DIABOLICAL MUSINGS !

Is he, isn't he ?

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ROSARIES AND ANTICHRISTS

Yesterday afternoon on the Joe Duffy radio show a caller from Northern Ireland rang in to complain about the fact that Rosary beads were being sold in the gift shop of Saint Patrick’s Protestant cathedral. Wallace Thompson ,himself a member of the Presbyterian church felt that Rosary beads were an inappropriate item to be stocked in Dublins famous church as it was against traditional Protestant doctrine.The Dean of the Cathedral, Dr. Robert McCarthy responded by saying that the building was visited by people of different denominations and the sale of the beads was a big money-spinner for the upkeep of the Cathedral. During the course of the interview Joe asked Mr Thompson how he viewed the present pope. His response, that he viewed the pope of Rome as the Antichrist caused a flurry of indignant calls accusing him of bigotry and religious intolerance. The Irish Independents religious correspondent John Cooney described the radio controversy thus :“A new Messiah has risen to save the Protestant people of Ulster from the heretical snares of Rome and to keep the Pope, "the anti-Christ", out of the North.
An unholy row on yesterday's 'Joe Duffy show' began innocently enough, when the chief aide to Nigel Dodds, the North's Enterprise Minister, voiced his objections to the sale of Catholic rosary beads inside St Patrick's Cathedral, in Dublin.” His colourful report elicited even more ‘outraged’ reaction from mostly Catholic correspondents to the newspaper. Which makes me wonder what all the fuss is about. Mr Thompson is only expressing the traditional Protestant view that the pope is the spirit of antichrist. I think Catholics react emotively to this statement as they feel a personal loyalty and affection for the bishop of Rome, the Protestant position however is not an attack on the personality of the pope but their view that the office and its claims run counter to the spirit of Christ and the Bible. While I would not emphatically agree that the present pope is the Antichrist, by virtue of his office he certainly denies the clear teaching of Scripture and does not in any sense reflect the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth. Also I think John Cooney's sensationalist branding of Mr Thompson as ' a new Messiah' is an offensive and trivialising remark clearly intended to mark the Presbyterian dissenter as one of the lunatic fringe ! I thought we had matured enough to take criticism on the chin and do as Mr Thompson repeatedly requested on the Joe Duffy show, enter into a meaningful dialogue with those who differ from us.
In an ironical footnote I remember that one of Pope Benedict’s own cardinals, Giacomo Biffi (78) earlier last year made some very forthright comments on the subject of the Antichrist. Quoting Vladimir Solovyov (1853- 1900), the Russian philosopher and mystic, Biffi warned that the coming Antichrist will be "a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist", and "will convoke an ecumenical council and seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions". Cardinal Biffi further deliberated that this Antichrist figure would have a following of the "masses…with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants" who would fight to prevent the watering down and ultimate destruction of the faith.. It seems the view from Rome as to the prophetic future is very different to the view articulated by Northern Protestants. There are as many perspectives on Biblical prophecy as there are commentators but the Scripture itself only mentions the word ‘antichrist’ on four occasions, in 1 John 2:18-19 ,1 John 2:22-23 ,1 John 4:2-3 ,and 2 John 1:7 . The emphasis in these verses is on a number of individuals or antichrists who deny that Jesus came in the flesh,"By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world." As these words were written several hundred years ago ,one thing we can say for sure is that the phenomena of ‘antichrist’ is not a new one. To the onlooking secular world this must all seem like an archaic game of religious name-calling, but to those in the ‘know’ it runs a lot deeper than that. Let’s leave the last word for now to Bob Dylan who hit’s the spot in his song Man of Peace…

Look out your window, baby, there's a scene you'd like to catch The band is playing "Dixie," a man got his hand outstretched. Could be the Fuhrer Could be the local priest. You know sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
He's a great humanitarian, he's a great philanthropist, He knows just where to touch you, honey, and how you like to be kissed. He'll put both his arms around you, You can feel the tender touch of the beast. You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.

Gerard O'Shea

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