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

[Lynxdk]

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 understand this. I’ve tried talking to Many people from non-catholic Christian perspectives, and it can be difficult because there’s so many negatives to bring up from the past, especially.

Martin Luther, for example, one of the Protests He had against the old Church, was the sale of indulgences. Politics of the day allowed money to be exchanged for some comfort towards the buyer, that they could continue on in Sin, because a “priest” absolved them in exchange for lining their pockets. One example of the things he sought to “change” in the Catholic Church, that wasn’t a Catholic problem as much as a Human problem, as this, obviously, is not how forgiveness and sacraments work, and the Church ~did~ address this, but perhaps not quick enough for Luther.

I don’t want to be uncharitable, but people do have issues that they can get hung up on, so while Luther did have things that he was Right about, and needed to be addressed, he may have had other issues that didn’t allow him to have the patience to follow through in a timely manner, so created a schism…

I have schizophrenia, and I understand how difficult it can be to remain patient and wait for things to improve, just on a Personal level, in having to sometimes sit and allow my feelings of fear and paranoia to pass before I get on with the rest of my day. This doesn’t happen so often anymore, but just using my own feelings as an example.

I don’t mean to offend anyone, but it seems that with a lot of Protestants, and even in some Catholics, along with their leaders, seem to be afraid of “losing” or “losing their flocks” for various reasons, or worse, “afraid of the Devil” and so they engage in the usual rhetoric that the Catholic Church is a “source of evil” rather than try to distinguish between the “practices” of Men and the “practices” of the Church, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed with emotion, misguiding a more reasonable approach.

They often they forget themselves, leaning on their Own knowledge, rather than that of God (from Psalms) and forget to Be Not Afraid!

This is not true for all, certainly, as I’m friends with more non-Catholics than Catholics now, and they See things clearer, but have their own reasons for not moving to the Catholic Church. They have no hard feelings, and allow God to lead, rather than get worked up in fear filled imaginings that somehow the “devil” might “win” if they don’t do everything in there power to stop it… As if we, alone, had that power.

It’s a shame, really, because while extreme, they’re often coming from the “right place” in seeing that there is much in this world that should not be, but they get so twisted up in Fears, that they can’t tell the difference between what is Godly and what is Worldly.

Too many people treat Church like a Crutch, and only go “just in case God is Real” and too many others treat Church and the Bible as Weapons, instead of a Shield, and they clothe themselves in Anger and Hate, which is merely Fear turned inside out, and projected against the “other” rather than recognize the the “devil” is something to work on, from the Inside, our own failings and issues to be addressed, in order to reach out with the Love of God, to help people, console and comfort them, rather than scare them away with the threat of hell and damnation.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

 

[Lynxdk]

As you likely know, many Protestants and nondenominationals believe in something called the New World Order.

That’s what I was talking about in my previous post. Having Schizophrenia, and experience with fear filled, psychotic imaginings, I’ve had to practice a great deal separating “connections” to things, that aren’t Real connections, even though they “fit a puzzle in my head” so perfectly, that they’ve driven me near to insanity in the past.

People think fear is real, because it ~feels~ real, and they forget to Trust. It’s more difficult when one doesn’t have a clearer understanding of the way of Christ.

 

[SyroMalankara]

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.

No offense but your friend is a bit of a conspiracy kook. The Pope can’t even get all Catholics to agree with all things, let along all religions. NOT that he’s evwn attempting such an impossibility

 

[Brendan]

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?

It is not doctrinal, simply a statement of fact as currently understood based on the information at hand

We make no doctrinal claims about what others believe. The beliefs of Muslims may change to such an extent that what the CCC states no longer is true. But both dogmas and doctrines cannot change to such an extent.

What we CAN can hold true is " If a person claims to believe in one God, and that they claim that that God is the same God as that of Abraham, then if that claim is true, we believe in the same God"

 

[Lynxdk]

No offense but your friend is a bit of a conspiracy kook. The Pope can’t even get all Catholics to agree with all things, let along all religions. NOT that he’s evwn attempting such an impossibility

Calling people who have been raised with Spiritual Abuse that leads them Away from God, is not only uncharitable, it’s unhelpful, and only further serves to drive people apart and away from the Truth.

If we’re to be honest about these things, many Catholic families raise their children with such ideas, unaddressed and often unspoken of, that God is out to “Get them” instead of out to Love them, which is why many Catholics have left the Church to join other Churches that welcome them, only to end up doing the same things, but from a Protestant perspective and until people start paying attention to these things in greater detail, instead of reacting emotionally out of fears or frustrations, that can cause us to remove ourselves from God’s Graceful works in our own selves, in the process.

 

[DAML72]

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.

This. Your friend’s claim is also a common one in the conspiracy circles. Rest assured, Pope Francis is not the anti-christ, and he is not a pawn in the “New World Order”. It is true that Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the same God, and Pope Francis is looking for peace, harmony and common understanding among the world’s religions, but to assert that he seeks the establishment of a new, one-world religion is simply untrue.

 

[rcwitness]

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.

Hi Padre,
I think you are being positive, so don’t take me as criticizing you here, or that you are wrong. But the part I bolded could be understood better, no?

Consider the ten virgins who awaited the Bridegroom. If we are One Bride, we wait together and have the same oil, which sustains our Lamps. It’s not so much the Catholic Church believes all must unify to her, as all must unify to Him having the oil which keeps us.

Similarly, we can understand praying to Mary for intercession. We don’t pray to her as much as with her. It’s to her in the sense of communicating for the sake of asking for her prayers (or any other Christian or Saint), but it is with her in the sense of who we are seeking and worshipping.

The virgins who remained together to the end, would not have quarrels and issues. They would each have the same devotion and have the same provisions for the night.

 

[TimothyH]

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

Garbage.

They believe in the rapture, that microchips are the mark of the beast and that the Bible is the sole rule of faith.

The ten seconds I spent at that website were a waste.

Similarly, we can understand praying to Mary for intercession. We don’t pray to her as much as with her. It’s to her in the sense of communicating for the sake of asking for her prayers (or any other Christian or Saint), but it is with her in the sense of who we are seeking and worshipping.

I pray to Mary. Christians have been praying to Mary for 2000 years.

-Tim-

 

[rcwitness]

I pray to Mary. Christians have been praying to Mary for 2000 years.

-Tim-

I was distinguishing the type of prayer it is. IOW, not all prayer is worshipping. Within our worship of God alone, we venerate her and ask her for her prayers. Yes?

Like the Rosary… it is towards her in a sense, but directly to God also. The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father) is prayed within the Rosary. So we do pray directly to God, but also ask for our Mother’s prayer.

 

[mattp0625]

That’s what I was talking about in my previous post. Having Schizophrenia, and experience with fear filled, psychotic imaginings, I’ve had to practice a great deal separating “connections” to things, that aren’t Real connections, even though they “fit a puzzle in my head” so perfectly, that they’ve driven me near to insanity in the past.

People think fear is real, because it ~feels~ real, and they forget to Trust. It’s more difficult when one doesn’t have a clearer understanding of the way of Christ.

I don’t think you’re alone in this. Look at how deeply folks dive into politics and all the related narratives. It’s enough to get to anyone.

 

[Padres1969]

Hi Padre,
I think you are being positive, so don’t take me as criticizing you here, or that you are wrong. But the part I bolded could be understood better, no?

Consider the ten virgins who awaited the Bridegroom. If we are One Bride, we wait together and have the same oil, which sustains our Lamps. It’s not so much the Catholic Church believes all must unify to her, as all must unify to Him having the oil which keeps us.

Similarly, we can understand praying to Mary for intercession. We don’t pray to her as much as with her. It’s to her in the sense of communicating for the sake of asking for her prayers (or any other Christian or Saint), but it is with her in the sense of who we are seeking and worshipping.

The virgins who remained together to the end, would not have quarrels and issues. They would each have the same devotion and have the same provisions for the night.

Actually my word choice was purposeful there. Since Protestants already see themselves as unified to Him (I know I do ). But yes your expression of the same idea would be a more accurate representation of the situation from a Catholic POV I think.

 

[rcwitness]

Actually my word choice was purposeful there. Since Protestants already see themselves as unified to Him (I know I do ).

My whole point is that the belief in intercession is not opposed to personal unification to Him. It has more to do with acknowledging we are not the ONLY one united to Him, nor are we the most closely united to Him.

 

[esieffe]

Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about at all.”

Intelligent, open minded people who seek the truth on matters, often find the truth, like you have. As long as the Pope speaks, there will be someone standing by to take it out of context, or are too dull to even understand it at all. I know more than a few converts, who at some point along the way, had a negative view on some aspects of Catholicism.

 

[Lynxdk]

I don’t think you’re alone in this. Look at how deeply folks dive into politics and all the related narratives. It’s enough to get to anyone.

Aye. I agree wholeheartedly, I just mention that, in my case, it’s rather extreme, and still can be overcome. I sometimes get folks who’ll just tell me I’m “crazy” for the stuff I say, because I can understand the “stigma” people with “mental illness” get, having been through it time and again with my own family. I can understand that “normal people” never would want to see themselves that way, either…

Another Fear.

So I show my “weaknesses” as an example. I try to show, and explain how ~I~ manage mine, hoping that, rather than turning away because “I’m crazy and don’t know what I’m talking about”, and going on with theirs, others might take something from it, and learn how to find their own ways through, instead of projecting their own fears and feelings on others, ~especially~ in politics and religion, where it’s been affecting way too many people, and causing a lot of chaos.

 

[JosieN]

"And now, overwhelmed with the deepest sadness, We ask Ourselves, Venerable Brethren, what has become of the Catholicism of the Sillon? Alas! this organization which formerly afforded such promising expectations, this limpid and impetuous stream, has been harnessed in its course by the modern enemies of the Church, and is now no more than a miserable affluent of the great movement of apostasy being organized in every country for the establishment of a One-World Church which shall have neither dogmas, nor hierarchy, neither discipline for the mind, nor curb for the passions, and which, under the pretext of freedom and human dignity, would bring back to the world (if such a Church could overcome) the reign of legalized cunning and force, and the oppression of the weak, and of all those who toil and suffer.

We know only too well the dark workshops in which are elaborated these mischievous doctrines which ought not to seduce clear-thinking minds."

-Pope St Pius X in Notre Charge Apostolique

papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10notre.htm

Does anyone have a comment about this?

 

[mikekle]

This. Your friend’s claim is also a common one in the conspiracy circles. Rest assured, Pope Francis is not the anti-christ, and he is not a pawn in the “New World Order”. It is true that Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the same God, and Pope Francis is looking for peace, harmony and common understanding among the world’s religions, but to assert that he seeks the establishment of a new, one-world religion is simply untrue.

While its safe to say our current pope is NOT the AC, if the bible is correct, one day in the future, the real AC will come and according to many, he may come from within the CC…it also says a majority of people will not be able to recognize him for what he truly is.(including the elect)…kind of eerie, huh?

I wonder if people then will be doing the same thing we are today, arguing that ‘this person’ could not possibly be the AC or false prophet…(when in reality, they really are?)

ID say if there is this much debate about our current pope, its very likely the same thing will be going on when the true AC is here!

 

[Lynxdk]

While its safe to say our current pope is NOT the AC, if the bible is correct, one day in the future, the real AC will come and according to many, he may come from within the CC…

Mostly responding to the thread, in general, including the OP, but you brought up that bit ^

I think they mean to say, from Daniel, where it points towards someone of Roman descent, not necessarily of the Roman Catholic Church (not that ~you~ said that, but ~they~ often do)… which, for those not aware, is just the Catholic Church, not the Roman Catholic, but that’s part and parcel with the way these folks try to pin it on Popes, and then just shuffle the ideas around to pin it on Presidents, or whoever they like the least at the time they say it.

The idea that the AC is going to to be a Pope is a paranoid Crutch of mostly made up stuff by apostates who Pretend to be Christian, but really aren’t, so how much are we going to depend on the word of those who don’t even follow the Word?

You will know them by their fruits.

For example, I don’t think Westboro Baptists sit too well with anyone that’s not a Westboro Baptist, other than those that quietly support the chaos they cause, such as the same sort of apostates that claim the AC is a “Roman Catholic” rather than just a Roman.

And given the Roman Empire was as much a melting pot of sorts as the U.S., it could mean just about anyone.

Maybe it’s you! D=

Maybe it’s me… I mostly Irish though, and I Trust Christ’s words more than the words of any other man on the planet, before or since, so it’s probably not me =P

Of course anyone could ~say~ that, and not really ~mean~ that, which leads to circular reasoning, and too much self-doubt to even go into… so…

The best way to guard against the AC and Satan(nice pun, cool that ole devil off a bit with some AC), somehow thought by some to be beyond the control of God, is to stick to Church teachings, and Christ’s even more direct and Simple instructions, along with reading the Bible as it was intended; To find, in ourselves, where ~we~ go wrong, and ask God for His gentle corrections, rather than search the Bible for signs of prophecy and sins in others for us to point out.

Then you can tell more easily if the Protestant or non-denominational church one might attend or be familiar with, is actually talking non-sense to scare the Devil ~into~ people, and drive their connection to God out, or if they’re preaching and Living the Word, as best they can, as Most Protestant and non-denominational churches I’ve visited try to do.

 

[Joe_5859]

Does anyone have a comment about this?

What does that have to do with the (mistaken) idea that Pope Francis (or any pope) is trying to start one world church?

 

[JosieN]

What does that have to do with the (mistaken) idea that Pope Francis (or any pope) is trying to start one world church?

I was just curious about this statement and wondering if anyone had any thoughts or opinions on it. It appeared to me that in his quote that the idea of the church creating a one world religion has been around for a very long time and that maybe Pope Pius X was warning us. I don’t have any knowledge to share on this subject, I was hoping someone else did.

 

[Lynxdk]

I was just curious about this statement and wondering if anyone had any thoughts or opinions on it. It appeared to me that in his quote that the idea of the church creating a one world religion has been around for a very long time and that maybe Pope Pius X was warning us. I don’t have any knowledge to share on this subject, I was hoping someone else did.

I think he was warning about what can happen if a Worldly authority were to claim it’s self as a “church authority” and was using the Church of Sillon as an example.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Sillon

His description of a church without rules maybe have been a little extreme in that reference, but a “church” where people can just do whatever they will, would also more or less mean a “church” where “might makes right” without regard or respect to human persons, and is not necessarily a prophetic warning.

As for the idea that the AC is going to come from the “Roman Catholic Church” I mentioned above.

One might also consider that Prophecy isn’t always intended to warn us about what “will” happen, as much as what ~could~ happen, if we aren’t careful.

Even then, however, looking at Revelations as “the worst possible outcome” after all is said and done, there will be a Renewal where all that matters is saved and restored, in spite of all the suffering that may transpire in the meantime, and one can take some comfort in the fact that, no matter what, God Wins.