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Christ's Church is a visible Church, not an invisible one. If thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between him and thee alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three...

The "gates of hell" passage means that His Church will never be destroyed and will never fall away from Him. His Church will survive until his return. If the Church abandoned Christ's message (doctrinal error), or changed it on the whim of some individual(s), would it not, in a very real sense...

Interesting note: Power and authority are not the same. Power is "taken." Authority is "given." God (Jesus) gave His Church and those running it His authority to govern and sanctify. He gave the Apostles and their successors the authority to forgive sins, among other things. (John...

Excellent question! Why, indeed, do we have divisions? It began with the Orthodox, splintering off in 1054 A.D. Then, Protestantism, which started in 1517 A.D., and has been continually dividing every since into literally thousands of man-made, doctrinally contradicting divisions. From a...

Sure. No problem. " I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." If the Church ever taught doctrinal error, then the gates of hell would surely have prevailed against it. The Church received the entire deposit of faith from Christ, Who gave it to His...

First of all, translations of the Bible into other languages (English, etc.) is not guaranteed to be correct. In fact, there are always some words/phrases that do not translate well from the ancient Greek into other langauges, and the best that can be done is an approximation. Or in some...

Aunty Jane, seriously, do you just make this stuff as you go along, or is someone doing it for you?

Aunty Jane, you have given an excellent example of why Christianity isn't to be approached with a "do-it-yourself, I'm going to reinvent the theological wheel myself" approach. Jesus didn't hand out the King James Bible to the Apostles and say, "Make as many copies of this as you can, spread...

Medieval monks had a practice of daily praying the 150 psalms. Since lay brothers of the orders were illiterate and couldn’t read the psalms, among them arose the practice of reciting the Our Father 150 times. Beads were used to keep track of the prayers. (The word “bede” in Middle English, from...

The Rosary is the prayer of the Gospel. All the prayers and medidations are certainly in the Bible. The Battle of Lepanti, where a much smaller European navy decisively beat off a much larger Muslim navy who were comeing to attach Euroope. The Pope asked everyone to pray the Rosary for a...

(Actually, that's two questions. :) ) But, Yes, and Yes, I am.

I appreciate and admire the seriousness with which you seek the Lord and His message. Would that all people on earth would do the same! So many are, at best, luke warm. They need prayers. I think many leave out one of the most important parts of understanding Scripture. The Church. St...

Keep in mind that the word "prophecy" in this sense doesn't mean predicting the future. Prophets of the Old Testament were those who spoke for God to give His message. It's important, also, to remember that translations of the Bible are not guaranteed to be completely accurate. Due to the...

"Actual meaning" according to whom? By whose authority? Whose interpretation? 2 Peter 1:20-21 Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy...

I'm not sure where you got your translation of Matt. 1:25, but it is clearly faulty. You, or someone else, added the word "only." Even so, the Bible wasn't written in English, nor was it written within our cultural norms. The word until used back in Jesus' day, did not imply that something...

True faith is never infra-rational (below reason). That would be credulity. True faith is always supra-rational (above or beyond reason). In other words, once reason has done all it can, then faith steps in. We must have reasons why we believe.

Well, keep in mind what St. Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:9, "But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,” In other words, we cannot, here on earth, begin to understand what eternity is...

Have you ever spent some time deep in a very dark cave? Or in a very dark movie theater? Then, come out into the noonday sun? You can't stand being in the sun! The light hurts your eyes! You usually cover your eyes and run back into the dark! Similarly, if we die separated from God, we...

Anything having to do with the occult opens the door to demonic influence in your life. Stay as far away from that stuff as humanly possible.

No, nor is that implied. The Church is, as St. Paul said, the Body of Christ. Christ identifies as one with His Church, and has promised that it will never teach doctrinal error. Recall when St. Paul was going around (before his conversion), persecuting Christians, and Jesus knocked him off...