Happy Thanksgiving to Family and Friends

My dad wrote and emailed this Thanksgiving greetings to family and friends. I'm passing it along to you as well:

Why are we Thankful? We are thankful to know and to have a relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior and our soon coming King. We are thankful to have the privilege to be a part of His great Family. We are thankful for being called into His great truth. We love everyone dearly and are looking forward to spending our eternal life with all. We thank Him for His awesome, wonderful Word, for without it none of us would achieve eternal life. We are thankful for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us, our family, and our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are thankful for the nourishment He provides for our bodies as well as the Spiritual nourishment He provides for our minds. We are thankful for this beautiful green earth He has prepared for us to live on and live off of. We are thankful for the angels He has provided us for protection, and the many other things they do that we know nothing about. We are thankful for the Beautiful Feast and Holy Days He has given us to know His Plan and to keep together. We are thankful for our children and our grandchildren and their well being. We are thankful for our good health and longevity. We are even thankful for our pets. We are thankful we can lay down every night in a wonderful warm bed with a roof over our heads and can at will turn the heat up or down, whichever pleases us. So many do not. We are thankful to have running cold and hot water at our disposal at any time. So many do not. We are thankful for transportation to and from wherever we want to go. So many can not. We are thankful for the freedom to go and come any time we desire. We are thankful for the freedom to think things out and to make our own decisions each and every day. We are thankful for just waking up each morning and opening our eyes knowing this will be another glorious day we have and can follow His holy spirit to help us through all things, whether they be good or bad. We are thankful for so many "little" things: that we can see and hear and walk and talk. We are thankful to know that through all the the trials and tribulations it will turn out all right in the end. We are so thankful to know if we lose a loved one we will one day be reunited with them again. We are thankful for all of you, who through email keep in touch and keep our relationship going. And not least, we are so very thankful for living in the glorious land of liberty and for all of our men and women in uniform who will not be in a warm bed, with a roof over their heads and will not sit down to a wonderful thanksgiving dinner. We are thankful for their bravery and love of God, their country and family to want to keep it free and safe. Thank God Almighty and all of you for making this life of ours so joyous and such a pleasure to wake up to each day. God Bless you all. May He be with you always as you love and follow Him. May we all pause and reflect upon these things as we give thanks to the Giver of all good gifts. Count your blessings... and have wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

From the heart and with much love,
Lloyd 'n' Gail

Justification Debate

If you have an extra 2 hours and 48 minutes to spare, listen to this debate between Fr. Mitchell Pacwa and James R. White on the subject of "Justification by Faith Alone." I'm listening to it now. Good stuff.

EXCELLENT New Blog Site

Vance Stinson's is an excellent Q&A-style Christian apologetics blog site, updated regularly -- probably daily. Bookmark it, but don't forget mine either!

"Whether or Not"

This blog site is not strictly religious or political. This entry might fall under the category of "musings." And it's not very deep.

When writing, I try to avoid the phrase "whether or not," even though it's commonly used. It seems redundant. Doesn't the word "whether" already imply "or not-ness"?

For example, look at these sentences:

1. Does it matter whether or not I leave the toilet seat up?
2. Does it matter whether I leave the toilet seat up?

Both sentences mean the same thing, but the second is more efficient.

Sometimes it's not that easy. Try this one:

1. You're going to finish your supper, young man, whether you like it or not!
2. You're going to finish your supper, young man, whether you like it!

The first sentence makes sense, but not the second. In such cases, I have succumbed to using "or not."

Out of stubornness, however, I've found ways around it. In my blog entry about purgatory, I originally wrote,

Whether or not you've defined it for yourself, most likely you believe in a "purgatory" of sorts . . .

But after a short struggle, I finally came up with,

No matter whether you've defined it for yourself, most likely you believe in a "purgatory" of sorts . . .

This gave me a strange satisfaction. While it's no shorter, still I beat that miserable "or not" -- even though it was begging to hang out with "whether."

William Zinnser, author of On Writing Well, rightly declares, "Clutter is the disease of American writing." Whether or not you agree with that diagnosis is your business, but it's something I try to remember. Usually.

Dirty Liberal (link to blog site)

Dirty Liberal

Purgatory: Perfect Mercy and Perfect Justice

I have three questions about the afterlife for my Christian readers:

1. Do you believe that most of us, even if we're "good people," die as sinners, functionally speaking?
2. If so, do you believe that we will never again sin once our earthly life is over and our eternal life with God begins?
3. And if so, how do you explain our future definitive transition from sinner to saint?

We don't freqently ponder the third question. We just "know" that some way, somehow, we will be miraculously transformed to reflect God's holiness. We won't only be sinless in a mere legal sense, but in the truest practical sense.

While no one knows exactly how it will happen, the Catholic Church gives this mysterious "spiritual makeover" a name: purgatory.

No matter whether you've defined it for yourself, most likely you believe in a "purgatory" of sorts -- a purging of the last traces of sin on your soul. However it happens. Whatever you call it.

The Catholic Church does not offer a detailed list of dogmatic declarations concerning this state of transition. Instead, the doctrine of purgatory, which she faithfully transmits, emphasizes the perfect mercy and perfect justice of God.

Is it perfect mercy for a person with an Adolph-Hitler lifestyle to spend eternity in God's presence if he makes a sincere deathbed repentance? No doubt.

Is it perfect justice for the same person to have it "just as easy" as the person whose worst sin in life was to receive ten cents' too much change from a Wal-Mart cashier and not return it? No way. Jesus says that the day of judgment will be "more bearable" for some than for others (Matthew 10:15).

These two attributes of God -- mercy and justice -- are perfectly showcased in purgatory.

Here is a simple explanation of purgatory, as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.

The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the "old man" and to put on the "new man." (paragraphs 1472-1473, emphasis mine)

The book of Revelation tells us what we already know -- that when the "New Jerusalem" arrives, "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful" (21:27). Unless we die without the stains of sin on our soul, we'll have to achieve purity somehow.

The idea of purgatory is that God, in His mercy, will clean us up (spiritually speaking) before we can enter the glorified Kingdom. Even if we haven't turned our backs on God and gone the other direction, His holiness demands that we be cleansed of all sins -- even so-called "little sins." It's not enough for God to "cover" our sins, or pretend they're not there; His ultimate goal is to convert us from our sins, so that they suffer literal extinction.

The underlying principle of purgatory is explained in Hebrews 12:10-11:

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

This kind of "discipline" happens here on earth, but can also apply -- no, must apply -- to purgatorial cleansing.

A child's buttocks may sting after a spanking, but it's a sting of love (cf. Prov. 23:13-14). Cleaning out a wound can be painful, but it is necessary if it is to heal. We can understand these everyday truths, but they should help us understand God's spiritual remedies for our disease of sin.

If Jesus "learned obedience from what he suffered" (Heb. 5:8), then surely we who sin must suffer in some way to achieve eternal righteousness.

Consider God's marvelous mercy! Purgatory is not a third destination for departed souls; it is the entry way to heaven. Without exception, all who enter purgatory will one day find themselves in heaven -- that is, face-to-face with God in eternity. They may temporarily have to endure the pain of waiting for that day, but be assured, it won't hurt like hell.

To avoid these purgatorial sufferings, we should strive for a more perfect bond with God in this lifetime. But just in case we don't reach a sinless state now, we can find comfort knowing that our infinitely merciful God will burn away the chaff of our sin with the fire of His love (cf. 1 Cor. 3:11-15), leaving behind the new man God created in us .