Pope Francis cranked up his charm offensive on the world outside the Vatican on Tuesday, saying in the second widely shared media interview in two weeks that each person “must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them” and calling efforts to convert people to Christianity “solemn nonsense.”
No sir, what you have said is very solemn and dangerous nonsense. Apostasy of the highest order.
John 3:16, John 14, the Great Commission of Matthew 28:16-20, and so forth are all struck down. What more do people need to see and hear?
I’m begging you: If you are a Christian in the RCC you have no more defenses or excuses. Get out. Start new traditions somewhere else.
The Vatican’s head seemed intent on distancing himself from its power, saying church leaders “have often been narcissists” and “clericalism should not have anything to do with Christianity.”
I can’t disagree with this point at face value but if anyone thinks that is all going away under a regime with a Jesuit right out in the open then I have some waterfront property I would love to sell them…on Mars.
The interview with atheist Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari set off another round of debate about what the pope meant: Was he saying that people can make up their own minds, even if they disagree with church teachings? Or was this self-described “son of the church” just using casual language to describe classic church teaching about how people need to come to Catholic doctrine of their free will?
Can we make up any more nonsense? It’s very clear what he’s saying.
A top official with the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, took the unprecedented step of rebuking Francis, writing that the pope’s interview was “a theological wreck” and that Francis was dabbling dangerously in relativism.
“What these interviews seem continually to do is what evangelical theologian Carl Henry warned Protestants of in the 20th century, of severing the love of God from the holiness of God,” wrote the Rev. Russell Moore, a past dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and head of the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “We must speak with tenderness and gentleness, but with an authoritative word from God.”
Well stated although he frankly went softer than I would have and will here.
I would have and do rebuke this pope for spewing doctrines of demons and apostasy. As a tip of the hat to Ian Pasley and many others I hereby declare this pope “antichrist.” Notice that’s with a lower case “a.”
Here is a question that begs to be asked: Where is the clamor from the rest of the Protestant churches? Are they too busy building up another six figure rec hall for the youth group? Did they burn their tongues on the $7 Starbucks coffee they bought in the church lobby? Are their nerves and perceptions too jangled after an hour of cacophony that’s passed off as worship music when it’s anything but? Is it difficult for them to hear with their eardrums ringing and the ears tickling?
Or could it be that this is the same message that many of them are also hearing? All paths lead to heaven, we all worship the same God, and good people go to heaven, right? Is that what you are hearing? If it is, then you are hearing the same level of denying the gospel that this pope is saying and your response should be to get away from it.
It is striking to me just how similar this Pope sounds to Rick Warren and some other prominent evangelicals that I could name.
Some conservative Catholics were also taken aback by the interview.
“My e-mail is filled with notes from people who need to be talked off the ledge,” wrote the Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, author of one of the more popular blogs for Catholic conservatives.
In what is quickly becoming classic Pope Francis, the back story of the interview was dramatically simple. The leader of the largest church in the world apparently picked up the phone and called Scalfari, founder of La Repubblica, who had requested an interview.
“Why so surprised?” the pope asked Scalfari (after being patched through by a shaky secretary at the newspaper). “You wrote me a letter asking to meet me in person. I had the same wish, so I’m calling to fix an appointment. Let me look at my diary: I can’t do Wednesday, nor Monday; would Tuesday suit you?”
After they set the time, Scalfari said he wasn’t sure how to end the call and asked for an embrace by phone. “Of course, a hug from me too,” the pope told him. “Then we will do it in person, goodbye.”
This is classic Jesuit interplay. Smokescreen. The ledge you need to get off, sir, is if you are really a Christian you need to GET OUT. What more do you need to see and hear?
I admit that I have a very hard time wondering and imagining how any really born again Christian can stay in the RCC but for the sake of the argument I’ll go with it just to make this point. This should finish it. I should begin to see an exodus of some sort taking place out of the Catholic Church but then again to be fair I should turn around to the Protestant Evangelicals and beg those born again Christians to get out of those churches where they are hearing the same exact message.
As Revelation 18:4 states: “Come out of Babylon!” This is the doctrine of Babylon.
The interview was wide-ranging, including the pope’s story of a Communist friend he had as a young man (who was later tortured and killed by the Argentine military), a few movie recommendations as well as a mystical experience he had the night he was picked to be pope.
“My head was completely empty and I was seized by a great anxiety. To make it go away and relax I closed my eyes and made every thought disappear, even the thought of refusing to accept the position, as the liturgical procedure allows,” he said. “I closed my eyes and I no longer had any anxiety or emotion. At a certain point I was filled with a great light.”
This reads like a vintage occult/New Age experience.
But the parts of the interview that will be pored over are theological — the uncomplicated, unqualified language Francis uses to speak about faith. In this interview, as in the one two weeks ago by a group of Jesuit publications, connection to God doesn’t seem to depend on church hierarchy.
Asked if there is a single vision of good, and who decides, Francis says:
The answer should be: “Yes! It’s all outlined in the Bible!” but that’s not what he says. Watch:
“Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good . . . Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”
Satan himself couldn’t have said this better.
If this isn’t New Age sounding pabulum and wishy-washy relativism I don’t know what is. It certainly isn’t the Gospel and it most certainly is not Biblical. It’s an insult to the intellect as well.
Asked if he feels touched by grace, Francis tells the atheist reporter that the holy quality “is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason. Even you, without knowing it, could be touched by grace.”
We couldn’t be further removed from the Gospel if we tried. John 14 and John 3:16 make VERY clear that only a belief in Jesus Christ as the resurrected Son of God can lead to grace and salvation. Nothing else. Clearly this Pope teaches a message that has a very wide gate open to a very broad road. The sign above the gate says “path to destruction.” The wide gate of ecumenism and universalism that Jesus Himself warned against in Matthew 7:13-14.
Chris Ruddy, a theologian at Catholic University, noted that Pope Benedict XVI had co-authored a book with an atheist that said that “seekers and believers . . . must move towards one another,” but that Francis had clearly taken the concept of engagement to a new level. Catholic teaching, he noted, calls for people to follow their own consciences — but is referring to “formed” consciences steeped with education and prayer in proper doctrine.
“What the pope said can be taken a bunch of different ways. And it can certainly be taken in a relativistic way. And I imagine it will be received that way by some people,” Ruddy said. “But I don’t see the pope saying: ‘You have your idea, I have mine and it’s all good.’ I see him saying: ‘We have to respect persons and their search for truth.’ ”
Mr. Ruddy needs to get his head out of… I won’t finish that statement. Talk about stumbling over yourself. If this isn’t relativism then the term has no meaning.
It is little wonder that so many prominent Christians ranging back to at least the Reformers assumed the Pope was Antichrist. There can be little doubt that the doctrine this Pope is issuing is that of Antichrist.
Every time I see quotes or hear this Pope speak I can’t help but think of Revelation 13:11 where the description of the False Prophet is given. Horns (appearance) of a lamb and words of a dragon.
Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 both warn about a way that seems right to a man but ends in death and that’s exactly what this message is from the pope.
I can’t make any predictions about the future. I have no idea who the Antichrist will be nor the False Prophet but I must say that this Pope is doing an incredible audition for either role and he is also doing a wonderful job following the script to fulfill the Petrus Romanus concept as well. Take it all for what it’s worth.
For more on this current item I highly recommend the following half hour radio show by Chris Pinto:
Past this I would highly recommend securing the books Petrus Romanus and Exo Vaticana by Tom Horn and Cris Putnam. Read those books as soon as you can because we are living it now.
Some people may very well read this and understandably wonder what high horse I rode in on and where I get off without context.
Let me be very clear here: I don’t have all the answers and I certainly don’t think I have it all figured out but I most certainly know better than the likes of the above. I DO know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you?
