Will God Help Me Through My Tough Times?

Question from St. Agnes Confirmation Class...

 

     This is a heartfelt question.  I don't know what you may be going through.  Whoever you are, my family and I will pray for you.

 

     The quick answer is: Yes.  God always gives us the ability we need to get through our tough times, whatever they are.  But this can seem trite or condescending if not explained more.

    

     God loves you.  God loves you for who you are right now.  He wants you to love Him in return.  That is why He gave us the freedom to choose.  There can be no love with out a free choice.  God does not want us to go through unnecessary suffering, but He knows if He gave us the freedom to love Him we could also choose "not Him", or sin.

     This is one of the reasons why He doesn't just zap all evil and sin away.  He wants us to love Him.  If we don't have that choice, there is no love.

     I am not saying that your suffering is your fault or due to your sin, necessarily.  My point is God helps each of us through all those times, though because of sin, I don't always see it.  Certainly I hardly ever "feel" it. 

     Worse for me, I often misunderstand how He helps and comforts me.  I always want a blinding light from heaven, angel messengers, voices from clouds and to be knocked off my horse!  Something BIG, something FLASHY, something I cannot deny.  But most often God uses His creation to be with us, to communicate with us and to comfort us.  So while I'm looking for angels, I miss the friend who asked me "How are you?";  While I'm listening for voices from a cloud, I miss the Mass readings, homily and prayers that have words of comfort or encouragement for me; while I'm waiting to be knocked off my horse, I miss my dog curled up on my lap.

     God always gives us what we need to get through WHATEVER suffering and difficult times we have.  Yes even that!  But we have to be open to how He comforts us and where He gives us the strength:  Prayer (memorized prayers; "just talk to Him" prayers; prayers at Mass; prayers of others; prayers to Saints), The Eucharist, Confession, Scripture, friends, family, the "ordinary" all around us. 

     But it is very difficult to see this while going through suffering.  Many times I only recognize it after the fact.  Then I often forget to thank God when I do recognize His help, love and comfort.

    Now when we say, "God will give us the strength to see us through..." we don't mean we're going to breeze through like it was nothing.  Did you ever watch the end of a marathon race?  Did you ever see the people who collapse as soon as they pass the finish line?  They spent everything they had to get there.  Most of the time it's like that.  Did you ever see the person who had to crawl the last 100 yards because they can't even stand?  Sometimes it's like that too.  God gives us the strength to see us through... not necessarily jumping and skipping while whistling the 'Smurf' theme song!

    Mother Theresa once said, "God never gives us more than we can handle, I just wish He wouldn't trust me so much."

    But it's not just about "getting through".  God is infinitely good and because He loves us SO MUCH, He does something amazing for us:  "We know that God causes all things to work for good for those who love Him..." (Romans 8:28).  Did you catch that?  God causes ALL things to work for good:  your sufferings, difficult times, everything!

     Even if we don't see it, ALL our difficulties, sufferings and horrible things in our lives, God WILL cause to work for GOOD, if we love Him.  How do we know this?  The Crucifixion.  The most innocent man ever was subject to the most evil, unfair, horrible suffering.  What did God do with that?  He used it to bring us the Resurrection, the freedom from our sins (if we confess and are sorry for them) and the hope that we will live forever with Him in Heaven!

      God does the same with our sufferings.  Whatever someone suffers in this life, if they love God, God will transform that into a greater Good!

      God is with you.  God weeps with you, He sits with you in your darkness and is with you in your loneliness.  Even if you cannot see Him, hear Him or feel Him, He is there; He loves you and wants the best for you.  He wants you to choose Him, even if you don't "feel" like it and if you do, you will make it through AND something better will come of your having suffered... even if you don't see the good in this life.

 

God Bless you!

    

April / May Newsletter

In this month's newsletter:

1) Spring means: Street Evangelization time!  Want to see us in action?

2) Jesus: did He exist?  Was He just a "good moral teacher"?  More evidence for the Resurrection.

Street Evangelization Time!

     Spring is here!  Well, ok, it's technically been here for over a month but the weather is finally - hopefully - taking a turn for the warmer.  For the apostolate it means street evangelization season!

     As you may remember, as much as our apostolate is about teaching the evidence for Catholic Truth, we're even more about actually talking to people about it!
     No, we don't use soap boxes, bull-horns, signs that warn of hell or accost people asking if they're accepted the Church as their only means of salvation.
     We follow the model set up by St. Paul Street Evangelization (http://streetevangelization.com/).  We do a non-confrontational, non-approach, low-key evangelization.  What we do is set up a table with free materials, a sign that says "Catholic Truth: Need Prayer?  Have Questions?  Free Materials, Find True Joy" then we sit back, pray and wait to see who the Holy Spirit sends our way.
     You don't need to know a lot to do it.  Mostly you just need to know Your Story:  what was your life like before you took your faith in Christ seriously, how you came to take your faith in Christ seriously and how your life has changed since.
     Most people lead lives of quiet desperation, to paraphrase Thoreau.  They have holes in their hearts - God-sized holes - they are trying to fill with something other than God.  They desire, crave to hear the Good News.
     Do you want to see how we do it?  Do you want to experience the Holy Spirit moving in the Green Bay area?
     We have space for a few people who are interested in just knowing more, or just watching, to join us.  You don't have to do any of the evangelizing; just watch and pray.
     If you want to join us, the first date is May 23rd, in the morning, at DePere Fest.  This is going to be limited to just 3 or 4 people per date.  Please contact us through either the Facebook page or email: fidei_defensor@yahoo.com.

2)  This month's meeting we wrapped up evidence for the existence of Jesus, Jesus' Divinity (as well as humanity), and evidence for His Resurrection.  Since I posted a lot of the evidence for the Resurrection already, I'll focus more on the first two section.

Did Jesus even exist?

     In the last two hundred years or so we've seen the advent of the idea that Jesus Christ never existed.  More recently, claims from militant atheist (and comedian) Bill Mahr, his movie "Religulous" (mix of "religious" and "ridiculous") and the all too popular youtube movie "Zeitgeist" state that Jesus Christ was just a myth based on Egyptian myths in their "Book of the Dead."

There are many things that make this claim problematic.
1) The "Egyptian Book of the Dead" was not one book.  When a person with enough money died either a scroll or a carving on their coffin was commissioned.  This scroll / carving depicted the deceased entering the after life.  Each one was different with different activities the deceased did in life, different ways of passing into the afterlife and different adventures there.  Each one was called a book of the dead.  All told there are thousands of "Book(s) of the Dead."  Some of them included different aspects similar to the life of Christ.

For the claim that Christ is a myth based on the "Book of the Dead," the disciples would have to have had access to all of these books, be able to read hieroglyphics, know Egyptian religion / myths well enough to understand what they meant and then cut / paste certain aspects of certain books and weave them into the most believable "myth" of all times.

Related is the idea that Jesus Christ is a myth based on the Egyptian god Horus, or that the Romans started.  Instead of going into it, I'll just link some Catholic Answers articles about it:  No, the Romans did not invent Jesus. 

2) This would make the Apostles liars.  This is very related to a point I'll make later in the post: The Apostles were willing to preach Jesus, and Him crucified and Resurrected, to the point of horrible torturous deaths.

This also brings up a question: to what end would the Apostles lie?  Most liars on this magnitude do so for some gain.  Since this point is identical to the objection that Jesus was a liar, I'll detail it out there.

3) We have good, historical evidence of Jesus' existence: The Roman Historian, Tacitus (AD 54 - 115) says that a sect of the Jews, Christians, who's leader was crucified under Pontius Pilot in the reign of Tiberius. 

We also have the testimony of Pliny the Younger (AD 61 - AD 115) and Suetonius (AD 75-160) who believed Christ to be a minor revolutionary.

There's also the writings of Josephus, a Jewish Historian (AD 37-94) who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans.  His works include this following quote:

"About this time appeared Jesus, a wise man (if indeed it is right to call Him man; for He was a worker of astonishing deeds, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with joy), and He drew to Himself many Jews (many also of Greeks. This was the Christ.) And when Pilate, at the denunciation of those that are foremost among us, had condemned Him to the cross, those who had first loved Him did not abandon Him (for He appeared to them alive again on the third day, the holy prophets having foretold this and countless other marvels about Him.) The tribe of Christians named after Him did not cease to this day." (Antiquities XVIII, iii, 3)

People dispute this quote as authentic.  The most disputed parts are in the parentheticals.  It is possible that an early copyist was a Christian and inserted the parentheticals.  I will say two more things on this quote:  1) according to New Advent (the Catholic encyclopedia) there is no copy of Josephus known that does not have the parentheticals; 2) There is a very good case to be made that most of this quote is completely authentic.

We also have a host of Christian writings starting first and foremost with the Gospels.  Do not let someone throw out the Gospels as historical evidence.  We can look at the Gospels / Christian writings as historical writings and take into account what they say.  One thing none of them say is that Jesus was made up, only a spiritual idea or a myth.  They all profess that He was a real person who lived, died and rose from the dead.

There are also 42 references to the existence of Jesus Christ within 150 years of His death / Resurrection.  In comparison there are only 10 for Tiberius Caesar and 2 for William Wallace.

It is also interesting to note that for 1800 years, no one doubted the existence of Jesus Christ and the vast majority of historians believe Jesus Christ existed; even the enemies of Christ believed he existed.  Here's a Catholic Answer's pod cast specifically on whether or not Jesus existed:

Just a 'Good Moral Teacher'

The next objection is usually that Jesus existed, but He was not God, but only a man; a 'good moral teacher.'  Usually this is coupled with the idea that Jesus never claimed to be God.

However, if we look at the Gospels, and take them in context, we can see plainly that Jesus claimed to be God: Jn 1: Jn 8:58-59; Jn 10:30-33; Jn 20:28.

Some may object saying the idea of Jesus being God only appears in John's Gospel.  The objection continues saying that Jesus was only a man but the early Christians LATER thought of him as God.  This is why, according to the objectors, only John's Gospel - the last Gospel written - refers to Jesus as God.

This is objectively false.  All four Gospels, taken in a 1st Century Jewish context, have Jesus claiming to be God: Mk 2:28; Mt 12:8; Lk 6:5.

Liar, Lunatic or Lord

Once we see that Jesus claimed to be God, we have entered C.S. Lewis' famous argument of "Liar, Lunatic or Lord."  The thought process goes like this:

Jesus claimed to be God.  This is either right or wrong.  There are no other possibilities.  If it is wrong, Jesus either knew that He wasn't God or He didn't.  These are the only two possibilities.

Liar

Let's propose that Jesus knew His claim to be God was false.  This would make Him a liar.  Not just any liar, He would be lying about the most important thing ever: that you can live forever with Him, if you believe in Him.  This isn't just any liar, this would be a pathological liar.

But we must ask, if He is a liar, to what end?  People who lie do so with a purpose.  So, was Jesus' purpose fame, fortune, pleasure, power?  If those were His purpose, He was horrible at it.  He owned only a cloak at the end, everyone left Him - except His mother, a couple other women and one disciple - He ended up crucified and was powerless by the world's standards.

Also, reading the Gospels, He does not fit the profile for a pathological liar.  He is kind, helps people, heals people and comforts people.  Name me another pathological liar who did these things.

We can reasonably eliminate 'liar' as a possibility.

Lunatic

What if He claimed to be God but didn't know He was wrong?  That would mean He was delusional, mad, insane, in other words a lunatic.  But there's a major problem with that: He doesn't act like a lunatic at all:  Jesus is orientated to time and date; He addresses people by proper titles, names etc; He yells at people He's angry with, He cries when something sad happens; He helps people who are sick and feeds people who are hungry; He eats when He's hungry, sleeps when He's tired, washes things that are dirty etc.

In the Law Enforcement world, there is, at times, the need to place people into treatment centers who are deemed to have gone insane.  There are behaviors, signs and symptoms that must be observed before Law Enforcement can place them into a treatment center.  Jesus does not meet any of the criteria.  No Law Enforcement Officer would place Him in a treatment center based off of Jesus' behavior as written by the eye-witness testimony of the Gospels.

We can reasonably eliminate 'lunatic' as a possibility.

Lord

The only possibility left is that He called Himself 'God' and He was right.  I.E. He is Lord! 

Good Moral Teacher?

Notice, when we apply logic, the only thing that is not possible is that Jesus was only a good moral teacher.  To clarify, we agree that Jesus was a good moral teacher; He was the Best Moral Teacher of all time; but we cannot agree that He was "only" a good moral teacher.

If Jesus was lying about being God, is that a 'good moral teacher'?  If He's lying about something this huge, how can we follow Him on anything else?

If Jesus was insane, is that someone we should follow?  For example, if we heard that someone was calling himself an egg...  "Before Abraham was, I am an egg!"; "The Son of Man is the egg of the Sabbath!"  "The Father and I are eggs!"  How could we possibly follow Him as a 'good moral teacher' unless we too were insane!

No, the only title given to Jesus by the modern world that is not possible is "Only a good moral teacher."

The Resurrection

The fact that Jesus is God is backed by the greatest miracle of all time, the Resurrection.  In other posts I have gone over much of the evidence for the Resurrection: The Bare Minimum Facts argument; the 'Swoon Theory', 'The Apostles Stole the Body', and 'The Tomb was not Empty' objections.  Please check out either the earlier posts on this blog or our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/fideidefensorgb for those explanations.

Before we end I wanted to address what I promised above: one more reason we know the Apostles didn't just make the whole thing up.  This is also one of the 'Bare Minimum Facts' and it is attested to by non-Christian historical writings: The 180 degree change in the Apostles' attitudes.

Just after Christ's death, the Apostles were hiding, fearing that they would be killed by the authorities.  Yet, suddenly, they began to preach that Jesus rose from the dead and is the Messiah TO THE PEOPLE THEY WERE AFRAID OF.   All the Apostles, except for John, suffered horrible martyr's deaths where they were given multiple chances to retract what they had been preaching and they would be allowed to go free.  NONE OF THEM DID.  Why would they do this?

Just pretend you made up a religion, or hid a body.  You preach this to a bunch of people.  They believe you and begin following you.  The authorities become afraid that you're getting to popular and might start a revolt.  They arrest you, bring you before a judge and say, "If you don't stop preaching this, we'll skin you alive."  What would you do?

Let's pretend you were bold enough to continue the lie.  You tell the judge, "It's true and I won't stop teaching it!"  They then bring in a cruel looking man with an even crueler looking knife.  They say, "Say it's all made-up or this man is going to skin you alive!"  What would you do?

Let's pretend, for whatever reason, you decided to hold to your lie.  They strap you to a table and say again, "We're going to start with your feet and skin you alive unless you say it was all made-up and a lie.  If you do that, you can just go free!"  What would you do?

Let's pretend, for whatever reason, you hold out.  Then they start cutting into the bottom of one of your feet.  "Deny your Christ and you can go free!"  they tell you.  How long could you hold out?

This is what happened to Nathaniel.  He was skinned alive.  He died professing it was TRUE!  All the Apostles died professing that Jesus rose from the dead and is the Messiah.

No one died for what they know is false, especially slow, painful deaths.  So we can reasonably eliminate the Apostles as 'liars'.

Were they lunatics?   All 12 would have to suffer the exact same delusions and, again, none of them acted like it.  None of them would meet the criteria for being insane.  So we can reasonably eliminate the Apostles as being 'insane' or having a 'mass hallucination' - which has never been documented in history where everyone hallucinated the same thing.

What is left?  They were telling the truth.

Now backed by history, logic and reason let us proclaim all the more....

HE IS RISEN!

Additional Resources:
The Real Jesus, Why Believe in Jesus Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Apologetics for the Resurrection, Are the Gospels a Myth?, Four Reasons I think Jesus Really Existed
Fidei Defensor

How Do We Know the Tomb Was Empty?

Maybe the Apostle's Just Lied About it?

In follow up to a previous post, instead of providing an alternative explanation some may challenge the Bare Minimum Facts themselves, rather than try to find another explanation.

In a quick review:  Most historians, looking at the Gospels as just historical documents, agree on four facts about Jesus' death and resurrection.  1) Jesus Died on a cross and was placed in a tomb.

2) The tomb was discovered empty

3) Many claimed to have seen Jesus alive after being crucified

4) The disciples attitudes changed 180 degrees from hiding from the authorities, afraid for their lives; to boldly preaching Jesus Christ Resurrected from the dead to the point of dying for it.

In the previous post we took a brief look at an attack on the fact that Jesus died on the cross.  Books like the one I saw at my local library - which I will not name - push this idea.  The late forensic pathologist and medical examiner Dr. Fredrick Zugibe's book "The Crucifixion of Jesus" shows from a medical perspective it is unthinkable that Jesus survived the scourging and crucifixion.

Today, we'll look at another attack on the four bare minimum facts: "How do you know the tomb was empty?" I mean, maybe Jesus' body is still there?

J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets!

Thanks to Trent Horn, of Catholic Answers, we can answer this by remembering to tell the person, "Just cool your J.E.T.S." (No I'm not suddenly a New York Football fan.) The acronym JETS can help us remember the four supports for why we know the tomb was empty:

J = Jerusalem. The empty tomb was first preached first in Jerusalem. This would be kind of like someone saying an alien space craft crashed just a mile or two away. If you wanted to see if it was true, you'd just go there!  Christianity would have never gotten off the ground if all the authorities had to do was walk down to the next block over, roll away the stone and show everyone interested that Jesus' body was actually rotting in the tomb.  Anyone could have done this and not wasted even an hour out of their day.

E = Enemy Attestation. Even Jesus' enemies concede that the tomb was empty. They had to pay the guards to say the Disciples stole the body thus giving an explanation for why the tomb was empty.  Again, all Jesus' enemies had to do to shut the whole thing down was drag out Jesus' dead body and all of Christianity would have ceased.  As a matter of fact, even to this day, all anyone has to do is find Jesus' dead body, bring it out and all of Christianity would cease.  Christianity is the easiest disprovable religion in the world... if it isn't true.

T = Testimony of women. Unlike today, in ancient times the testimony of women was viewed as being less reliable then that of a man's. In the words of the famous philosopher, James Hetfield, "Sad but True..." So, if you wanted to make up a story that Jesus' tomb was empty who would you use? Mary Magdalene - a woman of ill repute?  Or maybe Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two men, and Sanhedrin members? Given the culture, it was a really poor idea to have the empty tomb be first proclaimed by women.  You would only do this... if it were true.

S = Simple. The Gospel accounts of Jesus' Resurrection are very simple. Jesus just Rose. Compare this to the fictitious accounts hundreds of years later where everyone is gathered around the tomb, a huge angel rolls away the stone, first the cross comes out and starts talking to everyone, then Jesus comes out and he's like 500 ft tall!

In modern witness statements, truthful witnesses are more likely to state things very simply. People who are trying to deceive or with hold some information, are more likely to make very elaborate statements.

Let us continue to proclaim with confidence backed by history and logic:

HE HAS RISEN!!

Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? The Truth May Shock You.

HE HAS RISEN!

Many of us know the physical, bodily Resurrection of Jesus is true, yet we struggle to explain to others why we know this to be true.

"Well you just have to believe." "You know it in your heart." or "The Bible says so." are answers that not only will fail to convince a skeptic, but will probably serve to make them believe we're a bunch of mindless, fanatics with no rational reason behind our beliefs.

JUST THE BARE FACTS, MA'AM.

How do we show that our belief is not only rational, but the best explanation of the facts?

One way is to use what has been called, "The Bare Facts" approach. To start off with, for the sake of argument, we look at the New Testament only as historic documents. From reading the New Testament as historic documents we can glean these facts that are well attested to:

1) Jesus was Crucified, died and was buried

2) His tomb was discovered empty

3) Numerous people claimed to have seen Jesus after He died

4) The Apostles completely changed their attitudes from one of fear of being killed and hiding, to preaching that Jesus had Risen to the point of being killed for it.

Any explanation of what happened in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago has to take into account these four facts. If an explanation fails to account for all four facts, it cannot be the truth.

For example some claim that Jesus didn't really die, but merely "swooned" or fainted on the cross and was actually still alive. I recently saw a whole book dedicated to this theory at our local library. This could account for the tomb being empty and numerous people claiming to have seen Him alive after His Crucifixion. However, this does not account for the complete change in the Apostles' attitudes (would a near-dead, man, who's completely beat up inspire you to preach he was resurrected or inspire you to call an ambulance?) and doesn't account for the Romans' execution efficiency. They knew death. In addition, between the scourging - which could be a death sentence itself -  the spikes through His hands and feet, the spear in the side and the resulting gush of blood and water, no medical expert looking at that list of damage to the body would say that person would be up and walking in 36 hours.  The late Dr. Zugibe, forensic pathologist and medical examiner studied the mechanisms of the Biblical Crucifixion of Jesus for 45 years.  His book "The Crucifixion of Jesus" shows that it was not possible that Jesus was alive when he was taken down off the cross.

Skeptics will also say "The Apostles stole His Body." This would admit #1 and would account for #2, but doesn't explain #3 and #4. This is actually the oldest claim made by skeptics. The Pharisees told the tomb guards to make this claim (Mt 28:11-15). However, how many of us could really see the Disciples taking on a troop of Roman Soldiers, over powering them - but leaving them alive - and taking Jesus' body? They only had 2 swords among them, and Peter was so inept with his sword that when he had a free swing he only succeeded in cutting off some guy's ear.  If he were a trained soldier, Jesus would have had to raise another person from the dead, not just heal an ear.
 
     Otherwise how likely is it that the Apostles snuck in through the asleep guards, rolling aside a huge stone in front of the tomb, unwrapping Jesus' body and sneaking back through the guards with a dead body without waking a single one?  Traditionally, if guards failed in their task their sentence was death.  This is why the Pharisees had to reassure the guards that if their boss found out they would smooth things over with him.

This also does not account for the Apostles' 180 degree change: no one dies for what they know is false. If the Apostles stole Jesus' Body, they would know what they were preaching was false. All but John died in horribly slow, torturous ways. During their deaths, they were told numerous times that all they had to do was say it was a lie, and they could go free.

Take Bartholomew / Nathaniel. He was martyred by being SKINNED ALIVE! How long could you last? If you had told a lie and were being tortured to death for telling that lie. All you had to do was tell the truth and you'd be set free. HOW LONG WOULD YOU LAST? Yet all of them died proclaiming Jesus' Resurrection was TRUE!

There are other objections - the Apostles made the whole thing up, it was a mass hallucination, it was only a 'spiritual' resurrection - but in the end, only one explanation accounts for all four of the "bare minimum" facts: That "[Jesus] was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day He rose again (bodily) in accordance to the Scriptures..."

So with the confidence bolstered by logic and reason let us proclaim:

HE HAS RISEN!