The language of love is not found but lived. It is not meanings of words found in the Bible or words drawn from the lips of choirs. The language of love is a viable expression of person to person. The language of love hangs not on the words spoken, which we cast and cheapen as much as the breaths we forget that we take, which are so vital, but the intentional embraces of dignity and respect that we notice and draw as worth from another person. Only when there are no boundaries can we speak clearly this language of life and fruition.

The language of love is not always affirmative. It is not saying yes but demands by grace and hospitality a firm denial, a rapid rejection, an anti-thesis to much empirical progression, to become a living contra. It is a denial of self so that it may raise another person in its stead; a rapid rejection of divisions, of the faculties that do not immolate kinship; it is an anti-thesis to impetuosity of passions, it negates all that is ephemeral; it is the contra to infidelity and stagnation. It can be understood as seen by a man that loves a woman, by the very nature of love, must not only affirm his love for her but prove so by the negative; the rejection of others by his reservation of love hidden and given only to his woman.

The language of love is not the spoken word, it is not the Bible, but theology that is lived and conceives life. It is a life that impregnates in every man and woman the drive to hospitality, the drive to acknowledge a self worth that communicates compatibility for kinship on any level with no expectancy or anticipatory return of reward. It is simply gracious. It extends beyond the goodness of sympathy and permeates the gratuity of empathy. It finds it maturity and fulfillment in Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone’s teaching, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.” Our kinship is only founded by our language of love, an inaudible cry, a subtle yet constant beckoning, a continual persuasion, a proposition with promise to phileo that matures to agape.

The language of love can only be spoken when all barriers have been lain and differences submitted. Love is an expression of persons, not things. For a man that tires of a woman’s emotions, if she not subdue them, has forgotten the person and objectified her as thoughtless emotion, thus forgetting her person-hood which demands respect and patience, dignity and care. A woman that tires of the elongated fathoms that entertains man’s reason, whether right or wrong, has forgotten the person and objectified him as emotionless logic, thus forgetting his person-hood which demands respect and understanding, dignity and conservation. When objectification masks a person, we then erect a facade, implementing these fallacious views onto individuals. These fallacies, which are disunities heavily guarded as “norms” or “standards”, are created in the image of abstract notions, notions of distortion, such as inferiority, differences, inadequacies, dissimilarities; all wanton justification for divisiveness. These are what Karol Wojtyla addresses when he cautions, “an excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.” Man has built upon selfishness a monument of excuses in that he may lie to himself, enabling himself to be guided into a false notion that we are not one, that there is not kinship. This, therefore, dismisses the fiat for the language of love.

The one who forgets the language of love exacts hatred. This dismissal of love draws into itself an abnormality that contends against man’s potential nature and that which may nurture its maturity. When a man forgets whom he is, he becomes. When a man forgets he is able to facilitate the capacity to altruism, he becomes narcissistic. When a man forgets he is forgivable, he becomes contentious. When a man forgets he is a person, he becomes an action, an object of consequence rarely seen as inseparable from his being. A man not seen for his being is then seen as an object of becoming. Becoming a distraction, a nuisance, an interruption, an inconvenience, an object defamed by a denial of invitation to kinship or extension to the language of love. It is only by intimately knowing the being of a person, not the action, do we delegate kinship and commence ourselves into the throes of charity. It is only by the embrace of love can man commission that which is his nature; to nurture and supplant vindictiveness for benevolence. When we speak the language of love, we breed kinship and bring to life the understanding that deserved justice would have extinguished us all; no one man better than the other. This is the language of love. This is kinship. All else may be regarded as, Bernard of Clairvaux taught, “the road to hell…paved with good intentions.”

The language of love must promote and bind itself to forgiveness. The language of love must cause ones self not to rise above another. It does not call for pardon or excuse but dissolves all barriers by an act of forgiveness. This call to kinship kindles humility, that no one man is more deserving of retribution than another. This call to kinship festers humbleness in that no one man can claim reason to deserve a greater allotment of wealth, compassion, mercy, dignity, respect, attention. Forgiveness generates from a healthy engagement in judgment. For only from judgment can mercy come. Judgment precedes all mercy, mercy gives way to compassion, compassion stimulates love, love impregnates and matures to service, and this conception of service births forgiveness which resolves all conflict and voids all transgressions. This nullification of conflict and iniquity destroys all boundaries and transcends the aspirations of man through the venue of kinship and love. But we first must forgive others as well as ourselves. If a person can not aid themselves than nor can they aid another. If a being does not find self respect, self worth, than with just the same pettiness will they return violence to others as they do against themselves. To not forgive another person, although we forgive ourself, is no less hypocritical than to forgive another person but not forgive ourself. We must acknowledge that every person, including ourselves, our very own being, begs mercy, compassion, love, kinship, forgiveness. If we can not see it in ourselves, if we do not see it in ourselves, how will we see it in others?

The language of love is a heavy stone, a felix culpa, which few shoulder, on the via dolorosa. But when we understand the purpose of this felix culpa, then do we become kinsmen indiscriminately. When another’s needs and essentials no longer exist as objects but as means of promoting a persons integral health and the welfare of their being, do we become kinsmen. It is only when we practice this sorrowful passion, a death to egotism, do we find that we do not place ourselves as the obstacles which hinder the way to kinship. When another’s needs and essentials no longer exist as objects, but as means of opportunity to dignify another as a person of respect and worth by our response to their needs, have we practiced the language of love. This is the road when “our walking is our preaching”, the via dolorosa. It is only down this road of suffering and sacrifice do we become not just advocates, not only profound but prolific rhetoricians of the language of love.

The language of love and the recognition of kinship is humanae vitae. When kinship is thought to be created, it is compromised. Only through recognition can kinship and the vitality of human life flourish. The thought of created kinship implements a lie that we first were not one but developed into being one. It is only by recognition, as we did not create kinship but were always united, that the language of love finds its each and every syllable gleaning with admonishment and vindication by not only surmising but ascertaining a kinship immemorial. Once the covert truth unveils that kinship is not ex post facto to our actions do we then embrace that kinship is a universal decree that is sustainable ad infinitum. It is only by recognition that it is a our nature, not our nurture, that the language of love presides over all man, uniting all into a commonality; an irrevocable echoing promulgation which does not extend a hand for an invitation but arms for embrace. Do not invite others as kinsmen, for they are not foreign or alien, but recognize they are kinsmen from the beginning and in arms embrace them as such. The greatest of the language of love and kinship is not found in lips willing to move and bodies refusing any exertion, but in tongues that refuse any motion to cause words and bodies unquenchable to the desire that moves us to charity. It is only after we recognize that we are intrinsically united that the whimsical thought of disunity becomes evidently extrinsic.

The language of love is the kinship and bond expressed by all persons. It holds among family, whether paternal, maternal, filial. It is the adhesive nature that conjoins in camaraderie patrons. It calls forth all religious into an ecumenical vocation of kinship and service of charity. The language of love finalizes kinship in that it is the single twine of thread, split into two chords (love and kinship), wrapping all mankind together and binding us by its knot, as one.

The language of love, the ecumenical call to kinship, will revert what mankind, by distortion of the appetites, has greatly subverted. The world has much forgotten “self-’giving’”, but has only remembered “self”. Mankind needs to embrace morality that transcends all barriers and permeates comfort levels. The power (to feel accepted or rejected) we allot others surely tempers a healthy society or conceives abhorrent acts. Greg Boyle S.J. says that whatever (problems) do not transform transmit.

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved. [But] I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only love. ” – Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu.

Your’s,

Drew Castel

John MacArthur says, “Paul says, ‘Look, it’s okay to be single, it’s okay to live without any relationships with the opposite sex, but it’s a whole lot better to marry because of immoralities’.” – *This is conditional. Christ says it is greater to be celibate for God [Mt 19:12]. Paul confirms this [1 Cor 7:32-35]. What Paul is calling greater when he speaks of marriage is that marriage is only greater than celibacy if you can’t be sexually celibate and pure; it is better to be married and pure than celibate and impure. But celibacy with purity is the highest devotion.

MacArthur goes further to say, “And then when you do marry, you have the duty to fulfill to each other. That duty, obviously, is to render the physical affection that is consistent and God-ordained for the procreation and the pleasure of people in a marriage.” – *Fulfillment first begins with spirituality, then fleshly fulfillment. This is why the Bible speaks of a married couples intimacy as “knowing each other”. We are to respect each other as God respects us. God, according to scripture, “knows the secrets of our heart”, “knows us intimately”, et cetera. The highest respect of marriage is not sex but the full knowledge of the other persons being as God knows us. God’s love is consummate without sex, and so should our love. Granted, sex is a gift, but it is not the highest gift of marriage.

John says, “In fact, the duty is so high in a marriage that the wife doesn’t even have authority over her own body, the husband does. And likewise, the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body but the wife does. So, stop depriving one another.” – *Where is the respect? If a woman is not interested, or the man is not interested, the partner ought to wait. Remember, love is patient, it is kind, it is not self-seeking, etc.[1 Cor 13:4-8]. Of course, there are times where the wife or husband are to submit themselves out of love though they are not physically desiring it. But the dignity of person-hood is foremost import. Remember, Christ tells us, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”. We should be merciful, not demanding the sacrifice of our partners body because it is ours. We should be merciful.

He goes further to say, “fulfill your marriage covenant physically”. – *A marriage is not consummated by sex only. In the Old Testament, Numbers chapter 30 gives us instructions for those who wish to marry and stay abstinate. Though they remain physically virginal by their abstinence, their marriages are still considered consummated by God. This is because they “know each other” on level deeper than physical. This is why God writes of couples “they knew one another”; an animal can have sex, but not truly “know” it’s partner. It’s the full acceptance [knowing the person] that is the consummation, not the physical act. Just like Jesus said, “it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing” [Jn 6:63].

MacArthur goes further to say, “[Paul] ‘But I say to the unmarried and to widows,’ these would be two categories of formerly married people. Now there are only two ways that you can be married and then not be married. You either were widowed or you were divorced.” – *To say that the “unmarried” had once been married is eisegesis. No where does Scripture indicate that the “unmarried” are divorced individuals. This is a great assumption surmised by MacArthur. In fact, the Greek word Paul uses for unmarried “agamos” means “a person not in a state of wedlock, whether he or she has formerly been married or not.” But Paul knew Jesus’ teachings, that one cannot marry and divorce and consummate another marriage. So the unmarried people in this statement would mean those who were never married to begin with. Since he is speaking of widows, which indicates a lack of fault for their solidarity, than the unmarried must be faultless [without the stain of divorce], to be consistent with the theme of being faultless for their single state.

John is right when he quotes Paul, “if she leaves, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband” *but falters when he says “Down in verse 34, you have the unmarried and the virgin. The unmarried aren’t the widows and the unmarried aren’t the virgins. So who are the unmarried? They have to be the people who were married and now are no longer married.”- *Again, the verb Paul uses for unmarried applies to those who were never married. This is most consistent with Jesus’ teaching Who says that anyone who divorces and remarries is an adulterer.

John makes a hermeneutic error, “But, look at verse 9, ‘If they do not have self-control, let them…what?…marry. It’s better to marry than to burn.’ Not burn in hell, but burn with desire.” – * Paul doesn’t mean burn with desire, but burn in hell. When Scripture talks about discipline and burning, burning always means hell. Such as, “if you can’t discipline your hand, cut it off. It is better to enter heaven maimed than thrown into hell with your whole body and burn” [Mt 18:8-9]. Is Jesus saying that it is better to enter heaven maimed than to burn with an earthly desire of the flesh?

He quotes, “verse 26, ‘I think then that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife, don’t seek to be released. If you’re released from a wife, don’t seek a wife’.” – *“If you are released…don’t seek a wife” is quoting Jesus whom says that whoever is divorced is to remain single, lest he or she remarry and become an adulterer.

John errors when he states, “look at verse 9, “If they do not have self-control, let them… what?… marry. It’s better to marry than to burn.” Not burn in hell, but burn with desire .Should the formerly married remarry? Yes if they desire to be married because it’s better to be married than to burn.’ Not burn in hell, but burn with desire.” – *Jesus says, “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery” and “But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.” Do not remarry if you are divorced lest you commit adultery. Also, if “burn” did mean desire, it is by far greater of a virtue to discipline yourself and burn with desire, than to have no discipline and give into the burning temptation of desire. This is why Paul says, “I chastise my body [desire] lest I be disqualified” [1 Cor 9:27]; Paul felt the ‘burn of desire’ but still would rather be celibate and face the ‘burn of desire.’ What John MacArthur says in this quote is an apparent contradiction to what Paul is trying to tell us.

John does come back and admit, “And, of course, the Lord’s teaching was no divorce.” – *But those who divorce cannot remarry.

John goes on to say, “God hates divorce and because God joins together every couple. ‘What God has joined together, let not man separate’.” – *So he reiterates what the Lord taught. God hates divorce. Don’t divorce. One man, one woman, in one union, the indivisible one for life, no separation.” Note, the “indivisible one for life”; he is quoting Jesus whom said “what God has joined, no man can lay asunder” [Mk 10:9]. A man cannot lay a marriage asunder by adultery and divorce, because God has joined them as “one flesh” [Gen 2:24, Mk 10:8].

Notice that John quotes, “’If any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him,’ this is the opposite situation. But in this case, this is a brother who has a wife and in this case she’s the unbeliever but she wants to live with him. Should he divorce her just because she’s an unbeliever? The answer, ‘No, he must not divorce her. And a woman, verse 13, who has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband or divorce her husband’. Why? ‘For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband, for otherwise your children are unclean but now they are holy’.” – *This is an interesting dichotomy which is considered a pagan marriage [because one is an unbeliever or unbaptized].

John takes this out of context when he says, “verse 15 creates another scenario. ‘If the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. Let him leave.’ Literally, if he takes himself out, that’s the verb, if he eliminates himself, chorizo, technical term really for divorce. ‘If an unbeliever divorces a believer, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases but God has called us to peace.’ Here is the second exception for divorce. The first is adultery, we saw that in Matthew 19, Matthew 5. Second one is an unbeliever divorces a believer.” – *First, John doesn’t realize that a Christian and Pagan marriage is not truly consummated, because they are not equally yoked. Second, the Jesus says “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness [Greek porneia], and marries another woman commits adultery [Greek moichatai].” Notice that unlawfulness [porneia] is not the same as adultery [moichatai]. If Christ wanted to say that divorce was permissible over adultery, he would have said moichatai, not porneia.

John misses a point when he says, “Single or married, whatever God wills in whatever situation you’re in, stay that way. That is so important because Christianity was never intended to just rip and shred families. The very opposite is true. Unless that unbeliever wants to leave, you become the sanctifying influence for the one that stays.” – *Christianity never tends to rip families. But our unlawfulness of divorce and remarriage rips spiritual families. Like Jesus said, Moses allowed divorce, “but it was not so from the beginning” [Mt 19:8]; meaning God does not approve of it, although Moses allowed it. As a great saint once said, “sanctify yourself so you can sanctify society.” How true is that. God calls for holiness of the person, to endure their commitments to marriage. This is why the vows say, “do you take this person, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?” You are accepting everything, even a life of solidarity after divorce so as not to break your commitment of “being one flesh” with that person. Jesus warns us “let your yeses be yes and nos be no” [Mt 5:37]. When Jesus asks, “will you be one flesh with this person, as it decreed by God from the beginning”, your answer is “unconditionally yes.” If the unfaithful spouse leaves, they dirty their promise of being one flesh, but the victim incurs no shame unless the victim remarries; remember, they are always one flesh, they can’t undue their one flesh because what God has joined together as one flesh, no man can separate.

John MacArthur is absolutely right when he says, “What are the alternatives then for married people, to Christians? No divorce. And if you do leave, you don’t remarry anybody else and you come back to your husband. Those are your two options. If you’re married to a non-Christian and the non-Christian decides to divorce you…let it happen, you’re free to remarry.”

But John makes a mistake when he says, “Now there’s another question in Paul’s mind at this point and it has to do with virgins, verse 25. ‘Now concerning virgins,’ these are the never married”. – *The book of Numbers chapter 30 tells us that many married couples remain virgins as a sacrifice to God. It is a vast assumption to say that the virgins were never married.

John makes a mistake when says, “Marriage has no relation to the eternal, right? You remember when they said to Jesus, ‘Who’s wife shall she be in heaven?’ And Jesus said, ‘In heaven there is neither marrying or giving in marriage.’ This is…this is good advice, Paul says, the pressure of the system, the problems of the flesh, living in this life, and the passing of the world means that if you can concentrate on the eternal things, in dire times, you simplify your life. We’re all going to have to simplify.” – *The reason that no marriage is needed in heaven is because man will find all his pleasure in his nuptial with God. Man is united with woman as an expression of God’s desire to be one with us. But when we are one with God, we will no longer need this symbol of sex as a means to understand the oneness with God. The oneness of sex mirrors the Trinity of God, where two come together in full love [God the Father and Jesus] and from them, their love together is the Third Person [the Holy Spirit]. Mankind is made in the image and likeness of God that when a man and woman come together in complete love, then comes a third person, a baby, who is the complete product of love. The baby is no different from the mother or the father, because they baby is the mother and the father combined, yet the baby is their own person. Just as Jesus’ and Father’s love come together, their love is the Holy Spirit. Three divine persons that are all the same family/nature [which we call God]. The baby is literally the father and the mother [the father and mother are also not two fleshes but now one flesh], yet we have three people who are all one flesh. This is why mankind is said to be made in the image and likeness of God; they mirror the Trinity of God’s love.

MacArthur is correct when he says that celibacy is greater than marriage, but only celibacy by a calling from God, “And I say this to you who are single, particularly, if you can remain single in the service of Christ, do so, but not to the jeopardy of your purity. If that’s an issue, get married”.

For further understanding of the Sacrament of Marriage, please read Matrimony, Divorce and Remarriage?, Trinity, and Conception, Not Contraception.

“Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds them to their eventual souls, with whom they make up a sole family – a domestic church.” Pope John Paul II

Yours,

Drew Castel.

The discourse will be divided into three topics. Why learn demonology written of in the Bible. The Nature and Works of the Evil Spirits. Lastly, and only in part because of its vast magnitude, Exorcism.

First we’ll learn why we ought to be somewhat knowledgeable in this field. It is no coincidence that the first authority given to the Apostles by Jesus is the authority to cast out demons (Mt. 10:1, 10:8, Mk 6:7, Lk 9:1, 10:17). Why? “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8). If we undermine the works of Satan, than we have undermined the works of Jesus Christ in redeeming mankind. If we exclude Satan from Salvation History than we have no basis for the need of the Incarnate Godman Jesus Christ.

It is to be noted and understood that in every exorcism Christ commissioned, Jesus never commanded the liberated person to remain silent of what has happened [there are nine Biblical recordings of exorcisms committed by Jesus Christ]. When Jesus healed people of physical ailments, many were told keep there experience hidden from public knowledge. But not so for exorcisms.

Why? Because it was the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. From this simple non-prohibition of silence, the liberated people filled the streets, home, and synagogues with the promulgation of the arrival of the Messiah and His kingdom.

Jesus Christ defeated Satan prior to His Passion on Calvary. Although His works of redemption were yet to be completed, Jesus had established the long awaited Kingdom of God on Earth. The Bible tells us so when Christ says, “If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. If it is by the finger of God that (I) drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Mt 12:28, Mk 3:26, Lk 11:20). St. Peter and St. Paul also confirm the establishment of a Heavenly Kingdom on Earth.

Only once did Jesus proffer the beauty and intimate sweetness of human love by a woman; an instance from which Mary poured a jar of perfume over Jesus. Commanding Judas to not dispute the matter, Jesus claimed this love for Himself. And rightfully so, for all intangible blessings are given only by God, a love that was sanctifying. Jesus Passion is His love, and His love is sanctifying. No wonder, the sanctification of love presented by Mary to Jesus was in the jar filled with a perfume used only for those who would soon pass. She was preparing Him in her love to do works of sanctification. This is why Satan, through Judas, despised that she would use the jar of the perfume oil on Jesus. It was to prepare Him for His Passion.

When St. Peter teaches Cornelius, the first pagan to convert to Christianity after Christ’s Passion, about Jesus, he only speaks of “all those who had fallen under the power of the devil (Acts 10:38). This mirrors the first authority given the Apostles, the power to exorcise Satan and his works from mankind.

Second we examine the nature and works of evil spirits. First, we must understand that they were created by God as sinlessly perfect beings; beings without bodies; beings that are completely metaphysical. They were created beautiful and angelic. But given a test to measure their compass for glory, they revolted. We will examine a process from which they were created, what they were to what the became, the transition of these two states of spirits [holy to unholy], and their nature and works as now unholy angels.

God the Creator created all things from Himself out of nothing [ex nihilio], including angels- for they too came from nothing. Every angel is infinitely unique. They are an individual specie unlike man whom is created and receives features from their maternal and paternal ancestry. People all have common traits in personality and looks because we all share a common origin; the first and man the first woman. Angels are created individually. A lack of predecessors causes them to be infinitely different from one another. It is created unique as it’s very own being. Mankind shares a commonality of humanness, hence we are called human beings.

The most magnificent angel of all was Lucifer. His name meant “light-bearer”; Halal was the Hebrew for “shine” applied to Lucifer before his fall. He was a Seraph[the highest of the nine choirs of angels]. Seraphs are the angels whom are closest to God; the angels whom stand at the very base of God’s throne. Lucifer was the angel in charge of music [which is considered a universal language that all can know and express to communicate].

God proposed a test, for no angel had seen the face of God. The Bible tells us God “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has even seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16), but when God reveals Himself to us in heaven we will then see Him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12; Matthew 5:8; Psalm 17:15). But how is this related to the fallen angels prior to their revolt? John teaches us of Beatific Vision. Once a being, man or angelic, views the face of God, they are no long able to sin. John writes, “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 [God the Father], for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). John is telling us that God is hidden, and once we behold the face of God, “we shall be like him” Who is sinless and perfect. This is why Jesus tells us to “be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48) and that “nothing unclean shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Rev 21:27). Angels who would have seen the face of God “shall be like him”. God draws all His creation back to oneness in unison of His divine glory. Creatures are given freedom to choose this opportunity or refuse it. The fallen angels are scorned by this for all time to never behold the face of God as a reminder of their sin, filth, and unworthiness.

Why would God test the angels? To convey their love given or forsaken by free will. This is to determine their capacity for glory by their response to God’s will. An angel that is imputed with love, coerced to adore God has no glory. For what virtue is accredited to a slave who wills not his virtuous deed but it coerced? The test was the response to the divine will of God. Will they serve, or will they not. How will the angels subject themselves to God? Given their response is how God rewarded them. The more glorious the response to God, the more God could fill them with Himself and multiply magnificence in them. “The role of each angel was determined by it’s response, and its response determined its Christocentric understanding”, according to Fr. Fortea. Angelic hierarchy is based on their love.

What was the test? The Church can only speculate. An suggest is that God revealed a plan of creating a material world, which is infinitesimally small to angels and the spiritual world. This upset many angels for they would have to serve mankind, the inferior and weak. Of the varying ideas proposed, the one that entices me the most, personally, is this. God revealed His plan to “empty himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:7-8). The prideful angels could not serve a God whom “did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).

Satan lost his place due to envy of God; Satan is also envious of man because “man is made in the image and likeness of God”. Fr. Fortea tells us that “at the heart of much evil is the rejection of human dignity; the demons want us to forget that we have been created in the image and likeness of God” Interview With an Exorcist.

Satan was created most powerful, ruling over other angels. Satan confused this leadership over all angels with God’s rule over all things. Satan could not understand God’s creation because the Incarnation of Christ was withheld from all the angels. Saints such as Irenaeus of Lyons held that the devil’s apostasy began when he became jealous of man’s creation. Lucifer proceeded to tempt man to rebel against his Maker. Tertullian held that the devil attempted to counter God’s plan of salvation by plagiarizing the sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ.

The battle that raged forth in the realms of heaven was a battle of intellect. The angelic do not have physical bodies to combat but intellectual wills which either accepted or reasoned against the will to serve God.

The Church officially teaches that Lucifer’s first and only response to the will of God’s eternally wise and divine plan was, “Non serviam”, Latin for “I will not serve”. Lucifer became Satan and was exorcised from the heavenly realms. Yes, it was an exorcism because a fallen angel, a demon, was cast out by God’s power. St. Michael the archangel, a class inferior and weaker to that of Lucifer’s, an angel that was seven classes or choirs beneath Lucifer, was commissioned by God to single-handedly exorcise one third of heaven’s angels, for one third of the angels of heaven followed the fatal call, “non serviam”. William Law says, “If you will consult your heart in all honesty, you will know that there is only one reason why you are not even now a saint; you do not wholly want to be” A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.

One angel in heaven is stronger by God’s authority than all the demons united. St. Michaels triumph over evil rendered all glory to God by conquering Lucifer.

St. Michael’s names meaning is derived from his response to doing the will of God. Michael’s name literally means “Who is like God?”; a perfect reminder to the enemy and a perfect reminder of St. Michael; choose and accept God by rejecting rebellion and pride itself. St. Michael understood no one is like God, not himself or any other angel or creation. And with this understanding, he was called to cast out all whom thought they were like God. Such honor is St. Michael’s that his name reflects who he is exactly; an angel humble and willing, the first to serve in humility, the first to kneel and respond, “Who Is Like God?”.

The Bible calls the fallen angels, the very demons of wickedness, glorious beings. This is because angels fallen still retain their nature. Nature is created by God alone; a fallen angel cannot create a nature for itself. It’s nature is to exist because God created all things from Himself, and God’s nature is existence; God Is (read article “God’s name, ‘I AM’” for further understand of God’s nature, existence, and what is meant by God Is). Also, God is pure good therefore existence is pure good. If nature is existence and existence is good, than nature is good. But do not confuse nature with will. All creation is good because it mirror the nature of God, but not all will is good because the will mirrors who we desire to be. Thus, only by nature, because that is controlled by God alone, do fallen angels maintain their radiance and glorious beauty. Only by nature tho.

Satan and the demons could not break way from the humans for by their very nature, which only God could create [and is unalterable], they were created to be amongst the humans in service. But in corruption, they are among the humans stirring apostasy.

Fallen angels not only retain their nature but the gifts given to them, such as their intelligence, strength, et cetera. All demons have what is called prenatural power. Only God has supernatural power. But God does not permit the fallen angels to use all their power lest mankind vanquish in a blink of an eye. The demonic, if allowed, would destroy all of God’s creation.

Fallen angels retain their gifts, nature, and hierarchy from when they were angels. St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians tells us, “For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers” (1:16). Just because a man sins or is even in hell does not mean he ceases to be human. A fallen angel does not cease to be a throne, dominion, principality, power, et cetera, just because it sinned and is fallen.

Sin is literally “nothingness”. Only God can exist and God is not sin, therefore sin is literally not an existence but a non-existence; the non-existence of God in one’s will and life. Therefore to exist, one must have one good attribute because only good exists; this is nature and the state of being (or existence). This concludes that evil cannot be infinite because in all evil (which is a non-existence of good; evil is not an existence in itself) is an iota of good to receive its existence. As St. Thomas Aquinas masterfully taught, “all creation borrows their existence from the One Who is Existence”. Existence mirrors God’s intrinsic existence, and therefore is beautiful and good. Demons do not recognize this in themselves. But they cannot undue their existence so they carry a nature which is intrinsically good but a will forever of damnation, torment, and enmity. St. Boudon ascertains that evil cannot be as infinite as good when he says “the God of Heaven is more desirous of our salvation than Hell is furiously bent on our destruction”

A mother, while assisting in her daughter’s exorcism, pronounced uncouth language as a judgment against the possessing devil. It turned to her and said, “You cannot expel me with hate, but only with love.” This is true, for we know that Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit are pure love. Satan and his minions are pure hate. As Christ said, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” Jesus made it a point to specifically tell us that Love is the greatest virtue. Love is what heals the sick. Love is what saves souls. Love is what the demons will flee from because love is God and God is love. Hate cannot remove hate. It takes love to remove hate.

God loves all his creation, including the fallen angels for they retain their nature although their wills are the antithesis of God. This is why we are not allowed to pass judgment on them. Peter tells us, “Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to revile glorious beings, whereas angels, despite their superior strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them from the Lord” (2 Pt 2:10-11). Jude goes further to confirm that the ignorant humans “also defile the flesh, scorn lordship, and revile glorious beings. Yet the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him but said, ‘May the Lord rebuke you!’ (1:8-9). Although we cannot pass judgment, we can rebuke an action or sin as noted by Zechariah, “And the angel of the LORD said to Satan, ‘May the LORD rebuke you, Satan; may the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!’”(3:2). There is a difference between judging the nature of God’s creation and rebuking the sin of a corrupt will.

The personality of Satan is revealed by the names Christ calls him. Jesus teaches that Satan is called, “a murderer from the beginning” and the “father of lies” (Jn 8:44). These are not two different names nor two different traits to Satan’s personality. The term ‘murderer’ is not how we understand it in our current vernacular. When it was written, for the Jews in a Jewish community, they understand a spiritual murderer to be a blasphemer, because blasphemy kills spiritual life by lies and deception; it is a falsehood. Jesus’ whole statement found in John’s Gospel is about lying; Satan blasphemies the Holy Spirit with lies, which is the unforgivable sin (Mt 12:31-32).

Why does the Bible call Satan “prince of this world”? The Bible conveys that he is the most important demon in this world. He is not King, only God is the One and true King

The devils goal is the destruction of Church and family; both are to love a person not for what they do but for whom they are; the devil hates this unselfish and nonjudgmental love. Scripture never tells us to fear evil but to resist in certainty the the devil will flee from us [Is 4:7] and to be watchful of the devils attack by remaining firm in the faith [1Pt 5:9]. Knowing the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church [Mt 16:18], St Teresa of Avila says, “more harm can come to us from one venial sin than all hell together”. St Theresa of Lisieux says “a soul in the state of grace has nothing to fear from demons, who are cowards capable of running away from the look of a child.” Story of a Soul. Joseph Cardinal Suenens tell us that “truth excludes fear and as such allows the power of the evil one to be seen” Renovation and the Power of Darkness.

Most heresies are not about God but about man. These heresies focus on man’s inability rather than God’s ability. Such heresies are sola fide (man can do nothing), a sinless theotokos (man cannot achieve sinlessness), mongolism (man has no works in his sanctification), et cetera. In truth, it is not faith alone but working according to God’s will, Mary was sinless not because of her greatness but God’s, and synergism because we are asked to “work out our salvation and renew it daily”. The devil despises the flesh that he was made to serve so his heresies are pitted against it. It is no coincidence that flesh has much to do with understanding Christ. If we do a good deed for another fleshly being, we do it for God (Mt 25:31-46); if we persecute another fleshly human, we persecute God Himself (Acts 9:24, 26:14). Also, the devil scorns that “we are made in the image and likeness of God.”

Fr. Gabriele Amorth states “When we think of the value of the Incarnation, we are reminded of the devil, who has no body because he is pure spirit. In his great arrogance, he wanted to be the center of all creation; instead, after the Incarnation he was forced to realize that it is Christ who is the center of creation and that Christ is true God… That is why he tries every trick to force man’s body to become an occasion for sin. He tries to humiliate the body, to break it, as a raging reaction against the Incarnation of the Word.”

Satan and his angels cannot be saved nor wish to be forgiven. Fallen angels cannot be saved because they understood with full knowledge there refusal of God. This is unlike mankind where the body receives information through empirical senses and is translated into intangible knowledge; it’s a process, meaning it takes time. Fallen angels, lacking corporeal bodies, know all things instantly, therefore when refusing God, were permanently and fully understanding of stating their unwillingness to serve.

No true conversation takes place between the devil and God as in Job. The devil has no interest in conversing with God whom he has the utmost hatred for. God has no interest in a being whom constantly breathes utter enmity against Him; God has perfect dignity. Remember, nothing imperfect enters the kingdom of Heaven, and Satan cannot speak without blaspheming.

Fallen angels have no sins attributed to the flesh. To name a couple sins: gluttony, lust of the flesh. A demon would need a physical body to communicate these sins as a crime against God and His law. This is not to say demons do not promote this eradicate and lethal behavior in beings with corporeal bodies. Angels are also sexless, because gender is the outcome of a physical body.

Although Satan is called a serpent, he never had a physical body. In fact, the Jews who read the Pentateuch understood that ‘serpent’ wasn’t a snake but a dragon according to the Hebrew. This is to emphasize Satan’s fierceness. This is why Satan is more accurately translated as dragon, not a serpent, in the book of Apocalypse (the original name of the book of Revelation).

A spirit is where it operates. Since God the Creator is pure spirit, He is where He operates. Since He holds everything in existence, He most be everywhere, since He is where He operates. Holy angels are the same why. They are with us and in Heaven, according to the Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel that “these little ones… their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (18:10). Angels are one with God because they have seen His face in Heaven (Jn 8:44) but are also with us (Mt 18:10). This is what we call bilocation. They are at two places at once because they are operating at two places.

This applies to demons as well. They are not bound by natural law of physics, space, and energy. They can bilocate and in some cases, possess two being at the same time. Remember, they are in a state of aeveternity where space and time are nothing like our corporeal and three dimensional world.

Mankind exists in a time that is finite. Our time has a beginning and an end. Spirits live outside of time, in a realm called infinity, but more accurately called aeveternity. This is the notion that they have a beginning but no end, and in this realm, time does not apply to them as it does to us whom live in a three dimensional world. Only God is eternal. To be eternal is to never have a beginning or origin, to never have an end or cease, and to transcend all time as one constant moment; eternity cannot have successive moments [which makes time]. The spiritual world, in laymen terms, is the midway between finite and eternity. They neither are eternal, but time does not lapse for them as it does the finite. This is how a spirit, holy or evil, can operate in two places at once; aiding or possessing two beings simultaneously. One demons whom called itself The Tortoise, goes so far to spew, “We, belonging to the Tortoise, existing in his eternity [Satan's], have all the time in front of us as one unceasing moment.” We know this is not impossible for Jesus bilocated as did St. Paul, being in two places at the exact same time. Also, a 20^th century saint, Padre Pio, is known for having bilocated as a grace of God.

Hell is a spiritual place with spiritual beings suffering spiritual torments. The greatest torment is to never receive Beatific Vision (to behold the face of God). Therefore, hell is a state of being, or in further laymen terms, a state of mind. Hell is to be alone, to be immutable without love. A demon said to Fr. Gabriele Amorth “Down there everyone lives folded within themselves and torn apart by his regrets. There is no relationship with anyone; everyone finds himself in the most profound solitude and desperately weeps for the evil that he has committed. It is like a cemetery.” Several demons spoke of co-creating hell, since it is their “Kingdom”.

Demons vary in their torment at each moment. Although they do not recognize it, their existence is a gift from God (God is existence and God is good therefore existence is intrinsically good). When they rest from evil deeds, because they study our actions and devise plans, in this time of neutrality, they are simply existing, and existence is good, which is proper to their nature. It is as this time, when they experience neutral existence that they are most at rest. This is not to say they are not in torment, but less torment at times. Demons constantly have a conscience because all creatures receives God’s existence, and with God’s existence comes God’s good will, which is conscience. Willing others to exist is the same as saying you exist by God’s will; and God’s will in us we call our conscience.

Since hell is more of a state of mind, I will present a few quotations of demons to priests. Fr. Candido Amantini, late chief exorcist of the Roman Catholic Church, asked a demon if there was fire in hell. The demon responded, “If you knew what fire you are for me, you would not be asking this question.” Fr. Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist of the Roman Catholic Church, during an exorcism compelled the demon to go back to hell where it would be tormented. The demon spat, “do you think I would leave if this were not worse than the suffering of hell?” A demon cannot stand the presence of God and Godly men. To the demon, hell is more pleasant because it is void of God.

But why then do demons come to earth and possess? Because even at the cost of its own torment, a demon cannot stop brewing evil simply for evils sake. They will do anything to cause evil, even out their own misery and destruction. They are the epitome of evil that lives for nothing but evils sake. Again, there hell is a state of mind.

Because demons have no bodies, they cannot speak. Their medium of communication is telepathy. This is how the spirit world works. God’s voice, our conscience, evil influences are all communicated to us by modes of telepathy. In some cases, God’s voice and a demons loquacity do reverberate in this world as physical sound waves. But as God hears our prayer unspoken, it is in the same way that angel, holy and unholy, communicate amongst themselves. But demons cannot read our minds, for our will, which is also our voice, is independent of them. They can only hear what is directed to them; such as a rebuke.

Also, because they are pure entity, they perceive by way of knowledge, not sensation; they have no body to sense with.

The demons greatest power relies in tempting us to sin. An action incurred through diabolical possession incurs no culpability to the victim because the victim lacks consent and knowledge of their actions (many possessed victims black out during possession). Even if they are conscience, they have no free will and therefore are blameless of the devils evil deeds. The greatest temptation to sin is pride, the sin from which all sin extends. All other sins have reason; they begin with a good and turn to corruption. Fornication and adultery being with the natural desire for sex; gluttony begins with a natural desire to eat. But pride desires nothing good; it only desires ones self above God. It is literally pitting oneself against God. The demons greatest power relies in tempting us to sin.

Christ began ministry by accepting to be tempted by Satan in the desert; He then warned us of temptation in His discourse in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Our Father prayer. Jesus first temptation is of the flesh, second is of spirituality where Satan temps Jesus to be more ‘humble’- where the soul longs for more than the corporeal can offer, and finally pride. Remember, the Satan never lied to Adam, but offered him a lesser good (mortal life over spiritual life; mortal knowledge over spiritual wisdom) and Adam accepted it. Satan told Adam, “Ye Can be as gods knowing good and evil,” the Serpent had said in the Bible-myth-not adding “but capable only of evil, if left to yourselves” [Fr. Amorth and Fr. Fortea]. What Satan offered and tempted Jesus with was not intrinsically bad, but was a lower state of gifts from God (to have food is not bad, but God’s bread of life is by far better; to have an earthly kingdom is not bad but a heavenly kingdom is by far greater; to have people serve us is not bad, but to serve is highest love).

Finally, we draw that all material is not intrinsically evil, for it was created by God. In Genesis, we find the creation of material matter. As God reflects upon all creation, He pronounces it “good”.

The sacrament are evidence of this. They are God’s salvation given to man by means of material vessels (please read article Sacraments for further understanding). Also, Christ has given us a visible Church (we can see the good with the bad in the nets and the wheat and weeds in the fields of harvest; we are called to be a house atop a hill with lights on, a light which no basket is to cover). Christ is physical, so is His bride; they are equally yoked and one flesh.

To call matter evil is a heresy of Manichaeism. St. John wrote his Gospel to refute Cerinthus who believed material wasn’t enough or that the spirit in material wasn’t existent. Unfortunately, all but the Roman Catholic Christians combat the heresy of Cerinthus; all other Christians claim that the sacraments cannot be material vessels of God’s salvific grace.

Jesus Christ, in His divine wisdom and authority, became Incarnate to reveal to Satan His divine plan. Satan rejected the test, when God revealed that the material world might be great as the spiritual. Christ revealed to Satan his inferiority by becoming the Incarnate Word made flesh. Jesus, keeping all His spiritual divinity, humbled Himself to become fully human, so much as to be created by a human, niched by a mother in her womb. Not only was Jesus fully God in spirituality, but fully human and material having been created by a material human being. It is this test that God proposed that the demons could not accept, and it is the subject of the test that would defeat the fallen angels; the spirit and material combined to be the Incarnate Word.

Third, we will address the varying aspects of exorcism; the types of demons and means which they are exorcised as well as about the victims of this unnatural crime against nature.

Understand, all possession needs God’s permission. Not everyone can be possessed. All exorcist know this. The Bible teaches this. A good passage from a true event can be found in Fr. Malachi Martin’s ‘Hostage to the Devil’. Uncle Poncho, a demon, says there are people who are drunkards, adulterers, angry, and prime for possession but they are forbidden from being touched because “He Who Is Light” will not allow it.

Also, note the valiance of our exorcist. Fr. Malachi Martin uses the title, “Hostage to the Devil” appropriately in that priest are to be spiritual fathers after God’s Fatherhood [Eph. 3:14], interceding as priests appointed by God for mankind [Heb. 5:1]. As Christ had done, priest who are exorcists, present themselves as hostages to Satan for the liberation of his victims. To understand this intercession, please read article Intercessory Prayer of Saints. Fr. Hearty lays a foundation of self offering in prayer and body that we should all make our own, and I quote, “Lord Jesus, if I must die, let me die. If I live, it will be your will. As long as I remain in life, let me abide in your presence, so completely that, despite my sins and my enemy, when I die, I merely go from your presence to your presence. Amen.” Amen.

An exorcist may often receive the ridicule of priests as a tool of God to humble his potential source of pride.

Our greatest defense is our personal angels. St. Francis of de Sales said, “Veneration of St. Michael is the greatest remedy against despising the rights of God, against insubordination, skepticism, and infidelity”. It was a single angel, an angel second to being the weakest class, an angel that was seven classes or choirs beneath Lucifer, that cast out all the rebellious angels from heaven. And we each have a personal holy angel according to Jesus from Matthew’s Gospel, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (18:10).

Another instance, a possessed lady in Fr. Malachi Martin’s piece is possessed and upon falling into a fainting spell, she sees an angel transforming into a guise of human whom parts the crowd gathering around her in the alleyway, and caries her to safety. Our greatest defense is our personal angels.

Know that the sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) is a far greater tool and injurious offense against Satan than an exorcism. In exorcism, Satan is forced to give back the body of the possessed. In Confession, Satan is forced to give back the soul that was bought by Christ’s blood and baptism. If only we understood and lived this truth that exorcism forces the devil to give back the body but confession forces the devil to give back the soul.

Not everyone has authority to the rite of exorcism. Acts 19:11-20 is a clear demonstration of men who had the power of Jesus’ name but not the divine authority to exorcise with it and they were severely beaten by the demons. With exorcism, there is a difference in power and authority [Lk 9:1 “And [Jesus] called the Twelve [Apostles] together and gave them power and authority over all demons”] but even with authority, the needed more power to exorcise a demon when they were instructed to “fast and pray” in Mk 9:29; conversely, a man may have power but no authority [Mk 9:38].

There are no cases in the Bible of a woman performing an exorcism. Statistically speaking, more woman have been possessed then men. This is because women are more susceptible to the spiritual world (this is why we find more women in Church than men, too). Just because more women have been possessed does not mean women are more inclined to evil. This leads me to my next point.

Not everyone of demonic possession is at fault for the possession or is guilty of a grave sin. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus asks a man how long his son has been possessed and the father replies, “since childhood” (9:21). This is a clear indicator that the child was accosted by the demon from an early age, presumably before the age of reason. The Bible and Church profess in unison that for one to be guilty (of sin), three things must be present in the person: mortal sin, understanding of the sin, full consent and will to commit the sin. A child lacks ability to execute good reason (which is the knowledge) and full consent (naiveté).

There are different types of demonpathy: External Pain caused by Satan; Demonic Possession in which the person-while possessed- may corporeally commit heinous acts but incur no moral blemish on the soul because they do not act with will or consent; Diabolical Oppression [St. Paul was oppressed by Satan, 2 Cor 12:7]; Diabolic Obsession; Diabolic Infestation; Diabolical Subjugation or Dependence.

Possession occurs due to one of four things. God’s permission, which can also happen to innocent victims. Grave and hardened sinful condition; it’s root cause is a lack of faith. And subjection to evil people or places. Origin testifies to exorcisms of animals and places. The Bible cautions us of who we dwell with lest we should become like them.

Not all demons are powerful as another demon. We see in Colossians 1:16 that they retain their hierarchy. Exorcist have noted that only demons whom have Biblical names (Beelzabub, Zebulun, Asmodeus, Meridian) or names given by tradition, are strong enough to say Jesus’ name, but only followed by a blasphemy. All other weaker demons say, “He”, “Him”, “The One”, et cetera. But typically demons are very wary of talking. They only speak to when forced, boasting, or are trying to distract the exorcist from the rite.

Following that not all demons are the same nor share the same strengths, there are different ways of exorcising the evil spirits. Christ said to His Apostle that they have authority to cast out demons in Jesus’ name (Mt. 10:1, 10:8, Mk 6:7, Lk 9:1, 10:17). But not every demon can be cast out by Jesus name. Some only come out through prayer (Mk 9:29) while other demons are only exorcised by prayer and fasting (Mt 17:21). But do not be fooled, the strength of the most inferior demon is strong enough to destroy all the cosmos- if God allowed it.

Demons always respond to one of two approaches. First is by love, the name of God, and truth (which are all one in the same). The second is by belittlement and condescension; demons, due to their pride, cannot stand mockery or to be confront with the truth of their pettiness. But a layman is never to personally confront a demon.

The demonic do not always scream and growl during an exorcism. Some remain quiet and still till they are gone, other are foul and boisterous. Most demons initially hide so that they are not detected; they are cowardly. If a demon is openly talking without being commanded, it is either prideful and boasting, or trying to deter the exorcist from finishing the rite by distracting him.

All exorcist have to be wise. They have to constantly be steadfast on guard, not to fall into wondering of the mind or day dreaming, they are not to engage in conversation or personal inquiries. They have to be aware of bouts of confusion or sleepiness cast by the demon to slow the rite of exorcism. Exorcist may be bogged with confusion. This confusion can be of the senses in which one sense is recording what another sense should be recording.

Jesus also warned that not all stranger behavior is due to possession, but some people and medically, mentally, and clinically ail. The greatest sign of possession is the great loss in human quality, humanness.

Three types of outcomes can come from exorcisms. First is good. The demon is expelled and the Holy Spirit fills the person. The second is bad. The demon and is expelled but the newly liberated person does not seek grace, mortification, or fortitude and is again possessed by seven demons worse than the first.

But the last and unique senerio of exorcism is worst; and it is because it is performed by someone outside the Church (i.e. witchdoctor, shaman, sorcerer, et cetera). These exorcisms can be legitimate, and the demon will not return. This is a bad sign because when a demon is cast out by a non-Christian and does not return, it does not return because God was going to use the possession as a means to humble and sanctify the possessed person. St. James writes to us that the triumph of temptation festers holiness in ourselves (1:2). St. Paul confirms that God will use possession in his first letter to the Corinthians, “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord” (5:5). If a demon is exorcised by a witchdoctor, shaman, and all other sacrilegious blasphemers, and does not come back, it is a bad thing. For the demon knew God would hand the man over to Satan, for the destruction of the man’s pride, his flesh, so that the man might be saved on that day of judgment, therefore the demon will not return. This is a very unique and extraordinary experience. Most common, the demonic possession is not for sanctification. In this case, if it is not for sanctification, if a witchdoctor of any sort casts out a demon, a demon will return with many others worse than itself, or return in a close relative or friend.

Fr. Malachi Martin teaches that “possession by the spirit of evil proceeds along the structure of day-to-day life.” In each case of possession, as diverse as they are, a basic note that unites is confusion. People will confuse present with past (reincarnation), spiritual with material (telepathy), sexuality (transgenders and homosexuality- not all are possessed), principle with privilege (morality), et cetera. Fr. Malachi Martin records a real-life exorcism. In it, Fr. Mark asks, “When did you start working on Jamsie [possessed victim]?”. The demon, which assumed the named Uncle Ponto, spoke, “He was chosen before he was born.” The demon, Uncle Ponto, reveals that Christ opposed the demon on many occasions when it screams, “By that Person who is beyond notice by us [due to lack of Beatific Vision- emphasis mine]. By the Claimer of all adoration [Eucharistic lutria- emphasis mine]. By the one who never received and will never receive our adoration.” Fr. Mark said, “Did you make Jamsie see the ‘funny-lookin’ face’?” [the funny looking face was the face of the demon that Jamsie could see at his suicide attempts and other random occasions]. Uncle Ponto spat, “No. His protector. We would never frighten him away. We are more powerful than that. It was his protector trying to warn him.” Later to be revealed, it was Jamsie’s guardian angel whom forced the demonic to reveal their continual presence to Jamie which spur him on to seek spiritual healing of his possession. It is not uncommon for angels to intercede, as St. Paul tells us, “among us are angels we see as men, be on guard for we meet servants of the Lord”. The demon concludes that the face of the demon witnessed by Jamsie was the look that all demons take one who belong to their Kingdom [hell].

These are from verified documents of exorcisms of demons regarding their master, Satan: “Claimant, Master, Prince, Leader- it all came down to one being: the supreme intelligence of evil which had led and which leads all intelligence in revolt against the truth of God.” So as all angels of Heaven follow a righteous King of their holy kingdom, fallen angels follow an unruly king of an unholy Kingdom.

Not everyone has authority to cast out demons. It was first given to the Apostles, then seventy-two select disciples, then others. This shows a hierarchy of order. Also, St. Peter writes in Acts that not all men have authority. Seven sons of a devout Jewish father took upon themselves to cast out demons in Jesus’ name; among them a Jewish high priest. The demons rebuked the men, saying, “Jesus I recognize, Paul I know, but who are you?” The possessed man proceeded to assail the seven Jewish priests and beat them severely. The name of Jesus’ is infinitely powerful, but only used when given authority to (Acts 19:11-20).

Fr. Malachi Martin offers the format of the exorcism: Presense, Pretense, Breakpoint, Voice, and Clash, and Expulsion. Exorcist are to look for the Clash, in which he provokes the demon to lock its will with his so that he may expel it. As stated before, demons are pure spirit, therefore pure will. It is the battle of wills that pushes out a demon, since that’s all they have. Devil cannot touch our will; the last stand of an exorcism comes to the person willfully rebuking the evil spirit, for God nor Satan force a person’s will.

Sacramentals and relics can be used in exorcisms. St. Peter tells us in Acts that St. Paul emitted holiness that even his apron and handkerchief, after contact with St. Paul, were used to exorcise demons just by touching them to possessed persons. The Church also uses blessed salt, holy water, crucifix, confessional stole, and blowing on people. We know this is permitted for healing because God allowed holy relics such as the bronze serpent (Num 21:4-9), Elisha’s bones which brought a dead man back to life (2 Kgs 13:20-21), and Christ’s tassels which helped heal a hemorrhaging woman (Mt 9:20-22). St. Tertullian commended blowing during exorcisms since the time of the Church Fathers.

What the Church can only speculate is the vast unknown world of spirituality. Several exorcist, such as Fr. Malachi Martin, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, Fr. Hearty, and Fr. Jose Antonio Fortea, have all had occasions where the possessing spirit can only confess to being a human soul bound to the the work of hell. While exorcists were commanding the possessed to admit Christ is Lord, kiss the crucifix, bless themselves in holy water with the sign of the cross, the possessing spirit kept responding that it was a soul in hell forced by the demons to do ill. This is why many who are possessed believe that they are a reincarnated person; this is how many possessed will know a foreign custom, details, and people from an ancient era. It is peculiar that if it was a demon only, that the demon would call forth God’s name, kiss the crucifix, and bless itself, but still retain the power to lie about its true identity.

As God permits angels and saints of heaven to intercede among us on earth, so does Satan send forth his angels and damned souls of hell amongst us. After much spiritual warfare, a priest commanded a demon into admitting God’s glory, commanding it to kiss a crucifix, to make the sign of the cross over itself with holy water. And upon this breakdown of defense, he demanded the demons name, but it insisted it was a damned soul coerced to do the devils bidding. A demon would much rather give it’s name than profess God’s name and kiss the crucifix. This has happened to several exorcist. Fr. Hearty asks, “’But Carl spoke to people long dead. He knew their thought and their surroundings.’ The Tortoise [demon] replied, ‘The living are surrounded by their dead. Those of the dead who belong to us, they do our bidding. Everyone in the Kingdom [hell] does our bidding’.” Fr. Gabriele Amorth and Fr. Fortea have both had this same experience in which they break down the defense of the demonic, but the voice says they are a human soul damned to due the biddings of the evil spirits. Such are the cases for many whom believe they are reincarnated and have extraordinary knowledge about the past.

But not all abilities are demonic. Fr. Amorth, Fr. Malachi Martin, and Fr. Hearty have all encountered incidents where a psychic power is a prenatural gift; tho this is extremely rare. Fr. Hearty in fact was gifted with this prenatural gift. As was Fr. Malachi Martin who could visibly see demons. This is not completely uncommon, for even St. Padre Pio could see the demonic and once bilocated; St. Teresa of Avila and St. Faustina Kowalska both could see the demonic.

Demons are particular to territory. We know this when the demons asked Jesus to be cast into pigs. Fr. Malachi Martin quotes a dialogue of another exorcist combating a demon, “The evil spirit spoke, ‘Even the Anointed One gave us a place with the swine.’ The priest spat, ‘As a sign of your filth and as an indication of your being buried alive in torments’.”

Exorcist, in part, always incur something fatal and are never returned their loss, as a reminder of their spiritual warfare and a token of malefic from the demonic. If an exorcist fails, he may incur death or lose the ability to exorcise. As Fr. Michael said about an exorcist, they are “never at home again after an exorcism because he sees that the material world is only a banner, a cover, a skin which operates from the spiritual world.” Fr. Michael continues, “an exorcist shares their punishment with no one but God.” But truly, these exorcist are those who the demons hate when they say, “we hate those stained with His [Jesus'] blood”. Amen!

Fr. Amorth and Fr. Fortea say “We know the outcome, Christ defeated death. The story of Lazarus foreshadowed Calvary where Jesus wept, feeling helpless, but was rewarded life. Is that not what Christ felt again in the garden of Gethsemane, fear and helplessness? Again, exorcist stand alone against the devil, and whom do they look to in that moment of solidarity in which they must face pure, concentrated evil.”

As Fr. Amorth wrote, “this ministry is done from the Cross, if a priest cannot carry his than he should not accept this ministry.”

But an exorcist is not without his glory. Why an exorcist does what he does: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 & 1 Peter 4:13, “This I declare, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality. And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly.”

Fr. Malachi Martin wrote that a possessed girl’s “mother’s heart was crying to another mother” as she prayed to Our Blessed Mother for intercession. Fr. Fortea, in Interview With an Exorcist, sees the wisdom for asking for this intercession when he contrasted Satan with Mary:

“God’s highest nature of creation was that of the angels; Lucifer. But Mary superseded Satan; her exaltation was not by creation but of sanctification through self sacrifice, serving, and the grace of God:

• Satan was created magnificent in nature but corrupted himself while Mary was created lowly and humble in nature and sanctified herself.
• Lucifer is the most perfect creature by nature while Mary is the most perfect creature by grace.
• Luficer corrupted himself by disobedience while Mary sanctified herself by obedience.
• Lucifer wanted to be king refusing to serve and in the end became nothing while Mary wanted to be nothing, desiring to serve, and in the end was crowned Queen of Heaven.
• Lucifer was called ‘Angelic star of the morning’ while Mary was called ‘Star of the Morning of Redemption’.
• The first star, Lucifer, fell from angelic firmament; the second star, Mary, was elevated [Assumption].
• The first star, which was spirit, fell to the earth; the second star, which was human, Mary, ascended to Heaven [Assumption].
• Lucifer did not want to accept the Son of God made man; the Blessed Virgin Mary welcomed Him in her womb.
• Lucifer is a spiritual being who ended up making himself worse than a beast (without ever ceasing to be spiritual); Mary is a human being that ended up becoming better than an angel (without ceasing to be human).
• Not only did the first morning star fall [Lucifer], but Mary, the second and only Morning Star shines even brighter. Mary’s radiance is much more beautiful and intense than Lucifer’s ever was because she shines with the light of grace, not merely nature.”

Love. Love was what kept the angels of heaven holy. Love is why Jesus gave His life for us that mankind be redeemed and that we might have salvation as children of God in the kingdom of heaven. Love is greater than faith and hope. Love is the greatest commandment. Love is what accepts God and rebukes Satan.

Fr. Fortea, “Within Your wounds, hide me.” Amen.

Yours,

Drew Castel.

Foremost, we must understand our calling. Christ has called us to be perfect as the Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Why initiate this essay with that passage? Because it parallels Revelation 21:27 which tells us that nothing impure shall enter heaven. That’s a pretty hard statement to swallow. First we are called to have the same perfection, then we are told that without that perfection, we cannot gain entry into heaven. It seems like an awfully tall order to see that we are to strive for a holiness that without, we cannot see God (Hebrews 12:14). How are we to achieve this state of purity and perfection when we fall short in many respects (James 3:2)? St. Paul tells us that tho we suffer loss, we are only cleansed through fire (1 Corinthians 3:10-17). In fact, St. Paul is clear in that the Christians of whom he speaks are “saved” Christians. St. Paul speaks of us building a structure tested by fire, and that which is not consumed is saved and accredited to our merit. He connects “deed” with “laying a foundation” to “secure one’s eternal life” (2 Tim 6:19). The phrase “that Day” is the day of judgment. Jesus, over and again, repeats, “for my Day has not come” until the day of His Passion. We know “that Day” is the day of judgment for when Judas betrayed Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told Judas that that day was “his Day”; we know that day Judas hung himself and therefore would be standing before the throne of God in the afterlife. St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus (Christ).” “The day” is no other than the spiritual time of aevernity that is to be found only after this worldly life. St. Paul goes further to say, “may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day” (2 Tim 1:8).

St. Paul goes further to express the contrasting polarities of salvation or redemption via works. If man is ruined by work than man may also be justified by work. As found in 1 Corinthians 3 where “man is tested by fire” and “may suffer loss”, the Greek for suffer loss (zemiothesetai) only refers to punishment. St. Paul concludes his sermon with “will be saved”. The Greek for this is “sothesetai”, which refers to nothing else other than the salvation that God grants to the Elect at the end of their lives.

But what of the part where man will suffer loss, according to 1 Corinthians 3? It is the works, not the reward that is vanquished in the consuming fire of justice. God promises us that “you will receive the inheritance as your reward”. Let me reiterative with emphasis St. Paul’s God breathed words, “though he himself will be saved but only as through fire”. If we build our temples (which we know to be our body) of frail things (such as straw, wood- which represent sin) than they will be consumed. St. Paul draws his pontification from Ezekiel chapter 13. Ezekiel speaks of Jews building a weak foundation of frail materials, such as untempered mortar, straw, wood, much of which St. Paul draws on in his exhortation.

So let’s review. We are called to be perfect because only those of perfection can enter heaven. But we can’t be perfect because we fall short. So since we fall short, we suffer loss but are to be cleansed as only through fire to be made perfect again.

Remember, there are different degrees of sin (venial and mortal), and not only that but not all sin leads to death (1 John 5:16-17). But what do we do with the sin that is not deathly, but again it is impure and keeps us from getting into heaven? Again, that’s where St. Paul tells us nothing unclean shall enter heaven therefor we shall be cleansed as through fire. If you don’t believe 1 John’s passage saying that not all sin is worthy of death, than read James 1:14-15, “Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.” But what happens if sin doesn’t reach maturity? It still taints us and makes us imperfect. Again, St. Paul’s words ring with such conviction that this fire purges us and cleanses us. We know this fire is all purifying. Of the nine choirs of angles, Seraphs, are those who are closest to God, at His throne, and most powerful. That which is closest to God is purest, holy, divinized. In fact, Seraphs literally means “burning ones”. Why burning? Because God’s love is like an all consuming fire, and this fire purges to create not only sanctification but holiness.

People will ask me, “Didn’t Christ forgive us for all sin? Didn’t He pay the price?” Yes and yes. But Christ, who is the same as His Father – who also forgave sins (of the Old Testament patrons) – still understood that although the children of God were forgiven, there was still a price to be paid by the person themselves. This is made evident in 2 Samuel 12:13-14. God forgave King David for his murder and concupiscence, yet, although entirely forgiven by God, David still has to pay a price; the price was the life of his firstborn son. He was still punished tho he incurred the forgiveness of God. Remember, the forgiveness of God and the forgiveness of Christ are one in the same, cause if you seen Christ, you’ve seen God, and if Christ is sent to do the Father’s will, and Christ is one in the same with the Father. Although God and Christ forgive, there still remains a price to be paid. People say Christ paid for everything. But then why does St. Paul differ from this notion by saying Christ’s afflictions overflow for us to carry (Colossians 1:24)? And why does St. Paul say that we need to be cleansed by fire if Christ did all the cleansing in His Passion on the cross at Calvary? Remember, St. Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write in the infallible Word of God.

The error in that Christ’s expiation is that it is seen by many as a legal transaction. If God, being the Godman Christ, paid for our debts, there should be nothing left to collect of debt or owed to justice. As many Christians view this as a legal transaction, that Christ paid all debts, then faith is rendered useless. There is no need for belief or faith in a legal or judicial system. Law is law regardless of how one interprets or discerns penalties. If Christ paid the debt in totality, than one would receive the effects despite their faith or belief.

Jesus Christ even tells us Himself that we are to make friends with our accuser and to pay for our debts lest we aren’t released from them (Matthew 5:25-26). Why does Jesus make it a point to tell us that we are to pay for our debts, just as David did, and why does St. Paul make it a point that we are to carry the burden of the cross if Christ died for all men? We know the accuser is Satan because the same Greek word for accuser “antidikos” is found in Luke 12:58, 1 Peter 5:8, and Revelation 12:10-12; all these accusers are Satan. Whom was the accuser in the Old Testament, especially in the case of Job? Satan. Preceding Matthew’s account, we have Job’s account of being accused by the accuser (Satan) before the Judge (God) in Heaven. It must stand that this trial is of a spiritual reality, not corporeal. Proceeding Matthew’s account we have in Revelation 12:10-12, “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night. They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death. Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows he has but a short time’.” Again, the accuser is thrown from Heaven (as we know Satan was) and stands to accuse us constantly (as happened to Job). It only logically fits that the judge found in Matthew is God, as He always had been, and the accuser be Satan, as he has always been. Since we know we are being judged and accused by spiritual beings, it follows that we are in the spiritual realm. In fact, Scripture equates debt (Greek: opheilonti) with sin (i.e. Lk 11:4, Mt 6:12). “On the day of judgment” Jesus states in Matthew’s gospel, “men will render account for every careless word they utter” (12:36). “On the day of judgment” is no other day than the time from which we decease and stand spiritually before the throne of God.

Jesus continues to teach us in Matthew 12:32, “And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” “Age to come” is very indicative. The Greek phrase” age to come” is only found one other time in the New Testament where St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, “above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (1:21). Every time “age to come” is used, it is explicitly referring to the afterlife. In Ephesians 1:21, “above every name” is also found in Philippians 2:10, which speaks of Jesus name above every name, including those beneath the earth- which is the “age to come”

St. Luke addresses Jesus’ teaching of purgatory, quoting, “That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” We find the Greek word for punished, “dichotomeo” is only used one other time by Jesus; this is found in Matthew 24:50-51, “the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The “hypocrites” (Greek, apistos) are those found in Revelation 12:8, “whose lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.” Not is this only so, but when is speaks of a servant receiving a “light beating” followed by a servant whom will “weep and gnash their teeth”, what does “weeping and gnashing of teeth” draw our minds to? Hell. It is more the coincidental that this teaching of Jesus found in St. Luke’s gospel is in the midst of Jesus’ teaching about His second advent, which is strictly spiritual. We know this afterlife punishment is temporal because Jesus is quoting the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy which speaks of only temporal punishment (Dt. 25:1-3).

It’s because Christ loves us that He allows us to be as cooperators. Remember, Christ died for the redemption of the world, only He could do that. But we are coworkers in our own salvation; this is apparent when St. Paul tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). What work is left for us to do in our own salvation if Christ had done it all? Well ask St. Paul, again he takes us back to Colossians 1:24 that speaks of Christ’s affliction on the cross (His Passion) which overflows unto us to carry.

What I find interesting is that the Bible not only indicates cleansing from fire, but that it is a place where forgiveness can still happen… and it’s not of this world! This can be found in Matthew 12:32, “And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” Why does Christ tell us that there is forgiveness still to be had even outside this life and world of ours’? Maybe because there is still more between our life and heaven. St. Paul speaks of going through a fire for cleansing, and Christ tells us in Matthew 12:36 that we will be held accountable on judgment day for every idle word spoken. Well between our death and judgment day, where do we reside? St. Paul speaks of a place that purifies us as through fire. This corresponds with Christ saying we are to be perfect, for as John says, nothing imperfect may gain entry into heaven. In fact, every time the Bible uses the term “age to come” it is always speaking of the spiritual realms, which in our case is after our corporeal lives.

Jesus is seen as going to a midway holding that wasn’t earthly, but it wasn’t heaven, or hell for that matter. Read with me 1 Peter 3:18-20, 4:6. “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.” Jesus preached to those who waited patiently, having to wait in prison for their disobedience long ago? Sounds exactly like purgatory. How about that the gospel, which gives life and cleanses like fire, is preached to those who are not dead. The Bible is clear that these men are dead, but are neither in heaven nor hell, but are candidates for heaven only after they are purified.

Some people believe purgatory is a fluke, a fallacy. St. Paul didn’t. In fact, St. Paul had such belief and conviction that purgatory was most certainly real that not only did he pray for a soul in purgatory, but he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write of it in the infallible Bible. St Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:16-18, “May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.” Onesiphorus is dead, yet St. Paul found it most necessary to pray for his friend, that his friend make it out of his imprisonment and into heaven. Even if Onesiphorus is not deceased, St. Paul still requests that we make prayers and supplications for him “on that day”; again, “on that day” is always used to refer the afterlife.

As a matter of fact, not only does St. Paul believe in the prayers for those dead and in purgatory, but he even goes and asks, if purgatory doesn’t exist, than why are people baptized on behalf of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29-30). St. Paul says if there is no resurrection, and he isn’t being discriminant about having a temporal body or not, than what will those do who are baptized for the dead? St. Paul is asking his listeners and readers, if resurrection isn’t real than what will those do who are baptized on behalf of the dead? St. Paul is implying that because resurrection is real than those who are baptized on behalf of the dead are needed because of resurrection. These dead reside in purgatory. We know they aren’t in heaven else they wouldn’t need baptism; in fact, baptism what Christ said we needed to get into heaven (John 3:5).

Purgatory is a very real place in which God made so that we have a more opportune time to incur mercy and grace, love and devotion to God by removing our sins, iniquities, and transgressions.

St. Augustine, one of the four primary doctors of the Church, quotes, “For some of the dead, indeed, the prayer of the Church or of pious individuals is heard; but it is for those who, having been regenerated in Christ, did not spend their life so wickedly that they can be judged unworthy of such compassion, nor so well that they can be considered to have no need of it” in City of God, 426 A.D..

Your’s,

Drew Castel.

As a Catholic, I have been labeled an idolater because of my Biblical view on relics and statues. What people fail to realize is that the initial use of relics and statues began with God’s commandment. This is conveyed throughout the Bible, in the Old and New Testament. We will begin by reading of scripture in the Old Testament that elaborates on the uses of these God given tools in relics.

Relics in the Bible

In 2 Kings, we see that coming into contact with the bones of Elisha restores life (13:20-21). Why does the relics of a dead man’s remains bring a corpse back into the full animation of life? Second Kings 13:20-21 reads, “Elisha died and was buried. At the time, bands of Moabites used to raid the land each year. Once some people were burying a man, when suddenly they spied such a raiding band. So they cast the dead man into the grave of Elisha, and everyone went off. But when the man came in contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and rose to his feet”. Notice that nowhere in scripture is Elisha’s body consecrated but is still blessed in such a way that it reanimates dead flesh.

Moving into the New Testament, we see in the book of Acts that infirmities are cured by St. Peter’s shadow (5:15-16). Again, nowhere in Holy Writ do we find St. Peter’s shadow being blessed or consecrated but by the very nature of God in the individual does the individuals relic emit God’s power (think amount the illumination emitted from Moses’ face after the forty day fast on Mount Sinai). Acts 5:15-16 reads, “As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.” Is it idolatress that the citizens of the town gathered not to see St. Peter and the apostles but to believe in the healing touch of his shadow? We see that their beliefs were true. It tells us that “their sick and those tormented by evils spirits, and of all them were healed.” All of them were healed. Furthermore, none of them were rebuked by any means for their belief in the relic of St. Peter’s blessed shadow. How interesting is the verse that precedes this. Acts 5:14, “Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” These people believed in the Lord, the people who sought St. Peter’s shadow for it’s healing ability. This tells us that people who believed in St. Peter’s healing relic [his shadow] weren’t pagans or apostates but Christians.

As we continue in Acts, we see even in the absence of St. Paul, that his relic when applied to an ailed person, can heal. Acts 19:11-12 reads, “So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.” We know that St. Paul wasn’t present when the people were healed by the relics he touched; it would be whimsical to say that St. Paul was always present or in contact with the face cloths [plural] and aprons [plural] while they were used to heal the iniquities in people.

Statues in the Bible

We’ll start off with the opposing argument; Exodus 20:4-5, “You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation”. This is simply prohibiting the worship of anything that isn’t God. The text indicates this when it says, “shape of anything in the sky/earth/waters” meaning other created life (such as the Golden Calf with is actually the ancient Egyptian god Apis). However, we do see God Almighty commanding men to build statues in Exodus 25:18-19, “Make two cherubim of beaten gold for the two ends of the propitiatory, fastening them so that one cherub springs direct from each end”. This seems like it would be in direct violation of “do not carve idols…in shape of anything in the sky”. Yet God commands to do it.

Next we turn to Numbers 21:8-9, “and the LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover.’ Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.” God commanded that man put his faith into God’s healing power via a bronze serpent on a staff. God uses different vestiges to do His work.

As we go further into Scripture, we see in 1 Kings 6:23-29 that the Tempe was to be adorned and engraved with “cherubim, trees, flowers” and in 1 Kings 7:25-45 “bronze oxen, lions, pomegranates”. So much statues. So much images. Yet all by the fiat of God.

It is only when an image, relic, or statue is placed above the Almighty God does it become graven to use. But if it is used to edify and point us toward the omnipotent God does it become a vessel of God’s grace.

We know this because the Cross which bore the Son of Salvation is seen as a tool which draws people closer to Christ. We know there is much glory given by God through the Cross (Mt 10:38, 16:24, Lk 9:23, 14:27, 1 Cor 1:17-18, 2:2, Gal 5:24, 6:14, 20:20, Phil 3:18, Col 2:14, etc.).

“We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are” Jerome, Ad Riparium, i, P.L., XXII, 907 A.D..

“The one who redeemed us from the darkness of idolatrous insanity, Christ our God, when he took for his bride his holy Catholic Church . . . promised he would guard her and assured his holy disciples saying, ‘I am with you every day until the consummation of this age.’ . . . To this gracious offer some people paid no attention; being hoodwinked by the treacherous foe they abandoned the true line of reasoning . . . and they failed to distinguish the holy from the profane, asserting that the icons of our Lord and of his saints were no different from the wooden images of satanic idols.” Second Council of Nicaea, 787 A.D..

Yours,

Drew Castel.

Jehovah Witness’ History

Jehovah Witness will claim that Jesus Christ, is not God and this has always been taught by the church. They believe that at the death of the last apostle, the world fell into a state of apostasy as true religion became an underground movement. In the 4^th century, Catholicism arose and was founded by Constantine who headed the Roman empire. Then their underground movement of true religion came back to true fruition when in 1874 when Charles Taze Russell conducted private home Bible studies and was, by divine appointing, the oracle of truth. In 1914, Christ established his kingdom of heaven on earth in a spiritually discrete and secretive way, thus we are finally living in the ends times. Also, Jehovah Witness claim that the gates of heaven are sealed since 1935 due to the 144,000 allotment in heaven being fulfilled; the rest of God’s good citizens will reside on paradise earth (then the moon when the earth overfills). Jehovah Witness also make the claim that they are the first church to reach all of the world with the gospel (in the 21^st century), as prophesied by Christ in the Gospels concerning the ends times.

This is a fallacy.

Christian History

The Church has official doctrines and datum recorded from reliable politicians, military officials (including the head general of the Roman empire), pagans, and Christians during the 1^st century that state that it was an essential belief of Christianity to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ as God. Ignatius of Antioch was personally mentored by Jesus’ favorite disciple John, and later ordained by Jesus’ apostle Peter. A few other men to have lived in the time of the apostles and knew the apostles were Polycarp, Linus, Anacletus, Clemenus Romanus. Jehovah Witnesses will claim that the apostles and Christ taught that Christ wasn’t God. This is simply untrue. The first official church to pontificate this teaching was the church of Arianism, founded by an anathematized priest named Arius who falsely surmised that Jesus Christ was nothing more than a mere man. This heresy was eradicated in 381 Anno Domini (A.D.). Further, Constantine did not found the Roman Catholic Church. What Constantine did was legalize Christianity after winning a battle against the Roman General Maximum to end legal persecution of Christianity (by signing the Edict of Milan). In 361 A.D., Constantine won another battle against Julian the Apostate whom tried legalizing and cultivating the Roman society back into paganism. In 381 A.D., the Roman Catholic Septuagint canonized the Bible with 73 books in it. In 1517 A.D., Martin Luther set forth the Great Schism from the Roman Catholic Church, and in addition to that, he downsized the Bible by removing seven books (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, First and Second Maccabees, and additions to Esther and Daniel). What is not so much a common knowledge to Jehovah Witnesses and Protestants alike is that Martin Luther also felt “divinely” convicted to remove seven other books (Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John). In short, everyone but the Catholic Church has a truncated version of the Bible. Point of this synopsis of history is to illustrate a very good question. How could Jehovah Witness have possibly collaborated the books of the Bible and Canonized it and set it world wide if they were hiding as an underground movement? Further, if they don’t claim to have canonized the Bible, why do they accept the Bible from what they consider an “idolatress and blasphemous false religion” as the source of their truth? Further on, the heresy of Arianism arose again with with Joseph Smith in Mormonism (1831 A.D.) and again with the Seventh Day Adventist (1863 A.D.). Jehovah Witness claims are nothing new but an age old heresy conjured by false teachers before them.

Now let’s move into God’s good Word, Biblical scripture.

Biblical points to help share the True Faith

• Jehovah Witness (JW) – We are the first church to reach all the ends of the earth of the gospel according to Christ’s prophecy found in the Gospel of Matthew
  • Roman Catholic (RC) – “I appreciate your efforts in trying to spread the Word of God for the salvation of the world” (remember, God does not turn away a contrite heart Ps 51:17. Always admonish and build up your brother to good works, because what we do for others we do for Christ [Mt. 25 40.45], and what we do against others we do against Christ [Acts 9:4-5]). Then follow up with scripture that clarifies any misconceptions. Two verses from the Epistles of Paul read, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world (Romans 1:8)” and, “faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth (Colossians 1:5-6)” St. Paul clearly informs us that this commission from Christ has already been fulfilled in the days of the Apostles.
• JW – They may or may not bring up the teaching that the Vatican, the Roman Catholic Church, and any other institution of faith that stands in opposition to the Jehovah Witness doctrine is the Great Whore of Babylon/the Harlot found in the book of Revelation.
  • RC – Always express your understanding of their point of view. We are here to accommodate people on their journey of sanctification and sainthood in preparation for heaven. Although the notion they believe is false, relate to how the world does have many miscellaneous ideas. But then share with them whom the Bible calls the Great Whore of Babylon and the Harlot. There are several Biblical passages the clearly convey this.
    • Isaiah 1:21 “See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her–but now murderers!
    • Ezekiel 23:27-29 “So I will put a stop to the lewdness and prostitution you began in Egypt. You will not look on these things with longing or remember Egypt anymore. ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to hand you over to those you hate, to those you turned away from in disgust. They will deal with you in hatred and take away everything you have worked for. They will leave you naked and bare, and the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your lewdness and promiscuity’”
    • Hosea 2:1-13, Ezekiel 16:37-41 also emphasize Israel as this “Harlot” for her infidelity
    • Jeremiah 3:3-6 “therefore the showers were withheld, the spring rain failed. But because you have a harlot’s brow, you refused to blush. Even now do you not call me, “My father, you who are the bridegroom of my youth”? “Will he keep his wrath forever, will he hold his grudge to the end?” This is what you say; yet you do all the evil you can. The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: See now what rebellious Israel has done! She has gone up every high mountain, and under every green tree she has played the harlot.”
      • In fact, the covenant and staff of favor between Israel and God was nullified by God because of their infidelity. Zechariah 11:10-14 reads, “Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord. I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.”

• JW – There is no such thing as hell. Only eternal annihilation (which means that the people who aren’t saved will cease to exist after death and Satan and his demons will also no longer exist at the end of time). A loving God would never send anyone to a place of eternal torment. Hell, JW’s will say, is just another term for a grave and oblivion.
  • RC – The Jehovah Witness convey a partial truth in this statement. First, there is a tangible hell holding tangible beings. But the part they are right about is that God does not send anyone to hell; people will that they go there by refusing God. Man only goes to hell on his or her account. Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:41 that mankind may go to a place of damnation that was made for the devil and his angels. If hell meant a graveyard, and graves only hold tangible bodies, then why was this hell made for the devil and his angels who don’t have tangible bodies? In fact, Jesus tells us that the body and soul can reside in a place of torment postmortem (Matthew 5:30, 10:28). The punishment is eternal (Matthew3::16-17, 25:46; Isaiah 33:11,14). St. Paul also states a place of eternal ruin of the soul in 2 Thessalonian 1:6-9.
    • Ask the next Jehovah Witness, if there is no hell, why does Jesus tell Judas, “better had it been that he not be born” (Matthew 26:24)? I asked once, and the reply was because it gave him an ill-reputation. But Jesus had an ill-reputation. He was called a blasphemer, hypocrite, scandal, a drunk, and even told his Apostles that they would be hated because He Christ was hated first.
      • If there is no life after death, then how did Jesus preach to the dead in 1 Peter 4:6, “For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead that, though condemned in the flesh in human estimation, they might live in the spirit in the estimation of God.”

• JW – Jesus Christ is not God but the Arc Angel Michael.
  • RC – The best response is empathy. Reply that you can understand why they see it the way they do, but that how they see it does not align with what the Bible teaches us.
  • John 1:1 says the “Word is God”, and we know the Word is Christ.
  • John 8:58-59, “Before Abraham was I AM”, the same name given to Moses by God in the Burning Bush
  • John 20:28 Jesus accepts Thomas plea “My God, my Lord!”
  • Titus 2:13 “Glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”
    • The name “First and Last” or “Alpha Omega” stands for God. Revelation 1:17-18 reads, “When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead. He touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld’.”
      • Ask them, “when did Jehovah, the First and the Last, die?”. And remind them that God does not share His name or glory with anyone. Remind them also that only God is the Alpha/Omega First/Last and doesn’t share His name with any other (Is. 44:6).
        • Divinity of Christ – Phil 2:5-11, Col. 1:15-16, 2:9, Rom. 9:5, Titus 2:13

• JW – The Holy Spirit isn’t God but just a force.
  • RC – Respond with the same empathy as you did with the challenge of Christ’s divinity. But turn with them deep into scripture and ask questions after each passage, such as:
    • John 14:16 “He [Holy Spirit] will teach you all things
      • Why is the Holy Spirit called “He” and how could a “force” teach?
    • Acts 8:29 “Holy Spirit said to Philip, ‘go up’” and Acts 13:2 “Holy Spirit said, ‘set apart from Me’”
      • How does a “force” speak?
    • Acts 5:3-4 “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the holy Spirit and retained part of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain yours? And when it was sold, was it not still under your control? Why did you contrive this deed? You have lied not to human beings, but to God’.”
      • Peter the Apostle just said that Ananias lies were to the Holy Spirit, which is lying to God.
      • Peter is referring to grieving God as the Holy Spirit, which is warned against in Ephesians 4:30 & Matthew 12:32.

• JW – Jehovah is God the Father’s name; there is only one God, the Father.
  • RC – Technically, the word “Jehovah” doesn’t exist but is a misnomer in the English language; the best rendition is actually Yahweh. The proper spelling of it is “YHVH” since there are no vowels in the Hebrew dialect. In fact, in Hebrew, YHVH doesn’t stand so much for God the Father’s name but the name of the Holy Spirit as God, since YHVH was also used as the word “breath”. In Genesis, God breathed “YHVH” into man and gave him life. So the Jews translated it as, “God breathed “Holy Spirit/breath” into man and then he lived”.

• JW – Colossians 1:15 says Christ didn’t always exist cause He was born “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”
  • RC – We have to be gentle in coaxing our friends toward the truth. Some religions have trouble distinguishing symbolism from literalism. If they took everything literal, then please help them with the entire Bible, from allegorical Genesis, to the Songs of Solomon, to the Psalms (like Psalm 89:27 which says King David is the first born when he was actually the 8^th son born- firstborn means he has the right to inheritance or is chosen for blessing), with the parables, and surely Revelation which is written apocryphally which is very cryptic and esoteric.

• JW – The Kingdom of Heaven has finally been established on earth in 1914 secretively.
  • RC – Christ and Paul said the Kingdom of Heaven was established during His first Advent:
    • Matthew 12:28, Luke 17:21, Acts 8:12, 19:8.
      • Ephesians 1:20-23, 1 Peter 3:22.
        • and there is nothing secretive or discrete about the coming or supposed “rapture” according to Matthew 24:27

• JW – Charles Taze Russell made accurate predictions about the coming of the Kingdom of God
  • RC – Refer back to last statements Biblical passages of Matthew 12:28, Luke 17:21, Acts 8:12, 19:8
  • Ask how they treat Russell and other ministers when they falsely prophesied the rapture into Heaven in 1914, 1918, 1925, 1942, 1975? Deuteronomy 18:21-22 says that a prophet who makes a false claim should be abandoned and all his doctrine.

• JW – the Great Crowd are those who reside on paradise Earth.
  • RC – Revelation 19:1 says that the Great Crowd is standing before the throne of God in Heaven.

• JW – The gates of heaven closed in 1935 and the rest of God’s followers will reside on paradise earth.
  • RC – Matthew 23:13 warns us against keeping people out of heaven, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.”

• JW – Jesus Christ didn’t die on a Cross. He died on an upright stake. It was shameful and not glorious.
  • RC – Go over the scriptures from the Bible with them. Each of these scriptures speak of how necessary it is for us to carry our cross which is an instrument of glory used by Christ:
    • Galatians 5:20, 6:14, 20:20
    • 1 Corinthians 1:17-18, 2:2
    • Philippians 3:18
    • Colossians 1:24, 2:14
    • Matthew 10:38, 16:24
    • Luke 9:23, 14:27

• JW – Don’t celebrate holidays. It’s pagan and offensive to God. Even Christmas is wrong.
  • RC – The angels celebrated Christ’s birthday in Luke 2:13-14 and Mother’s and Father’s day is in honor of Exodus 20:12 (which promulgates the Ten Commandments, one of which being to honor (“glorify” is how it translates from the original Hebrew) thy parents).

• JW – we receive our power from God and His Bible as our only authority
  • RC – But that is not how God works. The Bible says that God doesn’t reveal any individual prophecies or have individual interpretation (1 Peter 1:20). Also, the Church is the foundation of Truth (1 Timothy 3:15).
    • What the Bible talks about authority is in:
      • Laying of Hands – Acts 6:6, 13:3, 14:22, 20:28; 1 Timothy 4:14, 5:22; 2 Timothy 1:6, 2:2; Titus 1:5
      • Hierarchy – Ephesians 4:11-12
      • Papacy – Galatians 1:17-19, 2:7-14
      • Priesthood – Romans 15:15-16
      • Qualifications to be in the Ministry – 1 Timothy 3:1,8, 5:17

Remember, do all things in love, else we are absolutely useless (1 Corinthians 13).

Yours,

Drew Castel.

Big Bang

Refuting Singularity Theory or existence from immemorial ad infinitum of mass

This is the collision and fusion or reduction and expansion of non-organic matter in the production of anthropic terrain. Anthropic is the ability to sustain life. Before we move into life, we’ll discuss the background, the beginning, or cause of matter. Many scientist promulgate that matter existed immemorial ad infinitum. This is not fathomable in the law of physics, because to be self sufficient is to be perfect, which means that a singularity (which is infinite) has nothing it is contingent on. To be perfect means it is made of a single thing so that it does not rely on a co-adherent for its own existence or vitality and it must be indivisible, lest it wouldn’t be a singularity. But to do so, it has nothing to separate from itself (i.e. I am made of flesh and blood, therefor I can not give a rock out of my own body because I am not made of rock). As we see on earth, there are millions of elements. This follows into the category that one things proceeds from its own nature (i.e. trees make trees, cats make cats, worms make worms). A singularity could not produce this. If the world was static at one point, it wouldn’t be anthropic but remain static. This suggest that from the beginning was life.

A singularity could not lose its ability to be infinite, else it was never singular. It would lack what we call fixation, also known as an universal constant.

Ekpyrotic Theory

In short, multi-universes collided and produced our universe. This does not follow the law of singularity of a fourth dimension (Transcendent Cause, suggested by Einstein), nor the notion of the law of physics of the 2^nd law of thermodynamics and its sub-law, law of entropy (elaborated on further on in this exhortation).

Bounce Theory

So let us say that Big Bang occurred (how this is feasible I will discuss later in my notes). This is the collision of mass and the fusion of elements. Like a ball that is dropped on the ground, pressure is redirected upon impact and almost jettisons the ball back into the atmosphere until gravity draws it back into the mass (which we call earth, or simply, ground). The Bounce Theory is much like this. As the explosion of the Big Bang occurs, matter is shot outward from the collision that produced the big bang and is brought back together by gravity. But as pieces came back together, they collided, causing friction and smaller big bangs. This is the Bounce Theory that suggests a universe “collapse” and re“expands” into another universe, ad infinitum. This is certainly a refutable notion.

First, the theory of Cause and Effect; effect cannot be greater than the cause. What this entails is that things receive their effect from a first cause. In this case, I will use motion as an example. Imagine three consecutive golf-balls that are three feet apart from another. I take a club and hit the first ball at 20 miles per hour (mph). The ball I first contacted travels initially at 20 mph but gradually slows to 14 mph until it collides with the second (middle) golf-ball. The second ball receives its motion from the force of the collision of the first ball and starts moving at 14 mph and gradually decelerates to 8 mph by the time it comes into contact with the final golf-ball. The last ball receives its motion from the ball that just collided into it, moving now at 8 mph until it loses its velocity (energy) and stops at a complete standstill. It has lost it’s energy from the original cause (me, who hit the first ball) and gradually loses its energy (force, motion, speed) until it comes to a stop. The same example could be said of a ball that is dropped and with each bounce, loses energy and will eventually quit exerting enough force that it stops and no longer bounces. The same concept is applied to Bounce Theory. It cannot bounce and have an infinite amount of collision, nor can it collapse and infinite expand as a “rebound”.

In addition, for matter to collapse it must have negative energy; this produces a vacuum. Mass density and pressure of matter could not become negative, because to do so would mean that the matter would cease to exist (to create a vacuum, its energy entails a strong pressure which is equal to minus its energy density). Also, all vacuum, or suction is is a differential of pressures trying to create equilibrium between two accidents. This follows the theory of Ockham’s Razor (canon of parsimony)- nature keeps things simple. It would be easier for nature to make the vacuum equal with the pressure around is rather than cause the atmosphere outside of the vacuum to be equal with the pressure of the vacuum.

2^nd Law of Thermodynamics

This sounds like a tough one, but is actually rather simple. The 2^nd law of thermodynamics says that once something is set in motion, it will continue in that motion (much like a mechanism). A great example would be a bottle of soda that is pressurized by carbonation. When a person unscrews the bottle, a gush of gas comes gushing out. This is what we call equilibrium (the pressure from inside the bottle has to be equal with the pressure outside the bottle once it can make contact with the coinciding energy). Easier said is that the 2^nd law of thermodynamics is like the analogy of getting toothpaste back into the tub; it only goes one direction. The 2^nd law of thermodynamics says that once set in a certain motion, it continues in that motion; this leads to another law called entropy theory.

2^nd Law of Thermodynamics includes Entropy Theory

Entropy just means that chaos is always dominant. Take for example me holding a rock and throwing it at a sheet of glass. The rock hits, the glass shatters, and the the pieces scatter in disarray. Entropy would say that this is chaos, it cannot reform itself, because the 2^nd law of thermodynamics says that once it is set in motion (in this case, a chaotic motion) it will only continue to move in a chaotic motion. Big Bang is a series of random chaos which should further produce more random chaos. The glass will not articulate its self in such a way that it remains a sheet as the rock as its foundation or support. Instead, the contact of the rock set in motion the disturbance of the glass, which falls to the floor and breaks into further chaos, thus fulfilling the law of entropy (its much like Murphy’s law now thinking about it).

Super-string Theory Refuted

Albert Einstein’s theory that we live in a multi-universe is a bunch of whimsical garble. We are connected by a 10 string theory (11^th when the tenth string fission connecting the other strings with a common gravitational force) simply because one common factor unites the supposed universe, thus negating strict multiplicity (embranes represents the other universes; branes for short). Also, if there were another brane, as Einsteins surmises, that assumed existence to every possibility to every action, then our mathematical system would be unable to detect it. Logically ascertained, different dimensions of universes would have every variety of gravitational, magnetic, radioactive, chemical, mass, and energy differences which dictates how our math works. For instance, our weight scale is based off of gravity in addition to mass in addition to energy. In a universe that lacks gravity, mass manipulates and energy changes, therefor rendering our mathematical formulas useless (such as in the Planck era).

Inflation Theory

Some science speculates that we are inside a big bubble, coinciding with other bubbles that hold our universe inside this giant dome of a bubble. The problem with this is that since we are in a fixed amount of space with fixed mass energy [Omega], we would all expand and eventually collide into the neighboring bubble universes.

Heuristic Theory

This theory encompasses the generic idea the unites broad interrelationship of intelligible objects. An example would be a color chart offering the different forms of visuals or a element chart offering the different forms of elements – all united by a common factor. We have taken the intelligence from experience and changed it into the intelligence of ideas, but ideas can precede experience thus showing that there is a source of intelligence that precedes all matter, accidents, and empirical experiences.

Transcendent Cause

This is also known as a Creator. If we look at the big bank and the Planck Era (which is the time allotted to the conception of the big bang), the quantum gravity effects been so significant that mathematics of classical General Relativity would be severely inadequate. As it stands, we currently aren’t aware if our universe is open (constantly being pushed outward) or closed (just expanding, like a balloons surface). This is due to our lack of knowledge of our own mass energy and space called Omega (Ω) Speaking of the initial start of gravity as we know it during the big bang (Planck era), if there were a 2% reduction in force, nuclei with larger baryons (protons and neutrons which make the formation of elements for hydrogen) would cease to exist; no hydrogen means no oxygen or water. If the force was 2% stronger, there would be no hydrogen (only heavier elements could exist) thus promoting the same misanthropic effect.

Science is a semi-reliable source. It is interesting how little we actually know about our own galaxy, let alone the whole universe. Did you know that there are three sorts of datum; matter, dark matter, and dark energy. Dark energy acts in the opposite way that gravity does (accelerates outer expansion). This consists of about 73% of our universe. Matter and natural energy contribute to about 4% of our universe. Dark matter fills the rest of our universe (it cannot absorb light therefor cannot be seen; to be honest, scientist don’t really know what it is). Energy is one of five constants (along with space/time, individuating, large-scale, fine-structured). Energy cannot move slower than the smallest iota of measurable time (Planck era) and thus produces a standard for a universal constant. Energy is manifested in four ways; gravitational, electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear.

Evolution in the Big Bang Theory

Most people attribute the thought of evolution, which compliments the Big Bang Theory, to Charles Darwin. This is like accrediting the discovery of electricity to Edison (who capitalized the discovery) when it was Benjamin Franklin who first gave notice to it (remember the daring kite and key charade during the thunderstorm?). Darwin did not discover genetic mutation (which is the only probable cause of evolving); a Roman Catholic Augustine priest by the name of Gregor Mendel discovered this when he fiddled with a diversity of plants of peas. The Roman Catholic Church is not in contention with the idea that a Intelligent Designer, or Creator, created man via evolution. In fact, we know that world is older than most evangelical fundamentalist grant it (6,000 years).

There are three proofs for the Big Band and Evolution with a Transcendent Cause (Intelligent Creator):

1. We receive 1% of our light from stars. The remainder is provided by cosmological radiation [blackbody spectrum] and paradox radiation (residual radiation left over from a collapsed and expanded universe). We can tell by how much paradox radiation is left over from the last collapse (about 100 times now- cosmological radiation is always made new when a universe re-expands but paradox radiation carries over) that the earth is roughly 13.7 billion years old. There is about a hundred times more cosmological radiation light than starlight which indicates that the universe has collapsed and re-expanded about a hundred times. This also indicates that the universe had a beginning since science is able to determine how many evolutions matter has completed; else the cosmos would be infinitely bright from an infinite amount of residual paradox radiation illuminations.
2. The Old Testament in the Bible is a collaboration of spiritual books written before it. We have found documents much older than 6,000 years old which we know is referenced to create our Bible we have nowadays. This is also why we have several stories or little misnomers of facts that seem to change or be told differently in parts of the Bible. The books that were collaborated into our Bible come from earlier religions of the Elohist, YHWH’est, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly Source (laymen terms).
3. Two stories of creation in Genesis (chapters 1&2) which are different. In addition, Cain, the first son of Adam, is scarred so that other people would know not to kill him. Who else would have been around except his family? And I won’t begin to touch upon the complications of inter-family conjugation.

Did you know that Albert Einstein surmised and promulgated that for our universe to be anthropic (since the laws of nature seem to be governed by the 2^nd law of thermodynamics which encapsulates entropy), there has to be a fourth dimension to make our reality of a three dimensional world possible?

So next time someone says “but I’m a person of science”, remind them that science (derived from the Greek word scientia) means “to know”. This includes all knowledge, not just formulas, math, and chemicals, but philosophy, theory (such as music and et cetera), and other non-empirical concepts.

Your’s,

Drew Castel.

You know that guy at work, or that girl at school? You know the one I am talking about. The one that no one really likes, maybe because they are weird or have something wrong with them. The one that people talk bad about behind their backs. Maybe you participate in this or are just a silent observer knowing that it isn’t right. But if you were to do something about it, maybe say something, you may quickly find yourself on the outside with them.

It’s important to make sure that you are inside the social circles, and that people like you. Right? Even if you say something and risk your social priority it wouldn’t solve anything anyway. You would end up an outcast and that other person’s situation would not be any better. You can’t help others without helping yourself first. Right?

Wrong. If you don’t then there might never be someone to do something. It is important to remember that that person is a loved creation of God. What person on this earth is not a creation of God? What person has God turned His back on? None. Even those that no one likes or wants anything to do with. Because of this you must recognize Christ in them and treat them as such.

This may cause you to be unpopular, maybe even made an outcast in your social circle, but Christ said

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’ “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

Mathew 10:32-42

So you must acknowledge Christ in this person and treat them as such. If you lose your place in your social circle to do what Christ wants you to do, it will not go unnoticed by God.

But make sure to not do this in order to get “rewarded”. Do this for that person and because God wants you to.

Have you been in this situation? Or maybe on the other side? Share your story.

Blessing for your Rifle

Lord bless my rifle and the one who uses it. May both carry out your will and no other. May both have the courage to do what is right and just by Your standards, not the standards of men. Lord bless my rifle to keep me safe. Lord bless me to keep my rifle prudent. Amen.

Prayer for Help

Before the cross I kneel and pray

That God might save me on this day

I keep my eyes to the ground

And listen for a soulful sound

MY GOD MY GOD!!!

I pray to Thee

Please look down and take pity on me

I want nothing but You

But my will alone will not do

I know it is in You I must trust

Though it is hard I know that I must

For You my Lord are true and just

Prayer of Thanks

Lord you have blessed me with many things, may I remember this and give you thanks.

Prayer of the Poor

When I wake Lord remind me of the poor

When I eat Lord remind me of the poor

When I drive Lord remind me of the poor

When I work Lord remind me of the poor

When I play Lord remind me of the poor

When I breath Lord remind me of the poor

The poor who have no food or shelter or clothes

The poor who are helpless and need a guardian

The poor who will die without someone to help them

The poor who I must help

The poor who belong to You

The poor who is I without You

Take Everything From Me

Destroy my pride

Tear down my walls of self praise

Break me

Bend me to Your will and make me cry

Lord God save me from myself

take everything away from me

Make me see that I am nothing

So that I can become everything in You

Make me suffer

So that I can see my need of You

take everything away from me

Siege my fortress of self fulfillment

Demolish my gates of selfish ambition

Humble me Lord

take everything away from me

Let me endure hardships in Your name

so that I may honor You

and find You

take everything from me

Prayer of the Will

Lord guide me to Your ways

Make Your ways my ways

Take me over mind and body

And lead me to Your bosom

i am a broken man

Only with Your grace will i be mended

Please Lord save me from myself

And lead me to Your heavenly face

Consume my heart my soul my mind

i give all that i am in hope

Hope that one day i will see your face

i am your servant

i am your slave

I am your child

For you i will do anything

For you i will give up my life

Chad Parker.

However we often find ourselves compelled to share Christ with others and to reach out to them. We want to show people the joy we have found in our Lord and Savior.

Now the question is where does sharing Christ with others fit into this system where we leave each other be? Obviously there are aspects of this system which are good. We should all practice tolerance with the people around us, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep the truth of our Lord Jesus to ourselves. Of course the other side is that we should not antagonize people and harass them with our beliefs either.

Neither should we apologize for what is true and most certainly should not keep it to ourselves. Christ wants us to share Him with others. So how do we find a careful balance between sharing Christ with those around us and not “waving the Bible at people”?

To start we must evaluate the way we live. We must live our life in accordance with God’s will. In doing so we will accomplish the most important thing we can do to teach others about Christ, and that is to emulate Him. Love others and give of yourself to them. We must earn the right to spread the Word of God.

If we are to do this we must die to ourselves and live for Christ, which is living for others. Neither can we be two face. If we to share Christ it must be a full time lifestyle.

What good does it do if we tell others about Christ and then in the next breath say something mean about another person to them. Or not help someone because it is inconvenient and does not benefit us in anyway? What example is that? It is not an example of Christ.

Now when we give a good example of how Christ lived by the way we live and someone asks us why we live that way, what more pristine opportunity is there to share Christ with someone?

There are a lot of people in this world who would claim to not want to know about Christ, but we know that a yearning for Christ is in the hearts of all men and women. To reach those who “do not want to be reached” we must strike at the core of there being with good will, kindness and selfless servitude.

This is a non-intrusive manner to show the light of Christ in a culture of keeping to yourself.

This is definitely not easy, but in the end it will be worth the pay off. Even if you never bring someone to Christ, your actions may sow the seeds necessary for them to find happiness in our Lord.

Once you have begun to emulate Christ and show His love to others, then you can tell people where its origins are. Then you can tell them that the reason you are the way you are is because Christ was first that way to you.

Respectfully,

Chad Parker