Simple Arithmetic shows what happens when we add vanity and subtract God from our mind and soul. Greed becomes gluttony.
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Question 1: “Where do we find God’s Simple Arithmetic Lesson?”
Answer: “Today’s Reading from 2 Samuel 24:2-17 tells that innocent people must die when leaders subract God and add Vanity to our mind and soul.”
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Question 2: “What “Sin of Vanity” did King David commit?”
Answer: “David could have focused on God. Instead, he focused on finding how many people he had so he could choose what to do.”
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Question 3: “What people did David think were worth counting?”
Answer: “Soldiers! His census showed that 800,000 men could be drafted into his army from the Tribes of Israel. 500,000 more were in The Tribe of Judah. David could call on 1,300,000 men between 16 and 46 years old, the ages of soldiers in many periods. There were about that many women. David had 2,600,000 people between the ages of 16 and 46 years old. There were 76,470 people of every age between 16 and 46 in his Kingdom.
If average life expecancy then was 50 years, David’s Kingdom would have had a total population of around 50 multiplied by 76,470. There were about 3.8 million people in His Kingdom.
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Question 4: “Did David realize that he had sinned by counting the number of soldiers he could have instead of relying on God to guide him?”
Answer: “He ‘said to The Lord, ‘I have sinned grievously in what I have done. But now, Lord, forgive the guilt of your servant, for I have been very foolish.’ ”
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Question 5: “What did God do to punish David for his ‘very foolish’ vanity?”
Answer: “He let David choose one of three punishments. First, he could ‘have three years of famine’. Or, he could ‘flee from enemies for three months’. Or, he could have ‘three days of pestilence’ afflict his land and people. David chose ‘pestilence’, because God’s Mercy might save more of his people.”
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Question 6: “How many of David’s people did God’s ‘pestilence’ destroy in ‘three days’?”
Answer: “‘70,000 of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba died.’ Then, ‘The Lord regretted the calamity and said to the angel, ‘Enough now! Stop the killiing.’”
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Question 7: “What did David say when he saw the angel who was killing innocent people?”
Answer: “‘He said to The Lord, ‘It is I who have sinned; it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong. But these are sheep; what have they done? Punish me and my kindred.’”
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Question 8: “Who the ‘kindred of David’ whom he asks God to punish?”
Answer: “Billions of living ‘sheep’ lose their lives because David’s ‘kindred’ become leaders who are too vain to obey God and This Catholic Teaching: ‘Life must be protected from conception until natural death.’”
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Question 7: “Are Catholics the only people who can connect those ‘three days of pestilence’ with the ‘three days’ between the Death and Resurrection of He Who mercifully gave His life so that we could be saved from David’s kindred’ in vanity?”
Answer: “Catholics can do The Simple Arithmetic to make that connection and avoid the painful agony suffered by those of David’s ‘kindred’ who die in willful disobedience to The Great Commandment of Jesus: ‘Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.’”
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Only Catholics show that we “love God and our neighbors as ourselves” by obeying The Church-Creating Word of Jesus Christ, Himself! “And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
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https://catholicfundamentalism.com/ is Simple Reasons to be Catholic.
There are interesting ideas to read and share in the short Daily Columns. Many like the free books: https://catholicfundamentalism.com/our-books/
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The best book of the last Century is <em>“The Diary of St. Faustina”</em>. It lets each of us realize how much Jesus loves our soul. http://www.seraphim.my/divinemercy/diary/text/DiaryI.htm
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This look at “The Book of Revelation” helps us use our computer skills to understand the most complicated Book in The Bible! Catholics know more than we realize. We understand that every email we have written is also inscribed in our “Book of Life” that Jesus will read at our Judgment! https://catholicfundamentalism.com/the-book-of-revelation
The books are free. They cannot be bought. How often have you heard of that?
