Author: Jimmy Akin

Are Living Christians Saints?

One of the things that many Protestant Christians have been perplexed by is the fact that Catholics often use the term “saint” in a way that refers to those saints who are in heaven–particularly those that have been canonized.

Although the Bible does apply the term “saints” to those in heaven, this use of the term isn’t dominant. Instead, the Bible refers to people here on earth as saints also, including (in the Old Testament) the Israelities (God’s original holy people) and (in the New Testament) the Christians (a new holy people).

Catholics can also acknowledge this–a fact I was reminded of recently when I was reading one of John Paul II’s last general audiences, from just a few months before he died.

In it, commenting on a canticle sung by the twenty-four elders in heaven in the book of Revelation, he said:

Now, the almighty and eternal Lord God “has taken [his] great power and begun to reign” (11: 17).

His entry into history does not only aim to curb the violent reactions of rebels (cf. Ps 2: 1, 5), but above all to exalt and reward the just.

These are defined with a series of words used to describe the spiritual features of Christians.

They are “servants” who comply faithfully with the divine law; they are “prophets”, endowed with the revealed word that interprets and judges history; they are “saints”, consecrated to God, who revere his name, that is, they are ready to adore him and to do his will [General Audience of Jan. 12, 2005].

So, while language is always changing, and while words like “saint” can take on new meanings, including the one commonly used in Catholic circles today, we can still acknowledge other uses of the term, including and especially those in the Bible.

Would God Really Send Someone to Hell?

If God is all-good and all-loving, how could he send someone to hell?

At first glance, it seems that he would not. But God is infinitely higher than we are, and our finite minds can only grasp a tiny bit of his infinite mystery.

Therefore, we need to check our intuitions about what God would or would not do against what we know.

In particular, we need to check them against what God himself has told us in his word.

In this video, I take on the question of whether God would really send someone to hell, and I show that we must reject the simple answer, “No, God would never do that.”

But we also see that the matter isn’t as simple as saying that God “sends” people to hell.

Drawing on the teaching of Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we reveals the real reason that people “go to hell”–and the fact that we can avoid this as long as we open ourselves to God’s love.

No matter what we’ve done, no matter how bad our sins, we can–as long as we live–always be saved if we turn back to God and embrace his love.

Here’s the video!

I’m also preparing a message to the Secret Information Club where I “interview” Bl. John Paul II about hell.

Very few churchmen are willing to speak at any length about the doctrine of hell, but John Paul II was one of them, and drawing from his writings, I compose an “interview” that presents his wisdom on the doctrine of hell, its biblical basis, how we should understand it, and what it means for our lives.

If you’d like to receive the interview, you should sign up for the Secret Information Club by Friday, June 15th, and you’ll have the interview in your email inbox on Saturday morning.

You should sign up using this form:

(If you have any trouble, just email me at Jimmy@SecretInfoClub.com.)

You can also go to www.SecretInfoClub.com for more information.

Incidentally, before he hopped on a plane for Israel this afternoon, the globe-trotting author, blogger, and apologist Steve Ray sent me an email (and permission to use it) in which he said:

“Bravo, Jimmy! I look forward to your secret messages as a member of your Secret Information Club.

Actually, I like it that you do a lot of research I wish I had time to do.

Don’t tell anyone–this is a secret–but I copy each one and save it in my Logos Bible Software program for future reference.

Very valuable, fun, and great content. Keep up the good work.”

Steve Ray
www.CatholicConvert.com

Still Time to Find Out What Heaven Is Like!

I’ve now uploaded the next Secret Information Club secret communique for broadcast tomorrow morning!

Still time to get in on all the secret information action!

To find out what Bl. John Paul II says about heaven, signup Friday and you’ll get the special email in your inbox Saturday morning!

You should sign up using this here handy, dandy signup form:

(If you have any trouble, just email me at Jimmy@SecretInfoClub.com.)

Something Wondrous This Way Comes

Author Ray Bradbury has died in Los Angeles at the age of 91.

Bradbury is often referred to as a science fiction author, though he wrote much more broadly than that, including works of fantasy, mystery, and horror.

His titles include some of the best-known in the history of speculative fiction, including:

He worked in both short story and novel form. Many of his stories ended up in film or television form, including episodes of the Twilight Zone and his own Ray Bradbury Theater anthology series.

He is credited by some for having helped bring speculative fiction new literary respect due to his evocative, lyrical writing style that brings out the emotion of a situation rather than just focusing on technology or common fantasy tropes.

One of the things that stands out in Bradbury’s fiction is the way he juxtaposes the normal and the fantastastic. This happens across genres in his works.

KEEP READING.

Don’t Miss the Transit of Venus!

The transit of Venus is an eclipse of the Sun by the planet Venus (only it’s not a total eclipse because the distances are wrong).

The transit of Venus is a rare event. This won’t happen again until 2117! So, last chance to see it (probably)!

This is only the 7th time humans have seen the transit of Venus.

Watch continuous, live coverage at http://events.slooh.com/!

As always, DO NOT STARE AT THE SUN WITH YOUR NAKED EYES (OR EVEN WITH REGULAR SUNGLASSES).

Here’s a current shot (at time of posting):

 

God’s Infinite Mercy

At some point in their lives, virtually everyone has wondered whether they can be forgiven for what they’ve done. The good news is, they can!

But sometimes the doubts linger, particularly for people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and particularly in connection with certain passages in the Bible, such as some in the book of Hebrews that deal with the subject of apostasy–the complete rejection of the Christian faith.

Passages like these:

Hebrews 6:4-6

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Hebrews 10:26

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.

Can an apostate be forgiven? If you’ve knowingly and deliberately rejected Christ, will he take you back? And what is the real meaning of those passages in Hebrews?

In this episode I respond to a gentleman who is struggling with these very issues.

I demonstrate that the Hebrews passages do not mean what the gentleman fears and reveal, instead, the infinite mercy of God.

The good news is: No matter what you’ve done, if you are willing to come back to God, God is eager to take you back. He loves you, and your sins are not greater than his love.

I’m also preparing a special mailing for the Secret Information Club where I “interview” Blessed John Paul II on heaven.

If you’d like to read what John Paul II says about heaven and how we can get there by God’s mercy, you should sign up for the Secret Information Club by Friday, June 8th, and you’ll have it in your email inbox Saturday morning.

You should sign up here (and if you have any trouble, just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com):

Now here’s the show! Just click “Play” to listen!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Who Is the Holy Spirit? (Video)

This Sunday is Pentecost, and to celebrate, I have made a special video in which I demonstrate a simple way that you can show that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person.

The divinity of the Holy Spirit was infallibly defined at the First Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381, but not everyone accepts the fact that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person–one of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that the Holy Spirit is merely God’s “energy” or “active force.”

In this video, I show a simple and surprising way that you can use the Bible to show both that the Holy Spirit is a Person and that he is a divine Person, alongside the Father and the Son.

It starts with a basic argument from the Great Commission, in which Jesus tells the disciples to baptize the nations “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”–and it reveals the unstated implications of this passage.

Then it looks at various passages from the New Testament that reveal the fact that the Holy Spirit has the attributes of a person–not those of merely a force or energy–such as the ability to make choices and to intercede for us.

It then turns to passages which reveal the Holy Spirit actually speaking and using personal pronouns like “I” and “me.”

Finally, it concludes with a passage that reveals what what one does to the Holy Spirit, one does to God, indicating that the Holy Spirit is God himself.

Here is the video, and have a great Pentecost Sunday!

Liturgical Horror Story: Popsicles Made from the Blood of Christ?

A page on CNN’s web site is headlined:

Jesus Christ ice pops made from frozen, inadvertently blessed wine. No, we can’t believe we typed that, either.

The story goes on to explain:

Sebastian Errazuriz has used art to take on an array of issues: New York’s death rate, the Occupy movement, military suicide, children with disabilities, the brutal reign of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Now, the Brooklyn-based artist is taking aim at what he sees as religious extremism.

At a party this weekend celebrating New York Design Week, which begins today, the Chilean-born artist plans to hand out 100 “Christian Popsicles” made of “frozen holy wine transformed into the blood of Christ” and featuring a crucifix instead the tongue depressor that typically hosts the frozen treats, he said.

According to a related story:

“It’s not that I purposely want to get in trouble. I just believe if you are not doing work that can make people stop, think and discuss, then it’s better not to make any work at all,” he said.

Raised in a Catholic household, Errazuriz is now a “practicing atheist,” but he has many friends and family members who are religious, and he respects their beliefs. He has always been vexed by religion, however, particularly the practitioners who wish to force their beliefs on others.

KEEP READING.

One of the Most Important Events in Christian History

This Sunday’s readings deal with one of the most important events in Christian history.

Although the majority of Christians have little or no knowledge of the event, a pivotal moment in the history of the Church is recorded in Acts 10.

This event is the conversion of the household of the Roman centurion Cornelius, and it is important because, when this event occurred, it became clear that one did not have to become a Jew in order to become a Christian. This opened the door to a wave of conversions from people of all nations and kept Christianity from being a purely Jewish phenomenon, ethnically speaking.

But the conversion of Cornelius is controversial. It was in its own day, and it is in ours as well.

Some try to draw lessons from it like everyone should speak in tongues upon their conversion to Christ . . . or that baptism is merely a symbol that does not convey God’s grace.

How can one respond to these claims, and what are the *true* lessons that one can learn from this turning point in the history of Christianity?

In this video episode of the Jimmy Akin Podcast, Jimmy discusses the arguments and reveals both surprising and reassuring facts about the conversion of Cornelius.

This must-see video will prove eye-opening for Christians of all persuasions.

You can watch it here . . .

. . . or DOWNLOAD IT BY RIGHT-CLICKING HERE.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ferro Lad: The Encyclical

So, the other day I was pondering one of the enduring questions, which as been discussed by many eminent Catholic theologians: If Ferro Lad of the Legion of Super Heroes was a papal encyclical, which one would he be?

I think the answer is clear: Ferro Lad would be Mit Brennender Sorge.

Mit Brennender Sorge was a 1937 encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI as an attack on Naziism.

It was surreptitiously brought into powerful, seemingly-unstoppable Nazi Germany and then unexpectedly read from the pulpits of every Catholic Church, where it would be most effective, and bearing the date of Passion Sunday.

It condemned the inhumanity of the Nazis, including their racism, which eventually led to mass genocide.

The name “Mit Brennender Sorge” means “with burning anxiety,” which expresses the concern that the Holy See felt about the actions of the Nazis.

You can see how this all parallels Fero Lad’s situation.

He had to slug Superboy so that he could save Superboy and everyone else by surreptitiously entering the powerful, seemingly-unstoppable Sun Eater and then unexpectedly detonate the payload he was carrying where it would be most effective, on the date of Ferro Lad’s own death (passion).

Like Mit Brennender Sorge, Ferro Lad stood against the inhumanity of the Sun Eater, including the mass genocide that its continued advance would have led to when it ate Earth’s sun.

Finally, Ferro Lad undertook his actions with burning anxiety for all the people of Earth, who were so threatened by the inhumanity of the Sun Eater.

And fortunately, he succeeded, though at a terrible price.

Here are a few panels from Ferro Lad’s heroic last moments of life . . .