JOEL 2 GENERATION

Countless Americans will be donning something green and getting drunk in St. Patrick’s honor today, who obviously know NOTHING about who St. Patrick really was. If they did, they would realize they are actually dishonoring him. In fact, most of what Christians have heard about St. Patrick amounts to Fake ‘Theological’ News. Different Christian traditions all want to claim Patrick as their own, the Roman Catholic Church being the loudest voice. Modern day Charismatics also like to reference his prophetic gifting and miracles. There have been a growing number of other Christians in recent years claiming to be “Celtic” and/or seeking to recover Celtic roots or Celtic ‘spirituality’. Sadly, much of that is distorted and often infused with New Age beliefs and ideas. Other historical revisionists will look to the Celtic Christians to justify other ideas/agendas – such as radical feminism and even environmentalism. So, who gets Patrick right? Who in our time represents him and his legacy the ...

I know 'technically' my Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends will say they don't "pray TO saints and angels", but for millions of Christians in those traditions that is truly a distinction without a difference. The role of dead saints and angels in these traditions is extremely important. The million dollar question of course is this, "Did Christ and His Apostles teach the church to do this"? And if so, we would find evidence of this practice in the 2nd and 3rd century church. But is that what we find?  Actually, we find just the opposite! And one voice that is perhaps the clearest is the great theologian of the 3rd Century, Origen. What does he say? "Having thus learned to call these beings “messengers” [i.e., angels] from their    duties, we find that because they are divine, they are sometimes called “god” in the sacred Scriptures. But this is not said in the sense that we are commanded to honor and worship them in place of God—even though they mi...