GOD Has a Serious PROBLEM
- Power, Pope, Pastor Joseph Prince, Pride & Porn
Steve Cioccolanti & Discover Ministries
Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
Showing posts with label Pope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope. Show all posts
Friday, October 20, 2017
GOD Has a Serious PROBLEM - Power, Pope, Pastor Joseph Prince, Pride & Porn - Steve Cioccolanti & Discover Ministries
GOD Has a Serious PROBLEM
- Power, Pope, Pastor Joseph Prince, Pride & Porn
Steve Cioccolanti & Discover Ministries
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Exposing Ancient Secrets (Day 3) with Steve Quayle, Timothy Alberino on the Jim Bakker Show
Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 3038 | Aired on July 20, 2016
Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
The Pope, Palestine, and the Prince of Peace - by Jonathan Feldstein
Image: Internet Screenshot via CatholicLink
By Jonathan Feldstein
and as a bridge between Jews and Christians,
while meaningful and important to me, I am often asked by Christians why Jews are not more receptive to fellowship and dialogue with them as I am, and why so many American Jews tend to vote for and support candidates who seem to be less in concert with God, and whose support of Israel is questionable.
I am also often asked by Jews, what it is that Christians who say they love Israel really want. What’s the ulterior motive? Jews also push back because of centuries of hatred, crimes, and murder carried out and directed toward us in the name of “the church.”
Recently, one event had the unique ability to provide even greater pushback and widen a rift that, gratefully, has been narrowing in recent years. That event was the Vatican reaffirming its unhesitant recognition of “the State of Palestine” and establishing a diplomatic treaty with this state.
Jewish PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] is long lasting. When one sees the Catholic Church recognizing a supposed state that doesn’t recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, much less live in peace with us, we have flashbacks to times when Jews were burned, slaughtered, shot and gassed to death, all in the name of “the church.” Even among the most liberal who want a two state solution, there’s an awareness that peace is not a one way street.
As an entity that has a population less than 1000, with rights and appearances of a state, because it is the center of Catholicism the world looks to the Vatican and the Pope to be an outpost of morality and decency. It’s worse than fingernails on a blackboard to see that state cozy up to another entity that’s bigger but no more a state de facto, whose President is serving the ninth year of a four year term, in which anti-Semitism is public policy and celebrated, which denies the right of Israel to exist, fosters attacks, threats and murder of Israelis, while blaming us for all their problems rather than taking responsibility and building the infrastructure for the state they supposedly desire.
Were Jesus alive today, this state of Palestine would call him a settler, would intimidate and threaten him should he go to the Temple Mount, and might stone, fire bomb or shoot at his car traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem. Is this the state the Vatican is proud to recognize?
Other states have recognized “Palestine,” but they are not supposedly rooted in biblical values. Rather than being a follower down a diplomatic dead end paved with moral potholes, we look to the Vatican to be a beacon of light. On this, they have failed.
Even more glaring is that while the Vatican has now recognized a state that doesn’t really exist, it took the Vatican 45 years to recognize Israel as a state. This is still a bone in the throat of many, calling into question a theology that may still be rooted in replacement theology. Overlaying that with liberation theology, and turning a blind eye to the terrorism still perpetrated by the Palestinian Authority and its quasi-governmental partners, is it any wonder that Jews don’t trust Christians.
I am all for human decency and values, and pray for the well-being of all the Palestinian Arabs. I pray that their leaders’ evil ways will be transformed. I pray for peace. But one cannot whitewash the reality of a “Palestinian state” rooted in terrorism, from the birth of the PLO and continuing with Hamas. Juxtapose that to the rebirth of Israel, while maybe not perfect in every way, as a fulfilling of God’s promise to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, and not mutually exclusive to the presence or existence of others. A full 20% of Israel’s citizens are Arab and many hold senior political, diplomatic and civic responsibilities throughout Israel.
It stretches the imagination to wonder how and why the Vatican took this approach. I suspect that they are not held hostage regarding the supply of oil, so pandering to the Arab world for that is unlikely. Do they somehow believe that by recognizing “Palestine” miraculously millions of Christians in the Middle East will be safe and not fear the sort of crimes that have befallen Christians in the name of Islam recently? Did someone sneak in overnight and erase the scripture about Israel and God’s covenant with the Jewish people from all their bibles? Or is it plain old Catholic anti-Semitism that we know too well?
Either way this diplomatic hocus pocus will not only not do anything to bring peace in the Middle East closer, but it will make the Palestinian Authority more intransigent and less likely to make peace if they think they can get recognized as a state albeit without the standards or responsibilities of statehood. I have images of Godfather 3 where mafia corruption is shown to run so deep it goes straight back to the Vatican. Did someone in Ramallah pay off someone in Vatican City for such protection?
Israel was reborn 67 years ago after centuries of dispersion, and both Israel’s independence and all that we have built are truly miraculous. The hand of God is seen throughout this historic century of the Jewish people’s return to the Land that God promised us.
I am not a theologian and no expert on Catholicism, but I understand that in order to qualify for sainthood, one has to have performed some sort of miracle. Maybe that’s the issue. Maybe Pope Francis is setting himself up for sainthood, by recognizing a state that doesn’t exist which is perverse, but perhaps could be seen as a miracle. Would making a state out of dust, as God created man, count as a miracle?
But it’s absurd to think that this announcement has any merit or value toward bringing peace closer with or without a Palestinian state, and that’s terribly sad because there’s a lot that can be done and the Vatican could play a useful role. But to make up a state where none exists, to call Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas an “angel of peace” is beyond ludicrous.
Why not just pretend that Jesus were not a Jew, that the Arabs are somehow the successor to God’s promise to and covenant with the Jewish people, and call Abbas the Prince of Peace?
Friday, March 15, 2013
Israel, Jews pleased with new pope
Israel, Jews pleased with new pope
Friday, March 15, 2013 | Israel Today Staff
Israeli leaders on Thursday welcomed news that Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires had been selected as the new pope.
Bergoglio will be sworn in as Pope Francis I next week.
"The new pope will be welcomed in the Holy Land with love and appreciation by Jews, Muslims and Christians as one," said Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Anti-Defamation League President Abe Foxman said he was "reassured" over the new pope's record regarding the Jews, and Rabbi David Rosen of American Jewish Committee labeled the incoming pontiff a "warm and sweet and modest man."
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio had good relations with the local Jewish community. He attended a Rosh Hashanah celebration at a local synagogue in 2007, and for years has led solidarity efforts and calls for justice in respect to the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center.
Many Jews were concerned that only a European pope who had lived through the Holocaust could truly appreciate the history of the Jews vis-a-vis the Church, and that popes John Paul and Benedict XVI would be the last to truly foster strong Jewish-Catholic relations.
But those concerns have been put to rest with the selection of Pope Francis I, who is being universally praised for his down-to-earth and genuinely sympathetic nature.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23732/Default.aspx?hp=readmore
Bergoglio will be sworn in as Pope Francis I next week.
"The new pope will be welcomed in the Holy Land with love and appreciation by Jews, Muslims and Christians as one," said Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Anti-Defamation League President Abe Foxman said he was "reassured" over the new pope's record regarding the Jews, and Rabbi David Rosen of American Jewish Committee labeled the incoming pontiff a "warm and sweet and modest man."
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio had good relations with the local Jewish community. He attended a Rosh Hashanah celebration at a local synagogue in 2007, and for years has led solidarity efforts and calls for justice in respect to the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center.
Many Jews were concerned that only a European pope who had lived through the Holocaust could truly appreciate the history of the Jews vis-a-vis the Church, and that popes John Paul and Benedict XVI would be the last to truly foster strong Jewish-Catholic relations.
But those concerns have been put to rest with the selection of Pope Francis I, who is being universally praised for his down-to-earth and genuinely sympathetic nature.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23732/Default.aspx?hp=readmore
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Yad Vashem Softens Criticism of Pope Pius XII
Yad Vashem Softens Criticism of Pope Pius XII
Yad Vashem has modified its account of Pope Pius XII’s actions toward the Jews during WWII, following long diplomatic dispute.
Yad Vashem entrance - photo by Steve Martin
First Publish: 7/3/2012
Vatican Reuters
Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum has modified its account of Pope Pius XII’s actions toward the Jews during World War II, following a long diplomatic dispute with the Vatican.
Critics have long contended that Pius, who was pope from 1939 to 1958, could have done more to prevent the systematic slaughter of Jews in Nazi-Europe. The controversial issue has since become the single most divisive issue in Vatican-Jewish relations.
A wall panel at the Yad Vashem memorial still lists occasions when the wartime Pius did not protest the slaughter of Europe’s Jews, but also offers accounts those who say the church’s “neutrality” helped save lives.
“This is an update to reflect research that has been done in the recent years and presents a more complex picture than previously presented,” Yad Vashem said in a statement. “This change is not a result of Vatican pressure,” the statement added.
Antonio Franco, the papal envoy in Israel, called the move a “positive evolution.”
In 2007, Franco threatened to skip that year’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem to protest the panel’s old text. While he eventually relented, the dispute heightened tensions between the Vatican and Israel, as well as the Pope’s image among world Jewry.
While the Vatican claims that more Jewish deaths would have resulted if the Pope had been more critical of the Nazis, critics argue that he could have and should have done more.
The old panel displayed at Yad Vashem said Pius XII was "active" in obtaining a treaty with Germany to protect the Church's rights "even if this meant recognising the Nazi racist regime."
It said he cancelled a letter denouncing racism and anti-Semitism, and failed to protest publicly the murder of Jews. It accused him of declining to sign the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of Jews and said he had failed to take actions to prevent the transport of Jews from Rome to Auschwitz.
The new panel attributes the signing of the deal to Pius XI, and notes that he made reference to the deaths of hundreds of people during a 1942 radio address, though he did not specifically mention Jews.
"The pope's critics claim that his decision to abstain from condemning the murder of the Jews by Nazi Germany constitutes a moral failure," the panel says. "The lack of clear guidance left room for many to collaborate with Nazi Germany, reassured by the thought that this did not contradict the Church's moral teachings." "His defenders maintain that this neutrality prevented harsher measures against the Vatican and the Church's institutions... thus enabling a considerable number of secret rescue activities," it adds.
Yad Vashem in the past said the panel would only be changed if the Vatican agreed to open its archives to researchers and evidence showed Pius XII's role had been misrepresented. The Vatican has yet to open those archives fully, though it has made public selected documents. But Yad Vashem said on Sunday that new research "has clarified certain issues, while still leaving many questions open."
After decades of reluctance, the Vatican recognized Israel in 1993, followed by Pope John Paul II’s official visit to the Jewish state in 2000, during which he stopped at Yad Vashem. The current pope, Pope Benedict XVI, visited Israel in 2009.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157456
Critics have long contended that Pius, who was pope from 1939 to 1958, could have done more to prevent the systematic slaughter of Jews in Nazi-Europe. The controversial issue has since become the single most divisive issue in Vatican-Jewish relations.
A wall panel at the Yad Vashem memorial still lists occasions when the wartime Pius did not protest the slaughter of Europe’s Jews, but also offers accounts those who say the church’s “neutrality” helped save lives.
“This is an update to reflect research that has been done in the recent years and presents a more complex picture than previously presented,” Yad Vashem said in a statement. “This change is not a result of Vatican pressure,” the statement added.
Antonio Franco, the papal envoy in Israel, called the move a “positive evolution.”
In 2007, Franco threatened to skip that year’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem to protest the panel’s old text. While he eventually relented, the dispute heightened tensions between the Vatican and Israel, as well as the Pope’s image among world Jewry.
While the Vatican claims that more Jewish deaths would have resulted if the Pope had been more critical of the Nazis, critics argue that he could have and should have done more.
The old panel displayed at Yad Vashem said Pius XII was "active" in obtaining a treaty with Germany to protect the Church's rights "even if this meant recognising the Nazi racist regime."
It said he cancelled a letter denouncing racism and anti-Semitism, and failed to protest publicly the murder of Jews. It accused him of declining to sign the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of Jews and said he had failed to take actions to prevent the transport of Jews from Rome to Auschwitz.
The new panel attributes the signing of the deal to Pius XI, and notes that he made reference to the deaths of hundreds of people during a 1942 radio address, though he did not specifically mention Jews.
"The pope's critics claim that his decision to abstain from condemning the murder of the Jews by Nazi Germany constitutes a moral failure," the panel says. "The lack of clear guidance left room for many to collaborate with Nazi Germany, reassured by the thought that this did not contradict the Church's moral teachings." "His defenders maintain that this neutrality prevented harsher measures against the Vatican and the Church's institutions... thus enabling a considerable number of secret rescue activities," it adds.
Yad Vashem in the past said the panel would only be changed if the Vatican agreed to open its archives to researchers and evidence showed Pius XII's role had been misrepresented. The Vatican has yet to open those archives fully, though it has made public selected documents. But Yad Vashem said on Sunday that new research "has clarified certain issues, while still leaving many questions open."
After decades of reluctance, the Vatican recognized Israel in 1993, followed by Pope John Paul II’s official visit to the Jewish state in 2000, during which he stopped at Yad Vashem. The current pope, Pope Benedict XVI, visited Israel in 2009.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157456
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