1 Chronicles 21: 1, 5-14 (RSV) Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel. . . . [5] And Jo’ab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. . . . [6] But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king’s command was abhorrent to Jo’ab. [7] But God was displeased with this thing, and he smote Israel. [8] And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this... Read more
Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History? (Edwin M. Yamauchi, 1974) Was the Tomb Really Empty? (Robert H. Stein, 1977) The Shroud of Turin and its Significance for Biblical Studies (Gary R. Habermas, 1981) The Shroud of Turin: A Rejoinder to Basinger and Basinger (Gary R. Habermas, 1982) Knowing that Jesus’ Resurrection Occurred: A Response to Stephen Davis (Gary R. Habermas, 1985) Review of William Lane Craig’s Book, The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus During the Deist Controversy (Gary R. Habermas, 1988) Resurrection Claims in... Read more
Many people think that Jesus Christ was crucified on a Wednesday (or sometimes Thursday), in accord with the “three days and nights” of Jonah’s stay in the fish’s belly, or that it was not possible for Jesus to be crucified on a Friday. Orthodox Christianity has always held that Jesus was crucified and died on a Friday afternoon (hence, Good Friday), and rose from the dead in the very early morning on the following Sunday (hence the Christian day of... Read more
Radtrad (or sometimes, Rad-Trad, Rad Trad, etc.) is shorthand for “radical traditionalist”. For background (at least from my own perspective) on the definitions of both “traditionalist” and my newly coined term, radical Catholic reactionary (which I started using instead of radtrad on 3 August 2013), see the Introduction and Chapter One, respectively, of my 2012 book, Mass Movements. * * * * * Presently, my interest is in the etymology of the term. I’ve only used it, myself, since (best I can determine) 17 May 2008: Radtrad Thomas E. Woods, Jr. [who has since... Read more
Jesus is both God and Man. He has a human nature and a Divine Nature. The human nature could be subject to time. He was born in history, was killed on a certain date, etc. But God, by nature, is eternal and outside of time, so in His Divine Nature, the crucifixion is timeless and ongoing. That’s why we can speak of His death as both historical and ongoing, and how the Sacrifice of the Mass can occur now as... Read more
Fr. Carlos Martins wrote a blasphemous piece on a public Facebook post, right before Good Friday, on 4-9-20. It’s doubly disgraceful and scandalous, having been written by a Catholic priest. I can’t bring myself to link to it, because then I might be a cause for someone being led astray. I’m sure anyone can find it, anyway, if they insist on doing so. In only two days’ time, it garnered over 1100 Facebook “likes” and 701 comments (mostly rapturous in... Read more
The “Place of the Skull”; Calvary; Golgotha. It’s the epicenter of Christianity: our “holy of holies”; indeed, the spiritual center of the entire universe, for this is the spot where our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was crucified and died for our sake. Golgotha (along with Christ’s tomb) is located within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the walled Old City of Jerusalem. I recently visited there, twice, as part of a pilgrimage party of five. Though I’ve written... Read more
[“pre-trip” / archaeological portion of a chapter from my book, Footsteps that Echo Forever: My Holy Land Pilgrimage; available for as low as $2.99 in e-book format] * * * * * This is a fascinating topic, that has a lot more to do with deductive speculation, historical accounts, sacred tradition, and reckoning of historical geography and architecture than archaeology per se. But the overlap is obvious. Catholics and other Christians who are interested in the historical grounding of the Christian... Read more
One (despite the “politically correct” thought police so prevalent today) is entitled to have an opinion in a scenario where thousands of people are dying, and a good number (many hundreds) take drug X, and in fact, get well (often, dramatically and quickly so). It doesn’t take a science or medical degree (or any degree) to conclude that drug X may indeed be adequate to the purpose: anymore than it takes such knowledge to know and understand that water helps... Read more
In the course of vigorous discussions over my defense of the Pauline Mass (aka Novus Ordo or “New Mass”), my traditionalist friend David Palm (blue font) made the following statements / arguments (each paragraph stands on its own) in my combox in June 2008 (all bolded emphases are my own): * * * * * The heart of the effective traditionalist argument isn’t that the various aspects reintroduced into the Pauline rite are intrinsically wrong–there is acknowledgement that they did at one time exist in... Read more
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