Religious Thought for the 21st Century

Anyone who loves to read the gospels know very well the famous question posed to Jesus by John from the dungeons of Herod's prisons. The Gospel of Matthew relates the story of how John as he agonized with doubt sends some of his disciples to Jesus Matthew 11:2-4    Now when  John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent  word  by his disciples   and said to Him,   “Are You  the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”   Some loyal  exegetes have supported John's question asserting that he had send his disciples, because, being them who had the doubts, Jesus could resolve them. Interestingly that while some exegetes cannot come with some a reason for Jesus praying at Gethsemane other than fear, a defense arose for John's explicit lack of faith in Jesus in such a critical moment.  According to many John recovered his faith before dying. That idea does not come from any passage of scriptu...

Father Michael H. Crosby's article   Why Didn’t John the Baptist Commit Himself to Jesus as a Disciple?  makes a very good point about the reality of making exegetical work. He writes: In the “Interpretation of the Bible in the Church,” the Pontifical Biblical Commission (q.v.) discusses “pre-understanding.” This notion refers to ways we approach a biblical text with certain mindsets that cannot find verification in the text itself. This presents a “danger,” according to the PBC. It notes that in “Catholic exegesis, the risk is that of attributing to biblical texts a meaning which they do not contain but which is the product of a later development within the tradition. The exegete must beware of such a danger” (§513). Aware that this “pre-understanding” may color our own “received” notions about John the Baptist, his story as well as that of his disciples, yet building on 25 points raised in the four Gospel accounts, I have concluded that nothing in the scriptures sho...

From the year 392 A.D., when Christianity acquired the position of the state religion of the Roman Empire, till the year 800 A.D., when Charlemagne was enthroned as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, a type of feudalistic system emerged in which western Europe was led by 5 different patriarchates. This time period corresponded providentially to the time of the Judges in Israel. 5 Patriarchates Twelve Tribes of Israel From the time Joshua and Caleb led the Israelites into Canaan until the time Saul became king of Israel, the Jewish people had a feudalistic system in which the different tribes had to unify. For that they had to build a temple as the unifying symbol. The different tribes had a leading figure that functioned as king, chief priest, and prophet. Joshua became the first judge. Other famous ones are Gideon and Samson. Samuel received the calling from God when he was a child. He was the last judge and the one who anointed the first king of Israel. Ongoing conflicts ...

The Cry of God's People for Liberation Luke 18:7-8 .. . will not God  bring about justice for His  elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He  delay long over them? I  tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes,  will He find faith on the earth?” Matthew 10:16-22   “ Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; ...   But beware of men, for they will hand you over to  the   courts and scourge you  in their synagogues;   and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.   ... “ Brother will betray brother to death, and a father  his  child; and  children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.   You will be hated by all because of My name, but  it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved." The Period beginning fro...

The Prophet Malachi by James Tissot For those who read the previous two posts, they can see that the last period of 400 years is a period that parallels the time from Malachi to Jesus. Both periods are referred to as periods of preparation. What is the preparation for? The first period attempts to demonstrate that the long history of the Jewish people from the time of Joseph until the time of Jesus was a time through which God educated the Jewish nation to prepare themselves to receive the Messiah. The Jewish people would never believe that they were destined to reject God's representative. Their history confirms that claim and repudiates the idea that they were predestined by God's will to reject the Messiah. The period of time from Malachi to Jesus is one in which the Jewish people's desire to receive the promised Savior increased in intensity as they were subjected to foreign powers that disrespected their religious practices and attempted to impose the religi...

  In the above table we have a line of the progress of history according to the biblical texts from the time of Adam to the time Joseph went into Egypt. The numbers below each section represent the numbers of years that passed between the times of each person or specific events. For instance, the first number 1600 represents the time that passed from Adam to Noah, the next number, 400, represents the 400 years from Noah to Abraham. The time slots for Jacob are subdivided into three periods. the first 40 represent the number of years from birth until Jacob went into Haran, the 21 years he spent there follows, and then the final 40 years after he reconciles with Esau until his son Joseph becomes a leader in Egypt. If we look at the next two time periods we find that the number of years follow the same patter though multiplied by 100. This occurs because now we are dealing not with the work of just some individuals and their families but with the entire Israelite people and ...

Is There a Movement in History Towards a Better World? We live in a world filled with conflicts, disease, family problems such as divorce and child abuse, and a list of such serious problems that any sensible person should ask himself whether history has any divine intervention, much less any direction at all.   People of faith assert that God has intervened in history in the past and continues to guide history behind the scenes. To proof this the most they can do is point to the stories written thousands of years ago in religious texts such as the Bible. That argument can only be accepted by the faithful and not by people who rely on more scientific means of verification.  Is there any type of proof that can indicate that history is moving towards the realization of some ideal world in the future? Can we find evidence in the books of the Bible that the Creator of the Universe is not some type of deist god who created us and left us to deal with our own pro...