Protestant friend claims pope Francis is trying to emerge one world religion?

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nat_c1990

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I will start off by saying that I have grown up Protestant and I have a lot of Protestant friends but my husband and I have recently started attending the Catholic Church. One of the biggest reasons we had never be interested in becoming Catholic previously was because of all the negative things we had heard about the Catholic Church from fellow Protestants. It wasn’t until we started doing the research on our own that we discovered that most of what we had been told was simply not true. I honestly don’t know why such a large majority of Protestants are so against the Catholic Church and try to turn so many people against them. I personally believe that the Catholic teaching stays the most true to the Word of God than any other teaching.

I have a Protestant friend on Facebook who made a post about pope Francis washing and kissing Muslim’s feet. My friend went onto say that while he agrees that we should show kindness and love toward one another, he claims that the Pope stated that we all worship the same God and that the Muslims just call Him by a different name. My friend went onto say that he doesn’t agree with this because Muslims worship allah and they believe Jesus was just a prophet.

I responded to the post and let my friend know that I could find nowhere that Pope Francis says we worship the same God. He said “we are all Gods children” which is quite different than saying we all worship the same God. My friend responded back by posting this link:

prophezine.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=917%3Apope-francis-and-the-emerging-one-world-religion

Again, not once in the article did I see where the Pope used the words “we worship the same God”. He said Muslims worship “the one God”, which is true, they do worship one God. Maybe the Pope just looks at it in the way that they have a different understanding of God than we do. It sounds like the guy who wrote the article is just trying to twist Pope Francis’ words in my opinion. Just curious what your opinions are on this.
 
It’s in the Catechism so you’ll have to blame Pope St. John Paul II, not Pope Francis.
841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day."330
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nat_c1990 said:
I will start off by saying that I have grown up Protestant and I have a lot of Protestant friends but my husband and I have recently started attending the Catholic Church. One of the biggest reasons we had never be interested in becoming Catholic previously was because of all the negative things we had heard about the Catholic Church from fellow Protestants. It wasn’t until we started doing the research on our own that we discovered that most of what we had been told was simply not true. I honestly don’t know why such a large majority of Protestants are so against the Catholic Church and try to turn so many people against them. I personally believe that the Catholic teaching stays the most true to the Word of God than any other teaching.

I have a Protestant friend on Facebook who made a post about pope Francis washing and kissing Muslim’s feet. My friend went onto say that while he agrees that we should show kindness and love toward one another, he claims that the Pope stated that we all worship the same God and that the Muslims just call Him by a different name. My friend went onto say that he doesn’t agree with this because Muslims worship allah and they believe Jesus was just a prophet.

I responded to the post and let my friend know that I could find nowhere that Pope Francis says we worship the same God. He said “we are all Gods children” which is quite different than saying we all worship the same God. My friend responded back by posting this link:

prophezine.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=917%3Apope-francis-and-the-emerging-one-world-religion

Again, not once in the article did I see where the Pope used the words “we worship the same God”. He said Muslims worship “the one God”, which is true, they do worship one God. Maybe the Pope just looks at it in the way that they have a different understanding of God than we do. It sounds like the guy who wrote the article is just trying to twist Pope Francis’ words in my opinion. Just curious what your opinions are on this.
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Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the same God - the God of Abraham. From the Catechism:
841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.
We believe that only in the Catholic faith do we have the full and complete knowledge of God. There are elements of truth in other faiths but they are all lacking in some aspect (e.g. Muslims lack the understanding of the Trinity and Jesus as the Son of God and not merely a prophet).

Our goal as Catholics is indeed one world faith - to bring all peoples to know God through Jesus and His Church.
 
I like you have a good number or protestants friends, even have a few in my family. I think the great thing about living in our time today is the information is readily available out there. And it’s not just from one source, like a book or a particular tv channel. Everything can be put on the table, and whatever claims are made can be put to the test where the truth should ultimately prevail.

Something protestants should probably ask themselves is why Catholicism needs to be questioned and proven false in order that the beliefs in protestantism be proven true. Even if there were no other religion to make comparisons. I would know Catholicism is the fullness of truth, because of were it originated from. Not of men, but from Christ.

Is is it the same God if we believe he is 3 persons and they don’t? To me what’s important is we desire to know who God is in his fullness and glory. Once they realize that Jesus is not just a great prophet and that He truly is divine(as some former Muslims have done, and Jews as well), they will love God that much more, because they’ll know Him as we do.
 
R_H_Benson said:
It is not doctrine.
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That what would you call it please? Is it a discipline? Is there some other word that better describes it?

It is most certainly more than just an opinion as it is taken from directly from Lumen Gentium (16)
vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

It is a true statement - Muslims worship the same God we do.
The Church teaches it to us as such - it is a part of the Catechism.
It a true teaching on a matter of faith - would this not be doctrine?
 
TheDoctor said:
It is doctrine, so you’ll have to “blame” Jesus. Your call on how far you want to go with that…😃
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Haha, good point!

The Jews are not Trinitarian but I think most would agree we worship the same God. Not sure why when it’s Muslims people can’t imagine that it’s the same God. There is only one God and in fact can only be one God (by God I mean the Source of Sources, The One, The Creator, Life, Existence, etc.). To put it more bluntly, if you worship the Creator of the universe you are worshiping Christ, even if you don’t realize it just yet.
 
TheDoctor said:
That what would you call it please? Is it a discipline? Is there some other word that better describes it?

It is most certainly more than just an opinion as it is taken from directly from Lumen Gentium (16)
vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

It is a true statement - Muslims worship the same God we do.
The Church teaches it to us as such - it is a part of the Catechism.
It a true teaching on a matter of faith - would this not be doctrine?
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Sorry, I was thinking “dogma” not “doctrine”. I confused the terms.
 
nat_c1990 said:
I will start off by saying that I have grown up Protestant and I have a lot of Protestant friends but my husband and I have recently started attending the Catholic Church. One of the biggest reasons we had never be interested in becoming Catholic previously was because of all the negative things we had heard about the Catholic Church from fellow Protestants. It wasn’t until we started doing the research on our own that we discovered that most of what we had been told was simply not true. I honestly don’t know why such a large majority of Protestants are so against the Catholic Church and try to turn so many people against them. I personally believe that the Catholic teaching stays the most true to the Word of God than any other teaching.

I have a Protestant friend on Facebook who made a post about pope Francis washing and kissing Muslim’s feet. My friend went onto say that while he agrees that we should show kindness and love toward one another, he claims that the Pope stated that we all worship the same God and that the Muslims just call Him by a different name. My friend went onto say that he doesn’t agree with this because Muslims worship allah and they believe Jesus was just a prophet.

I responded to the post and let my friend know that I could find nowhere that Pope Francis says we worship the same God. He said “we are all Gods children” which is quite different than saying we all worship the same God. My friend responded back by posting this link:

prophezine.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=917%3Apope-francis-and-the-emerging-one-world-religion

Again, not once in the article did I see where the Pope used the words “we worship the same God”. He said Muslims worship “the one God”, which is true, they do worship one God. Maybe the Pope just looks at it in the way that they have a different understanding of God than we do. It sounds like the guy who wrote the article is just trying to twist Pope Francis’ words in my opinion. Just curious what your opinions are on this.
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Nat - this is semantics.

All Jews, Christians and Muslims claim to worship the God of Abraham. Hence, we all worship the same God.

HOWEVER, our understanding of Him is drastically different. Christians we believe God to be a Triune God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Both the Jews and Muslims do not understand this. Of the three, Christians have the correct understanding of the Nature of God and only Catholics have the fullest, reveled, understanding of God.

One person here in the Catholic Answers Forums said it best before: Islam is most likely the result of Muhammad coming in contact with an extreme Catholic Heresy that denied the Divinity of Christ (like one of the Gnostics or something).

I’ve also read some people claiming that the devil fooled Muhammad. However, even if this is true, it doesn’t mean that they don’t worship the same God. Simply that their view of God is wrong.

By the way, Arabic speaking Catholics (and other Arabic speaking Christians) call God “Allah.” Allah is the simply Arabic for God. It’s not a name.

NOTE: some people will claim that Muslims do not worship the same God as us. Well, if that’s true, then neither do the Jews. It’s worth noting that most Jews do not acknowledged that we Christians worship the same God as them. This is because our understanding of God is different than theirs. Just like the Muslims have a different understanding of God than us. But again, only we Christians have the correct understanding of the Nature of God, and only Catholics have the fullest understanding.

I pray this helps. God Bless
 
Based on the “radio preachers” I’ve been exposed to, the idea that the “Pope o’Rome” is trying to bring about a one world religion - under his authority of course - goes back decades and is a staple of fundamentalist rhetoric. Certainly long, long before Pope Francis.
 
Thanks for all the informative answers, guys.

J_Peterson, that is a really good point about Jews compared to Muslims. My friend on Facebook made no argument against Jews worshiping God, his only focus was on Muslims. I think its an emotional thing. There is a lot of hate toward Muslims because of the fact that they are associated with the 9/11 attacks and I think that’s why a lot of Christians probably want to disassociate themselves from them and they dont want to acknowledge that we have anything in common with them. I could be wrong but that’s just kind of my gut feeling. I think we need to be able to set aside the emotions and focus on the goal of the church which is to unite as Christians.
 
The Catechism references all point back to the documents of Vatican II, which state the same thing.

To me, it seems an obvious point. They say they worship the one God, the God of Abraham. So do the Jewish people. So do we. That’s simply a statement of historical fact,

Does that mean that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe exactly the same things about God? Of course not. That is also easily demonstrated by simply looking at each group’s stated beliefs.

I’m not sure why some people get so hung up on this (and I know there are Catholics for whom this is a sticking point as well). Saying we worship the same God is not saying that non-Christians have the fullness of truth, nor is it saying that all religions are equal. It’s simply acknowledging that there is common ground. It’s a starting point, not an ending point.

Maybe a non-religious analogy would help. Say there is a group of people that believe the world is flat and the sun revolves around the earth. Now, both those who say the world is round and those who say the world is flat might say, “I believe the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.” They both observe the same phenomenon. They both agree on that core statement. But they definitely do not agree on everything.

If a “round-earther” told the “flat-earther”, “I agree with you that the sun rises in the east,” should we interpret that to mean that he agrees with everything the flat-earther says about the nature of the universe? Of course not. But just because two people disagree about even fundamental things does not mean that they must therefore disagree about everything.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Based on the “radio preachers” I’ve been exposed to, the idea that the “Pope o’Rome” is trying to bring about a one world religion - under his authority of course - goes back decades and is a staple of fundamentalist rhetoric. Certainly long, long before Pope Francis.
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It’s also not entirely untrue. I mean the Roman Catholic Church does consider itself the one true church and that those not members of it, Christian or not, do not have the fullness of truth. The RCC would like to see all Christians reunified to her and would like to see all non-Christians brought to her ultimately.

That said, there’s nothing unique about that position, nor anything sinister about it as some protestants like to present it.
 
Well, don’t all Protestants want to bring the world to Christ and have everybody be Christian? They sure spend a lot of time and effort trying to do that, and I don’t see where they try to bring others to any other religion. So what is the difference between the Pope and Jimmy Swaggart, Billy Graham, et al when it comes to wanting the world under one religion–Christianity? The religion is Christianity, not Catholicism or Protestantism.
 
Catholic Means Universal, which we take from the Greek. In English it also means “all-embracing” so in That sense of the word, the All=Embracing Church is ~already~ One. We’re just somewhere in the between times 😉

All “religion” comes from God. All Morality, Truth, Understanding, and every good thing. Even if we’re sometimes misguided or unclear in our beliefs, most, if not all religions have some variation on the Golden or Silver rules. We have Christs words which are far more down to earth and easier to follow, than those of a great many others who came before, but that doesn’t mean others don’t live “without God” as the meaning of the word Atheist would imply.
 
Padres1969 said:
It’s also not entirely untrue. I mean the Roman Catholic Church does consider itself the one true church and that those not members of it, Christian or not, do not have the fullness of truth. The RCC would like to see all Christians reunified to her and would like to see all non-Christians brought to her ultimately.

That said, there’s nothing unique about that position, nor anything sinister about it as some protestants like to present it.
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True, we do want the whole world to be Catholic. There is no hiding that fact. Just like all Protestants want the whole world to be protestant.

But I don’t think that’s what the OP meant. I think the OP’s Protestant friend is calming that the Pope wants to claim that all world religions are really just the same thing and they are all alike (the view the Masons have).

This is NOT what the Pope is saying, nor the Church.
 
phil19034 said:
True, we do want the whole world to be Catholic. There is no hiding that fact. ** Just like all Protestants want the whole world to be protestant.**
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Actually I’d dispute that last part. Not all Protestants in my experience want the whole world to be Protestant Christian. Christian maybe, but not necessarily Protestant.
But I don’t think that’s what the OP meant. I think the OP’s Protestant friend is calming that the Pope wants to claim that all world religions are really just the same thing and they are all alike (the view the Masons have).
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This is NOT what the Pope is saying, nor the Church.
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I agree it sounds like the OP’s friend subscribes to the idea that the RCC, or the pope himself, desires to create an Enigma Babylon One World Faith type nonsense (yes I stole that form those meh “Left Behind” books). Clearly that’s not what Pope Francis was talking about if you view his actual statements, particularly in context.
 
I think this video is why people are saying Pope Francis is trying to emerge a one world religion. The message in this video appears to be that we are all equal because we believe in love. Watch it and see what you think.

youtube.com/watch?v=-6FfTxwTX34
 
nat_c1990 said:
I will start off by saying that I have grown up Protestant and I have a lot of Protestant friends but my husband and I have recently started attending the Catholic Church. One of the biggest reasons we had never be interested in becoming Catholic previously was because of all the negative things we had heard about the Catholic Church from fellow Protestants. It wasn’t until we started doing the research on our own that we discovered that most of what we had been told was simply not true. I honestly don’t know why such a large majority of Protestants are so against the Catholic Church and try to turn so many people against them. I personally believe that the Catholic teaching stays the most true to the Word of God than any other teaching.

I have a Protestant friend on Facebook who made a post about pope Francis washing and kissing Muslim’s feet. My friend went onto say that while he agrees that we should show kindness and love toward one another, he claims that the Pope stated that we all worship the same God and that the Muslims just call Him by a different name. My friend went onto say that he doesn’t agree with this because Muslims worship allah and they believe Jesus was just a prophet.

I responded to the post and let my friend know that I could find nowhere that Pope Francis says we worship the same God. He said “we are all Gods children” which is quite different than saying we all worship the same God. My friend responded back by posting this link:

prophezine.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=917%3Apope-francis-and-the-emerging-one-world-religion

Again, not once in the article did I see where the Pope used the words “we worship the same God”. He said Muslims worship “the one God”, which is true, they do worship one God. Maybe the Pope just looks at it in the way that they have a different understanding of God than we do. It sounds like the guy who wrote the article is just trying to twist Pope Francis’ words in my opinion. Just curious what your opinions are on this.
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As you likely know, many Protestants and nondenominationals believe in something called the New World Order. They believe the NWO will bring about the antiChrist and end of days. Many also believe the RCC to be the antiChrist.

So, when the Pope was in the USA, all the NWO theorists were out in force about the second coming, looking for evidence (along with the blood moon theories, etc.). Some of this ‘evidence’ included the pope’s address to congress. The NWO concept seems to include a unification of governments and religion.

Luther also thought he was fighting for the fate of Christianity in the end of days. It’s been a theme ever since.

That said, Christ created one church. The church fathers such as Ignatius of Antioch (e.g. first century) spoke out strongly against schism in the church. So, Christian unity is still a noble goal.

While we do not accept Islam, nor their prophet, there is partial similarity as previously stated. They honor Abraham, Mary, and to some extent Jesus.
 
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