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Last Temptation of Castro: Get Religion [To be Received Back into Church During Papal Visit]
Cranmer ^ | 2/4/12

Posted on 02/05/2012 2:58:27 PM PST by marshmallow

Fidel Castro will be received back into the communion of the Roman Catholic Church during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island in March, the Italian press is reporting. If true, this is a remarkable story — and one that has yet to catch the attention of editors this side of the Atlantic.

On 1 Feb 2012, La Republicca — [Italy’s second largest circulation daily newspaper, La Republicca follows a center-left political line and is strongly anti-clerical; not anti-Catholic per se but a critic of the institutional church] — reported that as death approaches, the octogenarian communist has turned to God for solace.

ABC’s Global Note news blog is the only U.S. general interest publication I have found that has reported this story. It referenced the La Republicca story and said that Castro’s

daughter Alina is quoted as saying “During this last period, Fidel has come closer to religion: he has rediscovered Jesus at the end of his life. It doesn’t surprise me because dad was raised by Jesuits.” The article quotes an unidentified high prelate in the Vatican who is working on the Pope’s Cuba trip: “Fidel is at the end of his strength. Nearly at the end of his life. His exhortations in the party paper Granma, are increasingly less frequent. We know that in this last period he has come closer to religion and God.”

Some Italian websites have even speculated as to when Fidel will make his confession and credo — setting the date as 27 March 2012 at 17:30 when the two ottantacinquenni, Pope Benedict XVI and Castro, will meet at the Palacio de la Revolución when the pope makes his official visit to the head of state, Raul Castro.

During Pope John Paul II’s 1998 visit to Cuba, Castro attended mass, but did...........

(Excerpt) Read more at geoconger.wordpress.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Politics; Skeptics/Seekers
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To: D-fendr; CynicalBear; metmom; anathemized; caww; Iscool; presently no screen name

D-fendr, did Jesus Christ pay the full penalty for our sins?


561 posted on 02/10/2012 1:24:33 PM PST by smvoice (Better Buck up, Buttercup. The wailing and gnashing are for an eternity..)
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To: D-fendr; CynicalBear; anathemized; caww; metmom; Iscool
"For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that COMMEND THEMSELVES; but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves by themselves, are not wise." 2 Cor. 10:12.

"Show us...give us...name one...". Not wise..

562 posted on 02/10/2012 1:37:00 PM PST by smvoice (Better Buck up, Buttercup. The wailing and gnashing are for an eternity..)
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To: smvoice

Great post smvoice!


563 posted on 02/10/2012 1:50:11 PM PST by CynicalBear
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To: D-fendr

I answer and it’s still not good enough.

*sigh*

It’s a continuation of the NT church. It’s part of that same body of believers.


564 posted on 02/10/2012 2:21:56 PM PST by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: stfassisi

No it is your argument that is devoid of all reasoning.

In the age of Grace the Holy Spirit does not depart from a believer . You either have it or you don’t but it doesn’t go away after you have received it.

Now Origen was either basically teaching reincarnation (which is not biblical) or he was accused falsely . If he was teaching this then he was NOT led to teach this by the Holy Spirit .

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Got that , faith comes by actually hearing the word of God.
It says nothing about faith coming by hearing teachings of men.

Luther finally figured that part out when he figured out that the just shall live by faith .

Really all he had to do to figure that out was to actually open his Bible and read it . Every single thing a follower of Christ needs to know is in the word (and it was not written by men but by the Holy Spirit.

Justification by faith is taught in the Old Testament scriptures (Old Covenant) and it is repeated in the New Testament scriptures (New Covenant)
Old Covenant
Hab 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
New Covenant
Heb 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

If your church has a problem with Martin Luther for teaching this then your church also has a problem with God’s WORD.

Who are you going to believe ? God’s WORD or some tradition written by man (whom by the way many of Rome’s popes led less than even close to Biblical lives considering how many of them had illegitimate children all over the place . 1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; )


565 posted on 02/10/2012 5:08:14 PM PST by Lera
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To: Lera; stfassisi
AMEN, Lera. The Holy Spirit does not depart from a believer in the age of Grace.

"Being confident of this very thing, that HE WHICH HATH BEGUN A GOOD WORK IN YOU WILL PERFORM IT UNTIL THE DAY OF JESUS CHRIST." Philippians 1:6.

566 posted on 02/10/2012 5:13:56 PM PST by smvoice (Better Buck up, Buttercup. The wailing and gnashing are for an eternity..)
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To: stfassisi

No things start collapsing when people refuse to read and believe God’s Word .
God’s Word does not return VOID.

Teachings of men is exactly what got the Pharisees into their blindness and way to many people who claim to follow Christ have the exact same problem.


567 posted on 02/10/2012 5:43:07 PM PST by Lera
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To: D-fendr
If it didn't disappear, where is your church after the NT?

Is that supposed to be your 'gotcha' question??? I believe you've been answered numerous times...

You apparently are thinking that we need to come up with an non-Catholic pope and a religious institution to point to, to show there was a 'visible' non Catholic church thru out history...

As I (we) pointed out, there were countless Christians who were murdered by your Mother Church in the name of heresy...They refused to bow down to your popes...

And then there are the bible manuscripts themselves...Not the African Catholic manuscripts, but the Majority texts...The Masoretic Texts...Those that came out of Antioch where people were first called Christians...

Someone out there took the time to copy and recopy these texts thruout the centuries to pass the scriptures along to us...And that someone is the real church...

You would do good to pick up a bible and actually study without the aid of your religion what the 'church' really is...

568 posted on 02/10/2012 6:04:46 PM PST by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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To: caww
Nowhere in the New Testament will you find the “one true church” doing any of the following: * praying to Mary,... praying to the saints,... venerating Mary, submitting to a pope,... having a select priesthood,... baptizing an infant,... observing the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as sacraments,... or passing on apostolic authority to successors of the apostles......

Exactly...Whatever religion practices these things is clearly not the church of the Bible...What could be more clear??? But then they have a total disregard of what God teaches us and them in the scriptures...Go figure...

569 posted on 02/10/2012 6:18:36 PM PST by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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To: caww

In other words what it is —> religion with defiance

Day by day we see it over and over on these threads
No repentance


570 posted on 02/10/2012 6:39:41 PM PST by Lera
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To: Lera
No it is your argument that is devoid of all reasoning.....Luther finally figured that part out when he figured out that the just shall live by faith ...If your church has a problem with Martin Luther for teaching this then your church also has a problem with God’s WORD.

Words from Luther-Not being led by the Holy Spirit

From Martin Luther the Jews and their lies

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther_on_Jews.html

First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them....Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.- Martin Luther

571 posted on 02/10/2012 6:48:39 PM PST by stfassisi ((The greatest gift God gives us is that of overcoming self"-St Francis Assisi)))
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To: stfassisi

He got that from the same pit of hell the Catholics got there replacement theology from . No it did not come from the Holy Spirit , it’s directly from Satan himself.

BTW Martin Luther did not get justification by faith out of thin air . It was being preached long before . He got it from the testimonies of the martyrs that Rome had put to death .

BTW I am going to say it again since obviously you missed it every single other time I have said it on this board . I am not a protestant . Baptist are not protestants (we don’t follow Calvin either) Got that ? I don’t follow Luther and I don’t follow Calvin either , I don’t follow any mortal man . I follow Jesus of Nazareth , every single thing I need to know I can find in his WORD.


572 posted on 02/10/2012 7:04:12 PM PST by Lera
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To: Lera

You’re too funny,dear friend. We all can see through this ignorance . Nice try though

I wish you a Blessed evening


573 posted on 02/10/2012 7:09:18 PM PST by stfassisi ((The greatest gift God gives us is that of overcoming self"-St Francis Assisi)))
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To: Lera

Please explain how you believe Jesus is God and How Jesus is Triune?


574 posted on 02/10/2012 7:17:26 PM PST by stfassisi ((The greatest gift God gives us is that of overcoming self"-St Francis Assisi)))
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To: stfassisi

Do you even realize that everything you accuse non Catholics of is the very thing your church does ?
You accuse Luther of being antisemetic YET you ignore that he learned that from your OWN church . Did you forget that he was a Roman Catholic priest ?
Did you forget that it is YOUR own church that preaches and teaches that they have replaced Israel ?
You are GUILTY of the same thing you are trying to pin on him.
Now that is IGNORANCE .


575 posted on 02/10/2012 7:19:49 PM PST by Lera
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To: Lera

Do you even realize that what some people do in the name of Catholicism does not reflect the dogmatic historical teachings of the Catholic Church ?


576 posted on 02/10/2012 7:23:41 PM PST by stfassisi ((The greatest gift God gives us is that of overcoming self"-St Francis Assisi)))
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To: Lera
YOUR own church that preaches and teaches that they have replaced Israel ?

Your Ignorance of Catholicism is stunning!

Salvation is open to all... Jew,Greek etc..

Salvation is universal because God loves all mankind,not just Jews

577 posted on 02/10/2012 7:31:19 PM PST by stfassisi ((The greatest gift God gives us is that of overcoming self"-St Francis Assisi)))
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To: stfassisi

Guess you never read the WORD or you would know that the answer is in it and you don’t need any Catholic writer or creed to spell it out for you .

1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Joh_3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh_3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Oh and Jesus himself tells us the three are one when he recites the Shema

Want me to go into the Old Testament to find more proof for you ? It’s there too

You kid yourself if you think the Holy Spirit needs the Roman Catholic church to teach a believer .


578 posted on 02/10/2012 7:43:55 PM PST by Lera
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To: stfassisi; Lera
“In 1553 all copies of the Talmud found in Rome were burned in public. Pope Paul IV (1555-1559) ordered measures to be taken against the Jews, and twenty-four men and one woman were burned at the stake. On July 12, 1555, he issued a bull that renewed all the oppressive medieval legislation against the Jews, excluding them from professions, limiting their financial and commercial activities, forbidding them to own real estate, and humiliating them by obliging them to wear yellow hats.” [Lewis W. Spitz, The Protestant Reformation (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1985), 357.

Owen Chadwick likewise documents this: “He forced every Jew to wear a yellow hat and live in a ghetto with only one exit… He caused to be published the first Index of prohibited books… Sixtus of Siena was sent to Cremona, where there was a great Hebrew school (for the destruction of the Talmud was ordered), and reported that he had burnt a store of 12,000 volumes…. Under an Inquisition with extended powers, and a pope ready to suspect everyone, there was almost a reign of terror in the city. ‘Even if my own father were a heretic,’ said the Pope, ‘I would gather the wood to burn him’” [Owen Chadwick, The Reformation (New York: Penguin Books, 1964), 271].

579 posted on 02/10/2012 7:49:17 PM PST by boatbums (Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Titus 3:5)
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To: stfassisi
Your Ignorance of Catholicism is stunning!

No it's not . I understand it a lot more than you think . My father in law is Roman Catholic and went to seminary . I have heard all the arguments before .

Salvation is open to all... Jew,Greek etc..
This you got right . It is open to all . It's open to all because Israel as a whole rejected it.(not all of the rejected because the first followers of Christ were all Jews . )


Salvation is universal because God loves all mankind,not just Jews

Nope salvation is not universal . It's open to those who accept the gift .


Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Rom 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.


Get that even though they are blind , and that blindness is only until the fullness of the gentiles comes in , THEY ARE BELOVED FOR THE FATHERS SAKE . THAT MEANS THAT GOD STILL LOVES THEM.
580 posted on 02/10/2012 8:14:44 PM PST by Lera
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