One World Church

For the past few years we have seen Evangelical and Pentecostal Leaders visiting the Pope and kissing his ring! These are well known leaders who many follow and say they must be speaking the truth because they have such large churches. I see these people as being deceived and the blind- leading the blind. Jesus said "Follow Me!" "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, NO ONE can come to the Father except through Me." We need to be careful who we look up to. A big church does not make a pastor a big leader, even though I have nothing against big churches.

[jwhitten]

God's angels would tell anyone not to kneel in front of them because they are not the Lord. The pope gleefully allows people to kneel and kiss his hand. What arrogance! And the church refers to the pope as "His Holiness" and "Father". That's one really large group of totally confused people.

[mistletoe143]

I don't see anything inherently wrong with kissing the ring of the Pope or kneeling before one approaches him or calling him 'father'.

They are only traditional signs of respect; just as handshaking is, or Japanese bowing is, or kissing the hand of elders in the Philippines is, or kneeling before the Queen of England.

As for calling the Pope 'father', well, we could get into a biblical debate about that one, but I am not asking to do that here. I don't find that wrong either. I know that the Pope is not God; I say father out of respect for his role in the Church.

Originally Posted by mistletoe143

I don't see anything inherently wrong with kissing the ring of the Pope or kneeling before one approaches him or calling him 'father'.

They are only traditional signs of respect; just as handshaking is, or Japanese bowing is, or kissing the hand of elders in the Philippines is, or kneeling before the Queen of England.

As for calling the Pope 'father', well, we could get into a biblical debate about that one, but I am not asking to do that here. I don't find that wrong either. I know that the Pope is not God; I say father out of respect for his role in the Church.

Hi Mistletoe, I must agree with Joe, because by kissing his ring it is a sign that you accept him as Head of the Church and God's representative here on earth and that he is infallible in anything spiritual. He is none of these things, and certainly not a successor of Peter. Roman Catholicism did not start till way after Jesus went to heaven. At one stage there were 3 popes physically fighting each other with their armies for leadership of the "church" For that very reason we should not recognise him or his position. The RC church wants the pope as ehad of the One World Church. Stay away!
By the way why do you not want to get into a biblical debate about calling the pope father? This is the place to share ones views. I am curios what you have to say.