"All religions are paths to reach God" - Pope Francis in Singapore / Religious Pluralism

Moore's Corner Church

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Hello, in this video, I just want to cover a statement made by Pope Francis to a group of children in Singapore.

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He told them that there are many paths to God. So Pope Francis has come out in public and stated his position of universalism, or it's a type of universalism.

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I'll explain that in a moment. But this is the idea that generally speaking, as long as you're a quote unquote good person, you'll get to heaven.

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Okay, so Pope Francis to children in Singapore, you can go on Twitter or X and find these tweets are being shared.

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And his statements were made in public on video, but he's speaking a different language. So the video won't help us, but I'll just read what he said.

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And again, this story is everywhere. So getting a lot of attention and I'm glad it is.

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But he says, quote, all religions are paths to reach God.

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Let me just stop there. If that's all he was saying that, you know, this is what religions tried to do.

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They're trying to get to God. Okay, well, that'd be one thing. If he's just stating this, as a matter of fact, that different religions are trying to work their way to God or something.

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But he does give his opinion where he affirms this idea that they actually are different paths to God.

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So the statement continues, quote, they are to make a comparison, like different languages, different dialects to get there.

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But God now is where he's giving his opinion. He says, but God is

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God for everyone. If you start to fight saying my religion is more important than yours.

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Mine is true and yours isn't. Where will this lead us? He says, there is only one

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God and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Muslim, some are

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Hindu, some are Christian. He goes through the different religions and he says they are different ways to God.

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So according to the Pope, he's denying the exclusivity of Christ. He is denying the gospel because the gospel of Jesus Christ says that you must repent and believe on Christ for salvation.

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And the Pope says, now, if you think that you're right, if your religion, Christianity, if you think that that religion is true and all others are false, then you see you're part of the problem.

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Oh, you think Jesus, you think a person has to be born again and believe the gospel? See, the

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Pope said several years ago that we need to eradicate the disease of fundamentalism.

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You have to understand the Pope thinks that if you believe Jesus is the only way of salvation, he thinks you're a quote unquote fundamentalist.

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He says we need to kind of get rid of that or get rid of the disease, which, you know, if it's a belief held by people, how do you get rid of that without getting rid of the people?

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I would argue in the end times, there will be a Pope, whether he is the

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Antichrist or false prophet. He will try to get rid of people who believe that, but that we're not there yet.

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But clearly the Pope is what is this? It's universalism. Now, full blown universalism says everyone goes to heaven no matter what.

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This is a variation of universalism where, you know, as long as you're sort of trying to do the right thing, you'll get to heaven.

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OK, this position would allow for some people to not get to heaven. But he's saying as long as you're religious or as long as you believe in something, or as long as, remember, he implied that atheist who baptized his son, but he was an atheist.

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He implied that the atheist would be in heaven. So as long as you're taking a step in the right direction or you tip your cap to God somehow, you're going to be saved.

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The Pope is clearly a denier of historic biblical

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Christianity, but he's the Pope. That's what that's what Popes are. That's what they do. So every

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Pope since the Second Vatican Council in the late 1950s, early 1960s, they have all held to this position.

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And that includes Pope John Paul II, who said in a quote, he said, all who live a good life will be saved.

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Now, here's the bigger issue. It's not just the Pope who believes this. It's not just the

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Catholic Church. It is the majority of Protestants these days. When I drive by the local

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Methodist Church and Episcopalian Church, I know full well that they are universalists.

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I mean, we have people locally. We have one worship leader who is involved in a lot of evangelical churches and this church, and they got their hands in a lot of different things and all sorts of different associations with other pastors.

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And this worship leader, yeah, he's denying hell. And it's very common.

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It's common. Even starting recently, it's starting to become common in evangelical circles.

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But the Protestant world, the Methodists, Episcopalians, many of the Lutherans, not all, but many, they are already there teaching a form of universalism.

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But the Pope, he's there. And even a guy like Billy Graham, here's a video. I'm going to show you

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Billy Graham saying that he agrees with the former Pope on almost everything. And then he espouses a similar view, that all religions get you to God.

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Watch. Oh, I'm very comfortable with you.

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Thank you. He's my Pope. That is correct. And crack out. Wow.

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Do you like this Pope? I like him very much. He's very conservative. A non -socialist.

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Share the wealth? I'll try. I see him a lot. I bring him along. Tell me, what do you think is the future of Christianity?

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Well, Christianity and being a true believer, you know, I think there's the body of Christ, which comes from all the

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Christian groups around the world or outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves

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Christ or knows Christ, whether they're conscious of it or not, they're members of the body of Christ.

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And I don't think that we're going to see a great sweeping revival that will turn the whole world to Christ at any time.

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I think James answered that, the Apostle James, in the first council in Jerusalem when he said that God's purpose for this age is to call out a people for His name.

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And that's what God is doing today. He's calling people out of the world for His name.

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Whether they come from the Muslim world or the Buddhist world or the Christian world or the non -believing world, they are members of the body of Christ because they've been called by God.

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They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their heart that they need something that they don't have.

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And they turn to the only light that they have. And I think that they are saved and that they're going to be with us in heaven.

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What I hear you saying is that it's possible for Jesus Christ to come into a human heart and soul and life even if they've been born in darkness and have never had an exposure to the

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Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you're saying? Yes, it is, because I believe that.

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I've met people in various parts of the world and tribal situations that they had never seen a

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Bible or heard about a Bible and never heard of Jesus. But they believed in their heart that there was a

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God and they tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived.

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This is fantastic. I'm so thrilled to hear you say that. There is a wideness in God's mercy.

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There is. There definitely is. Okay, so you can see, hopefully, that this is a very common belief.

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The Catholic Church is there, many of the Protestant churches, even evangelicals.

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And some will say, yeah, but Billy Graham, I heard Billy Graham preach the gospel for years. Right. The gospel is acceptable because that's your way, but there are other ways.

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So the gospel wouldn't apply to someone of another religion because they have their own path.

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And that's essentially what he was saying. And that's how an evangelical can be a quasi -universalist and still preach the gospel in their local church because their supporters are

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Christians. And if they say Muslims and Buddhists are going to heaven, then they're going to get themselves in hot water.

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So usually they won't come right out and say that. So they'll preach the gospel or something similar.

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And it sounds like they believe the right thing, but they have this view that the

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Pope has. Well, you can't think that your way is the only way or that Christianity is right and everyone else is wrong.

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If a pastor never says that other religions are wrong, or if he never makes it clear that if you're part of a different religion, that is a path to destruction.

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If he doesn't actually come out and say that, it's probably because he doesn't believe it. So you have to be careful.

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There's a lot of people who, they might even preach the gospel, but in their heart, they believe like the

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Pope, that these other religions are valid paths. One last statement, the

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Pope, what this is, it's religious pluralism. Remember in the

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Old Testament, when the children of Israel were worshiping the Lord, but they were also worshiping

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Baal and Molech and all the, and Asherah and all these other deities, this is religious pluralism.

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And the Pope's doing the same thing that the Old Testament Israel had. Like we'll worship God, you know, the

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Lord is in there too. But these other gods, everyone has a legitimate path.

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Everyone has their own way. And this is how he can be popular with everybody and loved by the world, because he doesn't think that his way is right.

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But here's the problem. Jesus himself said in John chapter three, you must be born again.

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Jesus said in John 14, verse six, I am the way, the truth and the life.

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No man comes unto the father except by me. Acts 4 .12, the apostle Peter said,

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Jesus is the only name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. A person must believe the gospel or else they are not going to heaven.

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That's the unpopular truth of true biblical Christianity. But this fake form of Christianity and Catholicism, they say, oh, everyone's gone.

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Or everyone who tips their cap to God, as long as you take a step in the right direction, that's good enough.

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That's what he's saying. And he's wrong. Thanks for watching. And until next time, may the