Perhaps something more sinister is afoot? Peter, the apostle Rome falsely claims as its own, wrote in the first century, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”(2 Pe 2:1)
Pope Francis Says Atheists Who Do Good Are
Redeemed, Not Just Catholics
Posted: 05/22/2013 2:25 pm EDT | Updated: 05/23/2013 2:33 am EDT
Pope Francis rocked some religious and atheist minds today when he declared that everyone was redeemed through Jesus, including atheists.
During his homily at Wednesday Mass in Rome, Francis emphasized the importance of “doing good” as a principle that unites all humanity, and a “culture of encounter” to support peace.
Using scripture from the Gospel of Mark, Francis explained how upset Jesus’ disciples were that someone outside their group was doing good, according to a report from Vatican Radio.
“They complain,” the Pope said in his homily, because they say, “If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good.” And Jesus corrects them: “Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good.” The disciples, Pope Francis explains, “were a little intolerant,” closed off by the idea of possessing the truth, convinced that “those who do not have the truth, cannot do good.” “This was wrong . . . Jesus broadens the horizon.” Pope Francis said, “The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation.” Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/pope-francis-good-atheists_n_3320757.html
This is exactly what the itching ears of the pluralistic world system want to hear. The idea that good works can justify a person apart from faith in Christ is completely antithetical to the New Testament. The Gospels also record Jesus saying “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Mt 7:13–14) The Apostle Paul wrote, “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”(Ga 2:16) Pope Francis’s message is in direct contradiction of, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Ro 3:28) While it is now beyond question that Pope Francis is a false prophet, this seems to be an indicator that he may actually be the False Prophet (Rev 13:11 ff).
About Cris Putnam
Astounding!! Last days indeed.
Wow; What happens to Sin, Repentance, Baptism Acts2:38
I pointed this out to Vic in the previous post ‘Did not the Pharisee do good works’ and Jesus said, that they were putrid inside Mat23:25
The children of Israel never entered His Rest because of unbelief Heb3:11,12
The Lord said that an unbelieving heart is an Evil heart Heb3:12 Goodness does not remedy an unbelieving heart!
Here we have this white cladded sinner, The holy father, pope Francis the Apostate in complete defiance of the word of God with his benevolent statements to the atheists.
Boy what a Judas!
Well said! And what is even more sad is the true atheist, doesn’t give a hoot about what the pope or any other religious person has to say! They are the ‘cold’ faction. This message was to solidify the ‘lukewarm’ faction even further! and to possibly cause the HOT to doubt!
Zechariah 13: 7Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
8And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
The COLD are already dead. The HOT need to stay hot. The mixture of the hot and cold (fence sitters) become the LUKEWARM. The COLD and LUKEWARM are CUT OFF and the third (THE HOT) are brought through the fire: …”I will say, It is MY people: and they shall say, The LORD is my GOD”.
And notice that the HOT are LEFT THEREIN! Left where? “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;” Matthew 13:41 The whole world lies in the power of the evil one, but not under the COMPLETE authority of JESUS. All things will be put under HIS feet! Until then we patiently wait the redemption of all things.
Deirdre
Cris, if Pope Francis *is* the False Prophet, then many of his statements will be orthodox enough to provide a facade for his possibly non-orthodox statements. As examples of the former, I cite his desire for the Catholic Church to become more of a poorer church, with less emphasis on the trappings of power. After all, Satan didn’t need to change Eve’s perception by very much to get her to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Please keep that in mind when you evaluate this pope.
Also, please keep in mind that the Huffington Post is not the most credible source in the world. It has quite a liberal bias and its writers will skew their analysis toward that bias.
Well said! The pope is a man among the many.
Deidre, the fact that God does not want anyone to perish does *not* mean that people *won’t* perish, as you well know. The Book of Revelation makes that clear. A lot of Catholics look at the first part of that statement and forget the last part.
The nature of Christ’s sacrifice too often gets lost among intellectuals, theologians and church authorities.
Nevertheless, this pope’s possible belief in Universalism can’t be evaluated on this statement alone. It has to be evaluated in context with other statements he has made about other religions. As time goes by, humanity will have a broader context by which to evaluate his position.
I think the pope is trying to encourage atheists to come to Christ gradually, and he wants to do that by defusing a lot of the antagonism between atheists and theists (especially the antagonism atheists generate). Doing that means finding some kind of common basis for further contact. Good works — in, of and by themselves — cannot generate the kind of pervasive righteousness God demands. Nevertheless, they *can* be useful as a starting point — provided that both partied move beyond that starting point. That will be the key and will bear watching.
He’s also taking the same approach with Islam but too many innocent people are being persecuted and killed right now for such a strategy to work. Muslim theologians and clerics don’t care about Vatican nuance and pious words; they want to impose their regime of hatred and violence no less fanatically than the Nazis or Communists did.
Dear Mr. D’Hippolito,
Please bear with me as I am little confused about your response to me. Writing can be so ambiguous. I do not know whether the popes belief is in Universalism or not. There are other cardinals and such that do not agree with him, as is true in most of the RCC church (division I mean). His recent words do shed light on the present condition of the world (being lukewarm or cold/dead). I doubt very much that his words will have any impact on the atheist. (Not saying the LORD couldn’t use the pope to some how persuade an atheist unto salvation, we know the LORD can use whatever HE wants) My sister has been having ongoing conversations on fb with our brother to know end. It only feeds fuel to the fire of his pride and arrogance. He is still recovering from Luekemia. It reminds me of when the LORD says in Revelation that even after all the plagues and such, people would not repent of their sins. The pope and his recent words are only a small sign to me of the days we are living in. I do not hang on his words at all.
peace,
Deirdre
Deirdre, I’m sorry for the confusion. Let me try to simplify things:
1. No amount of good works can meet God’s righteous standards.
2. All too often, theologians and church leaders forget the true meaning of Christ’s sacrifice.
3. Francis’ statement on atheists has to be read in context with other statements he might have made on either atheism or universal salvation, or any statements he’ll make in the future.
4. I think Francis is trying to meet atheists where they are to draw them to Christ gradually. I could be wrong.
What I wrote should reflect those points. If they don’t, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
I pray not only that your brother embraces Christ but that He cures him of leukemia.
God bless you.
Thank you Mr. D’Hippolito for the clarification. Agree. And thank you for the prayers concerning my brother. The leukemia seems to have been cured or put at bay, however he still hates the LORD.
The blog I manage for the LORD is wwwdotsharetestimoniesdotblogspotdotcom
Peace
Deirdre
Let me extend my original post above (5/24 at 2:24 p.m.):
Suppose the Holy Spirit *did* choose Pope Francis. Does the Holy Spirit work for the Catholic Church or for the Triune God? Could it be possible that the Holy Spirit might have picked Francis to help fulfill the prophecies Cris Putnam and Tom Horn talk about???
Moreover, if people are spiritually deceived, would they be able to differentiate between the Holy Spirit and a satanic fake?
Food for thought…..
Jesus preached the Gospel, the Apostles preached the Gospel. The pope does not preach the Gospel
The message of the Gospel is that it calls ‘perishing sinners’ to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel preaches wrath upon sinners and shows the Love Christ to be the wrath bearer and the only means by which a just and Holy God is appeased Isaiah53:10
Certainly a good question. First of all, I hear many foolish using the name of the Holy Spirit in vain. Lack of common sense and spiritual discernment seems to be widespread among christians who claim to hear from the holy spirit, from demonically inspired visions/suggestions via christian channeling producing numerous modern day false prophecies to trivial nonsense like who is going to win a sports event or an illuminati controlled election.
Now pope francis has been mentioning the Holy Spirit quite a bit since the election and while these mentions do sound appropriate on the surface and to the ears of the public, the problem arises if in fact the jesuit extreme oath is true which he would have accepted being a jesuit, then the holy spirit he is talking about may be more in line with the spirit of lucifer of the unholy trinity regardless what he says in the public like any typical hypocritical politician.
Although it is still too early to tell but i think the strongest delusion will be based on the upcoming new age christ/messiah, son of lucifer and a probable new gospel accepting all the lost atheists, abominable beastly pagans and lifestyle homosexuals further undermining the true gospel and work of Jesus Christ. They have already prepared the ground by removing lucifer from new bible versions and instead changed it to morning star which in effect is one of the titles of Jesus connoting that he is the one that fell which fits with the beliefs of talmud jews. I have even seen a reference somewhere within masonic texts to “holy lucifer” which is probably one of the most extreme abominations i witnessed to date. And for the last couple of years during eastern vigil masses at the vatican they call out christ, the son of lucifer but in latin thus most do not notice.
This all fits just too perfectly with the masonic/judaic synagogue of satan and their centuries old work with bringing in the open the antichrist kingdom ruled from jerusalem. And the prophecy of the popes with francis being the last would mark the end of the old church age and the start of the new universal religion under the false light of lucifer. Did the talmud jews infiltrate jesuits or vice versa becomes irrelevant because today they are playing the same tune being one and the same synagogue that Jesus warned us about in revelations.
So it is imperative that each one of us learns to test the spirits keeping in mind that each sinful act we conduct even a thought will only attract demons that can masquerade as holy to deceive us with lies. That is the only way we are going to be able to stand firm from the pits of deception.
“The one whose coming (man of Sin) in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power, signs and false wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who perish”….. 2Thes2:9,10
The focus of the 2Thes2 passage is on the man of sin (that wicked one Vs8) and his deceptive satanic powers and the false signs and wonders associated with him) for the purpose of the “exaltation of himself as an object of worship above all Gods” 2thes2:4
Therefore; following the precepts of rightly dividing the Word by keeping context, “the Lie” has to be in relation to These manifestations of deception by the (man of sin) in order to exhibit his authority status by the acquiring of False Worship.(great recognition of self-worth) This also agrees with the miracle working Two Horned False prophet (antichrist) manifesting the Voice of the Dragon issuing in the image Worship of the beast…Rev13:11-13.
Furthermore; V11 says that God will send a “strong delusion” upon those perishing that they would believe “The Lie”
Understanding that The delusion is not the deception, but the giving over of the person by God in order that the lie is believed, that is the delusion… A delusion wrought by the very hand of God!
The delusion is not an external factor as are the false signs and wonders, God is not the worker if deceit! it is an internal factor upon the mind of those who regect the Love of the Truth in order that they “might believe what is False Vs11..It is in the same context of Rom1:26. that God gives over the Homosexual to reprobate minds allowing them to justify their abomination as something Good, backed by Government legislation. What ever the Lie be it will have the appearance of ‘Goodness’ and certainly have Governmental backing.
In a sense all men outside of Christ share the Luciferian Pride (original sin) that was injected in the veins of Humanity in the Garden. That was soon manifested by Cain by offering the works of his hands, (his self-worth)
So; There are many avenues of deception being used by the Devil in every sphere of humanity in order to prevent the truth of the Gospel reaching lost souls. 2Cor4:4
The (man of sin and his deceptive works) as I see it in accord with the Text will be the Climax of all deception and this will be in accord with God’s will, By God’s hand, in sending “the strong delusion upon wicked minds that all may believe the Lie.
The outcome will be the Worship the Image of the Beast. Rev13:15. by the instrumentality of the Man of Sin, “that wicked one” whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth by the appearance of His coming”2Thes2:8
Where is Joseph Michael when you need him? I am so interested to see how he spins this? The Vicar speaks,”Oops, the Cross means nothing”. I would listen to the Apostle Paul and be warned about those “who come preaching another gospel”
Spin from a “Catholic” theologian.
http://ronconte.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/pope-francis-and-the-salvation-of-atheists/
This seems to be the basis of the article posted above by Hopeful. “An atheist can enter the state of grace by an implicit Baptism of desire”
The question must be asked; how many means of justification there be with God?
This theologian is expressing a justification based on the false Gospel of ‘humanitarian Love’ with an unbiblical mode of baptism (baptism of desire) We might as well throw out the great Apostolic commission Mat28:18,19
The scriptures states “There is One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism” Eph4:5