We ended last time by taking a quick look at the Catholic Church and its position vis-à-vis Israel. Despite superficial nods to Israel and the Jewish people, the Vatican continues to take a position contrary to biblical principles. Scripture clearly assigns the Promised Land to Israel. Prophecy foretold the return of the Jews in the End Times and their re-establishment as a nation. Yet Pope Francis and the hierarchy of the Church reject those mandates and embrace a solution wherein the invented people called the Palestinians will share in the land assigned by God. We will see today that this blindness goes even farther as it extends to official Catholic views on the exclusivity of Christ as the only means of salvation. Even speaking from the Throne of Peter, no Pope has the authority to extend the terms of salvation. The offer is to the entire world; Muslims, Hindus, animists, atheists, Buddhists, Sikhs, occultists, pagans, homosexuals, drunkards, thieves, adulterers, liars, lovers of self, etc. However the scripture is clear. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Peter ratified that statement as recorded in Acts 4:12. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” The invitation is to all but it is on God’s terms. We cannot make up our own way to the Father. It comes only through the Son!
PART XIII – THE STATE OF THE CHURCH
The message of Pope Francis may be muddled and confused to some observers both within and without the Church. But one thing it surely is, is inclusive. Since taking that office, Francis has mad statement after statement that challenged both the conservatives in his church as well as the clear teaching and authority of the Bible. However the pope’s actions after taking over as head of the Catholic Church raises some interesting questions. It began very early in his papacy when he had a few interesting things to say about salvation. Here are the words of Catholic Online. “Pope Francis has good news for atheists. Jesus died and was raised for them as well…. On Wednesday he declared that all people, not just Catholics, are redeemed through Jesus, even atheists.” As the Pontiff explains it: It’s all about doing good. Here are the words of the Pope. “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ, all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!’ We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”[i] The next shoe fell not long after that when he was queried about homosexual clergy. Here is his response. “Who am I to judge them if they’re seeking the Lord in good faith. When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept the Lord and have good will, who am I to judge them? They shouldn’t be marginalized. The tendency [to homosexuality] is not the problem … they’re our brothers.”[ii] The Pope did not say it was ok to act on homosexual tendencies. If he was trying to say ‘Hate the sin – but not the sinner,’ he was on good ground. But what he did say opened the door to a more accepting theology on the part of the Roman Church. The biggest issue in his remarks however seems to be his unwillingness to judge sin. As Scott Lively explained in World Net Daily: “There is no such thing as a ‘Gay Christian.’ The very notion is anti-biblical. The concept of ‘Gay Christians’ originates in sexual-orientation theory, an ideological invention of the homosexual movement designed to advance the idea that homosexuality is ‘immutable,’ meaning unchangeable.”[iii] Shortly after that he reaffirmed his pronouncement that opened the gates of God’s Kingdom to atheists. That’s all a good atheist need do is to follow his conscience. “Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”[iv] Unfortunately this contradicts what Jesus Himself said. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36)
Back in 2013 the Pope gave an interview to Eugenio Scalfari of Italy’s Republica newspaper. Here he expounded on his vision for the future of the church that only exacerbated the issue. Now I must admit here that on a very human level I kind of like this guy. He washes the feet of aids victims, he lives modestly and answers questions honestly. At one point in the Repubblica interview he says this. “We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.” It is a beautiful sentiment. He goes on to decry the “Vatican-centric” orientation of the Catholic Church. He believes it “should go back to being a community of God’s people.” These are winning words. And in the playful, intellectual interplay with his Scalfari, an admitted atheist, he shows his compassionate humanity. But it is when he pronounces on doctrine that one can see just how far his views – and those of the church he heads – are from the Biblical norm.
So all the positions taken here by the head of the Catholic world are in direct contradiction of Scripture. Then what the Pope is preaching is nothing short of a false gospel. And that is a scary thing. It was Paul who gave judgment on this in Galatians 1:9. “As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” A false gospel is a very dangerous thing. It leads people astray, gives them false confidence in their salvation and prevents them from seeking the true way.
Agent of the New World Order
All that being said, the situation gets worse. It seems that wittingly or not – (and I believe he knows what he’s about) – the Pontiff is acting as an agent of the Globalist New World Order forces. Yes, he wants to have an influence for the good in the coming One World Government, – but he wants to see it get there nonetheless. One large piece of evidence in the matter is the fact that he is appointing avowed Marxists to key positions in the Church’s leadership. Father Arturo Sosa Abascal was made General Superior of the Jesuit Order. He has argued the case for the views of ‘Marxist Christians’ committed to the “transformation of the capitalist society into a socialist society.” In 1989 he even signed a letter praising Fidel Castro, the murderous dictator of Cuba. The Council of Cardinals is run by Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, another communist – as is sociologist Margaret Archer, who proudly clams to represent the “Marxian Left.” And the Pope’s encyclicals are drafted by a Leonardo Boff who espouses Liberation Theology and Naomi Klein, a Canadian socialist.
We can see their influence in the policies put forth by the Vatican. Rome’s position on climate change is one sure sign of the direction of the Church. But Sosa, the Jesuit-in-Chief goes even farther. Contrary to the Council of Trent, Sosa argues that we really can’t know what Jesus meant when He said what he did – and therefore we need to take the Gospels in context. As George Neumayr puts it: “Sosa can’t resist the mumbo-jumbo of Modernist biblical scholarship, which always manages to dovetail conveniently with liberal views.”[v]
This influence is filtering to the hinterlands from the top down. Take Holland, for instance. At the end of June, Bishop Gerard de Korte will give his official blessing to a gathering of LGBT folks at an ecumenical prayer service in the town of Hertogenbosch. The ceremony will be held right at the Cathedral, with the full blessing of the Church. It is part of an event called Roze Zaterdag or Pink Saturday. Life Site News reports that the Bishop will “personally welcome the participants and take the lead role, surrounded by Protestant pastors and ‘pastoresses,’ including an openly gay minister who will all speak during the ceremony.”[vi] Now in case anyone has forgotten, the Bible clearly condemns such practices – along with other forms of sin. Here are some key passages on the matter. “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22) The Apostle Paul addresses the matter in 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.”
But then the argument goes, ‘Well, Jesus never had anything to say about homosexuality.’ But indeed He did, when He addressed the matter of the whole Law. “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17-18)
However it is not just the Catholic Church that seems to have a ‘gay’ problem. According to Nate Brown of Christian Truther, “Gay Progressives are destroying Christianity.” A 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center found that “48 percent of them identified as Christian, with the largest portions of that group identifying as Protestant (29 percent) and Catholic (17 percent).” The issue, of course, is the authority of God’s word. Take Crystal Cheatham, an activist, artist – and Lesbian. She left her Seventh Day Adventist Church that would not accept her lifestyle. Brown writes: “Cheatham has set out to create a digital space for LGBTQ people to explore their own spiritual practice without having to surrender any part of their identity. She is leading the effort to create Our Bible, an app set to release this fall that plans to offer at least 20 Bibles and more than 300 devotional readings, meditation exercises, articles and podcasts for LGBTQ Christians and others who feel marginalized by mainstream Christianity.” Here is the state of affairs for today. Right now a little less than 25% of Americans believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. In contrast, 26% believe it is a “book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man.”[vii] Cheathams’s work is but an organized lie. [Just like we heterosexuals, those in that community must realize that Jesus has put the call on all of us to repent from what the Bible calls sin. They are equally damning to the soul. Neither group can think that we are somehow exempt from the Law put forth on Mt Sinai. We all owe a debt to that reality. Jesus preached it. “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) That’s a word we all best heed!
Surrendering the West
We can contrast the weak adherence to the word of God on the part of much of what used to be called Christendom – to – the zealous embrace of the teachings of Mohammed by fundamentalists Islamists. Now the fundamentalist Muslims operate according to their scriptures. Let me just run a couple of passages by you. “Kill them wherever you find them and drive them out from where they drove you out. Persecution is worse than slaughter.” (Sura 2:191) Or how about this nugget: “When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks.” (Sura 47:4) Islamists are practicing their faith. Despite cries to the contrary, when Muslims bomb a concert in Manchester, or run down or stab pedestrians in London, they are only following the dictates of their sacred scriptures. Writing for The Gatestone Institute, Italian journalist Giulio Meotti points out the rich irony of the situation.
“Scene one: Manchester, United Kingdom, the “free world”. A British-born Muslim terrorist prays in a former church. All around him, the Christian sites and congregations accepted being turned into Islamic sites. The day after, this terrorist goes on a rampage, murdering 22 concert-goers.
Scene two: Minya, Egypt, the ‘unfree world’. An Islamist terror group stops a bus full of Christian pilgrims. The terrorists demand that their victims recite the Islamic creed, the shahaada. The Christians refuse to abandon Christianity and become Muslims. The Islamists murder them, one by one.”
His theme: Christians in the Middle East, despite the level of murderous violence perpetrated against them, are resisting Islam better than Europe. You see, Europe has been compromised. Terror strikes the West and leaders react with condemnations and little action. ‘We’ll redouble our efforts to fight terror – But no, we won’t arm police.’ Europe won’t close its borders. It won’t report the crimes of Muslims. They preach a gospel of inclusion. They intone the ridiculous mantra that we all worship the same God. Meotti comes to the only logical conclusion. “These Islamic fighters, such as those who hit Manchester and Minya, are not ‘radicalized,’ they follow an Islamic religious dictate according to a literal reading of the Koran. They attack Europeans because they believe that Islam is superior and stronger than Europe. They feel that Allah and history are on their side. They want to see the flag of Islam flying across Western capitals.”[viii]
And thus is goes the war between the True Believers of Islam, determined to conquering the world for Allah. While Europe answers with a society that has abandoned its foundations. The one-time center of the Christian Faith is fast falling away from any significant belief. Two-thirds of the Catholic churches in the Netherlands are expected to close within ten years.[ix] The Dutch Reformed Church is expected to lose 700 churches in the next 4 years. Germany has lost over 500 Catholic churches in the last decade.[x] The UK is closing 20 churches a year.[xi] The European landscape is one in which no cultural center remains. Archpriest Dmitri Smirnov of the Russian Orthodox Church offers this analysis of the struggle. “There is very little time left until the death of the entire Christian Civilization. Several decades, perhaps 30 years, well, maybe in Russia it will last 50, no longer.” The goal of many Islamists is to conquer Europe without a fight using only their birthrate and their radicalism. The Muslims have a strong ally in the likes of leaders like Germany’s Angela Merkel, who is continuing to push for more immigration into Europe from the Middle East. Barring a change in fortunes, that strategy seems destined to win.[xii]
[i] Pope Francis says atheists can do good and go to heaven too!, Catholic Online, May 24, 2013
[ii] Pope Francis On Gay Priests: ‘Who Am I To Judge Them If They’re Seeking The Lord In Good Faith?’, Business Insider, July 29, 2013
[iii] Scott Lively, Where the pope gave ground on ‘gays’, World Net Daily, August 1, 2013
[iv] Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven, Independent (UK), September 11, 2013
[v] George Neumayr, The Pope’s Marxist, American Spectator, May 19, 2017
[vi] Catholic cathedral welcomes ‘Pink Saturday,’ Life Site News, June 5, 2017
[vii] Nate Brown, Gay Progressive ‘Christians’ Are Destroying Christianity, Christian Truther, June 5, 2017
[viii] Giulio Meotti, After Middle East, Will Islamists Uproot Christians in Europe?, The Gatestone Institute, June 4, 2017
[ix] Europe’s Empty Churches Go on Sale, The Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2015
[x] Dr Jeff Mirus, A flood of closing churches, Catholic Culture.org, January 5, 2015
[xi] Some churches will only open for Christmas – CofE report, The Guardian, October 14, 2015
[xii] Giulio Meotti, After Middle East, Will Islamists Uproot Christians in Europe?, The Gatestone Institute, June 4, 2017
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