Legion #8: Trial of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Part 1

Time to take a frivolity break, so climb aboard our time cube and take a trip to the 31st Century with me as we review…

Legion of Super-Heroes #8
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils and Inks: Ryan Sook and twenty-two guest artists, Colors: Jordie Bellaire
DC Comics, August 25, 2020

LSH #7 ended with General Crav Nah of Rimbor attacking the Legion with his powerful forces and demanding that the heroes surrender in retaliation for having imprisoned him during the Trident Saga. Let’s pick up the action in LSH #8.

Plot

Chameleon Boy and his mother, Madame President Brande of the United Planets, review various video files of the Legion from a vantage point following the team’s encounter with General Nah. First off are the orientation files of Superboy, Element Lad, Dream Girl, and Princess Projectra. Cham then recalls the battle with General Nah, with one-page spotlights on Lightning Lass, Wildfire, Mon-El, Blok, Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy (yup, the former leader is back), Brainiac 5, and Ferro Lad, who manages to single-handedly defeat the Rimborian leader in a cataclysmic finale.

Madame President Brande then dialogues with the Legion’s U.P. liaison, Rose Forrest, before directing the entire team to face trial for disobeying their oath of allegiance. The Legion reacts in dismay, with the spotlight on an incredulous Phantom Girl.

Comments

One of the objectives of this two-part “Trial” saga was to introduce each of the Legionnaires with an individual page. Legion newbies really needed some assistance to help become acquainted with the intimidatingly long roster. I counted 17 members who were highlighted in this issue, which leaves 17 for issue #9. I had assumed Bendis was going to include a lot more biographical data in these one-page “spotlights,” but that regrettably was not the case. Twenty-three different DC artists were each given the task of illustrating a single page of this issue. I enjoyed the variety (although some of the artwork is just downright poor), but didn’t see anything that surpassed the work of regular penciller, Ryan Sook. This installment marks the first appearance of Ferro Lad in the reconstituted Legion. His single-handed effort to defeat Nah recalls his sacrifice to vanquish the Sun Eater in Adventure #353, which was published way back in 1967. Did Ferro Lad survive this ordeal? Bendis doesn’t make it clear if FL is still around and neither does he make it clear why Madame President Brande changed her mind once again about prosecuting the Legion. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of this two-part saga, which will be another cavalcade of character spotlights and guest artists.

Postscript: As sometimes happens with comics, the cover illustration depicting two factions of the Legion in conflict, has zero connection to the plot within.

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 8/29/20

• ‘Joel Osteen Inspiration Cube’ electronic device hits the market

Joel Osteen regularly peddles his positivity/prosperity false gospel on TBN. Those who can’t get enough of his “Live Your Best Life Now” hokum will soon be able to purchase his “in$piration cube” (photo above), which will include 365 daily “inspirations,” 52 “sermons,” and 31 “affirmations.” Osteen and all of the other TBN prosperity shysters give Christianity a bad name.

• German archbishop calls for open debate about women priests in the Catholic Church

The progressive German Catholic prelates are pushing hard for women priests during their current “synodal path” initiative, but will settle for women deacons as an intermediary step…for now.

• Makers of Catholic altar wine, hosts suffer economic hit due to pandemic

There’s intense idolatrous emphasis on the alleged consecrated Jesus wafer and wine within traditionalist and conservative Catholics circles. In contrast, progressive Catholics pantheistically believe God is in everything and don’t get as excited about the alleged Jesus wafer.

• Pope Francis calls for ‘freeing’ the Virgin Mary from the devotion of the Mafia

In regions of Italy, the Catholic prelates and priests still have close ties with the Mafia dons. Priest-led religious processions stop at Mafia establishments to confer blessings on the dons and their underlings. Mafia members are often “deeply devoted” Catholics who compartmentalize their “business” from their “faith.”

• TBN drops Kenneth Copeland from programming lineup amid upcoming changes

TBN president, Matt Crouch, has purged some of the old-school prosperity shysters like Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland and is promoting young hipster pastors in skinny jeans, swag haircuts, and sneakers like Steven Furtick.

• America hasn’t always been kind to Catholic presidential candidates

Articles like this one conveniently omit the fact that popes publicly condemned democratic forms of government and freedom of religion well into the twentieth century. In the 1960 presidential campaign, many Protestants were concerned that Catholic candidate, Jack Kennedy, would take his orders secretly from the pope. As it turned out, JFK didn’t take his religion all that seriously and formerly-militant Catholic hegemony was already in decline at that point. Conservative American Catholic prelates consider presidential candidate, Joe Biden, to be only a nominal Catholic.

• More than 500 sex abuse claims filed against Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester

Survivors of priest abuse had until August 13th to file claims against the Rochester Catholic diocese under a provision of the 2019 Child Victims Act, which lifted the statute of limitations for one year. 503 survivors came forward and filed claims by the deadline. The Rochester diocese filed for bankruptcy last September in order to shield its assets from claimants. Similar scenarios are being played out all over the country. To date, 25 Catholic dioceses have filed for bankruptcy in the United States and its territories because of abuse claims.

• Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York gives opening prayer at RNC

Politics and religion make strange…partners.

• Jerry Falwell Jr. resigns from Liberty University following daylong confusion over his future

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that Jerry Falwell Jr. was in big trouble due to indiscreetly posting a compromising photo online. That and a previous scandal involving the Falwells’ pool boy has rendered Junior’s position as president of Liberty University untenable. Falwell Jr., like his father, was one of the leading proponents of American Christian nationalism. 

Answering the rebuttals of a Catholic apologist, #37: “The Dead Know Nothing”

Today, we continue with our series responding to “Meeting the Protestant Challenge: How to Answer 50 Biblical Objections to Catholic Beliefs” (2019), written by Karlo Broussard. With this next chapter, the Catholic apologist continues his section on “The Saints” as he attempts to counter alleged Protestants’ objections that “The Dead Know Nothing.”

As we’ve seen in the previous two chapters, the Roman Catholic church teaches that its members can and should pray to canonized saints for intercessory help. In this chapter, Broussard contends that “some” Protestants believe “the dead know nothing” based upon Ecclesiastes 9:5,10:

“5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten…10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”

Broussard offers three arguments to counter alleged Protestants’ objections. This is one of the longest chapters (seven pages) in the book, so I will attempt to summarize the author’s claims as succinctly as possible.

(1) Broussard states that the writer of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, “is not intending to make an assertion about the nature of the afterlife,” only “that he is trying to make sense of death from an earthly perspective” (p.199).

(2) Broussard hypothesizes that (A) since “souls in heaven possess the beatific vision,” then (B) “we have good reason to think that they would be conscious of our requests made to them” (p.201). For his proof text, Broussard cites 1 John 3:2 (“…we shall be like him…”) to claim that believers in Heaven have divine abilities like God. Referring to Hebrews 7:25, Broussard next hypothesizes that (A) since Christ “always lives to make intercession,” and (B) the believers in Heaven “are going to be perfectly like Christ,” then (C) “it’s at least reasonable to think that the saints would be doing what Christ does-namely, interceding for Christians on earth” (all quotes from p. 201).

(3) Broussard concludes, “There is clear and convincing evidence in both the Old and New Testaments that there is consciousness in the afterlife” and follows with multiple Bible passages for supporting evidence.

While this was one of Broussard’s lengthier chapters, my rebuttal will be short.

Broussard’s argument is somewhat of a straw man fallacy. Evangelical Protestants certainly do not believe that “the dead know nothing.” In Ecclesiastes 9:5,10, Solomon is clearly referencing death solely from a temporal perspective. Scripture is abundantly clear that the redeemed souls are in Heaven worshiping the Lord (see here) while the unredeemed souls are in hell and are conscious of their circumstance (see here). However, nowhere in Scripture is there a reference to a redeemed soul in Heaven being prayed to and acting as an intercessor for believers on Earth as Catholicism teaches. Catholicism’s ungrounded claims for saintly intercession are based strictly upon the type of unwarranted extrapolation Broussard presents in his second argument. As we see by this example, much of Catholic “sacred tradition” is founded and defended using the argument that such-and-such extra-Biblical doctrine is true because it is allegedly “reasonable” and/or “fitting.”

Broussard claims that “some Christians both within and outside mainstream Protestantism” believe “the dead know nothing.” The associated endnote (#140, pp. 285-286) reveals that Broussard is largely referring to Seventh Day Adventists (1.2 million members in North America) who teach the unconscious “soul sleep” of believers until the resurrection and the annihilation of the lost. Broussard doesn’t reference them, but the Jehovah’s Witnesses also teach soul sleep. The Jehovah’s Witnesses definitely do not teach the Christian Gospel. As for Seventh Day Adventism, the debate continues whether there’s enough Gospel truth within the sect’s aberrant teachings for a person to be saved (see here).

Next up: “God Alone Knows Our Hearts”

Throwback Thursday: Pittsburgh Catholic chapel boasts of more relics than anywhere outside of Rome

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today, we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on January 3, 2016 and has been revised.

Few evangelicals are aware of the extent of Roman Catholicism’s preoccupation with religious amulets, ju-jus, and relics. St. Anthony’s Chapel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania boasts that it has 5000 religious relics, the largest collection of relics in the world outside of Rome. Included in the collection are alleged splinters from Jesus’ cross, a fragment of the column of His flagellation, a stone from the Garden of Gethsemane, a nail that held Christ to the cross, material from Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s clothing, and a piece of bone from each of the twelve apostles. Only a small portion of the alleged relics at St. Anthony’s Chapel are shown in the above photo. Read how Catholic priest, Suitbert Mollinger, amassed the collection in the article far below.

The word “relic” comes from the Latin, “reliquus,” meaning “left behind.” The Catholic church teaches that “relics do not have power in and of themselves,” but that God works miracles in the presence of saints’ bodies/bodyparts or their material possessions or items they came in contact with. Catholics “venerate” relics while praying for physical healings or other blessings.

There was considerable traffic in relics throughout Europe in the Middle Ages as churches competed for these highly prized religious souvenirs. Unscrupulous merchants and dealers were more than happy to satisfy the demand. There is certainly no evidence for the authenticity of many Catholic relics, including some of the more outlandish ones like those mentioned above as well as claims to the thorns from Jesus’ crown, Mary’s breast milk, Jesus’ umbilical cord and foreskin, and the house Jesus grew up in as a child.

Everyone must accept Jesus Christ as their Savior by faith alone. Venerating/worshiping material objects is idolatry. If I possessed the ENTIRE cross that Jesus died on and it stood in my backyard, it would do me absolutely no good.

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” – John 6:63

“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” – Romans 1:25

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” – John 4:23-24

For more of my postings on relics see here.

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The bizarre tale of 5000 relics finding a home in a Pittsburgh chapel
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/the-bizarre-tale-of-5000-relics-finding-a-home-in-a-pittsburgh-chapel-92933/

Ecumenists Ravi Zacharias & J.I. Packer

Whenever I hear about an evangelical pastor, theologian, apologist, or para-church leader that I’m not familiar with, the first thing I want to know about them is where they stand on ecumenism with Roman Catholicism. If they view the Roman Catholic church as a Christian entity and the pope and Catholic prelates as “brothers in Christ,” then I’m really not interested in their views on anything else. Harsh? If it was you that had been saved out of a false gospel, pseudo-Christian institution, such as LDS, Watchtower, or Christian Science, only to witness certain evangelical leaders declaring that your former “church” was fine, you would not be pleased either.

Two very well-known evangelicals died recently. Apologist, Ravi Zacharias (b. 1946, photo left), passed away on May 19th and theologian, J.I. Packer (b. 1926, photo right), died on July 17th. Both were highly-regarded by many evangelicals.

There is no doubt that both men accomplished some incredibly good things. Indian-born Zacharias began his career as an evangelist in 1971 at the age of twenty-five. He impacted many in his 49 years of ministry. English-born J.I. Packer was ordained an Anglican minister in 1953 and had a large influence within evangelicalism as the writer of “’Fundamentalism’ and the Word of God” (1958), a defense of Biblical inerrancy and infallibility, and the popular, “Knowing God” (1973). Packer also served as general editor of the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible translation.

Regrettably, both men also promoted ecumenism with Roman Catholicism. Zacharias signed the Manhattan Declaration (2009), which affirmed the Roman Catholic church as a Christian entity. In his lectures, he often made it a point to cite Roman Catholics as exemplary Christians, including G.K. Chesterton, Malcolm Muggeridge, Mother Teresa, St. Francis, and Henri Nouwen. In addition, Zacharias was a featured speaker at the Together 2016 ecumenical gathering, which also featured a video address by pope Francis. Zacharias’ evasiveness regarding the legitimacy of Roman Catholicism in comparison to genuine Gospel Christianity was more than troubling (see the article far below).

J.I. Packer was even more outspoken in his support of ecumenism with Rome. Packer began his accommodation with error in 1970 when he privately and publicly broke with Martyn Lloyd-Jones over the question of cooperation with unbelievers/modernists in the Anglican church. Packer would go on to be one of the principal leaders of the ecumenical “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” (ECT) initiative, from 1994 until 2012. Like Zacharias, he also signed the Manhattan Declaration.

Yes, Zacharias and Packer both did some good things, but they also muddied the genuine Gospel of salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone by insinuating that Rome’s false gospel of salvation by sacramental grace and merit was the same thing or “close enough.” They misled unwitting evangelicals and they did a tremendously grave disservice to Roman Catholics who needed and still need to hear the genuine Gospel.

We evangelicals may have differing views on secondary and tertiary doctrines such as predestination and dispensationalism, but embracing a false church, which unabashedly proclaims a false gospel of sacramental grace and merit is inexcusable.

In the following article, evangelical apologist, Matt Slick, critically examines Ravi Zacharias’ deferential approach to Roman Catholicism.

Ravi Zacharias and Roman Catholicism at Texas A&M, Veritas Forum
https://carm.org/ravi-zacharias-and-roman-catholicism-texas-am-veritas-forum

Below, evangelical Vatican-watcher, Leonardo De Chirico, examines Jim Packer’s regrettable reasoning for supporting ECT. De Chirico is respectful to a fault.

Why J.I. Packer signed “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” (and why he was inconsistent)
https://evangelicalfocus.com/vatican-files/7406/why-ji-packer-signed-evangelicals-and-catholics-together-and-why-he-was-inconsistent

The article below is a glowing tribute to Jim Packer from a Catholic source. It’s not a testimony that any Gospel-honoring “evangelical Protestant” would desire as their legacy.

J.I. Packer and Evangelicals and Catholics in the Trenches
https://bccatholic.ca/voices/paul-schratz-life-in-the-schratz-lane/evangelicals-and-catholics-in-the-trenches

Truth from Arkansas! Sunday sermon series, #46

It’s Two-fer-Tuesday, my friends, which means two new sermons from the brethren down in Arkansas.

First, we have Pastor Roger Copeland of Northern Hills Baptist Church in Texarkana, preaching from 1 Samuel 16:1-13 on “God’s Choice of the Unlikely.”

Next, Pastor Cody Andrews at Holly Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Star City preaches from 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 on “The Devices of Satan.”

Both of these sermons were delivered on Sunday, August 9th.

Pastor Roger Copeland – “God’s Choice of the Unlikely”

 

Pastor Cody Andrews – “The Devices of Satan”

The Plot Against America

Today, we’re going to play hooky from house painting and head over to the shores of Lake Ontario, settle into our beach chair in the sand, and enjoy some breezy summer fiction. Okay, “breezy” isn’t the most appropriate adjective for…

The Plot Against America
By Philip Roth
Houghton Mifflin, 2004, 400 pp.

Plot

It’s 1940 and Nazi Germany is overrunning Europe and implementing its anti-Semitic policies throughout the continent. President Franklin D. Roosevelt desires to enter the United States into the war in support of the frazzled Brits, but there’s a growing isolationist movement led by aviation hero, Charles A. Lindbergh. In his speeches around the nation, Lindbergh is guardedly circumspect, but in private it’s clear he has pro-German and anti-Jewish sympathies. Lindbergh defeats Roosevelt in the 1940 election and begins to implement anti-Semitic reeducation and resettlement programs, which are defended by a few high-profile, opportunistic, quisling, pro-Lindbergh Jews as being ultimately beneficial.

The tire meets the road in Newark, New Jersey with the Jewish Roth family who watch in horror as the nation turns increasingly fascist and anti-Semitic. The parents are mortified when their teenage son is duped into voluntarily participating in a Jewish youth reeducation program. When the father’s employer selects him and his family for resettlement as part of a government initiative, he quits his job and contemplates moving his family to Canada, as several Jewish families in their neighborhood have already done. Pogroms ensue and Jews must increasingly take up arms to defend themselves. Just as circumstances reach critical mass, Lindbergh disappears while piloting an airplane. Conspiracy theories abound and the fascist administration uses the opportunity to further crack down on Jews and arrest dissenters. Lindbergh’s sensible wife makes a radio appeal to the nation and the fascist elements are successfully checked. Emergency elections are held in 1942 and Roosevelt is reelected to a third term. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor the following month and the United States declares war against the Axis alliance.

Comments

I enjoyed this alternative history. Few people today are aware of the extent of the popularity of the pro-German, isolationist, and anti-Semitic network in America prior to WWII (see Lindbergh, Henry Ford, radio-priest Charles Coughlin, Senator Burton Wheeler, German-American Bund, etc.). The pace at the conclusion of the novel, after Lindbergh’s disappearance, is a jarringly frantic roller coaster ride, as if Roth suddenly tired of the project and just wanted to get it over with.

Postscript: President Franklin Roosevelt is portrayed as the hero of this novel as the defender of the American Jews. An ironic historical twist is that FDR directed that between 110,000 to 120,000 people of Japanese ethnicity living mainly in the Western States be forcibly consigned to internment camps during most of WWII.

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 8/22/20

• Defying appeals court order, John MacArthur says: ‘We’re in church because our Lord commands it’

I published a post back on August 10th (see here) critical of John MacArthur and Grace Community Church’s decision to defy state and local mandates related to the COVID-19 pandemic and reopen without even any health safety protocols. On Friday, August 14th, a judge for the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that GCC could reopen. The following day, Saturday, August 15th, the California Court of Appeal overturned that ruling and directed GCC to abide by LA County health safety restrictions, which GCC, in turn, defied by holding public services the next day. The legal tug-of-war continues as I write these words. It’s interesting, in a very sad way, that in their fight against the state and local governments, MacArthur and GCC retained the legal services of the Thomas More Society, a Roman Catholic legal entity that specializes in religious freedom issues. I was listening to Catholic talk radio on Monday and one of the show hosts was boasting about the wonderful ecumenical partnership between GCC and Roman Catholics in this alleged “fight for religious freedom.” I find that development very regrettable.

• Pope Alexander VI: Unscrupulous Borgia Patriarch With a Lust for Power

Pope Alexander VI, aka Rodrigo de Borja, is symbolic of historical papal corruption.

• Excommunication of renegade Sacramento priest roils Catholic diocese. Here’s why it happened

Excommunicated Catholic priest, Jeremy Leatherby, exemplifies the views of many traditionalist and conservative Catholic clerics and laypersons who consider progressive pope Francis to be a heretic.

• Pope Francis’ Catholic critics are dividing the Catholic church and families

This article from the liberal Jesuit magazine, “America,” accuses traditionalist and conservative Catholic critics of pope Francis of dividing the Catholic church. Of course, those same traditionalists and conservatives accuse Francis of deviating from Catholic orthodoxy.

• A Christian Historian on Why Its Time for the Southern Baptist Convention to Change Its Name

The Southern Baptist Convention has much bigger problems than its name, e.g., Rick Warren, Beth Moore, and ecumenist crusaders, Timothy George, Richard Land, Ronnie Floyd, etc., etc.

• Catholic Bishop: Joe Biden is no Catholic

Catholic conservatives will back Trump while Catholic progressives will support Biden.

• Pope Francis: Mary’s Assumption was a ‘giant leap for mankind’

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin was celebrated by the Roman Catholic church on August 15th. The Roman church teaches Mary was taken up to Heaven bodily, either immediately prior to her death or immediately afterwards, it’s not quite sure which. Mary’s alleged assumption is one of Catholicism’s numerous “sacred traditions” with no basis in fact. Under normal conditions, Catholics are obligated to attend mass on the Feast of the Assumption under threat of eternal damnation, although relatively few comply.

Answering the rebuttals of a Catholic apologist, #36: “Invoking the Dead Is an Abomination”

Today, we continue with our series responding to “Meeting the Protestant Challenge: How to Answer 50 Biblical Objections to Catholic Beliefs” (2019), written by Karlo Broussard. With this next chapter, the Catholic apologist continues his section on “The Saints” as he counters evangelical Protestants’ objections that “Invoking the Dead Is an Abomination.”

The Roman Catholic church teaches its members to pray to Mary and its canonized saints for assistance in meriting their salvation and other needs:

“The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were ‘put in charge of many things.’ Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.” – CCC 2683

Regarding the practice of praying to the dead, evangelical Protestants cite Deuteronomy 18:10-12:

“10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.”

It’s clear from this passage and many others (see here) that God commands believers to refrain from invoking the dead, i.e., necromancy.

Broussard seeks to rebut Protestant objections with two arguments:

(1) Broussard attempts to distinguish between the necromancy specifically condemned in Deut. 18:11 and the invocation of the saints as taught by the Roman Catholic church. First, he presents a definition of necromancy, i.e., “the conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events.” Broussard follows with the Greek roots of the word, “necromancy”: nekros (“dead person”) + manteia (“oracle”/”divination”). Broussard then places v.11 in context with the entirety of Deuteronomy 18:9-21 to assert that the prohibition against necromancy “has to do with seeking secret knowledge apart from God” (p.198).

(2) From the above argument, Broussard concludes that petitioning the saints is not necromancy, because invoking the saints involves “giving information to the dead by making our requests known to the departed soul” (p.198), in alleged contrast to necromancy, the goal of which, he states, is to gain secret knowledge from the departed souls.

Let’s now respond to Broussard.

We can use the information provided by Broussard to swiftly and successfully rebut his sophistical apologia. One of the purposes of necromancy, according to Broussard’s own definition, is for “influencing the course of events.” Catholics certainly do pray to Mary and the saints in the hopes that they can influence the course of future events!

Last week, we discussed how praying to saints is idolatry because it ascribes to them powers and glory that belong to God alone (see here). Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere in the Old or New Testaments is there an example of an obedient believer praying to anyone other than God.

No need to debate this specific topic further. Broussard has unwittingly debunked his own argument.

What does the Bible say about praying to the dead?
https://www.gotquestions.org/praying-to-the-dead.html

Next up: “The Dead Know Nothing”

Throwback Thursday: Catholic priest: “Go ahead and leave and NEVER COME BACK!”

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today, we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on January 8, 2016 and has been revised.

This morning, I was listening to the “Fathers Know Best” show on EWTN radio featuring Catholic priest, Larry Richards (photo left). Larry is quite a high-strung and animated speaker and always makes for entertaining, although certainly not Scripturally-sound, listening.

Today, Larry was getting QUITE lathered-up while recounting for his radio audience how, as a brand new pastor, he threatened his parishioners to never leave mass before the final blessing.

Catholics are obligated to attend mass every Sunday. Not to do so constitutes a “mortal” sin, which will allegedly doom a Catholic to eternal damnation if not confessed to a priest, although 76% of Catholics routinely miss Sunday mass, anyway.

The remaining 24% of Catholics still take their Sunday obligation seriously, but some try to minimize the pain as much as possible – showing up late and/or leaving early. Some corner-cutting Catholics want to know exactly how much of the mass they are required to be physically in the pew to get credit.* While there is no official statement on required minimum attendance – the church obviously wants its members to be in the pews from start to finish – some lenient priests suggest that if you’re present for the gospel readings and the consecration of the bread wafer and wine you get full credit.

Priest Larry will have ABSOLUTELY NONE of that. In his very first homily, he told his parishioners that they MUST be present from start to finish of mass, unless they became deathly sick. The following Sunday, when some hapless parishioners had the audacity to start heading for the doors well before the final blessing, Larry lambasted them by yelling, “Go ahead and leave and NEVER COME BACK!” Justifying his rage, Larry said no one would think of leaving early if they were invited to dinner with the Queen of England so no one should leave early from the supposed “banquet of the God of the Universe!”

Oh, I am soooooooooooo grateful to my Lord for delivering me from the chains of Roman Catholic legalism and ritualism. There is no need for Catholic priests and their continual sacrifices. No one can earn their way into Heaven by trying to follow a religious to-do list. We are all unrighteous sinners and are totally incapable of making ourselves right before a Holy God. But God the Father loved us so much He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for all of our sins. I have no righteousness of my own. My Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God without one single blemish, has covered me with His imputed perfect righteousness.

Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone today. No one is assured of a tomorrow.

“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” – Romans 4:7-8. 

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

*Note: You won’t want to be anywhere near a Catholic church parking lot near the end of mass on Sunday. About 5 minutes before the prison break…er…I mean, before mass ends, the parking lot transforms into the Daytona 500. At least that’s how it was in the “old days” when Catholic parishes were thriving.