Pope’s Defection – A Key End Times Signal :: By Terry James

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles, Terry James

Christendom is a word I view as designed by secularists of the world to encompass their misunderstood view of what comprises True Christianity. Under this misunderstanding, all who claim to be Christians are, according to this worldly definition, Christians. All fall under the term Christendom.

There are many sects, faiths, and religious systems that the secularists include within their favored term to encapsulate, to one degree or the other, religious belief in and spiritual embrace of the figure called Jesus Christ. These are each and every one false.

In my own view of what it means to be a Christian, there is but one system of faith. There is no other person, method, or anything else that can make a person a Christian. That Faith system, the Bible –God’s Word—tells us that Jesus Christ alone is the Savior of mankind. The person is a Christian who accepts without question what Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

There is nothing that stands between God and the human being other than Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten (born in the flesh) Son.

It is with this Truth from God’s Word –the Bible—that I must somewhat qualify, or perhaps explain, the title of this article.

Pope’s defection – a key end times signal

The Catholic system of belief –of which there are several versions—often is separated by those commentating on the Catholic faith as differing from mere Christianity. This is, presumably, because those devotees to that system consider their Catholic Church as the only True Church to the exclusion of others that left as part of the Reformation and since have divided into multiple factions of Protestantism.

Catholicism says there are layers of mediators between God and mankind, i.e., one must confess to a priest, who might take the confession to the Mother of God (Mary), who, again, presumably might take the confession to the Son (Jesus) Who then, presumably takes the confession and obtains the forgiveness necessary from God the Father. At least, this is my –a neophyte in comprehension of the Catholic system— cursory understanding of how the Catholic system of mediation works.

I cannot even begin to accept this for many reasons, but to name just one reason, I offer this Truth from God’s Holy Word.

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5).

Now, I write all of the above in order to try to explain how the Catholic pope –Pope Francis—has “defected” and why this “defection” is a key end times signal.

My belief in Christ alone for salvation precludes my counting the pope as within Christianity, but rather under the Christendom umbrella posited by the secularists, as I’ve tried to show above. So, when I say that Pope Francis has “defected,” I don’t mean that he has, in my view, defected from the True Christian Faith.

In my view, because of the Catholic Church’s declaration that there are a number of mediators between God and Man (as just one reason in this regard), this pope –or any other pope—can’t defect from a faith system under which they’ve never been.

This said, this pope, Pope Francis, has defected from that faith system –Catholicism—which has in common with True Christianity the belief that God finds homosexuality to be an egregious sin of an abominable sort. This agreement between the True Christian Faith and the Catholic faith does point starkly to the defection that this pope champions.

The following helps make understandable the end times apostasy at this late hour of the Church Age (Age of Grace).

Pope Francis is now accusing opponents of priestly gay-couple blessings of being hypocrites when, in fact, his blessing of homosexual relations and calling it good is hypocrisy. According to Francis, all the holy popes, bishops, and saints of Church history were hypocrites because they denied blessings to gay couples and barred them from the Church.

In a recent interview, Francis expressed his strongest words thus far concerning his decision to bless homosexual couples. He told NBC: “Nobody gets scandalized if I give my blessings to a businessman who perhaps *exploits people, and this is a very grave sin. But they get scandalized if I give them to a homosexual, Pope Francis, via ‘Credere.’ This is Hypocrisy.”

This is a highly inappropriate comparison and reflects an obstinate attempt to continue his blessing of homosexual unions. His argument holds no water. Comparing a businessman to a homosexual makes as much sense as comparing a carpenter to a rapist. A carpenter, by definition, is a responsible working man, whereas a homosexual, by definition, is a sex offender on the path to perdition. Businessmen generally are responsible people working to support their families, unlike homosexuals whose criminal lives “cry to heaven for vengeance.”

If a businessman comes to a priest for a blessing, it means he truly wants this blessing for his soul and for success in his work, so the priest should bless him. And while he might commit some sins or faults in his work, that’s not a reason to deny him a blessing. “A just man shall fall seven times” (Proverbs 24:16) and then rises.

Whereas, if a homosexual couple comes to a priest for a blessing, it’s because they want their shameful relationship blessed. Were it otherwise, they wouldn’t dare to approach the priest ‘holding hands’ together. They want their gay union blessed, so Francis blesses it because he is a gay sympathizer. He is blessing their homosexual aspirations, not their souls, thereby working their eternal ruin, and then he calls it “good.” That is hypocrisy! [Source: Francis: Opponents of Clerical Gay Couple Blessings are ‘Hypocrites,’ by David Martin, Canada Free Press, February 8, 2024]

My writing of late has been on the likeness of our present time to being like that of Lot’s day in Sodom. This pope and his declarations –the latest being on the matter of sodomy and his opposition to his Catholic faith system, highlight, I think, just how near is that moment when Jesus foretold He will next be “revealed” and God’s judgment would fall on a Sodom and Gomorrah-like people.

There are today pronounced instances of falling away within major denominations from the True Faith found in God’s Holy Word. Homosexuality is at the heart of much of this defection. This “defection” by this pope from his own false system also smacks of Paul’s forewarning found in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 about the falling away (the apostasy) that will occur just before Antichrist comes onto the scene following the Rapture of the True Church –all born-again believers.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thes 2:3).

Despite God’s dire forewarning about those who fall under what He calls the abomination of homosexuality, He desires to forgive and bring into His family all who repent and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, for salvation. And I must say here that those who are Catholics who believe in Jesus Christ alone for the salvation of their souls are “in Christ” forever. But they are saved in spite of, not because of, their Catholicism. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Here is how to receive God’s Forgiveness and be part of God’s Heavenly Family forever.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

 

Is the Old Testament Now Obsolete? :: By Gene Lawley

Published on: by RR10 Category:Gene Lawley, General Articles

There seems to be a strong and purposeful trend to cancel out the Old Testament of the Bible since Christ has come into human history. It takes off on a theme that Christ took charge and all prophecy of the future from past utterances of the prophets are no longer relevant.

It takes on the appearance of a “Kingdom Now” theology, and the next thing to come is a new heaven and new earth coming down to replace the present heaven and earth. Chronologically, that won’t happen until the end of the Millennium, at least one thousand and seven or more years, according to Revelation 21:1.

Those false teachers cancel out the coming of Jesus to “ingather” His body of believers just before the seven years of the tribulation begins, now looming on the immediate horizon. That missing 70th week of Daniel, told by the angel Gabriel to Daniel and reported at Daniel 9:23 and following, can be none other than the seven-year tribulation period.

A major fault that openly defies Scripture is their claim that Jesus did not die on the cross for the whole world but just for those who believe. Scriptures that deny that claim are readily seen, as in 1 John 2:2: “And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world.” John 3:16 is even changed to mean “For God so loved the world [of believers] that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Does “whosoever” mean anyone, or how did that “world of believers” get belief before Christ died for them?

Furthermore, Romans 5:6 says, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly!” He died for sinners, and I was one of that ungodly bunch. Romans 5:8 further establishes that His death came first, before the believers, saying, “But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

But Romans 5:18 then brings the reason that the death of Christ was necessary in order that mankind would have access to everlasting life by choice if he wanted it: “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

An available gift is not automatically effective until it is accepted, so this does not mean all mankind is saved. Mankind must choose Christ’s provision of redemption. He is that gift for salvation. And twisting Scriptures to mean something else is obviously promoting a false doctrine. The Scripture is clear in 1 John 5:11-12: “And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” The gospel is an Old Testament promise.

Another Old Testament command also speaks out. When did the Great Commission actually begin? In Psalm 107:2 it says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”

The foundations of our faith are told in the Old Testament, and God never made a promise He did not intend to fulfill. It has been reported that at least 300 or more prophecies and promises of Jesus and His coming into the world have been fulfilled.

Paul, the Apostle, was well-versed in the Holy Scriptures and said so in his testimony in Philippians 3. His declaration in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 was based on Old Testament Scriptures, for none of the New Testament writings had been brought into formal observance yet.

In his epistles, Paul made two worthy observances that testify to the value of the Old Testament in our theology today. In 1 Corinthians 10:11, he reported this: “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

God has not changed one bit since the beginning, before time began and eternity past was incomprehensible to mortal minds.

Not only does Paul point us to the Old Testament for examples of sinfulness we must avoid, but he also looks there for the Lord’s affirmations of positive qualities. Romans 15:4-5 tells us of those: “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus.”

The shedding of blood as the requirement for salvation is recorded in Genesis 3 and is later codified in the law in Leviticus 17:11, saying, “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for sin, for it is the blood that makes the atonement.”

It is further established in Hebrews 9:22 with this: “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” And, of course, that final blood sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as One without sin confirmed and fulfilled that law in its perfection.

Concerning the fulfillment of “every jot and tittle of the law,” as claimed of Christ, we see in Hebrews 4:15 how His response to temptations reveals His deity: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Two passages that are so detailed of the coming Messiah’s crucifixion that they cannot be called as no longer relevant Scriptures. Psalm 22 is the first one, and Isaiah 53 is the other one.

That first one details the horror of dying on a cross. You may recall that account in the gospels when Jesus was nailed to the cross on the third hour, that is, at 9:00 a.m. Then, at the ninth hour, or 3:00 p.m., He was pronounced dead. He was hanging there for six hours!

He had just said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” then, “It is finished,” and, “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.”

It is an unimaginable and horrible way to die, hanging nailed to an upright cross for six hours, and for the two thieves, having their legs broken to complete their deaths. But for Jesus, a prophecy was fulfilled that none of His bones would be broken.

The Isaiah 53 prophecy tells of His suffering at the hands of the religious leaders as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” and His hanging between two thieves. It is too truthful to be relegated to nothing worth remembering, as it seems this new “revelation” is promoting.

Another prophecy that stands out in its fulfillment is found in Psalm 16:9-10, saying, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”

In John 11, in the account of the death of Lazarus, his sister cautioned Jesus about the condition of her brother’s body, for it had been in the grave for four days, and she said, “Now He stinks.” That is, his body had begun to experience corruption.

Thus, Jesus had maintained that He would follow the example of Jonah who had been in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights. Jesus said, “I will be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth.” Then Peter writes that “He went and preached to the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19).

One of the less recognized considerations of the Old Testament is its place in the four revelations of God to mankind. His first way of identifying Himself was by His audible voice, for no man can see God face to face and live, as the Word declares. And encounters with heavenly beings by people that are recorded in the Old Testament show their responses of great fear as they fall on their faces.

Secondly, “He revealed Himself in the law.” How was that, you wonder? As Jesus is later identified, it is the character of His being, as He fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law.

Then, Hebrews 1 reveals Him in the person of His only begotten Son, as Jesus declared to Phillip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” and, “Before Abraham was, I AM!”

Finally, He comes into the world at the end of those seven years of tribulation and reigns for a thousand years from Jerusalem, “ruling with a rod of iron” in a theocracy not known to mankind from their prior history.

The “whole counsel of God” is a principle of biblical study that tests whether or not the student is allowing for contradictions that might exist in his basic doctrine discoveries. Just as the Bereans did, as told in Acts 17:11, the Old Testament is necessary to learn of the whole counsel of God. Proverbs is a book of great wisdom with such truths as, “Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).

And, Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will guide your steps.”

When Jude wrote his letter, he was going to write about their common salvation, but he “found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Since he quoted Peter’s second letter, dated about 66 A.D., Jude possibly wrote his document not long after that time.

Those New Testament letters were not based on new writings, per se, but had to have been founded on Old Testament Scriptures. As the Bereans readily searched the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was so, and that was all they had, it remains that “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” came out of Old Testament Scriptures.

Read the angel’s message to Daniel of that missing 70th week that so well describes the purpose of God’s plan to punish Israel for their disobedience and to restore them to His grace and fellowship in an everlasting righteousness.

You who would hijack the promises and prophecies of God for these last days to create doctrines of your own making, get ready for a sudden awakening to a God of judgment. When the flesh of Adam’s heritage injects its tongs into the plan of God and twists Scripture to its own understanding, God must make necessary corrections and exact judgment.

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com