Ahh.....it amuses this Italian to no end that our Anglo-American Protestant friends find such giddy, quasi-pornographic delight in uncovering the Secret Lives of the Popes! OOOH....looky here....this one put a dead guy on trial....this one had a mistress!!!
Listen up and listen good. Ain’t no one. And I mean NO ONE on this earth who knows the shenanigans and the intrigues and the sordid details of the Papacy better than us Italians. You folks read it in the history books, put your hands to your mouth and utter a demure little “oh my!”. We had to actually put up with this crap for a thousand years. Ain’t no scandal you can uncover, ain’t no bastard you can unmask, ain’t no mistress or sordid affair you can blow the lid off that we didn’t know about 200 years before it squirreled its way into your little books there.
You wanna talk papal shenanigans, then get off the podium, take a seat at the back of the classroom and we’ll take you to school.
But let’s not stop there though. Let’s tell the whole story—the parts of the story that Luther, that Calvin, that Boettner conveniently ignore. Because we Italians also know darn well that some of the most saintly men and women who have ever walked this earth loved this institution of the Papacy, protected it, defended it, honored it, and humbly obeyed it. Some of them even served in it. Why is that? Why did a man like St. Francis, who had more divine humility in his little fingernail than the insufferably proud Luther and Calvin could ever dream of, kneel at the foot of Innocent III and pledge his obedience? If the Pope is the Antichrist, then that makes St. Francis his faithful servant, and that, my friends, is the moment we veer off into complete insanity. Because if your conception of Christianity can’t include St. Francis, then I don’t know what religion you are in but it’s not the one that Christ Jesus founded.
Finally, let none of us be so ignorant of human nature to imagine that a reprobate who holds the office invalidates the office itself. If Alexander VI is our reason for rejecting the Papacy, then very well, let Bill Clinton or a President Obama be our rationale for rejecting the Presidency. Let’s stop voting. Declare ourselves in secession. Go off and write our own Constitution, and do in the secular sphere what some seem to advocate in the religious.
The analogy is that flawed. It’s that dumb. If the Roman See was set up by Divine Right, then by Divine Right it endures till the end of time I don’t care what miserable wretch holds the post and what he does to abuse it. Because what God has created man has not the power to destroy.
You said exactly what I wished to say. Thank the Lord for your faithful witness.
I have read no convincing evidence it was ever established by God Almighty vs by a band of militarily supported political bureaucrats and power mongers 300-400 years after Christ.
Regardless . . .
Set up the Mosaic Priesthood . . . and various kings . . .
and JUST AS CLEARLY, REPEATEDLY withdrew HIS ANOINTING, HIS MANDATE
and trashed, KILLED, REMOVED the people, heirs, their leadership, reign etc.
The MOST HIGHLY ARROGANT ASSUMPTION, HERESY, NONSENSE, HIDIOUSNESS
THAT God has continued to bless and in any major way continue to 'primarily work through'
Any notion that the Vatican
or ANY OTHER
human religious organization has continued purely operating in the center of God's will long after their founding
is laughable, pathetic delusion, falsehood, horrific deception on the face of it.
God is increasingly cleaning up His Church Universal . . . some religious organizations/churches will be trashed wholesale/left out in the increasingly deadly cold away from GOD'S ANOINTING, PROVISION, PROTECTION, LEADING . . . most likely to be sucked up in the satanic global government in some form or other, if they continue to exist at all.
Some CONGREGATIONS in most Christian organizations will fall by the wayside and some will go on to be purified more and more and stand tall as beacons of righteousness regardless of what happens as a whole with the parent organization.
Some very few Christian organizations may as a whole be purified by God's cleansing and refiner's fires. Such could probably be counted on one or at the most two hands.
Within congregations, individuals will be sifted sorely. Those unwilling to give all and focus wholesale on God as their utmost Priority and on His Spirit's guidance and ways . . . will fall by the wayside.
There will be no exceptions.
He must do it.
We cannot.
We MUST be willing and cooperative.
Rebellion & idolatry will be death sentences. Deception and game playing will be merely different faces of rebellion and/or idolatry.
Rationalizations will not work.
Rituals will not work.
Traditions will not work.
Hierarchy will be of no avail.
Bureaucracy will be of no avail.
Magicstericals will be of no avail.
Structure will not work.
Past glories will be of no avail.
Rationalizations will be of no avail.
History will be of no avail.
Human or organizational Status will be of no avail.
Numbers will be of no avail.
Human opinions will be of no avail.
Bargaining will be of no avail.
All chaff, wood, hay, stubble will be consumed by the Fire of His cleansing Spirit. All that can be shaken will be shaken to destruction.
God will likely be merciful to those of earnest hearts authentically seeking Him--and who have been merciful. However, folks holding themselves out in any sort of leadership positions will most definitely be tested seriously . . . particularly along the lines of their own judgments and pronouncements as well as Scripture.
Human structures and organizations will be amongst the first things to go; be shredded; rendered kaput, ineffectual, trash heaps.
HIS ORGANIZATION will be a flowing, spontaneous, creative, temporary/eternal symphonic dance of His Spirit Who will Blow Where HE wishes, How HE wishes, When HE wishes, Where He wishes, as long or short as HE wishes . . . carrying those truly filled with HIS SPIRIT along with Him as He wills and as they wholeheartedly focus on HIM and cooperate with HIM.
Let the Spirit-filled Body of Christ hereon judge the above words as whether they be of God, or not.
IF they are, mocking is ill-advised. The spiritual trash-heap has no limits to it's size.