Who Says The Pope Is Greater Than Your Pastor?

 

This is a difficult post to write, particularly in the current “religio-political” climate, so do not allow your response to be primarily visceral rather than well mixed with cerebral activity – Do not allow emotion to blur serious cogitation. Dispassionately review both secular and religious sources and you will see that they validate the contentions made in this post. So here goes:

 

Jesus once said to a group of zealous self-centered disciples: “…Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth on a mission of incalculable significance, but it is no coincidence that he did not touch down on this planet with the regal “pomp and circumstance” that usually surround men with far more inferior missions. The depravity of human nature causes us to be afflicted by the infectious malady known as hero worship. History attests to the demise that one could have experienced if failing to worship the Roman Emperor in ages gone by. You could have actually been tortured as an atheist if you did not worship the Emperor, whom the culture had elevated to the status of a god, in total defiance of the declaration of Scripture. For the unconverted, there is little distinction, if any, between celebrity worship and the ability to appreciate skills, abilities and prowess without elevating a person to a status that no human being should occupy, regardless of his or her competencies. Should anyone seriously claim such an exalted title as “Vicar of Christ”? Can the Pope really be a substitute for Christ, or act in the place of Christ? Who is the God appointed official representative of Christ on earth, is it the Pope or the Holy Spirit? The Pope might possess a very winsome personality, but it’s his claimed status that is not Biblical. He heads the Papacy and Vatican, a religious institution and state with tremendous political and economic power that once wielded the power of the Inquisition which murdered Christians who stood for their Biblical faith, rather than comply with the enforced tenets of Romanism. Believe me, the Pope needs the prayers of the people of God to help him renounce the papal status he so enthusiastically embraces. Christianity makes you realize that you cannot rise above the level of a sinner saved by the mercy and grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Jesus and his apostles walked in humility, simplicity, and holiness, and not in the grandeur that characterizes so many claiming to be his representatives.

 

There is, no doubt, a multiplicity of reasons for the hysteric enthusiasm in going to see the Pope, many of which are perhaps justifiable, but one reason that is undoubtedly fallacious is that he is the spiritual Head of Christianity. One does not have to be a Church History aficionado, or to be possessed of superior theological insight, to know that the Pope is the epitome of Biblical fallacy, the quintessential distorter of Scriptural truth. According to Papal theology or Roman Catholicism, both the Bible and the Pope are infallible in doctrinal matters. Can you wrap your mind around this humungous heresy and blatant manifestation of spiritual arrogance? Pope Francis, in terms of who he is in himself, might be what many people might be willing to call “a nice decent man who is genuinely interested in world peace and in better treatment of the poor, and a whole host of other good things” (I personally don’t know), but it is the status that he embraces and stands in that is the prodigious problem. And do not be deceived into believing that this is an innocuous or inconsequential matter. That same Pope, in his usurped authority, has just recently declared to atheists that they do not have to believe in God to go to heaven. Read what he said right here as reported on Facebook. Do you have any idea of the war that the New Atheist Movement has launched on religion, but most specifically Christianity? Dr. Richard Dawkins, a world renowned biologist, has declared that it is child abuse to send a child to a Christian school to be taught about a Creator, and that the government should intervene to stop it. Dr. Steven Weinberg, a physicist known for developing the theory of electroweak unification, for which he won the Nobel Prize in physics, said that religion, with particular reference to Christianity, is an insult to human dignity and the major reason why good people do evil things. In 2007, a number of these atheistic scientists gathered in a conference entitled “Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival” in order to attack religious beliefs and congratulate one another on their fearlessness in doing so (David Berlinski, 2009). Now, tell me something, can you imagine Pope Francis giving these men the key to enter heaven when the Bible itself states: “The fool says in his heart that there is no God?” (Psalm 14:1). I challenge you to read the history of popes and of the Papacy and you will tremble at the atrocities perpetrated by this diabolical institution (Leopold Von Ranke, 2015). Why do you think the Pope and the Papacy he represents talk so zealously of forgiveness? It’s partly because it is a religious institution that has committed some of the most horrendous sins in the world, including burning people at the stake for their faith in God (D’Aubigne and Riedel, 2014). Sure our merciful Lord will forgive sin, but is forgiveness genuinely sought when there is a refusal to renounce heretical claims such as the Bible and the teachings of the Pope having equal authority; and that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ when the Bible says that it’s the Holy Spirit; or that Christ is the only mediator and absolutely not the Virgin Mary; or that we should pray to God only and never to any saint, regardless of whether it be St. Benedict, St. Martin, St. Francis of Assisi, or any other human being canonized into sainthood by the Pope and his Papacy? Why do you think the Protestant Reformation took place? Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Church and they wanted to kill him. It was one of the German princes that secured his safety. Do you really think the nature of the Papacy has changed? Then read its theology for yourself, and you be the judge. The tactics of the Papacy has changed in order to be compatible with contemporary culture, but its nature and theological declarations have not changed one iota. Study any respectable Biblical commentary on the Book of Revelation and understand the nature and power of the Vatican and of Papal authority, and tremble in horror at what is going to unfold in the future. Since Romanism is a syncretistic religion, you can almost believe anything and behave accordingly and be a good member of the religious system.

 

We cannot afford to forget or minimize what the Holy Spirit accomplished in the Protestant Reformation, though sadly, Protestants did some bad things also. It is at the price of blood that we can read the Bible in our languages today. Sure we must not hold a person’s past against them if they are repentant, ask for forgiveness, and change. But when a Pontiff concocts doctrines and declares them to have equal authority with the Bible and declares himself to be Vicar of Christ, this is reason for serious concern. The Scriptures say: “In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). The differences in interpretation of Biblical passages that exist between Christians, therefore causing the existence of different Protestant denominations, is not the same as the horrendous and willful differences that exist with Roman theology. Be very clear about that. Romanism puts the church above the Bible and claims that the church gave the world the Bible and therefore has the power to interpret it anyway it wants, and to even add to it.

 

We must not allow ourselves to be deluded by the charisma of affable personality and become desensitized to the horrendous declarations of Romanism. Protestants must not dare forget the movement of the Holy Spirit in the Protestant Reformation. We cannot forget that the very Bible that we read in English today was at the sacrifice of men of God who defied the Pope and the Papacy to bring God’s truth to the common man. Do you think that the theological position of the Pope and his Papacy has changed since the 15th century? No, it has not -- ask the Pope yourself if you can get the opportunity to talk to him!! He still calls himself the Vicar of Christ and his religious pronouncements carry equal authority with what the Bible itself declares. Where in the Bible do you read that Mary is the Mediator between Christ and God the Father? You can’t read it because it’s not there. The Pope says it, so you better believe it! I am sorry, but the Pope is fallible, even though he thinks he is not. According to the Bible, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all…” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). We owe the Pope love and respect and our prayers, but don’t you dare believe that he has equal authority as the Bible in matters of doctrine.

 

Now, your pastor, on the other hand, if indeed someone called and anointed by God, is a shepherd of the flock, a servant leader of the congregation. He is definitely not a Pope, and should never aspire to be one, but his mission is to preach and teach the Word of God and to minister to the spiritual needs of the flock in diverse ways. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that since the cross, we do not need a humanly concocted special system of priests. When we become Christians, Christ is our High priest who makes intercession for us and every believer becomes a part of the priesthood of believers. Peter puts it this way: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). If you want to see and hear someone who occupies a position or status better and higher than the Pope, go to church today, or tomorrow, or Wednesday night, or any other day, and listen to your anointed pastor preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hurry up and go – You won’t cause a traffic jam, or a people jam, but you will hear about the Son of man, the one who, as a lamb was led to the slaughter on our behalf, the one who was despised and rejected of men; the one who was wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:3-5). With all due respect to the Pope, I must still say: Christians need a High Priest, not the Pope, and we have the sacrifice of the cross, and thus do not need the celebration of the Mass. Thank God for Jesus, and pray for Pope Francis that he steps out of the abomination of the Papacy and into the marvelous light of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.