If you follow Catholic media then you have seen the great content that Ascension press has released this year. The Bible In a Year podcast took the Christian world by storm and at one point was the #1 podcast around. It is truly astounding and millions have embraced the daily study of the scriptures as a result. Below is a press release that is published in its entirety by permission. There are even more exciting things in store. The Bible in... Read more
Ecclesiastes, aka Qohelet, is much more than a book that is asking difficult questions. Chances are you will not hear many homilies on Sunday morning from this book. This need not be the case as there is much in this book that the believer can relate to. We all struggle and wonder why evil is not being eradicated in our day. During the time of the postexilic period, there were many times when the future of Israel was threatened. As... Read more
Catholic author Jim Sano recently joined me for a fun discussion about faith and his great book titled “The Father’s Son”. It is book one of as trilogy in the catholic fiction genre that is filled with great apologetics and evangelization content. Jim discusses how the book came about, his research, how the story developed, and the amazing feedback that he has received. Check Out The Father’s Son Learn more about Jim by visiting his website at www.jimsano.com. Check out... Read more
Ecclesiastes ends with an epilogue in 12:13-14 which states, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (ESV). The judgment given is individual, but it is also a message for all mankind. These two verses would seem to conclude that Qohelet (aka Ecclesiastes) did believe in an afterlife and... Read more
Over the past couple years I have seen a lot of chatter on Twitter about socialism and Catholicism. Can this economic system be a viable option for a Catholic? Is it compatible with church teaching? In March I had the honor of interviewing two great people on the subject. I asked the question, can a catholic be a socialist? Background On The Socialist Debate The two people I interviewed in March are Sam Rocha and Trent Horn. They had a fascinating debate on this subject... Read more
I have said it here, and in other mediums, that the book of Ecclesiastes is a book that many have struggled with through the history of the church. There are times that it seems contradictory and perplexing if one is not in tune to the overall message of the book. The key to Qohelet is hevel, or hebel in English, as it appears 38 times in the book and also appears very early in 1:2 [1]. Is there a uniform... Read more
Dr. John Bergsma recently joined me to discuss the dead sea scrolls and their influence on Early Christianity. What did the Qumran community the Messiah? Who was the Teacher of Righteousness? What was the significance of ritual bathing? What was so important about the way they prepared for meals and the position of the presider? He answers all this and much more. One of the Dead Sea Scrolls Dr. Bergsma And The Dead Sea Scrolls Learn more about Dr. Bergsma... Read more
Mike Aquilina joins me today to discuss the church fathers and the role that friendship had in evangelizing. Mike is a leading expert on the Church Fathers and we go through many examples to show how important friendship was to the spread of the Gospel. We also discuss how we can use this method in our own time. Mike wrote a great book about this topic titled “Friendship and the Fathers: How The Early Church Evangelized”. Friendship And The Church... Read more
You may recall in the analysis of the passage in Ecclesiastes 3 that the Hebrew word Mishpat was the key to understanding the text and subsequent postmortem judgement. Ecclesiastes 5 also uses the term, but it does so in a way that a man judges another man. However that changes in 11:9 which states, “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the... Read more
When I first started taking the idea of Catholicism seriously it was natural to look into the papacy. I’d wonder how if the word “pope” isn’t in the Bible, why does this man have so much power? At first, I thought it was a power play and Catholics let the old man in Rome tell them what to do (no disrespect intended). But after digging into the practice of the Early Church I was stunned to see that the papacy is... Read more
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