BITS and PIECES
A random collection of news and views compiled by Frank McClelland for the Toronto Free Presbyterian Church.
244th Edition – May 25, 2025
THE ELUSIVE NEUTRINOS
4000 feet deep in South Dakota a huge underground cavern is being prepared for a Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). At immense cost they are building a detector for the sub-atomic neutrinos which, they think, will help to answer the question, “why does our Universe exist?”
This is not new for in a disused mine near Sudbury, Ontario, a similar experiment was started in 1999. Japan is currently working on its own detector and is thought to be several years ahead of the United States.
The scientists have admitted that “the current theory of how the neutrinos came into being cannot explain the existence of the planets, stars and galaxies we see around us.” Does that mean the Big Bang Theory that has been taught for years to millions of children is now admittedly false?
The Christian does not need to spend billions of dollars in such wasteful excesses. The first words in the Bible give the answer to their question, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and “He made the stars also” [Genesis 1:1 & 16]. Of Jesus, the apostle John said, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” [John 1:3].
Paul adds, “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth … All things were created by Him, and for Him” [Colossians 1:16].
Sadly, there are many educated people in the world today of whom it may be said are, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” [II Timothy 3:7].
THE PRIME MINISTER AND THE POPE
Many Canadians were unhappy when Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, found it necessary to fly to Rome to attend the first mass of the newly minted Pope Leo XIV. Carney, a practicing Roman Catholic, and US vice-president,
J.D. Vance, both had audiences with the pope which will not bring the blessing of God upon either country.
The Vatican has a long history of allying itself with the dominant political force of the day. Pius XII maintained a complex relationship with Nazi Germany during World War II and engaged in secret talks with Nazi officials.
In the early sixties John XXIII was known as the ‘red pope’ because of his softness towards Communism, and his successors followed suit. With the breakup of the USSR the Vatican looked more towards the west.
Pope Francis was the first Jesuit to occupy the papal chair. The Jesuits were founded in 1540 as a counter-Reformation society, and they are still tenaciously following that goal. Yielding to political pressure Pope Clement XIV banned the Jesuits in 1773. Interestingly, they were reinstated in 1814 by Pius VII, of the Benedictine order. The recent Pope Benedict XVI was from the same order.
Now, with the USA reasserting its power, it is no surprise that Roman Catholicism has chosen an American pope, and is happy to have one of its own, J.D. Vance, one step away from the presidency.
SHOULD IT BE TAKEN LITERALLY?
The major rite of the Roman Catholic institution is the mass, which is based on a misinterpretation of John 6:53. Jesus said, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.”
Rome takes this literally, so that in the mass the priest claims to turn the bread and wine into the literal body and blood of Christ, which they call transubstantiation. This is blasphemous for the Bible makes it clear we are not to drink blood [Leviticus 17:10-12] or, cannibalistically, eat human flesh.
Jesus made it clear that He was not expecting His followers to take this literally when He said to His disciples, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” [John 6:63].
What then do these words mean? How do we eat His flesh, and drink His blood? Jesus gave the answer earlier in the chapter. After telling His followers that He was “the Bread of life” He said, “he that cometh unto me shall never hunger; and he that believeth in me shall never thirst” [John 6:35].
It is so simple. We eat His flesh by coming to Him, and we drink His blood by believing in Him.
