What About Those Catholics - Revised

My view of Catholics has metamorphosed with time. Am I a beautiful butterfly? Not yet, but I’m no worm either. Catholics don’t give a hoot what I think, nor should they. I care what I think. There exists this Big Huge congregation of people worldwide, professing faith in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and I don’t like thinking of them as not Christian. It bothers me.

My little hometown on the North Dakota Prairie, one thousand people at its peak, had two churches. The “Big Church” North Viking was Lutheran. The “Little Church” (only name I know, and I attended it) was Lutheran. There was a church some miles south of town, South Viking, was a Lutheran Church. And I remember one north of town, yes Lutheran. Several other Lutheran churches lay scattered about the rural countryside. It would not be a stretch to say my hometown was Lutheran. Most people were Norwegian, but although having plenty Norwegian blood, I am a mutt married to a purebred.

A handful of Catholics existed but they took some years to reach critical mass and met in some house, I think. We felt safe as I remember, as long as they met in that house. Then one day, as rumor had it, the Catholics had purchased land within the community, planning a church building. I have no recollection of specific words spoken, only a vague feeling surrounding the calamity. Remember when Sputnik went up, that feeling, Nikita Kruschev pounding his shoe on the UN podium, threatening to bury us, like that.

The church was eventually built in anticlimactic, do-it-yourself style and nothing more came of it.

My only practical knowledge of the Catholics was their extraordinary cooking ability. Each year they held a turkey and all the trimmings feed which we eagerly awaited and stood in long lines to get. Family style, all you could eat. This was the beginning of my Catholic metamorphosis. The way to a man’s heart, no matter how young I guess.

I don’t know how Lutheran’s felt about Catholics exactly, I heard nothing from the pulpit, maybe a Pope shot or two. My mother was not Lutheran, she was Pentecostal so you can imagine her frustration trapped in a Lutheran community. My exposure to anti-Catholic material exceeded a normal Lutheran’s I suppose. I remember the Harlot Church of Revelations, idols, worship of Mary, prayer to Saints … and the Pope never seemed like a nice person, dictators were never popular in our household. But I saw no reason to drift far from the turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes.

Later when I became more involved with evangelical-charismatic teaching and the turkey was only a pleasant distant memory, doctrinal negatives surfaced and I adopted an anti-Catholic theology.

My wife and I started a Bible Study in our Minnesota home in 1975. Many of those involved in our Bible Study were Catholic, nearly the entire town was Catholic so it was no surprise. We tried to hold a nonthreatening approach, sticking to “Good News for Modern Man” it had the imprimatur. We had no idea what to expect and had mixed results. Some accepted Jesus as their personal savior and promptly left the Catholic Church for greener pastures. Some accepted Jesus and stayed in the Catholic Church and are still there. Some felt they had already accepted Jesus through the Church and were happy campers. Sounded like a bunch of Baptists, some saved (personal relationship) some not, and all in the same church. This was straining my anti-Catholic theology.

The Charismatic Renewal was cruising and we found ourselves in a busload of Charismatic Catholics headed for The Kansas City Charismatic Conference held in the summer of 1977. I could not detect a lick of difference between them and us, and every single one as Catholic as the Pope. My position was becoming untenable anti-Catholic wise. Local meetings with Father so-and-so, praying for people to be filled with the spirit, it all became quite hopeless and I decided Catholics must be like the rest of Christendom, some individuals are close to God, some are not, and all slots between those two extremes occupied as well.

Renewal died down, we quit bouncing from meeting to meeting, and I lost track of Catholics. I’m sure they didn’t notice. But now I am in a Bible Study again (30 years later) with a bonafide Christian Catholic couple and the husband is a Big Huge Mary advocate. We also have a wonderful Catholic friend in Florida were we winter like geese. She has been to Medjugorje resulting in a Big Huge life change When she first returned from Medjugorje seventeen years ago, all she knew to do was make Rosaries for people. Now she has much fruit in her life. I am still cautious about these apparitions. There is just something that does not "feel" right.

I’m now reading books on Medjugorje, studying about the Rosary, researching this whole praying to Saints thing. I did no research last time, I do have to close one eye and lean some, I gasp occasionally. Some of it, indulgences for example, may be too far afield for any Protestant perhaps, but if you are a legalist it may work out nicely. And Purgatory, well we Protestants get downright nasty if we can’t at least find some hint of it in our Bibles. Sure there are other Big Huge issues, too.

But the Catholic Church has a long and complicated history, fighting wild-eyed heretics and Kings hundreds of years before Martin Luther was a gleam in old dad’s eye. They can’t just throw out the whole institution and start over. All the powers of Hell have pressured the Catholic Church for two thousand years to distort their message. The Church has resisted and remained on track with their central message of Jesus Christ, not a bad record. Methodists can get up this morning (every four years at least) and decide ordaining homosexual clergy sounds good and bingo, it is done. This is impossible in the Catholic Church. Most and maybe all Catholic doctrine is painstakingly linked to past, new is feared and inspected and has slim chance of adoption without overwhelming "proof". This proof need not come from the Bible for Catholics and that is a problem. Pressure has added to their "Gospel" and all they need to do it is the Pope's say so. Study of Papal backgrounds shows some of them should not have been deciding anything.

Error has unquestionably crept in somewhere. Two Thousand years of pressure and no error, impossible. It is equally as difficult for them to remove old errors as to adopt new ones. We all love our error filled traditions. Catholics have more documentation for theirs. But one wonders about some of the documentation.

The Web is replete with Catholic history. Here is an interesting Rosary history. This praying to Saints article made me think a bit; I can use all the help I can get. So the metamorphosis continues. No butterfly yet and I won’t be converting any time soon, but if Catholics are a tool of Satin, he needs to fire his strategist, in my humble opinion. No group is stronger on right-to-life issues … the list is Big and Huge. I’m no Catholic expert but they trust in a crucified and risen Christ for crying out loud, I’m cutting them some slack. But if attention goes to any one but Christ I can't buy into it ... why risk it, I say. I remain open to suggestions but still not sold.

All I can say is God bless those Catholics for the good they do. I am certain He does, as individuals.

My ecumenism is not going as well as first thought.

I’ll race you to Heaven, with that Purgatory detour I have Big Huge advantage.

by BigHugeThing

Potter’s House

Pastor Melissa Scott

Being a lump of clay is not pretty, nothing beautiful resides in a lump of clay. Potential remains its single redeeming quality, realized only at the hands of the potter. Lumps of clay don’t realize they are lumps. They are oblivious to it. Pain is no Big Huge Thing to a lump of clay. Crushed it flattens, poked it dents, all without a word of complaint. Sound like anyone you know … me neither.

The potter metaphor is a favorite of God’s. It has never been popular with us.

Potter Principles and Adversity Principles link, molding, shaping, blessing … revealing to us who we are, who God is, and what we are becoming.

Now get back on that wheel and shut up … please.

Comment by:BigHugeThing

Drink Water From Your Own Well

Can the Bible give us specific direction in daily living? Don’t go deeply into debt, don’t co-sign loans for others, those are specific directions but I mean more specific, such as which piece of property to buy, where to put a fence, or where to dig a well. Let me tell you a little story.

When I first started in business and built my first hotel (motel then), I bought a piece of property outside the city’s water system and had to drill a well. The driller was familiar with the area and thought we may have problems. He chose a spot closest to the neighboring back lot where he hoped the formations were most suitable. Sure enough the structure was too fine and feared unworkable. He suggested we get permission to drill a test hole on the neighbor’s lot and consider buying the lot. The neighbor was fine with it. We drilled and found the formations much better. The neighbor consented to sell me the property at a fair price.

This caused me considerable turmoil. Being my first project, coming in on budget was important for many reasons, including my total lack of money. Mostly it was my ego on the line, and a crushing fear of everything because of inexperience. We prayed and talked to our Christian friends and had no idea what to do. A good friend came to me after a church service. He related that during his daily Bible reading the Lord had illuminated this passage: Pro 5:15 – “Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well”. We felt good about it and took it as direction from God. I remember thinking it had nothing whatever to do with actual water and wells but the Lord leads in mysterious ways.

We proceeded to poke expensive holes around the lot and finally returned to the original spot and tried making it work. The well driller finally devised a screen to handle the silt and we had a 100 gallon per minute gusher and pronounced it a miracle. The well caused me untold problems for years until city water finally arrived but we struggled through and the whole project succeeded. I told the story for years and it was an inspiring example of the Lord’s leading.

Some years later we needed more land for expansion. I returned to my neighbor, who was no longer interested in selling at any cost, expansion was impossible.

Perhaps the Lord does not lead in these specifics of our life through Bible passages. Perhaps the Lord leads through adversity, opportunity in disguise. The only way we can capitalize on this leading is by using faith and trust. With this mind-set I may have thought, “Ok Lord, this looks bad but where is the good in this. Where is your hand in this seeming problem and trouble.”

Fear could have vanished, fear of failure, fear of finances, fear of looking stupid, fear of being abused, fear of paying for the neighbor’s lot. With this mind-set I may have been much more likely to have seen the opportunity of more land, and less likely to grieve over the injustice of it all.

The practical advantages to this would have been:
1. Not spending thousands on dry holes (making the lot price even more attractive)
2. The banker would have seen the necessity and provided the money
3. We would have easily, in retrospect, paid for the land and thought nothing of it.
4. Having a much better well with fewer problems
5. Acquiring more land at a fair price (that God knew I would need or want later)
6. Much more sleep.
7. A happier family

The spiritual advantages would have been:
1. Learning this adversity principle at age 36 instead of age 60.
2. Avoiding years of turmoil and depression
3. Having a closer relationship with God
4. Becoming more like Christ and less like a raving lunatic.
5. A happier family

Do I blame my friend? Don’t be silly. We were all on the same wrong page and doing the best we could. Many thoughts went into the decision, most of them confusing. The project in general has been a great blessing. We are long past the issue and it appears inconsequential now in light of my long, unlearned lesson list. God is faithful and has allowed constant adversity. Understanding it took way too long.

Will adversity stop now that I have “learned my lesson?” Practice is required I suspect. Unavoidable misery fills the world. I’ve only scratched the surface, yet I have no desire to be an expert. Trial is always hard, the blessings are many and wonderful but misfortune is hard. We need not seek it out though … it will come. We must see through it, beyond it to God’s hand.

How did I get so smart? My current suffering opportunity has finally opened my eyes. It is Big and Huge and not my fault … yet still happening; multiple troubles. It is so bizarre and out of my control that God is my only answer. So I looked for Him in it and there he was. Rather I looked at its hopeless immensity and He revealed Himself. The more I see God in it the more I am changed for the better, peace, joy, trust, etc. My vision improved and I could see old adversities with new clarity. Thus my well story.

This was a lesson God insisted I learn or die trying. I feel honored and encouraged that He would want me to know. Yes, I feel a little beat-up but honored and encouraged, nonetheless.

I’m not going to bore you with long lists of Biblical references on how God uses adversity. Scripture is full of it. We just need to understand how it applies to us, on a personal relationship with God level (always the primary consideration).

Oh well, better late than never (procrastinator’s handbook, page 1)

by BigHugeThing

Peace Like a River (2009) - The Movie

Peace Like a River (2009)

I wonder how they will handle the part where Dad is praying and walks in mid-air off the wagon? I loved this book ...

Comment by:BigHugeThing

Against All Odds

Against All Odds

The land of ancient and modern miracles documented.

This is such a wonderful subject amidst struggle and death. I pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and God's Covenant People.

Comment by:BigHugeThing

I’m Starting A New Religion

Starting a new religion should be easy. Look at how many have arisen already. I would think with that much good track record out there we could climb on the rails and go for it. I have the basic idea for one, of course some details need refining, but generally it’s a go.

First off we need to incorporate several, perhaps even most, of some already successful religion. Numbers mean everything here … many followers and followers mean finances. If we do a good job with this, we will be rich, probably famous, definitely powerful and have hoards of loyal followers.

Out of the possible religious pools, it seems reasonable to tap into a big one. Islam is huge and a great possibility because there is so much argument about what they believe and documentation is sketchy at best. But their religion is closed and it is difficult to get information into their closed system. At least worldwide this is a problem. We could probably pick off a few Muslims in the US, but if I’m going to all of this trouble and taking all of this time to start a new religion, I want it to be global. It just makes sense. Christianity is enormous. Their religion is open, mostly. Catholics may be problematic because of that whole infallible Pope thing, but I believe the infallibility idea is dying out at the grass roots level. The other Christian groups appear open to new ideas. I believe we have found our source of loyal followers … Christians.

Now what should we incorporate from Christianity. What is basic to their belief. Man is sinful and needs a redeemer. The redeemer is Jesus Christ, who is God, came to earth as man, died for their sins, rose again and if they accept this truth, they inherit salvation. I see no problem with any of that in my new religion. I’m not out to change the world, I just want to be rich, famous, powerful and have a bunch of people following me somewhere, I don’t care where.

So what’s new out there? Well, it can’t be so crazy it freaks them out. Even crazy works (that’s been proven) but I would think it much more difficult. It should be to a certain extent supernatural but leaning toward scientific at the same time. Perhaps it can be an improvement on, or extension of an existing belief. It should not be provable or testable. We should be able to rely on the placebo effect here. Odds are that whatever we come up with will appear to work for someone, and we will make a big deal about it. Their “testimony” will serve us well, new book possibly, perhaps they can become a TV host. Prosperity is important but personal empowerment is Big and Huge. Personal riches and power is certainly as important to my potential followers as it is to me, I would think. We can adopt several humility slogans, talk about obedience, that kind of thing, give it a nice religious feel.

Ok, it’s coming together for me. Quantum mechanics. I know it doesn’t sound like it now, but quantum is the perfect basis for my new religion. It is scientific. It is not provable, at least most of it is not. That is the beauty of it. This whole area of physics is not observable or testable, therefore not provable and more importantly, not disprovable. It is safely scientific and wonderfully supernatural at the same time.

But how can we make a religion out of quantum mechanics, you ask. We don’t. Remember Christianity is our base religion, we just want to be the quantum movement within Christianity, the Quantumites. We never want to get so far from our Christian pool that we lose our source of followers. Let’s brainstorm here. There are too many details to create the complete picture right now and we will get clarity as we develop over the years.

Science believes quantum events are so “sensitive” that we alter them through observation. They have no idea really, how charming. Let’s take it a step further. If we can change the essential fundamentals of matter and energy, possible even space and time, by observing it (is that the same as looking at it?), can we alter it by thinking about it or speaking about it. This is Big and this is Huge!

Pro 23:7 for as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

We can make ourselves into whatever we want by thinking. We’ve always loved that verse and we stand upon it!

The Bible is going to come in supremely handy here. I can see that already. The fabric of the universe is ours to alter, create as it were. We are creators, and science is on our side. We are essentially Gods.

Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your Law, "I said, You are gods?"
Joh 10:35 If He called those gods with whom the Word of God was, and the Scripture cannot be broken,

When we understand this powerful truth nothing is impossible to us. This is what Jesus meant when he said:

Luk 17:6 And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine tree, Be rooted up and be planted in the sea! And it would obey you.

I know there is something about a mountain somewhere we can use … Jesus walking on water … every miracle. This is why Jesus and basic Christianity are no problem for us; they are assets. If we take these Scriptures out of context, they can mean anything we want, within reason of course. Even in context most people don’t know what they mean, we will just have another of many interpretations. Don’t worry about accusations of heresy. One Christian’s heretic is another Christian’s bearer of truth. We will fit right in. All those pseudoscience people out there, nonChristians, will love this. They will finally see the light and become “Christian” because it finally makes scientific sense. The pool is expanding already.

I know, there is already that Word of Faith bunch out there, but they give us credibility. We are improving on their doctrine, we know now why and how it all works. I am certain we can get many of them to join us anyway because this is such an improvement on what they teach. The added “scientific proof” is irresistible and being able to change the planets, perhaps even create them (when we are better at it of course) … Jesus understood these quantum principles, obviously. He is just now revealing them to me, I mean us, but through me.

Even I feel like following Me. Now we have to think of what to call it.

Let’s open up that bank account.

PS. It will take some time to get my web site up so I refer you to Bleep. Please download the movie trailer and of course buy and read everything. This will get you started down the right path to being “all that you can be” until I get my new religion off the ground. At which time I will incorporate Bleep into essential learning and motivational material.

Happy Creating!

by BigHugeThing

Creation: How long did it take?

God created the heavens and the earth. Many of us agree on that point. Many people don’t so they are gone already. I hope they change their minds. How long did all this take? Wow, a Big Huge subject and more of us will disagree. Mainstream science thinks it took a long time. Many of us who believe “God created” also believe he took a long time. It was His choice after all. I know your Bible says days, but the Hebrew word there is “yom or yowm”. As with all things Old Testament, “yom” must be taken in Hebrew context and arguments are convincing that consider “yom” a long period of time. A Jewish view of creation is interesting. Jesus, after all, was Jewish, as were most of the Bible writers. This discussion has, itself, been going on for a long period time. So we can’t blame everything on Carl Sagan (just to pick a nemesis).

Atheists find this all quite wonderful and write articles such as “How Hubble Killed God”. They don’t get it at all but they are having fun and sounding smug, smart, informed, logical and objective. Good luck with that.

Why the big deal? I sort of agree, although it would be nice to be close to what actually happened. I lean toward the longer time periods because the science of it is overwhelming and I think the Bible possibly leans that way as well, perhaps directly stating it. The big panic is some people are all hung up on “original sin.” Death came with Adam. Take a peek under the “motives” behind young earth and this is the issue. If a bug died before Adam’s sin then God is evil because DEATH existed with that bug, and Adam had not yet sinned and caused all this evil. OK, the Bible clearly says death of man started with Adam. Man not bugs, get over it. And if you are hung up on the death of some dinosaur or bug as being sin and therefore destroying the integrity of Scripture, you need to join those P.E.T.A. people and start picketing somewhere. But I love you anyway, just don’t send me any signs or donation requests.

Evolution is particularly terrifying to Young Earth followers. Let's not give old Crow Magnon enough time to become somebody. Mr. Magnon has more trouble than time, but that is for another post.

I’m not saying there are not real, live, breathing scientists on the Young Earth side. But they are so undone by the prospect of any death before Adam’s sin that they torture the science relentlessly, possibly to prove their point, but at least to cast doubt on Old Earth. Their trick (perhaps unkind) is to take any scientific anomaly (there are within many measurement systems and theories anomalous errors) and puff them as proof. Great stuff for Joe Christian but never effective on the informed because these anomalies are well known and understood. Oh well, it takes all kinds and I wish them the best. God seems not to take offense at this and probably gets a kick out of it. Reminds me of the “straining at a gnat,” quote in Jesus time. I daresay the Lord is more concerned about how these two sides are treating each other than the right or wrong of specific points. I believe these people are all good people and trying to do the right thing so God Bless them, and perhaps they are correct after all.

If it turns out God did choose to do all this in six 24-hour periods, one wonders why all the scientific evidence to the contrary. I will enjoy a good laugh with God however, if that is what He did. He surely had them all fooled. God is not humorless after all, but I don’t see the trick here.

Is there any hope for the young earth people. Not much, but Australian scientists Barry Setterfield and Trevor Norman claim a decrease in the velocity of light over time. This would make everything much younger than it appears. They swim upstream in the scientific community but that does not make them wrong, just less likely right. Science is so convinced in the speed of light constant it would take much to convince. The Barry Setterfield interview is interesting.

I have heard it said there is more evidence for a flat earth than a young one. The discussion gets downright mean at times.

I find it all interesting but irrelevant to my walk with or belief in the God of the Bible. An old trick of Satan may be operating here, his first and best trick in fact. He persuaded Eve to add to God’s words. Or maybe it is simply our nature to add and Satan takes advantage of it.

Gen 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

God did not say they could not touch it. One can imagine Satan persuading Eve to touch the tree (how bad can that be) and, hot dog, she did not die. See, God was wrong. We need to be certain of what God actually said or we end up in BIG HUGE TROUBLE.

Did God say six twenty four hour periods?

Maybe he did but s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d time: Age of the Universe Gerald Schroeder, Ph.D. Ancient Jewish scholars lean toward 24-hour periods. This time dilation is my personal favorite. God did carve in stone that it was six days "for in six days" Ten Commandment style. But from who's viewpoint is the question. It allows God 6 days and me 15 billion years.




One should mention the Gap Theory. I'm not taken with it, you may be.

If you have decided this subject is much more complicated than first thought, you would be correct. I believe God wants us to view it as 7 actual days for prophetic reasons. I am sure they were literal days in some way.

Has Science Discovered God? (Fantastic presentation I viewed on EWTN, a home school must have)

You can listen to an excellent discussion on this by Chuck Missler.

Some very smart people question Einstein (Gasp)! Here is Mr. Flanders on Gravity. Without relativity, many concepts change. Even Big Bang has some problems (Gasp2)! More BB problems.

By BigHugeThing