February 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 Church's
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 Pope's "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 on--and 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 (Strong's
#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 system--not an individual--which 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 heads--the Papacy--has an unfortunate track record. And
that unfortunate record is not just from the remote past. The
following is a documentation of Papacy's unsavory influence in
world affairs during much of the 20th century:
The Papacy from 1919 -
1994
1919. Hitler's 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 devil's 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 Vatican's
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.121939-1941. 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 Pope's 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 another's
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, "It's
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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