Stunned by Scripture

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Dr. John S. Bergsma Ph.D.. Stunned by Scripture

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The Bible brought John Bergsma to the Catholic Faith, and he tells that story well. But the greatest beauty of this book is in the love John found in the Catholic Church. This is an experience I share. God’s love overflows here — in Jesus and Mary, in the saints and sacraments, in the devotional customs and rich traditions. It’s so much more than we knew before. It’s so much more than we could have imagined. My hope is that many non-Catholics will read this and come home — and many Catholics will read it and come to a deeper appreciation of all they have.

— Scott Hahn, Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at Franciscan University of Steubenville, author, speaker

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Growing up, I never understood why the first two or three chapters of Matthew and Luke stressed so heavily Jesus’ connection to the royal line of David, and yet the Davidic kingdom idea seems to go nowhere for the rest of the Gospels and the New Testament.

Actually, I was terribly mistaken. References to David and his kingdom actually continue through the Gospels and into Acts and occur elsewhere in the New Testament, especially in Revelation. The connection of Jesus to the fulfillment of the promises to the royal House of David is actually a major theme in the New Testament generally, but to grasp it we have to see that the Church is the fulfillment of the kingdom of David. That’s why Jesus promises the Twelve that they will “sit on thrones judging the tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:30). When do they do that? When they rule authoritatively over the Church in Acts (see Acts 5:1–11, for example). The Church is the “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16).

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