FRIDAY MORNING MANNA April 6, 2018
Nathaniel Fajardo email:[email protected]
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER SEVEN – Part 42
Did ‘hell freeze over’ or was the pope betrayed by a friend?
QUOTE FOR THE WEEK
“It is beyond the power of the human mind to estimate the evil which has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment.”
– E. G. White, Great Controversy, 1911 ed. p. 535.
No pun intended but a searing hot topic right now is the earth-shaking unintended recent revelation that Francis, the first Jesuit pope allegedly said in private to his Italian journalist friend Eugenio Scalfari, an atheist, that there is really no hell! This riveting exchange was reported in various media outlets.
Patrick “Pat” J. Buchanan, former presidential candidate, conservative veteran journalist and syndicated columnist, would have nothing of the quick clarification from the Vatican. Buchanan wrote under the CNS News Commentary, March 30, 2018/ 7: 11 A.M. EDT, titled:
“Patrick Buchanan: Did Pope Commit Rank Heresy?”
“Pope Declares No Hell?” So ran the riveting headline on the Drudge Report on Holy
Thursday. Drudge quoted the exchange, published in La Republica, between Pope Francis and
his atheist friend, journalist Eugenio Scalfari. Scalfari: ‘What about bad souls? Where are they
punished?
‘Bad souls are not punished,’ Pope Francis is quoted, ‘those who do not repent
and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of
sinful souls.’ [emphasis mine].
“On the first holy Thursday, Judas betrayed Christ. And of Judas the Lord said, ‘Woe to that
man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed; it were better for him if that man had never
been born.’
“Did the soul of Judas, and those of the monstrous evildoers of history, ‘just fade away,’ as
General McArthur said of the soldiers? If there is no hell, is not the greatest deterrent to the
worst of sins removed? What did Christ die on the cross to save us from?
“If Francis made such a statement, it would be rank heresy.
“Had the pope been speaking ex-cathedra, as the vicar of Christ on earth, he would be
contradicting 2,000 years of Catholic doctrine, rooted in the teachings of Christ himself. He
would be calling into question papal infallibility, as defined in 1870 by the Vatican Council of
Pius IX. [Ahem. So it is officially confirmed that papal infallibility was only determined in 1870, not by any clear reference or evidence of the Bible, but by a Vatican Council].
“Questions would arise as to whether Francis is a true pope.
NOTE: During the so-called Western Schism 600 years ago that spanned a confusing, bloody period of 40 years there were two, later three rival popes claiming to be the true one, each having their respective Sacred College of Caridinals. One was from the French Avignon line, the other from the Roman line, and the latter from the Pisan line. They accused one another of being “antipope,” temporarily overshadowing the antichrist characteristics of the papal power revealed in Bible prophecy but known to the original Protestant reformers!]
“The Vatican swiftly issued a statement saying the pope had had a private conversation, not a formal interview, with his friend, Scalfari. The Vatican added: ‘The textual words pronounced by the pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.’ Buchanan comments:
“Sorry, but this will not do. This does not answer the questions the pope raised in his chat. Does hell exist? Are souls that die in mortal sin damned to hell for all eternity? Does the pope accept this belief? Is this still the infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic Church?
“However one may applaud Francis’ stance on social justice, on matters of faith and morals he has called defined doctrine into question and created confusion throughout the Church he heads.
“In his letter Amoris Laetitia, ‘The Joy of Love,’ the pope seemed to give approval to the receiving of Holy Communion by divorced and remarried Catholics, whose previous marriages had not been annulled, and whom the Church holds to be living in adultery. [See Matthew 5: 28 on what adultery comprehends!]. “Relying on the pope’s letter, German bishops have begun to authorize the distribution of Communion to divorced and remarried couples.
“Cardinal Gerhard Muller, former prefect of the Vatican Office for the Doctrine of the Faith [the renamed Office of Inquisition with original functions remaining unchanged!], the position once held by [still living German] Pope Benedict XVI, says this contradicts Catholic doctrine as enunciated by Pope John Paul II.
“Said Cardinal Muller, “No power in heaven or on earth, neither an angel or the pope, not a council, nor a law of the bishops has the faculty to change it.’ [NOTE: But why in the world did they change the law of God, Creator of heaven and earth?]
“Four cardinals, including Raymond Burke of the United States, in a formal letter, asked the pope to clarify Amoris Laetitia. The pope did not, nor has he addressed the cardinals’ concerns. . . . “.
Read the rest of Buchanan’s column for yourself on: www.cnsnews.com/commentary/patrick-jbuchanan
The Dreadful Blasphemy of the Roman Doctrine of Eternally Burning Hell
Webster’s Unified Dictionary and Encyclopedia, published 1960 by H.S. Stuttman and Co, Inc.
NY, New York, art. “Hell” says: “Habitation of human souls after death. Ancient Greek name was Hades which Hebrew sacred writings refer to Sheol, the place of departed spirits, but only at a late stage in the development ofJewish religious thought was an idea of punishment associated with it. Christian theology gradually developed the idea of eternal suffering, both spiritual and physical, for evildoers, the pains of hell being usually associated with fire; the conception was taken over in similar form by Islam.” Also: “A place of cruelty, lust, hatred, or misery and suffering, esp. a dungeon or other place of punishment or torture by fire believed given to the wicked after death.”
Thus the so-called Judeo-Christian heritage and values which many suddenly religious politicians are urging is the real solution to what ails America and “make it great” again has some very disturbing elements in it.
Ellen G. White wrote in her must-read book for these last days, The Great Controversy, 1911 ed., pp. 535, 536:
“How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy, and even to our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell; that for the sins of a brief earthly life they are to suffer torture as long as God shall live. Yet this doctrine has been widely taught, and is still embodied in many of the creeds of Christendom [Roman Catholicism, in particular]. Said a learned doctor of divinity: ‘The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever.
When they see others who are of the same nature and born under the same circumstances, plunged in such misery, and they so distinguished, it will make them sensible of happy they are.’ Another used these words: ‘While the decree of reprobation is eternally executing on the vessels of wrath, the smoke of their torment will be eternally ascending in view of the vessels of mercy, who, instead of taking the part of these miserable objects, will say, Amen, Alleluia, praise ye the Lord!’
“Where, in the pages of God’s word, is such teaching to be found? Will the redeemed in heaven be lost to all emotions of pity and compassion, and even to feelings of common humanity? Are these to be exchanged for the indifference of the stoic, or the cruelty of the savage? No, no; such is not the teaching of the Book of God. Those who present the views of the quotations given above may be leaned and even honest men; but they are deluded by the sophistry of Satan. He leads them to misconstrue strong expressions of Scripture, giving to the language the coloring of bitterness and malignity which pertains to himself [Satan], but not to our Creator. ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in th3e death of the wicked: but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?’ Ezekiel 33: 11, K.J.V.”- p. 535.
“What would be gained to God should we admit that He delights in witnessing unceasing tortures; the He is regaled with the groans and shrieks and imprecations of the suffering creatures whom He holds in the flames of hell? Can these horrid sounds be music in the ear of Infinite Love? It is urged that the infliction of endless misery upon the wicked would show God’s hatred of sin as an evil which is ruinous to the peace and order of the universe. Oh, dreadful blasphemy! As if God’s hatred of sin is the reason why it is perpetuated. For, according to the teachings of these theologians, continued torture without hope of mercy maddens its wretched victims, and as they pour out their rage in curses and blasphemy, they are forever augmenting their load of guilt. God’s glory [perfect character] is not enhanced by thus perpetuating continually increasing sin through ceaseless ages!
“It is beyond the power of the human mind to estimate the evil which has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment. The religion of the Bible, full of love and goodness, and abounding in compassion, is darkened with superstition and clothed with terror. When we consider in what false colors Satan has painted the character of God, can we wonder our merciful Creator is feared, dreaded, and even hated? The appalling views of God which have spread over the world from the teachings of the pulpit [of almost all religions!] have made thousands, yes, millions, of skeptics and infidels.
NOTE: This is the “religion” that Marx and Engels correctly described as “the opium of the masses.” It is the maddeningly popular yet fatal counterfeit of the religion of the Bible, the religion of Christ the Creator and Redeemer of mankind. Their antidote to false religion was invariably a brainchild springing from the exact same evil mastermind: Satan. All these isms—Communism, Romanism, Spiritualism, Heathenism, etc., share something in common: a bloody history on all sides of the divide among them, if in verity there actually exists any!
“The theory of eternal torment is one of the false doctrines that constitute the wine of the abominations of [spiritual] Babylon, of which she makes all nations drink. Rev. 14: 8; 17: 2. That [professed] ministers of Christ should have accepted this heresy and proclaimed it from the sacred desk, is indeed a mystery [part of the “mystery of iniquity”]. They received it from Rome, as they received the false sabbath. True, it has been taught by great and good men; but the light on this subject had not come to them as it has come to us. They were responsible only for the light [of truth] which shone in their time; we are accountable for that which shines in our day. If we turn from the testimony of God’s word, and accept false doctrines [just] because our fathers taught them, we fall under the condemnation pronounced on spiritual Babylon; we are drinking the [spiritual] wine of her abominations.”- Ibid,p. 537.
(Continued next week)