Burger King Catholics - The New Face of Protestantism

Jesus instituted the priesthood at the last supper. He gave the keys to his kingdom on earth to St. Peter, our first Pope. He passed his authority over the Church to the Twelve when he breathed on them on Pentecost and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

He gave these first bishops the authority to bind and loosen, forgive sins, cure the sick, raise the dead, and drive out demons. They were tasked with teaching and preserving the faith that was given to them directly from Jesus. They passed this knowledge and authority on to their successors through an unbroken chain of apostolic succession to this day. Our bishops have the sole authority to govern the Church and the solemn duty to preserve and pass on the faith as Christ taught it.

On October 31, 1517 Father Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, posted a list of grievances on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. It was a call for church reform centering mostly around the apparent sale of indulgences which he viewed as an abuse of power by the Church. Luther tried to change the Church from within but when he continued to push his opinion over Sacred Tradition, he was excommunicated in 1521.

Luther is viewed as the father of Protestantism, the third branch of Christianity. What Luther did was uncork a bottle that was ready to explode, which substituted personal opinion over Sacred Tradition that had been taught for 1500 years. Luther lived long enough to see the same thing happen to the church he started as differing opinions began to splinter all of the Protestant churches. Today, we have over 70,000 different denominational and non-denominational churches each teaching what they to believe to be the real truth Jesus taught. This number grows every day.

Meanwhile history is repeating itself in the Catholic Church. Many within the Church, both cleric and lay alike, are making demands that the Church change her teaching on a number of things. Almost all of the demands are for changes the Church has no authority or ability to change. Some examples of this are –

• It is time for the Church to ordain women to all levels of the clergy, including women bishops, and one day, our first woman Pope.

• The Church should give her blessing to all same-sex marriages.

• That the Church allow those who have gotten a civil divorce to remarry within the Church.

• The Church should allow those who are not in a state of grace to receive the Holy Eucharist, such as those living in adultery through civil divorce and remarriage or those who publicly declare the Church teaching on morals is wrong and support grave evils like abortion and euthanasia.

• That the Church authority be handed over to the laity so that they do things like appoint who becomes a bishop through a popular vote.

I dub these the Burger King Catholics; people who want to call themselves Catholic but want their faith their way. They are Catholic Protestants who will lead the Church into her next schism.

This is the reason why Jesus did not set up his Church as a democracy or even a democratic republic. He appointed the Twelve, gave them his authority over the Church. He entrusted to them the deposit of faith and gave them the duty and responsibility to pass this faith on as they had received it, keeping the Church true to his teachings until his return. He gave us his promise that he would be with his Church until the end of time. This is why we believe that the Church cannot fall into error when the magisterium, that is the Pope in union with the bishops, teach on faith and morals. Catholics are required to believe 100% of the Church's teaching on faith and morals. This is not up for debate or change. Those who disagree with the Church disagree with Jesus. Our opinions on these matters do not matter and where we disagree with the Church we need to realize that we are wrong and seek to understand why.

We live in an age of disobedience where all authority is to be ignored. My truth is the correct truth for me. All things revolve around me and my opinion. Where my opinion differs from that of the Church my opinion takes precedence. I am not willing to accept a truth contrary to my belief.

After the miracle of the feeding of the five-thousand through the multiplication of the loaves and fish Jesus gave his teaching on the bread of life and told the people that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they wanted to have everlasting life. This teaching was hard for the people to accept and they left him in great numbers. He let them go, Love is always a choice.

Many of the teachings that Jesus gives us through the Church are equally hard for people to accept. Those who walk away from the Church walk away from Jesus in the same way as those who walked away over his teaching on the bread of life. We should not wring our hands and worry about the increasing spaces in our pews. Instead, we need to hold close to the truth and live our faith boldly and joyfully.

Where can we go, Lord. You have the words of eternal life.

HALT!

After his baptism, before his public ministry began, Jesus went out into the desert for forty days to pray and fast. At the end of that time, he found himself tired, hungry, and weak. It was then the devil came to tempt him. Why did the devil tempt our Lord?

God had a plan for the salvation and redemption of man. It was through sacrificial love. Suffering is the currency of love. Love can never be forced. For God to save us through love there had to be a choice. Jesus knew that the path to salvation was to take on the punishment for all sin and the punishment for sin is suffering and death. For Love to take on this punishment for us he had to have an alternative. The temptations of the devil gave him that alternative. Jesus could have accepted the devil’s invitation to worship him and have reign over all of the earth under the devil’s authority. Jesus chose suffering and death out of love for us instead.

Jesus allowed the devil to tempt him so as to teach us how to respond to temptation when we are also tried by the devil. How Jesus responded is very important to understand.

In the first temptation the devil temps Jesus to turn rocks into bread and to satisfy his immense hunger. Jesus responded by telling the devil that man does not live on bread alone but through every word that comes from God. The Gospel of John starts by telling us that the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word came down from heaven and dwelt among us. Jesus answers the first temptation by reminding the devil that he is God.

In the second temptation the devil took Jesus to the top of the temple and dared him to jump off, for if he is truly the Son of God the angels would catch him and allow no harm to come to him. Jesus counted by reminding him that it is written in scripture that you shall not put your God to the test. In the first temptation Jesus reminded the devil that he was God and in this answer he is telling the devil that he cannot tempt him.

In the last temptation the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain and offers Jesus all of the kingdoms of this world if only he would kneel and worship the devil. Jesus counters by quoting the scripture passage that says you shall worship and serve God alone. Being God, it was the devil who was to worship Jesus, who is the rightful king over all in heaven and earth. With that, the devil left him.

Ask any soldier when the best time to attack an enemy is and they will tell you it is when they are at their weakest. The devil is the most cunning of enemies. We are at our most vulnerable to temptation when we are weak. We are at our weakest when we are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.

H.A.L.T. This should be a warning to us that the enemy is prowling, hoping to capitalize on an opportunity to get us to stray from God. It should be a warning to us that it is time to call for reinforcements. When we find ourselves hungry, angry, lonely, or tired we need to Stop what we are doing, Drop to our knees (even if only in our hearts), and Pray. We pray to God for his grace to make it through the trial. We can pray to our Blessed Mother for intercession to her son on our behalf. We can pray to St. Michael and our guardian angels for protection and assistance in fighting our temptations. We can pray to the Communion of Saints for their intercessions and strength. The important thing to realize that we are weak and seek the help that is available to us through our faith.

When we are weak we are made strong through the grace of God.

Life does not begin at conception.

“Life begins at conception.”

This has been the stance of the Church and prolife groups since the beginning. Yet, this sentence isn’t entirely true. Something not entirely true is 100% false.

"Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1: 4-5

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. That is because each and every one of us has existed in the mind of God since the beginning of existence itself. We are not just a thought or a dream to God. We are as real in his mind as we are on earth and as real as we will be in heaven.

Life does not begin at conception. Life manifests itself at conception. Conception is that point in time where a supernatural life in the mind of God is made manifest when it is joined with its physical form on earth. That life undergoes nine months of development and then it is born. The baby grows to adulthood and then dies. The body and soul are separated for a time and after the final judgement are reunited and proceed to their eternal home, heaven or hell. This is the typical order of progression.

For the last two-thousand years people have wondered when Jesus will return to usher in the new heaven and the new earth. Many have tried to predict the date. Many more look to the current times and believe the end is right around the corner. I believe the end will come once every person alive in the mind of God has been made manifest, that is, has been conceived here on earth.

The devil has done everything in his power to get us to walk away from this awesome gift of co-creating immortal life with God. Once all of the lives in the mind of God have been conceived God can then perfect all of creation and usher in the new heaven and the new earth. The devil is the ruler of this earth. When the new age comes to be he will be cast back into hell for all eternity. The devil has everything to lose when we cooperate with God’s plan for life.

The Pope has taken a lot of heat lately for saying Catholic parents need to return to having children. He was especially beat up for saying that pets should not be considered as children. He said that parents who have few or no children are acting selfishly because they are choosing their lifestyle over creating new life with God. The world sees it differently. The devil has convinced the world that it selfish to have many children, that having many children is a drain on natural resources. Sadly, far too many Catholics have bought this lie from the father of lies.

The family is the nucleus of society. When the family is small, society is weak. A weak society is easily manipulated by those who hunger to dominate others. Those dominated become slaves, losing their individual freedoms, liberties, and choices, eventually losing even their own identities as children of God.

A life that has existed since the beginning of time manifests itself at conception. Conception is that moment in time where God shares with us someone he has intimately known since creation began. Our greatest duty, therefore, is to care for this life God has shared with us. Justice without mercy will be shown to those who willfully destroy this life so precious to him.