Individuals vs The Majority

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What did Vatican 2 say about the Bible?


In summary fashion Vatican II declared that tradition, Scripture, and the magisterium “are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others” (Dei Verbum 10). In other words, nothing is believed on the authority of tradition alone, Scripture alone, or the magisterium alone.

Vatican II on the Interpretation of Scripture - Squarespace​

The Second Vatican Council (or Vatican II) was the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church . It was convened by Saint John XXIII and lasted for four sessions from 1962 through 1965. It produced a series of documents to direct the life of the Church in the twentieth century and beyond.

Mission & Catholic Identity - Second Vatican Council​

https://www.carroll.edu › mission-catholic-identity › seco...


- Tradition is hard to change!

 

[JLG]

- When I think about the Pentateuch, I always remember:

- Moses!

- This man is just incredible!

- He spent his time saving Israel from destruction!

- He spent his time warning Israel!

- He spent his time leading Israel!

- And what did they do in exchange!

- Only complaining against him!

- Because of them he couldn’t get into the promised land and he died before!

- What a shame!

- When I think about the book of Joshua, I always remember that:

- Joshua is the new leader of Israel who lead the Israelites into the promised land!

- Those who refused to get into the promised land have died and Joshua leads their descendants!

- They are busy fighting for their new homeland!

- Now it’s time to look at the period of Judges!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 1

- God chose Moses to lead Israel!

- Then Joshua was trained by Moses!

- After that he led Israel into the promised land!

- Then God chose Judah to lead Israel against the Canaanites!

- And Judah asked his brother Simeon to come with him and fight against the Canaanites!

- And God gave the Canaanites into their hands!

- But the Israelites couldn’t get rid of all the Canaanites so some kept living with Israel!

- We are only told that God was with Judah and the house of Joseph but they couldn’t get rid of all the Canaanites!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 2

- God’s angel asks the Israelites why they have made a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and why they haven’t pull down theirs altars and why they haven’t obeyed his voice!

- That’s why God will let them among them and they will mix with them and get into trouble!

- As usual the people start to weep loudly!

- So after Joshuas’s death, the Israelites start again to do what is bad according to God!

- They abandon god and they worship other gods!

- And he gives them into the hands of their enemies!

- then God raise up judges to save the Israelites from their enemies!

- But they refuse to listen even to the judges and keep worshiping other gods!

- When the judge die, the Israelites they again act more corruptly than their fathers!

- So God leaves their enemies among them to test Israel!

- Thus we can see it is getting worse and worse with Israel!

- They can’t stop from doing what is bad!

- On the contrary, they do worse and worse!

- They never understand!

- In fact, there is no difference with humanity!

- Well, in fact, there is a big difference because they had received a lot from God!

- They were too stupid to realize that like Adam and Eve!

- When you have everything, apparently you don’t care about it!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 3

- As God had warned them, the Israelites mixed with their enemies, they gave them their daughters and they took their daughters as wives!

- And they served their gods!

- There is no comparison between the relationship God had with Abraham and the one he had with the Israelites!

- The second would last because of the first one!

- And we can’t talk of the second one as a real relationship!

- The Israelites never respected their part of the covenant!

- They wanted to get everything without giving anything!

- Like humanity indeed!

- Thus God gave them into the hands of their enemies!

- When they called God for help he sent a savior, Othniel, Caleb’s youngest brother and he became a judge in Israel!

- Then Israel was at peace for 40 years!

- Then Othniel died!

- Then Israel started doing what was wrong again!

- And God gave them in the hands of their enemies!

- When they called God for help he sent a savior, Ehud, a benjaminite!

- Then Israel was at peace for 80 years!

- Then God sent Shamgar!

- Apparently many people don’t read the Bible!

- Or I don’t know what they read!

- How is it possible to call that thing a chosen people?

- It is disgusting!

- But what is the most disgusting?

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 4

- Here we hear about Deborah, the first woman to be a judge in Israel!

- She tells Barak to lead the fight against the enemies of Israel!
!
- But Barak wants Deborah to come with him!

- So she tells him that God will give the glory to a woman who will kill Sisera the chief of the army of the enemies of Israel!

- It’s interesting to see that God would choose both men and women to have responsibilities in Israel!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 5

- Deborah and Barak sing a song about what has just happened!

Judges Chapter 6

- Again Israel goes against God!

- And God gives them into the hand of their enemies!

- And as usual they ask for god’s help!

- And God sends his angel to Gideon to tell him to strike their enemies!

- And he receives a sign from God!

- And God tells him to destroy the altar of Baal and build one for God and make an offering!

- The people of the city want to kill him!

- But Joash opposes them!

- And Gideon asks for more signs from God before fighting Israel’s enemies!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 7

- Gideon must fight again Midian!

- But God tells him there are too many soldiers!

- So he wants to reduce their number to show them that God gives them the victory!

- The Israelites who are afraid must go back home!

- 22,000 go back home and 10,000 remain!

- God says it is still too much!

- So he tells Gideon to send the men to drink!

- And those who drink like dogs go back home!

- And those who bend down on their knees to drink remain!

- Thus there are 300 men left!

- It is at night and the enemies are numerous!

- A man tells a dream indicating that Israel will win!

- When Gideon hears the dream and its interpretation, he bows down and worships!

- Then they get nearer the camp of their enemies and they blow their horns and smash large water jars to make a lot of noise!

- And they have torches and they shout the sword of God and of Gideon!

- And the enemies flee!

- And the Israelites chase them!

- And Gideon asks for the Israelites to go and chase their enemies!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 8

- The men of Ephraim are angry because they were not called to fight against Midian!

- But Gideon tells them God gave them Midian’s princes before so what he did was nothing compared to them!

- And they calm down!

- Gideon and his 300 men are tired but they keep pursuing their enemies!

- And he asks the men of Succoth and of Peruel for bread but they refuse so he tells them that when he has finished what he is doing, he will come after them!

- When he comes back, he captures and interrogates a young man from Succoth and he gets rid of Succoth and Peruel!

- Then the men of Israel wants Gideon to rule over Israel and his descendants!

- But he refuses saying God is the ruler of Israel!

- But then Gideon asks for gold and makes Ephod and all Israel commits spiritual prostitution and it becomes a snare to Gideon and to his household!

- Then Israel has rest for 40 years in the days of Gideon!

- Gideon becomes father of 70 sons because he has many wives!

- As soon as Gideon dies, Israel commits spiritual prostitution!

- And they forget God and Gideon and his household!

- I HAVE NO WORDS TO SPEAK ABOUT SUCH A DEGREE OF SHAME!

- HOW MANY PEOPLE DO REALLY READ THE BIBLE!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 9

- After the death of Gideon, one of his sons Abimelech proposes to his brotheres to rule over them!

- So they give him 70 pieces of silver!

- He uses the money to hire men and kills all his brothers with one stone except Jotham his youngest brother who hides!

- Then Jotham speaks to the leaders of Shechem!

- He asks them if they acted sincerely in making Abimelech king taking into account what his father did for them!

- Because Abimelech’s mother is Gideon’s slave girl!

- Then Jotham flees!

- And Abimelech rules over Israel for 3 years!

- To avenge the killing of Gideon’s sons, God lets hostility develop between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem!

- Then they fight together and Abimelech killed all the men of Shechem and destroys the city!

- But when Abimelech attacks the city of thebez!

- There a woman throws a millstone on him and crushes his skull!

- And he asks his attendant to kill him so nobody can say a woman killed him!

- So the attendant kills him!

- Then all the men of Israel go back home!

- Finally God repays Abimelech and the men of Shechem for the evil they had done!

- Thus even if it takes time, God always repays those who do evil!

- When you go against God, he will repay each one according to what he did or not!

- Once again we have a warning!

- When time arrives for God to repay those who deserve it, it is no time to cry or weep!

- And it happens so many times till God finally rejected Israel!

- Remember Daniel’s prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem in spite of its mountain of sins against God!

- And God’s answer: THE RESTORATION OF JERUSALEM AND ITS DESTRUCTION!

- THE MESSAGE SEEMS CLEAR BUT NOT FOR EVERYBODY!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 10

- And Tola judged Israel for 23 years!

- And Jair judged Israel for 22 years!

- And again Israel committed spiritual prostitution!

- And God gave them into the hands of the philistines and the Ammonites!

- For 18 years!

- And finally they called to God for help!

- But God told them GO AWAY!

- So they removed the foreign gods from their midst and served God!

- And then the Ammonites prepared to fight again against Israel!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 11

- And Jephthah was the son of a prostitute!

- And he became a mighty warrior!

- And the elders of Gilead asked Jephthah to become their commander!

- Jephthah made a vow to God!

- If God was to give the Ammonites in Jephthah’s hands, the one coming out of the door of his house would become God’s!

- And Jephthah won and he took the control of 20 cities!

- When he came back home, his daughter came out to meet him!

- She was his only child!

- She would stay a virgin and served God!

- And it became a tradition on Israel, from year to year, the young women of Israel would go to give commendation to Jephthah’s daughter four days in the year!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 12

- The men of Ephraim are angry because Jephthah didn’t call them to fight against the Ammonites!

- They want to burn Jephthah’s house with him in it!

- But he says he called to them for help but they did not save him from their hands!

- So he went against the Ammonites with God’s help!

- So Gilead fights against Ephraim and Gilead wins!

- And the men of Gilead pursue them!

- To know they were from Ephraim they just had to ask them to pronounce a word they were unable to pronunce correctly!

- Finally 42,000 men were killed!

- Ephraim was a son of Joseph!

- Once again you can be a good person and tries to educate correctly your children but it doesn’t mean they will keep on the right track!

- That’s free will!

- Like Adam and Eve!

- The only difference is that they were perfect!

- And Jephthah judges Israel for six years and he dies!

- Then Ibzan judges Israel for seven years!

- And Elon judges Israel for ten years!

- And Abdon judges Israel for eight years!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 13

- Israel goes back to spiritual prostitution!

- And God gives them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years!

- And God ‘s angel appeared to Manoah’s wife who was barren and childless!

- And he told her she was going to have a child!

- But she couldn’t drink alcohol or eat anything unclean!

- Because he was to become a Nazirite of God from birth!

- And he was to save Israel from the Philistines!

- And he was called SAMSON!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 14

- Samson wants to marry a Philistine woman!

- In fact, God is looking for an opportunity against the Philistines who are ruling over Israel!

- On one occasion, Samson kills a lion with his bare hands thanks to God’s spirit!

- Later on when he looks at the dead body of the lion, he sees a swarm of bees and honey!

- Then he takes it and eats it!

- And he gives some to his parents!

- Then Samson has a banquet with 30 groommen!

- He asks them a riddle!

- If they get the answer he will give them 30 linen garments and 30 outfits of clothing!

- But they don’t know so they ask his philistine woman to trick her husband Samson otherwise they will burn her and her father’s house!

- So they can answer his riddle and Samson is furious because he knows they have tricked him!

- So he kills 30 Philistines and gives them their garments!

- And Samson’s wife is given to one of his groomsmen who has accompanied him!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 15

- As a consequence, Samson gets 300 foxes and takes torches and turns the foxes tail to tail and puts one torch between each pair of tails and he sets fire to the torches and sends the foxes out into the fields of the Philistines!

- Then he sets on fire everything from sheaf to standing grain and the vineyards and the olive groves!

- Then the Philistines burn samson’s wife and her father!

- Then he kills many Philistines!

- So 3,000 men of Judah capture and bound Samson!

- When they give him to the Philistines, God’s spirit empowers him and he frees him and he takes a jawbone and kills 1,000 Philistines!

- And Samson judges Israel for 20 years!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 16

- Samson goes to Gaza and goes with a prostitute!

- Then the Gazites are told about Samson and surround him and lay an ambush to kill him!

- But Samson gets up at midnight and grabs the doors of the city gate and the two side posts and puts everything on his shoulders!

- Later He fells in love with a woman called Delilah!

- Then the lords of the philistines tell her to trick Samson and find out the source of his power and how to take it away!

- In exchange they are ready to give her a fortune!

- But Samson doesn’t tell her the truth about his strength so when the Philistines try to capture him he can free himself!

- Then the philistines try too capture him but it still doesn’t work because he didn’t tell the truth to Delilah!

- Then a third time it happens the same!

- Finally he tells her the truth and she cuts his hair and he loses his strength!

- And the Philistines captures him and bore his eyes out!

- And they put him in prison!

- Later his hair grows again!

- And the Philistines offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon because of Samson!

- And they take Samson out of his prison to make fun of him!

- And they make him stand between the pillars of the temple!

- And Samson asks a boy to bring him to the pillars that support the temple!

- 3,000 Philistines are present!

- And Samson asks God to give him back his strength and die and kill the Philistines!

- And Samson takes away the pillars and he kills more Philistines than during his whole life!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 17

- There was a man called Micah!

- And he gave back to her 1,100 silver pieces!

- She took 200 silver pieces and gave it to the silversmith to make a carved image and a metal statue to put in micah’s house because he had a house of gods!

- Micah had one of his sons to serve as priests for him!

- There was no king in Israel and everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes!

- A Levite was looking for a place to live so Micah told him to stay with him and served as a father and priest to him!

- And the young man became like one of his sons!

- Then Micah knew that God would bless him!

- Does it remind you of something: AND EVERYONE WAS DOING WHAT WAS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 18

- The tribe of Dan has not received an inheritance so they send men to spy the land they want to get!

- The men spend the night at the house of Micah!

- They meet the young Levite and ask him questions!

- Then he answers them to go in peace and that God is with them!

- Then the spies spy the land!

- When they come back, they tell everything what they see!

- So 600 Danites get ready to fight!

- Then they go to the house of Micah!

- The five spies go to the house of Micah and take the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim statues and the metal image!

- And they ask the young priest to go with them!

- Micah realizes he can’t do anything against the Danites so he lets the priest go with them!

- They destroy the city of Laish and burn it and rebuild it and settle in it and call it Dan according to their father’s name!

 

[JLG]

Judges Chapter 19

- A Levite takes a concubine as his wife!

- But she is unfaithful to him!

- And she goes to her father’s house!

- She remains there for 4 months!

- Then the Levite goes to see his wife to bring her back!

- He stays there for three days!

- His father-in-law asks him to stay another day!

- The next day it is the same!

- And he finally leaves with his wife!

- They get close to Jerusalem and spend the night at Gibeah!

- They sit down in the public square of the city!

- But nobody offers them to stay overnight!

- Then an old man who only lives in the city for a while offers them to spend the night at his house and he takes care of them!

- Some men come to the house and want the man to have sex with him!

- But the old man refuses!

- And he offers his daughter and the man’s concubine!

- But they refuse and take the concubine and abuse her all night!

- In the morning the woman comes back to the house and dies!

- So the man cuts her in 12 pieces and sends one piece into each territory of Israel!

- Then the men of Israel take counsel to know what to do!