The Sabbath…

Many years ago, when I was a child, I wondered why the Bible showed us that the 7th day of the week was a Holy Day, but the Churches my family went to all had the “Holy Day” on Sunday, the 1st day of the week. I never understood it. I asked a minister when I was in my early twenties, why we went to Church on Sunday instead of Saturday as decreed by God in the Bible in giving us the 10 Commandments. The answers I was given didn’t ring right with me, and consisted of “We are celebrating the Resurrection of Christ”.

When Jesus was alive, He kept the Sabbath on Saturday. In fact, the second earliest document that states a change to Sunday was in 74AD for a few small groups, but the general exception of the Christian faith “moving” the Sabbath to Sunday was over 300 years after Jesus passed away. It was not founded on any comments in the Bible, or any such decree from God.

God clearly said that He was celebrating the completion of His work of Creation of the Universe and human kind. The Sabbath was given to all man to be the 7th day of the week, Saturday on the current calender, not Sunday. Why does the Catholic Church and most Protestant Churches celebrate on Sunday?

My research shows a few reasons for this:

The more I pray on this and the more I read the Bible, the more I feel compelled to follow the Commandments of God and take Saturday as the Sabbath. I am still Catholic, will still go to Sunday Mass (and soon to Mass every day with a change in my work schedule), but from sundown on Friday, till sundown on Saturday I will be refraining from work, reading the Bible, and meditating on Christ, the Bible and life. During this time frame, I will not be on my computer, will not be using the phone to check emails, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This does open Sunday to work, such as mowing the lawn as needed, and any other work I have been refraining from doing on Sunday. I feel confident this is what God has told us to do.

In Christ,

D.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus

The Bible that is used by Christians tells us that Jesus was born of Mary. I do not think anyone in the Christian faiths disagrees with this.

All of the main line Christian faiths appear to state that the Trinity, God/Jesus/Holy Spirit, are one.

The Catholic Church, based on Mary being the Mother of Jesus, and God/Jesus/Holy Spirit being one entity, calls Mother Mary, the Mother of God. (Mainly in the Hail Mary/Rosary.) Is that a far stretch? I hear many Protestants complain that Mary is NOT the Mother of God. Do they believe that the Trinity of God/Jesus/Holy Spirit is one entity as their faith professes (in most cases)? If so, how far of a stretch is it to say that Mary is the Mother of God? At least in His human form?

Mary, in an effort to bring the people of God BACK to God, has been reported to appear before many people over the years. In each of these apparitions, she has requested that people come back to the beliefs of the Church created by her Son, Jesus Christ. In each case her message was about Jesus and coming back to him. She would often have the person(s) she was talking to do something to help improve and grow the Church in the name of her Son. (At least those apparitions that have been approved by the Catholic Church.) Many of these apparitions and the messages associated with them brought healing to the recipients.

The Catholic Church believes that Mary was of Immaculate Conception, meaning that she was born without sin, and that she lived a life without sin. This declaration was proclaimed in 1854, and in 1858, St. Bernadette, an uneducated little girl at the time, who had not heard those words before, received the words, “I am the Immaculate Conception” from an apparition of Mary who gave her various instructions to follow. These instructions again tried to point people to the Church and to help grow the Church.

The Catholic Church believes that Mary was ever Virgin. That she had no children after Jesus. Records, such as Protoevangelium of James, that were created in early times (in the case of Protoevangelium of James, it is estimated to have been completed within 60 years of the death of Mary), indicate that Mary was dedicated by her Mother Anna to the Church of God, and that she lived and worked in the Church as a virgin until she was of age and then was to be married to Joseph as her protector, who was an older male with offspring of his own already (wife was deceased). The original Greek word of “Brethren” used in the Bible transcripts meant includes half brothers/sisters, cousins and other close relatives, as was the custom in that time. While the Bible states that Jesus’ brethren were out side, it could well include His half brothers/sisters through Joseph, His cousins, etc. It is curious to me that there is never, in any of the transcripts from that time, that I have read or heard of, telling of Mary ever being pregnant again, and of her having any other child. The early Protestant Reformers, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli, all believed in the Ever Virgin status of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It was their followers that sought to distance themselves even further from their Parent Church for various reasons that removed that doctrine from their faith.

In conclusion, many people of the Catholic faith, put a lot of faith and trust in Mother Mary, talk to her (pray) often and ask her for her intercession with Christ for a better life, or help in life. Who better to ask for intercessory pray that the Mother of Jesus?

Jesus’ command to be one Church…

One thing I like about the Catholic Church is that you can go to any Church, anywhere in the world on the same day and hear the same readings from the Bible. If you go to Mass every day of the year, you will have been read the Bible pretty much completely through.

One of the things that has been foremost on my mind for about three years, is the number of Christian based religions that all say they are the true Christian Church, yet most of them are less than 500 years old. The oldest Christian Church is the Catholic, or Universal Church. This Church has stated that it wants to bring all the Christian Churches “back home”, yet does many things to stop that from happening, based on comments, actions, and in some cases doctrine. (Priest not being able to marry being one such doctrine that has many outsiders, and some insiders not happy.)

Today’s Gospel reading is John 10:11-18 [show]John 10:11-18 [11]I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12]He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. [13]He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. [14]I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15]just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16]And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. [17]For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. [18]No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." (ESV)
, which points even harder to merging the Christian Churches back into one Church, specifically: 16: “…and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Actually many of my readings of late keep pointing to the need for the Christian Churches to merge again and become one in Christ, with one Shepherd.

How do we make that happen?

Religion Today…

As I stated in this post, for the past 5 years I have been very deep into religion and learning more about the various religions out there. I had already spent about 20 years learning, following and teaching about the ways of the Apache Nation, specifically the Mescalero Tribe.

From my studies then and since, I have been convinced that God created the earth, and then gave the, now called, Jewish community His Graces. He saw where sin was taking them and He had various holy people state that there would be a Messiah to come along and save the World. In the thousands of years that the Jewish people had favor with God, they continued to sin and move away from, then closer to, then away from God, in cycles.

As time went on, from my reading of history, the Qur’an, Torah, and “Christian” Bible, I see a nation, the Jewish, following in appearance the rules of God, but at the same time trying to gain wealth and stature in this world, while appearing to follow the rules of God.

Finally God gave the world His Only Begotten Son, Jesus as the Messiah/Christ. When the Jewish world saw this man of extreme knowledge and power, “spouting” words that challenged the leaders of the Jewish communities, and at the same time showing the various traits and happenings that were foretold to the Jewish hundreds of years earlier, the leaders of the Jewish communities, and the Jewish communities as a group shunned and despised the Foretold Messiah as it would mean that they would loose their power and wealth. This even after the Jewish Leaders acknowledged Jesus’ miracles as being done and teachings as being valid.

Since the Jewish communities, as a group, with exceptions of course, were not accepting the Messiah, the Messiah spread the word to the rest of the world, accepting anyone who would take His Word and follow it. In the process He changed the rules of life, opening up the protection of God to those who loved one another, lived as sinless lives as possible, and followed the new Covenant of Christ. Thus began the “new” Church of God, the Christian Church.

My studies show me that this Church started out as one Church that covered two areas, the “East” and the “West”. Many years later those two areas split into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. They follow to this day the same basic practices, with some minor differences, and they both can show an uninterrupted “laying of hands” of the 11 Apostles/Disciples of Christ on their Clergy and Leadership. There is only one Pope, currently Pope Benedict XVI, who is the Head of the Roman Catholic Church, and whom the Eastern Orthodox Church respects and listens to with respect.

The Muslim or Islamic faith began in roughly 610AD when Mohammad began having visions in caves. His following was slow to grow, and grew from fighting and conquering of peoples. To this day, his faith is centered on death of anyone not following his words. His history and sayings didn’t start taking to written text until over 100 years, and in many cases 200-300 years after his death from illness. (This is an area I know least about, but have looked at to an extent.)

The rest of the Christian faith systems currently out there really didn’t start until 1500+ years (just in the last 500 years!) after the Christian faith started through the teachings of Jesus Christ himself! This split from the Orthodox/Catholic Church system was started over protesting various issues in the Church. So, Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic Ordained Priest split from the Church and created his own Church, the Lutheran Church. The rest of the Protestant (derived from protesting) Churches, have come from that split at various levels years later.

The foundation for the Christian faith is recorded in documents that are created in the lifetime of those that witnessed Jesus’ actions, and have been proven through archeology and through various in depth reviews and research from many professions and by people of many faiths, often those trying to disprove them.

Over the last 500 years, and probably longer, the Catholic Church has started heading the way of the original Jewish faith. They have gone towards the desire of money and “fame”. Many of the Protestant Churches and leaders have as well. The Catholic Church has, in the recent 100 or so years, appeared to have gotten away from spreading the Word, and has gotten centered on “shortening” the Word to make it easier for people to come to Church. The Catholic Congregation is more worried about football games, time off to play, etc, than worrying about going to Worship services, etc. For example, the Easter Vigil done on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday normally has 7 large readings that are done, and most Churches, at least in the US do 4 or less of the readings to make time go by faster. The Palm Sunday services, which are historically about 2.5 hours long now last about an hour, and many aspects of the service are shortened or removed to make it a shorter service so more people will come.

One aspect of the Protestant Churches that is good is that many Protestant Congregations know the Bible much better than those of the Catholic basis.

All of these Churches/Faiths, Orthodox-Catholic/Muslim-Islamic/Protestant, pray to the same God of Abraham/David. The Christian side, Protestant/Orthodox-Catholic, using the same Bible (not counting the King James Version, which I am not sure how valid it is to the original wording of the Authors), and with the same intent, and with the Muslim-Islamic faith come from an entirely different direction.

The newest Christian Churches are those that take the current “me” aspect of life that many people are leaning to, and are almost doing away with all the traditions and teachings of the Church and making it a religion that the individual sets up for themselves, almost making themselves God. In many cases the ones I’ve been to have looked like the Pastor, a self appointed “Reverend”, was attempting to make money from tithing while screaming at the top of their lungs about Sin/etc.

The Christian Church needs to get back to it’s roots and get back to the teachings of Jesus and God. Stop hording the money and valuables. Find Christ again, follow His Words and give to the poor, help the needy (go to most Catholic Churches today and ask for help if you are homeless!!), and teach and live the Love of Christ again!

The Christian faith needs to come together again within the Catholic Church grow strong as a single and united Church in Christ. The Catholic Church needs to learn from the Protestant Churches on the evangelizing and missionary practices they are known for, while keeping the items that Jesus and the early Church taught, such as the Eucharistic services, and the process of Mass, which many Protestant Churches have done away with to further remove themselves from the Catholic Church they came from. The Catholic Church needs to look at the early Church and the Priest being married, at least initially, and rethink the need to have Priest being 100% celibate. (In the Old Church, if the wife passed away, the Priest was not allowed to remarry and must remain celibate to his state in life.) This issue is probably one of the biggest issues in the need for new Priest within the Church.

After converting to the Catholic faith last year, I was pretty negative on the Protestant Churches out there. This past two months I have been looking at that negativity closer and am now moving well away from it. All Christians are good as long as they follow the Rules as set down by God through the Commandments and the rules as outlined by Jesus.

Both sides of the Christian Fence should look with less negativity towards the other side of the fence and learn from their piers in Christ!

In Christ!