Isn't inclusive language just simple justice?

Isn't inclusive language just simple justice? Should the Church exclude half of the worshipers by using "man" and "men" in the Mass?

Answered by:  Terrye Newkirk

Such a view betrays a lack of knowledge of the history of language. The Latin homo and the Anglo-Saxon man merely mean "person," without regard to sex. Therefore, no one is excluded by such Bible passages such as "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked" or by phrases in the Liturgy such as "for us men and for our salvation." The real problem, if there is one, is that English has no common word that specifically means "male person," parallel to the Latin vir, but it has one, "woman," that means "female person." Perhaps it is men who should feel left out.

What happens to those who die and do not believe?

What happens to those who die and do not believe?

Answer

It depends. If you mean, "What happens to those who die rejecting Christ?" the Church’s answer is uncompromising: They will go to hell. But no one goes to hell by accident. If someone is simply ignorant of the name of Christ through no fault of his own, there is no sin in that. He has not rejected Christ. Moreover, we know Christ is not constrained by our knowledge. He can work in a heart even when that heart is only dimly aware of it.

Jesus speaks of this in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. The ones judged here are "the nations"—those outside the visible communion of the Church. How are they judged? By the way they responded to Christ when he came to them in disguise. "I was sick and you visited me; hungry, and you fed me; thirsty and you gave me something to drink." How do the sheep and the goats respond? With surprise. The point is, we may not know it, but Christ comes to us even when we don’t (or can’t) come to him. This is why the Church counsels us to hope and pray for the dead. We must not pretend we know what God is up to in the lives of others. We know where the Church is. We do not know where it is not.

Can the lost book be added to Cannon of the Bible

If we dug up a lost book by one of the apostles, could it be added to the canon of the Bible or would that be impossible?

Answered by:  Catholic Answers Staff

It would take an ecumenical council or an ex cathedra statement by the pope to settle the issue definitively (assuming non-Catholics would give either one credence), but it almost certainly would never happen.

The first problem we would have to settle is how to prove, after an absence of so many centuries, that the work in question really was by an apostle or an apostolic man. This in itself would be insurmountable. There is no way that we today could establish that the work was genuine.

The early Church judged which books were apostolic and which were not based on which had been handed down to them as apostolic by Church Tradition. Those books which had been widely handed down as apostolic were regarded as apostolic when the canon was settled in the late 300s.

But by definition we could not apply that test to a manuscript we just now dug up. It is difficult to imagine evidence that could show conclusively that it was written by an apostle rather than by someone pretending to be an apostle. (There were such individuals in the first century, and Paul had to warn against them and give his audience a way to know his letters were genuine; cf. 2 Thes 2:2, 3:17.)

The book would have to be unknown at the time the canon was settled in the 300s, because a negative judgment was passed at that time on all books which were known and were not identified as Scripture. Books not included in the canon by the Fathers of the 300s were rejected as uncanonical, meaning our newly discovered manuscript would need to have been lost before that time.

Answered by:  Catholic Answers Staff

What is the significance of the number 144,000 to Jehovah's Witnesses?

What is the significance of the number 144,000 to Jehovah's Witnesses?

Full Question

The Jehovah's Witnesses stress the 144,000. What 's the real scoop on this number?

Answered by:  Catholic Answers Staff 

The 144,000 people described in two passages of the Bible: Revelation 7:1-8 and 14:1-5. According to the first passage, they are "the servants of . . . God" (7:3) who are pictured as being sealed upon their foreheads. Verses 4-8 depict there being 12,000 sealed from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, giving a total of 144,000.

In Revelation 14:1 we are told that the seal on their foreheads is Christ's and his Father's name. The 144,000 are with Jesus, and they sing a unique song of worship, which no one else can learn (14:3). In 14:4-5 we are told more about their identity: "It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste [Greek, "virgins"]; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless."

The Witnesses say these people represent the Church of Christ, the Israel of God, and this is a common view among Bible scholars, one that has had a long history in the interpretation of Revelation. The 144,000 are taken as a symbol of the Christian faithful. It is what Witnesses say next that is bizarre.

Supposedly God began collecting the 144,000 at Pentecost in A.D. 33 but stopped collecting them in 1935, when the full number was reached. Some of the 144,000 are still living, and they are all Jehovah's Witnesses. As of 1986 there were only about 9,000 of the 144,000 left alive. Since the Jehovah's Witnesses are a larger group, possessing several million members, how are the rest of the Witnesses regarded? As non-members of the body of Christ. They will still be saved in the end, but they will not be part of the body and will not go to heaven. They are considered part of the "great crowd" mentioned in Revelation 7:9-10.

In Jehovah's Witness "kingdom halls" (church buildings) only members of the 144,000 are allowed to receive communion when the Lord's Supper is celebrated (which is done infrequently). Sometimes kingdom halls celebrate the Lord's Supper and no one receives communion since none of the 144,000 are present.

Needless to say, the Witness's view is riddled with holes. When discussing the 144,000 with Witnesses, make them realize that they are being inconsistent in how they interpret the texts where the 144,000 are mentioned. They insist that there are exactly 144,000 of these people, no more and no less, making it a literal number, but they interpret every other detail about this group in a symbolic manner.

If they were consistent, they would have to conclude that the 144,000 are Jews, drawn equally from the twelve tribes of Israel (most of which are now unrecognizably lost), that they are all male virgins who do not lie and who have two names literally written on their foreheads. The problem is that almost none of the 9,000 Witnesses supposed to be members of this group fit this description. Many of them are married Gentile women with children, and they presumably have bent the truth more than a few times in their lives.

The only detail from the text that the Witnesses take literally is the number. Every other detail of the text is taken non-literally. They should either take all of the details literally or see the 144,000 as a symbol of the Church as a whole (as does virtually everyone else).

The Catholic Bible App - FREE

The Catholic Bible App You've Been Waiting For (and other free stuff)

Today I have a bunch of free stuff for you. Hopefully a little something for everyone!
(Again, we apologize for the disruption in the Catechism readings. We hope these free offerings are a bit of consolation for you in the meantime.)

FREE THING #1
Check out the Lighthouse Catholic Media Bible App.

It's free to download and includes the following:

• FREE - Full text of the Catholic Bible (RSV-CE), Old and New Testaments
• FREE - Audio of the Gospel of John from the Truth & Life Bible (amazing!)
• FREE - Over 11 hours of audio biblical commentary from Dr. Scott Hahn and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
• $20 - Complete dramatized Truth & Life audio New Testament
• Ability to purchase and download over 50 Lighthouse talks, delivered straight to your mobile device

BIG BONUS: Input the promo code 102150 within the app (click the Lighthouse image in the bottom left corner and go to "Menu" to find where to enter the promo code) andyou'll also get True Worship, by Fr. Michael Schmitz. I know folks who love this talk so much that they listen to it over and over and over again.
Click your platform below to download the app for free! (or learn more here)

iTunes Store | Google Play Store | Amazon App Store

FREE THING #2 
This next one you don't need a smart phone for - just your computer. Click here to go download "Attack on Religious Liberty: Battle for the Faith in Mexico," by Patrick Madrid (there's a "Download MP3 Now" link on the left). This is an extremely timely subject - an important one, too. Hope you enjoy it!


FREE THING #3
This one we offered before, but I think it's so beneficial that I want to mention it again. Please consider the CD (or mp3) of the Month Club. Just for signing up you get a free copy of Scott Hahn's talk, "The Lamb's Supper."
That's all I have for you today! Again, Tomorrow we'll be announcing the plan forward for studying the Catechism together. Can't wait!
God bless you,
Matt Warner

By Matthew Warner 

Why did some books mentioned in the Bible perish and not make it into the canon?

Why did some books mentioned in the Bible perish and not make it into the canon?

Full Question

Why did some books mentioned in the Bible perish and not make it into the canon? Were they not inspired?

Answered by:  Catholic Answers Staff 

Some books the Bible mentions were not inspired but are simply used as historical sources. This is the case when Paul quotes books by the pagan writers Aratus, Menander, and Epimenides (Acts 17:28, 1 Cor 15:33, and Ti 1:12, respectively) or when the Old Testament refers us to the book of the Annals of the Kings of Media and Persia (Est 10:2).

The same is likely true of the book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel (1 Kgs 14:19) and the book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah (1 Kgs 14:29), which may simply have been court records or secular histories of the periods they discussed. The same goes for the book of the Kings of Judah and Israel (2 Chr 16:11), and the Memoirs of Nehemiah (2 Mc 2:13).

Other books contained genuine revelation, though the book as a whole was not inspired. This is the case with the book of Enoch, which is quoted in Jude 14, and possibly a book known as the Assumption of Moses, which appears to be quoted in Jude 9. A work of unclear status is the book of Jashar, which is twice quoted in the Old Testament (Jo 10:12-13, 2 Sm 1:18-27) and seems to be a book of songs concerning the history of Israel.

Among uninspired books mentioned in the Old Testament are the Records of Samuel the Seer, the Records of Nathan the Prophet, and the Records of Gad the Seer (1 Chr 29:29), the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, the visions of Iddo the Seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat (2 Chr 9:29), the Records of Shemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer (2 Chr 12:15), the Annotations of the Prophet Iddo (2 Chr 13:22; the references to works of Iddo may be different ways of referring to the same book).

In the New Testament, there are references to a third letter from Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 5:9) and of a letter of his to the Laodiceans (Col 4:16; though many have thought this letter to the Laodiceans is the same as the letter to the Ephesians). Such books may have been inspired, but for some reason God chose not to have them passed down and included in the canon.

Should Catholics join the Odd Fellows?

Should Catholics join the Odd Fellows?

Full Question

You have spoken out against Catholics joining the Masons and similar organizations. How do you feel about the order of Odd Fellows?

Answered by:  Catholic Answers Staff

It isn't our feelings that are relevant; it's canon law. Under canon 1374 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Catholics are forbidden to join societies which plot against the Church. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith applied this to Masons, indicating that Catholics who join Masonic organizations are engaged in serious sin and are to be barred from the Eucharist.

The Church has also judged that the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Orangemen, the Sons of Temperance, and the Communist Party are forbidden societies. Most Americans are familiar with the Masons and the Communist Party, but less familiar with the others.

The Odd Fellows was formed in England in 1812 and was brought to America in 1819. Like the Masons, it is a quasi-religious society, which is one of the Church's chief objections against it. The group has chaplains, altars, high priests, ritual worship, and funeral ceremonies. Also like the Masons, its members are indifferentists and teach the equality of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam before God.

The Knights of Pythias was founded in 1864 by a group of Masons and suffers from many of the same problems as the Masons and the Odd Fellows. This organization places emphasis on the pagans Pythagoras, Damon, Pythias, and Dionysius as teachers and models for moral life.

The Orangemen are militaristic Irish Protestants who are intensely anti-Catholic and are responsible for much of the anti-Catholic violence in Northern Ireland.

The Sons of Temperance was founded in New York in 1842 and is far more than just a temperance society (which the Catholic Church has nothing against; there were many Catholic temperance societies in 19th-century America). Like the Masons, the Sons is a quasi-religious society with its own religious rituals, but it admits both men and women to its lodges instead of having a parallel organization for women as do the Masons and most similar groups.