Is the Pope Even a Christian?

FAITH OR NON FAITH

The question expressed in the title can be asked humbly and reasonably and in a spirit of love (and is). (Ephesians 4:14-15)

And this blog post ultimately isn’t so much about determining the faith or non faith of the leader of the Catholic Church.

But it is about false teaching in Catholicism.

Is it possible to hold to such teaching and still be a Christian?

Is it possible to believe wrongly and still go to Heaven after this life is through?

PRAYING TO MARY?

One such false teaching is that a person can (and should) pray to Mary (e.g. praying the Rosary).

(What?)

I understand that Catholicism teaches that Mary was sinless, too (like Jesus).

But that’s simply not true.

Mary was born of a human mother and father (she’s a woman only and a sinner in need of forgiveness like every other single human being born). (Romans 3:10, 23; 6:23; 10:9)

God’s Son was born of a human mother and the Holy Spirit (Jesus is the Lord Almighty in human flesh). (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:23)

There’s a big difference.

ATONING FOR SINS IN PURGATORY?

And then there’s the false teaching of Purgatory.

According to dummies.com…

Catholics believe in Heaven, Hell, and something called Purgatory that has two purposes: a temporal punishment for sin, and the cleansing from the attachment to sin. Purgatory purifies the soul before the soul’s grand entrance into heaven. Purgatory is an often-misunderstood Catholic doctrine.

(What?)

Jesus paid for sin once and for all when He died on the cross.

He declared it so in His second to last statement before His death, saying, “It is finished!” (John 19:30)

And the author of Hebrews can’t be clearer when he writes…

“It is appointed to man once to die and then the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

There is no second chance of atoning for sins in a place called Purgatory because there is no such place called Purgatory.

“YEAR OF MERCY”?

And then now finally there’s this whole idea of the “Year of Mercy” as declared recently by the very Pope Francis.

The “Year of Mercy” begins December 8th, 2015 and ends November 20th, 2016.

(Is that even a year?)

And so if you need forgiveness (especially for an abortion), you’ll just have to wait until December.

(What?)

And what if you forget and it’s November 21st, 2016?

I guess you’re out of luck.

#Oops

This is false teaching, also.

God’s forgiveness is available at any time. (Hebrews 4:7; 1 John 1:9)

You don’t need to wait for a Pope to say it’s okay to ask for and receive it.

Ever.

(Lady of Mt Carmel with Suffering Souls in Purgatory picture is under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license: click here. CC BY-SA 3.0)

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