Rejoicing in the Dark

   Let me preface what is to follow by saying that I believe in a practical Christianity--a faith that exists not behind cloistered doors in ivory towers, but rather in the real world.  In fact, I would go so far as to use practicality as a litmus test for truth; if your doctrine doesn't work, then it isn't true.  One of the myriad of issues with the Osteen-ish , 'Every Day a Friday', 'Your Best Life Now', 'name it and claim it' gobbledygook is that it doesn't work.  It sells real well among the upwardly mobile in a big city in a rich country with access to clean water and food good and medicine, but try selling that snake oil to Christians in Sierra Leone or Haiti.  It doesn't work, so it isn't true.

  Now with all that in mind, lets take a look at Ecc 11:7-18. The Bible says  "Truly the light is sweet , and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity."

  As with most of the Bible, there is a lot packed in there, but I want to zero in on a very practical sentiment: the days of darkness are many and if you live long enough, you'll see your fair share.  I don't know why that surprises people , after all Job already told you that "man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward". You and I were born into a broken world that has been in a constant downhill slide since our ancestors were forced out of the garden.  There is plenty of sorrow and sadness to go around, and if you stick around, you'll get some to call your very own.  Isn't that encouraging? Isn't that practical?

  Look at the verse again.  You might have missed it the first time. A man can rejoice in all his days, even the dark ones.  It is possible, according to scripture, to not only 'stand' in the evil days, but to 'rejoice' in the dark days.

  I saw this and I really started digging.  I have had, and am still having, and still will have, some dark days, and if victory is possible , I want to find it.  I think I found 4 areas where a man can rejoice even as the world crumbles around him, even as his mind turns on him, even as nothing goes right, even as his best days are behind him.

  We'll start in Psalm 139:12, which says "Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."  I know what it is to have dark days. I know what it's like to be discouraged and dismayed and frustrated. I know what its like to feel like I don't have a friend in the world. I know what its like to  have no idea what to do next, or to even understand why things are happening.  But you know something? God has never had a day like that. God acknowledges that some days are dark, but they are only dark to you.  You , dear Christian, are not alone in the dark, and the One in there with you can see just fine.  Somebody knows what going on, even if that somebody isn't you, and you can rejoice in that.  You can ,in the midst of your misery, be glad in that.

  Moving on to Psalm 31, we find, " I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities; And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.  Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.  For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.  I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.  But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God."  Notice that the author (David) is, as the saying goes, in a 'world of hurt', physically spent and emotionally wrung out like an old rag. Every day is not a Friday , and he is not having his best life now. He sits there amidst his sorrow, alone, friendless--and rejoices in God's mercy.He rejoices that God knows his situation, and he acknowledges that it could be worse.  That's a legitimate stand to take, and a legitimate way to rejoice in the dark.

  Our next stop is Habakkuk 3:17-19, which says "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments."  Here we have a man having a very dark day. If we take the text at face value economic ruin and starvation aren't off the table.  And 'yet' Habakkuk purposes that he will rejoice in the Lord. Why? Because (get ready for some deep theology) God is strong. He rejoices in God's ability and willingness to get involved in the struggles of His children, and because God is strong even when Habakkuk isn't, he knows someday he will walk out of this particular valley, and he rejoices in that.

  We'll finish up in Psalm 119:161-162, which says "Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil."  Once again, the author is not a person without problems. He is being persecuted, apparently by the government, but in the middle of  that, he is able to rejoice, not in his circumstances, but in God's word.  It doesn't make his problem go away , but it does give him confidence. He has the written revelation from the One who cannot lie, and to him it a treasure beyond compare. Through it, he is able to have the victory.

  There you have it, folks. Four things.  A lot more could be said about each of these points, but, what do you think?

What Every Muslim Needs to Know About the Prophet Jesus (PBUH)

 

  The Quran clearly points to Jesus Christ, as being a holy man, and a prophet, and so he cannot be a liar. The following essay presents to you, my dear Muslim friends, the words of Jesus himself. I ask you to carefully consider these things and search out whether they be true.


1. Jesus Christ claimed to be God.

In Mark Chapter 2, Jesus is preaching inside a man's house, and a sick man is brought to him. In verse 5, Jesus says 

 "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

 Now consider, my friends, what an amazing claim that is to  make in front of other people.Everyone understands that the power to forgive sins belongs to God alone. I would not make the claim to be able to forgive sins, and I  suspect you would not either.  In fact, the assembled crowd responds, saying "Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?"
 Jesus answers them and says:

 " Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house."

 In John chapter 10, Jesus is being pressed by the Jews to give a plain answer as to whether or not he was God manifest in the flesh. He answers them:

 "I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one."

  The people listening responded by offering to stone him. Jesus asks them why they want to stone him, and they answer "For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God."  
   Now my dear Muslim friend, by Jesus's own words you can see that he claimed to be able to forgive sins, he claimed to be able to give men eternal life, and he claimed to be equal with God. All of these are attributes of God alone. Was this holy prophet telling the truth when he spoke of himself?

2. Jesus Christ Died on the Cross, and Rose again

 Before he was captured and crucified, Jesus Christ predicted his own death, and his own resurrection. In John chapter 10, he says:

"I lay down my life, that I might take it again.No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

In Luke chapter 18, Jesus prophesies again regarding his own death, and says:

 "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again."

In Mark 9, Jesus is teaching his disciples and tells them:

"The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day."

 In Matthew 26, Jesus says:

 "Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified."

 After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and told them:

 "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."

 "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing."

 In the first chapter of  book of Revelation, John encounters Jesus Christ again, and Jesus tells him:

"Fear not; I am the first and the last:I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

 Consider these things, friend. By his own words, Jesus knew he was going to die on the cross before it happened. He knew he was going to rise from the dead. He appeared to his disciples with the wounds of death in his body, and proclaimed to John that he had been dead, but now was alive. Was Jesus telling the truth?

3. Jesus Christ is the Only way to Heaven

  In John chapter 11, Jesus is speaking to the sister of his friend Lazarus, and he tells her:

"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"

 In John 14, Jesus tells his disciples:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

 Jesus Christ, from his own mouth claimed to be the source of eternal life and the only way for men to achieve a resurrection from the dead. He claimed to be the only way for a man to get to God. Jesus Christ claimed that your good works cannot save you, your devotion to God cannot save you; only he can save you from your sins. He accomplished this by paying the penalty for your sins with his own death upon the cross. He displayed victory over death by raising himself from the dead, and he promises the forgiveness of sin to all those who will put their faith and trust in him alone.
  What if the prophet Jesus Christ was telling the truth?
  I beseech you to consider these things in your heart. Are these things true? And if they are, why have you never been told?

Superman as a Type of Christ

"There's only about 30 plots in every movie, book or TV show in the world and all these plots are found in the Bible"- Peter S. Ruckman

  It is common , for a variety of reasons, to find recurrent themes in literature that also echo great themes of the Bible.  The simple fact is that the world steals these themes, and twists them a bit to get a good story. When it comes time to create a hero, it's impossible  to write a great and noble hero without borrowing the attributes of the greatest Hero of  them all, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that is praiseworthy resides in Him, and if your hero is going to have any redeeming qualities at all, he is going to have to have some qualities in common with the Redeemer Himself.  But these attributes manifest themselves rather explicitly in a fictional character who burst on the scene in 1938 and almost  single-handedly defined the  superhero archetype. I speak of course of the Last Son of Krypton, Kal-El, also known as Superman.  I will go on record and say that I know of no other fictional character with so many blatant commonalities with Jesus Christ., and that these commonalities are most obvious in the two movies, Superman and Superman II. These films,  both starring Christopher Reeve in the title role, were originally conceived as one movie, and taken as one movie show an amazing (though imperfect and somewhat out of sequence) typology of the past, present and future work of Jesus Christ.
  Skeptical? You should be. But let's examine the evidence, shall we?



1. The Trial of Zod
  The movie begins on Krypton, the doomed planet of Superman's birth. We the audience are witness to the closing arguments on a trial of Krypton's three greatest criminals. From expository dialogue we know that  the leader of this trio is Zod, once a great Kryptonian general whose lust for power led him to try to overthrow the  Kryptonian government.  Here he stands, in judgment of his failed plot, on the verge of being banished.  Jor-el the great  scientist , appropriately clad in the black robes of judgment, casts the final vote to imprison the trio into outer darkness. Jor -el describes  Zod after this fashion:

"Finally, General Zod. Once trusted by this Council, charged with maintaining the defense of the planet Krypton itself. Chief architect of this intended revolution and author of this insidious plot to establish a new order amongst us. With himself as absolute ruler."

 

    The Bible says in  Isaiah 14, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."  
   Zod had Luciferian ambitions, and suffered the same fate. General Zod is the devil in this story, and as the devil he fulfills the role perhaps even better than the writers intended. Listen to his final words before the imprisonment engulfs him, and consider the words of the devil in Matthew 4;  "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." 

 
  We'll address his two companions in a few moments.

2. Krypton Itself and the El family

  Jor-el does an interesting wardrobe shift immediately after the sentencing of Zod and company. he casts aside the dark robes of judgment and wears the white glowing clothing that apparently is his usual attire. In fact, everyone on Krypton appears to be clothed in white raiment of some kind. Interestingly, the Bible says, in regards to God; "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool:" Jor-El is a benevolent father; the wisest among a population full of radiant beings, and if Zod is the devil, then Jor-El neatly fits the role of God the Father, with Kal-El's mother inhabiting a rather sketchy role as the Holy Spirit.  
 As an aside, in the later Superman movie "The Man of Steel" , Kal-El is described as being  the only naturally occurring baby on Krypton in centuries, which would technically make him the 'only begotten' of his Father.   I promised myself I would stick to these two movies, but that's just too good to pass up. 

 In the movie , we don't see much of Krypton, but enough to know that is a place with crystal-based technology and light-based technology.  In this it resembles a certain other place, which the Bible says "And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above." (Ezek 1) and "And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.." ( Rev 4). The habitation of God is described in Rev 21 as thus "And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."  Krypton, like Heaven, is a place of crystal and light inhabited by at least  one family whose last name (El) is one of the Hebrew words for God.
 

  With the imminent destruction of the planet on its way , Jor-el and Laura opt to send their baby to Earth, making him the Last Son of Krypton, as compared to "the last Adam". In this particular telling of the story, they  build not a rocket ship, as in earlier incarnations, but a pod comprised of the crystal technology common to Krypton. The pod, when completed, resembles a star. This is especially interesting when you consider that Jesus Christ refers to himself as "the bright and morning star" in Rev. 22:16.

  Just before launching their infant son into the void of space, Jor-el makes a speech. 

 Listen carefully to his speech and then consider the  following statements by Jesus Christ.:

•  "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." Matthew 10:40
•  "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."  John 5:30
• "..As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father..." John 6:57
• "..he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.." John 14:9
• "...the Father is in me, and I in him." John 10:38
• "I and my Father are one." John 10:30

3. Young Clark Kent
   

  The Kryptonian pod  makes its way to earth, where its tiny occupant is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent. A simple etymological search reveals that 'Martha ' is a variation on the name 'Mary', which is interesting in itself.  From the very beginning the young Kal-El,(reminiscent of "Emmanuel") hereafter called 'Clark' exhibits a wild variety of unusual abilities including having "eyes as a flaming fire". 

He hides those abilities though, as you can see in this scene.

  As a matter of fact, Clark's self-imposed humility and obscurity reminds me of another Man who the Bible says "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:"  After the death of Jonathan Kent (mirroring that absence of Joseph in the later life of Jesus), Clark makes his way to Metropolis where he gets a job at the daily Planet,and also soon thereafter, makes his first public appearance as Superman.

She also gives him the name 'Superman', by the way

     At one point in the movie, after Lois Lane scores her interview with Superman , Lex Luthor quotes the article and says that the planet Krypton exploded in 1948. The movie takes place in 1978 which means that Superman is 30 years old when he makes his public appearance!

  For the purposes of this post, we're going to  ignore the whole 'flying backwards around the world to turn back time ' silliness, although it's worth mentioning that, among the Jesus-like attributes that Superman exhibits in that encounter is, technically, the ability raise the dead.

Lois Lane- dead for now

 4. Meanwhile in the Phantom Zone

  

The Phantom Zone doubles as an album cover

 
  At the beginning of Superman II, the Man of Steel has been on the scene for some time. In fact, the movie came out in 1980, which means the case could be made that  Superman has been a public figure for almost 3 years at the outset of the movie, making him almost 33.  All this time the three greatest criminals of Krypton have been trapped in the Phantom Zone, and are only released when a nuclear explosion in space shatters their prison.  Unbeknownst to the Last Son of Krypton, the three of them  land on the moon and begin making their way to earth.
  When they land on Earth, they discover that they have amazing powers; the same powers any Kryptonian enjoys under the  glare of earth's yellow sun.  Much like the devil is able to duplicate the miracles of God via "lying signs and wonders", Zod and company are able to do things like walk on water.

 

Zod as Jesus

  But the comparison doesn't stop there.  It's telling that there are three of them, making them the perfect movie counterparts to the "devil...beast..and false prophet" of Revelation. Once on the scene Zod quickly establishes himself as the head of a one-world government. He clearly isn't opposed to being worshipped and even enjoys being mistaken for "the most High".

5. Where is Superman?

   In the movie, while Zod and his cohorts are taking over the world, Clark Kent has love on his mind; he decides to reveal his identity to Lois and ask the permission of his holographic parents to wed a human.  It's very clearly spelled out by his mother that , in order to attain a bride, he must take on normal human flesh with all its frailties and mortality .  The parallel with Jesus Christ is clear; Christ came "in the likeness of sinful flesh" and "submitted himself unto death" for His brides sake. Superman even sheds his blood before it's all over.

He endured the contradiction of truckers against himself

  Lex Luthor, ever the ambitious quisling, strikes a deal with Zod and reveals key information to the General; the son of his enemy Jor-el is here on earth.  Meanwhile , Clark and Lois see how the world has fallen under Zod in his absence and Clark heads back to the Fortress of Solitude in order to try to regain his powers. The movie is really unclear on how exactly he reverses the irreversible , but here's the parallel; the world thinks Superman is dead, and only his bride knows he's still alive and is coming back for her. 

  Carrying the analogy forward, even Lois begins to despair when suddenly, just when his enemies appear to have the victory, her hero returns, with his powers restored.  The battle goes from Metropolis to the Fortress of Solitude where the Man of Steel dispatches his enemies by placing them in "a bottomless pit".

 The natural order of things restored, and the bully vanquished, the movie ends with Superman helping rebuild the white House and promising to never let the President down again. Or, as the Bible says it "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."



  There, presented for your consideration, from His birth to His death to His resurrection to His eventual victory over His enemies, is the greatest typology of Jesus Christ in  secular literature.  What do you think?

An Open Letter to Ronnie Dunn

Mr. Dunn,

  I recently saw you on an absolutely horrible  daytime show that used to at least masquerade as a health information program before it  devolved into  celebrity worship and fluff.  You were there showing off your COWBOY tattoo and promoting your new album.  Honestly, sir even though I  once enjoyed your music  I hadn't thought of you in years.  Part of this is no doubt because when I accepted Christ in 1995, he delivered me from  my old music, and so , no offense, you were just a musical echo from my past.  But I remembered  even back then, when people  were giving a summation of your biography as half of the group Brooks and Dunn, they would mention something about you being a Baptist preacher.  Like I said, I hadn't thought about this in years, and my memory is pretty shaky these days, so I decided to do a little  research.
  According to the   Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture , your mother was a "devout Baptist" and you yourself "enrolled at Abilene Christian College in Texas with plans to become a Baptist preacher". Wikipedia  lists you as a psychology major there, and even says you were the youth minister at Avoca Baptist church in Avoca Texas, but you were asked to quit the school because you  were "performing at local bars".  The internet is  pretty silent about whether or not the  church allowed you to continue to serve. I mean  one would hope that a  youth minister  that has been ejected from  Bible college would be asked to resign, but it's a crazy world we live in.
  Now you're not the first to travel this road from the  church house to the  road house. From Elvis to Alabama, to  Nat King Cole to Whitney Houston; it's a pretty common phenomenon.  And the 'almost a Baptist preacher' angle gives you a  certain amount of credibility with dumb Southerners like myself who can soothe their conscience about listening to your  bar music.
  Fame and fortune would soon be yours and  one day little  heathens like myself would delight in your music.  See, I consider that  really ironic.  You had the advantage of a Christian upbringing that I did not have, and yet you chose the sewer that I was already living in. You  picked the darkness after being informed about the light.  You knew about Jesus, and presumably you knew that people like me were going to spend an eternity in hell without Jesus, but other than  giving him a passing reference in a song (in the same line as a reference to beer), you said nothing. In the 19 years after somebody did reach  me with the gospel, as far as I can tell you have still said nothing.  You have never publicly  stood up for Jesus.
  So here we are now, the two of us, almost 20 years later, you and I.  I was once a slave to sin, and have been marvelously delivered by the blood of the Lamb.  You have played the world's music this whole time and danced to the world's tune, and have  been rewarded immensely.  But there you are, presumably saved, presumably heir to the same victory that I  enjoy; with a COWBOY tattoo and  singing a song about wishing you could have a cigarette.
  The role reversal seems  so tragic to me.  You have had the public eye and the public ear for  decades now, and you've used it to  pad your pocket.  Do you really know Jesus? I hope you really are saved, but at the same time, at the Judgment Seat of Christ you've got a lot of explaining to do.


Michael S. Alford
Publick Minister

The Real Saint Patrick

(Note: While writing an as yet-unfinished book on the history of publick ministry, I came across some  discrepancies in the accounts of  Patrick of Ireland.   What I eventually discovered is almost  everything that everybody thinks they know about Patrick is wrong, and is the result of  marketing and propaganda on behalf of the Church of Rome.  I also  found this person who is pretty upset about something.  This short dash of prose is taken from the manuscript of that book, with sources cited.  And in case you were curious, this is how we celebrate St. Patrick's day)

   Turning our attention to the Emerald Isle, we find ourselves  vexed with one of the most complicated histories of one of the most famous men in church history; Patrick of Ireland. Often  confused even by historians with Palladius (whom he predated by almost two hundred years), most of what the average person knows about Patrick is legends and fanciful tales that have been embellished over the centuries by various interested parties. Rome has a cottage industry of painting Patrick as one of her own, and crediting him with introducing Rome’s flavor of Christianity to the natives.  However, not only is there a Christian presence in Ireland that predates Patrick, but Patrick was hardly a ‘good little Catholic’.

  In fact, the writings of antiquity documented quite plainly  that not only was there a thriving evangelistic work  in Ireland  less than 100 years after Christ’s birth, but that  this work consisted of publick ministry as a means of propagation. For example, Eusebius writes in his church history that the apostles crossed over the sea to visit the British Isles.  Gildas, a British historian writing in the  6^th century, records that  Christianity was  introduced to Ireland prior to A.D. 61, while Cardinal Baronius  records that the Gospel was first preached in Britain in the year A.D. 35.  H.J. Mason in his work, Religion of the Ancient Irish Saints claims that the Bible was available in Ireland in the common tongue as early as 400 and that Christianity was introduced to  Ireland  by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in France. Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John, which plainly places a Christian presence in Ireland within less than 2 generations of the completion of the New Testament.  In addition, Tertullian wrote in  200 A.D.,  “Those parts of the British Isles, which were unapproached by the Romans, were yet subject to Christ.”, and  Chrystom, the Greek historian  wrote in 388 A.D. “Although thou shouldest go to the ocean, and those British Isles, thou shouldst  hear all men everywhere discoursing matters out of Scripture with another voice indeed, but not another faith.”

Patrick was the son of a Roman magistrate living in Briton, and his family despite their social standing, fared poorly in one of the raids conducted against north Briton (then called Cedona) by King Colmac Ulfada.  During this raid in 240 A.D., many of Patrick’s family were killed, and he, as a sixteen year old boy, was carried off as a slave to the shores of broad Killala Bay in County Mayo, in the bleak northwest of Ireland. There he was put to work tending sheep—far from home, alone in an utterly alien land. Then, as he tells us:

    After I came to Ireland—every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed—the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain, and I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm, and there was no sloth in me—as I now see, because the spirit within me was then fervent.

  Six years later he escaped, and, going through Scotland, eventually made his way back to Briton.  He was  discipled under the work of Greek missionaries  and after a few years with his family, was ordained in Gaul and announced that it was God’s will that he return to Ireland to preach, which he did in approximately 252.₁

When he  announced his intention of going to Ireland to preach the Christian religion, he was first met with all sorts of tears, entreaties and expostulations  and offers of wealth and place..and when these failed..he himself was abused and upbraided…and…finally..placed in confinement

  Despite Roman historians best efforts to superimpose Patrick’s ministry over the papist Palladius it is noteworthy in Patrick’s writings that there are no mention of Romish ways. Nowhere do you see references to mass, purgatory, Mary worship, or even of any allegiance to the See. Instead his writings abound with Scriptural references and explanations of  justification entirely by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. His Confession abounds with statements such as₂

I was as a stone which lies in the deep mire; and he who is mighty came, and took me out of it in his mercy; and he indeed raised me up and placed me on the top of the wall

  Another element of the ‘St. Patrick ‘ myth is his purported supremacy over all other ministers  in Ireland. As we have shown, Patrick did not introduce the Gospel to the island, and so in addition to his writings, we have  the record of his contemporaries regarding his ministry.  Secundinus , a disciple of Patrick  and possibly his nephew writes “he was a true and eminent cultivator of the evangelical field whose seeds appear to be the Gospel of Christ.”   Jocelyn, writing in the twelfth century, says “he read and interpreted the four Gospels at certain seasons, for three days and three nights continually among the people.”

  Patrick died in approximately 310 A.D. , after  60 years of ministry , and by the  ninth century, over sixty-six biographies of him were in existence which, according to the historian Gibbon “ must contained as many thousand lies”.  Incursions and occupations by the Norwegians and the Danes later on destroyed many of the original records and by the twelfth century, the Catholic Church had enjoyed almost 4 centuries of supremacy over Ireland, with plenty of time to rewrite history and obscure so much of the truth about this  soldier of the cross and publick preacher.

Sources :

1  1.        St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland in the Third Century by R. Steele Nicholson

1   2. Religion of the Ancient Irish Saints  Before  A.D. 600  by H.J. Mason
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     3. Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon