Thou Art Peter....

One of the more outlandish errors protestants are fond of, is to say that the Lord didn't really mean what He clearly meant when He told Saint Peter He was founding His Church on him: "Thou art Peter, and upon this "rock" I found My Church." Or that He summarily revoked this privilege shortly afterwards when He told Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

A funny guy, that Jesus... couldn't seem to get His act together. Fortunately, we have countless protestant denominations to tell us what He really meant. And if they cannot agree on this, or anything else, well no biggee - all that really matters is that you're "born again"... and aren't a Catholic.

It's all very strange.

For the record, the problem with Catholicism isn't Catholicism, it's Catholics. Or rather, all the bad Catholics - the mothers of whom are forever pregnant. On the other hand, the problem with protestantism IS protestantism. Even though quite a few protestants, in spite of their heresies, by some miracle remain decent folks.

Aristotle made a sharp observation: “The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.” We can see this playing out before our eyes in protestantism: constant schisming, prot priestesses, bishopettes, popesses. "Christian Zionism", prot "churches" that are here today, gone tomorrow. Reversing theological course from one decade to the next. Prots who claim that Jesus was merely a good man, not God.... You could go on forever. I suspect that if things continue at the rate they're going, it won't be too long before we're seeing protestant temple prostitutes.

We find ourselves at a place in time where protestant deviations from the truth have become quite pronounced indeed; to a point where whatever one prot church teaches, there are now scores down the road that deny it.

Back to my thesis: in order to deny Catholicism, protestants will twist the clear words of Jesus concerning Him founding His Church on St. Peter into something bizarre: they'll go back to the Greek word for "Peter" and say, "The word Jesus used, in Greek, means a "small pebble", not a "rock". Jesus is the real rock upon which His Church is founded!" Touche'! Case closed.

Except that Jesus was speaking in Aramaiac, not Greek, when he conferred that honorific on Simon bar Jonah; and in Aramaiac he was called Kepha. Which not surprisingly means "rock" - not "small pebble".

Almost as if to say "Nyahh, nyahh!" to prots, Saint Peter is buried directly beneath the main altar of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. A "small pebble" indeed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter%27s_tomb

https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2020/04/what-sits-underneath-st-peters-basilica.html

Fitz

I had three negative experiences at Best Buy within a week. If you, like so many, have had an unpleasant experience dealing with a big box retailer, my story may sound familiar:

1. We bought a Sony 65" big screen TV and were told by the saleskid (they're mostly kids there), "I'll have someone help me bring it to you." Twenty minutes later my wife and I were still waiting. I walked back into the store and found another kid pulling a dolly. I asked him about our TV and he said, "So, that was you?" He explained that the saleskid asked for help moving a TV then took off before specifying which one. Once we told the kid which TV to get he apologized then went to get it immediately. At least the TV works OK.

2. A few days later we bought a new washing machine there - which my son and I went to pick up later. The girl at customer service said she'd have it brought out to us. Fifteen minutes passed... and no washing machine. I walked back into the store and asked the kid at the entry if he knew how long it was going to take. He told me they were, "coordinating getting it down because it's on the top."

After another 8-10 minutes I went back in and told the kid I was tired of waiting and we were leaving. He said, "He's the only one back there." I'm not exaggerating: there were just five or six customers in the entire store, including me, but at least 7 saleskids were wandering around; three or four of whom were standing in the middle of the store chatting with one another.

3. When we got back home I called the service desk to cancel the order. Yep, their phone system is a maze. It took a couple of minutes to get through to a human being. Then, before I'd finished giving the customer service girl my order information, she asked me to wait a second so she could look it up. After five minutes of dead air I hung up.

The problem at Best Buy is the same problem we see with many big box retailers: it's more than mere indifference, it's almost a kind of contempt corporate America has for their customers. And that attitude spills downhill. I've spent a lot of money at Best Buy over the years, I used to love them, but it's all over now.

Fitz

Farewell, Jade Damarell

Jade Damarell, a 32 year old skydiver from the UK, recently committed suicide when she jumped from 15.5k feet without activating her parachute. Her boyfriend had broken up with her the evening prior to her leap into the great beyond.

I'm not criticizing this poor woman. We've all been dumped at some point in our journey and know how that feels. And there's no telling what kind of mind altering substances they're pumping into us without our knowledge these days. My criticism is of the formulaic tribute composed by her parents in her obituary :

“Our beloved daughter Jade was a brilliant, beautiful, brave and truly extraordinary person.

“A bright, adventurous, free spirit, she lived with immense energy, passion and love and touched countless lives with her warmth and kindness.”

Huh? Could it have been more of a cut and paste job?!? I'm kind of surprised they didn't include the word "fierce" - a new favorite of libs when adjectifying a woman. Honestly... Chat GPT could have composed something more sincere and elegiac. We're seeing that kind of dreck popping up everywhere now.

But do spare a prayer for Jade.

Fitz

A Chat With a Prot

                                    The Bible is our Bible!

Below is a brief conversation I had with a protestant, probably a Seventh Day Adventist, at YT. He doesn't come across as a bad guy, just rather simple. I decided to quiz him, then answer his objections.

As with most protestants, he gets basic stuff wrong. I don't think it's deliberate... in most cases. It's just that prot pastors know how to play on their herd's instincts - all the while convincing them they are Biblical scholars.

Most if not all protestants can be beaten in a few minutes by repeating three simple formulae: 1. Says who? 2. So what? 3. Where is that in the Bible... chapter and verse?

The latter is a trap, in which the Bibleologist protestant is forced to concede his contention is found nowhere in the Bible, and that he he/she follows man-made conventions, found nowhere in the Bible. For example: "Why do you worship on Sunday when Moses chose Saturday as the Sabbath?" Or, where is celebrating Christmas in the Bible? There are countless examples. You get the idea.

Protestants are a lot like liberals in this respect: They see themselves as authorities on a subject, and yet often cannot define their own terms or conditions.

Anyway, here is our exchange. I hope you'll find it useful, and if the guy replies again I'll add it later.

Protestant: "As an ex Catholic and a Protestant I get accused of hating the Catholics. This is the farthest thing from the truth. I left the church because I discovered that the church through doctrines contrary to the word of God have been misleading people from true salvation. I remember when I was in spiritual crisis going into a church seeing all the statues with the candles in front of them and the huge cross with Christ crucified on it at the end of the hall. The first thing that went through my mind was: aren’t we supposed to pray and worship Christ only?!!! They tell , at YTme the don’t worship the saints and Mary, but yet all the statues were in the same apse as Christ with kneeling platforms in front of them. Later on I attended a prophecy seminar on how the Daniel and the prophets of old wrote about how a religious entity would come along and deceive the whole world. Also known as the anti christ. Revelation says come out of Babylon. I don’t hate Catholics, I love them through Christ to tell them the truth! They in turn hate me for telling them something the don’t want to hear. For myself I was tired of all the lies of the Catholic Church. It’s a matter of by who’s authority God’s word or church traditions? Jesus said: My word is truth! I’m going with that!"

Fitz: What doctrines does the Church teach that are contrary to the Word of God?

Protestant: "1. The Sabbath. The church venerates Sunday which is NOT commanded in the New Testament, but is commanded in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 4:2 says that we are not to add to or diminish from the Decalogue. The sabbath predates even the Jews and the marriage covenant. 2. The church in it’s catechism has removed the wording of the second commandment concerning idols and images. While yet it does condemn idolatry in other parts, I find it suspect that they went so far as to remove it and split the tenth to compensate. 3. The Bible says in regards to religious leaders not to refer to them as father 4. The Bible says not to pray repetitiously 5. The Bible says not to have any contact with the dead and that the dead know not anything ( Ecclesiastes 9:8) and that it is called necromancy. 6. The veneration of the saints and Mary are a distraction from the true worship of Christ."

Fitz: Fair enough.

1. The Church changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday for several reasons: Jesus rose on a Sunday. Pentecost was on a Sunday. The old law was superceded and Christ's law instituted. We still honor the Sabbath. But where the Jews chose to honor it on Saturday we honor it on Sunday. As do the great majority of Christians. It's been that way for over 1900 years. We didn't subtract anything. Just moved the Sabbath to Sunday. There's more to it, but that's basically it.

2.WTH??? Who told you that? The admonition against worshipping idols is stated unambiguously in the Catholic Decalogue. Look it up. The protestants are just lying here. And it was protestants who split the First Commandment into two parts - then made the ninth and tenth into one, to avoid having eleven Commandments.

3. Actually, what Jesus said was Call no man on Earth your father. And what are we supposed to call our Earthly fathers?

4. Nope. Jesus warned against vain repetitious prayers. Have you said the Our Father more than once? Such repetitious prayers are not vain.

5. Ecclesiastes 9:8??? Do you mean Deut. 18:10-12? In any event praying to a dead saint is not divination - which is what Moses had in mind and was warning against. Or are you saying that Jesus, Peter, James and John were guilty of necromancy for speaking to the long dead Moses and Elijah during His transfiguration? Divination is the abomination. Not praying to saints.

6. Not at all. Venerating the saints is a complement to the true worship of Christ. Heaven is a community and all those who are there (saints and angels) share in God's glory - which He happily shares with them freely.

Have a great day!

In speaking with protestants it becomes clear they have little to no knowledge of Christian history. Worse yet, this ignorance doesn't seem to bother them... even ignorance of their own sect's history. Just ask the JW's who show up at your door who Charles Taze Russell or Judge Rutherford were.

Protestants seem to think the Bible just fell from the skies into the lap of Martin Luther. They can't coherently answer a question like, "How'd we get the Bible?" And it doesn't bother them that they can't.

It's all very strange.

Fitz