People with “hard hearts” are blind to the often-witnessed Miracles of Jesus.
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Question 1: “What helps Catholics understand that ‘hard-hearted people’ love themselves more than God?”
Answer: “The Prophet Jeremiah makes that clear in what ‘hard-hearted people’ said about him Jer 20:10-13! ‘I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!’ All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.’”
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Question 2: “Where did The Prophet Jeremiah find protection from those ‘hard-hearted’ people?”
Answer: “‘But The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure, they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion.’”
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Question 3: “Is Jeremiah telling us that the immortal souls of his hard-hearted ‘persecutors’ will spend eternity in hell?“
Answer: “Jeremiah describes ‘hell’ perfectly as the ‘utter shame’ and ‘lasting, unforgettable confusion’ that awaits those too ‘hard-hearted’ to find God!”
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Question 4: “Jeremiah knows his ‘persecutors’ are going to hell. What does he ask God to let him do?”
Answer: “He asks God to let him watch them suffer! ‘O Lord of hosts, You who test the just, who probe mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance You take on them, for to You I have entrusted my cause.’”
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Question 5: “Do persecuted Catholics share Jeremiah’s belief in God?”
Answer: “Psalm 18:2-7 includes ‘In my distress I called upon The Lord, and He heard my voice.’ We understand that God is ‘my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold’ Who makes us ‘safe from our enemies.'”
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Question 6: “Was Jesus also attacked by ‘hard-hearted’ people?”
Answer: “Some of their attacks are described in John10:31-42 when some of ‘the Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone Me?’”
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Question 7: “What answer did they give to That Question from Jesus?
Answer: “‘The Jews answered him, ‘We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.’”
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Question 8: “How did Jesus respond to what seemed like a good answer to His question?”
Answer: “Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6 to them: ‘Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are ‘gods’? Then, Jesus asked another question they could not answer: ‘If Scripture calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”
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Question 9: “What did Jesus say after that?”
Answer: “He gave a challenge to those who had seen Him cure the sick and give sight to the blind: ‘If I do not perform My Father’s works, do not believe Me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father.’”
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Question 10: “How did they react to that simple statement of fact? from He Who had cured people right before their eyes?”
Answer: “‘Then, they tried again to arrest Him, but He escaped from their power.’”
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Question 11: “Did many begin to follow Jesus when they saw that He could ‘escape from their power’?”
Answer: “‘Many came to Him and said, ‘John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.’ And many there began to believe in Him.”‘
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May we all be spared the ‘utter shame’, and ‘lasting, unforgettable confusion’ given to those who are too ‘hard-hearted’ to recognize The Prophet’s Predictions about He Who was ‘born in Bethlehem’!
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It’s nearly Easter! It is a good time to read this short, simple free book:
https://catholicfundamentalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Saint-James-the-Less-Is-More.pdf
