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Editor's Note: This series is an effort to return to basics since too often we all make the holy Faith complicated, whereas in reality the truths and traditions of the Catholic Faith are quite simple. God doesn't complicate things, man does. Realizing the fact that, for many generations indoctrinated by conciliar ambiguities, it all seems so confusing, we are introducing this series which is an adaptation of an earlier series titled "Appreciating the Precious Gift of the Faith" in utilizing a combination of the excellent compendium of the late Bishop Morrow's pre-Vatican II Manual of Religion My Catholic Faith and Dom Prosper Gueranger's incomparable The Liturgical Year as well as the out-of-print masterpieces The Catholic Church Alone The One True Church(1902) and the Cabinet of Catholic Information (1903). Through prayer and discussions, we've decided to employ this revised series to simplify the tenets of the Faith for those who continue to wallow in what they think is the 'Catholic Church' out of obedience to a man and his hierarchy who long ago betrayed Christ and His flocks. This then, is an affirmation of the basic truths the Spotless Bride of Christ has always taught and cannot change or evolve as "living documents" for truth is truth. As we say every day in the Act of Faith, "We believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived." If you have been deceived, and the vast majority have been, then realize what you've been indoctrinated with over the past 50 years cannot be from God but from His adversary. Our advice: flee the conciliar confines as well as other man-made religions which do not teach these truths without compromise. Seek out a traditional chapel nearest to you. There is a list of churches you can absolutely trust at Traditional Latin Masses
We know by our natural reason that God exists, because of:
The existence of the world proves the existence of God, because it could not have come into existence by itself.
Everything in the world had a beginning. Men, animals, plants, the earth, planets and stars,-all had a beginning. They could not have come into exisatence by themselves. They must have been made by Someone Who had no beginning. Planets and men could no more have made themselves than a watch can make itself.
The astronomer Kircher had a friend who denied the existence of God. During a visit one day, this friend saw a globe in the study of the astronomer. - "This is an interesting globe," said he; "Who made it?" - "Why, replied Kircher, "it just made itself!" The friend had a hearty laugh at the idea. Kircher asserted, "It would be much easier for a little globe like that to make itself than for the immense globe of the earth to create itself."
When we see footprints on the sand, we conclude that someone has passed that way. The universe is filled with the footprints of a Supreme Creator. Every single existing thing or being gives clear testimony of Him. A light cannot kindle itself; after it is kindled, it will go out in a few hours. But the light of the sun in the Heavens has burned for thousands of years and continues to burn.
They lead us to infer the existence of a Supreme Architect and Preserver of surpassing skill. The Heavenly bodies go along their appointed courses age after age. The seasons cusseed one another year by year. There is splendor, beauty, arrangement, and order everywhere. The whole universe is governed and preserved by immutable law.
If you plant an orange seed, you are certain an apple will not spring from it. Every morning you are sure the sun, when it rises, will appear in the east. At night you can go peacefully to sleep, assured that after your rest the day will come again. To say that this universal order is the result of accident, or that the planets direct their own courses, is as foolish as to say that an automobile goes sensibly around the city streets running itself.
"The Heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of His hands" (Psalm 18:2). God is the Intelligent Cause. Long ago the pagan Cicero said: "When we contemplate the Heavens, we arrrive at the conviction that they are all guided by a Being of surpassing skill." And Cicero also says, "There is no nation to be found so savage as to be ignorant of the existence of God." The great astronomer Newton often uncovered and bowed when God's name was uttered.
By our conscience we can distinguish right from wrong. Our conscience approves the right and condemns the wrong. Thus within ourselves there is a recognition of a Supreme Lawgiver to Whom we are responsible, Who will reward the good we do, and punish the evil.
"Only the fool says in his heart: 'There is no God'" (Psalm 13:1).
Those who persist in denying the existence of God in spite of external and internal testimony are atheists who are eaten up by pride, or live vicious lives, or both. Of them Our Lord said:
"Seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, neither do they understand -
For the heart of this people has been hardened, and with their ears they have been hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest at any time they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their mind, And be converted, and I heal them" (Matthew 13: 13-15).
There is no time with God: with Him there is neither past nor future; everything is present. "One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8). "Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed, from eternity and to eternity thou art God" (Psalm 89:2). "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End" (Apocalypse/Revelation 1:8).
God will always remain the same. He is the "Father of lights, with Whom there is no change" (James 1:17). God cannot change. The God that is God now is the same God that has ever been, the same God that will ever be, from and throughout all eternity, the "Father of Lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration" (cf. James 1:17).
When we say that God is all-good, we mean that He is infinitely lovable in Hiself, and that from His fatherly love every good comes to us. God is Himself love. Love is part of His nature. Compared to God's infinite goodness, the goodness of man is nothing, only the shadow of a shadow. Men, creatures of God, are good because God made them to His image and likeness. <"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is sweet" (Psalm 33:9).
Out of His goodness, God created angels and men, although He had no need of them. God loves His creatures far more than a mother loves the children she has borne. God gives us the beautiful world to live in. He takes care of our body and soul. He showers benefits and graces on us day after day. He prepares for us a place in heaven. Above all, He sent His Son down to earth to die for us.
When we say that God is all-knowing, we mean that He knows all things, past, present, and future, even our most secret thoughts, words, and actions. Before His eyes all secrets, even the most hidden, are clear, even secrets that will not be thought of by man until the end of the world.
God knows us for what we are; we cannot hide anything from Almighty God. "All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to Whom we have to give account" (Hebrews 4:13). God, all-knowing, will one day make everything known to everybody, disclosing our entire lives for all to read and know. If we think of this power of God to see and know all things, and His promise to make everything manifest on the last day, we can more easily resist temptations to sin. "For there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest; nor anything concealed that will not be known" (Luke 8:17).
When we say that God is all-present, we mean that He is everywhere. God is all-present, because there is nothing that can have existence apart from Him. All creation exists in Him as thought exists in the mind. There is no place where God is not.
"'Do I not fill Heaven and earth?' saith the Lord" (Jeremiah 23:24). "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). However, we must not make the mistake of thinking that God, in Whom everything exists, is limited by this everything. He has no limits, and exists outside as well as in all creation.
God is all-present, present everywhere, at the same time. He is not like man, that cannot be in two places at the same time. God is wholly everywhere at the same time. The presence of God should be an incentive for us to do everything to please Him. As we are careful never to do anything wrong in the presence of our mother, how much more careful should we be in the presence of God! "Shall a man be hid in secret places, and I not see him?" (Jeremiah 23:24).
Although God is everywhere, we do not see Him, because He is a spirit, and cannot be seen with our eyes.
Similarly, we cannot see our own soul or that of another. "God is spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).
When we say that God is almighty, we mean that He can do all things. God can do anything, by a mere act of His will. Nothing is impossible to God.
"Things that are impossible with men are possible with God" (Luke 18:27). The only thing God cannot do is to make a contradiction; He cannot will wrong, because wrong is a contradiction of His goodness.
God's omnipotence or power is known to us especially by the magnificence of creation, and by His miracles.
Yet God created all the immensity of the Heavens with nothing except His word. "Be light made. And light was made" (Genesis 1:3). In the same way Our Lord worked many of His miracles. "Great is the Lord…of His greatness there is no end" (Psalm 144).
Yes, God is all-wise, all-holy, all-merciful, and all-just. God is all-wise. The more we learn of the wonders of the universe, the more we are amazed by the infinite wisdom of God, by His almighty power. His knowledge is infinite. He knows how to direct all things to the highest ends, and by the most fitting means. God is infinitely holy in Himself. He loves good and hates evil. Therefore He is also all-just. He will punish the wicked and reward the good. "Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy" (Leviticus 19:2).
Partial justice is done in this life, for often the good are happy, and the wicked are tormented by their conscience. But complete justice will not be accomplished till the next life. God is infinitely merciful. He gives sinners time for repentance. He receives us back with joy when we repent. But merciful as He is, we must not presume on His mercy, for "God will not be mocked." "The Lord is compassionate and merciful, long suffering and plenteous in mercy" (Psalm 102:8). "He is long-suffering, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
Divine Revelation comes down to us by two means: through Holy Scripture, written down under divine inspiration, and through Tradition, handed down orally from Apostolic times. We read the Bible with great respect, for it is the Word of God. We treat Tradition with as great reverence, for God speaks through Tradition as well. It is wrong to believe the Bible alone without Tradition. That is like believing the Word of God written in the morning and denying it spoken in the afternoon.
Besides knowing God by our natural reason, we can also know Him from SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. God has often revealed Himself to men through means beyond the ordinary course of nature. This is supernatural, or Divine Revelation, as opposed to the natural revelation of Himself that God makes in the external world, and the revelation He makes through our natural reason and conscience.
Some revealed truths are beyond the power of the human understanding; we could never, by our own abilities, have known such truths if God had not revealed them. For instance, could we by ourselves have known about the Blessed Trinity, had God not revealed it?
The public revelation of truths to men by God began with Adam and Eve and ended at the death of Saint John the Apostle. Private revelations have been made to holy persons, such as those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary, and those of Our Lady of Lourdes to Saint Bernadette. But these private revelations are never proposed to the faithful as articles of faith. When the Church approves them, it merely states that there is nothing in them contrary to faith or morals.
Divine Revelation may be classified into pre-Christian and Christian revelation. Pre-Christian revelation may be divided into: (a) primitive revelation, made to Adam and Eve; (b) patriarchal revelation, made to the patriarchs; and
(c) Mosaic revelation, made to Moses and the prophets. God spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise. He spoke to Abraham, to Noah, sending Noah to preach to sinful men before the Flood. He sent Moses to the Israelites when Pharaoh oppressed them. The patriarchs and prophets were called messengers of God, and often received from Him extraordinary powers, of miracles and prophecy, in order that they might be believed.
Christian revelation contains the truths revealed to us by Jesus Christ, either directly or through His Apostles.
Our Lord commanded His Apostles to teach all these truths to the end of time. "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations." We should believe in Divine Revelation because God, Who is its Author, cannot deceive nor be deceived.
No reasonable man can believe in any truth until he is sure it is revealed by God. We know that God is the Author of Revelation because He ha sproved it by external acts, especially by miracles and prophecies. The writers who made Divine Revelation known worked under direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Who is, therefore its Author.
Miracles are extraordinary works perceptible to the senses, that cannot be accomplished by the mere powers of nature. They are brought about by the action of a higher power. The coming to life of a dead man is a miracle. So is the instantaneous cure of a man blind or paralytic from birth. Our Lord and the Apostles worked many miracles.
Some extraordinary works never before heard of or known but invented are not miracles. They are mere discoveries of previously unknown processes or combinations. An example is the radio. And so were the first telegraph, telephone, wireless, phonograph, etc. Today it's the computer. All of these are very wonderful. Even today people in general do not understand them fully. But they are not miracles, because they are produced by the forces of nature as harnessed through the ingenuity of man.
Prophecies are predictions of future events that could not have been known by natural means. For the confirmation of the faith, or for the benefit of men, God raised up prophets. Generally speaking, the gift of prophecy is a sure sign that the possessor is a messenger of God.
The prophets told about the coming of the Messiah. Their prophecies were fulfilled when Christ came on earth. The major prophets were Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, and Daniel. They are distinguished from the twelve minor prophets, because of the greater volume of their prophecies. Forecasting the weather correctly is not prophecy. It is the result of a scientific knowledge of natural facts.
Divine Revelation has come down to us through Holy Scripture, written down under divine inspiration, and through Tradition, handed down orally from Apostolic times. From Adam and Eve, at different times, God inspired men to write down His revelations. These passed from generation to generation as sacred books. For pre-Christian revelation, there were forty-five of these sacred books, composing the Old Testament. They were jealously guarded by the Israelites, the Chosen People, whom God Himself had chosen to keep His truths intact for the instruction of future generations.
Finally our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, come to earth to reveal Divine truths to men. After His death, His Apostles and disciples wrote about Him and His teachings. There are twenty-seven of these books, composing the New Testament. With the forty-five books of the Old Testament they were scattered in different parts of the world, until the Church gathered them together into one Book, Holy Scripture, or the Bible.
The great Deposit of Faith which Jesus Christ entrusted to the Church is made up of two parts: Holy Scripture and Divine Tradition, this latter being composed of the truths passed down by word of mouth, and not written down till after the death of Christ's Apostles and disciples, principally by the Fathers of the Church. Divine Revelation was completed at the death of the last of the Apostles. Since that time no new revelation has been made for the instruction of the whole of mankind. Whenever the Church decides a point of faith, it does so according to Scripture or Tradition. It simply finds out what has been revealed from the beginning.
Previously: Step Seven: A Creed We Must Live By
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