Posted on 09/25/2013 8:27:57 PM PDT by WXRGina
Reuters and other news agencies are reporting that the Pope has capitulated on several issues such as homosexuality, abortion and contraception.
The Pope’s remarks were taken from a 12,000 word interview with the Jesuit periodical, Civilta Cattolica, (Catholic Civilization) the most prominent statement reaching news agencies is his declaration that the church needs to shake off its obsession with abortion and homosexuality.
The Pope has pleased the liberal factions of the Catholic Church and sickened and worried the conservative members of the church.
Few have reported on the prophetic implications of the Pope’s remarks and with some exceptions, such as those made by Evangelist Bill Keller, most protestant news outlets remain free of op-eds or theological treatment of the Pope’s interview, at the moment.
Biblical Theology and Catholic Teachings – Always at Odds
Hundreds of traditional or patristic teachings of Catholicism are either in direct conflict with the bible or do not exist in the scriptures at all.
The list of theological discrepancies has been addressed repeatedly for centuries and there would be little room to cover them all in one short article.
What we must point out is that on two very important levels, those who stand on scripture can’t ever recognize the authority of the Pope – it has never been a matter of whether they like him or not, nor is it a matter of personal choosing.
First, Because of the Greek rendering of Matthew 16: 18, “That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” Protestants believe that Christ was referring to himself as the Rock, not Peter. This is supported by other scriptural passages, to wit:
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (Mt 16: 18b)
Secondly, not one word in the bible speaks of ‘apostolic succession.’ It is a concoction of the Roman church, not a biblical teaching. It is very difficult even to support the teaching in view of the fact that there was no Catholic church for over 300 years after Christ came into the world. Most Catholics are totally unaware of this fact. They have been told they are the ‘first church,’ but true history betrays them.
Simply because these facts cannot keep the childlike faith of any Catholic from reaching the Savior does not justify or verify the truth of Catholicism’s origins. It is simply a matter of Catholics being saved or redeemed not because of their religion – but in spite of it!
The Real and Present Danger in the Discrepancies between the Papacy and the Bible
Gentle, but firm, is the only way to approach addressing the errors of Catholicism at the same time knowing that millions of Catholics are of the family of faith simply because Jesus said “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” (Jn 6: 37)
Yet, it is more than an item of curiosity or some minor theological difference; it is a dire sense of urgency and concern, especially in the last days, that causes anyone who knows scripture to make fair warning.
I have repeated this warning so often that I think my publishers may think I’ve run out of new things to say. I’ll take that chance, as opposed to risking a confrontation with my Savior for not making it as abundantly clear as possible, while there is still time.
What warning you ask!
Any religion, Catholic or other, that derives its ultimate authority from a man is subject to heresy, apostasy and error depending on the personality, the current state of mind or the evolvement of personal ideologies in that man.
Faith based solely on the scriptures, the written accounts of Christ’s teaching and his Apostles and biblical prophets cannot be altered, changed or disputed until the very last day of time. God intended this; it is his way of grounding us on a rock instead of the sinking sands of a changing and unstable world, to wit:
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” (Mt 7: 24, 25)
Christ relegated his authority to his Apostles and their teachings too are on the same level as his. They were not mere scribes or interpreters of his will they were Holy Spirit inspired and authorized to speak as final authorities.
“He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.” (Lk 10: 16)
Finally, since we will not be judged by what other men say – why would we waste time or risk being found in total error. Why not go to the source of truth and take Christ’s warning seriously?
“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (Jn 12: 48)
So what did the Apostles really say about abortion, homosexuality and issues of the day?
The prophetic part of the bible contradicts the Pope’s assertion that believers are obsessed with homosexuality and abortion. In fact it warns that in the last days it is possession (demonic) that will fuel the slide into apostasy the world over.
Political correctness, floundering Pontiff’s and general acceptance of everything the bible condemns, is proof immutable, that the NWO, apostasy and the emergence of the Antichrist are well on track for the very near future. ‘Just don’t talk about it’ is the advice of fools. If the only choices are between obsession and possession it’s pretty much a no brainer.
Not only is homosexuality referred to as an abomination, to be noted, rebuked and refused as part of the church, but immoral behaviors were cause for people to be put out of the church and not allowed back in until they had fully repented. (1Co 5: 1-7) Should the perversion of same sex acts and marriage be an exception?
The idea of the Pope suggesting that we are over-talking the subject of abortions reaches to the heights of apostasy. The only voices the over two hundred million aborted babies worldwide have - is ours. Telling us to be silent is the moral equivalent of blasphemy.
After the Sandy Hook massacre of innocent children the liberals went after guns with a vengeance. Doesn’t it seem hypocritical that after 60,000,000 abortions in the U.S. and 160,000,000 abortions worldwide that telling us to pipe down is the only thing the Pope can think of to say? We will never be silent, or to borrow a phrase, you can pry my anti-abortion argument from my cold dead lips, but no other way.
The Folly of Following the Fallen
Has the Pope taken his first steps into the last day’s (apostasy) falling away? We can only hope he has not, but if this is the beginning of it, it is also the end of everything as we have known it.
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” (2 Th 2: 3)
there is only one complete Christian church and it is the Catholic Church....the other 34,999 are denominations
those who went out were protesting the apostles....does that sound somewhat familiar???
don't you see a contradiction in terms there.....I do!
are you discussing the protestants during the Salem witch trials????
No, he used the Christian followers of Jesus to write the scripture, led by the Holy Spirit.
Christians were made into Catholics retroactively about 300 years later.
Scripture makes it clear that there was a universal (catholic) church, not a Popeified church.
the word Pope has nothing to do with the bible nor its teachings.
Correct. And the pope designation is not used in Christianity
Hmmm, interesting that Catholics capitalize "Pope" but not Bible.
Pope is what members of an organization (Catholic Church) call their elected leader.....nothing biblical necessary.
No Catholics around for a couple of centuries after Jesus was around, so Peter was not a "Pope."
You nailed it, nothing Biblical about a "Pope."
No contradiction.
The contradiction is those who think they require some earthly bureaucracy to be saved
they have done so for 2,000 years...monastaries throughout the ages have had men give up their normal lives and live and work together for Christ. They established libraries and schools, they hand copied the scriptures which only they were in possession of,it is through Catholics leaving all and devoting their lives to Christ that you even own a bible. Catholic charities are among the largest, most generous charities on Earth and have been for many years....that is Catholic money being given up for others.....Look in your phone book under hospitals....note the number of obviously Catholic ones....very impressive. There are thousands of other hospitals that are Catholic, but their names do not indicate it. For example, the Langlade County Hospital in Wisconsin is a Catholic Hospital
that points the dangers of self-interpretation of the scriptures without a learned leader. If you and 50 other people do exactly as you did, you would have 51 versions of the truth. You have read the bible 100 times...I'm truly impressed because I haven't. The Catholic hierarchy has, however, read scriptures Millions of times and some of the greatest minds in history don't agree with you.
This is an exceptionally good analysis...from a very spiritual perspective (regarding the direction of the Pope’s steps):
Am I the Prodigal Son’s Brother?
By Francis J. Beckwith
Friday, 27 September 2013
On Monday evening of this week, on a plane flight from Chicago to Philadelphia, I sat, amidst the poor lighting and the turbulence, transfixed, pouring over the pages of the Holy Father’s recently published interview, about which several on this page, and thousands elsewhere, have opined. So, I was not reading it with fresh eyes, but rather through the prism of not only the New York Times, but also by way of the assessments of several writers whose opinions I respect and from whom I have learned much, including Royal, Wiegel,Scalia, Wehner, Reno, Lopez, Dreher, and Garnett, to name just a few.
Like some of them, I found myself not entirely pleased with the language that Pope Francis employed. Some of his words, including those that rightly suggest that our moral theology will appear disjointed if wrenched from the anthropological and soteriological contexts they naturally reside, were later, ironically, wrenched out of the ecclesiastical context in which Papa Francesco is asking us to understand his prescriptions for the global Church.
That, it seems to me, is precisely what happened with the account in the New York Times, and among the reports offered by some Catholic and non-Catholic believers who saw in the de-contextualized words of Francis a glimmer of hope that the barque of Peter would begin to transition to its proper role as a dinghy on the cultural Titanic of liberal progressivism. Apparently, if John McEnroe were to become the Times’ religion reporter we would soon see the headline, “Tennis Mentioned in Bible,” since, after all, the Book of Genesis does say that “Joseph served in Pharoah’s court.” (Gen. 41:46).
Nevertheless, I began to wonder whether my modest displeasure with the pope’s language – manifested in mild, though visceral, defensiveness – was the result of my clinging to a style of Christian cultural engagement that is not the sort the Holy Spirit is calling the Church to practice at this point in its history.
Of course, as others have pointed out, there was nothing in the words of Pope Francis that is inconsistent with, or contrary to, Catholic moral theology. The Holy Father is offering to the world, as Christ offered to the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), a Gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation, a message that has been, at times, purposely submerged by media determined to paint a picture of the Church that conforms to popular culture’s own prejudices and bigotries about the Catholic world.
For this reason, the ease by which the Holy Father is able to move the conversation reveals that he fully grasps the degee to which this false picture has been uncritically embraced by otherwise intelligent people. He also understands that the way in which the Church and its members sometimes speak and conduct themselves in public is presented through an uncharitable filter that does not communicate “good news.”
Thus, the Pontiff’s success in drawing sustained international attention to both the Church’s mission and the words of its chief bishop is as much a consequence of his genius as it is of the world’s vanity.
Those who see in Francis the “non-judgmental” pope of their dreams do not understood Christianity or the true meaning of the Good News of Jesus Christ. For Francis knows that when he, or even the Lord Jesus, says to a penitent, “Neither I condemn you; go and sin no more,” he is not saying that what you did is a sin no more. For reconciliation requires separation, just as a hospital requires illness.
Thus, when Francis offers the Gospel to the world – and in doing so describes the Church as a field hospital – his offer comes embedded in a judgment. But it is not his judgment. It is, in the words of Christ, the judgment of the Holy Spirit, who our Lord calls, of all things, “The Comforter”: “And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:8)
So, when I reflect on my initial reaction to portions of the Pope’s interview, I have to consider the possibility that there is something wrong with me, and not him. In that case, I may be more like the Prodigal Son’s brother than I’d like to admit. While my father is offering love, shelter and a permanent home to his wayward progeny, I find myself disturbed that he may be conceding too much to one, who in the past, did not hesitate to take unfair advantage of his patrimony.
Then I hear, gently tapping on my conscience, the words that Christ put in the mouth of the prodigal’s father, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” (John 15:32)
Catholic hierarchy vs Jesus: I will take Jesus.
one of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.....If you read passage "A" one time and interpret it in a certain way....then the next time you read passage "A", you will interpret it the same way, and if you do it a hundred times, you will come to the conclusion that your way is the correct way.
why not take advantage of the church which has been reading passage "A" for over two thousand years and has, by comparing notes, ideas, interpretations, etc. come to a particular decision as to what the passage means. Maybe they agree with you 100% or maybe you could learn from others just how they came to their results....who knows?..we learn something new every day!!
me too...and thanks to the Catholic hierarchy, you have the words of Jesus in your hands....without the Catholic Church, you wouldn't even know who Jesus was.....the Jewish religion probably wouldn't have mentioned Him.
blah blah
The Catholic Church did not exist. The followers of Jesus wrote the Bible.
The Bible explains how to be saved, it does not involve a Priest or a church.
The greatest minds of Judaism (purporting to have the same promises), were all wrong... and for longer than all y'all.
I’m with you there, AG! Good Scriptures, too.
In fact,the reason that the ex-Catholics I know,and I know many,left the Church to either opt out of all religious organizations or join protestant churches,was because what Christ had taught was demanding,there were rules that were difficult to follow especially if one wanted to do what they wanted to do.
They also liked the social interaction in the protestant services and the lack of hard and fast rules and the fact that they didn't have to go to confession and if they didn't like the minister they would go to another church with a minister they liked more.
Since the sixties there has been a group that were infiltrated into the Church pretty intensively after WWI(1917) and had risen to some high positions by the sixties. The idea was to destroy the Church from within so that come the millennium that Church would pose no threat. But the Triune God protects His people.
Regarding the word "rapture":
Greek
The Koine Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form ἁρπαγησόμεθα (harpagisometha), which means "we shall be caught up" or "taken away", with the connotation that this is a sudden event. The dictionary form of this Greek verb is harpazō (ἁρπάζω).[15] This use is also seen in such texts as Acts 8:39, 2Corinthians 12:2-4 and Revelation 12:5.
Latin
The Latin Vulgate translates the Greek ἁρπαγησόμεθα as rapiemur,[16] from the verb rapio meaning "to catch up" or "take away". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture)
So, YES the term IS used in Scripture in several places as the "catching away", "caught up", "snatched away", are all phrases used IN Scripture referring to the time when Christ shall descend from heaven and "rapture" those who are His.
I think it’s Pope Benidict XVI who said that Liberation Theology has as its roots, Marxism. They are saying that Pope Francis is ignoring Pope Benidict XVI’s warning and has turned the Church down that road.
Ecumenical to me means let’s all get along, sing kumbaya around the campfire, and not hurt anyone’s feelings and offend them by telling them that in order to enter the Kingdom one must be saved and be filled with the Spirit.
What amazes me is how blind Catholics are to what is really going on in this world and how big a role the Catholic church will play in end time deception.
God is not saving Catholicism for Himself...He is allowing her to prostitute herself at the altar of every false religion in the world, including Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Individuals Catholics who do love God should get the heck out now and never look back.
Until Catholics open their eyes and see that they are NOT in the the body of believers in Christ, they will continue to believe that all is well...right up till the day they perish. Stop being offended and open your eyes, hearts, and minds to the true Gospel and the role it plays it bringing the Antichrist to the world stage.
Antichrist’s Coming World Religion
Hunt, Dave
May 1 1990
http://www.thebereancall.org/content/antichrists-coming-world-religion
First excerpt from article at link:
“Positive Christianity” has been growing in popularity in America and is already being exported by Western church leaders into Eastern Europe. Those who promote positive/possibility thinking and positive confession are among the most influential television preachers and church leaders in the West. Any suggestion that a teaching is not biblical is rejected as “negative” and destructive of the unity that must be achieved at all cost, not only between Protestants and Catholics but among all religions.
This is what I have heard from the Catholics here....we are supposed to be “united” in Christ...where is the love for your fellow brethren in Christ...why so divisive among fellow Christians...why not “unite” with us in love for Christ.
I will tell you why. Because Catholics are not Christian...yes, they think they are and that is why all this outcry of why are you bashing us...we are just like you. No, my friends, you are not! You have been deceived by Satan and Rome and will find yourself separated from God forever unless you repent and leave Roman Catholicism.
And still we come and beg and plead for you to hear us and listen to us, and still you think we are the enemy. There is a genuine enemy out there...one many of you are not prepared to deal with whatsoever. It is a spiritual enemy that seeks not only to destroy your body but your soul too. And it can only be fought by the Spirit of the Lord and those He indwells.
Second excerpt from article at link:
“A vast ecumenical movement has been quietly gathering irresistible momentum for years. Its roots go back to the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Swami Vivekananda, who stole the show, later founded Vedanta temples across the Western world. A new vision of religious unity spawned such organizations as The Temple of Understanding (founded in 1960 to unite all world religions) in which secular leaders such as John D. Rockefeller and popes such as Paul VI and John XXIII played a role. It has been meeting for years at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine (Episcopalian). Similar ecumenical groups also connected with the UN Meditation Room include Wainwright House of Rye, NY, involved in Jungian spiritual psychology and with more impact upon mainstream churches. Periodic “Spiritual Summits” of world religions are held, as at St. John’s in October 1975. It included a Shinto worship ceremony performed at the cathedral’s “Christian” altar and culminated in addresses at the United Nations by representatives of five major faiths. Mother Teresa was a keynote speaker.”
This ecumenical movement is happening just as Scripture says it will. A one world religion is coming and the Catholic church will be one of the biggest players. Is that what believers want to be involved in? Catholics call themselves believers and nowhere does Scripture say believers are to be a part of this. We are called out of the world, not to be a part of bringing it all together under the banner of religion with Rome at the head.
Some Catholics here are so hardcore and rabid for their religion, I fear they are already lost. But there are some here with wonderful, gentle, and kind spirits and those are the ones I speak to. Really look deeply into what is going on in the world and the role the Catholic church is playing in it and ask yourself...is this from the God of the bible or is it from the God of this world? (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Come out of this godless religious institution while you still can!
Third excerpt from article at link:
“Both the Pope and Gorbachev are pushing the idea of a “united Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.” Gorbachev justifies his view by saying that Russians are Europeans, too, because of their “Christian heritage” dating back 1,000 years to the “conversion” of Czar Vladimir. Staggering stuff from the head of world communism, which has tried to destroy Christianity for 70 years! Eastern Europe is in the process of being united with Western Europe—unthinkable a few months ago. We are seeing the prophesied revival of the Roman Empire, which included much of Eastern Europe. Time just changed its spelling from Rumania to Romania in response to complaints by its many citizens pointing out its Roman heritage. The Pope and Roman Catholicism, and particularly the world’s 30 million [Note: 70 million in 1995] Catholic charismatics, will play a key role in coming events.”
Fourth excerpt from the article at link:
“It is the Cross that is compromised by ecumenism.”
Is that what Catholics, who call themselves believers, want to do? If the answer is an emphatic NO as it should be, then the only option is to leave Rome and come to Jesus.
2 Peter 3:3
Christ’s Coming Judgment
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts.
Jude 1:17-19
A Call to Persevere
17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” 19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
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