The TRUTH Hits Harder than you think - Post-show Smackdown

I am your host, TJ Haynes, the undisputed technician of the truth, November 29 in the year of our lord 2025. And I say thank you, church. Just taking you through what we're going to do tonight. I did a three minute reel of last night's yesterday's highlights. I'm going to play it for you starting right now, and then I'm gonna pause it at some of the major.

There's, like, I think five highlights in there. I'm gonna pause it during in between, like, three of them, maybe four, and we're gonna talk about I'm gonna give you a couple of extra thoughts. Let's hope this even works. Hang on. It's all good to Okay.

I'm gonna stop it in the middle of, some of the segments, and then, we'll talk a little bit about it. Let's go. I'm talking to you about throwing fireballs, baby, because this is the Catholic firebrand with balls of fire. And I thank you very much for joining me. Let me tell you. God doesn't go cheap. Everything God does is amazing. Creation of everything. Right? Gotta be careful before you take a lash to the back of the mystical body.

Let me talk about that first part, God doesn't go cheap. Okay. In this video, I was saying essentially this. Everything God does is a big deal. He did there is no act of God that was cheap, small time, bottom shelf, nothing. Everything he did was amazing. Let's just go through a couple of them. The creation of the angels. Huge. They have an intellect.

They have a will. Before then, only God had an intellect and a will. Some might say that well, certainly the creation of man is like his biggest achievement. Right? Intellect, will, spiritual, physical, corporeal.

The creation of the physical order, the temporal order, it's a pretty big deal, but I would say it's not the biggest of his big deals. Why is creation not the biggest of his big deals? Because for God to become to be from the the infinite, for God to be infinite, and then take a snapshot and and make it finite, limited, physical, that's really not a big deal. Think about it. If you're God and you're infinite, you are eternal, and you are the eternal you are the wholeness of everything, and then you take a little snapshot of that, and you call it the physical created order.

It's a big deal for us because we're the we're one of the small things in it, but for God that's not a big deal. Now think about this. The creation of the of the created or the the the the coming into being of the created order, not one of God's biggest achievements. Can you believe that? That's my opinion.

That's not Catholic teaching. That's my and it's not contrary to Catholic teaching either. It's my opinion. It is a big achievement, especially from our perspective as being one of the created things. But for God, that's like, it's wonderful, it's beautiful, it is huge, but it's not one of God's greatest achievements.

It's pretty great, but not the greatest. In a second, I'm gonna tell you the greatest of his achievements or one of the greatest. So now we go to the created order. The creation of man is truly unbelievable. The creation of man, even though we're part of the created order, that's a bigger deal than the created order itself.

Do you know why the creation of man is a bigger deal than creation itself? Because he made us in his image. He made us in his likeness. He made us tiny versions of himself. Do you understand?

Although we're distinct, we have a body, not just a spirit. We have a free mind, a free will, the ability to choose, to make choices, the ability to love. That's a big thing. The ability to and for those who are thinking, well, animals can love, and animals can create, animals can build, but they cannot create. A beaver can build a dam.

A beaver doesn't know how to make it beautiful. A beaver doesn't even know how to make it more efficient. Well, animals can love. Animals have some limited capacity for affection, but it's largely based on instinct. On instinct.

And then I'm not even sure how much of it is actually affection because most of it is like their nature. But I do believe animals have a limited capacity for affection, But they don't have the capacity for love, self giving love, to do just because it's the right thing to do. Okay? When you think of love, don't just think of affection. They often go together, but they're not the same things.

So we have the capacity to love, to create, to receive the beauty of creation. Right? Believe me, I put my dog's food in his bowl. He doesn't give a damn what it looks like. He does not care what it looks like. He's just gonna eat it. We like to receive beauty. We like for it to look good on a plate, our food. Right? We have an appreciation for beauty, beautiful music, art, a sunrise, whatever.

We have a capacity to receive beauty. We also have a capacity to generate the beautiful in a song, in a sonnet. Listen, when if if you wash and wax your car by hand, you are generating the beautiful. It's a characteristic of the divine. Oh, I missed a spot. Oh, this spot isn't quite as shiny. You're generating the beautiful. It's a characteristic of God. So the creation of man is a really, really, really big deal. Now let's talk about another of his greatest achievements.

My opinion, even greater than the creation of the finite order, the establishment of the holy Catholic church. Because the Catholic church is the mystical body of Christ, the Catholic church is not just it is a creation, but it is a creation that is intrinsically tied to all eternity. It is the gateway to heaven from the temporal order where we all exist. It is a piece of heaven, whereas that tree is not. Can you believe that?

That's that is what the Catholic church is. So for God to create the Catholic church, man, that's a bigger deal than God creating the sun. I wanna stress, that is my opinion. This is not something the Catholic church necessarily teaches, but it does come from Catholic thought. It is not contrary to church teaching. Before I go on, I wanna say hello to the Instagrammers. Chizamy. I can't pronounce that name. It's something about Instagram. I can never pronounce the names there.

Elizabeth Speaks Truth. I know that lady. God bless you, Liz. Aunt Nick, thank you for joining me. Piety on Purpose. Lord have mercy. I forgot that I was following you on Instagram. Man, it's so good to see you there. Roxtraj and Gigaf two thousand eight. Thank you for joining me here on the show.

Hey there. Just wanted to type there to say hello to the Instagrammers, and hello to those of you catching me on YouTube and anywhere else you might be, catching this. Probably some alien on Mars is, like, hijacking the signal right now and watching this, and, I'm gonna make Catholics of them too, because that is what tickers do best. Moving on. So my point in that video that went viral is when people are speaking against the Catholic church, I don't mean fair criticism.

The Catholic church well, I I wouldn't even say the Catholic church, but Catholic bishops should not have moved priests around during the the whole abuse crisis. Well, it is a little bit more involved than that. It's not really what it sounds like. But okay. Fair criticism.

It's a little inaccurate because it misses a ton of nuance, which I'll get into in another video. If you'd like, just drop a comment. Fair. Okay. The Catholic church should, I I don't know, bring the hammer down on people who are playing fast and loose with the liturgy.

Okay. That's fair. But to speak ill of the Catholic church unjustly, which 90% of it is unjust, and whether you're Catholic or not, this applies. To speak ill of the Catholic church when it's unjustly, when it's unduly critical, harsh in its criticism in such a way that puts you above the magisterium of the holy Catholic church, that puts you above the pope, that puts you Catholic or outside of the church, in some way as the authoritarian over the church. If you are unjustly speaking ill of the church, speaking against the church, you are committing a pretty serious offense.

Whether it's sinful matter or not, I do have some thoughts, but I'll leave that out of it. But it is offensive to God. Whether or not you'll be held responsible for it, I think you kind of will. That's up to God. That's not up to me. Okay? But it's not a no big deal. It is by no means a small deal. It's a very large deal. Because the Catholic church is very special and very dear to God.

And, you know, sometimes the people who need to hear that are priests and bishops. I won't lie. That's true. Some priests and bishops need a wake up call. Yes. That's true. In in their conduct, in their words, in their in their inaction. Yeah. That's true. But let the holy spirit deal with that.

Hello to hello Lou fifty nine joining me there on Instagram. Thank you very much for joining me. We're going through a little roundup of last night's episode. It's a three it's a just a three minute highlight reel, and then I'm stopping in between to give my additional thoughts. Okay?

This is a highlight reel of yesterday's episode, and I'm stopping in between to give my additional thoughts. Let's keep rolling through. A lash to the back of the So with that in mind, check out this line. Nice face there, TJ Haynes. Nice face. Everything. Right? Gotta be careful before you take a lash to the back of the mystical body. Catholic church is big time. Do you realize the holy The Catholic church is big time.

So be careful before you take a lash to the back of the mystical body because it makes you, in my opinion, no different from the Romans who took a lash to his physical body. Let's continue. Catholic church is 2,000 years old. Come on, man. Do you realize we outlived Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Go. Church is big time. Big time. You realize the holy Catholic church is 2,000 years old? Mhmm. Do you realize we outlived Mhmm.

Every major empire? Do you realize Rome couldn't destroy us? The Muslim empire couldn't destroy us. The barbarians couldn't destroy. Do you realize that we went up against far worse than you?

Like, oh, so far worse. Like, ridiculously far worse than you worshiping God. Biblical where that came from? There are people who really think the church is threatened by them, which is unbelievable to me. Like, what? There are people who really think the church is threatened by them. The church doesn't wanna hear what I have to say. I think the church will manage. Go ahead and try. Church doesn't wanna hear me say how it's a cult and this and that, and you Church can listen, my friend.

Dramacam this. We gotta Dramacam this. This doesn't look good in a reel because it goes like this, and my face is all taking up the screen, but it looks great on YouTube. Let me be real clear. Church is 2,000 years old.

Okay? The history of the body of work of Catholic academics and theologians going way back to the early church fathers, Lord have mercy. You think there's anything you can say that the church has not heard, mulled over, responded to? Are you out of your mind? Folks, I don't regard myself as a genius by any means.

People who have been following my work for a while know that I call myself stupid all the time. I say it tongue in cheek, but I believe it. I'm really not that sharp. And I can tell you, 95% and I love how I go mathematics on this. Right?

I'm always doing a percentage. 95% of the, criticism that I have heard is so dumb, and even I can set fire to it, and I'm stupid fairly. And even I can set fire to. Do you really think you can put your criticisms to the Catholic church, and it hasn't and it's a criticism or a challenge the church hasn't heard before? Really?

So here's the deal. The church, shockingly let's take the the the priest sex crisis or sex scandal, for instance. That now, sure, did the church do some things wrong? Yes. I will say this though, most of what people call out, like you guys moved, you guys were hiding priests.

Well, that did happen, but it was very, very rare that a priest was actually being protected, hidden, from paying for his crimes. Believe it or not, it was very rare. Most of the time when a priest was moved, a priest who was accused of abuse was moved from one parish to another, it wasn't to hide him. It was because early on in the in the nineteen hundreds, very very little was known of that condition. I don't wanna say it openly because I don't know if that's gonna get me flagged or it's gonna downgrade the video or what, but you know what I'm talking about.

Very little was known of that attraction, that condition. Very, very little. Almost nothing. So the experts, secular psychologists, the experts were saying, this is a fixation from one person focused on another person. Not a man who's, or even a woman who's attracted to people who are too young.

Gotta be careful how I frame that. It's just a fixation. It's a psychological fixation of one person toward another person. So the way you deal with that is you separate that person, separate the accused from the accuser, there then you break off the fixation, and get the accused into treatment. No problem.

Fix them right up. That's what you were told whether you were the Catholic church, a secular company, great or small, a public school. It didn't matter. That's what the experts said to do. So while it may look like they were hiding priests, which did happen in rare occasion.

It was like flat out just hiding the priest, or concealing the priest, or protecting the priest. It did happen, but very rarely. Usually, it wasn't that at all. Enough said about that. But let's take that one event in church history.

You know what's pretty amazing about that? It actually says a lot a lot of good things about the Catholic church. You know why? Because that's one example of several we might raise of the church screwing up. Right? Because the church is it's it's a divine in organism, I'll call it, and a human institution. The people make it go. Well, it's God who makes it go, but the people are doing the work. Right? And that's been true for two thousand years.

Well, for two thousand years, the people have always been screwing it up. Judas did, betrayed Jesus. Peter denied Jesus. There was bickering amongst the apostles even as early as the gospels, and it continued in the book of acts, and it continued in the early church. The bickering, the theological I don't know.

I don't wanna go call them wars, but you get the idea. There have been times in church history that have, like, we're really wonky things have gone have gone on in the church history, and yet here we remain. It says something bold and powerful about the Catholic church that even though humans are are are doing the hands on work, and therefore because we're stupid, we screw it up here and there, still the Catholic church remains for two thousand years. No organization, no empire can say that. Alright.

Let's move it along. First, let me just roll this a little bit, see if there's anybody chatting who I need to check-in with. Hey. Lots of people checking me out on Instagram. God love you. It's r long dot m and m and m and m. Thank you for joining me on Instagram. God bless you, my friend. I have to be careful not to say brother or sister if I don't know who it is. I can't see their I can't see anything about them.

But thank you for joining me. I really do appreciate you. Thank you for checking me out on Instagram. By the way, I did drop another reel on Instagram, actually, and and and yet another one's gonna drop tonight. But that one reel that I dropped earlier on Instagram, I think I also dropped it on YouTube and and The Talk from last night's show was really, really good, so check it out in my feed.

By the way, if you're catching me on YouTube and you don't know, you ought to know. You can catch me everywhere on socials at real TJ Hanes, and you really ought to do that because I post great stuff. Real TJ Hanes on x, the tock, the gram, and everybody else on the other socials. You can catch me on my YouTube at catholic firebrand. Catholic firebrand on YouTube. Bring it and come on with it. Let's keep going. Let's keep rolling with this show. Alright. That's enough out of you.

Shut up. Damn music. I only play that track because everyone loves it. It's not my favorite track, man. I'm more of a this kinda guy or this kinda guy. I'm more like, I don't know, little bit gravel and a little bit ease. You understand what I'm talking about? A little bit of gravel. A little bit of gravel and a little bit of ease, baby. That's what I'm talking about.

Oh, this is a really good one. Alright. While I get myself resituated with this damn thing, let me let that play real quick. Oh, mama. Little bit of gravel and a little bit of ease. You're hearing it in that song. You're hearing a little bit of gravel and a little bit of ease. Yes, sir. Little honey over that gravel. I'm just getting my my video resituated, folks.

This is not gonna even take ten seconds. Jumping to the That's a great track, man. It's unbelievable good. And I have rights to use it, so YouTube is not gonna flag me. Or they might, but I'll be able to say, nope. I have a license for that. Alright. Let's get on with it. For those of you who are just catching me, I'm playing a short little reel about halfway through it right now. It's a highlights reel of last of yesterday's show, and I'm contributing some additional thoughts to it.

Go. Is liturgical. Wait. Go. Then you worshiping God biblically is liturgical. This was in response to someone saying, don't, need the Catholic church. I worship God with the bible. Well, here's my question to you. Do you even know what worship is? Because people were worshiping, I mean, like, properly worshiping God for thousands of years before there was a Bible.

So what were they doing that you're not? Now, roll that segment. Worshipping God biblically is liturgical. It requires a priest. It requires an altar. It requires a sacrifice. I'm gonna repeat that, and I wanna say, for those of you who don't know, liturgical is basically the formula of the mass. Okay. Let's just put it simply there. It's basically the mass.

The mass isn't something we made up. That liturgical formula is biblical. It does come from sacred tradition, and there are components of it that come right out of the Old Testament. It's liturgical. That's what worship is. So let's go back to that clip. Now listen again. Requires a priest. It requires a priest. Worship requires a priest whose function is to offer up the sacrifice for the people to God.

In the Old Testament, I mean, like, early on in the Old Testament, the priest was any male head of the household. That was the priest. After or within the book of Exodus, the priesthood changed that I'm not getting into the whole story. Only those from the tribe of Levi could be priests. Now you couldn't just be a male head of the household and be a priest.

Now it was restricted. Only men in the tribe of Levi could be priests. Okay? And then there was a high priest. We see that in we see it in the Old Testament taking form, but we see it also in the New Testament, a high priest, the high priest I mean, there were other priests too, but but, only the priest could offer the sacrifice.

So you need a liturgical formula. This is according to the Bible. Going back as far back as the Old Testament, it's a liturgical formula. It requires a priest. Continue. It requires an altar. It requires a sacrifice. The preeminence and power of the holy Catholic church. The preeminence and power of the holy Catholic church. Worship biblically.

Well, I don't need to I don't need the Catholic church. I worship with the Bible. But the Bible requires liturgy, that's what worship is, from God's standard. It's not like we just made it up and said, here, God, here's how we're gonna worship. And God said, okay, I'll take it. No. That's God's standard. Liturgical requires a priest offering a sacrifice. That's two things. A priest offering a sacrifice on a consecrated altar.

That's worship. Well, what about prayer? I thought I was worshiping God when I pray. Well, not really. It's interesting throughout the Bible, especially current translations, because former translations sometimes threw around the word worship a little too loosely.

Everybody knew that. But this was how people understood worship, so the tran they just let it go. Current translations, I noticed, are moving away from that. For instance, the three wise men found the babe. This is, you know, on Christmas morning.

Three wise men found the babe and his mother, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Well, that's not worship. And current translations no longer call it that. Current translations now say they bowed down and gave him homage. So even current translations, or at least Catholic translations, are moving away from that. Because technically worship is what I just said in that reel, in in that clip. Okay? So are you worshiping God when you pray? Yes and no. It's a form of worship.

I'm not going through, the whole theology of it. Doulia and Hyperdoulia and so on and so on. It's a it's sort of like a worship, but it's not capital W Worship. I just wanted to acknowledge somebody in on YouTube who said something I wanna touch on. Your prayer is is a form it is an extension of the worship that takes place at the mass.

Your prayer is an extension of the worship that takes place at the mass. If there were no mass, your prayer would not have the effect that it has. Let's put I think I can put it that way safely without getting into a theology lesson. So in other words, can you skip mass and just pray at home? Let's say you're able-bodied, you're not sick.

Okay? You're able-bodied, you can move around, you can travel, you're not sick, and you decide, I think I just won't go to mass today. I'll just pray at home. Is that worship? No, it is not. You're required to go to mass every Sunday and holy days of obligation. You cannot replace the mass with prayer. Well, what about during the lockdowns? That's different because we were locked down. Okay?

And mass was still being said. We just couldn't attend. And we could not attend for reasons we were not responsible for. So that isn't held against us. That's different. Well, what about if I'm really sick and can't get out of bed? You're okay. That's not a sin. You're sick. What about if I tried to go to mass, but I missed the bus, I tried to be on time, but the bus came early and I missed it, and there's no other then that's not your responsibility.

That's not your fault. You're okay. You understand? But if you're able-bodied, you're not sick, and all that stuff, you just choose to replace the mass with prayer, you really can't do that because because prayer does not fulfill the requirements and obligation to offer worship to God, which only happens at the mass. Well, what about Protestants then?

They don't have a mass. Exactly. Exactly. So they're not worshiping? Listen, theologians will slam me for saying this, But technically, are they worshiping? Technically, no. Technically, no. If I'm wrong and you are a theologian, please tell me because I'm correctable. What what what about what they what the Protestants do in their Sunday service? That's not worship? Technically, no. Does God hear them? Yes. Does God grant them graces for that attempt at worship? Probably.

Yes. I would not even probably. Yes. I would say yes. Because God knows they don't realize that their worship is not the worship he demands. God knows that they're not Anyway, let me leave it at that. I'll go further. Well, if it's not worship, why does God give them graces for it? Do you know why? I'm gonna pause for a second.

I'm gonna pause for a second. I wanna see if people in the live chat room understand this. If they're not offering what I will call I'll take the ownership of it. What I'm calling proper worship, and yet their attempt at Sunday worship is has still some effect of grace. Well, why is that?

Why do they still get grace for a form of worship that is not worship? Chime in in the live chat room wherever you're chatting from, and let me see if anyone can figure it out. I'm gonna just wait, like, a minute. Alright. So far, nobody has, chimed in yet.

I don't even know if people are still watching. Okay. So why do they does their worship their form of worship still have effect even though it's not proper worship? It's not the mass. ER Wind, I can't see the rest of that name, says, because God is merciful. It is an extension of his mercy, but that's not it. JM Rat got it. He said because somewhere, true worship is being offered, question mark. Yes, exclamation point. The Protestants benefit from the Catholic mass.

Round of applause. Lord have mercy. Jam Rat came to the live show with his sneaking cap on. Thank you, Jesus. Lord. The Protestants benefit from the Catholic mass. All grace given to the earth all grace given to the earth flows to the earth through the holy sacrifice of the mass. I can break it down for you this way. Without the cross, there is no grace. The holy sacrifice of the mass is a representation of the cross.

It's the cross not happening again, but resonating forever in in the temporal order. You understand? Without the cross there is no grace. And the mass is a representation of the cross. The Protestants benefit, and this is not something to laud over them, by the way. Alright? Don't rub this in their faces. The Protestants, if they're normal Protestants, are our brothers and sisters. Okay? And frankly, folks, we have enough enemies right now.

Let's be friendly and fraternal with other Christians who with goodwill and sincerity say Jesus Christ is Lord. We don't have to ignore our differences, but let's not weaponize them, and let's not put them at the front of the store. We don't have to cover them up in the attic, but let's not put them in the front of the store. Okay? Don't hold that over them.

But it is the truth. Okay. Spent a little bit longer on that than I expected to. I hope you guys are enjoying the show. This is the post show cool down smackdown of the firebrand podcast, and I am TJ Haynes. Thank you for joining me. Catch me everywhere on socials at real TJ Haynes. By the way, think, with that in mind, I'd like you to also consider signing up for my newsletter. I get nothing out of it. I'm it's there for you.

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Great Catholics in there chatting it up, and, I think you will enjoy that very much. I would love to build that community. Sign up for that newsletter, catholicfirebrand.com. If only so someone I don't because it might be a little personal, I don't wanna say the name, but somebody in, YouTube said, don't hold that over them. If only you knew my wife's family.

Oh God, I don't envy you my brother. I don't envy you. Thanks be to God. My wife's family are as Catholic as I am, and my wife is Catholic, obviously, you know. So thanks be to God.

There's I mean, like every family, like, like every family, there's some lapsed ones there. In my own family, you know, not just my in laws, my own side of the family, a lot of lapsed ones there, but not like that. Nothing like what you're alluding to there. So thanks be to God for that. God knows I have other crosses to carry.

I don't need that one too. Okay. Let's go. So folks, if you ever get a comment that says the Catholic church worships idols, it doesn't you know why they say that? Do you know why they say the Catholic church?

Let me just preface this because I'm so sorry. Now that you know what worship is, liturgical, a priest, a consecrated altar, a sacrifice. Now that you know what that is, keep that in you in mind as we go into this next topic. And that says the Catholic, sorry, preeminence and power of the holy Catholic church, and that is just true. So folks, if you ever get a comment that says the Catholic church worships idols, it doesn't you know why they say that?

Do you know why they say the Catholic church worships idols, statues, and worships Mary? I'm gonna tell you why they say that, and and then I never want you to give another another thought again. Here's why they say that. They say that we worship idols because worship for them is prayer. Why is worship for them prayer? Because that's all they have. They have no priesthood. They have no altar. They have nothing to offer as a sacrifice to God, which is biblically worship. Cain and Abel, bam.

Well, both offered Okay. They say we worship Mary and the saints, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It's not just a misunderstanding of Catholicism. It isn't only a misunderstanding of Catholic theology and teaching. It is also because for them, this is worship.

But really, this is not worship. But because for them, prayer is worship, they think first of all, they think that we're praying to the saints as deities. That's their first error. But also, for them, prayer, any prayer, is worship. They haven't figured out yet that prayer is not worship, and God forbid, because then, dun dun dun, they might conclude, oh my goodness, so we're not actually worshiping on Sundays.

Well, you're praising. That's good. You're praising God. That's great. But technically, you're not worshiping. And I try to walk on eggshells as I say that because it's a pretty serious indictment. But and even when you're not saying it to to to hurt feelings, it's a pretty serious indictment. But it is true. There's going to be theologians, moral theologians, and liturgists out there who are saying, well, technically it is worship. Let's stop the bullshit.

It is not worship. You find for me one place in the scriptures where their formula is regarded as worship. I will give you a thousand dollars, so let's cut the crap. Well, we don't wanna we don't wanna ostracize our protestant brothers and sisters. Of course, we don't. I don't want to either. Let me ask you something, moral theologian. How many decades of your life have you been evangelizing Protestants? Because I've got three of those under my belt. So please, don't preach to me.

Of course, I don't wanna ostracize Protestants. But honest to God, ecumenism defined in Vatican two is not getting along just to get along. Ecumenism is supposed to be a bridge whereby we cross together with them. We bring them to our side. It's a bridge.

And so we have to acknowledge where we're different because otherwise, how are we going to how are we going to bring them where the church, even Vatican 2, says they ought to be? So I try to walk on eggshells when I say that, but it so in other words, I don't put that in the front of my conversations with Protestants, my I don't ever put that in the front because it's such a serious indictment. If it comes up, it's usually because they bring up the subject of worship or the mass, something critical of the mass or something. Then I start to trickle that in. Maybe in maybe that maybe I'll drop the entire truth, trickle by trickle, in that one conversation.

Maybe I'll trickle it in over the course of many conversations. But it's a pretty serious indictment, but it is true. There are theologians who will say, well, technically it is worship because blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And when you unravel that spaghetti, do you know what you're going to find? I guaran damn tee it.

Do you know what you're going to find when you unravel that moral theology or liturgy or liturgist theology? You know what you're gonna find? Exactly what I just told you. That their worship is not worship. It is praise and God receives it, but he does not receive it as worship.

The graces they receive because of it, they are receiving because of the Catholic mass. And that's just the bottom line. You question a proper theologian. Some of them are gonna flat out say, yep, what you heard is right. And some of them are gonna dance around it, they're gonna twist it up into a big old plate of spaghetti.

Fine. Scrutinize every strand in that spaghetti and unravel it. You know what you're going to find? Exactly what I just told you. And I wanna be very, very clear for people who are not familiar.

I do not have any animosity toward Protestants. There are Protestants that I follow on Substack, and we're friendly with each other. There are obviously, I have Protestant friends. There are Protestants in my family. And even with the Protestants in my family, or they might call themselves evangelicals, I don't know.

But anyway, we get along very well. We talk about faith. We talk about things that we have in common. We agree on a lot. Sometimes we sidestep thing on things that we disagree with, and sometimes we discuss the things that we disagree with.

So this is not an open war against Protestants. I have no animosity toward Protestants. It's a dark and crazy world. And if you are a a if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and you say you can say Jesus Christ is Lord, and you try to live the best life you can, and you follow the Bible, that's okay, because that is Christian. It's more than just the Bible, but okay.

Hey, man. You're my brother or my sister. I have no animosity toward you. But seriously, folks, do we expect to bullshit our way to to unity? Hey. I got news for you. We're already there. We're already there. Bullshitting our way to unity? We're there. Hey. We're exactly the same in all the things that matter. Bullshit. Great. But we're at least we're unified.

Come on, man. How are we gonna get anywhere that way? Gotta I gotta tamp that fire down a little bit. This is supposed to be a post show cool down smack down. Not a post show fire them up smack down.

Let's continue with this video as soon as I find my interface again. Here we go. I know people are gonna be upset over my language and I'm sorry, but I'm just being straight up with you. I can be I can be like one of the other folks in this business who listen, man. I can be like one of the other folks in this business, or I can just be very real and very blunt and very straight with you.

If you would like to close the door on my bluntness, that's okay, but there are other things in that room that you're closing the door to. There are other things in that room that you're closing the door to if you wanna shut the door on my bluntness. I tell people this all the time. When people try to micromanage people's speech, like, don't say it that way. Not just mine.

Mean, people in general, don't say it that way, don't use that word, and this and that, over really dumb things too. Like, dumb things like, I don't know. I don't know. I had once one person once was, very angry at me because of how I said good morning. Actually, that's a good example, and that's a true story. Her exact words were, I overheard this. This was not third party. I heard it directly, and she didn't realize that I I I could hear. I hate him. I just hate the way he says good morning.

Good morning. Like, he knows about good mornings. True story. Okay. Fine. So if you wanna close the door on how I say good morning, then I'm just not going to say good morning. But there are other things in that room that you're closing the door to also. Warmth, friendliness. Maybe you look down and I might say, hey, you doing okay? Well, you're closing the door on my compassion too, because that lives in the same room as my good morning.

So you can close the door on my good morning if you want, but you're closing the door on a lot more than just the first greeting of the day. That's up to you. So I say the same thing to people. You can close the door on my bluntness if you want, or you can just change the channel. Or you can close the door on my bluntness and insist that it you don't say things like that.

Okay. But you're closing the door on a lot of other things. That's not just about me, folks. I'm sharing that with you as sort of a lesson for how how might be best to interact with other people. Okay? Let's go to the chat real quick. Ellis over there on x says, there's no point telling someone not to use a word in my opinion. The words are just vehicles. Exactly. The words are just vehicles.

Well said Ellis. The words are just vehicles for the meaning. I think the same thing in my head when I say them. He goes on to say, people who speak multiple languages tend to understand this. That's a very good point. Ellis is a very, very smart guy. First, because he's British, so his English is, like, incredible. His command of the language and of grammar, he always uses, like, the most precise possible word. It's unbelievable, those Brits. It's just unbelievable.

I wish I could talk like that. And Erwin said I think that's his name. Erwin says, bluntness, I'm used to. That's good to know. Alright. Let's get on with this. This is taking a lot longer than I expected, but I hope everybody's having a good time, and thank you again for joining me. Let's go back to the video. Go. To God.

God have no priesthood. They have no altar. They have nothing to offer as a sacrifice to God. Oh, let me back up here. So this this segment again was why they say we worship And in Mary's and then I never want you to give another another thought again. Here's why they say that. They say that we worship idols because worship for them is prayer. Why is worship for them prayer? Because that's all they have. They have no priesthood.

They have no altar. They have nothing to offer as a sacrifice to God, which is biblically worship. Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices to God. God accepted one and rejected the other because it was an unworthy sacrifice. It was insufficient sacrifice.

So we know God has a standard. The Holy Catholic Church has outlived every empire the world has ever known, and it will outlive the ideologies of her modern secular enemies too. A thousand million billion percent. Let me tell you, these cats can talk a good game all they like. They can come with their faux eloquence and their fake high mindedness and talk about social justice, and we should do this, and we should do that.

And I'm sorry, Ellis, for my fake British accent. It's just something that I do sometimes when I'm emulating faux intellectuals in the American sphere. But they can come with this nonsense and talk a good game. I wanna highlight the word nonsense. Some of what they say is good. Care for the poor. Obviously, that's good. Care for the poor. As I stick a gun to your head and say empty your wallet because you have $5 and this guy only has three. Well, that's different, isn't it?

Enough said about that. So they can come with their high mindedness and their crazy idea their their crazy ideas packaged and wrapped in eloquence to make them sound good, but they're crazy. If they're in conflict with what the church teaches or church thought, right, like moral theology for instance, social justice theology and stuff, if it's contrary to what the church teaches, it is crazy. There might be some things that are worthy in it, but the co total conclusion is crazy. And they can talk their game about the church is on its last leg, and it's hanging on by a thread, and this and that.

Folks, we have been here two thousand year the church will be here unless the resurrection happens first. The church and Catholicism will be here for two thousand more years long after their ideologies have been forgotten about. They're just dust in the desert. And honestly, I don't even say that to gloat. I feel bad for the people who do not realize that.

I feel bad for them that their ideologies will become extinct. It it's already starting. I'm starting to get that sense of it. Their ideologies will become extinct, and the holy Catholic faith will reign supreme two thousand years from today unless the resurrection happens first. Let's go back to the video.

Religion is literally part of reality, just as the sun and moon and stars and water and fish are. So in this segment, I was addressing the question of whether or not basically, whether or not you need religion, and religion is just man made after all. Some people will respond to that with even I have at times. You have to know your audience, how much they can handle when you're evangelizing or leaving comments, because leaving comments is a form of evangelization. You have to know your audience.

So sometimes I will say something like, God invented religion, but that's not technically it's not wrong, but it's not the whole truth. It's not technically accurate. Where does religion come from? Religion is literally part of reality. Just as the sun and moon and stars and water and fish are. It's a part of reality. If religion is not important, God would not have established it in the human order. Jesus Christ wouldn't have followed. Jesus Christ is the truth. Right?

He's not going to follow it if it's nonsense. Nine out of those nine out of 10 of those things is going to be objectively wrong. Okay. The claim that religion is not important is look at this stupid frame that I paused at. The claim that religion is not important is wrong.

God didn't first of all, man didn't invent religion. We have a we have a facility and capacity for religion. Even before God's revelation to man, I'm not gonna get into the whole history, people worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars, the god of the forest, the rock in the field. They worshipped something because it's it's built inside of us. God built it in us as a means of finding and staying close to him through religion, through religious behavior.

Okay? So beco and it comes naturally to people to even atheists today. Their god is just different. It might be the god of humanism. It's often the god of science. For some, it's the god of astrology. For some, it's the god of the self. There's always a god. The question is, is it the true god? You're not going to invent a religion.

Right? You're not going to establish religion, let's say, in your tribe. Right? Let's go back to, like, ancient man. In your tribe, unless it's already there tugging at you tugging at you, well, it's there for a reason, and we didn't create ourselves. Okay? Let's so let's pretend, using the word loosely, we invented religion. We didn't. Let's say we invented religion. Well, we invented it because we it's a tugging within ourselves.

Well, we didn't create ourselves, so someone put it in there. You understand? Well then, God invented religion. Now you're closer, but it's a little inaccurate. Because religion isn't an invention. It's part of creation. It's part of all real you might even say it's even part of the reality of the celestial order where God and the angels and saints are. Because even they are still religious. Religion is just different there. Religion is part of reality.

The way it plays out and manifests here is unique to the human order, but religion itself is not. What we call religion is a drawing. It is an expression of being with an ordered end God that is intrinsic to all of reality. In fact, it's just part of all reality. You understand? Erwin said I asked if they were enjoying the show, having a good time. Erwin said, oh, yeah. B's watching TV. Well, Erwin, you didn't watch TV in the eighties, did you? Because let me tell you, my friend.

If you grew up in the eighties watching TV in that era, you wouldn't be here watching my fat ugly face. You'd be watching TV. You'd be sitting on the couch watching TV, my friend. I'm a big, big they call me mister TV. Part of it is is my fandom for eighties TV and cinema.

Ellis the critic on X, I think, yes, says humans are inherently religious creatures. True. Everyone worships something. Some people don't understand this because they think that religion only exists as an institution. Oh, good point.

He says dot dot dot, so there might be more coming, but that's a very good point. They think that religion exists only as an institution. That's a very strong point. It's not an institution. It's an expression of being oriented toward a fixed end, namely God, the divine, our source, our origin. In finding him, we are made whole. Oh, I most certainly did. I've seen enough. Okay. With regard to eighties TV, everyone says, oh, I most certainly did watch, I guess, watch eighties TV is what he means.

I most certainly did. I've seen enough. Alright. That's fine. Well, I'm thank I'm thankful, and I'm glad to be a worthy competitor with eighties TV, and thank you for joining me tonight.

Show's just about coming to an end. This is the last segment of this reel, I think. I've convinced nine out of 10 of those things is going to be objectively wrong. When the secular world asserts that something is a human right, nine out of 10 of those things is going to be objectively wrong. That's what that statement meant.

But the culture has been convinced that these wrong things abortion is one example. That'll probably get me deplatformed somewhere, but what the hell. If well, it hasn't yet. Thanks be to God. Let's continue.

You are thinking about restoring and renewing your Catholic identity, the time to do it is now. First, you may not have tomorrow. Also, we're living in a time where God is calling his children home, and he is activating them in ways that we I believe we have not seen in two thousand years. Mhmm. That's for sure.

And folks, I'll close with this because I really believe it. By the way, don't leave yet because you don't know what truth bombs I may drop resulting from the holy spirit taking possession of my stupid mind. So don't leave yet. And if you do, follow me everywhere on socials at real t j haynes, and, sign up for my newsletter at Catholic Fibrebrand. Stop being foolish.

Just sign up for that newsletter. Forget about it. Just sign up for it already. So in closing, will say this. I very, and anyone following my Alice has been following my work for a long time.

He'll tell you. I have been saying this and saying this and saying this and saying this. Something is stirring in the human order, and it has been picking up steam, I think. I don't think it's only been twenty five years. I think it's been going on, but picking up steam, and it's been picking up a lot of steam over the past twenty five years, and it's really in full swing today.

Something is going on in the human order. You will look out there and say, yes, something's going on. People don't know what a man is. They're doing this to marriage. They're doing that to our children. Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But that's not what I'm talking about. Yeah. There's a lot of things going on in the world. A lot of bad things, dark things, strange things. You know, I tell my kids all the time, you know, the the world I grew up in was only a little different from the world my parents grew up in.

But the world my children are growing up in is a different world altogether from the world I grew up in. And that's not right. There's something wrong about that. Too much change and too way too much change and too little time. Too much degradation. Right? I tell them this all the time. The you know why that's happening? First of all, God doesn't do that. We do that prompted in some way, form, or fashion by the devil.

The devil always has a hand in it. I'm not going to go through the strategy now, but if that's the sort of thing you like listening to, you really need to subscribe to my YouTube, Catholic Firebrand. You need to sign up for my newsletter, catholicfirebrand.com, because this is the kind of depth that I that I deliver. The devil always has a hand in it, so he's in it somewhere, but he can't do it himself. He gets us to do it.

Do you know why the devil does those things? Often, often, it's in response to something God is doing. It's in direct competition and contention against what God is doing in the created order. The darkness you see in the world is a response. It's happening under the hood.

It started at least under the hood, long time ago. It's a response to what God is doing. But God is really working under the hood. I feel like, and folks, I I believe this, this is a very informed I'm not a mystic or anything like that, I'm not saying that, but I've really been I've really been around. So it's a very well informed opinion.

God is doing something, preparing something that is going to blow you away. I don't know what it is, but I see that he's stirring hearts. I see it even in comments even as recently as today. I see it in people that I have ministered to, teenagers that I've taught or done talks at youth minis youth events for and and grown ups that I've helped helped, period, to come into the church, help them with spiritual direction, whatever. But I am especially in the youth, the Lord is moving like a wildfire, and the Holy Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit are building an army of saints.

Something is happening in secret, but it's bubbling over now, and it's getting harder, quote unquote harder, for that secret to be kept. Look at Carlo Acutis. Carlo Acutis doesn't even surprise me because I was always saying that we're gonna see more and more saints like that who are very holy, very young. There's another one I'm looking into. Shoot, I forget his name.

I think it was Joe Wilson. I'm going to do a podcast segment on him because I know I only discovered about him two days ago. Appears to be very deeply he passed away when he was 17. Very deeply holy kid. And his cause for canonization has just gone to the Vatican. It was approved at his local diocese and has gone to the Vatican. Deeply holy kid. But it isn't just the youth, but I'm telling you the youth are getting super fired up. I've I've met them. I've met versions of Carlo Acutis in my work.

I have met them personally. I see it in grown ups, mysterious conversions, like people just feeling drawn. There's one person, staunch atheist, grew up an atheist, atheist to the bone, just became Catholic two years ago. Someone that I know personally. Just felt a draw.

Just felt just something turned upside down for them, which was really right side up. I see it and I see it and I see it. The Lord is stirring hearts and souls and minds. And because the Lord is doing this work, the devil is responding by by doing in the world what he's able to influence in the world. What God is building is not going to be secret much longer because I, again, I do see it bubbling over, signs of it now that used to be hidden.

You know, years ago, this might have been fifteen years ago, maybe a little more, I used to say this, and I'm gonna say this again because I firmly still believe it more now than I ever have in my life. People are looking for a renewal of the church. Right? Well, what does that look like for them? And this is not I'm not being critical of that.

People are looking for a church that maybe goes back to Latin. That's that's not that's not crazy. I like Latin. I don't think, you know, whatever. Maybe it maybe it looks more like the church of the forties and fifties.

Right? More traditional garb, traditional language, the traditional mass. Again, I'm not being critical of it. They're looking for the church to be what she was, let's just say a hundred years ago. I have a secret for you, and this is only my suspicion, and it's a very well informed one.

There's a renewal coming, but it's not gonna look anything like what the church was a hundred years ago. I believe that God is building something under the ash and rubble, and when it emerges, it is going to knock everyone's socks off. There are people who hope it will resemble the church a hundred years ago or whatever. I don't think it's going to. I don't think it's going to.

That would be fine with me if it did, but I don't think it's going to. It's going to be something no one is expecting. It's still going to be the Catholic church. I'm not saying it's gonna be like a different animal, but a renewed church or a restored church, if that's a better word, it's not gonna look like the church a hundred years. It's gonna look like somebody nobody is expecting.

And everyone is going to see that and glorify God, even the non believers. Even the non believers, even the hostile ones are gonna look at that and say, wow, God is no joke. He is real and he means business. Not all of them will. Not all of them will say that, or they'll all recognize it.

But not all of them are going to say, God means business. Let me get myself right with him. But I believe what's what's coming is going to knock everybody's socks off. I really believe that. So before I get out of here, let me just play a little music, see if there's anybody saying anything.

We'll go with that. Anybody saying anything, any questions you have, comments you wanna make that you'd like me to respond to, is the time to do it. The Instagrammers are fickle. They're almost as fickle as the TikTokers. I'm not streaming to TikTok right now. TikTok is an unfriendly place. But, not the people. I mean, the app and the company, but the TikTokers will come in and leave. They never see them again. It's like, I don't understand that.

Why'd you come in? What'd you come in for? It says Catholic right on the name. It says Catholic on the stream. What'd you come in for if you really didn't wanna stay? Literally, they come in with a big dash. I don't understand starting to feel like Instagram is similar to that. I don't think people stay long. But I gotta tell you, thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, because it's a miracle. I have people, two people watching me on YouTube.

Holy cow. And I got one on Twitter. This may be a first in history that there's at least one person on more than one platform watching me at the same time. So, Alice, are you telling me to put a full comment on the Discord chat, or did you I think you did. I just got a notification, I think, on Discord. So I guess you put the whole comment on the Discord chat. Okay. Cool. Cool. Cool.

Cool. Cool. Cool. That might be a great subject or topic for people to chat about. Folks, on Discord, if you don't know, we do I do sorry. I do I introduce a new topic every week to chat. You don't have to do a live chat. You can do it it's a thread, you can contribute whenever you want. I have prayer requests there. I have a question box there.

It can be theology questions, religion questions, questions about anything that's important to you, but not stupid questions like why do feet smell. I got a story about that in a second. So there's a question box there. Any question. Doesn't have to be religious. It can be about life advice. Right? I have I'm gonna start a bible study channel on my Discord. What else? There's a whole lot of moving and shaking going on on Discord.

So I'm trying to build that community. Hey. I'm I'm managing it. I have like, I don't know, like a dozen people there right now who are like active. I'm cool with that. I don't care. So I'll continue to maintain it just for those dozen dozen people. And they're very good too. Good Catholics, very thoughtful and stuff. So check it out.

Sign up for my newsletter, catholicfirebrand.com. Don't just sign up for the Discord. I'd I hope you sign up to get the newsletter so you can keep up with the the articles that I write, the podcasts that I produce and publish, but you also get an invite link to the Discord server. Listen. I'm gonna be straight with you.

Maybe you just want the Discord server. You just wanna join the Discord to participate, and, you don't really want the, the, newsletter. Let me invite you to do this. Sign up for the newsletter at catholicfirebrand.com. Get the Discord link. Join the Discord. Hang around with the newsletter for at least one dispatch. I call them dispatches. It's called the firebrand dispatch. So hang out for one newsletter.

Give the one newsletter a look. If you decide, yeah, I don't really value this, that's totally okay. Unsubscribe from the newsletter, and you can still hang out in Discord. You understand? You can unsubscribe from the newsletter. I hope you don't, but you're welcome to, of course. If it's not your thing, I don't want you to feel like you're forced to do it. Hang out for one newsletter. Give it a look. If you decide, yeah, I'm really not into this, unsubscribe from the newsletter.

You can still stay with us on Discord. That's be totally okay. Give it a try. Catholicfirebrand.com. Okay. Back to the music. Anybody else have anything to say? Ellis the Critic said, yes. I just kind of added the emphasis there. Anybody on, Instagram have anything to say? Looks like, no. I got a lot of people who came in to Instagram. It looks like not anybody stayed. I don't know. Broadcast was starting.

Yeah. Don't know. I don't think there's no way for me to say seeing if anybody stayed, but it's nice that they dropped in, though. I'm very happy that they did. And I'm happy that, those of you catching me on YouTube did so on YouTube.

It's a brand new YouTube channel, so I'm great. Thank you, JM Rath, for subscribing. I'm great having even one or two people hang out with me in the live chat. You know, it's very cool because when there are people interacting even a little bit, it contributes to the show and hopefully continue contributes to your enjoyment, the overall experience of the show. I guess that's it, man.

Man, this show was so great. I may just leave this on demand. I think maybe I'll just edit it down maybe a little bit, and I may just leave it on demand because there's so much valuable stuff. I do this I do this for you. I do this to help the God and the church to make saints.

So I think it's if it's valuable stuff in there that I think can help make saints, I would be doing the Lord a disservice by taking it down. I do try to give the paid subscribers extra stuff on stoking the embers, but this one might be too valuable to the general population. I might just leave this on demand. So I guess that's going to do it. Thirty seconds.

Does anybody have anything to say, ask, contribute, Just wanna remind you again then, follow me on socials. I am on x. I am on Instagram. I am on TikTok at real t j Haynes. There's an I in there, real t j Haynes. And, subscribe to my YouTube. Please help me to grow this channel at Catholic Firebrand on YouTube. Catholic Firebrand on YouTube. And speaking of Catholic Firebrand, sign up for the newsletter at catholicfirebrand.com. Folks, I'm not a pretty boy, and I'm not a commissioned officer.

I am a grunt in the field of evangelization and apologetics, and I got thirty years of blood, sweat, sweat, and tears, and salt under my belt. I'm sorry if you don't like what you're getting, and I'm very happy if you do. But I'll tell you this. This ain't your mommy and daddy's Catholic podcast. In case you didn't know, somebody should have told you. Oh, look at that. I just did. This has been an episode. You wouldn't believe it, but a cool down episode of the fire brand a fire branded. Sorry.

Fire branded after show, post show, cool down SmackDown. I have been your host, TJ Haynes, the undisputed technician of the truth signing out of here. For my last word, I will say, god bless you and god be with you all. Have a good night. Bye bye. There's some honey over that gravel, baby. You hearing that? There's honey over that gravel.