Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
In this newsletter we would like to thank God for the gift of Faith and for the way that her supernatural sister gift of Hope has allowed God's children to "beat the worst imaginable odds" again and again. We never tire of saying that faith in the traditional Catholic doctrine of creation is supernatural, and while it harmonizes with everything that we know from natural science, it cannot be "proven." It must be believed on the authority of God revealing, as that revelation was understood in God's Church from the beginning.
The supernatural character of Faith explains why the testimonies that we receive from people all over the world who embrace the true doctrine of creation after a lifetime of evolutionary indoctrination often include a miraculous element - a prophetic dream, an utterly improbable combination of confirming circumstances, or a sudden, supernatural conviction of the truth. I recently received an email from a lady in another country who received such a grace of illumination. She wrote:
I still remember the first time my personal faith and belief was attacked. I was sitting in my Grade 9 Religion class in a Catholic school and the teacher humiliated me in front of the class because I believed the Bible's account of Creation. She mocked me and stated, "You don't actually believe those stories are real?" I was so confused and angry, I thought, "Well, if those stories are not true, then what else is not true in the Bible?" The damage that teacher caused that day led me down the path of a diminished faith. It led me to the false conviction that I could pick and choose what to believe or what to follow. I began to accept only what suited me in my Catholic faith. I lived this way for many decades not seeing anything wrong with it. Then several years back I started to go through some very tough stuff, I cried out to God asking him not to let me lose my Faith if things were to get harder still (I was so out of touch I did not realize I had already lost true Faith). At that time, I started back on the path of true Catholic doctrine and started to find Truth. Recently I viewed a video on YouTube [by] your organization [on] what you teach. I Instantly felt the truth of creation rush back into me with great faith and joy and recognized the deception that has been fed to the world (emphasis added).
How long did it take for this child of God to regain her faith in the true Catholic doctrine of creation?
The twinkling of an eye!
The Odds of Gideon and St. Elijah
What is true of the miraculous restoration of living faith in a single soul is also true of the vindication of faith in a family, in a nation, or even in the whole world. Let us consider two examples from the Bible of God's swift intervention to vindicate His people against overwhelming odds. The Book of Judges tells of Gideon and his army of 300 men, and how they defeated an army more than 100 times as numerous as their own. After Gideon's army defeated the host of Midian, Judges 8:10 tells us that:
Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen.
Since the Bible tells us that the Midianites had lost 120,000 fighting men and only 15,000 had survived, a simple calculation allows us to calculate the odds that Gideon had to overcome: 135,000 / 300 = 450:1.
Remember those odds.
In the Latin Rite, the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was just celebrated on July 16; and in the Byzantine calendar of saints the Feast of St. Elias, or St. Elijah, was just celebrated on July 20. In the Book of Kings, we read that Elijah went up against the priests of Baal on Mt. Carmel to call down "fire from heaven" upon his sacrifice after exposing the utter futility of the religion of the idolaters. It is true that later God would tell Elijah "I will leave Me seven thousand men in Israel, whose knees have not been bowed before Baal, and every mouth that hath not worshipped him" (1 Kings 19:18), but on the day of Elijah's confrontation with the priests of Baal, it was one holy prophet Elijah against 450 prophets of Baal. Yet Elijah vanquished and executed them all in a single day!
Our Current Situation
What is the ratio of theologians in the Church today who believe in the traditional Catholic doctrine of creation vs. those who accept evolution and/or long ages? If a survey could be taken today, we would be very surprised if the ratio were not very close to Gideon's and St. Elijah's odds.
Yet how long did it take for God to beat those odds for both of them?
A single day!
So, let us not be discouraged if we see that the number of those who hold fast to the traditional doctrine of creation is so small. Let us do our best to share the Truth that God has given us the grace to believe on His authority, as the Apostles, Fathers and Doctors did before us, but let us be confident that when the Pope consecrates Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with all the Bishops, the ensuing explosion of grace will transform the spiritual landscape of the whole world and restore the foundations of the Faith in the twinkling of an eye.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,
Hugh Owen
P.S. Our webmaster Keith Jones has prepared an attractive color advertisement for our DVD series "Foundations Restored," suitable for any Catholic publication. If you would like to see a copy so that you can consider placing an ad in your diocesan newspaper or in some other Catholic publication, please email me at howen@shentel.net and I will send you the file.
