Catholic Doctrine Bible Study

Catholic Doctrine Bible Study

By Jim HawkReligion & SpiritualityChristianity
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Catholic Doctrine Bible Study episodes

  • Session 143: Genesis 3 continued, plus Genesis 1-3 Summary

    Neither Adam nor Eve confessed their sin; didn’t ask for forgiveness. (As we must!)


    3:15 The “proto-Gospel.”  God promises a savior for this now-fallen world.  Mary’s “yes” to God overcame Eve’s “no.”

    3:19 “ to dirt you shall return.”  (This world is not our ultimate home!)

    God still showed mercy to both; they each lived long lives, and also, scripture doesn’t say that Adam and Eve were ultimately banished to Hell;  they may well have received eternal life with God.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i0Hw9PL2KJ8Ny6UAbK8_6CXyUSjRekcP/view?usp=sharing

    21 min
  • Session 142: Genesis 3:1-3:13

    God did not CREATE evil. (Evil is the absence of good. Satan was once the brightest of angels, and CHOSE to rebel.) God PERMITS evil (free will), and can still use it for good.


    v.1  Satan tries to blur the truth. (Only eating from one particular tree was forbidden.)  Satan wants us to question what the truth is.

    v.3 The woman (not yet given a name) ADDS a prohibition that God did not  make!  (“or even touch it”) 

    v.4and 5  The 1st example of the BIGGEST sin; the sin of PRIDE....wanting to be (our own) God. 

    v.6 Beware of things that are “pleasing to the eye” that may cause you to sin. (Greed, materialism, or sexual sin.)

    v.7 Neither the man nor the woman asked God what to do....We must pray before we act!

    v.7-9 You can’t hide from God!  He’s Omniscient and Omnipresent. (And Omnipotent.)

    v.12-13 Don’t blame others for your sins...God gave you a free will.  In v. 12, the man even blames God for his sin!! (“the woman whom YOU put here”...)
    Don’t blame God for your problems!

    20 min
  • Session 141: Genesis 2:4-2:25

    Here we see the 2nd Creation Story.

    (The editors didn’t choose between the 2; they put them side-by-side.)  Both are true in that they reinforce ideas about God that complement each other.

     In the 1st Creation Story, (“Priestly” source) God creates by speaking.  There is a plan, there is order, but he is somewhat distant. 

    In the 2nd Creation Story, (“Yahwist, or “J” source),  God is more intimate with Man.  He talks with him, inaugurates work, teaches him, makes a mate for him. 

    (God can seem “distant” at times, in that we won’t totally understand him in this life, yet we know he has a plan for us.  God also desires intimacy with us...a relationship based on love.   So, both accounts work hand-in-hand.)

    2:3 “You are free to.....”  God gives us a free will.  He WANTS us to love Him, but he lets us make that choice. (Otherwise, it wouldn’t be love!)

    2:21-24 God inaugurates marriage.  The couple are to become one body...which also prefigures the Church!  Jesus quotes v24 in his teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.  (Mt. 19:5)

    (More on what we are to understand from Chapters 1-2 after we finish Chapter 3.)

    22 min
  • Session 140: Genesis 1-2:3

    God created everything out of nothing...

    “ex nihilo”....He didn’t need anything.

    In this 1st Creation Account, God creates by SPEAKING...”Let there be ....”

    “Wind” (v.2, “Ruah”) also means “Spirit” (ie. the Holy Spirit, present at the beginning.)

    There was ORDER in how God made things appear: not chaos.

    Everything God made was GOOD, (even mosquitos! ) especially Man.  (There is some good in the worst of us, because God made us all.)  We all have value BECAUSE God made us, so we must treat each other accordingly.

    v.26 “Let US make...” suggests the Trinity.  “man in our image.”  (God is love, we have the ability to receive and give love, we have a soul, we have the ability (and the duty!) to take care of our environment.)

    2:3 God “rested”on the 7th (Completion, perfection, covenant) Day.  We are to be thankful EVERY day, and to corporately worship and rest at least on Sundays....this is a Precept of the Church!

    20 min
  • Session 139: Introduction to the Old Testament - Part 2

    Who wrote the Pentateuch, and when?


    Moses obviously provided much of the material.

    He was not an eyewitness to anything in Genesis! 

    He could not have written about his death, or his humility, in Deuteronomy!

    Moses lived sometime between 1600-1250BC. 

    Importance of oral tradition!

    Final editing of the material was during the 500’s BC, during the Babylonian Captivity.

    Editors would typically take 2 accounts and put them side-by- side, instead of choosing one or the other. (2 Creation Accounts, 2 Flood Stories, etc.

    Historical-Critical Method of researching the Bible has identified at least 4 different contributing editors, each with their own viewpoint. Though they certainly have their differences, they have a remarkably similar view of God’s relationship with Man....their Timeless Truths are equivalent.

    21 min
  • Session 138: Introduction to the Old Testament

    The connections between the OT and the NT:  Both show God’s love, desire for a relationship with, willingness to lead and  forgive.  The OT looks for a Messiah; the NT presents the Messiah.  (“What is concealed in the OT is revealed in the NT.”)


    Are the stories of the OT “true?”  (See CCC paragraph 107, and Dei Verbum 11.)  All true for the sake of our salvation.  A given story may or may not be literally true (listen to senses of scripture) but is ALWAYS true as it describes the relationship between God and Mankind. 

    These books are not intended as science texts or history texts:  again, they are intended to describe the relationship between God and Man.

    2 errors in studying the OT:
    “God COULDN’T have done it that way...science disproves it.”  (God is God, he is Omnipotent.)

    “God MUST have done it that way, because that’s what the Bible literally says.”  (This ignores the way truths were communicated long ago.  Remember the senses of scripture.)

    20 min
  • Session 136: Revelation 21

    21:3-7  THE PAYOFF!!  We become not slaves, not employees, but the adopted Children of God.  We’re family!


    v.8 Again, there is a Hell.

    V.9-21 John’s vision of Heaven borrows heavily from Old Testament prophet Ezekiel’s vision of Heaven, described in
    Ezekiel  Chapters 40-48.  Ezekiel was writing during Judah’s captivity in Babylon to encourage the captives to persevere following God.  Once again, in Revelation, John is saying “See? God has a great plan to save His people, always.”

    v.22 Jesus is the new temple.

    v. 27 “Nothing unclean will enter (Heaven)”   That’s why God created Purgatory.  (Few, if any of us are totally clean at the moment of death.)

    21 min
  • Session 135: Revelation 20

    What is the “1000 years?”

    Theories: Premillennial (Christ returns to reign on earth for 1000 years (literal or symbolic) BEFORE the final, final judgement....many with this view believe in a rapture of God’s
    People before Christ returns (a 3rd time!) with them to rule on earth.
    (Rejected by the Church for 2 reasons:
    A) No pre-tribulation rapture...Christians don’t get to avoid suffering.
    B)Christ will not rule visibly on earth again.....he next comes to judge, then it’s heaven or  hell.

    Postmillennial : Christ will reign on earth for 1000 years after the world is all Christianized and good.  Was a popular idea in the 19th century, but the world got LESS Christian, less “good” (2 World Wars) in the 20th Century, so not as popular idea today.  Also, rejected by Church, again because it says Christ will visibly reign on earth.

    Amillennialism- The time between Christ’s 1st and 2nd coming, the Church Age, (now!) is the “millenium” (a long time), in which the Devil is subdued (somewhat!) by the Church, Her Teachings, her Sacraments.  Christ reigns on earth through the Church; through the hearts of those on earth who love Him. Though not an official doctrine of the Church, this Church Age idea is the teaching of Augustin and a majority of Catholic fathers throughout history.  (The Holy Spirit has not revealed definitively very much about the end times.....except a refutation of premillenianism and the idea of a visible earthly reign by Christ at His 2nd Coming (see CCC paragraph 676-677.

    Read “The Rapture Trap” by Paul Thigpen, (Ascension Press) especially Chapter 8 for a more in-depth look at the theories

    20:12 We will be judged according to our DEEDS!!

    20:15 Again, there is a Hell!

    20 min
  • Session 134: Revelation 18-19

    Much of Chapter 18 is borrowed from Jeremiah Ch. 51, which deals with the fall of actual Babylon (persecutors of God’s people) centuries before.  John’s message?  “We’ve seen this before, and God has saved and will save his people.”

    (With eternal life.)

    Chapter 19- “Alleluia” 4X in 1st 6 verses. (like Mass before consecration; the wedding feast of the lamb (v. 7and 9)

    The big battle (Armageddon)lasted 2 verses...19:20-21. Not even close!!!

    19 min

About Catholic Doctrine Bible Study

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All Christians should want a closer relationship with God. Toward that end, we should all read the Bible! But there are so many conflicting interpretations that Bible study can be confusing or disheartening. Which church, if any, has the God-given authority to interpret the Bible? LISTEN to Session 1 FIRST to see why there can only be one answer to that question. In this study, you will see the doctrines of the Catholic Church come alive as we go through each book of the entire Bible from a uniquely Catholic perspective.

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