¶1Hi everybody, this is Tooth Matters, S.J. Thomason at christian-apologist.com and today we're going to talk about some very exciting stuff. Joe Schmid of Majesty of Reason came back to Catholicism. Like me, he was born and raised Catholic. He went to Catholic schools and he was educated in the Catholic system.
¶2He understood much about Catholicism and he practiced the sacraments when he was young. And then he left and for about 10 years he was an atheist and an agnostic and he made a lot of videos in his channel called Majesty of Reason. And then he came back. After much research, he decided that the one true church is the Catholic Church. And like Joe, I came back, too.
¶3I came back in 2022. I had left and married in the Lutheran church, then I was baptized in the Baptist church and then I came back into the Catholic church and reverted to Catholicism and convalidated my marriage to my husband because we had been married in the Lutheran church. But it took a lot to come back and it took a lot because the Catholic faith requires a lot. It's a lot easier to be a Protestant than it is to be a Catholic. As someone who spent 11 years in the Protestant faith of Baptist faith, I can say that confidently.
¶4I used to ride my bike around listening to the Baptist sermons and that was just good enough for me on a Sunday. And it's not good enough to do that in the Catholic church because you're supposed to go to mass to receive the Eucharist at least once a week. There are a lot of rules in the Catholic church and you don't have those rules in most of the Protestant churches. And so So you have people looking at the Protestant looking at the Catholic faith and fighting and screaming before coming back to the Catholic faith because it's not easy to come to the Catholic faith. But Joe did that.
¶5And Joe had a lot of people celebrating. So I've done links to many videos here. I've had Protestants, I've heard Protestants celebrating it and that's people like Inspiring Philosophy on the Inspiring Philosophy channel. And I've heard lots of Catholics celebrating it and also having contributed to it. So Swan So, of intellectual Catholicism is one.
¶6He just made a great video about the conversion of Joe and his contribution to that. We also have Cameron Bertuzzi who played a huge role in the conversion of Joe. He would apparently call Joe up all the time and say, "Hey, have you heard about Fatima? Have you heard about the miracles at Zeitoun? Have you heard about any of this kind of stuff?" And Joe would kind of scratch his head and you know, he hadn't heard of that, but the miracles started to get to him.
¶7The miracles helped to lead Joe back and I think that's wonderful. So, we're going to get into that. We're going to get into whether or not we should believe some of these miracles and I'm going to bring receipts, okay? So, Derek says he can't really believe that Joe came back. So, of course the atheist response from Derek, who is a former Christian, is that he doesn't believe.
¶8He doesn't think that Joe is skeptical enough. He thinks that he should question these miracles even more, but the quest the thing is Derek doesn't question the miracles himself. He doesn't look into the validity. So, again, I'm going to bring receipts. The old secular, for example, to document what happened at Fatima.
¶9And then we're going to talk also about another Protestant response. Ruslan. Ruslan has a channel and he talked about that it was great that Joe came back to Christianity, but you know, the flavor of Christianity was something with which he disagreed because Ruslan is a Protestant and he thought that Joe, you know, he said he suffered from Dunning-Kruger. Oh, really? Oh, really?
¶10>> [laughter] >> Joe is a brilliant young man. He is earning his PhD at Princeton. He clearly has a head on his shoulders and to say he's suffering from Dunning-Kruger because he doesn't have enough information about Catholicism is a huge stretch, unfortunately. Uh James Fedor is another atheist who also made an entire long video about Joe's conversion saying that Joe wasn't skeptical enough. Of course, they're in bed with Joe when they think that Joe is on their side.
¶11Of course, they jump out of the bed when they think that Joe is now going against them. And I read a lot of the comments in Derek Lambert's channel, actually it's called MythVision. I read a lot of the comments on this video and I found it fascinating that Joe's conversion is shaking is has some of these people quaking in their boots. It puts the fear of God in the atheist that when there's an atheist who converts who's such an intellectually superior young man. He's [laughter] he's a smart young man.
¶12Nobody would deny that. So let's listen to what Derek says right here. We're going to listen to a portion of this video. We're going to listen to a little bit of Ruslan. If we have time, we'll get into some of the other videos, some of the affirmations from fellow Catholics.
¶13We're going to talk about why Catholics are Catholics. What are some of the differences between the Catholic faith and the Protestant faith? You know, when Martin Luther was one of the first to branch off from the Catholic faith in 1517 and formed the Lutheran church, there were many that followed him. At first we call those the high Protestant churches and they tend to mimic some of the sacraments of the Catholic church. But by the time you get to the Baptist there's really only a couple of sacraments left.
¶14The the idea of confirming yourself in the Baptist faith and the idea of having a having a communion and it's only distributed once every few months, the communion. It's just a little wafer of bread and some grape juice and it is according to them a symbol of Jesus's body and blood. Of course the Catholics believe in the Eucharist and I'm going to give you quotes from St. Ignatius on why we affirm the Eucharist and who St. Ignatius is and then I'm going to give you quotes from Irenaeus on why we believe in the papacy.
¶15But that'll be in a moment. First we're going to listen to this character here. And so I want to say good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are to Alexis Carell. Wonderful to see you. Okay, let's listen to Let's listen to where is it here?
¶16Let's listen to Derek Lambert. Let's go and we're going to see what Derek has to say with his critical mind about Joe Schmo's conversion and also take a look at his shirt. It says Derek, the man, the myth, the legend. And you will also observe he's wearing a cross. I think that's interesting.
¶17Why is Derek wearing a cross? And it's not an upside down cross that the Satanists like to wear. Not that I think he's a Satanist, I don't. But I think it's unusual. Maybe Derek is having questions himself and maybe he wants to honor Jesus in some way.
¶18All right, so let's go. Let's listen. >> Probably. So, all right, Fatima. Large crowds reported unusual visual experiences include involving the sun, including the sun, right?
¶19But the reports were not all identical. There was no independent astronomical record of the sun physically leaving its place. And if the sun had actually moved in the sky, people across the world would have not missed that. There would have >> Okay, the reports were not identical, he says. When do you have identical reports?
¶20You you have that when the Associated Press sends out a copy of one person's report to multiple outlets. You don't have that in 1917. Instead, we do have reports from a newspaper called O Seculo and we also have reports from a different newspaper in contemporary, you know, in 1917. So, on October 15th, 1917, this is 2 days after the miracle had happened. It happened on October 13th.
¶21Mother Mary had promised the three young children that there would be a miracle on October 13th. And 70, somewhere between 40,000 and 70,000 people showed up. And included in this group were not just people who would affirm Christianity, not looking for a miracle with a favor in their eyes towards a miracle. There were a lot of people who hated Christianity. You must remember that Portugal was in the midst of communist rule.
¶22They were persecuting the church quite heavily. And they were furious about these three young children. In fact, in August, one of the communists tried to control and take the children away. They were warned them that they were going to be boiled in oil unless they recanted what they were saying. But the children wouldn't recant because they saw Mother Mary and Mother Mary gave them some very important lessons.
¶23She started appearing to them in May 13th and appeared to them each month after that with the exception of August on August 13th, she came a little later in August, but each month after that and she promised them in August that they were going to see a miracle on October 13th. So all these people showed up, people who wanted to make fun of the children, people who doubted what the children were saying. And here's what they said. Here's what's reported from Avelino de Almeida. In he was an eyewitness reporter.
¶24He saw it all himself. There were many many pictures and I'm going to show you some of the pictures that showcase, you know, thousands of people there. Apparently the people had been poured on, they'd been rained on and as the sun started started to do its miracles, dancing around in the sky and multiple multiple colors coming out of it. As it started to do that, people were cured, okay? They saw the sun dancing in the sky.
¶25Now, Derek is also protesting because he said that there weren't accounts outside of this 40,000 or so people. Yeah, okay. Maybe God chose to show it to this group of people in this place. Maybe he didn't want it to appear around the world. God can do that.
¶26God can do anything. So here's what Avelino de Almeida said, quote. And this is I'm I'm quoting the English translation of the Portuguese newspaper O Seculo. The heavenly body resembles a dull silver plate. To look directly at its disc without the slightest burn, it does not blind.
¶27And then he went on to say one would say that an eclipse was taking place. Then he says, but suddenly a colossal uproar arises. Miracles, marvel, the sun trembled. The sun made abrupt movements seen outside all cosmic laws. The sun danced according to the typical peasants.
¶28It naturally left impressed the free thinkers without concerns of a religious nature. So, there were free thinkers there. This was recorded and free thinkers could be the communist, could be also just atheists who weren't communist, but basically people saw this, okay? So, they saw this and it's it's expressed here. So, what else did they say?
¶29Everyone was crying, everyone was praying. There was an overwhelming impression of the expected miracle. They were seconds, they were moments so intense were they. What else did I see that was truly strange at Fatima? The rain at the pre-announced hour ceased.
¶30The dense mass of clouds broke apart and and it began dancing in a violent and convulsive way, which a great number of people imagined to be a dance. Such beautiful and glittering colors successive surface. So, they saw like purples and blues and grays and greens and all kinds of colors, yellows and reds. Okay, so that's pretty important. And so, there's a second article that Almada published as well and he did that on October 29th and he said, "What else did I see that was truly strange on the heath of Fatima?" And he answered it, "Beginning to dance in a violent and convulsive dance." Taken together, the two Almada articles provide considerably stronger evidence that Almada himself reported seeing an extraordinary solar phenomenon.
¶31He reported it in a secular read communist newspaper. Now, I'm going to show you an image of some of this, okay? I'm going to show you an image of some of this and then we will come back to our friend Derek to see if Derek has good reasons to doubt all of this, okay? So, so let me show you an image. Here we go.
¶32Let's see. Share screen. Okay, and I want to say welcome to everybody. Derek's wearing a cross. Yes, it's a very strange thing.
¶33It's a very strange thing. Okay, here's the image. Take a look at this. All right? You can see there the part where Mother Mary appeared.
¶34You can see thousands of people here who are witnessing it. You have all kinds of testimonies. I mean, you could be hyper skeptical like Derek, but really really? And actually, unfortunately, a lot of Protestants discount this, too, because you know what the lady called herself when the girls asked the the two females and the one male asked who she was? There was Jacinta Francisco and Lucia.
¶35She said she was the Lady of the Rosary. This kind of is similar to 1858 in Lourdes, France, where little Bernadette learned that the lady was the Immaculate Conception. Now, these are Catholic dogmas. The Rosary, I should say. Our Lady Our Lady being the Mother of God, that is a Catholic dogma.
¶36Also, Our Lady being the Immaculate Conception, meaning that she was conceived free from original sin. She never had original sin. And then, of course, she was a virgin perpetually. We believe that. We also believe that she was assumed into heaven body and soul.
¶37So, here's one image. Here's an image of the newspaper. You can see the three children here, and it says how the sun danced. You can see that sole by Lou sun danced. Okay.
¶38Here's another image that you can see of the people in awe, all looking up at the sun. And then, you can see also other images. Okay? So, you see the images of these people. You hear the reports.
¶39You can be hyper skeptical, or you can actually, you know, believe him, okay? It was It was kicking and screaming. You know, you remember the atheist. Now, it's even easier to be an atheist than it is to be a It's easier to be an atheist than it is even to be a Protestant. Why?
¶40Why? Well, because the atheist doesn't have to go to church at all. Doesn't have to believe. Doesn't have to read the Bible. Doesn't have to do anything.
¶41Can just hang out and do whatever he or she pleases. That is something that Christopher Hitchens and his brother, Peter Hitchens, noted, you know, they were wonderfully free from the moral constraints of religion. That is it. What are the disadvantages is the massive cognitive dissonance that you must have when you hear accounts like Fatima and Our Lady of Zeitoun and Akita and Lourdes and the miracles that coincided with Lourdes like we have 72 that were affirmed by atheist doctors that have no medical explanation from Lourdes. Thousands of people have said they were cured at Lourdes, but there 72 that they actually have absolute proof that those are miracles.
¶42And some atheists who look at that with an open mind will take into account its truth. And that's what Joe Schmidt did. Now, think about this as well. Think about the uh cognitive acrobatics that you must do if you are an atheist when you hear this kind of stuff. I mean, I'm talking about Olympic award-winning acrobatics, mental gymnastics, okay?
¶43Mental gymnastics, that is the unfortunate part of being an atheist. That's the difficult part. So, there is a little bit of a difficult part and that speaks to the mental gymnastics that you must do to maintain your atheism. Okay, so let's get back to our friend uh Derek Lambert. And so, we're going to go back to that.
¶44So, here we go and we're going to listen to what else he had to say and then we're going to listen to a little bit of Ruslan because that's a it's a little bit of a challenge with Rus- Ruslan. Okay, so let's look here. Let's listen to some more and see if we've refuted everything he said so far. Um here we go. >> think what this comes down to is >> Oh, wait.
¶45I've got Ruslan here. Okay, wait. Let me go back. I hit the wrong tab here, I think. Let's see which one you're looking at.
¶46Oh, you're looking at Ruslan. Okay, maybe we'll we'll jump over to Ruslan and then we'll go back to Derek. Okay, so what what does Ruslan say? Ruslan is uh also kind of um not really excited about the conversion of Joe Schmo. Here's what he says.
¶47>> Two things. One, I think at its core many of us, when we discover new information, we slide into something very common, which is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. You don't know what you don't know. Dunning-Kruger effect is best illustrated by this graph here, which is initially someone's confidence very early on to discovering some new information without understanding everything that they don't know. And >> Okay, so he's basically accusing Joe Schmo of having suffered the Dunning-Kruger effect.
¶48It is crazy. Joe Schmo took he basically said he converted way back in the early part of this year. So he spent months before announcing it and I'm sure he's probably dig dug into the canon of the Catholic Church. He's probably looked at the catechism. I'm sure he's read the Bible multiple times since coming back.
¶49He's a smart young man and so accusing him of Dunning-Kruger is just really crazy. Okay, so let's let's listen to a little bit more here. >> And unfortunately, as smart as I'm sure this gentleman is, I don't think he knows everything he doesn't know. I don't think he understands all the arguments and therefore often is kind of presenting loads your arguments with regards to this conversation. And I also think that the internet has created a a space where because of the accessibility of information, all the sudden everybody is a theologian, an expert.
¶50They have knowledge. They have information. And to me, having just informational facts about church history doesn't mean you actually have applied the plain things and the main things of scripture to be conformed more and more into the image of Jesus. This is out >> Okay, so let's let's look at church history. He's saying just because you have church history.
¶51Now, what do do we have in church history? Well, let me give you a couple of ancient church fathers and what they said. Now, we're going to first go to the the sayings of Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius of Antioch was a friend of the Apostle John. He was martyred in the Roman Coliseum.
¶52He was eaten by a bunch of animals and that was around 107 or 108 AD. Very early on. Now, what did he say? What did he say? He said, "Since however, it would be very tedious." And this is in his letter to the Smyrnaeans, "In such a volume as this to reckon up the successions of all the churches, we do put to confusion all those who in whatever manner say whether by evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion assemble in unauthorized meetings.
¶53By indicating that tradition derived from the apostles of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul, as also the faith preached to men which comes down to our time by means of the succession of the bishops." Okay, so he is pointing out the primacy of Rome. He's pointing out the two glorious apostles who founded the church there. We don't have the order of which when they appeared in Rome. Okay, we don't know if Peter appeared first or Paul appeared first. I actually listened to Cameron Bertuzzi in a video response by David Wood and Anthony two people named Tony.
¶54And it was interesting because they're trying to say that Paul wouldn't be someone who would come and you know, trample on somebody else's uh finding a founding of a church, but we don't know which one came first. We never sold that. Uh for it is a matter of necessity that every church should agree with this church on account of its preeminent authority. Okay, that's pretty big stuff right there. Pretty big stuff.
¶55And so you you take a look at that and you realize you have to uh and I'm just realizing I'm just reading that that actually is not Ignatius of Antioch. This is Saint Irenaeus and this is against heresies book three. Looks like I hit the wrong tab. Came back to that. But so Irenaeus is affirming the church.
¶56Irenaeus knew Polycarp. And Polycarp was he worked or studied under the Apostle John as well. Okay, so Polycarp there is a succession there. And this was explained. So we have an order.
¶57In fact, he actually named all of the Popes up until his time. I won't get into that so much, but he named the Popes coming out of Rome. He didn't name the Popes or he didn't name the bishops coming out of another church and saying that church was superior or equal. No, he said that the Roman church, where the bishops were, Peter was the first bishop, the Roman church was the first and the one that is has the primacy. So that's early on.
¶58Saint Irenaeus. That is Saint Irenaeus of Lyon. And he wrote this somewhere around 170 or 180 AD. Now Ignatius of Antioch, this is what they say. Oh shoot, I thought I had that up.
¶59Ignatius of Antioch. Here's what he says. Now this is the importance of the Catholic church. Ignatius is the one who was martyred 108. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins and which the father of his goodness raised up again.
¶60Those therefore who speak against this gift of God incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect that they might rise again. Remember what Jesus said, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life within you." And also the Apostle Paul, the church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth. Hold to the traditions, okay, that were passed down down to you. So we're holding to scripture, but we're also holding to church tradition.
¶61And that is in the Catholic church. And so we have very early affirmation of the structure of the church and of the Eucharist being the divine body and blood. It transubstantiates into the divine body and blood of our savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Now Jesus told us unless we eat the flesh and drink the blood. How are we going to do that?
¶62Well, he showed us at the Last Supper. He said, "Take, eat. This is my body given up for you." And then after that, he took the chalice, took a drink, and said, "This is my blood given up for you." Okay, so we know based on Jesus in the earliest of times, the apostles believed the body and blood of Jesus. And so, when you get away from that, as unfortunately Ruslan has done, you know, maybe he hasn't studied this enough. Maybe that's the problem here.
¶63So, let's listen to a little bit more of what Ruslan says. >> Outside of any experiential Marian apparitions or outside of any experiential time with Jesus or visions or dreams or any of these things, have you applied the main things and applying things of script- >> Okay, so he's he's slipping in here sola scriptura. And that is a a doctrine that's held by the Lutherans, held by many Protestants. In fact, it's sort of a foundational doctrine, meaning the Bible is the source of all truth, and we believe that as Catholics. But we also believe that the traditions are very important as affirmed in the Bible.
¶64But the bi- but the Protestants will often say, "Okay, well, if I don't see something in the Bible, I don't have to believe it. And if I don't and if I hear about these Marian apparitions, according to like William Lane Craig, I can say that that's actually yes, there's something happened, but they propose that it's actually demonic, okay? If you look into the Marian apparitions and the miracles that accompany them, you will be reminded of many of the miracles in the New Testament that Jesus performed. And how he performed those miracles, and when the John the Baptist asked who he was, he said, "Look to the miracles. Basically, look to the miracles." And so, that's what Joe Schmidt did.
¶65He looked to the miracles at the Marian apparitions. Now, there's many Marian apparitions, and not all of them are affirmed by the church. So, the church has a very rigorous process before affirming Marian apparitions, but it did affirm Lords and Fatima. Those are two really important ones. And it also affirmed Akita, where Mother Mary warned that if we don't repent, you know, the world is going to come to basically a fiery end.
¶66It's It was pretty scary. That was in 1973. At Zeitoun, she an image of her appeared on top of a St. Mary's church in Zeitoun, Egypt, and it was over a period of time, a long period of time. Cameron Bertuzzi made a really good video about that.
¶67Um another person, Ethan Muse, has made a lot of videos about the miracles, and so I also recommend that you go to see them. But look into these with an open mind. If you're always saying scripture alone, where does it say in the Bible sola scriptura? It doesn't. So, your principle is not even in the Bible.
¶68It's like it's self-refuting, okay? So, it's it's a problem. It's a problem, sola scriptura. It's again like I've said many times before, and I can I can criticize the Protestants. I'm even married to a Protestant.
¶69I'm married to a Lutheran. He hasn't converted. Uh but but I I can criticize that because it's this whole Bible alone idea and sola fide is faith alone. You know, Martin Luther inserted the word alone in one of the verses in Romans to say faith alone. Uh but St.
¶70James basically pointed to the value of faith along with works. Uh faith without works is dead, St. James said. Kind of important stuff, okay? So, and there's so many great miracles to look back at.
¶71Uh there's a miracle also that it took a place in the year 40 with James the Greater. He was in Zaragoza, Spain, and Our Lady bilocated. She bilocated and appeared to him to comfort him. And because he was feeling disappointed, he had a difficult time converting those pagans, and he felt like he his work wasn't, you know, meritorious, and she she appeared to him. She bilocated and she appeared to him, and that's called Our Lady of the Pillar cuz she appeared on a pillar.
¶72And she instructed him to build a a chapel or a shrine, which he did. And you can still go there today, and you can see they call him Santiago. They call St. James Santiago. You can see the shrine today.
¶73Now, apparently, there was a miracle that was in the Zaragozas of Spain, where a man who had lost his whole leg, his leg had to be amputated, suddenly the leg grew back. And I believe that was in the 1700s, and that's another one of the miracles that attracted Joe Smith. So, there's a lot of really cool stuff out there. A lot of cool miracles, a lot of neat things that are that are happening. And I think if you just keep your mind open and, you know, believe the good news, I think that you uh you know, you can enter into the church.
¶74Now, I want to get back to I'm going to go back to our friend Derek Lambert. So, here we go. >> [laughter] >> Derek Lambert has been on my channel before. Uh he's a nice guy, you know, he's he's definitely a nice guy. He says that he was battling drug and alcohol addiction, and um unfort- which is very unfortunate.
¶75It's unfortunate to have to battle um alcohol and drug addiction. And he says that when he left the church, this these problems seem to have left him. Now, here there there's a picture I want. Okay. Now, the issue with that, this whole idea of the alcohol and the drug addiction leaving the church and the It It kind of reminds me of when you're getting closer to God, you're you're not It's not that easy, because you're always going to be battling the other side, right?
¶76Cuz there is we are in a spiritual battle. And when you're closer to God, the enemy wants to attack you a lot, and it might include attacks that relate to that kind of substances substance abuse. That might be part of the issue. And so, when you're further from God, as as Derek is, the enemy leaves you alone. He doesn't need to work on you.
¶77He doesn't He don't have the struggles and the fights if you're away from God. So, it's a challenge. Um but you have to realize, you know, the road uh the road to hell is paved in good intentions and it's wide. You know, take the narrow path Jesus says, not the wide one. Unfortunately, Derek took the wide one and we can only pray for him.
¶78We can only pray that he also sees the light. So, here we go. Let's listen to more of what he has to say. >> In some reportage across the world staring toward a bright sun, expectation, retinal effects, cloud movement, and social influence are all relevant. >> So, I mean, you know, it's funny cuz Joe Schmidt said he would have said some of the same kind of things as Derek says.
¶79I mean, you have to explain away the fact that there were multiple people there, people who wanted to deny what was happening, people who could not deny it, right? The atheists were there, too. The atheist communists were there. They didn't go there because they were deciding that they wanted to be influenced by a bunch of Christians. They thought the Christians were inferior, were intellectually inferior to them.
¶80And so, that is another issue. I'm going to jump ahead a little bit with Joe, I mean, I'm sorry, with Derek and see what he has to say at this point here. So, let's go. >> appears unjust. Perhaps my fallen judgment is the problem.
¶81If the If the evidence appears weak, perhaps I am resisting grace. If another >> These are great points. It sounds kind of like what I just said, doesn't it? Let's listen some more. >> religion has a miracle, perhaps the devil produced it.
¶82If Catholicism has a miracle, perhaps Mary confirmed the church. At that point the system can explain every possible >> Okay, so let me get back to actually let me make it so he's not frozen in that. Okay. Let's think about what Mary said and how the Some people have pointed out that the miracle at Zeitoun happened to Coptic Christians in Egypt. They say, well, then how can the Catholics go ahead and attach themselves to that particular miracle.
¶83Well, in that in that miracle, Mary didn't speak, okay? But she did appear at a church that she had commissioned it to be built. She had commissioned dozens of years before that the this church was built there, named after her, St. Mary, St. Mary's there in Zeitoun.
¶84And then she appeared at it over a long period of time. The Egyptians were desperate to you know, for that image to go away. The Mother Mary was appearing in the sky, doves were flying around her. It was like an angel of light appearing. definitely female that appeared over the church in her name, okay?
¶85So, that's pretty important thing. But it was a Coptic Christian, and that's fine. That's fine. We can affirm our friends, the Coptic Christians. But she didn't say anything.
¶86When she did say something, she affirmed the Catholic Church because she said she's Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, and she said she is the Immaculate Conception at Lourdes. So, that is an affirmation of the Catholic Church. And she also instructed the kids in 1917 at Fatima to have the Pope consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Which he failed to do right away. And so, he said unless he does that and everybody people repent, that Russia was going to the world was going to suffer from Russia's errors.
¶87And of course, that happened. Now, in 1920, the Russians legalized abortion. That was the first place, and then of course, it was legalized all over the world in many places after that. As you know, the human atrocities and the ticket from that is absolutely horrific, okay? In the United States alone, we've killed over 60 million babies in the womb through that.
¶8860 million, that's about the same as the population of the country of Italy, okay? We've killed. So, that's horrific. And that's certainly spreading the errors. And then and of course, I can also say communism itself or socialism.
¶89We're seeing socialism creeping up today, and it's really scary. Why is it scary? Because socialism is just a lighter form of communism. Communism is the abolition of property rights, private property rights. They take your property away from you.
¶90They take your homes. They take your land. They starve you to death like what they did to the Ukrainians at the Holodomor in the 1930s. They starve you on purpose, okay? They do all kinds of things.
¶91This failed in China, led to the death of something like 40 million people in China under Mao Zedong in the 1950s. That is what is unfortunately part of the errors of communism. Mother Mary predicted it was going to happen. She also predicted the Second World War, and she predicted that it would be preceded by this great light in the hemisphere that many would see. And many did see that around 1937.
¶92There was a great light in the sky that you could see from United States and you could see it from northern Europe. So, there was a lot of stuff going on and an affirmation of the Catholic Church. And this is one of the reasons why Joe Schmidt came back. Again, as I mentioned before, it's not easy to be a Catholic. It's not easy.
¶93Um Did it Did Did Joe list any personal miraculous occurrences? That's a good question, Craig. Good to see you. Um Joe did not I I don't think he listed anything that occurred to himself. Like I don't think that a miracle occurred for Joe himself.
¶94But, he did list Barbara Kaminski Snyder's miracle. Now, in case you haven't heard that one, that's pretty cool. Barbara Kaminski Snyder lived in the early She's still around, I believe. Um she's married to a pastor. But, in the early 1980s, she had multiple sclerosis.
¶95She was confined to a wheelchair. Her lungs had collapsed. She couldn't walk. Her feet were crumpled. And she had asked people in her church, she was Protestant, she asked people in her church if they would please pray for her.
¶96And people were praying for her. They were praying on the radio for her. They were doing all this stuff. And then one day she was in her bed and she heard, "My child, get up and walk." And she knew it was Jesus, and her body miraculously cured. Her eyesight came back, her lungs came back, her feet came back.
¶97She was able to walk, and she has been free from muscular sclerosis for many years now, many years. So, that's a pretty good thing. So, Barbara Klemiski Snyder is one that that was cited by Joe Schmied. Uh there's others, there's many many miracles. There's a good book by Lee Strobel uh about miracles.
¶98There's another one by Craig Keener. I haven't read the latter book um by Craig Keener, but the there is a book where he's collected a lot of miracles around the world. And the miracles a lot of times are coming in the name of Jesus, okay? Now, some people say, "Oh, well, there's Muslim miracles, and there's Hindu miracles, and um can God have miracles?" Well, it there there could be miracles around the world that God allows or performs or permits and or causes. Um and then eventually sometimes those people come back to the faith.
¶99Now, in fact, from what I've understand in the Muslim faith, many people are having dreams of Jesus. Let me talk about one of the dreams of Jesus. So, anyone know he put out a one 0 11-hour video. Yeah, I know. I I saw it.
¶100There there's like three videos. This is a the people who say that Joe hasn't done his homework and due diligence, the man literally put out three videos of 25 hours worth of material on why he's a Catholic. Like, [laughter] I think he's done a little bit of homework, okay? He also appeared on Pints With Aquinas' channel. I did watch that one, and I watched his appearance on Cameron Bertuzzi's channel.
¶101And what was the other one I saw? I saw a couple of them. I'm forgetting right now. But anyway, so he did appear on some other people's channels. I also want to mention there there's a book by a person called Nabeel Qureshi.
¶102He's good friends with David Wood, and he wrote this thing called Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. And he was looking for Allah, the Muslim God. He was raised in a Muslim faith by Muslim apologist. He was a big Muslim, devout Muslim, knew that if he left, he would be up in an apostasy. He knew the terrible outcomes of leaving the Muslim faith, but he couldn't overcome the dream that he had.
¶103He had this dream that he was standing at the door of a banquet, and he saw his friend David Wood at the banquet. And David said, "You've been given the invitation, but you haven't accepted it yet." He's like, "What?" So, he he he he got up in the morning, called David Wood up. David was his college roommate. Called him up, and David said, "Yes, that's in the Bible. There is a great banquet, a feast that Jesus prepares, and you're to come to the banquet.
¶104And, you know, he puts that offer out there for everyone." He says, "Seek and you will find. Knock and it'll be open, and the truth will set you free." So, just think about that. Uh of course, Mary didn't say that communism originated in Germany. Yeah, no, I don't Yeah, communism She didn't say that communism or is it She said Russia would spread its errors. She had it didn't name communism per se, but, you know, according to the Catholic Church, Catholics have been anti-communist going way back.
¶105You know, Pope Leo the 13th in the 1800s, he wrote a lot against communism cuz he saw how horrific it was. He said, "People are entitled to property." And some people have claimed that socialism is in the New Testament in the book of Acts when the apostles and others willingly gave up some of their goods, sold their goods. It's not the same. Socialism, you're forced to give up. It's violent.
¶106You have to give up your goods. Everyone has to give up their land, their property. Everyone has to give up all of their, you know, their personal stuff. You're You don't own your home, you don't own your land, all that kind of thing. They take everything away.
¶107And we have a general right to that, you know, that's the nice thing about Western societies especially. We have intrinsic human dignity given to us by God. God-given, you can't take it away. And we have individual rights, and we have property rights, and that's a really big part of Western societies. So, I want to see More Than Dreams on Tubi has five testimonies of Muslims seeing Jesus.
¶108Oh, that's really cool. So, yeah, thanks Ruth. So, Muslims seeing Jesus, five testimonies. I love that. So, yeah, Nabeel Qureshi ended up coming back to Christianity or coming to Christianity.
¶109He was amazing. He unfortunately passed away from cancer some years ago, but he was amazing. And you know what he said? One of the things that led him, he looked into the lifestyle also of Jesus versus the lifestyle of Muhammad. And he noticed that Jesus was celibate.
¶110Jesus was a peacemaker. Jesus said those who live by the sword will die by the sword. He was causing miracles. He was wonderful and truthful and just and the good judge. He was all that kind of good stuff.
¶111And I want to say good day to Dwayne Burke. But Muhammad was married to something like 12 women. When he was 53, he married a 6-year-old and consummated that marriage at nine. Uh, he himself killed a lot of Jewish people. He did a lot.
¶112Look into his lifestyle and read what he said even what was said about him. And even read what his 6-year-old or her 9-year-old bride, I don't know how old she was when she wrote this passage, but she basically said, "Anytime that, uh, you know, there's something comes about, you seem to have the strange revelation from Allah." You know, that like for example, he allowed other Muslim men to be married to four women and he of course had a revelation from Allah that he could be married to many more women, okay? He also had a revelation from Allah uh, against adopting because he decided to go after the wife of his adopted son. I mean, there's some really crazy stuff and I won't even get into the men of El Zoot. I'll let David Wood handle that one.
¶113Um, but anyway, yeah, so there's there's some interesting stuff with Muhammad. Uh, basically, he was ridden by the men of El Zoot. Okay, we won't get into that so much. It's a little uh, there might be kids in the room. So, anyway, I hope you guys like this video.
¶114If you do, please like and subscribe and do come again. And just remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. May God bless all of you. Thank you so much. >> [snorts] >> Amen.