Head of the Serpent?. Mary Spinale Williams
their teachings and gaining knowledge for yourself, that's why. Thank God we can now read it for ourselves and not have to depend on any organization to tell us what’s in His word.
In John 15:5-6 Jesus says “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” You read those words and tell me what you think it means. Can we have life without remaining a part of the vine? Isn’t that a direct contradiction from what the pope is saying? It’s necessary to have a relationship with Jesus in order to remain in Him. Don’t be misled and be a branch that withers and thrown into the fire to burn.
Here is another quote from the pope that shouldn’t surprise me, but I’ll admit made me a bit dumbstruck. “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.” Really? That’s all we need to do to be forgiven if we don’t believe is obey our conscience? What if my conscience differs from your conscience? For example, one person’s conscience says it’s okay to abort an unborn baby, and another’s says absolutely not, so whose do we follow? Is there no absolute truth?
More astonishing and more important is apparently the pope doesn’t believe in the basic message of God’s word that tells us that faith and faith alone in Jesus and the belief in His death and resurrection on the cross for our remittance of sins is the only way to the Father. You can agree and go along with the pope and obey your conscience or you can obey our Creator. Jesus says that He is the way and the truth and the life, so why do we accept the teachings that say otherwise? Above all, why and how can the pope clearly teach in stark contrast to God’s word? Romans 10:9 says “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to just obey our conscience and we will be saved. We can’t forget and ignore the basic and essential elements of the gospel for the sake of political correctness or unity.
First of all, we need to recognize that we are all sinners and in need of salvation, which some people have a very hard time admitting. We all think we are good people because we don’t kill, steal and maybe tell just a little lie every now and then. But whose standard are we judging by? The bible tells us there is no one good and we need to recognize that. Secondly, we need to understand that Jesus paid for our sins by his death on the cross in full. And thirdly, that he has been resurrected and He is alive at the right hand of the Father. All we need do is accept His free gift of eternal life and we will be saved. If we reject Him, we reject His payment on our behalf. God tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Whether you want to admit it or not, we are all sinners and have a debt to pay. Jesus paid the fine in full for anyone willing to accept His free gift. He said it is finished. What does that mean but that our debt or the fine was paid in full and we as believers are free to enter into His kingdom. Let me remind you that no one else on earth or otherwise played any part in this. That includes Mary.
Pope Francis has also suggested that Jesus’ work at the cross was a failure! One astonishing statement after another! What do you say to that? My question is, has the pope read Isaiah? It was foretold, but he calls it a failure? Isaiah 53:5 reads “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed.” It’s all about the cross! It’s because of the cross and the penalty that Jesus paid in our place which gives us hope! His free gift to us is eternal life with no pain, sickness or sorrows. It would have been a failure if Jesus was somehow deterred and His accomplishment for all of mankind didn’t come about. You heard me correctly, I said ACCOMPLISHMENT, not FAILURE! He gave his only begotten Son for a reason, and to consider the cross a failure is missing the whole message of the gospel!
It is totally shocking to me that the people in the church accept whatever comes out of the pope's mouth and aren’t leaving the church in droves! Naturally, there were people who questioned his statement. So I went to Catholic.com to confirm this statement and found a qualifier. Pope Francis said humanly speaking, the cross was a failure. What’s that mean? That Jesus failed as a human, but not as God? It’s all double talk that you shouldn’t accept.
According to Catholicnewsagency.com, on January 1, 2016 Pope Francis is quoted as saying “It is most fitting that on this day we invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary above all as ‘mother of mercy." The door we have opened is, in fact, a Door of Mercy,” Pope Francis said. “Those who cross its threshold are called to enter into the merciful love of the Father with complete trust and freedom from fear; they can leave this Basilica knowing that Mary is ever at their side.” Did you hear the name of Jesus in any of that? Jesus told us He would never leave or forsake us, but we've replaced Him with Mary.
Pope Francis is quoted as saying in this same article, “She is the Mother of mercy, because she bore in her womb the very Face of divine mercy, Jesus, …The Son of God, made incarnate for our salvation, has given us his mother, who joins us on our pilgrimage through this life, so that we may never be left alone, especially at times of trouble and uncertainty.” Do you read anywhere in the Bible that Mary will join us on our pilgrimage through life?
He went on to say, “A person unable to forgive has not yet known the fullness of love. Only one who truly loves is able to forgive and forget. He added that at the foot of the cross, Mary becomes for all people the mother of forgiveness, as she follows in the example of her Son who forgives those who are killing him." Mary is now the mother of forgiveness? Can you or will you accept that?
Another concept we shouldn’t accept is Peter as our first pope or that the pope can speak for God on earth. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” This is the verse that the Catholics use to make their claim of Jesus designating Peter as the head of the church with the power to bind and unbind. Let’s look further to see if that claim is true or false.
A little further on in Matthew 18:18 Jesus is talking to his disciples, note not just to Peter, when he says “Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” If you read the context of the verse you will see that these words are not directed only to Peter but to all the disciples. The same words that are used for “evidence” that Peter was placed as our first pope were spoken to others of Jesus’ disciples placing all believers with the authority to bind and unbind.
Let’s take a look at another passage in the Bible, John 20:19 says “that Jesus appears to his disciples and says “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven, if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Does that sound like Jesus handed the authority to forgive sins to Peter only? He was addressing all of his disciples that were there, yet the Catholic church still insists that all authority was given only to Peter? And was the authority to forgive sins actually passed on to the disciples? I thought the bible taught that only God can forgive sins. If that is true and only God can forgive sins, what was Jesus actually telling his disciples?
I think that we, as believers, can bind and unbind or forgive sins because it is not through our own power and authority but because as believers we can confidently say “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) If we don’t accept his free gift of salvation, we will all die in our sins, so as a disciple or follower of Christ we can declare that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved and that your sins are forgiven.