Joe Babendreier - The Faith Explained Today

The faith

EXPLAINED TODAY

The faith

EXPLAINED TODAY

Joe Babendreier

Copyright 2014 by Joe Babendreier

The total or partial reproduction of this book is not permitted, nor its informatic treatment, or the transmission of any form or by any means, either electronic, mechanic, photocopy or other methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Scripture texts from the New and Old Testaments are taken from The Holy Bible Revised Standard Catholic Edition 1965 and 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States. All rights reserved. All copyrighted material is used by permission of the copyright owner. No part of it may be reproduced without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Published by Scepter Publishers, Inc.

P.O. Box 1391

New Rochelle, NY 10802

www.scepterpublishers.org

Cover and text design by Rose Design

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-1-59417-215-1

From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani; that is My God, My God, why have you deserted me? When some of those who stood there heard this, they said, The man is calling on Elijah, and one of them quickly ran to get a sponge which he dipped in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink. Wait! said the rest of them, and see whether Elijah will come to save him. But Jesus, again crying out in a loud voice, yielded up his spirit. At that, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth quaked; the rocks were split; the tombs opened and the bodies of holy men rose from the dead, and these, after his resurrection, came out of the tombs, entered the Holy City and appeared to a number of people. Meanwhile the centurion, together with the others guarding Jesus, had seen the earthquake and all that was taking place, and they were terrified and said, In truth this was a son of God.

MATTHEW 27:4554

Contents

g od wants to reveal himself to you. God has a plan for you. You were born for a purpose.

When you study religion, you discover the way God chose to reveal himself. You study Gods plan for mankind. As you come to understand Gods plan for creation, you come to understand your place in that plan. As you learn how God began to reveal himself long ago, you come to understand how God wants to reveal himself to you now.

This book will help you study what God revealed through Jesus Christ, as the Church has believed it, preserved it, and treasured it from the beginning. It is an attempt to explain what the Church has been teaching for the last two thousand years. The Church began to teach first through St. Peter and the Apostles. She has continued to teach through their successors, namely St. Peters successor and the successors of the other Apostlesthe men we call the Pope and the bishops.

The message

If the message of this book could be summarized in one sentence, it would be this: We come to know everything there is to know about God by coming to know Jesus personally. This book summarizes the Churchs teaching. But learning about Gods revelation goes far beyond knowing what the Church teaches. More than knowing facts, you need to know Jesus. You need to know him the same way you know your parents, your brothers and sisters, or your best friend.

One of the greatest saints said:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Galatians 2:20

St. Paul wrote this. This is the way he lived. This is the way God wants everyone to live. This is the goalto have Jesus living within you.

Two worlds

There are two worlds. There is this world and there is the next world. In this world, good and evil are mixed together. In the next world, God will separate good and evil. In this world, it is difficult for us to distinguish between good and evilat least it is hard to do it accurately all the time. And it is hard to figure out where all the evil comes from. It is also hard to figure out where all the good comes from. Both the good and the evil are mysteries. Both this world and the next world are mysteries. The mixture of good and evil that you experience every day makes this world mysterious, that is, hard to understand.

The first step towards under standing good and evil in this world is to start with yourself. You have lots of good inside of you. You have lots of evil inside of you. You were born that way. This makes your life a mystery.

Jesus is your Savior. This means many things. Above all else, it means that heand he alonehas the power to get rid of the evil inside you. Only he can make you completely good once and for all.

SACRED SCRIPTURE

Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at Gods right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealedand he is your lifeyou too will be revealed in all your glory with him.

Colossians 3:14

One of the ways in which Jesus does this involves showing you whats inside you. Once you see it, he asks you to work together with him to build up all that is good and eliminate all that is evil. If you do this, you will be ready when the time comes for him to separate good and evil in the next world. You will stay with Jesus forever. Everything you experience will be good, forever and ever. If you deliberately and willingly allow evil a place in your heart, you are in deep trouble, unless you change. If you dont change, then, in the next world, you will know nothing but evil, forever and ever.

What Christians Believe

God

God Creates the World

God Creates Man

Man Rebels Against God

God Becomes Man

God Redeems Man

The Holy Spirit

The Church

The Virgin Mary

Gods Plan

Heaven and Hell

God Judges Man

God Ends Time

God

g od is the Creator. He created all things out of nothing. He alone needs no one to make him exist.

God is Lord. He rules over all creation. He has a plan for creation. His plan will be completed at the end of time.

Looking at the beauty and the order of the world, people of all times and places have concluded that the Creator of all this must be wise and powerful. Because God appeared to Abraham, to Moses, and to the prophets, the Jews knew more about the Creator than any other nation. When God sent his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we came to know much more. When Jesus returns the second time, he will complete Gods plan and Gods revelation.

Divine nature

God is free. He does whatever he wants. He does it the way he wants. When we rebel, even our rebellion fits into his plan. He does not want us to rebel, but he foresees it. In his plan, we are also free; we choose to obey or rebel.

God is wise. He alone sees the whole of creation in one glance from beginning to end. No one can judge his actions.

God is infinite. He has no limitations. No one can comprehend all his perfection. God is immutable. He never changes. No one can do anything to change him. God is immense. He is greater than all possible universes combined. Nothing can be used to measure his greatness.