Over one million people turned out to see Pope Francis in his visits to Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. The 78-year-old religious leader came to the United States calling for greater concern for the poor, greater unity of purpose, greater compassion for immigrants and a greater witness to the power and message of Jesus.
He departed the U.S. making statements against sexual abuse of children which followed pleas for forgiveness for the Catholic Church for its historic wrongs against the indigenous people in South America before journeying North.
The pope has been hailed by many for a relatively austere lifestyle and for his desire to connect with common people–whether homeless people at a lunch in Washington, D.C., a child in a wheelchair as he departed a major venue or Black and Latino children at a school in Harlem.
While the pope’s admonitions are worthy of note, consider a question: Can a man who represents an institution that has committed centuries of evil, destruction, condoned and opened the door to the holocaust of the TransAtlantic slave trade be the vicar of Christ?
“The term ‘vicar’ comes from the Latin word vicarius, which means ‘instead of.’ In the Catholic Church, the vicar is the representative of a higher-ranking official, with all of the same authority and power that that official has. Calling the pope the ‘Vicar of Christ’ implies that he has the same power and authority that Christ had over the church,” according to one definition of the term.
But to have the same power and authority over the church that Christ had, would the church not have to be founded by Christ?
“The Roman Catholic Church contends that its origin is the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ in approximately A.D. 30. The Catholic Church proclaims itself to be the church that Jesus Christ died for, the church that was established and built by the apostles. Is that the true origin of the Catholic Church? On the contrary. Even a cursory reading of the New Testament will reveal that the Catholic Church does not have its origin in the teachings of Jesus or His apostles. In the New Testament, there is no mention of the papacy, worship/adoration of Mary (or the immaculate conception of Mary, the perpetual virginity of Mary, the assumption of Mary, or Mary as co-redemptrix and mediatrix), petitioning saints in heaven for their prayers, apostolic succession, the ordinances of the church functioning as sacraments, infant baptism, confession of sin to a priest, purgatory, indulgences, or the equal authority of church tradition and Scripture,” observed www.gotquestions.org.
“So, if the origin of the Catholic Church is not in the teachings of Jesus and His apostles, as recorded in the New Testament, what is the true origin of the Catholic Church? For the first 280 years of Christian history, Christianity was banned by the Roman Empire, and Christians were terribly persecuted. This changed after the ‘conversion’ of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine provided religious toleration with the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313, effectively lifting the ban on Christianity. Later, in A.D. 325, Constantine called the Council of Nicea in an attempt to unify Christianity. Constantine envisioned Christianity as a religion that could unite the Roman Empire, which at that time was beginning to fragment and divide. While this may have seemed to be a positive development for the Christian church, the results were anything but positive. Just as Constantine refused to fully embrace the Christian faith, but continued many of his pagan beliefs and practices, so the Christian church that Constantine promoted was a mixture of true Christianity and Roman paganism,” the website noted.
Besides the false beliefs, the atrocities and violations of the Catholic Church are far too numerous to list here, but the church has a bloody history.
If this pope and church are not the true church, where are the church and the people of God to be found?
As the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote in “What the Muslims Believe,” we “believe we are the people of God’s choice, as it was written, that God would choose the rejected and despised. We can find no other persons fitting this description in these last days more than the so-called Negroes in America.”
“All prophets prophesized about a superior One coming after their time. He is known under various names. The Jews are looking for the Messiah. The Christians are looking for the Christ. The Muslims are looking for the Mahdi. Are we looking for three different men? Or are we looking for one Man described and characterized by the different branches of belief, under three different names?” asked the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in an incredibly important announcement delivered in 1981 at the first Saviour’s Day convention held under his efforts to rebuild a Nation of Islam targeted and destroyed by government plots and enemies.
“The greatest truth to come to the world is hidden in the truth of the man under the name ‘Jesus.’ There are two powerful aspects of that truth: one is the relationship of Jesus to God, because Jesus removes the veil between man and God, bringing understanding of the divinity in human nature; and two, did Jesus escape from death?” he noted.
In that address and others, the Minister has made an incredible assertion: Based on scripture and history, the promised Messiah would not come out of Caucasian people or other people but would be born of a people birthed in the furnace of affliction. That people would be Black people in America and the prophesized Messiah would be the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who many believe is dead. The Minister disclosed how his teacher escaped a death plot and challenged those who doubted his words to exhume the remains to prove or disprove his assertion in 1981. He has never backed away from that assertion.
“He has risen and I am here to tell you that the Jesus you have been looking for has been in your midst for 40 years and you did not recognize him. We did not know who he was until after he was gone; and when he was gone, we fell apart,” said the Minister in 1981.
As the prophesized Jesus would open blind eyes, raise the dead to life, warn a wicked empire and give his life for his people, those acts are found in the work of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and his tiny Nation of Islam.
The resurrection is spiritual and mental resurrection and a resurrection into a way to truly live as opposed to existing in debased conditions created by the oppression and misteaching of an enemy. No one has proved a physical resurrection from beyond the grave and few seem willing to die to prove it.
But we have seen miraculous changes in Black life in America and other parts of the world based on the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and his servant, Min. Farrakhan.
The love and knowledge of self and the ability to transform human life and withstand the wiles of Satan, human beings with demonic minds and diabolical plans, without arms or approval of the oppressors is woven into the fabric of the Nation’s character and history.
It will once again be on display Oct. 10 as the Minister makes a case for justice in the heart of a modern Rome and mystery Babylon, which are the United States of America.
The Christ, his people and his representative are right here among a people who are naught that Almighty God will use to bring the powerful to naught.
It you doubt that, study your scripture and watch as prophecy is fulfilled before your eyes. But consider that scripture and warning are mercy to avoid the judgment of God. We are in that day and should hasten to accept divine truth.
