Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Bergoglio will promote the heresy of religious indifferentism at ‘Babel’

Hebrew Bible scholar exposes unfounded claims of 'Abraham's House'

Matthew 3:9

and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis' proposed interreligious prayer service for Muslims, Yazidis, Mandaean-Sabean and other religions at the site of Ur during his Iraq visit is being slammed as more evocative of the "Tower of Babel" than the "House of Abraham."

The Ziggurat of Ur

The Vatican has confirmed that Francis will fly to Nāṣiriya for a March 6 service titled "Prayer for the sons and daughters of Abraham" at the Plain of Ur after meeting the Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf.

"The Holy Father is holding the interreligious meeting near the house of Ibrahim the prophet," which has a religious meaning for Christians and Muslims and for all," Fr. Albert Hisham, the Iraqi priest organizing the event, told Church Militant.

The archaeological site of the pope's event comprises a pyramid-style ziggurat and a residential complex the size of a football field and may have been an administrative center for the ancient Sumerian city of Ur.

Iraq's tourism industry is hoping that the papal visit would lure both tourists and pilgrims to the site being promoted as the "House of Abraham."

Wrong House, Wrong City?

But Nottingham University's Hebrew Bible scholar Gavin Fernandes told Church Militant that "there are several reasons why this is a bad choice of venue for such an event."

What is being hyped as "Abraham's house" is "widely acknowledged to not really be the patriarch's dwelling but a large public building that the Manchester University excavators thought was an administrative or religious complex because of its sheer size and the findings therein," Dr. Fernandes said.

The ziggurat very strongly evokes the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11, which itself becomes a symbol of rebelliousness and recalcitrance.Tweet

"This has not stopped naïve zealots from spouting claims of finding Abraham's boyhood home, even though pinpointing Abraham's historical person is an extremely difficult task even for those historians who want to support his existence," Fernandes lamented.

The biblical scholar also explained how "scholars are not even sure this is Abraham's Ur," since "while a southern location for Abraham's homeland was claimed at the start of the 20th century, it took the somewhat sensationalized claims of Leonard Wooley published from 1927 to cement the current location as the birthplace of Abraham."

"The biblical geography of Abraham's travels in Genesis and the biblical descriptions of his home country don't actually point to Wooley's Ur but to a northern location, nearer to Terah's city of Harran that was discovered some years after the wool had already been pulled over everyone's eyes by Sir Leonard," Fernandes remarked.

Ziggurat: Defiance of Christ

The academic also expressed surprise that the interreligious meeting was being held in the shadow of a ziggurat explicitly evocative of the Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis — a structure representing totalitarian humanism and flagrant defiance of God.

Hebrew Bible scholar Dr. Gavin Fernandes

Fernandes explained:

A ziggurat is a representation carved in stone of nirvanic-like ascension to a pagan pantheon of gods. It is the Mesopotamian counterpart to the ancient Aztec and Egyptian "pyramidical faiths," all of which ought to be an affront to those attending as devout representatives from the world's major religions.
The ziggurat very strongly evokes the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11, which itself becomes a symbol of rebelliousness and recalcitrance based on a call of unity for contumacy against God and which swiftly provoked his anger. Experts agree that the Tower of Babel, according to the biblical narrative, would have been a ziggurat of some kind.

Meanwhile, the conservative website Not the Bee (part of the popular satirical Christian Babylon Bee media) is deriding the "woke pope" for preaching on harmony between the children of Abraham "instead of preaching Christ crucified."

"It's funny, because I don't remember Peter telling the Pharisees that Abraham was the name under Heaven by which people could be saved," author Joel Abbott quips.

The old Ur was best known in ancient times as a worshipping place for Sîn, or Nanna, the god of the moon

Noting that the interfaith prayer is "to be held on the site of the ancient Babylonian temple dedicated to the moon god Nanna," Abbott excoriates: "I look forward to Francis doing an 'ancient gods' tour where he offers alms and prayers at the temples of Baal, Asherah, Dagon, and Molech!"

Pope Francis also "skipped those days in pope school" where he would have learned that "God's covenantal promises — including the atonement of Christ — would come only through Abraham's son Isaac," Abbott stresses.

Muslims believe Ishmael to be the heir of God's promise.

Romans 9:7-8

and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.

Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many; but, referring to one, “And to your offspring,” which is Christ.

Galatians 3:29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Abraham Distanced Himself

Fernandes concludes that putting Abraham spiritually back in Ur may not be "the most fitting memorial to our great forefather" because "in Genesis 24, the patriarch is himself at pains to distance himself and his progeny from the land of his origins."

"God, he emphatically states, has called him away and says (in a manner of speaking), should he allow his progeny to return to that country, it would be 'over his dead body,'" Fernandes observes.

"One wonders whether Abraham's words to his servant, 'See to it that you do not take my son back there' might not also apply to any son of Abraham living today," the scholar asks.

Genesis 24:6

Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there.

Genesis 15:6-7

Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.
And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.

Cardinal Burke: ‘Stop Saying That Allah Is The God Of Christianity, Allah Is Not The God Of The Bible.’

“He will spurn and reject baptism and the gospel. He will open his mouth to preach contradiction” —German Benedictine abbess, Hildegard of Bingen

Saint John Chrysostom

The Jews when be forgiven neither by circumcision nor by other deeds, but only by Baptism

“For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom 11:27). Not when they are circumcised, not when they sacrifice, not when they do the other deeds of the Law, but when they attain to the forgiveness of sins. If then this hath been promised, but has never yet happened in their case, nor have they ever enjoyed the remission of sins by baptism, certainly it will come to pass. Hence he proceeds, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom 11:29).

(Saint John Chrysostom, Homily XIX, Letter to the Romans, no. 6)

«For Muslims, “Miriam” and “Îssa” have nothing to do with the Savior of Mankind and His blessed Mother»

Bergoglio at the service of the Masonic fraternity

Islam portrays Mary as Muhammad's wife in paradise, warns scholar

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We will recognize them by their fruits.

Prayer to St. Michael

Please protect us, St. Michael the Archangel, against violence, murder, and robbery. In your goodness preserve us today from all the malice of sinful and wicked persons. In your sleepless vigilance watch over the safety and welfare of our homes, and keep guard over our possessions. Ever hold in your special care, most triumphant St. Michael, the forces of public order against the crimes of evil people, and defend all honest citizens in time of peril. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Novena Prayer to St. Michael

(Pray for nine consecutive days)
Saint Michael the Archangel, loyal champion of God and His Catholic people, I turn to thee with confidence and seek thy powerful intercession. For the love of God, Who hast made thee so glorious in grace and power, and for the love of the Mother of Jesus, the Queen of the Angels, be pleased to hear my prayer.
Thou knowest the value of my soul in the eyes of God. May no stain of evil ever disfigure its beauty. Help me to conquer the evil spirit who tempts me. I desire to imitate thy loyalty to God and Holy Mother Church and thy great love for God and men. And since thou art God’s messenger for the care of His people, I entrust to thee this special request: (here mention your request).
Saint Michael, since thou art, by the will of the Creator, the powerful intercessor of Christians, I have great confidence in thy prayers. I earnestly trust that if it is God’s holy will, my petition will be granted.
Pray for me, Saint Michael, and also for those I love. Protect us in all dangers of body and soul. Help us in our daily needs. Through thy powerful intercession, may we live a holy life, die a happy death and reach Heaven where we may praise and love God with thee forever. Amen.
Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
St. Michael, Guardian of souls, Vanquisher of rebel spirits, Pray for us.

St John Chrysostom

Our Lord having reproached the Jews with blindness, they might have said, We are not blind, but we avoid you as a deceiver. Our Lord therefore gives the marks which distinguish a robber and deceiver from a true shepherd. First come those of the deceiver and robber: Verily, verily, I say to you, He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. There is an allusion here to Antichrist, and to certain false Christs who had been, and were to be. The Scriptures He calls the door. They admit us to the knowledge of God, they protect the sheep, they shut out the wolves, they bar the entrance to heretics. He that uses not the Scriptures, but climbs up some other way, i.e. some self-chosen, some unlawful way, is a thief. Climbs up, He says, not, enters, as if it were a thief getting over a wall, and running all risks. Some other way, may refer too to the commandments and traditions of men which the Scribes taught, to the neglect of the Law. When our Lord further on calls Himself the Door, we need not be surprised. According to the office which He bears, He is in one place the Shepherd, in another the Sheep. In that He introduces us to the Father, He is the Door, in that He takes care of us, He is the Shepherd. (Catena Aurea)

LIBERTAS ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE NATURE OF HUMAN LIBERTY
35. And as to tolerance, it is surprising how far removed from the equity and prudence of the Church are those who profess what is called liberalism. For, in allowing that boundless license of which We have spoken, they exceed all limits, and end at last by making no apparent distinction between truth and error, honesty and dishonesty. And because the Church, the pillar and ground of truth, and the unerring teacher of morals, is forced utterly to reprobate and condemn tolerance of such an abandoned and criminal character, they calumniate her as being wanting in patience and gentleness, and thus fail to see that, in so doing, they impute to her as a fault what is in reality a matter for commendation. But, in spite of all this show of tolerance, it very often happens that, while they profess themselves ready to lavish liberty on all in the greatest profusion, they are utterly intolerant toward the Catholic Church, by refusing to allow her the liberty of being herself free.

“If you want to be certain of being in the number of the Elect, strive to be one of the few, not one of the many. And if you would be quite sure of your salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few; that is to say, do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or night, so that they may attain everlasting blessedness.” -Saint Anselm, Father and Doctor of the Church

PRAYER TO SAINT JOSEPH, THE PROTECTOR OF CHRISTIAN FAMILIES Great Saint Joseph, who wast chosen of God to be the head of the holiest and most august of families, deign to cast thy eyes upon us, and take us this day under thy special protection. Holy Patriarch, model of the holiest faith, and of the most perfect virtues, obtain for all the members of this family grace to withstand the dangers and seductions of the world, and to remain stedfastly attached to the LORD. Obtain for us that, always united by the bonds of the most tender charity, and encouraging one another mutually in good works, we may taste under thy auspices the sweetness of that peace which JESUS has promised to His true disciples. But above all, when our last hour shall come, obtain for us that we may find grace before the Sovereign Judge, so that, reunited in heaven at the foot of Thy Throne, we may celebrate everlastingly the glory of GOD and thy praise. Amen.

St. Vincent Ferrer -- Sermon on the Last Judgment: In the same way, in the time of Antichrist, the Sun of justice will be obscured by the interposition of temporal goods and the wealth which Antichrist will bestow on the world, inasmuch as the brightness of faith in Jesus Christ and the glow of good lives will no longer shine among Christians. For, lest they should lose their dominion, temporal rulers, kings and princes will range themselves on the side of Antichrist. In like manner, prelates for fear of losing their dignities, and religious and priests to gain honors and riches, will forsake the Faith of Christ and adhere to Antichrist.

Neither living nor lifeless faith remains in a heretic who disbelieves one article of faith. The reason of this is that the species of every habit depends on the formal aspect of the object, without which the species of the habit cannot remain. Now the formal object of faith is the First Truth, as manifested in Holy Writ and the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth. Consequently whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and Divine rule, to the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth manifested in Holy Writ, has not the habit of faith, but holds that which is of faith otherwise than by faith. Even so, it is evident that a man whose mind holds a conclusion without knowing how it is proved, has not scientific knowledge, but merely an opinion about it. Now it is manifest that he who adheres to the teaching of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teaching of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things; but if he is not obstinate, he is no longer in heresy but only in error. Therefore it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will. (Saint Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 5, a. 3)