Free Republic

99 & 1/2 Won’t Do – A Meditation on PurgatoryBy: Msgr. Charles Pope I have blogged before on Purgatory. For example here: Purgatory – Biblical and Reasonable. I have also provided a PDF document on the Biblical roots of the teaching here: PDF Document on Purgatory .On this Feast of All Souls I want to reflect on Purgatory as the necessary result of a promise. Many people think of purgatory primarily in terms of punishment, but it is also important to think of it in terms of  promise, purity and perfection. Some of our deceased brethren are having the...

Part of the Genius of the African American Spirituals is their ability to treat of serious themes, such as the final judgment, in a creatively compelling manner that steered a middle course between unproductive fear and prideful presumption.

A sign outside St. John’s Anglican Church in Canada seems to suggest homosexuality is okay because Jesus had two fathers. The billboard message: “Jesus had two dads and he turned out just fine,” as seen in a photo posted on Reddit. Christian principle teaches that Jesus is the son of God, but was cared for during his 33 years on earth, in part, by his birth mother’s husband, Joseph. Rev. Duncan Lyon’s wife said in a telephone call with The Blaze that the message is in fact posted outside the Niagara Falls, Ontario, church and that the motivation behind the...

“Don’t judge me!” shouted to obese mother of what I estimated to be a dozen ill-mannered proto juvenile delinquents. Her charming tats aside, she otherwise was a model of incivility, bordering disheveled as she stashed a poorly covered ’40 into a bag while fishing for her EBT card. Had she been talking to me I would have politely informed her that, yes, I’ll judge her and everyone else. I damn well hope people judge me as well. This modern disinclination to judge is as antithetical to normal social functioning as is socialism, and perhaps as evil. Relying on quaint tools,...

"Justice" John Roberts has secured his place in American infamy – on par with General Benedict Arnold. Some do not understand the degree of historical significance his betrayal of our constitution represents because they still resist embracing the broader context in which it occured. This is one integral piece of a large puzzle. The piece has a visible picture of its own but it also brings into clarity the larger overall picture. In order to understand the significance of John Roberts, one must be willing to admit what is CLEARLY the intent of Barack Obama – forcing secession upon the...

We feel, believe, and know through faith that one day GOD will come to judge all of us. HE will judge all. Live like this day can be any day. Get right with the LORD in your heart, which will eventually change the actions of the flesh.

TaxMasters Inc., a Texas-based tax advisory firm perhaps best known for its ubiquitous advertisements on cable television, has been ordered to pay more than $195 million in penalties for defrauding its clients. Patrick Cox, the firm’s heavyset, bearded founder and chief executive officer, has to pay $46 million of the judgment handed down last week by a Texas jury. Cox appeared in many of TaxMasters’ commercials. TaxMasters was found to have committed more than 110,000 violations of Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act, according to a statement released by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. The verdict “marks a significant victory for...

The Harbingers of Judgement

My sister sent this to me and a lot of what I thought, without being able to put my finger on .. is falling into place now.

There I stood in the center of the great heavenly arena. Seats wrapped around me in a large horseshoe shape. They rose from the floor where I stood to an enormously great height. Directly in front of me was the judgment seat of Christ. All of the saints were taking their places. Seating was assigned from least at the top to greatest at courtside. Miraculously I was able to recognize all of the faces present. Immediately to my left on the bottom row was Paul. Seated with him was Stephen. They greeted one another and chuckled like a couple of...

's not clear how this story will turn out, but right now Patrick Rodgers is living a pay-back fantasy probably shared by millions of struggling U.S. homeowners. Frustrated by a dispute with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and by his inability to get answers to questions, the West Philadelphia homeowner took the mortgage company to court last fall. When Wells Fargo still didn't respond, Rodgers got a $1,000 default judgment against it for failing to answer his formal questions, as required by a federal law called the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. And when the mortgage company didn't pay - does...

Imagine with me, if you will, this future moment. After this Earth's time has ended, and this experiment in humanity has reached its final moments, when God is called upon to account for His actions, and the Devil, his. On one hand, we have those who are saved, and on the other, those who are not. And those who are not are crying out to God, with the accusation "You are a tyrant! You gave us no real choice, and you set the terms of your deal unfairly and improperly. You gave us a raw deal." Revelation tells of the...

SAN FRANCISCO — Three federal judges will hear arguments Monday by attorneys for the governor on why Arizona should be allowed to start enforcing SB 1070. John Bouma, Brewer’s lead attorney, will argue the law that Gov. Jan Brewer signed last April designed to give state and local police more power to detain and arrest those they suspect are in this country illegally is within the legal authority of the state. That will get an argument from lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice. Those attorneys contend only the federal government can regulate immigration. They want the law — or...

On Speaking Ill of the Dead A bit of advice to my fellow conservatives: Do not speak ill of the dead. I think you know to whom I refer, do you not? A second bit of advice to my fellow Christians: Do not speak ill of the dead. Let us suppose that you are a wretched man, recently died under unseemly circumstances, whose life was made all the more wretched by fame. Oh? Do we not believe fame brings wretchedness? It brings its own temptations and its own sorrows that we private people, we happily private people never hunted by...

Kansas Abortionist George Tiller was shot today as he was going to Church.

Darwin’s arguments against God How Darwin rejected the doctrines of Christianity by Russell Grigg Charles Darwin Charles Darwin grew up embracing the ‘intelligent design’ thinking of his day—William Paley’s renowned argument that the design of a watch implies there must have been an intelligent watchmaker, and so design in the universe implies there must have been an intelligent Creator.1 Concerning this, Darwin wrote, ‘I do not think I hardly ever admired a book more than Paley’s “Natural Theology”.2 I could almost formerly have said it by heart.’3 Nevertheless, Darwin spent most of the rest of his life attempting to...

“If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?” Recently I felt compelled to send out an URGENT message warning of an impending great calamity — such that will cause even God’s elect to tremble. One Bishop asked, “Is there no further word: How should the righteous respond to such a word?” I can only answer by sharing what the Holy Spirit is speaking to my own heart and what I am to do. I shared that I was led in a practical way to lay aside a month’s supply of food — because I have witnessed the panic...

I like Sarah Palin... Recently, however, my confidence in Governor Palin’s judgment has begun to ebb – most dramatically, this week...

(1 Samuel 8:1-21) But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign...

America's opponents in the Middle East are gloating at the financial meltdown in the United States, describing it as the divinely inspired collapse of an overstretched empire. Hardline clerics across the region as well as representatives of U.S. opponents like Hamas and al-Qaida have described the plummeting stocks and frozen credit markets in the United States as a kind of retribution for American misdeeds.