The Roots of Catholic/Evangelical "Unity" | thebereancall.org

The Roots of Catholic/Evangelical "Unity"

March 1, 1990
Hunt, Dave

The recent stunning events in Eastern Europe have probably moved the world closer to the "peace" that precedes Antichrist's rise to power. The partnership between Gorbachev and the Pope could play an important role. When the world imagines it has achieved "peace and safety," sudden destruction will come (1 Thes:5:3). A powerful spiritual "peace" delusion seems to be gathering momentum.

Take for example a peace poster popular in North America and Europe. Its full-color replica was the front cover of the December 1989 issue of Whole Life Times, a major New Age monthly. The scene offers a magnificent view of the sprawling eleven-story, gilt-roofed "Palace of the Gods" in Lhasa, Tibet, ancient residence of the Dalai Lamas. Towering in the background are the snow-capped Himalayas overarched with a dazzling rainbow—all mirrored perfectly on the glassy surface of a lake.

Superimposed upon the breathtaking landscape is a head-and-shoulders picture of Tenzin Gyatso, "His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet," smiling most benignly. His huge image rises out of the palace, dwarfing it and blocking the view of a portion of the majestic mountains behind. In large print at the bottom of the poster/magazine cover are the words, "Peace on Earth." The blasphemous implication is clear: The promise of the angels at the birth of Christ will be fulfilled through the Dalai Lama!

This was the December issue, but it contained no mention of Christmas or of Jesus Christ. The entire magazine was devoted to "Peace on Earth" and how to attain it—yet the "Prince of Peace" (Isa:9:6), through whom comes "peace with God ...through the blood of his cross" (Rom:5:1; Col:1:20), was not mentioned even once in its pages. His gospel has been replaced by the human potential gospel of self-help and self-esteem that occupies each issue of Whole Life Times and has even invaded the church.

This poster and magazine represent an attitude that permeates society and is growing. That Jesus Christ alone can bring peace to this earth is considered an intolerably dogmatic statement and is rejected out of hand—not because it can be shown to be false, but because it is too narrow-minded for today's pluralistic world.

Christianity is called a religion. Those representing it are limited to what they can say or do in the public arena. It is considered improper, even illegal in some places such as the public schools, to offer Jesus Christ as a solution to the moral problems that plague society, much less as the hope for world peace.

Not so with Buddhism. The Dalai Lama is immune to criticism, given access to all levels of government, education and society, and respected as the ambassador of religious tolerance. Yet he engages in the most blatant missionary activity, initiating tens of thousands around the world into occultic Tibetan Buddhist beliefs and practices. He is also associated with the World Hindu Congress, which has as its goal the neutralization of Christianity and the establishment of a Hindu-Buddhist belief system as the world religion. So much for "religious tolerance."

It is instructive to note the difference between the treatment afforded the Dalai Lama and a Christian. For example, Oral Roberts' assertion that God told him to collect $8 million for his now bankrupt City of Faith hospital in Tulsa or he would die is mocked by the media—and rightly so. Yet the Dalai Lama is met with neither skepticism nor ridicule for his even more outrageous claim that he is the fourteenth reincarnation of the original Dalai Lama and the Tibetan's god—and that he can teach us all to be gods and to create our own universes.

Despite such preposterous claims and the fact that the Dalai Lama has to this day not been able to prove or demonstrate any of them, this "God-man" is lionized in the media, honored by world heads of state and even by "Christian" leaders such as John Paul II. Like the Pope, he travels the world to promote a new ecumenical and universal religion as the foundation for world peace. On October 5, 1989, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Those who gave him this award must know that the Dalai Lama proposes to bring "peace on earth" by initiating mankind into "Tibetan Tantric Deity Yoga," thereby turning us all into Buddhas. This mission is being diligently pursued by "His Holiness" around the world. During a three-week stay in Los Angeles in the summer of 1989, he led an audience of 3,000, many of whom had come from all over the world, in a "three-day Kalachakra ritual for world peace" at Santa Monica's Civic Auditorium. Reporting on that conference, Whole Life Times explained:

The Dalai Lama taught in Santa Monica that it was possible for all human beings to eventually become a Buddha, a being of the highest wisdom and compassion and power...[through] a method called Deity Yoga....

Deity Yoga...is a special conscious act of...visualizing the illusion that we are already...god-like...[able] to create our own reality...[that we] are Buddhas.1

Obviously the Dalai Lama can't create his own reality but shares the same reality with the rest of us. He eats, sleeps, tires, rides the same vehicles, gets wet in the same rain and uses the same money. If "Deity Yoga" hasn't changed even such mundane things, why imagine that it can bring peace to the world? In fact, the Dalai Lama is a fraud who has made more false promises and deceived more people than Jim Bakker—yet he is rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize instead of a prison term!

Hitler also pursued the powers promised by "Deity Yoga." The occult powers which the Dalai Lama now offers as the key to world peace, der Fuehrer hoped to use for world domination! The bodies of scores of Tibetan Buddhist monks, whose "psychic energies" were being used by Hitler, were found in the ruins of Berlin. The following excerpt is from a letter I received some years ago:

I remember visiting in the summer of 1950 in the home of Isobel Kuhn... [who] wrote several books for the China Inland Mission.

She and her husband John worked among the Lisu people on the border....Early one morning they were awakened by a group of excited [Lama] priests from Tibet telling them that all of their big gods had gone to Europe ....This was the day that Hitler came to power.

The approximately 100 Tibetan Buddhist monks traveling with the Dalai Lama created a "sandpainting [of] a mandala that houses many deities" for participants in Santa Monica to visualize as an aid in achieving their own Buddhahood. They created an identical mandala at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. The exhibit included a video of the Dalai Lama explaining the mandala and performing a Kalachakra empowerment ritual for world peace.2

It is not likely that the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles will ever have an exhibit honoring Jerry Falwell and showing videos of his fundamentalist sermons. Then why the Dalai Lama? Obviously his "positive" presentation of human potential, even though it is clearly false, has a universal appeal.

Admirers of the Dalai Lama credit the Kalachalkra rituals he has been leading around the world with creating a spiritual atmosphere which made possible the recent shredding of the Iron Curtain and the new freedom in Eastern Europe. Pope John Paul II supports this idea. He gathered representatives of many religions to Assisi, Italy—among them the Dalai Lama—for a World Day of Prayer in 1986. Thus began an ongoing program of "prayer"—such as the Kalachakra Deity ritual—by all of the world's religions.

Have these pagan rituals been effective in the cause of world peace? The Pope claims they have been. On the second anniversary of Assisi's historic prayer meeting, John Paul II told an ecumenical gathering of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, et al. that "their efforts were unleashing profound spiritual energies in the world and bringing about a new climate of peace."3

Honoring the Pope's efforts for world peace, a group of charismatic leaders has proposed giving him the "Prince of Peace Prize." Directing this effort is Harald Bredesen, one of the original founding members of the board of the "700 Club" and a long-time confidant and advisor to Pat Robertson. The following is a brief excerpt from Bredesen's September 29, 1988 letter to the Pope:

Your Holiness and dear Pope John Paul II,

Too many Protestant Evangelicals have long since made up their minds about Roman Catholicism...They fail to notice the mighty Gospel wind that also moves with such force [in Roman Catholicism)....

My heart is moved by a dream, Your Holiness. It is this: that what has already been discovered by men such as David and Justus DuPlessis, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Richard Neuhaus...regarding the riches and depth of Catholic piety, must become common knowledge among Evangelical Protestants everywhere....

What we envision [is]...a SPIRITUAL PEACE TREATY, signed before the eyes of the world [by]...Evangelical Protestants and Catholics joining together to single out the Pope of Rome as the man most worthy of receiving the Prince of Peace Prize....

Using as a staging ground the week-long PRINCE OF PEACE CELEBRATION [in Rome in 1990], we believe it possible to give one of the most dramatic demonstrations of Christian oneness since the days of the early church....It could and should mark the beginning of a new spirit of cooperation in evangelistic efforts as we anticipate together the year 2000.... 

Is Bredesen not aware that in Roman Catholicism salvation is not alone through Christ's death for our sins but through the Church ("outside of which there is no salvation"; Vatican II, official catechisms) by means of the seven sacraments it ministers? Christ's sacrifice for sin can only get the faithful as far as purgatory. Good works and the sacraments are required to get to heaven. Mary, in fact, will do what Jesus can't; she personally takes to heaven those who wear her scapular, say the Rosary and trust their souls to her (see our December 1989 article).

Are those intending to award him the PRINCE OF PEACE PRIZE ignorant of the fact that Pope John Paul II, whose personal motto is totus tuns sum Maria ("Mary, I'm all yours") is an avid promoter of the belief that, although Jesus is the Prince of Peace, Mary is the one who brings peace to the world? His common Catholic belief became stronger for the Pope as a result of his near assassination. When he realized that the attempt on his life on May 13, 1981, had taken place on the anniversary of the Virgin Mary's first "appearance" May 13, 1917, at Fatima, Portugal, the Pope was convinced that "Our Lady of Fatima" had spared his life.4

So John Paul II went to Fatima on May 13, 1982, "prayed before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima,...[and) consecrate[d] the world to Mary as she had requested." On May 13, 1984, he consecrated the world again to Our Lady of Fatima"5 who had promised:"If my wishes are fulfilled...my Immaculate Heart will triumph, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace!"6 "Mary" apparently brought about the recent amazing changes in Eastern Europe.

In obedience to Our Lady of Fatima's request, an imposing series of popes consecrated the world and especially the Russian people to the "Immaculate Heart of Mary," thereby setting in motion the spiritual forces that she had promised would bring peace to the world. They were: Pope Pius XII on July 7, 1952; Pope Paul VI twelve years later, and Pope Jonquil on May 13, 1982, and again on May 13, 1984. Declaring that the Lord had "confided the peace of the world to her," the apparition that appeared as the Virgin of Fatima presented its plan for "peace on earth":

Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace....Pray, pray, a great deal, and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and pray for them...

If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.7

The substitution of Mary for Christ is no less abominable than the substitution of the Dalai Lama. It is equally blasphemous to claim that "many souls go to hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and pray for them." There is only one sacrifice that can be made for sin and which can deliver the soul from hell, and that is the sacrifice accomplished once for all by Christ upon the cross. Instead, Catholicism offers a false Jesus and a false gospel.

Professing for itself the place and attributes of Christ, the apparition of Mary at Fatima promised:

I will never leave you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God....In order to save [mankind], God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart....

I promise to assist at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for salvation all those who...mak[e] reparation to me.8

"Jesus," too, appeared at Fatima as a small child by his mother's side! The resurrected, glorified Savior, who bears the marks of Calvary at the Father's right hand, is not still a small child! Those who saw this vision were either lying or hallucinating or they were deceived by demons masquerading as an obviously false "Mary" and false "Jesus." Yet every pope in the last 60 years has endorsed the Fatima visions.

And what did this "Jesus" say? On February 15, 1926, for example, "the Child Jesus again appeared to Lucia, asking her if she had spread this devotion of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of His Holy Mother."9 Reparation must be made to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for mankind to be saved? What an abomination! Protest to Protestant leaders who promote Catholicism! Pray for your Catholic friends and present to them the true gospel.  TBC

Endnotes

  1. Art Kunkin, "The Dalai Lama in Los Angeles: What Does Kalachakra Have To Do With World Peace?," Whole Life Times (Aug. 1989), 8.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Our Sunday Visitor (Nov. 13, 1988).
  4. St. Louis Review (Nov. 4, 1988), in Christian News (Nov. 14, 1988), 10-11.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Our Lady of Fatima's Peace Plan from Heaven. Tan Books and Publishers, inside back cover, 1983.
  7. Fatima's Peace Plan, op.cit., back cover.
  8. Lucia Speaks on the Message of Fatima (Ave Maria Institute, Washington, NJ 07882), 26, 30-31, 47.
  9. Ibid.

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