Father Angelo,
sorry to trouble you: the Evangelicals claim that, according to the Book of the Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes died more than once and in different ways. Is that true? They also say that in the Book of Wisdom, chapter 11, God created the world from existing matter. Finally, they maintain that the seven books that they do not acknowledge are full of mistakes. They try to confuse me because I come from their milieu. I am a former Evangelical Christian who has been attending the Catholic Church for one month.
Please, help me.
Thank you in advance for your kind reply.
Answer from the priest
Dear friend,
1. I am glad that you have left the Evangelicals. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful graces you have received from the Lord. This way, you can take the Sacraments and receive that sap that flows in us thanks to Christ. Jesus clearly stated that: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” [Jn 15:1–5]. There is a divine life flowing in us.
2. This divine life is grace, which in the ordinary way is received and nourished through sacraments. Finally, you can go to confession and experience what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation” [Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1468].
3. You are able to feed on the Body of Christ by partaking of the Eucharist and experience what Saint Thomas says: “the soul is spiritually nourished through the power of this sacrament, by being spiritually gladdened, and as it were inebriated with the sweetness of the Divine goodness, according to Cant 5:1: ‘Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my dearly beloved’.”
4. Not to mention the experience of the maternal presence of Mary in every moment of life, according to what Christ said: “Woman, behold, your son” [Jn 19:26]. You will have the opportunity to feel this continuously. Denying devotion to Mary, the Evangelicals, just as the Protestants, deprive people of that presence the Christ has given us in opposition to that of our adversary: “I will put enmity between you and the woman” [Gen 3:15]. For this reason, arriving at the Catholic Church you receive one of the most beautiful and undeserved graces.
5. But now let us tackle the texts that you have mentioned. The first concerns Antiochus Epiphanes, about whom nobody says that he died several times and in different ways. These arguments are nonsense. The Book of the Maccabees, which is rejected by the Evangelicals, talks several times about Antiochus’s death. In a letter written by the Jewish brothers and quoted in the beginning of the second book we can read: “When the priests of the Nanaeon had displayed the treasures, Antiochus with a few attendants came to the temple precincts. As soon as he entered the temple, the priests locked the doors. Then they opened a hidden trapdoor in the ceiling, hurled stones at the leader and his companions and struck them down. They dismembered the bodies, cut off their heads and tossed them to the people outside. Forever blessed be our God, who has thus punished the wicked!” [2 Mac 1:15–17]. If this is the text the Evangelicals refer to, it is worth noting what the Jerusalem Bible outlines in two footnotes.
6. The first is the footnote to 2 Mac 1:10: “By including this letter in his work, the sacred author does not guarantee its historical value”. The second is the footnote to 2 Mac 1:16: “This popular account of the death of Antiochus does not correspond with that in 9:1ff., neither is it the same as that in 1 Mac 6:1ff. The real circumstances of his death were not yet known; therefore, they are likely to be a false imitation of the circumstances of the death of Antiochus III, who was caught in an ambush with his army after having plundered the temple of Bel in Elymais” [Translator’s note: I was unable to find the official English version of the passages quoted by Father Angelo. Therefore, this is only my translation attempt. I apologize with the readers.]
7. We ought to ask ourselves: how do the circumstances of the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, a pagan king, affect our faith? The truth is that the Evangelicals, as well as the Protestants, because they talk explicitly about the suffrages for the deads. Here is the relevant passage: “He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin” [2 Mac 12: 43 –46].
8. Regardless of whether the Book of the Maccabees is Sacred Scripture or not, this passage is clear testimony as for the faith of the Jews before the coming of Christ and at Christ’s times as for the necessity of purification after death.
9. As for the second issue, the verse they refer to is the following: “For not without means was your almighty hand, that had fashioned the universe from formless matter” [Wis 11:17]. The Jerusalem Bible comments: “Philosophical expression partially inspired by Plato (Timaeus 51 A), it had become usual at that time to indicate the undifferentiated state of matter, which was thought to be eternal. The author has no reason to withdraw matter from the creative activity of God and might be thinking of the organization of the world starting from chaotic mass [Gen 1:1]”. [Translator’s note: see the previous note above].
10. It is worth noting that this verse was written by the same author who, in same book, says.” God of my fathers, Lord of mercy, you who have made all things by your word” [Wis 9:1]. And in the same chapter, just a little after the “faulty” words (according to the Evangelicals), he wote: “For you love all things that are [Note by Father Angelo: including matter that has not been formed yet] and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls” [Wis 11: 24 – 26].
11. Well, how could the same author write these things in the same chapter if God were not the author of formless matter? The text does not say that formless matter is not created by God. The author availed himself of the common Greek mindset that somehow complies with the opening of the Book of Genesis: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland” [Gen 1: 1 – 2]. God fashioned the various creatures from this formless wasteland, as stated in Genesis 1:2 and in Wisdom 11:17. The Evangelicals find it difficult to reconcile these two concepts because they read the Scripture in a material way. As a matter of fact, they are fundamentalists.
12. The mistakes the seven books they reject are said to be full of are all of the same kind as the ones you have mentioned. It does not take much to refute them.
I wish you a full Christian life within the Catholic Church.
I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo.
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