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Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear has recently tackled the question of whether God still speaks to people audibly as described in the Bible. In a video posted by The Gospel Coalition, Greear discussed the question by noting that he has “never been comfortable putting God in a lot of boxes that He doesn’t put himself in.” “I don’t know of anywhere in the Bible that says, ‘no, He will absolutely never speak audibly again to man on the earth,’” explained Greear. “I will say that the Bible does indicate that the way that His Spirit speaks is obviously through...

“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water” (Matthew 3:16). Christians, especially new believers, sometimes wonder what mode of baptism Jesus underwent, and therefore wonder which is correct for them to experience. Since genuine baptism represents cleansing from sin and symbolizes the believer’s identification with Christ’s death and resurrection, the ordinance must involve immersion, not merely sprinkling or pouring. The Greek word (baptizo) literally means to dip or submerge an object into water or another liquid. Confusion regarding the word’s meaning resulted largely because Latin and more modern-language translations of Scripture simply transliterated many occurrences of the Greek...

January 5 2019 Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop Reading 1 1 Jn 3:11-21 Beloved:This is the message you have heard from the beginning:we should love one another,unlike Cain who belonged to the Evil Oneand slaughtered his brother. Why did he slaughter him? Because his own works were evil,and those of his brother righteous. Do not be amazed, then, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to lifebecause we love our brothers.Whoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer,and you know that no...

“Jesus answering said to him, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness’” (Matthew 3:15). The most important symbol Jesus’ baptism gives us is a perfect example of obedience to God the Father. Our Lord always modeled obedience in all things (e.g., Phil. 2:6–8; cf. Matt. 17:25–27). In submitting to baptism, Jesus affirmed the validity of John’s standard of righteousness and demonstrated that baptism was God’s will to which every believer should be obedient. Furthermore, Jesus’ baptism is a profound, symbolic identification with sinful humanity. Hundreds of years earlier the...

January 4 2019 Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious Reading 1 1 Jn 3:7-10 Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous,just as he is righteous. Whoever sins belongs to the Devil,because the Devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the Devil. No one who is begotten by God commits sin,because God's seed remains in him;he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. In this way,the children of God and the children of the Devil are made plain;no one who...

The Lord’s Prayer Is Just Fine the Way It Is St. Benedict begins his Rule, “Hearken O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart.” This fundamental principle shapes not only the life of the monk, but of every Christian. Will we listen to the words of Christ, the Lord and teacher, and conform our life to them? What is the alternative? As shocking as it is, the words of Christ are constantly explained away.“And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he...

“John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’” (Matthew 3:14). John the Baptist’s initial reluctance to baptize Jesus is a testimony to Jesus’ sinlessness—and John’s awareness of his own sinfulness. In effect, John said to Jesus, “I’m a sinner, just like everyone else I baptize, so why should You, the sinless Son of God, want me to baptize You?” In an indirect yet definite fashion, John agreed with the later description of Christ by the writer of Hebrews, “One who has been tempted in all things as we...

January 3 2019 Christmas Weekday Reading 1 1 Jn 2:29–3:6 If you consider that God is righteous,you also know that everyone who acts in righteousnessis begotten by him. See what love the Father has bestowed on usthat we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.Beloved, we are God's children now;what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,for we shall see him as he is.Everyone who has this...

“Then Jesus arrived . . . coming to John, to be baptized by him” (Matthew 3:13). In the original text of this passage, the wording “to be baptized” emphasizes purpose in this momentous appearance by the Lord Jesus. But it was extremely difficult for John the Baptist to understand why the God-Man would need to be baptized. John’s baptism was for the confession of sin and repentance (3:2, 6, 11), but Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) had no need for such a baptism. It is hard to see why One who would take away sin would need...

January 2 2019 Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church Reading 1 1 Jn 2:22-28 Beloved:Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father,but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise...

The Modernist Takeover of the Catholic Church: Cultural Genocide or Suicide? (PART II) IntroductionIn Part I of this essay we briefly survey of the state of the Catholic Church prior to, during, and after the Second Vatican Council and explore the use of the term “Cultural Genocide” to describe the destruction of a distinct international Catholic culture that once existed throughout the world.  Prior to the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II – 1962-1965) that culture was characterized by prayer in a universal language, a common liturgy and liturgical calendar, and common beliefs that transcended national borders.  Although it still...

Salt Lake City Bishop: Don’t Sweat Your Mass Obligation Today Parishioners in the Diocese of Salt Lake City were shocked to learn that the Solemnity of Mary, celebrated today, January 1, 2019, was abrogated by their bishop, Most Reverend Oscar Azarcón Solis.A weekly bulletin for the diocese states: Tuesday, January 1, 2019, Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God, is not a holyday of obligation in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. In the Diocese of Salt Lake City, the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God has been abrogated. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, with the approval of the Vatican,...

“Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan” (Matthew 3:13). There is something majestic about Jesus’ baptism that brought all the previous events of His earthly life into focus. Here He came fully onto the stage of the gospel story and His work and ministry truly began. Following an eternity past in heaven and thirty years of obscurity in Nazareth, God presented the Savior publicly to the world. John the Baptist, as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” had heralded the coming of the Messiah (3:3; cf. Isa. 40:3), and now He was fully and publicly prepared to...

January 1 2019 The Octave Day of ChristmasSolemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Reading 1 Nm 6:22-27 The LORD said to Moses: "Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites.Say to them:The LORD bless you and keep you!The LORD let his face shine uponyou, and be gracious to you!The LORD look upon you kindly andgive you peace!So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them." Responsorial Psalm Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8. R. (2a) May God bless us in his mercy.May...

"Assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted" (Heb. 2:16-18). Jesus came to sympathize with us, so He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest. In his letters to...

“[Christ] is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him” (Colossians 1:18-19). Christ has preeminence in everything. The apostle Paul presents four great truths in Colossians 1:18 about Christ’s relation to the church. The first is that Christ is the head of the church. This concept looks at the church as a living organism, inseparably tied together by the living Christ. He controls every...

Kissing Expert Archbishop Forbids Latin Mass La Plata Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, Argentina, forbad to celebrate Mass in Latin on the main altar in his archdiocese. According to AdelanteLaFe.com, he published two decrees on December 17 and 24. The first abolishes all previous archdiocesan liturgical norms. Fernández' predecessor, Archbishop Héctor Rubén Aguer used to be excellent. The second decree orders that any Mass must be celebrated only in the Novus Ordo, in the vernacular, and on a meal table turning the back of the priest to God. The decree contradicts Church law and is therefore invalid. Fernández is a ghostwriter...

December 31, 2018 The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas Reading 1 1 Jn 2:18-21 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number;if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because...

"Since . . . the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Heb. 2:14-15). Christ came to break the power of Satan which He did by conquering death. To be free to live with God and share in all His blessings, someone had to shatter Satan's death grip on us. Sin is what gives Satan his powerful hold on...

“[Christ] is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The eternal Christ sustains His creation. When the universe began, Christ already existed. The apostle John spoke of Christ’s eternal existence this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3). Christ Himself testified of the same truth when He told the Jews, “Before Abraham was born, I...