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The Pope in the USA
The Pope receives pomp and pageantry reserved for the world's most important leaders.
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Friday, April 18, 2008
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The Associated Press reported yesterday: "His 90-minute visit to the White House — only the second ever by a pope — was accompanied by the kind of pomp and pageantry rarely seen even on grounds accustomed to welcoming royalty and the world's most important leaders."
This is the absolute opposite of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter eight a certain scribe came to Jesus and expressed his desire to follow him wheresoever he went. Jesus replied: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." The Pope meanwhile dwells in a palace, or his summer residence, parading around in his fancy garb doing all his works to be seen of men. He loves to sit on his throne or wave from his balcony to the adoring masses, he thrives on red carpet receptions and private audiences with the world's leaders, he drunk with self importance and they also with the spectacle of his regalia. He revels being called "Holy Father", yet the scripture says: "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."No other church leader and most world leaders would never, never, receive this kind of pomp. To think of a muslim leader receiving a red carpet welcome is simply laughable, or the head of the Anglican Church. This in itself proves that the Catholic Church is one of the most powerful political organizations on the earth today and the most powerful political and religious system on the planet. The Roman Catholic Church is not just another church. Their power and influence extend almost everywhere, this is undeniable. "Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." She sits upon many waters, which are peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues. (Revelation 17)
Meanwhile headlines are telling us that the Pope has said the Roman Catholic clergy handled the sex abuse scandal very badly. The sexual abuse of children by the Roman Catholic clergy is not restricted by any means to the United States. It has happened everywhere. They have also tried to cover it up and have been successful. The Catholic Christian Brothers in Newfoundland Canada, physically and sexually abused 300 pupils at the Mount Cashel orphanage. When allegations of physical and sexual abuse at Mount Cashel started to surface in the late 1980s, the government, police and church conspired in an unsuccessful cover-up." How many other instances have successfully been covered up is hard to imagine.
The abuse scandals prove that while the Roman church is very influential they are equally corrupt. They do not have a chaste priesthood, they are monsters. The Pope only says that they handled it badly or he is ashamed, he cannot admit his priesthood is corrupt, as they are supposed to be chaste. It brings to mind the prophecy of the apostasy in the first letter to Timothy 4:1-3: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry..."
The Pope said that he is visiting America "as a friend, a preacher of the Gospel..." Yet all he has done is to corrupt the gospel more and more so that the masses cannot comprehend the "Hope of Israel" as the Apostle Paul calls the gospel. The Pope calls for a "just peace" in the Middle East that recognizes the rights of the Palestinians and as a senior cardinal stated on November 28, 2007, as reported by the Ha'aretz newspaper, that: "Palestinian refugees, like all other refugees, have a right to return to their homeland. The return of all so called Palestinian refugees to Israel would result in the destruction of the Jewish state and the Pope is aware of this. So while posing as a preacher of the gospel he is actively seeking the destruction of God's people the Jews. The Jewish state, the Palestinians and the future of Jerusalem will have been discussed with President Bush during his private audience with the Pope in the Whitehouse. Time reported that this would be on the agenda: "A resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict also remains a priority of the Pope, who wants to see sustained American involvement in negotiations." It might sound good that the Pope wants a resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But one has to remember that the Pope seeks what he terms a "just peace". This entails the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, the expulsion of Jews from towns like Hebron, Bethel, Shilo and East Jerusalem, and the internationalization of Jerusalem. This is the Pope's "Just Peace". This is what he will have pushed for in his meeting with Bush.
The Apostle Paul warned about "other gospels" when writing to the Galatians: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
Today the Pope may be traveling around the world being greeted with red carpets and wined and dined, yet the proverb says: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." So as he plans the future of Jerusalem and imagines himself on Mount Zion saying in his heart: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14) The man of sin will be consumed with the spirit of the Lord's mouth and destroyed with the brightness of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2) Then the Lord Jesus Christ will reign in Zion as depicted in Psalm 48: "Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King."
This has been David Billington, God Bless and come back next week to www.bibleinthenews.com or biblemagazine.com for more Bible in the News!
Printed: Friday, April 18, 2008
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