Editor’s note: We will be posting more about this as soon as we can, but here’s the video message from Pope Francis’ of the Roman Catholic Church to the Charismatic/Evangelical church, expressing his “yearning” to bridge nearly two millennia of division and separation and for the worldwide Body of Christ to become “one” as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. The video message was played at a recent conference hosted by Kenneth Copeland. First is the Pope’s message, below it is the conference video in which Anglican Episcopal Bishop Tony Palmer, who recorded the message on his I-Phone at the request of the Pope during a visit in which he was summoned to the Vatican by the Pope himself via phone call the Pope initiated. The Pope and Bishop Palmer became friends eight years ago, and the Bishop considered the newly elected Pope to be one of three “fathers in the Lord” and mentors. In Bishop Palmer’s remarks he references the signing of an agreement in 1999 by the Roman Catholic Church and a Lutheran synod concurring on a settlement of the main point of disagreement behind the 1517 split and beginnings of the Protestant churches spearheaded by Martin Luther, i.e., justification by faith in Christ’s works alone (Luther’s position) and justification by works (Roman Catholic Church’s position).
It is in our desire to be a conduit of information that Spirit Life Magazine has posted these videos, not to endorse any of the principals or ministries involved, neither Charismaticism or Catholicism; or as an implicit statement of any kind. At this time, we have made no conclusions ourselves regarding the implications of the substance of either video, though we have taken at face value and have no reason to doubt the sincerity of Pope Francis’ expressed “yearning” for unity with the entire Body of Christ, albeit, at the same time we fully understand that sincerity is not the determining factor of rightness or righteousness. We realize that some major ministries that we respect highly have already been outspoken about their determination that Pope Francis is the “last pope” of the one-world, one-church regime of the antichrist. We can fully understand the reasons behind those conclusions, based on eschatalogical theories, some widely accepted, some not. However, that is the problem with the subject of eschatalogy, it, maybe like no other theological discipline or area of study is comprised of a lot of hypothesis that no one can really define as the absolute, irrefutable, unchallengeable TRUTH! Jesus said not even the Son (talking about Himself) knows that “times and epochs” set by the Father, so it is prudent to tread lightly when dealing with the subject of the end-times, and it is quite possible that what God will do, in the end, will not be according to ANY of the plethora of the extant eschatological theories.
For us, and this is only our opinion from watching the Pope’s video, particularly when it is coupled with the background story provided by Bishop Palmer, which seems to us to be quite authentic-sounding, and doing the best we can humanly to “see” it through the Spirit, imploring the Holy Spirit to grant us His perfect and wholly reliable giftings of discernment of spirits, the sincerity and authenticity of the Pope’s message seems as obvious and indubitable as it gets. It was his idea and desire to record this video using—the I-Phone of his friend, Tony Palmer—as a heartfelt, as he called it, message to convey to the Charismatic Body of Christ in particular that we are all “brothers” in the Lord, as he stated in the video. This message, it seems to us, came from the man who happened to have been elected by his peers to be the new Pope, not as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. That’s the most important matter here, in our opinion. The fact is, this pope or any other pope may not be able through all their efforts while in that office to change the Roman Catholic Church, but who is any mere mortal to doubt whether or not God, through the all-powerful workings of the Holy Spirit, has not changed or transformed this man’s heart! THAT appears to us, to be an obvious fact that we do not doubt. As for us, we accept his statement, “I am your brother and you are my brother!” He is not, to us, “the traditional successor to Saint Peter, to whom Jesus gave the keys of Heaven and the powers of “binding and loosing,” naming him as the “rock” upon which the church would be built,”[1] nor the mediator[2] between us and God (only Jesus is that), nor is he (and his extensions, i.e., ordained Catholic priests) the only qualified and properly sanctified ministers of the “eucharist” which through their liturgical offerings becomes the “transubstantiation of Christ,”[3], but we receive him as our BROTHER in Christ! We do indeed BLESS and pray for him as he implored the Body of Christ, and count it an honor and command of the Lord to do so! Praise Jesus![End Editor’s note]
Pope Francis’ Video Message:
Kenneth Copeland Conference Video:
The following is the transcript of Pope Francis’ video message; judge for yourself:
“Two rules: Love God above all, and love the other (neighbor), because he is your brother and sister. With these two rules we can go ahead. I am here with my brother, my bishop brother, Tony Palmer. We’ve been friends for years.
He told me about your conference, about your meeting. And it’s my pleasure to greet you. A greeting both joyful and nostalgic (yearning). Joyful because it gives me joy that you have come together to worship Jesus Christ the only Lord. And to pray to the Father and to receive the Holy Spirit. This brings me joy because we can see that God is working all over the world. Nostalgic (yearning) because but…it happens, as within our suburbs. In the suburbs there are families that love each other and families that don’t love each other. Families that come together and families who separate themselves. We are kind of…permit me to say, separated.
Separated because, it’s sin that has separated us, all our sins. The misunderstandings throughout history. It has been a long road of sins that we all shared in. Who is to blame? We all share the blame. We have all sinned. There is only one blameless, the Lord. I am nostalgic (yearning), that this separation comes to an end and gives us communion. I am nostalgic (yearning), of that embrace that the Holy Scripture speaks of when Joseph’s brothers began to starve from hunger, they went to Egypt, to buy, so that they could eat.
They went to buy. They had money. But they couldn’t eat the money. But there they found something more than food, they found their brother. All of us have currency. The currency of our culture. The currency of our history. We have lot of cultural riches, and religious riches. And we have diverse traditions. But we have to encounter one another as brothers. We must cry together like Joseph did. These tears will unite us. The tears of love.
I am speaking to you as a brother. I speak to you in a simple way. With joy and nostalgia (yearning). Let us allow our nostalgia (yearning) to grow, because this will propel us to find each other, to embrace one another. And together to worship Jesus Christ as the only Lord of History.
I thank you profoundly for listening to me. I thank you profoundly for allowing me to speak the language of the heart. And I also ask you a favor. Please pray for me, because I need your prayers. And I will pray for you, I will do it, but I need your prayers. And let us pray to the Lord that He unites us all. Come on, we are brothers. Let’s give each other a spiritual hug and let God complete the work that he has begun. And this is a miracle; the miracle of unity has begun.
A famous Italian author named Manzoni, once wrote in his novel, of a simle man amongst the people, who once said this, “I’ve never seen God begin a miracle without Him finishing it well.” He will complete this miracle of unity.
I ask you to bless me, and I bless you. From brother to brother, I embrace you.
Thank you.”
__________________
Endnotes:
[1] Wikipedia: Pope. Jesus gave the “keys of the Kingdom” to the ekklesia (Church), not to Peter exclusively, and Jesus did not say that Peter (Petras) [God forbid] was the Petra (Rock) upon which the Church was established, but that He Himself was that Rock.
[2] Mediator. Genuine Protestants do not regard the Pope or any mere human as being spiritually capable of being a mediator in any degree or kind between God and man. There’s only ONE mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, because there’s only One who qualifies and could ever qualify as the Kinsmen Redeemer, Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5).
[3] Wikipedia: Transubstantiation. The elements of communion are what they are—bread and wine—they are symbols of the actual fleshly body (which “This is MY body which is given for you” [Lk. 22:19]) which was broken, crushed for us, and actual physical blood of Christ (“for this is MY blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” [Mat. 26:28]), which was shed “ONCE and for all” for us (Heb. 9:12). The innocent blood that Jesus, the Man—our Kinsmen Redeemer—shed as the Lamb of God during his suffering more than two millennia ago was shed ONCE and for all and its efficacy extended from that time throughout all eternity for the remission of sin of all mankind. That efficacy cannot, nor is there any need for it to, be replicated. Thus the elements are exactly that, elements of a commemoration, symbols, of what Jesus Himself did in His sacrificial death in our stead.
************************************
Dr. Steven Lambert was ordained in 1977 and holds several earned graduate/post-graduate degrees. Over more than four decades in ministry, he has served as a pastor, radio/TV host, adjunct-professor, Board Certified Doctoral Diplomate Christian Therapist/Counselor, and a speaker/commentator on a range of social, political, and theological issues, particularly as a recognized authority on the matter of ecclesiastical authoritarian abuse. He is the founder/Overseer of Ephesians Four Network (ephesiansfour.net) and its subsidiary, Ephesians Four Network of Deliverance Counselors (efndc.ephesiansfour.net). Dr. Lambert authored several books (catalog at realtruthpublications.com), many published articles, and is the founder/editor of Spirit Life Magazine (spiritlifemag.com). His bio, extensive blog, and scheduling information are available on his ministry website at: http://www.slm.org. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
Thanks for reading this article! If you enjoy the spiritually enriching articles on Spirit Life Magazine, please sign up to receive new articles via email immediately when they are posted simply by entering your email address in the "Articles Via Email" widget located on this page toward the top of the right-sidebar. Just below that widget is another widget—"Newsletter Sign-up"—you can use to subscribe to our newsletter we send out periodically to inform you of all our new articles and occasionally other information as well. Please know that we do not bombard your inbox with emails, and we hate SPAM just as much as you do, thus we will never sell/share your contact info with anyone else—rest assured it's safe with us! We hope you will subscribe to both lists because it's by far the easiest, fastest, and surest way to notify you of new posts. Thank you!
Spirit Life Magazine does not necessarily agree with the totality of the opinions, beliefs or philosophies of the authors of articles posted on the website, nor does the posting of articles represent an endorsement of authors other than our own authors/editors. Spirit Life Magazine is a publication of Real Truth Publications.
If you enjoyed this or any of the articles on Spirit Life Magazine, please click on the PayPal® Donate Button below to make a donation to help us with the costs of maintaining this online magazine. A PayPal® account is not required to use the PayPal® gateway, you can pay with debit/credit card or an e-Check from your bank. It's fast and secure! Thank you!
