(Somebody close to the Pope needs to sneak him a Bible into the Vatican.)
“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Leo said. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’” (This IS NOT Jesus speaking, but Isiah.)
That passage is Isaiah 1:15, and the pope took it entirely out of context.
Isaiah was a prophet in the southern Hebraic kingdom of Judah who lived during the life of King Hezekiah. The warnings God gave through Isaiah have nothing to do with war, but the sin and idolatry in the people's hearts.
The entire chapter, and the wider book of Isaiah, has to do with God's disgust at religious hypocrisy and abuse of justice.
God hates reckless bloodshed, but He isn't against war. In fact, many times He has blessed warriors and commanded wars!
Did God not listen to the prayers of all the Popes that started wars?
First Crusade (1095–1099) — Called by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont.
Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) — Initiated by Pope Innocent III.
Fifth Crusade (1217–1221) — Proclaimed by Pope Honorius III.
Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229, against Cathar heretics) — Launched by Pope Innocent III.
War of the League of Cambrai (1508–1516) — Pope Julius II formed the anti-Venetian league.
War of the Eight Saints (1375–1378) — Pope Gregory XI excommunicated Florence and sent forces against the Italian coalition.
Psalm 144:1 (A Psalm of David.) Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:.
Is it blasphemy to twist Scripture to fit some dopey, hippy view of God so that the Bible fits neatly in a 21st-century liberal worldview?
Not a good pope since John Paul II. Bunch of leftists, commie sympathizers.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Catholic but from what I've seen, agreeing with you, the recent Popes haven't opened their Bibles in quite a while.
DeleteI was raised Protestant and made the mistake of marrying a Catholic. At some point she arranged for us to take an adult Catholic catechism class. I agreed since everything I knew about Catholicism was second or third hand.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Catholic Church does not consider the Bible authoritative; church tradition trumps the Bible everytime.
The Catholic Church is adamant that Mary, the mother of Jesus was without sin her entire life. Furthermore, they believe that you cannot just ask for forgiveness, but works are required for salvation. This means that what Jesus did on the cross was both unnecessary and insufficient for salvation.
There are plenty of other issues with the Catholic Church, but I believe that one alone should be sufficient to wonder if the Catholic Church should be considered Christian. From my perspective, the heart of Christianity is what Christ did on the cross and what it takes/took for salvation. From that perspective, Catholics are not Christian. Most have only a passing understanding of the Bible, which makes sense since in their view it is not authoritative.
You have some confusion about what Catholics believe. I would suggest you retake the adult catechism class because you clearly didn’t pay attention the first time.
DeleteAmong the many things you have wrong, Catholics absolutely believe that you can simply ask for forgiveness. It’s called confession. We do it all the time.
The part about “works” comes from “faith without works” meaning that simply giving lip service to something or simply saying that you have faith is meaningless, if you don’t back it up. Do as I say AND do as I do. Not just repeat the words Jesus said and do whatever you want.
Anon 8:54: Ever since I became a Christian and started learning what other religions believed, I have not equated Christianity with Catholicism.
DeleteFor all the reasons you mentioned, plus they pray to Mary, which is useless, she's a human, just like you and I.
You can't put wine and bread in a fancy microwave and proclaim it to be the ACTUAL blood and flesh of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
And many more.
I don’t want to take up your blog to argue. It’s rude at best and it certainly isn’t my aim. But in regards to Mary, I have to ask:
DeleteHave you EVER asked anyone, here on this earth, to pray for you? People ask for others to pray for them all the time. Whenever there is any sort of tragedy people offer their prayers. Why? They are only human, so their prayers don’t matter?
What is the point of asking others to pray for you?
If you want to delete this that’s fine. If you find the topic interesting and don’t mind I’m up for it.
Thanks
You're perfectly fine, Shrimp. That's not being rude. I really don't want to get into a theological in depth discussion ... and I DON'T want to Catholic bash.
DeleteBUT there's a world of difference in asking your friends, family, and church family to pray for you and praying to a HUMAN who has passed away and can't hear you and can't intercede for you.
Sorry this going to get deep quickly.
Deletefrom the BUT:
why? If we believe the soul is eternal, and we believe in the resurrection ( people will be raised from the dead anew ) and we believe that people go to heaven ( or hell ) then how can we as Christians not believe that there are many souls there in heaven right now? Jesus himself told us that the least in heaven is greater than any on earth ( he was referencing John the Baptist and how he great he was here on earth but the point is there). Why would God listen to our prayers here on earth, but not once we are in heaven?
Christians are supposed to be a body of believers. A community. As Catholics we believe that just because someone has died doesn’t mean that they can no longer pray or hear us. Praying to them to pray for us is no different than asking fellow members of your church to pray for you. I don’t know that they can’t hear us. My faith tells me that the soul is eternal and reading in my bible I see that at the Transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus. If they appeared with Jesus that means that their souls are still in existence. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus Jesus recounts the rich man who died begging for Lazarus to be sent to place a drop of water on his tongue. That rich man is dead and yet very keenly aware of what is happening. Despite being dead he can hear and make requests. Yes it’s only a parable. But it’s instructive of several things, not the least of which is that the soul is eternal and despite death the soul can be aware of “ current events” for lack of a better term.
Sorry I’m like a dog with a bone. Just tell me to shut up and I’ll go back to lurking
Thanks
The Pope is not infallible unless he is speaking 'Ex Cathedra', which is a specific formulation that must be used in the pronouncement - none of the Commie Popes, not even Johnnie Roncalli the Red Pope (John XXIII) had the balls to attempt to make an Ex Cathedra pronouncement on something that was inconsistent with the faith.
ReplyDeleteAs Padre Pio once said, "There are enough cardinals in Hell for them to elect their own Pope."