The Origin of the Bible Preview, part 2, by Dr. Brant Pitre

The Origin of the Bible Preview, part 1, by Dr. Brant Pitre

The Bible: A Brief History

Hierarchy of Worship

Most Protestants have never considered that there is a hierarchy of worship. This is not about false versus true worship, but degrees. 

Are there forms of worship than are superior to other forms? 

Since I can study subjects other than God’s word, is study a form of worship? Perhaps, but the highest form of worship? 

Since I can praise and thank people other than God, is praise and thanks a form of worship? Yes, but the highest form of worship?

Since I can pray/petition people other than God, is prayer/petition a form of worship? Yes, but the highest form of worship?

Is worship in the sincerity of the kneeling and bowing before my master? Actually, the Bible is filled with examples of God’s people bowing before other people, so bowing in and of itself is not worship.... Surely, it cannot be the highest form of worship, can it?

All these forms of worship can be given to others; so, are they the only forms of worship? Shouldn’t God have something we give to Him alone, a type of worship reserved ONLY for God? 

When we look at worship in the Old Testament, there does seem to be a crowning incarnation of worship found in the communal rites of the Temple. There alone, do we see the sacrificial offering of the innocent lamb to the Father in propitiation for sins. There we see the sinner, bound in the covenant relationship with God, partake in the communal meal ritual of consuming the flesh of the sacrifice. 

Worship in the Temple included praise and thanksgiving psalms being sung by a professional choir of levites. It included bowing, the reading of the Torah and prayers, but they were subordinate and assisted in the worship. They were not the zenith of the worship. It was the sacrifice. 

The supremely powerful consummation of worship was found in the communal sacrifice. The holiest sacrifice was on the Hebrew day of Atonement. 

In fulfillment of scripture and to bring in the New Covenant Kingdom, Israel’s temple  was destroyed in AD 70. Israel’s highest form of worship was gone and she was left only with the peripheral rites of Torah reading, songs of praise, prayer. These constitute real worship and a way of reaching God, but they no longer had the perfect and prime way of worship. The Temple sacrifice was then replaced by the ultimate, eternal sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world--the Messiah Jesus. 

Those Hebrews who did not believe the Messianic Kingdom had arrived in Jesus, today still worship in hopes of the Temple being rebuilt. They long for the return of the epitome of worship in the communal sacrifice.

There is a parallel today in Christianity.

The Catholic church which is the seed of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, was handed on the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Each day, and especially on Sunday, we re-present the Lamb to the father. We still have the ultimate form of communal worship. 

The reformers and Protestants today, willingly gave up the quintessential, unsurpassed form of worship and like the unbelieving Rabbinical worship of those who rejected Christ as the Messiah, are left with only the supportive rites of worship. Today, in Protestant churches, you will see the focus of worship in the sermon, prayers, praise and thanksgiving songs. They have rejected the sacrifice of Jesus as worship believing it was done away with at the cross. 

Yet there is no historical, nor Biblical evidence that the highest form of worship was done away with. The New Covenant has a new priesthood, that of the order of Melchizedek. Our sacrifice is the Son. 

As Catholics, we still re-present the Lamb of God as the rapturous, exalted and primary focus of our worship. 

Catholic Converts

Shameless Popery: Protestantism's Catch-22: Schism or Heresy?

Shameless Popery: Protestantism's Catch-22: Schism or Heresy?: "The Protestant ProblemA Presbyterian and a Calvinist Baptist, after months of carefully studying Scripture, and maybe even extra-Scriptural ..."

The Pilgrimage of Grace

This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

The Joys of Protestant Ladies

The other evening I was sitting with an interdenominational ladies group with some of the most amazing women I have ever met (not being invited, but by a fluke of a car mishap was with one of those who HAD been invited.) These women are very prominent in Christian circles-- a couple of them have been on Oprah, one is in the midst of choosing which movie production company is going to put her life story on the big screen and one is a Christian talk show host. Big names.

So, the eight ladies were sitting around a table at the Nashville Olive Garden when I arrived and meekly took a seat. (For anonymity sake I changed the place.)

For some strange reason, I was introduced as, “This is Teresa Beem, she is Catholic.” That felt a little awkward as everyone else at the table was Protestant and why that would be my most important identifying mark I don’t know, unless the woman who introduced me was actually wanting say “Here’s a Catholic, girls... Let’s get her saved!” 

After ordering, I was taking my first bite of the garlic bread sticks when I was confronted by the hostess, “Do you pray to Mary?” Gasps from the women made her calmly justify her question, “Well, I think it’s interesting that someone would choose to be Catholic.” (They all knew that I was raised Seventh-day Adventist.) I swallowed the bite whole and stuttered around with an answer. 

The lady sitting next to me, thinking she was doing me a great favor by getting me out of the hot seat, changed the subject. However, I really would have liked a little more conversation in order to explain the Catholic position better. The rest of the evening was discussing the upcoming Christian Women’s Conference. 

As I was leaving, the lady sitting to my right put her arm around me and with a look of pity in her eyes tried to encourage me with, “You just keep reading your Bible, sister. Keep reading your Bible.” 

Perhaps I am being paranoid, but I sensed she was unconsciously patronizing me and assuming I HADN’T read my Bible---after all in her estimation, I couldn’t have if I had become a Catholic.

Honestly, I wasn’t offended or hurt or angry. As I thought about her response over the next couple of days, I started to become frustrated. These ladies would have been utterly shocked to know I became Catholic BECAUSE I read my Bible. That doesn’t compute with Protestants. 

How do we, as Catholics, begin to disabuse our dear Protestant brethren of the idea that Catholics have rejected holy scripture? How do we let them know we love and respect the Bible and rather than discard its teachings, we hold to a different interpretation of them--the OLDEST and authoritative interpretation? 

What do I want to do, start a war, you ask?    No. 

It is time, though, that Catholics break through the misunderstanding that Protestants have about our faith--AND WE HAVE ALLOWED them to have. This is more our fault than theirs!

...And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14,15

Catholics, I think, are completely unaware of the tremendous beauty of their own beliefs. They do not realize how Catholicism could lift EVEN Protestants--lovely, God-fearing, faithful Protestants--from the slavery of their misunderstandings of theology. Protestants have good news for sure! But we have the the fullest, the BEST news of all. Do we not know it? Do we not believe it? Do we not live it? Is that why we cannot share it? 

Time for that to change.