To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter in response to your reaction to my lecture regarding demons, sainthood, and spiritual warfare based on Peter Kreeft’s lecture from 1999 on the “Culture Wars” that had a profound impact on me when I heard it. I would like to thank you for your reaction in this matter and please understand that I hold you in the highest regard.
I apologize if my lecture in any way cost you any amount of discomfort. I understand that you do not take religion class or study God to feel uncomfortable and I certainly would not want to propagate any amount of uncomfortable feelings on your part. In fact, I have just recently decided to make a request to the administration to have air conditioning installed in all of my classrooms so as to make everybody more comfortable. I am also installing pillows for all the seats and a laptop at every desk. I am doing away with all homework so that my students will simply have to color clever little pictures of Jesus holding children, Jesus laughing, and Jesus having a good old time on the boat with those fishermen.
I would like to respond to the comment that I do not know what I’m talking about when it comes to the idea of God, angels, demons, and good and evil. I understand that you take other classes where your teachers tell you all sorts of things: that 2 + 2 equals four, the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, that the element hydrogen is the first element on the Periodic Table of Elements. I understand that those teachers are authorities in their field and if they tell you something you believe it because… because… they are teaching it. I mean, they learned it from an authority who learned it from an authority all the way back until someone actually witnessed the event or wrote something down about it. Why would you not believe them?
I certainly would not expect you to apply the same standard to religion. God only knows the things that I could make up, teaching class as an authority. I might mention the fact that there are angels and demons that are fighting for our souls at this very moment and our every action, our every behavior determines which side of the war we are on. But what do I know? I’m not an authority like those other teachers. I certainly cannot trace my information from authority to authority to someone who has actually seen an event, met a person, or written down a personal experience.
Be careful, because I am now going to blow the lid off the entire Catholic faith.
I have access to numerous secret documents that only the most privileged can read. They contain only information that I know, and I wouldn’t expect you to be able to get a hold of these documents that might let you into the secret world that I have described in my class. I am therefore going to list the secret documents for you so that if you ever are able to get hold of one of these precious tools, you might be able to read what someone who actually knows what they are talking about has written since you seem to think that I have given my life to teaching something that am pulling out of my assumptions. This way you don’t have to rely on a silly classroom “authority.” (This is like getting your hands on Thomas Jefferson’s personal diary.)
There is a hidden document called the Gospel of Luke where demons are mentioned 17 times. The person who talks about these demons is a little known man by the name of Jesus Christ who seems to speak with some authority on the matter, as He claims to be God.
Another “gospel” is written by a man by the name of Mark. Interestingly, he only mentions demons 11 times but his gospel is the shortest and is also about this “Jesus” character. Again, He claims to be God and have some authority, but until He rises from the dead, who’s to say?
There are also two other “gospels”, the book of Baruch, the book of Revelation, the book of Psalms, the book of Deuteronomy, the letter of James, and two letters by Paul. These have been cleverly hidden in a little volume I like to refer to as the Bible.
I would not expect you to be able to look up the term “demons” in the Catechism of the Catholic church and refer to the 12 instances of the word in the following paragraphs: 2113, 2116, 2117, 548, 550, 1506, 1507, 1673, 598, 700, 447, 574, 414, and 391. There is also the glossary that defines demon as “a fallen angel, who sinned against God by refusing to accept his reign. Satan or the devil, the evil one, and the other demons were at first good angels, created naturally good, who became evil by their own doing.”
Of course there is the apparition of Mary at Fatima where she showed the visionaries hell itself. They wrote that the vision, lasting only a second, was enough to have killed them except that they had been promised protection by the Blessed Mother and were promised a vision of heaven. Lucy, the last of the living visionaries died in 2005 at the age of 97. Certainly she is too ancient an authority to even be credible. She might even have been a myth.
This is all assuming of course that you believe in the devil. I understand it is popular now to simply say that the afterlife is “whatever you believe it is.” The stupidity of this statement is absolutely beyond my reckoning. Human beings can no more control the afterlife than we can control the current life and since the afterworld was designed by the same being who designed the current world, I can only imagine that the lie of the afterlife being whatever we imagine it to be is simply one of the most brilliant ploys the devil has ever come up with to keep himself hidden, working behind the curtains. “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” — The Usual Suspects
Again, I apologize for taking the blindfolds off and exposing you to a light that is obviously too bright, too soon. I would have liked to remain in the world of candy canes, gum drops, and giant pink hearts that say “I’m a nice person!” but you are practically an adult whom I must refer to 1 Corinthians 9:16 “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
To be perfectly honest, I care too much about my own soul to try to avoid offending your sensitive nature.
2 Timothy 2:24: “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
For, as Peter says in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith…”
But what do Mary, Jesus, Luke, Mark, Peter and Paul know? They are just the authorities.
