Study for the Month of February 2013
The Papacy Series- Part I
Nathaniel Fajardo
email: [email protected]
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First, What is the Papacy? – Many mistake the person of the pope as the Papacy itself, which pope, Protestants in the past have identified as either “the man of sin,” the antichrist,” or “the beast” of prophecy. More accurately, the Papacy, according to Webster’s Dictionary, Student Edition, 1976, refers to four things, namely “(1) the position or authority of the pope (2) the period during which the pope rules (3) the line of succession of popes (4) the government of the Roman Catholic Church, headed by the pope.”
The First Catholic U.S. President. – Thus, when one specific pope (or specific American President) is singled out by using unproven prophetic calculations as the one who brings about the long-anticipated U. S. –initiated National Sunday Law that shortly becomes globally enacted and enforced by all churches and governments (Revelation 13: 1-18), difficulties are encountered which clearly expose this faulty prophetic interpretation. For instance, when John F. Kennedy was elected as the 35th U.S. president, the youngest to be elected to office at the age of 43, the first Roman Catholic U.S. president, certain quarters in the Adventist community and others thought he was going to be the one to initiate the Sunday law while in office.
They and many others were disappointed, though shocked and saddened by his assassination. JFK served from 1961 to his assassination on Nov. 2, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime, but was shot and killed by Jack Ruby 2 days later before a trial could take place. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. However, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that those investigations were flawed and that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy [by whom?]. Jack Leon Ruby, night club operator in Dallas, Texas, appealed his conviction and death sentence but before it could happen, he became ill and died of lung cancer. (Wikipedia)
Pope John Paul II. – Wikipedia says of this Pope under whose watch the Vatican II Council was conducted, is “sometimes called Blessed John Paul,” or “John Paul the Great.” Born Karol Josef Wojytla, he reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from Oct. 16, 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the second-longest serving pope in history and the first non-Italian since 1523. He is credited with helping to end Communist Rule in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe . . . As part of his special emphasis on the “universal call to holiness,” he beatified 340 people and canonized 483 saints, more than the combined tally of his predecessors during the preceding 5 centuries. He named most of the present College of Cardinals, consecrated or c0-consecrated a large number of the world’s past and current bishops, and ordained many priests. A key goal of his papacy was to transform and reposition the Catholic Church. His wish was to place his church at the heart of a new religious alliance that would bring together Jews, Muslims and Christians in a great [religious] armada. He died April 2, 2005. On December 19, 2009 John Paul II was proclaimed venerable by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI and was beatified on May 1, 2011. (Wikipedia)
NOTE: Beatification mean: “(from the Latin beatus, blessed) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person’s entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name (intercession of saints). Beautification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process. A person who is beautified is in the English given the title “Blessed.”
Canonization is the act by which the Roman Catholic Church or Eastern Orthodox Church declare a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without formal process (as it is still done in the Eastern Orthodox Church). The process is most commonly used, although not limited to, the Roman Catholic Church.” St. Cyprian of Carthage was the one who urged diligence in the process of canonization.
Malachi Martin. – Catholic priest and Jesuit author of Keys of This Blood, a 1990 non-fiction apocalyptic book. Wikipedia says of this book: “A geopolitical and geo-religious analysis of the last decades of the 20th century. He (Martin) identifies the period as the millennium end-game for the New World Order, which has 3 main contenders. It will establish the first-ever One-world government, Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, and international business leaders are in competition to establish this one-world government and this competition will intensify around the turn of the 20th century. The book further claims to be and inside account of what the pope (Pope John Paul II) is doing to win this geopolitical struggle and how he played an instrumental role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Martin identifies the three main players vying for world domination in the world today and thus lays the ground for his historical analysis: materialism, with the East and West in their communism or socialism, and capitalism or liberalism—which he places on one side together, and the Roman Catholic Church, the only true geopolitical spiritual organization in existence today. One of the two sides must win, for they cannot coexist.
“Martin introduces the concept of super force in the book. Super force is the unofficial name given by Martin for more or less a formal group of people within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Martin claimed that this super force is a sort of a ecclesiastic version of a hostile corporate takeover team that is made up of the churchmen of the hierarchic structure that they controlled the most vital organs and sinews of that structure, worldwide. The goal of this organization consists in a fundamental shift in the church’s teachings.”
Mikhail Gorbachev. – Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was first and last president of the Soviet Union [Iron Curtain] from 1985 until its dissolution in 1981. Gorbachev’s attempts at reform as well as his summit conference with U.S. president Ronald Reagan and his reorientation of Soviet strategic arms contributed to the end of the Cold War, ended the supremacy of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Born 1931, he is still alive today. Only his political career may be said to be somewhat dead. He was the only second Soviet leader (and the first in 27 years) to leave his post while still alive, Five of his predecessors, starting with Lenin, died while in office. Kruschev was the only exception: he was ousted in 1964 by Breshnev.
Malachi Martin’s book, Keys of This Blood, and his predictions based on so-called inside information within the Vatican was what helped spark the paranoia over the One World Order, which today lingers in variant forms within the circles of Evangelical Futurists and extreme fringes of the Christian far right such as the Doomsday Preppers, etc.
Astute and Courageous Filipino Journalists are Beginning to Get It
I am here reprinting specific articles from the Global Balita (see on the web), reflecting the growing dissatisfaction of an emerging sector among the Catholics in the Philippines who are seriously questioning the position and doctrines and even rhetorically challenging the authority of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy on certain social issues, such as Family Planning (abortion). It also shows to those unfamiliar with the Philippines—the only Christian or more accurately, Roman Catholic nation in the Far East—the dominant role that the Church plays in the nation, politics in particular. While diligent Bible students cannot agree with many points raised by these intelligent journalists and writers, they recognize that something dramatic is happening; that God is using men in these last days, who may not even be aware of it, to open the eyes of countless honest yet deceived followers of Church doctrines that are unbiblical and based on traditions drawn from pagan origins.
A Catholic vote?
Global Balita December 23, 2012 Issue, Opinion:
By Amado P. Macasaet
Malaya
‘The biggest mistake of the Catholic Church leadership is its continued, though failing attempts, to exercise authoritarian control over the individual’s right to independent thought and inquiry.’
As early as the Elizabethan Age in England 91485-1625) the authoritarian right of the Roman Catholic Church over its flock was challenged by scholars raising the question of corruption.
They even challenged the doctrines.
Not much later, Martin Luther of Germany; and John Calvin of Scotland became ‘the most notable proponents of the new religious thought.”
The Lutheran church was born. Many people started calling themselves Calvinists.
John Knox expanded the protestant movement in Scotland. In the book Adventures in Literature, it was written, ‘there were now protestants and Catholics, many of them believing it impossible to live in peace alongside people who did not share their own particular faith.’
The book emphasized that this led to ruinous wars in Europe where the protestant movement (against the Roman Catholic religion) started.
In the days of the Holy Roman Empire, the invaders were called Barbarians. The expansion of the empire was distinctly described as holy conquests [i.e. by the Roman Catholic Church]
All of these easily translate into the fact that the Roman Catholic religion was exercising thought control over its brethren even after its practices and doctrines were challenged by protestants who had grown in number and acceptability.
It is certain that the leaders of the Catholic Church will make good its threat that it will campaign against its lawmakers who voted the passage of the RH bill [Family Planning bill]. In fact, they will hack away at President Aquino at every turn.
They will fail like they failed in preventing the approval by Congress of the family health proposal.
It is wrong for cardinals, bishops, priests and so-called devout Catholics to think that they can influence the results of the elections by campaigning against lawmakers who support the bill.
The simple fact is there is no Catholic vote in the Philippines. The population is predominantly Catholic. They do not vote on the basis of their religious beliefs.
In this country only the followers or members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) vote on the orders of their high priest. The makes the INC the swing vote particularly in a presidential election.
They vote as one. Catholics vote on what politicians give or promise them. If that were not so, how did the likes of Pia Cayetano and brother Alan Peter, get elected senators? The Cayetanos call themselves Christians. They proclaim to the world that they are not Catholics
The late U.S. President Jack Kennedy won not because the faithful of his church voted for him almost as one. Catholics on the U.S. are fewer than members of other religions.
Catholics in the Philippines are deeply divided in political persuasion, They have never voted on the say-so of Church leaders. In fairness, the leaders of the Catholic Church never directly try to influence its faithful who to elect.
They will try for the first time. Nobody will listen to them. The approval of the Congress of the RH bill is a loud signal that the leaders have been defiled; in fact denied.
If only for that reason, they should not threaten to boycott the lawmakers who approved the bill and give all-out support to those who opposed it. They are a very small group.
The Catholic hierarchy has never been able to read correctly the events that clearly show a steadily rising dissension against the Church. If that were not so, how did Mike Velarde of the El Shaddai community who is neither good-looking nor possessed with a background as of having the strongest faith in his god, amass millions of followers who are Catholic?
The Catholic hierarchy is so scared of Velarde’s numbers it claims that El Shaddai is Catholic. They try to prove this false claim by celebrating weekly masses in Velarde’s massive religious rallies.
Velarde is seldom present in the celebration of Catholic masses. His followers swelled to millions because poverty forced people to believe in what he says is a promise of salvation with wealth [prosperity gospel].
Little does the Catholic Church realize that poor people drop small bills in boxes scattered all over the rally site. The money is not for El Shaddai. The money goes to the pockets of Velarde and to his projects.
Members of the [El Shaddai] community write letters to God. And God sends a reply. They hang on whatever Velarde promises them, most of the time deliverance from poverty. El Shaddai grew almost geometrically and has spread to Filipinos in other countries because the Catholic Church failed in strengthening their faith.
How can the leaders of my Church [Catholic] claim that they can pressure Catholic voters to exact revenge against lawmakers who passed the family planning bill?
Given these facts recorded as history, how does the Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines get the courage to proclaim that it will punish the supporters of the RH bill by making sure they do not win in the elections?
The authoritarianism of the Catholic Church has been successfully challenged. It will continue to be challenged as the numbers of hungry people become bigger by the day precisely because the Church promotes it.”
Email: [email protected]
http://www.malaya.ph/index.php/20571-a-catholic-vote
CBCP fights wrong battle
February 1, 2012 / Opinion
By Amado P. Macasaet
Malaya
‘The Catholic Church should not meddle in the affairs of the state, if only to comply with the Constitutional provision that Church and State are separate.’
Unable to win the war against the Reproductive Health Bill, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has shifted the struggle against the state, but on the wrong front.
Not saying much about the corruption in the Arroyo regime or widespread persecution of such thievery, the CBCP now castigates the Aquino regime [Aquino is Catholic] for its failure to pass the Freedom of Information Bill.
The CBCP crafted what it describes as a “long litany of storms” that its members claim denies the citizens the right to scrutinize the acts and decisions of the government.
This, the bishops said, is a basic right that should be enshrined in the enactment into law of the Freedom of Information Bill. Barking up the wrong tree is a polite way of describing what the CBCP is doing in its fight against the state.
The simple fact as far as the bill is concerned is that officials of government will keep under wraps any information that it feels it should not be made public. The lame argument that will always be invoked borders on the security of the state. (to be continued)