The People of God

We are all One

To  get  some  insight into the pope's  developing  church  named "People  of  God", we went to the  Catholic  Encyclopedia,  which proved  to  be a confirming source of information.  The  book  is called the most definitive Catholic encyclopedia since Vatican II with  39 contributing authors, 3000 entries, a documented  Church analysis, rich  in Scripture, steeped in  canon  law,  accurate, comprehensive  and  authoritative. From that description  we  can assume that we are talking about a Roman Catholic platform.
Many are concerned with the meltdown that seems to be occurring  at  this time. In other words the line  between  state  and church is diminishing. We received a letter from the mayor of the city  of Denver, a black Freemason. He is inviting  organizations like ours (?), a ministry which is engaged in exposing the cults, to participate in a contest for funding for "Early Childhood Care and  Education  and the Head Start Performance  Standards??  They want non-profit agencies to serve their neighborhoods to  provide high  quality education??

Government funding coming through  nonprofit charitable  organizations who usually have  little  to  no bookkeeping (from an ex auditor's point of view) is a strange way to distribute tax dollars. There  is  much evidence of a changing  government.  If  the Christian  Right is motivated by Catholicism and Mormonism,  Mormons  are pretty visible while Catholics are not with the  exception of the Pope. People outside of Catholicism are not  familiar with the inner makings of Catholicism and their goals for society.  We find the best way to investigate what they believe is  to go into their literature.
The Pope's desire to influence public policies like  capital punishment, abortion, immigration, sanctions, moral values,  conduct  toward other nations, etc., may just be satisfying a  sense of responsibility "Christians" feel to remind people of standards God  set  for society. We are putting "Christians"  in  quotation marks  because  we do not believe that the Pope believes  in  the whole  Word of God since he supports evolution. But he  does  run under the Christian flag. We found in to the encyclopedia, what is behind the Pope's agenda, is more than a sense of responsibility.
We  began  with the Catholic interpretation of  "church  and state"  and find the following condensed to points  important  to our subject matter. "The modern view of the state holds that  the Church and state are autonomous, and while they pursue different ends, they are made up of the same members. While the Church  has a higher objective than that of the state, in practice this makes no  difference  to  the state which is concerned  only  with  the promotion  and protection of civil liberties, of which religious liberty is one..." (1)

This statement by Catholics points to  the fact that the church and state should run well together, parallel to each other. Our democratic history has proven quite the opposite.  By a fervent struggle to keep state and church  separated, the state has bound true Christianity out of the public arena and nailed it to the cross, just as they did 2000 years ago.  Running well  together, parallel, applies to the apostate church because it promotes freedom from pure doctrine.
"After Vatican II, the Church in fact admitted the legitimacy  of  the secular state and affirmed that the  state  could  be independent  of  the Church, so long as it  fulfilled  its basic moral  requirements of protecting citizens and the  common  good. The Church after the Council saw that religion and policies could be regarded as supreme in their own sphere, but there were  areas of overlap where they should cooperate and act in harmony..  both should  facilitate the attainment of each other's  mission." (2) 

The Pope's mission is public acceptance of the only true  church, Catholicism, which we'll prove from their own book. Don't we  get the feeling here that the Catholic church is above the state.  It sounds like they are permitting the states to function under them only under certain conditions.
Developing  a hierarchy so far we have the Pope, the  state, cardinals,  bishops, priests, deacons and "the people of God"  as they call all of humanity. Looking at the explanation of Catholic church  history,  the "Church is confessed to be  a  divine - human reality, an extension of the Incarnation itself, a mystery of the communion of human beings in Christ across time and culture.. the Church is also a visible, social, historical institution that  is also  a  mystical  Body of Christ.." (3)

The  hierarchy  here  is placed  inside the body of Christ which gives it  authority  they need to be above kings, queens and presidents. The fact that  the infallible  Pope supports evolution, who is this mystical  Jesus?

The  Biblical Jesus is the Word of God, how can they be the  same Jesus if part of the Word of God is rejected?
What  does that make the Pope: the Apostolic See,  a  "title [that]  has  been used when referring to Rome from  the  earliest centuries  of  the Church, because of its association  with  St. Peter and his successors. As the seat of the Vicar of Christ,  it is the center of the Catholic Church, containing the papal cathedra  and the offices of the various tribunals  and  congregations that assist the Pope in the government of the Church... it is now used  exclusively  of  Rome." (4)

According  the  definition  of "Apostle":  chosen by Jesus to complete the task or acts  in  the place  of  the  sender.. (5) [a list of over  70  Apostles  (Roman Catholics) follows.

Have you ever recited the Apostle's Creed  in a Lutheran Church? "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; Who  was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the  Virgin  Mary, suffered under  Pontius  Pilate, was crucified,  died,  and  was buried. He descended into hell; the third day he arose again from the  dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand  of God  the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge  the living  and the  dead. I believe in the Holy  Spirit,  the  holy catholic  Church,  the communion of saints,  the  forgiveness  of sins, the resurrection of body, and life everlasting. Amen." (Cf. Nicene Creed) (6)

In research about the twelve Apostles, the Apostle Peter was traveling. "There is plenty of evidence to show that Peter visited  Britain and Gaul several times during his lifetime, his  last visit to Britain taking place shortly before his final arrest and crucifixion  in Nero's circus in Rome. In Gaul, Peter became  the Patron  Saint Chartres, by reason of his preference to preach  in the  famous  Druidic  rock  temple known  as  "The  Grotte  des Druides".. Of his visits in Britain we have the corroboration  of Eusebius  Pamphilis,  A.D. 306.. [later]  an  ancient,  time-worn monument  was excavated at Whithorn.. standing 4 feet high by  15 inches  wide. On the face of this tablet is an  inscription  that reads: `Locvs Sancti Petri Apvstoli' (The Place of St. Peter  the Apostle) ...Shortly  afterwards Peter returned to Rome,  where  he as later executed.
"The  first  church dedicated to Peter was founded  by  King Lucious,  the British King, who was the first by royal decree  to proclaim Christianity the national faith of Britain in Winchester A.D. 156.. The common tradition that St. Peter founded the church at Rome is unverifiable... St. Peters final days in  Rome  from Jowett: "Maliciously condemned, Peter was cast into the horrible, fetid prison of the Mamertime. There for nine months, in absolute darkness, he endured monstrous torture manacled to a post..  Over three thousand  years  old, it is probably  the  oldest  torture chamber  extant, the oldest remaining monument of  bestiality  of ancient  Rome,  a  bleak testimony to  its barbaric inhumanity, steeped  in Christian tragedy and the agony of thousands  of  its murdered victims. It can be seen to this day, with  the  dungeon and the pillar to which Peter was bound in chains.." (7)

Speaking  of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, there  is one  more level we have to consider. "In the only declared  exercise  of papal infallibility, Pope Pius XII,  after consultation with all the bishops of the Catholic Church, on November 1, 1950, proclaimed the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a  doctrine of  the  Faith The dogma of the Assumption states that  Mary  was taken  up body and soul into heaven, after the completion of  her earthly  life, since by reason of her Immaculate  Conception she should not suffer the consequences of original sin.. [how  interesting,  do  believers suffer the consequences of sin??  

She  was alive after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which  set every believer free from sin. His mother was at the cross!]" "The Archangel Gabriel further articulates Mary's  relationship  to the Trinity in this fashion: "The Holy Spirit will come upon  you  and the power of the Most High  will  overshadow  you; therefore,  the child to be born will be called holy, the Son  of God" (Lk 1:35). It might be argued, then, as St. Francis de Sales suggests,  that the Assumption is necessitated by the  desire  of the  Trinity  to behold for eternity Mary, who  enjoys  a  unique relationship with each Person of the Trinity as daughter,  mother and  bride.  In the Eastern tradition, the argument  is  advanced from the doctrine of the Incarnation that Christ took His mother into heaven so that He Who was perfectly human might gaze forever upon,  at  least, one other human being, glorified  like  Himself (cf. Glorified Body).
"The  Second  Vatican Council, in similar  fashion,  states: "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain  of original  sin [if this were true it would be in the Scriptures], was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her  earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all  things, that  she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the  Lord of lords (cf.Rv.19:16) and conqueror of sin and death." (LG,n.59)
"As  archetype of the Church, Mary exemplifies the very  essence  of the Church and the dogma of Assumption must  have  most significant  consequences for all the faithful: "In the  meantime the Mother of Jesus in the glory which she possesses in body  and soul in heaven is the image and the beginning of the Church as it is  to  be perfected in the world to come.  Likewise  she  shines forth on the earth, until the day of the Lord shall come  (cf.2Pt 3:10) a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God...
"The entire body of the faithful pours forth urgent  supplication  to the Mother of God and of men that she, who  aided  the beginnings of the Church by her prayers, may now, exalted as  she is  above all the angels and saints, intercede before her Son  in the fellowship of all the saints, until all families of  people, whether  they are honored with the title of Christian or  whether they  still  do  not know the Saviour, may  be  happily gathered together  in  peace and harmony into one People of God,  for  the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity" (LG, nn. 68-69) (8) President Clinton echos this concept, that we should all be  one.

In  other words, it doesn't matter what God you believe  in,  you will  fit  into  the "People of God" under the  headship  of  the papacy. In  this hierarchy where would the mother of God go? Is  the mother under her son [God] or would she get the highest spot? The pope adores her as the mother of all. Here we begin to get at the seat  of the Catholic Church. How do the "people of  God"  accept Mary in that position, through the Rosary.

The "Mysteries of  the Rosary [relate] to fifteen incidents in the life of Jesus or Mary which  are  meditated  on during the recitation  of  the  fifteen decades of the Rosary. Three sets of five  mysteries  each  are assigned to different days of the week.. joyful.. sorrowful.. and glorious. The joyful mysteries are the Annunciation, Visitation, Birth  of  Our  Lord, Presentation and Finding of  Jesus  in  the Temple;  the sorrowful are the Agony in the Garden, Scourging  at the  Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Carrying of the Cross,  Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord; the glorious are the  Resurrection, the Ascension, Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption and the Coronation  of Mary as Queen of Heaven." (9)

Mary was present  on most of these occasions. What  is mysticism according to the Catholic  Encyclopedia: "It  is  the knowledge of God arrived at through the  embrace of unifying  love..  its method is more intuitive..  experiences  of mystical  states.. Christian  mysticism is  distinctive  in  the prominence  it gives to the notion of union over that of  absorption.  The  mystic retains his or her personal  identity  in  the relationship of mystical knowledge and love.. Hindu and  Buddhist form of mysticism, consistent with the pan-cosmic conceptions out of  which they arise, stress the absorption of the mystic in  the impersonal unity underlying all reality." (10)

"After  a  brief teaching about the Holy  Eucharist  as  the symbol  of  unity, Mystici Corporis Christi warns  about  certain errors which endanger faith, such as false mysticism.. Pope  Pius XII  commends the Church to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  that  she "may never cease to beg from  Him  that  copious streams  of grace may flow from its exalted Head  into  all  the members of the Mystical Body." (11)
The  "People of God" "is a the vanguard of the  human  race, for  it  is God's will to bring all human beings  into  this  one people,  united in Christ, overcoming all that now  divides  mankind." (12) What is interesting here is that this last  statement excludes  the prophesied tribulation and wrath of God. It  leaves no  one  to be pored out on. So we looked for the word  wrath  in their  encyclopedia, and guess what, it is not there. What  about the  word "Antichrist". "Basically the texts (Old and New  Testaments) speak of a final war of cosmological proportions  between the "antichrist" and God and/or Christ which will occur prior  to the Second Coming of Christ and the final judgment of the  world. [How  can there be a war between Jesus and the Antichrist before He comes back?]. The scenario of a final cosmological war between a saving-hero  and his countertype is common for  at  least  two centuries prior to the birth of Christ in both Judaism and  other religious traditions. [In other words, it has nothing to do  with Catholicism].  Collectively  the New  Testament  authors  express similar  understandings related to the "antichrist" but  in  language drawn from a vast array of literary and popular sources.."
In Chapter 32 of the book "The Keys of This Blood" by  Malachi  Martin  p.621: The Politics of Papacy (13) which  relates  to Mary, the queen of heaven.. "There was one very constant  characteristic of the Wyszynski-Wojtyla [the last two popes] geopolitical outlook  and program: the function of Mary,  the  Mother  of Jesus.  This was not merely because of the Polish Pact  concluded centuries before with her as the Queen of Poland. The high  point in the Wyszynski-Wojtyla assault on the then impervious Stalinist government of Poland has come in 1956, when Wyszynski, a prisoner at Komancza, organized his plan to have the whole Polish  nation dedicate itself in submission to Mary as her nation of slaves.

On August  26 of that year, the act of dedication  was  accomplished throughout  Poland and at Mary's shrine at Czestochowa, with  the open  consent  of literally a vast majority of  the  millions  of Poles."
We  just  had a repeat performance in Cuba  where  Mary  was crowned in front of the world via satellite, as the queen of Cuba by  the  Pope. And effects of the pope's visit are  beginning  to surface. In today's Tampa Tribune, Business and Finance,  3.7.98: "Cuba  urges  U.S. executives to oppose embargo on  trade.  Let's write this headline in true language. Communist Cuba urges American  business executives to oppose their own  governmental  decisions.  The Pope knows there are only two Gods, one  is mammon. "No  man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the  one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and  despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24)
"Cuba put on a lavish welcome for more than 50 U.S. business executives  on Friday, urging them to work against  the  American trade  embargo  and  tempting them  with now-forbidden  business opportunities. "At some times in the past you've scared the hell out of us," said Gibbons (former U.S. Rep. Sam Gibbons of  Tampa) recalling  the 1962 crisis over Soviet nuclear missiles based  in Cuba." He must have been talking to Castro which isn't  mentioned and  oddly  enough neither was the pope's visit to Cuba. Can  we assume  that the pope's visit had something to do with  this  new development from Fidel Castro?
Malachi Martin writes: "It is difficult for the  secularized minds of the West to realize that this official act of dedication to an invisible person - Mary - was meant not merely as an act of public  piety  and  devotion, but explicitly  as  a  geopolitical strategy..  This papal policy was pure  Wyszynski-ism  transposed from the confines of Poland to the boundless plane of the  globe, taking  in all nations and all religions. The same  basic confidence  behind  Wyszynski's strategy animated Wojtyla  (Pope  John Paul II): belief in the geopolitical action and power of Mary  as Queen of the world.. "
Obviously  Catholicism  has little to do  with  God's  Word. Instead it is organized religion. Centuries ago, Elijah said to a crowd of fence sitters: ".. How long will you falter between  two opinions?  If  the  Lord is God, follow him; but  if  Baal,  then follow him."  (1Kings 18:21) Moses once told the people:  "..  I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;  therefore  choose life, that both you and your descendants may  live." (Deuteronomy  30:19)  Jesus Christ said: "But be  not  ye  called Rabbi: for one is your Master, [even] Christ; and  all  ye  are brethren.  And call no [man] your father upon the earth: for  one is your Father, which is in heaven." (Matthew 23:8,9)

Does Roman  Catholicism still teach that the  Virgin  Mary actually  plays a part in salvation? Today's  ecumenical  Protestants would surely reject the claim. Yet the brand new  Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states this teaching on page  252, #969: "Taken  up  to heaven she (Mary) did not  lay  aside  this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us  the gifts of eternal salvation .." The Catechism also  states on page 303, # 1172 that: "She (Mary) is inseparably linked with the saving work of her Son."
True  born again, blood washed Christians know that to  suggest  that  Mary plays a role in salvation is  nothing  short  of blasphemy.  Jesus Christ alone can save. He alone shed  His  pure blood  to pay the penalty for our sins. He alone offers the  gift of eternal life.
"Catholic Jesus is only a bit player compared to Virgin Mary. "The Roman Church officially denies  worshiping  Mary," says Loraine Boettner in  his  classic book, Roman Catholicism. "Yet she tells us that Mary  hears  the prayers  of millions and that she constantly gives  attention  to her followers throughout the world. It may well be that, as  Rome says,  she  does not intend idolatry. But the intention  and  the practical  working out of the system are two  different  things." The Catholic theologians tiptoe around this by splitting hairs in their  definition  of worship. One they call "dulia" which  is  a mere  respect for the saints and martyrs. They claim that  it  is not  really prayer when they cry out to their long dead  ones  to "intercede" with God for their petitions.
The next level, "hyperdulia," is reserved for "adoration" of the  "Mother of God," Mary. At the top is "latria,"  worship  reserved  for Jesus and God. .. Pope John Paul II's personal  motto is  "Totus  tuus sum Maria," "Mary, I'm all  Yours."  ..  Several times  the pope has consecrated the world to Mary while  visiting one of her shrines. .. This goddess myth is a unifying factor  of most  religions.  One New Age seer, while in a trance  near  the pyramids  in  Egypt had a revelation of Isis.  She  claimed  that suddenly  she realized that she was looking at the  Virgin  Mary, that they were the same spirit.
The Koran speaks highly of Mary. .. A major part of the  Old Testament  is  filled with the pleas of a  jealous  God,  grieved because  His  chosen  people were trusting in idols of  Tammus, Asteroth and Molech, rather than in Him. Eventually His mercy had to be set aside.
Around the world tens of thousands are flocking to dozens of sites  where  the Virgin Mary is said to appear  or  be  speaking through a medium. The fervor of these worshipers at an apparition site in Florida shows the powerful influence ..[of idol worship]. (Battle  Cry, Editor Jack Chick, P.O. Box  662,  Chino,  Ca 91708, January/February 1995 excerpts: article by Rick Jones)

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