White Smoke
- [1] But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. [2] And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. (2 Peter 2:1-2)
Several times in the past six weeks I wanted to draft an article about the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Argentine who was the pope of the Roman Catholic Church. I withheld my comments expecting it would be a while before the college of cardinals named a successor. This happened far sooner than most thought and now the world wonders whether Bob will chart a new awkward course or walk the same crooked path as Jorge. It matters little to me whether they agree with each other, but rather will Bob agree with Jesus? After all, he claims the title of the vicar of Christ, meaning the representative of Christ who leads the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. You would expect the vicar of Christ to be close enough to the teachings of Christ that there would hardly be a noticeable difference between pontiffs. How wrong we would be on the accounts of Bob, Jorge, Joseph, Karol, Albino, Giovanni, Angelo, and all the others before who changed their names. The deceptive mask did little good for God still knows who usurps His authority.
How illogical does it seem that two vicars of Christ would be different at all? If any of these folks thought to read the Bible and use it as their course (sola Scriptura), perhaps they would come across a pertinent question the apostle Paul asked. When the Corinthian church divided over leaders, some wanted to follow Apollos, some Peter, and some Paul. Paul asked, “Is Christ divided?” When the Roman pope (or more precisely American and before Argentinian, and before German, and before Polish, etc.) speaks infallibly ex cathedra, how does any of them model Christ while holding differences of opinion and leading their followers in different directions?
On May 5, I read the Challies newsletter which pointed out some key facts about Jorge Mario Bergoglio. By default, some and maybe all will be true of Bob. While there are many false prophets in the world (1 John 4:1), none has the ability of worldwide deception or garners the attention and respect of Jorge and his rascals. Never once did Jorge preach the gospel of Christ that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus). He upheld the errors of the Catholic Catechism among which human works must join with divine grace, the demonic error of the veneration of Mary the Mediatrix, and the payment of indulgences for believers to escape punishment in an underworld called purgatory. I gave you five errors in two sentences while the catechism brims with them.
Another interesting fact about Jorge who has now left to the place prepared for the devil and his angels was his membership in the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). If you like gruesome history, these would be the same ones as those who by every torturous, murderous scheme imaginable tried to eradicate Baptists and Protestants from the face of the earth. While I preach salvation through faith alone in Jesus Christ, (soli Deo Gloria) Jorge never embraced it—ultimately concluding that belief in Christ is unnecessary. Yes, I wonder too if Bob will go there.
Jorge had 12 years as the world’s most influential deceiver. Bob is a little younger and may beat Jorge’s stint to claim a furnace heated seven times hotter. I would say their parades and charades and costumes are cute but as the prophets cried to Elisha, “There is death in the pot!”
Pastor V. Mark Smith