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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Holy Spirit	joseph	Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Question: In his answer about dreams Joe Meineke stated that God has already revealed to us what He wants us to know. I have two questions. 1) Why did Jesus then promise that the Spirit would be with us until the end of time. God certainly has revealed to us much scientific knowledge since the time of Jesus. There have been many theologians that have sought the mind of God especially Aquinas who initially was not well accepted. There is ever more seeking of truth by philosophers. Martin Buber in is small book "I and Thou" has a lot to tell us all. Why do you believe that God has already told us everything He wants us to know? It seems to me that he is ever revealing more to us through the Holy Spirit. I think that to fail to listen to the Spirit is indeed a great sin against the Holy Spirit. 2) If God told us finite beings everything, how can you believe that we could understand everything he said? That seems to be megalomanic to me.
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Joseph: The full sentence that Mr. Meineke wrote is: "We know that everything God wanted to reveal to us has already been publicly revealed through Christ and his Church and that anything contrary to those revealed truths is certainly not of God." Mr. Meineke is talking about God's Revelation (the Word of God, in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition), not private inspirations or development of understanding and knowledge. Of course God gives us inspirations, graces of understanding, and discoveries of knowledge. Knowledge and understanding develops over time, but the Truth itself never changes. God has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us in the faith, to encourage us, and to inspire us. God's Public Revelation is to all people for all time. This is not to say that God cannot give private revelation to individuals. But, any inspirations we receive must not ever contradict the official Public Revelation. If it does, then that inspiration is not from the Holy Spirit. God's Revelation never changes but our understanding of His Revelation does change. For example, we may explain to a little child the "bird and bees". The child will have a childish understanding of this. As the child grows up his knowledge of this will grow with him and mature. The information itself, the revelation of the information about reproduction has not change, only the understanding of the child has changed. The examples you give of Aquinas is the Saint trying to understand the Public Revelation of God. God gave him great graces of understanding and as a result St. Aquinas's contribution to the Church is without measure. Scientific knowledge is merely the discovery the mechanics of God's Creation. God can certainly inspire a scientist to think in the right direction to make a wonderful scientific discovery. But, again, any inspirations to scientific knowledge are not from God if those scientific theories are contrary to God's law and His Revelation. In fact, any scientific theory that opposes God's law or His Revelation is not science, but a false science. St. Paul mentions this in passing to Timothy (1 Tim 6:20) "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called." God has told us everything we NEED to be saved. He has told us everything we ought to know about not only our salvation, but the principles of morality, science, and knowledge. From those principles we may then be inspired to a greater and greater level of mature knowledge about His Revelation and about His Creation. Mr. Meineke did not say that God has told us everything. I do not know how you got that. He said that God has told us everything he WANTS us to know. That is a big difference. The Bible tells us that we "see through a glass darkly". We do not know everything, but we know what God wants us to know about Him and the Faith through his Public Revelation of Himself to His people. All other understandings and knowledge begin with the Public Revelation and can never contradict that Revelation. All other inspirations that He gives us personally through his Holy Spirit derive and begin with that Public Revelation and will never contradict it. It is this Public Revelation upon which all other knowledge and inspirations must be tested. God is pleased with our growing knowledge from babes to mature men, and with our listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must always test our inspirations, however, against that which God has publicly revealed. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Holy Spirit

joseph

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Question:

In his answer about dreams Joe Meineke stated that God has already revealed to us what He wants us to know. I have two questions.

1) Why did Jesus then promise that the Spirit would be with us until the end of time. God certainly has revealed to us much scientific knowledge since the time of Jesus. There have been many theologians that have sought the mind of God especially Aquinas who initially was not well accepted. There is ever more seeking of truth by philosophers. Martin Buber in is small book "I and Thou" has a lot to tell us all. Why do you believe that God has already told us everything He wants us to know? It seems to me that he is ever revealing more to us through the Holy Spirit. I think that to fail to listen to the Spirit is indeed a great sin against the Holy Spirit.

2) If God told us finite beings everything, how can you believe that we could understand everything he said? That seems to be megalomanic to me.

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Joseph:

The full sentence that Mr. Meineke wrote is: "We know that everything God wanted to reveal to us has already been publicly revealed through Christ and his Church and that anything contrary to those revealed truths is certainly not of God."

Mr. Meineke is talking about God's Revelation (the Word of God, in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition), not private inspirations or development of understanding and knowledge. Of course God gives us inspirations, graces of understanding, and discoveries of knowledge. Knowledge and understanding develops over time, but the Truth itself never changes. God has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us in the faith, to encourage us, and to inspire us. God's Public Revelation is to all people for all time. This is not to say that God cannot give private revelation to individuals. But, any inspirations we receive must not ever contradict the official Public Revelation. If it does, then that inspiration is not from the Holy Spirit.

God's Revelation never changes but our understanding of His Revelation does change. For example, we may explain to a little child the "bird and bees". The child will have a childish understanding of this. As the child grows up his knowledge of this will grow with him and mature. The information itself, the revelation of the information about reproduction has not change, only the understanding of the child has changed.

The examples you give of Aquinas is the Saint trying to understand the Public Revelation of God. God gave him great graces of understanding and as a result St. Aquinas's contribution to the Church is without measure.

Scientific knowledge is merely the discovery the mechanics of God's Creation. God can certainly inspire a scientist to think in the right direction to make a wonderful scientific discovery. But, again, any inspirations to scientific knowledge are not from God if those scientific theories are contrary to God's law and His Revelation. In fact, any scientific theory that opposes God's law or His Revelation is not science, but a false science.

St. Paul mentions this in passing to Timothy (1 Tim 6:20) "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called."

God has told us everything we NEED to be saved. He has told us everything we ought to know about not only our salvation, but the principles of morality, science, and knowledge.

From those principles we may then be inspired to a greater and greater level of mature knowledge about His Revelation and about His Creation.

Mr. Meineke did not say that God has told us everything. I do not know how you got that. He said that God has told us everything he WANTS us to know. That is a big difference.

The Bible tells us that we "see through a glass darkly". We do not know everything, but we know what God wants us to know about Him and the Faith through his Public Revelation of Himself to His people. All other understandings and knowledge begin with the Public Revelation and can never contradict that Revelation. All other inspirations that He gives us personally through his Holy Spirit derive and begin with that Public Revelation and will never contradict it. It is this Public Revelation upon which all other knowledge and inspirations must be tested.

God is pleased with our growing knowledge from babes to mature men, and with our listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must always test our inspirations, however, against that which God has publicly revealed.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.