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Smyrna Speaks

The first and the last, who once died but came to life, says this: “I know your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those who claim to be Jews and are not, but rather are members of the assembly of Satan.”

“Do not be afraid of anything that you are going to suffer. Indeed, the devil will throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will face an ordeal for ten days. Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The victor shall not be harmed by the second death.”

“But you are rich.” How I long to hear those words from God about me! “You are rich in My love. You are rich in faithfulness, in endurance, in hope. You are rich.” Imagine the joy you would experience hearing Jesus Christ announce that to you.

Because the thing of it is, these people are being hunted, tortured and murdered. They are being arrested, exiled and denounced. They are, in the eyes of the world, despised, unlucky, weak, marginal, and oppressed. “But you are rich” says the One who sees beyond appearances and into the heart, “But you are rich.”

“Remain faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Church Life, ScriptureMichael GormleyMarch 5, 2015Churches Speak, Revelation, Smyrna

EPHESUS SPEAKS

I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors. Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary.

Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Ephesus speaks, and it is the language of the doctrinally orthodox and the spiritually dead. They fell in love with the Risen Lord in the beginning, but somewhere along the way, they lost their love and thought themselves holy because they believed all of the right things, and didn’t sin too much, but missed the most important thing of all: Jesus Christ.

ScriptureMichael GormleyMarch 4, 2015Ephesus Speaks, first love, repent

Sow Generously, Reap Generously

Quotes, ScriptureMichael GormleyFebruary 8, 2013cheerful giver, generosity

In the Beginning...

“In the beginning” life was different. It was meant to be different: better, holy, beautiful. It was not meant to be a disaster, a series of dramas, scandals, and sins, of hurt, use and abuse; of weakness, sickness, sorrow and death. That was not the original plan.

The creation story in Genesis 1 and 2 is meant to reveal how that original plan was supposed to go and how much our Father loves us. See, when we look at the rest of creation, we see things that, just by existing, given Him glory. Mice, just by being mousy, give glory to God. Dogs, cats, termites, just by being themselves, offer to God all that He created them to offer.

But for humanity, He wanted to give us more, and in return wanted more from us. God created us for love, for us to share in His love by sharing in His freedom. He gave us the ability to choose to love Him, to serve Him, because if love is forced or coerced, it is not love.

For love to be real, it must be free.

Scripture, TheologyMichael GormleyJune 28, 2011Adam and Eve, Sin

Biblical Interpretation: Catholic Response

Biblical fundamentalism fails the Catholic Church’s vision of Scripture and exegesis because it is anti-science, anti-authorship and ahistorical. As an ideology, fundamentalism rejects any science as a force undermining the Christian faith. The natural sciences refute the ancient cosmology and Creation stories, while historical criticism demonstrates the development of the inspired text, denying their doctrine of strict verbal inspiration, and consequently, of total inerrancy. And so, despite its ability to bear good exegetical fruit, it is rejected from root to tip as valid tools for the biblical fundamentalist.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has never rejected the ability of human reason to know truth, affirming reason and faith, being neither rationalist nor fideist. Within this appreciation of human reason, comes the legitimization of the sciences: natural, social, and literary. Historical criticism was rejected initially by the Church in Pope Leo’s encyclical Providentissimus Deus, because it was attached to a “much too intrusively dogmatic liberalism” that was buttressed by rationalism and modernism (IBC: 28). Through Catholic exegetes making careful use of these critical methods, the Church, in freeing the methods from unacceptable presuppositions, fifty years later allowed her exegetes to make use of this criticism wisely in the papal encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu. In her cautious approach to ‘higher criticism’, she was able to avoid many of the abuses of liberal Protestant exegetes that the fundamentalists reacted against so strongly.

Scripture, TheologyMichael GormleyOctober 21, 2010Bible, Catholic, Interpretation

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