The Pope Is Asking
HAS THE POPE APOLOGIZED FOR PERSECUTIONS?
Some reports have stated that the Pope has apologized for the Catholic Church’s persecution of the saints. This is only a half truth. While the pope has uttered some regrets of sorts, referring to certain “weaknesses” and “mistakes” and “harmful acts” of the past, he has not plainly admitted that the Roman Church has butchered millions of humble Christians, and he has not plainly apologized for Rome’s bloody history. He has not acknowledged that the Roman papacy has been one of the bloodiest and most inhumane institutions in human history. He has not acknowledged that the papacy, through its blasphemous claims and sacramental gospel, has led multitudes to eternal Hell.
In this recent encyclical, for example, Pope John Paul II refers to certain “painful recollections” which some Protestants have in regard to the history of the papacy. He then says, “To the extent that we are responsible for these, I join my predecessor Paul VI in asking forgiveness.” Is that a genuine apology over Rome’s bloody history? No, it isn’t. He cleverly leaves it up to his hearers to decide to what extent Rome is responsible for any “painful recollections.” That is a sorry excuse of an apology for one who sits in the seat of the men who were responsible for the murder and torment of MILLIONS of humble, Bible-believing children of God.
The chief occasion at which the pope offered an apology of sorts for the persecution of non-Catholics occurred in Olomouc, the Czech Republic, in May. This was at the canonization of Jan Sarkander, a 17-century Jesuit priest who was charged with conspiracy by Lutherans in the Thirty Years War. He was believed to have been behind the destruction of Protestant communities in Moravia. All of this demonstrates the cleverness of the pope. He has pointed out that Sarkander should be seen as a “patron of ecumenical reconciliation” because while he was involved with persecuting Protestants, the Protestants were responsible for torturing him to death!
Using such an incidence as a backdrop for his “apology” to non-Catholics, the pope draws the attention away from Rome’s dominant role of being “drunk with the blood of the saints” (Rev.17:6).
What would the Bible require of the pope if he were truly to repent of Rome’s error? Repentance means a change of mind which results in a change of action. In the pope’s case, this would involve a great many things. A repentant pope would cast aside his blasphemous position and titles in fear and trembling. Instead of “holy father” he would desire to be called “lowly sinner.” A repentant pope would reject heretical Roman Catholic dogmas such as the Mass, the Priesthood, the Sacraments, and the intercession of Mary and the Saints. He would reject the damnable sacramental gospel of Rome (Galatians 1:6-9) and joyfully confess that salvation is the free gift of God to every one that believeth (Romans 1:16,17; 3:23-25; 10:9-13) and that eternal life is the present possession of every child of God (1 John 5:11-13).
Don’t be deceived by the clever manipulations of false teachers. The pope has not repented, and the Roman Catholic Church has not substantially changed.
May 16, 1996 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist News Service
Below is another attempt to ask forgiveness for the persecutions, brutal tortures, and massacres– four years from the previous article……
“Saddened” pope asks forgiveness for the past.
Pope John Paul II has publicly asked forgiveness from God for the sins of Roman Catholics throughout history……In what is being called one of the most significant acts of his papacy, the pope acknowledged the hatred, rivalry, intolerance, and omissions of Church members. He mentioned, but not in detail, past sins against Jews, Christians of other faiths, the poor, women, and minorities, and asked God to purify the consciences of Catholics as the Church enters the new millennium…..
……Catholics at times “have not been faithful to the great commandment of love, sullying in this way the face of the Church,” the pope said during a solemn Day of Pardon Mass in St.
Peter’s Basilica in Rome March 12. The “saddened” leader wore the purple vestments of Lenten mourning during the ceremony, [only an outward expression] held with the help of five Vatican cardinals and two bishops….The pope asked God’s forgiveness for violence by Christians “in the service of the truth.”
The allusion was to the burning of heretics at the stake during the Inquisition, slaughter of Muslims during the Crusades, and the forced conversions of native peoples, such as when Spanish conquistadors rampaged through the jungles of the New World….John Paul confessed the hostility of some Catholics toward followers of other religions, and asked forgiveness for the divisions among various branches of Christianity.
…Although the references to past wrongs were clear, they were not specific, disappointing some groups. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls had stressed last week that the pope intended to ask “pardon from God,” not from individual groups that have been wronged…….”Before Christ, who for love, took our sins upon Himself, we
are all invited to engage in a profound examination of conscience,” the pope said.
“This first Sunday of Lent seemed to
be the proper occasion for the Church to seek divine forgiveness for the sins of all believers. We forgive and ask forgiveness.”
…The pope called the act a necessary “purification of memory” for the Church to move forward……At the end of the confession, the 79-year-old pope embraced a large crucifix on the altar, imploring God’s forgiveness.
…..Some Jews said the pope should have specifically mentioned what they consider the disgraceful silence of some in the Church
during the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were massacred by the Nazis. The pope plans to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial
in Israel, during his March 20-26 visit to the Holy Land.
…In Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law apologized for Catholic failings including American slavery and modern-day sexual abuse by priests. He addressed a cathedral packed with parishioners, Jews, blacks, and Muslims. “Let us kneel before God and acknowledge with sorrow the failures of the past and implore forgiveness for our own sins and shortcomings,” he said.
…The pope promised to cleanse and reinvigorate Catholicism. The special Mass was a highlight of his campaign for a collective examination of conscience as the new millennium begins….John Paul appears to be “trying to reconfigure the Church’s thinking to confront a global reality” that Catholicism will, for the foreseeable future, “remain one faith among many, Christian and non-Christian, with which it must coexist,” Time magazine said.
…”I think it will turn out to be the most significant point in this pontificate,” Accattoli said on Italian television. “In the future, when everyone has forgotten communism, he will be remembered as the pope who asked for forgiveness.”
March 14, 2000— by the Editors of Religion Today
I believe it is nice to hear stories with the theme, “let’s forgive and forget”. But Christians cannot be so naive to what is really going on in the world today, especially in the Christian realm. History tells us one thing—past persecutions, massacres, Rome, Early Church upheavals, the Reformation—but the Bible tells us the future. If we forget the past, we will not know what to expect in the future.
What do we have to look forward to in the possible near future? The same thing that the Roman Catholic Church is trying to get us to “forgive and to forget”.
What the Bible says about the last days:
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:21-24
The following material is a collection of Christian martyrs, most in which were done by the Roman Catholics………..these two books, Fox’s Book of Martyrs and Smokescreens, are filled with Historical facts on the persecutions, grievous tortures, mutilations, burning at the stake, and the most horrid executions ever known.
Reasons? Because they exposed untruths, opposed the Roman Catholic Church, would not renounce their faith, and protested against the Church.
One example recorded from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, to the French Revolution, in 1789:
Instantly the troops seized the gates and avenues of the cities, and placing guards in all the passages, entered with sword in hand, crying, “Die, or be Catholics!” In short, they practiced every wickedness and horror they could devise to force them to change their religion.
FOX’S BOOK OF MARTYRS
a history of the lives, sufferings and triumphant deaths of the early christian and the protestant martyrs
About the author, John Foxe—
—For the sake of greater correctness, he wrote every line of this vast book with his own hand, and transcribed all the records and papers himself…… The papists, forseeing how detrimental his history of their errors and cruelties would prove to their cause, had recourse to every artifice to lessen the reputation of his work; but their malice was of signal service, both to Mr. Fox himself, and to the Church of God at large, as it eventually made his book more intrinsically valuable, by inducing him to weigh, with the most scrupulous attention, the certainty of the facts which he recorded, and the validity of the authorities from which he drew his information…….Although the recollection of the persecutions under Bloody Mary gave bitterness to his pen, it is singular to note that he was personally the most conciliatory of men, and that while he heartily disowned the Roman Church in which he was born, he was one of the first to attempt the concord of the Protestant brethren.
SMOKESCREENS, BY JACK T. CHICK
In this 93 page book, the “smokescreen” is cleared away so all can see and remember the quickly fading history of the Church. Mr. Chick uncovers the “cover-up’s”, exposes the lies, and reveals the fully documented articles along with photographs of some of the most hideous tortures, and in the photo’s you will notice the wicked smiles on their faces as if they were posing with trophies they had won. There are a few stories of how some made a game out of the cruel murders of Christians.
Both books are available at very reasonable prices at the address on the back of this tract.
Bible prophecies warn of the end-time persecutions of the Church. The Pope, as well as many Evangelical leaders are calling for the world-wide unity of religions. What do you think might happen to those who will oppose this “unity”?
We are living in a time when it is becoming a crime to speak out against sin, false religions, cults, and dangerous teaching that our children are exposed to on a daily basis in our Public School System. Will Christians have to go back into hiding to Worship and serve the TRUE God.
Will we have to go to jail for passing out a simple Gospel tract? Are we going to have to give up our Bibles, well at least the one’s that still contain the truth in it? Will true Christians be labeled heretics for not following the mainstream Church?
All of the Bible’s prophecies are true, and if the end-time prophecies are true, and they are, we are headed for trouble. Don’t be fooled! History will tell you where you came from, and your Bible will tell you where you are headed.
As J.T.C. said it……..”The Church today is grass…and a huge lawnmower is coming straight at it, singing hymns.”
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