Man
of the YearFebruary 1995
The prestigious
Man of the Year award for 1994 was
bestowed upon Pope John Paul II by Time Magazine.
No other world figure has
commanded the admiration he has enjoyed as the globetrotting (over
1/2 million miles) Pope. His kindly smile and fatherly wave have
made the
Pope Mobile a legend. Although they might
disagree with his theology, both Catholics and Protestants have
joined in the accolades of praise for this man. Billy Graham has
extolled Pope John Paul,
as the conscience of the whole Christian world.
Of course, he has his
detractors. Many are former priests and nuns who have experienced
the tragic consequences of enforced celibacy. The extensive sexual
abuse of children by priests has been the shocker of our time. Who
knows the sum toll of child abuse over the centuries? What is the
root of this problem and what can be done? The solution, as
expressed by ex-nun Patricia Nolan Savas, is simple:
Any
organization that can, with the stroke of its sacerdotal pen,
remove the pain of eternal punishment from a Friday hotdog and
pluck St. Christophers from millions of dashboards can surely
admit that it has erred in other matters.1
The implications are obvious
By
the stroke of a pen, John Paul could end the Catholic Churchs
centuries long dogma of
forbidding to marry which no
less than the Apostle Paul identified as one of the
doctrines of devils (I Timothy 4:1,3). No wonder the
majority of Catholics in the United States disagree with this
dogma of celibacy imposed on priests, brothers and nuns.
Not Just a Church
John Paul was extolled for his
moral leadership in 1994 by time, but the article admitted that
the UN population conference in Cairo could be considered the
Popes
low point of the year. Yet at this conference
of 186 nations, which included the Papacy, the policies of
President Clinton and the Pope hit head onand the Pope won.
Why was the Vatican the only
Christian Church at the Cairo conference? The Vatican is more than
a church. The Vatican State is a civil government that exchanges
ambassadors with the nations of the world. The Vatican claims to
be both the spiritual and civil Kingdom of God on earth.
To set up a Kingdom of God
before Christ returns to set up his own Kingdom, the Scriptures
identify as the work of
antichrist. The Greek word
translated antichrist means instead of Christ (Strongs
#473&5547), not against Christ. This fact motivated Luther and
other reformers to identify the Papacy as the
little
horn of Daniel 7 & 8 and the antichrist
beast of Revelation 13.2 This historic
Protestant view holds that antichrist is a systemnot an
individualwhich thrives during the Christian Age.
The concept that the antichrist
or
man of sin would be an individual who would appear
in the future at the end of the Christian Age was first presented
by the Catholic Jesuit Priest Ribera in 1580 to counter the
Reformation view that the Papacy was the antichrist. A future
individual antichrist, however, did not become popular among
born again Christians until after World War II.3
Pope John Paul appears to be a
sincere and compassionate individual, but the government which he
headsthe Papacyhas an unfortunate track record. And that
unfortunate record is not just from the remote past. The following
is a documentation of Papacys unsavory influence in world affairs
during much of the 20th century:
The Papacy from 1919
1994
1919. Hitlers Nazi-ism was
born. Archbishop Pacelli (who became Pope Pius XII) gave Hitler
Church money to
help his small, struggling band of
anti-Communists
go quell the devils
work, Pacelli told
Hitler.4
Under Vatican pressure, part of
Ukraine was taken from Communist Soviet Russia and given to
Catholic Poland.5
1922. Much to the Vaticans
delight, Mussolini set up a Fascist dictatorship in Italy.
1925. Any Vatican representative
was forbidden to enter the Soviet Union. From this time the real
Vatican campaign against the Soviet Union
began to flood
the whole world. Later the Vatican established Fascist
parties in most European nations in its attempt to
establish
Totalitarianism wherever possible.6
1926. Under Vatican pressure,
Pilsudski set up a Catholic Fascist dictatorship in Poland. For
over 15 years Catholic priests accompanied Polish soldiers in
expeditions to punish the
rebel Ukrainians. Orthodox
churches were burned and many were executed.7
1929. Vatican signed the Lateran
Treaty with Mussolini, which guaranteed the full and independent
sovereignty of the Vatican State in Vatican City. Also Fascist
Italy paid the Vatican a vast sum of money to compensate for the
loss of the Papal States in 1870.8
1933. The Pope had Franz von
Papen persuade President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler to be
Chancellor of Germany.9 Fritz Thyssen, a rich Catholic steel
magnate who financed Hitler, wrote an article in the Swiss
Arbeiterzeitung entitled,
Pius XII, As Nuncio, Brought
Hitler to Power.10
I learned much from the
Order of the Jesuits [said Hitler]. . .until now there has never
been anything more grandiose on the earth than the hierarchical
organization of the Catholic Church. I transferred much of this
organization into my own party.11
1936. The Vatican and Mussolini
backed General Franco's bloody civil war against the Spanish
Republic and vigorously supported his Fascist regime.12
1939-1941. The Vatican
pressured Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium and France to
cave in to Germany.13
1939. The Vatican and Hitler,
with the fall of Czechoslovakia, set up a Catholic Fascist State
in Slovakia headed by a Catholic prelate-Monsignor Tiso. His
regime was brutal towards Jews and non-Roman Catholics. After the
war he was executed for war crimes.14
1941. The Axis Powers and the
Vatican set up the Catholic Fascist Party, Ustashi, in Croatia
under the dictatorship of AntePavelic. Archbishop Stepinac was the
Supreme Military Vicar of the Ustashi Army. Jews were murdered,
Serbian Orthodox churches were destroyed and Serbs were given the
choice to convert to Roman Catholicism or be killed.15
1943. When it was known that
Germany would lose the war, the Vatican and Britain tried to plot
the fall of Hitler, then have Germany join forces with Great
Britain and the U.S. in a war against Russia.16
1945-1989. The Axis Powers and
the Vatican lost World War II and Communism swept over 1/3 of the
world.
1982-1989. Pope John Paul and
former President Reagan successfully plotted the downfall of the
Communist Empire (time, February 24, 1992). During this
clandestine campaign Archbishop Pio Lashi said to the diplomat,
Vernon Walters,
It is a very complex situation . . . listen
to the Holy Father [Pope]. We have 2,000 years experience at
this. It was further observed,
Step by reluctant step, the Soviets and the Communist
government of Poland bowed to the pressure imposed by the Pope
and the President.
1989. The Communist Empire fell.
Papacy finally triumphed over her bitter enemy.
1990. The Popes ultimate agenda
is revealed in the following statement he made on April 21, 1990:
A united Europe is no longer a dream. It is not utopian
memory from the Middle Ages [emphasis added]. The events that we
are witnessing show that this goal can be reached.17
The Pope wants to revive the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle
(Dark) Ages. . . .
Are the Heavens Rolling Together
as a
Scroll? (Isaiah 34:4)
1992. A group of 40 prominent
evangelical and Catholic scholars and leaders has agreed that
Christians must stop aggressive proselytizing of one anothers
flocks and work together more closely to
contend against all that opposes Christ and His cause.
We dare not by
needless and loveless conflict between ourselves give aid and
comfort to the enemies of the cause of Christ, the
statement, signed March 29 in New York, says,
Not since the 16th century have Protestants and
Catholics
joined in a declaration so clear in
respect to their common faith and common responsibility.
. . . Although the
document addresses the relationship between evangelicals and
Catholics, it acknowledges that belief in
the one Christ and
one mission includes many other Christians, most notably
Eastern Orthodox and Protestants outside the evangelical camp.
What brought the two communities together to this point, some
signers said, are the experiences of worshipping together in the
charismatic movement and working together for political causes,
such as the pro-life movement. Evangelical Protestants
have
much more in common with Bible-believing Catholics than with
liberal Protestants, Charles Colson said.18
1993. In November Moody said,
Today, for good or bad, the lines that separate evangelicals
and Roman Catholics are fading. More and more people from both
sides are working together. . . Charles Colson writes,
Its high time that all of us who are Christians come
together regardless of the difference of our confessions and our
tradition . . . Ministries of Billy Graham, Luis Palau,
World Vision, and charismatic groups such as YWAH involve
Catholics.
1994. Christianity Today
(December 12) observed that the consensus among younger
evangelicals is to
collaborate with Roman Catholics.
The ecclesiastical
heavens,
in fact, are rolling together. What shall be the result?
The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and
their host shall fall down. . .
Endnotes
USA TODAY, DECEMBER 8, 1993.
LUTHERAN WORLD, SEPTEMBER, 1960,
PP. 128-129.
JOSEPH TANNER, DANIEL AND
REVELATION (LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON, 1898), PP. 16,17.
PAUL J. MURPHY, LA POPESSA (NEW
YORK: WARNER BOOKS, 1980), P. 52.
AVRO MANHATTAN, THE VATICAN IN
WORLD POLITICS (NEW YORK: HORIZON PRESS, INC., 1949), P. 272.
IBID., PP. 272, 280.
IBID., PP. 273-275 (MANY REFERENCES
GIVEN FOR DOCUMENTATION)
MURPHY, LA POPESSA, AND MANHATTAN,
THE VATICAN IN WORLD POLITICS, PP. 22-24.
MANHATTAN, THE VATICAN IN WORLD
POLITICS, PP. 168, 169.
LEO LEHMANN, BEHIND THE DICTATORS
(1942), FRITZ THYSSEN, I PAID HITLER (1941).
HERMANN RAUSCHNING, HITLER SAID TO
ME (1939), PP. 266-267.
MANHATTAN, THE VATICAN IN WORLD
POLITICS, PP. 95-99.
IBID., PP. 247-265, 340-341.
IBID., PP. 262-236
AVRO MANHATTAN, THE TERROR OVER
YUGOSLAVIA, THE THREAT TO YUGOSLAVIA (LONDON: WATTERS, 1953).
JOHN LOFTUS & MARK AARONS, THE
SECRET WAR AGAINST THE JEWS (ST. MARTIN'S PRESS: NEW YORK, 1994),
P. 87.
NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 23, 1990.
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
RELIGION REPORT, APRIL 4, 1994.
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