When I was a
kid, we watched many “cowboy and Indian” television shows. One of the phrases that the Indians would
sometimes use was, “White man speak with forked tongue.” They would say this when someone would speak
out of both sides of his mouth, i.e., when he would say one thing and then say
something that contradicts what he first said.
Double Standard
Recently,
Pope Francis has done exactly this when speaking to two different groups. On November 5, 2019, an article from Catholic
News Service, states that the pope recently said, “The Catholic Church must
follow Jesus’ command to preach the gospel to every person, otherwise it will
not fulfill its mission of bearing witness to Christ.”
He also said
in that article, “Either she [the Church] evangelizes or she is not (the)
Church.” And again, “…to evangelize
means to deliver Christ’s teachings ‘in simple and precise words like the
apostles did.’” See here:
Ok, assuming
that the Catholic Church did evangelize with the true gospel, the pope’s
comments sound pretty good, but a month later in December, 2019, at Pilo
Albertell high school in Rome, Pope Francis had a totally different message for
the students there. Here are a couple of
articles that cover the pope’s statements:
These are
some of his comments:
- After being asked by a student about people of other faiths, the pope said, “We are all the same, all children of God.
- "If someone says they are a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism [sharing his faith or attempting to convert], they are not a disciple of Jesus.”
- “In front of an unbeliever, the last
thing I have to do is try to convince
him. Never. The last thing I have to do is speak.
I have to live consistent with my faith.
And it will be my testimony to awaken the curiosity of the other who
says: ‘But why do you do this?’ And yes,
I can speak then.”
- “Never, never bring the gospel by
proselytizing.”
- “Proselytism is not done, the church
does not grow by proselytism.”
- “We are not in the time of the
Crusades.”
- He stated that football teams and
political parties proselytize, but there is no proselytizing with the faith.
So, to sum
up his message to these high school students, a believer should never approach
anyone to share his faith (proselytize) to win him over to the truth. He must first live out his faith in front of
that person for an undetermined amount of time, and wait until the person comes
up to him and asks him about his
beliefs. Then (and only then) should he
share the truth with him. Anyone who
does share his faith before he is approached is NOT a disciple of Jesus
Christ. Never try to convince anyone of
the truth of Jesus Christ by speaking first. One must awaken their curiosity first.
Wow! This is so anti-biblical, it is
unbelievable. Neither Jesus nor any of
His apostles evangelized this way. The early church certainly lived out the
gospel before others, but they didn’t wait until someone questioned them before
verbally sharing the gospel with them.
God’s Commandment to the Church
Jesus gave
us the “Great Commission” in Matthew 28:18-20:
And Jesus came and spake
unto them, saying, “All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:
and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
I would think that Jesus’ parting words to mankind
were pretty important, but He says nothing whatsoever about waiting for people
to approach you first. On the contrary,
there is a sense of urgency in His words.
Peter, the
supposed “first pope,” boldly proclaimed the gospel to a large and mixed crowd (Acts
2:14-40). But notice that Peter
approached THEM with the truth – the truth that they were sinners who
cooperated in the death of Jesus, the Messiah – and after this, the crowds
asked Peter what they should do (v. 37). He then continues to share how they could get
saved. But he did not wait around for
them to approach him first. And
there are many other cases in Scripture that refute the pope’s method of
witnessing (e.g., Matthew 4:17, 23; John 4:7-26; Acts 8:4-5, 26-35; 13:4-5;14:1;
18:24-28, etc.).
If we really
believe that many are going to Hell (Matthew 7:13), how can we
delay? If you have the message of
eternal life, shouldn’t you be quick to share
it, both passionately and often?
Yes, as the
pope suggests, we should be so faithful and obedient to live out the gospel
message that unbelievers would take notice and approach us to ask about the
gospel. But we dare not remain silent
until that day comes!
And today,
there should be an even greater urgency to verbally and clearly share the
gospel, seeing that the time is short before Jesus’ return (Matthew
24; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5).
The world
would never have been turned upside down by Christianity if the apostles had
taken the pope’s advice.
Defining the Term
But in an
attempt to defend the pope’s comments, some Catholics have said the issue has
to do with the pope’s use of the term, “proselytize,” and that he uses the word
to mean a forced conversion. Thus, the reference to “we are not in the
times of the Crusades” (when forced conversions were common).
But that
doesn’t seem to be a good argument.
According to the Meriam-Webster
dictionary, “proselytize” means:
“To induce
someone to convert to one’s faith; to recruit someone to join one’s party,
institution, or cause.”
Cambridge English Dictionary:
“To try to
persuade someone to change his or her religious beliefs, political party, etc.,
to your own.”
Dictionary.com:
“To convert
or attempt to convert as a proselyte; recruit.”
There is no
hint of a forced conversion in these
definitions. Even more authoritative,
the New Testament uses the word “proselyte” four times, and it simply refers to
one who is the result of proselytizing… a convert. Nowhere in the New Testament are proselytes
shown to be forced converts. (Matthew 23:15, Acts 2:10, 6:5, and 13:43)
I just want
to remind the reader that the pope had said above that football teams and
political parties “proselytize,” and he also said that this shouldn’t happen in
the church. Does he mean that football teams and political parties FORCE their members to join, under threat of
penalty or death? This is highly
unlikely, but to be consistent, he would have to say this. But I doubt seriously that political parties
and football teams use this method to obtain members.
Furthermore,
since the word “proselyte” is a biblical term, it should be agreed upon by all who follow Christ. The biblical concept of “proselyte /
proselytism” cannot properly mean one thing in English and something else in
Italian, or Russian, or Japanese. For
Christians, our understanding of it should always line up with the biblical use of it, since the Bible is
inspired. It doesn’t matter how the
Vatican defines the term, nor the World Council of Churches, nor any individual
church. The God-breathed Scriptures are
greater than all of these (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Conclusion
The pope’s
“evangelizing” method is neither practical nor biblical. Ironically, we should actually welcome the pope’s desire to NOT share
his Catholic gospel, since this false, works-based gospel has done enough spiritual
damage already. But for true believers,
it is imperative to share the biblical gospel message as often and as fervently
as possible, using any good (and biblical) means to open doors, and to take
advantage of every opportunity – not wait for the lost to approach us.
We should
all agree that our witnessing should not involve force, deception, threats, manipulation,
etc. Anyone who does that is not acting
as a Christian, just as the Catholic Church was not acting Christ-like in the
Crusades. But the pope is now going to
the other extreme.
I believe
that what is happening is that, in the Catholic Church’s ongoing quest to
promote the ecumenical movement, Pope Francis is playing both sides. On the one hand, to his own people, he wants
to appear biblical by insisting that the gospel is preached (as we saw in the very
first article linked above), but on the other hand, he wants to appear friendly
and willing to cooperate with, and accept, all other religious groups. But this is very dangerous. There is such a thing as spiritual unity, but
only unity in the TRUTH is biblical.
Remember at
the beginning of this article when the pope was asked about people of other
faiths, and he said that “We are all the same, all children of God”? This is an extremely irresponsible and false
claim. We are all created by God, but we are certainly not all His children (Matthew
13:38; John 8:44; Acts 13:10; 1 John 3:10). It seems that no one wants to say it, but the
truth is that all non-Christians (whether atheist, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew,
etc.) need to be evangelized. This is
the greatest love we can show them.
I believe
that most people in Christianity understand the terms “proselytize,”
“evangelize,” and “convert” to be synonyms.
According to the dictionary and
the Bible, they all mean basically the same thing. And since the pope’s message to these high
schoolers will be made known to the whole
world, don’t you think that there will be very much confusion because of
it? The evidence shows that there is
indeed. Did he believe that everyone
would automatically think that “proselytize” means to “force” a conversion? This pope is very controversial and has a
knack for not being very clear on some key spiritual issues. It almost appears that he is doing this on
purpose.
So, my
Catholic friends, what is it that the pope is asking you to do? Does he want you to “follow Jesus’ command to
preach the gospel to every creature”? Or
does he want you to just live the Christian life while waiting to “awaken the
curiosity” of others until they question you about your faith?
How can Pope
Francis be trusted if he can’t be consistent with what he said just a month before
on a key spiritual issue? This man is
indeed highly intelligent, but he speaks with a forked tongue.
