It is not strange that the Pontiff, the titular head of the Roman Catholic Church, should have a problem with promulgating doctrine consistent with biblical teaching. That Church has always styled itself to hold an authority above and beyond scripture. But Pope Francis has crossed heretofore unchallenged barriers. The current Pope has made numerous statements over his tenure that have challenged Biblical Truth. Very early on, he seemed to open the door to heaven to ‘good atheists’. Then jump forward to January of 2016 and you’ll find the time that, Pope Francis re-wrote Christian theology by tossing aside some proven truths of the Christian Faith. In a video meant to reach out to all peoples and all faiths of the world, the Pontiff said this. “Many think differently, feel differently, seeking God or meeting God in different ways. In this crowd, in this range of religions, there is only one certainty that we have for all: we are all children of God.” And therein was contained the lie that the world loves to tell. All religions are the same. We are all seeking God and God will honor our search.
That’s in direct contradiction to Scripture. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:10-13) Now in all fairness, it’s not like the Pope was really going rogue here, in the Catholic sense. That type of squishy thinking is more prevalent than one might think in the Church of Rome. Father Tom Michel had some interesting things to say along those same lines in The Catholic News. “When Christians hear Muslims being called to prayer, they should be happy, for it is their God who is going to be worshipped and served.” Mmmm! Are they really worshiping the same God? “Islam and Christianity are two different religions and have different teachings, and God is able to save both Muslim and Christian if they faithfully follow their respective paths.[i] The issue right here is really quite simple. Muslims do NOT recognize Jesus as the Son of God. And that’s a problem if one takes seriously the words of Scripture. Read the words of John 3:35-36. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (ESV) So let’s unpack this ‘same god’ fallacy a little more.
Now one has to admit that there is an assertion in the Koran that identifies the God of the Bible with Allah. It is found in Sura 29:46, which is translated “our God and your God is One, and unto Him we surrender.” The Koran characterizes the Bible as inspired – if corrupted – scripture. Nabeel Qureshi, a Muslim turned Christian and best-selling author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, writes this.
“I believe that the phrase ‘Muslims and Christians worship the same God”’is only true in a fairly uncontroversial sense: There is one Creator whom Muslims and Christians both attempt to worship. Apart from this banal observation, Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God…. Christians believe Jesus is God, but the Quran is so opposed to this belief that it condemns Jesus worshipers to Hell (5.72). For Christians, Jesus is certainly God, and for Muslims Jesus is certainly not God.”[ii] Here is the passage that Qureshi referred to from the Koran. “Surely, they have disbelieved who say: ‘Allah is the Messiah [‘Iesa (Jesus)], son of Maryam (Mary).’ But the Messiah [‘Iesa (Jesus)] said: ‘O Children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.’ Verily, whosoever sets up partners in worship with Allah, then Allah has forbidden Paradise for him, and the Fire will be his abode. And for the Zalimun (polytheists and wrongdoers) there are no helpers.”
In the inspired words of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Paul puts the lie to that way of thinking. Verses 13 & 14 read thus. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” 1John 5:12 summarizes the argument nicely. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” The sonship of Jesus the Christ is central to the Christian Faith. Islam, through the Koran denies that sonship in several places. “As it is, some assert ‘The Most Gracious has taken unto Himself a son!’ Indeed, [by this assertion] you have brought forth something monstrous.” (Sura 1988-89) And Sura 19:92 tells us “it is inconceivable that the Most Gracious should take unto Himself a son!” In contrast, the Bible most clearly teaches the opposite. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:35-36) (ESV)
Pope Francis has been taking the Catholic Church down a dangerous road almost right from the beginning, making some people wonder – (and legitimately, I might add) – whether he might be the False Prophet of Revelation. In no special order. He seemed to open the gates of heaven to non-believers, specifically atheists. “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience. Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”[iii] In 2014 he allowed Muslim prayers and the reading of the Koran in the Vatican.[iv] Then in the Spring of 2019, Pope Francis met with The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, one of the leading Islamic scholars. They signed a document called
“Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, which contained a statement equating Islam – and in fact all religions, with Christianity. It seems diversity of religions is God’s will.[v] [It’s interesting that in my Bible Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” You don’t think I have a faulty one, do you?] Here’s the statement from the document. “The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex and language are willed by God in His wisdom.” [REALLY Frankie! That’s what you’re selling?] Now the Pontiff has appointed a seven member commission of Catholics and Muslims to push this nonsense on the world – no doubt in the name of “peace and security.”
And every so often he makes a statement that softens the scriptural view of the practice of homosexuality. In 2018, Pope Francis was speaking with a man, we’ll call him Juan Carlos Cruz – (‘cause that’s his name) – about the fact that Cruz had been sexually abused by a Chilean bishop. During the course of their talk, it came up that Cruz was a homosexual. According to Cruz, the Pope answered: “That you are gay does not matter. God made you like that and He loves you like that.” The Vatican has not disputed this account.
Regarding homosexuality, back in 2013 Pope Francis said: “Who am I to judge?” The Daily Mail / Reuters account remarked that this, “if accurate, would mark an historic shift in attitudes toward homosexuality within the Catholic church.”[vi] But you know, that really doesn’t matter – because scripture doesn’t change. And scripture is quite clear on the matter. Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.” Not fond of the Old Testament? Here’s Romans 1:26-28. “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.” Doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot open to interpretation there! As the uber-Catholic Pat Buchanan argues, the Pope’s position “implies that what Catholics regarded for centuries as moral truth was wrong or that moral truth has evolved and must be made to conform to modernity.”[vii]
Then in November of 2019 the Pontiff thought it would be a really keen idea to acknowledge and bless the statue of a pagan, naked fertility and mother goddess of the indigenous people of South America. [I mean, what could possibly be wrong with that?!] The ceremony was replete with a female shaman with a feather in her hair that pronounced some incantations or prayers to whatever god she serves.[viii] And finally, Italian journalist Eugenio Scalafari claimed that Pope Francis told him in an interview that there was no hell. Sinful souls just disappear. The Vatican denied that and pointed to some sermons Francis preached that described Hell as “the truth” and that it consisted of being “far away from the Lord for eternity.”[ix] [x] [If one were going to campaign for the role of False Prophet, that record would serve as a very compelling resume.] For the record, the End Time’s One World Religion is being formed before our eyes!
Pope Francis was not the first to go that route. Pope John Paul II gathered with various pagan religious leaders at Assisi in 1986. It was there, that the claimed head of all of Christendom prayed with members of 120 various religions, – each praying to their god or gods. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews, and the Dalai Lama – who calls himself a god, were all there. They were joined by Christian leaders from dozens of denominations as well as “fire worshiping Zoroastrians,” African animists worshiping spirits and nature, American Indians and Japanese Shinto. After the World Day of Prayer for Peace held in Assisi in 1986, John Paul confirmed the “universal presence of the Holy Spirit” claiming that the Holy Spirit is “mysteriously present in the heart of every person, Christian or otherwise.”[xi] That however, is not what the Bible teaches.[xii] On one occasion, John Paul even kissed the Muslim holy book, the Quran. Scripture is clear on this. God’s people are to be called out from the world. Paul so aptly asked the Corinthians, “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.” (2Corinthians 6:14-16) Though such positions do not comport with biblical Christianity, we can see however, that all of this is falling right in line with what has become mainline Catholic thought. And Francis has taken right up where John Paul left off.
[i]Father Tom Michel, Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?, The Catholic News, viewed November 14, 2017
[ii] Nabeel Qureshi, Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?, RZIM, December 27, 2015
[iii] Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven, The Independent, September 11, 2013
[iv] Vatican makes history: Pope allows Islamic prayers, Koran readings, Washington Times, June 9, 2014
[v] Geoffrey Grider, POPE FRANCIS ISSUES THE ORDER CREATING GLOBAL CHRISLAM COMMITTEE, NTEB, August 27, 2019
[vi] ‘That you are gay does not matter’, Daily Mail / Reuters, May 21, 2018
[vii] Pat Buchanan, Can a Pope Change Moral Truth?, May 22, 2018
[viii] Diane Montagna, Abp Viganò: ‘The abomination of idolatrous rites has entered the sanctuary of God’, Life Site News, November 6, 2019
[ix] Hell ‘does not’ exist…sinful souls ‘disappear,’ Pope Francis allegedly tells favorite interviewer, Life Site News, March 29, 2018
[x] Pope Francis and hell, National Catholic Reporter, April 3, 2018
[xi] Donald Ward, Religious Deception in the Post Modern World, World News & Prophecy, Beyond Today Magazine, July 22, 2010
[xii] Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado, October 28, 1986, as reported by Way of Life Ministries, 2001
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