My "Five Rules", a Guide to Navigating Dating Waters

As a high school youth minister, I find myself working with kids in the throes of the turbulent dating scene.  A scene which I, thankfully, departed back in 2010.

The years spent navigating those waters are stressful.  And much of the stress comes from the inability to know the other's mind.  While it is impossible to know the intricacies of every situation, it is fair to say that patterns emerge.

So one of the talks I love to give are my "5 Rules for Dating" (and 1 suggestion).  These are the culmination of all the hard lessons I learned on the way to the altar.  They are clearly told from a guy's perspective, but both sexes have something to learn.  And I think knowing them can save a lot of heartache. 

Short Answer: What's With Jesus not Knowing Stuff?

Dear Apologist, Why did Jesus claim to not know when the world would end?  Shouldn’t He know everything?

The Atonement: Did Jesus Die for Everyone?

Every Christian tradition needs to have an answer to the question: 

"How does the death of Jesus bring about my salvation?"

In a previous post I began looking at a theory of the atonement known as "Penal Substitution".  This is the majority view in the non-Catholic / Protestant world.  And some Catholics, being unaware of their own tradition's understanding of the atonement, will default to this one.

They really shouldn't. 

There are different ways of looking at the atonement, and many compliment each other.  But Penal Substitution cannot be part of that ensemble.

Today we're going to further explain why, by looking at one of the implications of the theory:  The Limited Atonement.

Jesus and the "Scapegoat"

From their earliest ages, Christians are taught that Jesus’ death on the cross brings about our salvation.  But around the time we get to middle school a question occurs to us:

“Why?  What does the crucifixion of the Son of God have to do with my forgiveness?  How does one cause the other?”

In the [past] I laid out the most common Catholic answer to that question.  Namely, Jesus made of Himself a sacrificial offering to God.  He gave His life, suffering, love for humanity, and love for God as an infinitely meritorious gift to atone for the sins of the world.

But that isn’t the ONLY answer to the question.  In fact, most non-Catholic Christians have been taught a very different theory, called “Penal Substitution”.  Many, being unaware of the Catholic understanding, will simply call it THE doctrine of the atonement.  (As if it’s the only one)

Today I want to describe the doctrine and examine one aspect of it – the scapegoat.

Baffling Question: Cross or Crucifix?

They say there is no such thing as a stupid question.

But sometimes a person will ask a question whose answer should be obvious to any reasonable person.  Or perhaps the question has a glaringly bad premise, which would have been realized with a moment of thought.  Whatever the case is… we’ve all had moments where we stare at a person and think:

“Did you really just ask that?”

Today I want to begin looking at baffling questions which Catholics often get from our non-Catholic Christian brethren which elicit that reaction.

Today we’ll do:

“Why do ya’ll keep Jesus on the cross?  Jesus isn’t on the cross anymore.”