Himself, as w
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Circumcision: Why Not? (with Briana Manthei)

“ Of course we are circumcising our son…the Bible says so! ” If you’ve read the Bible much, especially the Acts of the Apostles or Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians, you know that this statement makes no sense. But if you are anything like me and didn’t pay attention in Sunday school as a child, or never really read much of the Scriptures growing up, or didn’t pay attention when your parents or pastors were reading Scriptures to you, then you might identify with that statement. I’ll never forget the day that I learned just how ignorant I was about circumcision and Scripture. My wife and I were meeting with a Priest to talk about receiving the sacrament of Baptism for our soon-to-be-first-born baby. We had no idea if it was a boy or girl, and were preparing for either one. When my wife first asked me what I thought of circumcision, I expressed the same sentiment as in that first sentence. After all, the Bible could not be any clearer. God said: “ This is my covenan
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Shaming the Pastor with a Same-Sex "Marriage" Argument?

A video was posted to Facebook which plays a clip of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd responding to a Christian Pastor who asked how the Prime Minister could justify his stance on Same-Sex "Marriage" while simultaneously identifying himself as a Christian. "Why", the Pastor wanted to know, "should Christians vote for [him]" when he holds values that are contrary to Christian belief. (The title of the video is "A Pastor Asks A Politician Why He Supports Gay Marriage. It Seems He Wasn't Prepared For His Reply" It can be found on YouTube quite easily.) Prime Minister Rudd responded, first by subjecting Christian Truth to his personal subjective opinions, and then avoided answering the question altogether by throwing out "strawmen" and resorting other fallacious reasoning tactics. While some same-sex "marriage" supporters will think he made some good points (and Christians will think otherwise), I'd like to give
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Pastor Charles Lawson on the Virgin Birth

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My wife and I were sent a video link to a Fundamental Baptist preacher's sermon on the Virgin Birth, and what that means for Christians. ( The Virgin Birth as explained by pastor Charles Lawson.)  I half-expected the sermon to be the usual anti-Catholic hate-speech that I am sent from time to time by anonymous readers.  But instead of an anonymous person, this was sent to us by a good friend of my wife's, someone who genuinely cares about us and for whom we also care and pray daily.  So it should not have surprised me when the sermon was far from the usual.  While he did accuse Catholics of "worshipping" Mary a couple times, he spent most of his time sounding Catholic on the topic of Mary.  Compared to the usual, it was music to my ears.  In watching the video, I was excited to find that we have so much common ground on such an important person as Christ's Mother. I couldn't help but wonder if this pastor knows that his views on Mary are mirrored in
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Responding to Steve Finnell's Definition of Prayer

In response to THIS post on how praying to Mary brings our focus to Christ, Steve responded with a series of off-topic questions and some claims. Since he jumped off topic right off the bat, I decided to make his reply a separate post and will respond to it point-by-point here. His words will be in italics , mine will be in bold . IS PRAYING TO DEAD PEOPLE A SIN? - This question is irrelevant to the topic, Steve [see link above to original post]. Catholics don’t pray to the dead, we pray to the living. Don’t you remember what Christ said when correcting the Scribes in Mk 12:26-27? He said "God is God of the LIVING, not of the dead". If you are trying to suggest that praying to saints is the same as praying to the dead, you are making the same mistake as the Scribes. Or perhaps you are purposefully trying to mislead the readers to believe something false about the Catholic Church? You aren’t trying to do that are you Steve? Is it a sin to pray to the Virgin Mary and ot
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