{"id":459,"date":"2014-01-02T08:07:46","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T13:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=459"},"modified":"2014-05-19T07:45:03","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T12:45:03","slug":"modern-day-liars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=459","title":{"rendered":"Modern Day Liars"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Basil the Great<\/span><\/h2>\n

John 2: 22-28; John 1: 19-28<\/span><\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever denies that Jesus is the Christ\u201d is a liar.\u00a0 Pretty strong words.\u00a0 Some context is helpful, I think.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You see, this Epistle was written at a time when there was much discussion amongst the first Christians and converts about just who Jesus was.\u00a0 John believed that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.\u00a0 But there were many who just couldn\u2019t believe that this person that they knew personally- one who ate and drank with them; who was a simple carpenter; who lived a relatively straightforward life from the age of 12 to the beginning of his public ministry at age 30- they couldn\u2019t really accept the fact that Jesus was THE Christ, the one and only savior for all time, the Messiah.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t bring themselves to accept him as God even after many of them personally witnessing the Resurrection.\u00a0 John is calling these people \u201cliars\u201d because they used worldly arguments to undermine the legacy that Jesus left and that was handed on by the Apostles to them.\u00a0 The \u201clie\u201d consists of the pollution and dilution of the real word of God by these people.\u00a0 And like all lies, it has consequences, because it leads people astray from the truth.\u00a0 You see, once you reject a critical part of the truth; what is to prevent erosion of the rest of the truth?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But John points out the anecdote- that these early Christians have been Baptized and anointed; so they have heard the truth; and they have been armed with the grace that comes from the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 It is a grace that can and should sustain them to keep the faith, and live their lives accordingly.\u00a0 It is a call to live faithfully according to the Gospel legacy that Jesus left, so that when Christ comes the second time at the Last Judgment, they can stand tall with confidence that they have lived a life pleasing to God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Today is the feast of St. Basil the Great.\u00a0 In the 4<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> Century St. Basil fought valiantly against just such a heresy as John refers to.\u00a0 He fought against people who didn\u2019t believe in the divinity of Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is no different today, you know.\u00a0 We have many liars in our presence; people who deny the divinity of Jesus.\u00a0 The liars of today are those who read the word of God and hear the teachings of the Church but they try to dilute and pollute these teachings with the \u201cwisdom of the world\u201d or some other persons teaching.\u00a0 They say: \u201cI know what the scriptures say, but God wouldn\u2019t just come to the Jews; oh no; He has revealed himself to the Hindus and the Buddhists and the Moslems and the Mormons and all the other peoples of the World in one way or another\u201d.\u00a0 They say that Christianity is just one of the ways God has revealed himself to mankind.\u00a0 And so, these folks say that we should \u201clook beyond\u201d the parochialism of our own Faith and embrace the ultimate truth that integrates all these teachings together.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But the simple fact is that God did chose to reveal the fullness of himself through His word, Jesus Christ, who became man, and lived as one of us.\u00a0 He showed us through the Gospel legacy, how to live a life that pleases God by obedience to the will of the Father.\u00a0 He suffered, died, and rose from the dead, appearing to his Apostles; and promised us everlasting life if we follow him.\u00a0 And he left us a more refined glimpse of his true nature- the Trinity.\u00a0 None of these other world religions offer all of that.\u00a0 They may have a glimmer of the truth; but they are not the fullness of God\u2019s revelation to us.\u00a0 The pluralistic argument is the \u201cBig Lie\u201d that the devil hopes we will all accept because it leads people away from the truth.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, we are called to defend our Faith by recognizing and ignoring the Big Lie; we are called to be Christians in Faith, Word, and Deed no matter what. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Basil the Great John 2: 22-28; John 1: 19-28 Dc. Larry Brockman \u201cWhoever denies that Jesus is the Christ\u201d is a liar.\u00a0 Pretty strong words.\u00a0 Some context is helpful, I think.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You see, this Epistle was written at a time when there was much discussion amongst the first Christians and converts about just who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[259],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}