Gods Reveals His Plan of Salvation

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Gods Reveals His Plan of Salvation
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Faith and Revelation

• Faith is reasonable.
• Faith is a gift from God so that we may believe
  in Him.
• Faith helps us to believe in what we cannot see,
  test, or measure.
• Man is created in Gods image.
• God revealed himself when he came as Jesus Christ
  out of love for human kind.

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How do we Know God?

• We can know that there is a God through reason
  (our intelligence) alone.
• St. Paul reminds us that we can know God and
  about God by examining Creation itself.
• We see that the universe has order and design
  which points to Gods hand in creation.
• The complexity of design makes it unreasonable to
  believe it just happened by chance (i.e. Wrist
  Watch).

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Knowing God

• We are able to a little about God through
  creation as well.
• By seeing the great power of the oceans, with
  their tides and waves, we know that God must be
  great and powerful as well.
• Or the beautiful aromas and colors of spring
  flowers tell us that their creator must be
  pleasing and beautiful too.
• All of Gods creatures tell us something about
  him.
• They all reflect a bit of his greatness, beauty,
  and power.

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St. Thomas Aquinas5 Proofs for the existence of
God

• Saint Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest
  theologians in history.
• He was the Einstein of Christianity
• He offered us five proofs, by reason alone, that
  God exists.
• These five proofs are a work of genius, we hope
  that you will enjoy them.

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The Five Proofs

• First Mover Anything moved is moved by another.
  There cannot be an infinite series of movers. So
  there must be a first mover.
• First Cause Anything caused is caused by
  another. There cannot be an infinite series of
  causes. So there must be a first cause.
• Necessary Being Not everything is contingent.
  So there is a necessary being upon which other
  beings depend for their existence.
• Greatest Being Whatever is great to any degree
  gets its greatness from that which is the
  greatest. So there is a greatest being, which is
  the source of all greatness.
• Intelligent Designer Whatever acts for an end
  must be directed by an intelligent being. So the
  world must have had an intelligent designer.

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Ok, now in English!

• First mover Explained ingeniously for you.
• The universe is in motion.
• Even the big bang requires motion.
• There had to be something to begin all that
  motion.
• That something we call God.
• Time itself requires motion (thank you Einstein)
• The first mover (God) put it all in motion,
  including time (He hit the stop watch).
• If we think about it, nothing can happen before
  time (motion) was created. Making God the first
  mover.

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First Cause

• Once there is motion we can look back in time and
  look for what Caused there to be motion.
• There are two things involved with a cause, a
  source and a result.
• If we look around at everything and say How did
  this all happen, we will go all the way back to
  the first movement and first mover.
• We call the first mover, God, therefore God is
  also the first Cause.
• God caused things to happen for a result.

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Necessary Being

• We didnt make ourselves.
• We are dependent on our parents for our
  existence.
• They are dependent on theirs and so on to the
  first, who were dependent on the planet, who were
  dependent on the universe, which is dependent on
  the First Cause and First Mover, God.
• This means that all things are dependent on a
  first cause and first mover. This necessary
  being to which we are all dependent is God.

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Greatest Being

• Whatever the greatest being in the universe is,
  we call that God.
• Therefore God is the source of all Greatness.
• Because we are all dependent that means the thing
  which we depend on is greater than us.
• That means the Necessary Being, First Cause, and
  First Mover is the Greatest Being, that of course
  is?
• God. Are you feeling wicked smart yet?

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Intelligent Design

• The two parts of cause were source and result.
• Because the result, creation has order and
  complexity, it shows that there is an intelligent
  design.
• A two year old with a crayon can draw a design on
  a piece of paper, but the random scribbles wont
  make anything complex.
• The 10 year old with the same paper and crayon
  can make dinosaur look somewhat like a dinosaur.
  This is intelligent design.
• There may be a chance the 2 year old can scribble
  out a perfect crayon replica of the Mona Lisa,
  but it is unreasonable to think so. If it did
  happened, what would you call the kid A genius!
• Because things are complex and the furthest thing
  from accidental, He is an intelligent designer.

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Knowing God from Nature

• What can we know about God from
• Inanimate Objects rocks, wind, light, gold?
• Vegetative Plants, flowers, trees, fruit?
• Animals Fish, birds, foxes, dogs, dolphins?
• Humans Man and Woman?
• Angels Guardian Angels, Arch Angels?

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The Human Person

• The Human Person has body and soul.
• We have a physical body and spiritual soul
• Our souls have two powers, intellect and free
  will.
• Our soul, unlike animals, is rational, we can
  think (do math), reflect, and reason.
• Because we have the ability to think, reflect,
  and reason, it allows us also to have free will
  the ability to choose.

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Chalk Talk Man Body and Soul
Material World
Spiritual World
Man is like a bridge
Soul
Body
Highest of the Visible, Why?
Lowest of the Spiritual, Why?
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Male and Female

• God created all men and women with equal dignity.
• Equality does not mean that all have the same
  talents, strengths, intellect, etc.
• It does mean that you have the same dignity and
  rights from God.
• All humans have great value, no matter their
  race, religion, class, health, age, etc.

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Revelation

• God reveals Himself in many ways
• Creation
• Scripture
• Traditions
• He completely reveals Himself in the person of
  Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our God.
• The same as it is wrong to try to force someone
  else to act a certain way because we prefer it.
• We must not try to make God fit our ideas, but to
  accept God for who he revealed Himself to be.

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The Magisterium

• The Church has the sacred duty to protect the
  deposit of faith, that is all the things God
  revealed to us.
• The teaching office of the Church is called the
  Magisterium.
• This is composed of the Pope and all the bishops
  in union with him.
• They cooperate with the Holy Spirit to teach all
  we know about God without error.
• There have been many explanations of the truth
  over 2000 years but the truths of our faith have
  never changed, nor can they ever.

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Some things we can know only through Revelation

• We could not know about the Trinity without
  revelation. Or these truths about God
• God is one We believe in one God, a unity of
  persons.
• God is three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and
  Holy Spirit
• The Three Persons are equal and share all of
  Gods attributes equally they are one in being.
• They are co-eternal (none existed before any
  other and they exist eternally).
• All three Persons are distinct, The Father is not
  the Son, is not the Holy Spirit. The Son is not
  the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
  is not the Father or the Son.
• We ascribe different works to each person but
  always working together.
• The Father is Creator
• The Son is Redeemer
• The Holy Spirit is Sanctifier

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Faith

• Faith is a supernatural gift that allows us to
  believe in God and his revelation.
• We use free will to accept the truths.
• Faith feeds reason, The Catholic Faith is the
  most reasonable system of believe in the world
  Not to mention true.
• When faith and reason seem to conflict, we assume
  our reasoning is off, and study the problem.
• Over time and with study, the problem is often
  resolved.
• We have seen this practiced through the many
  councils of bishops and the letters (encyclicals)
  written by Popes over the years.

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Reason

• Sometimes God reveals truths that we can know
  through reason (i.e. The Ten Commandments).
• So often people can come to know those truths on
  their own.
• What might some of these universal truths be?

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Half Time Game Finding Time

• Each table will race to put the events in each of
  their envelopes in the order that they happened
  from the earliest date to the latest date.
• The first team to place all the events in order
  wins.

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Salvation History

• The story of our salvation is found in Scripture
  which is without error as it was inspired by God.
• Sacred Tradition guides us in living Christs
  Teachings.
• The Magisterium is the teaching authority of the
  Church which also is without error in matters of
  faith and morals.

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God Reveals Himself

• God has made Himself known to us through Creation
  but also through the Old Testament.
• Finally God made Himself known to us by coming to
  live among us as Jesus Christ.
• We call this Divine Revelation.

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Divine Revelation

• God has chosen to reveal Himself bit by bit to
  us, not all at once.
• This revelation began with Adam and Eve who used
  to walk with Him in the Garden.
• Later to the Israelites who would become the
  Jews.
• They gave us the Old Testament which tells of
  Gods revelation to them.

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Divine Revelation

• All of the Revelation of the Old Testament lead
  to Gods greatest Revelation.
• For God so loved the world that he sent His only
  SonJesus Christ.
• Jesus chose Twelve Apostles and taught them
  everything they needed to know for salvation.
• This revelation to them, the gospel, was
  entrusted to those twelve and their successors to
  be passed down to all generations.

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Divine Revelation

• The Apostles passed this revelation in two forms,
  Scripture and Tradition (Preaching).
• Together Scripture and Tradition form the deposit
  of faith, the full revelation of Christ.
• One without the other is lacking, though always
  valuable.
• Scripture includes the Old and New Testaments.
• Sacred Tradition includes teachings on the
  Trinity, Sacraments, and our Creed.
• With the death of the last Apostle (John 100AD)
  there will be no further revelation.
• The Church simply looks deeper and deeper into
  what we have been given by Christ and his
  Apostles.

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Sacred Scriptures

• It is important to remember that Sacred Scripture
  is tied to Sacred Tradition.
• The New Testament was written after Jesus died,
  rose, and ascended into heaven.
• It was the Apostles who wrote these books (or
  those who recorded the Apostles direct
  teachings).
• It was the Apostles Successors who read through
  the many books, letters, and works written about
  Jesus to decide, under the guidance of the Holy
  Spirit, which were true and accurate.

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Sacred Scripture

• Does anyone know of any books written in the time
  shortly after Jesus that are not included in the
  Bible?
• Gospel of Thomas
• Gospel of Judas
• Gospel of Mary Magdelyne
• These books were not included because they did
  not accurately record what Jesus revealed.

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Sacred Scripture

• By the early 400s all the books of Old and New
  Testament were agreed upon by the Bishops.
• St. Jerome Translated all of these books into
  Latin in 383AD this edition of scripture was
  announced as the official Scriptures (The
  Vulgate) in the West.
• Catholics have neither added nor subtracted to
  scripture since, nor will they ever.

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Interpreting Scripture

• Scripture can be interpreted literally and
  spiritually.
• When we interpret it literally we read it like a
  textbook or manual. When it says that Joshua
  fought the Battle of Jericho, we read that he
  actually fought the battle of Jericho.
• Even when reading the scriptures literally we
  must remember that it is only without error in
  regard to the Truth god means to reveal (For
  faith and morals).
• It doesnt matter if God created the world in
  Seven days or 70 billion years.
• It is important that God did Create the world,
  the order of Creation, and that He rested.
• It would make little difference to our salvation
  either way.

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Interpreting Scripture

• There are three ways of interpreting scriptures
  spiritually.
• Allegorical
• Moral
• Anagogical
• The allegorical sense of interpreting scriptures
  would be to read it as it relates to Jesus.

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Psalm 22Imagine this as Christs Prayer
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Interpreting Scripture

• The next spiritual sense of interpreting
  scriptures is the moral sense.
• How does the passage relate to each of us here
  and now.
• Finally there is the anagogical sense.
• How does this scripture passage relate to the
  eternal. How does it point to heaven and our
  salvation.

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How Was Scripture Written

• God used many people to write the scriptures.
• He chose each person for their unique style,
  gifts, and perspective.
• Though each word was written with the authors
  talent, the words are completely inspired by God
  alone.
• We have four different tellings of Jesus life
  (The Gospels) each one is unique, some parts
  almost exactly the same, some contain stories the
  others dont.
• It is the Word of God because though it was
  written by human hands, the words themselves are
  Gods.
• There are some pictures of the Gospel writers
  with the Holy Spirit whispering in their ear as
  they write.

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Inerrancy

• God wants us to get to heaven and He has given us
  two toolsScripture and Tradition.
• If these two things could be full of errors, how
  could we ever believe?
• God has promised us that the Sacred Scriptures
  and Sacred Tradition would be inerrant so that we
  could have faith.
• God promised us that the Holy Spirit will Guide
  us into all truth.
• We begin with this trust and when there is
  conflict, we study and reason out why.
• Our Faith is confirmed by reasonableness of the
  Truth.

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The Magisterium

• The Magisterium is the teaching office of the
  Church.
• What does she teach?
• The truths necessary for salvation (Faith and
  Morals).
• The Magisterium is the Pope and the Bishops in
  union with him.
• The Magisterium has been unbroken from the time
  of the Christ and the Apostles to the current day.

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Chalk Talk Apostolic Church
Jesus Christ
Pope and Bishops
Apostolic Succession
Peter
The Twelve
Apostles
Popes
Bishops
Bishops
Bishops are The successors Of the Apostles
Pope Benedict XVI
Popes are successors Of Peter
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Infallibility

• The Pope and the Bishops in union with the Pope
  can speak infallibly on matters of Faith and
  Morals.
• To be infallible means that it is without error.
• An example of an infallible teaching is that Mary
  was conceived without original sin (The
  Immaculate Conception).

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Closing Prayer