Refutation of Anti-Catholic "The pope has blasphemed the Holy Spirit"

[Church_Militant]

Well, I’ve been expecting something like this from Mike Gendron for some time. His contributions must be falling off or something…

In his current e-newsletter he says…

Pope Says the Division Between Evangelicals and Catholics Is A Work of the Devil

“Division is the work of the ‘Father of Lies,’ ‘the Father of Discord,’ who does everything possible to keep us divided,” the Pope said in his message to a group sponsored by the ***John 17 Movement. ***He said the devil “knows that Christians are disciples of Christ, that they are one, that they are brothers! He doesn’t care whether they are Evangelicals, Orthodox, Lutherans or Catholics. They are Christians.” Read more.

Mike’s Comment: The pope has blasphemed the Holy Spirit by attributing the work of Christ to the work of the devil. It is the Lord Jesus who divides believers from unbelievers by the truth of His Word (Luke 12:51-53). Born-again Christians and Catholics will always be divided on the essentials of the Gospel, how one is born again, how one is justified, how one is purified of sin, who can mediate between God and man, and the efficacy, sufficiency and necessity of Jesus Christ for salvation. Pope Francis is the one who is doing the work of the devil by rebuilding the religious tower of Babel as he seeks to unite all Christians under the papacy. Tragically, some evangelicals are jumping on his ecumenical bandwagon by denying the exclusivity of God’s Gospel. Read more of Mike’s response in an interview with the Christian News Network.

As usual Gendron rants off his standard anti-Catholic polemics while misrepresenting what Pope Francis says and what the church teaches. His allegation of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit would be laughable if it wasn’t such a twisted interpretation and application of sacred scripture.

Let’s look at it closely.

First, I’d like to link you all to a recent Jimmy Akin post where he shows us what Pope Francis really said and sets the record straight when even Zenit botched their news item on it… [Akin]

Next, I’ll link you to the actual text of His Holiness speech.

Now let’s look at Gendron’s propaganda.

The pope has blasphemed the Holy Spirit by attributing the work of Christ to the work of the devil. It is the Lord Jesus who divides believers from unbelievers by the truth of His Word (Luke 12:51-53).

Look at his Scripture passage.
***[51] Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; [52] for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; [53] they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
***There is nothing there about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and in context, is a discourse by Our Blessed Lord on the second coming.

 

[Church_Militant]

Jesus teaching on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is found in Matthew 12 31 and Mark 3:28-30 and it would appear to me that Gendron is more in danger of this (as shown in the context of these passages) than Pope Francis. If so, may God have mercy on him.

Born-again Christians and Catholics will always be divided on the essentials of the Gospel, how one is born again, how one is justified, how one is purified of sin, who can mediate between God and man, and the efficacy, sufficiency and necessity of Jesus Christ for salvation.

This is just more of the usual “Gendronic rhetoric” I have already dealt with the truth of the scriptural foundations of our Catholic teachings on salvation and the difference between them and some (not all) noon-Catholics. You can read that on How Is A Catholic Saved? and Who REALLY Preaches “A Different Gospel”?

Gendron of course seeks to make his readers think that there is a difference between being Born Again and being a faithful Catholic. Thankfully Catholic Answers has a couple of very good articles on exactly that. Born Again - The Bible Way and Why Catholicism Is Preferable to Protestantism

You would think that by now, Gendron and his followers would have got all these facts and changed their position so that they could then do exactly what Gendron’s “ministry” calls itself and get to “Proclaiming the Gospel”, but, alas his heart is apparently pretty hard.

Pope Francis is the one who is doing the work of the devil by rebuilding the religious tower of Babel as he seeks to unite all Christians under the papacy.

Y’know, that’s just offensive polemics. I have to ask how it is that any of us faithful who believe that we have found the fullness of truth in the Catholic faith (including and especially Pope Francis!) could be accused of wrongdoing in our efforts to share that truth with the world and call all men to faith in Christ? Only some kind of fool would refrain from sharing the truth with others and if that means we all come into the Catholic Church that Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ Himself founded, then where does that even remotely resemble the tower of Babel? The fact is…it doesn’t. (for more on this need to share the truth, I recommend, Does God want everyone to be Catholic? by John Martignoni)

 

[Church_Militant]

Tragically, some evangelicals are jumping on his ecumenical bandwagon by denying the exclusivity of God’s Gospel.

Have any of you ever heard of any such a “*exclusivity of God’s Gospel”? *I haven’t and have never seen such a thing in all my reading of the Bible.

In Gendron’s remarks linked in his newsletter he goes on to say:

.http://christiannews.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Gendron-ws.jpg
Gendron

“Jesus prayed that His Church would be sanctified by the truth. This means there cannot be unity with those who believe another gospel,” Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries told Christian News Network. “Believers cannot be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14). Evangelicals can never have unity with Catholics because we are divided on the essentials of the gospel, how one is born again, how one is justified, how one is purified of sin, who can mediate between God and man and the efficacy, sufficiency and necessity of Jesus Christ for salvation.”

We’ve already dealt with this…moving on.

“God’s word declares that anyone who believes another gospel has believed in vain (1 Cor. 15:2).

Here Gendron does his usual rip out of context. Take a look at 1st Corinthians 15 in context. It doesn’t say what Gendron is using it for, does it?

Scripture also condemns those who preach another gospel (Gal. 1:6-9),” he continued. “Pope Francis preaches another gospel and denies that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. He preaches salvation is by water baptism, the sacraments, good works, keeping the law and attending the sin offering of a Eucharist Christ on an altar.”

Yet we’ve already shown that ours in not the “different gospel” and this is just more rhetoric alleging things that his readers will probably buy into without ever having the courage to examine what the church actually teaches on all these things even though we have teaching all of it for 2,000 years.

“The pope has pronounced a fatal error by attributing the word of Christ to the work of the devil.

The Lord Jesus is the one who divides believers from unbelievers (Luke 12:51-53),”

But is this true? As we saw above, no…it is not, and Gendron himself may well have put himself in danger of that blasphemy.

“This Jesuit pope is the one who is doing the work of the devil by rebuilding the religious tower of Babel with his attempt to bring all Christians back home to Rome. Tragically, some evangelicals are jumping on his ecumenical bandwagon and departing from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1-3).”

Already dealt with this as well.

So…in conclusion…who is telling the truth here?

 

[Contarini]

Have any of you ever heard of any such a “*exclusivity of God’s Gospel”? *I haven’t and have never seen such a thing in all my reading of the Bible.

Sure: Paul says in Galatians (1:6-9) that anyone who preaches any other Gospel is accursed. This, of course, links up with John 14: “I am the way, etc.” For some very conservative Protestants, this means that an adherence to evangelical Protestant soteriology is necessary for salvation in the same way that faith in Christ is necessary, because, for them, faith in Christ is by definition the kind of faith Luther talked about.

Given their premises, this is a reasonable way to interpret the relevant passages. So I think you are going about this the wrong way. I’m not sure what about Gendron’s specific statement even needs to be refuted. The mistaken premise is that Protestant soteriology is a key, essential aspect of Christian faith. If that premise is true, then of course those who reject Protestant soteriology would not be real Christians. If that premise and its Catholic and Orthodox counterparts are all false, then Pope Francis is right. Which, of course, he is

Edwin

 

[Church_Militant]

A good point Edwin, and one that ties in well with my link to John Martignoni’s article.

Certainly if one holds beliefs as true then one want to share them with others, or else it’s possible one does not really believe them or that they are the fullness of truth, right?

However, the only real point I was making is that he used that term "exclusivity of God’s Gospel" and as with many other things it is not found in scripture. It’s like the term I’ve heard from some n-Cs about “the simplicity of the gospel” which baffles me because it seems to me that the gospel as found in the New Testament is not really all that simple.

Anyway…what do you think of Gendron’s allegation that Pope Francis has blasphemed the Holy Spirit?

 

[JackVk]

And yet we also have Sedevacantists accusing Francis of promoting religious indifferentism. I have noticed that, when Pope Francis makes a statement that stirs the pot, the peanut gallery starts to accuse him of opposing things.