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Is The Pope
Catholic?
by Steve Higginbotham
December 1,
2006 |
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Sometimes questions are best answered with
questions. Questions with obvious answers are sometimes answered
with the rhetorical question, "Is the Pope Catholic?" Maybe it's
time we give that answer a second thought.
The headlines
read, "Pope Hailed for Praying Toward Mecca Like Muslims." Pope
Benedict XVI visited an Islamic Mosque in Turkey this week, and when
an
Islamic cleric turned to pray toward Mecca, the Pope, in what
has been called a "conciliatory gesture," turned toward Mecca and
assumed the attitude of Muslim prayer.
When I first read of
these happenings, my mind immediately went to Daniel (Daniel 6).
When told that he could only pray to King Darius, Daniel didn't
change his custom of facing Jerusalem and praying to God three times
a day. He might have chosen to close his window so no one would see
him. He might have prayed silently so that one might think he was
praying to the king when in reality he was praying to the God of
Heaven. But not Daniel! Daniel was a man of principle. He didn't
want to leave the impression that he could have been praying to a
false God rather than the God of Heaven! He would rather be eaten
alive by lions than to leave the impression he wasn't praying to his
God.
Were the Pope only so courageous! Turning toward
Mecca to pray, in a Muslim mosque and then refusing to tell what he
prayed about, is at best a cowardly and confusing compromise, and at
worst idolatry!
Friends, the God of Islam (Allah) is not the
God of the Bible (Jehovah), the religion of Islam is not the
religion of Jesus Christ, and there can never be true unity between
Islam
and true Christianity.
Is the Pope Catholic? Well, give me
some time before I answer that one. | |