Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope
Francis) is at it again. He is known to
be controversial, even among faithful Catholics. For example, his comments on divorce, LGBT
“rights,” and his reluctance to deal with the Catholic Church’s sex scandals,
etc., have caused quite a stir. Another
example is some controversial things he said about the “failure” of the cross
that we recently addressed here:
But this time he said that
having a personal relationship with Jesus is “dangerous.” Do we take this at face value, or is there
more to it? Let’s look at the context.
Pope Francis gave a speech in
Rome at St. Peter’s Square on June 25, 2014, in front of an audience of 33,000
Catholics. In his speech he complains
about people who say, “I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, but I don’t care
about the Church...” And he described as
“dangerous” and “harmful” the temptation to believe that one can have “a
personal, direct and immediate relationship with Jesus Christ outside of the
communion with, and mediation of, the church.”
The official Vatican text of
the speech is here:
A condensed version of the
message in video form can be found here:
We just want to address a
couple of points here.
First of all, we don’t know of
any true Christians who “don’t care
about the church.” This is not a Christian
mentality and it is certainly not scriptural.
The New Testament church is a creation of Jesus Christ, therefore, all
believers need to have an active part in a local church body. We agree that there should be no “Lone
Ranger” Christians (or, as he called them, “freelancers,” or “do-it-yourself”
Christians). We agree that Christians
need each other (1 Corinthians 12:14-18, 21-22). The author of Hebrews tells us of the right
attitude – “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…” (Hebrews
10:25). So, the pope’s complaint
about people “not caring about the church” doesn’t even apply to true
Christians.
Secondly, concerning the idea
of having a relationship with Jesus Christ “outside” the church is just
nonsense. Because if you have a real and
personal relationship with Jesus, by definition, you already belong to the church, you are already part of the universal
body of believers. Having that personal
relationship means you are saved, that is, you have been added to the church (Acts 2:41, 47; 5:14).
The problem is that so many
times the word “church,” when used by Catholics, is equated only with the
institution we know today as the Catholic Church – rather than using the term
biblically, which is used either as:
1) the local assembly of true
believers (e.g., 1 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:2; Revelation chapters 1 through 3),
or
2) the universal body of true
believers worldwide (Galatians 1:13; Colossians 1:18).
What the pope really means is
that having a personal relationship with Jesus is dangerous unless you are part
of, and in communion with, his church,
and that we need the Catholic Church’s “mediation” in order to be spiritually
healthy. We must (according to him) be dependent
on its sacraments, rituals, and hierarchy to be spiritually safe.
Maybe he is afraid that if
you use that relationship to discover the truth of Scripture on your own, that
you will not want to be in his Church,
since so many of its teachings will be found to be false and unbiblical. But he wants you to be subject to the
Catholic Church, whether you actually have a relationship with Jesus or not. For the pope, it’s ok to have this
relationship… as long as it is controlled and influenced by his church.
The pope’s concern is more
about your submission to his church than it is about your relationship with the
Savior. Thus, the pope treats your
relationship with Jesus as secondary.
Is a personal relationship with Christ
all that important? We would say that it
is absolutely critical, in fact, more
important than the local church you join.
That relationship should be what properly guides you to a biblical
church in the first place! The reason
that a relationship is so important is because it is the very cause of your
salvation, when you surrender to God’s will.
Having a relationship means knowing the person. On Judgment Day Jesus will say to those who aren’t
true followers, “Depart from Me: I never knew you…” (Matthew 7:21-23). Does “I never knew you” mean that Jesus
doesn’t actually know certain people, or that He is unaware of them? Is there anything at all about their thoughts
or actions that surprises Him? Of course
not. He knows everything about everybody. The word “knew” in this context denotes
intimacy, i.e., having a close, personal, robust and meaningful relationship
with Him. This is what those in Matthew
7 did not have.
Salvation and sanctification
depend upon our knowing Him (John
17:3; Philippians 3:8, 10)! Christianity
has always been about a relationship with Jesus. In Acts 4:13, the Jewish leaders
recognized that Peter and John “had been with Jesus.” The Jews
observed that the apostles’ lives were greatly affected by this relationship
with their Lord. So why does the pope downplay this concept?
We’re not saying that the
pope doesn’t believe in a personal relationship with Jesus and we’re not saying
that he’s telling his audience never to have one, but, once again, he seems far
more concerned with your submission to his Church than he is with you having a
personal relationship with Jesus.
Sometimes the issue is not
just what the pope says, but what he doesn’t say, or what he should have said. He had ample opportunity in this case to
encourage the members of his audience to have a strong and fulfilling relationship
with Christ and His word, but he neglected that opportunity. Instead, he is implying that it is more
important to be devoted to the Catholic Church than it is to have that right
relationship with Christ! But a true relationship with Christ will steer
you away from the works-based Catholic gospel.
Any religious group or cult that claims to be
Christian can say that having a personal relationship with Jesus is “dangerous”
apart from being associated with that particular
group. So how can anyone know that
they have the real Jesus? It is an
authority issue and this blog has dealt with that topic over and over. It is the Word of God, Scripture, that is the
true and ultimate authority to determine what is actually dangerous and what is
not (2
Timothy 3:16-17).
The bottom line is that Pope
Francis is saying that you don’t know Jesus unless you are in the Catholic
Church. But there are millions upon
millions of believers today and throughout history who have enjoyed a vibrant
personal relationship with Jesus Christ without ever being part of the Catholic
Church. And to all those who have this true
relationship, He promises that He will never leave them, nor forsake them (Hebrews
13:5).
The danger, my friends, is not
in a fervent relationship with Jesus Christ, but in the false teachings of Pope
Francis’ church.
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