The Pope Said It's Better to Be An Atheist

  • Welcome to Christian Forums, a Christian Forum that recognizes that all Christians are a work in progress.

    You will need to register to be able to join in fellowship with Christians all over the world.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

ScottA

Well-Known Member
Feb 24, 2011
11,693
5,574
113
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
It appears to me he is calling those people hypocrites. When they "live hating others" or 'talk badly about people' it is not Christ like. If you go to church but are not like Christ then you are, in effect, a hypocrite. If you are not living what Christ taught you are living a "false testimony" which means you are like an atheist.

That's my best guess. Maybe the Vatican will clarify his remarks in the future?

Best guess Mary
I agree!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marymog

amadeus

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2008
22,394
31,446
113
80
Oklahoma
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
When I look at my life and compare it to the zealous activity of a great many saints of old I cannot but in comparison comparison consider that I am a lukewarm Christian.

Then I look at the lack of influence we as Christians are having in the world/country, are there Christians who are asked for their views on issues of morlity or who are watch debating with nonchristians?

ow effective is Christian teaching in the church? How many 'Christians' are having sex outside of marriage, regard living together as normal etc etc etc
The way we get closer to God at the top is always start at the bottom... that is in the lowest room. We also lift the Lord up. Our purpose when it really becomes equal to His purpose [His will] never be opposed to God... but none of us can get there alone. We always need His help. We need God's help to surrender completely to Him. We must ask...

"But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Luke 14:10-11


"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:" Matt 7:7

But mind carefully what you ask for and how you ask for it:

"Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." James 4:2-3
 

GodsGrace

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2017
10,727
5,716
113
Tuscany
Faith
Christian
Country
Italy
Who could be a bigger hypocrite than the Pope? The Reformers called the Pope of their time the Antichrist.
A hypocrite is someone who says one thing but does another.

What does the Pope say that he does not do??
 

Enoch111

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2018
17,688
15,996
113
Alberta
Faith
Christian
Country
Canada
What does the Pope say that he does not do??

'The rhetorical “holy war” between Pope Francis and Donald Trump, while perhaps damaging to the latter, may open the Vatican to a charge of hypocrisy in the way the papal enclave in Rome is administered.'

Trump-Pope Feud: The Vatican Has A Wall, Strict Immigration Policy

The Pope supports open borders and illegal migrant invasion into Western countries, but the Vatican has a wall and strict immigration policies. This is only one of many papal hypocrisies.
 

BreadOfLife

Well-Known Member
Jan 2, 2017
20,915
3,368
113
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
'The rhetorical “holy war” between Pope Francis and Donald Trump, while perhaps damaging to the latter, may open the Vatican to a charge of hypocrisy in the way the papal enclave in Rome is administered.'

Trump-Pope Feud: The Vatican Has A Wall, Strict Immigration Policy

The Pope supports open borders and illegal migrant invasion into Western countries, but the Vatican has a wall and strict immigration policies. This is only one of many papal hypocrisies.
YOU said that there was a veritable "catalog" of items
You have only presented ONE.

Where is the list??
 

GodsGrace

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2017
10,727
5,716
113
Tuscany
Faith
Christian
Country
Italy
'The rhetorical “holy war” between Pope Francis and Donald Trump, while perhaps damaging to the latter, may open the Vatican to a charge of hypocrisy in the way the papal enclave in Rome is administered.'

Trump-Pope Feud: The Vatican Has A Wall, Strict Immigration Policy

The Pope supports open borders and illegal migrant invasion into Western countries, but the Vatican has a wall and strict immigration policies. This is only one of many papal hypocrisies.
OK
I agree with the above and have said this several times.

Of course he needs a wall.
But so does EVERY country....
Look where I live - I can't tell you how things have changed.
I think of a country as being like a home...do we keep our front door open?
 
B

brakelite

Guest
How do YOU know??
Who has he NOT forgiven??
Only God can forgive sin. None can sin against the Pope. Offend him maybe, and that he can forgive. But sin is transgression against the law of God. What mortal man had the power to forgive sin?
 

BreadOfLife

Well-Known Member
Jan 2, 2017
20,915
3,368
113
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
Only God can forgive sin. None can sin against the Pope. Offend him maybe, and that he can forgive. But sin is transgression against the law of God. What mortal man had the power to forgive sin?
You don't know your Bible very well - DO you?

The practice of telling our sins directly to a priest is based directly in Scripture. THREE TIMES in the Gospels (Matt. 16:19, 18:18 and John 20:23), we read where Jesus gave the Apostles the power to forgive sins or to hold them bound. This is not something that Jesus took lightly. In John 20:21-23, Jesus (who is God) breathes on the Apostles as he is giving THEM this power:
(Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins YOU FORGIVE are forgiven them, and whose sins YOU RETAIN are retained."


The fact that Jesus breathed on the Apostles when entrusted them with this ministry is highly significant because he doesn’t do this anywhere else in the New Testament. In fact, there are only two times in ALL of Scripture where God breathes on man:

The first is when he breathed life into Adam.
The second is here in John’s Gospel when he is giving them the power to forgive or retain sins.

St. Paul makes NO small case for this ministry of reconciliation clearly in 2 Cor. 5:18-20:

“And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

In 2 Cor. 2:10, he states, “Whomever you forgive anything, so do I. For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ.

Paul was FORGIVING SINS.

In the Greek, the word “presence” in this phrase is Prosopone, which means Person. In the PERSON of Christ is a more correct translation. Paul was indicating that they were forgiving sins in the PERSON of Christ, which is translated into Latin as In Persona Christi.
 

friend of

Well-Known Member
Sep 22, 2018
1,738
1,365
113
33
B.C.
Faith
Christian
Country
Canada
Bible says it would have been better for them to have not known the ways of righteousness, than to know it and reject it...


Anyway

Francis is scandalous.