And Pope John Paul only served 30 days in office before being poisoned by agents of the Curia. That’s how they’ve done it in Italia for generations…the food that you adore ends up killing you. Began before Lidia; isn’t ending anytime soon.

When I was a kid, a little friend who lived on the same block always asked me to come with her once a week to the Catholic church across the street from our grade school on our way home because she was afraid someday the priest would get mad at some of her confessions. I understood why she wanted to confess, after she explained that once confessed, you’re no longer responsible for whatever sins you commit. I didn’t believe in “sin”—once asked my grandmother and she said there was no such thing unless you had been exceptionally unkind to anyone—but for Catholics it seemed to cover such practical matters as when my friend sneaked a bite of some kid’s peanut and butter sandwich then told them a dog bit it so they’d give her the whole thing. Once I asked her who the boss of the priest was, and she said the Pope. When I asked her why he was a boss, she said because he was “infallible in matters of faith and morals.” (When we were older, that quoted material became a constant in our wrangling theological debates.)

I could always see why someone might want to be seen as “infallible”, but it always seemed to be a human impossibility. Later, discovering Machiavelli and the Borgias in high school history, I finally thought I understood the nature of the Papacy and nothing has occurred since to make me seriously question that perspective. How could ANYONE, not just Obama, expect that anyone who had survived politically in the Vatican, might be considered to be a true friend of anyone, ever? Matzels to the liberation theologists and all the cool Jesuits of my acquaintance, but a Pope is the ultimate politician/courtier/prince. With the possible exception of the last pope, John Paul, who seemed to be a decent, principled individual, why would anyone seek or expect a friend in a Pope? Perhaps a political ally now and then but only if you’ve made the best offer, the best trade, the best get-out-of-jail-free card.

I must be in the wrong room—there’s all this biblical references in posts but it says “Truthdig” so okay…

it’s all good…{remaining calm}

sorry I misread the post: I thought it had said “Does Obama Have a FIEND in the Vatican?” I thought sure, who doesn’t—what’s his plan? Ratzi really creeps me out so even though Obama’s a homophobe, I figure he’s possibly on board against this pope. No such luck and it’s back to having him as my “fierce advocate” again.

RonTruth—-I am also a lay person.  I have been
studying the Bible extensively over the last 32 years.  I have been a Messianic Christian for 10
years but I haven’t stopped watching ballgames on
Saturday afternoons.  I probably won’t stop.  I just
hope I don’t have a heart attack on Saturday afternoon with a doctor who is a strick Jew when it
comes to working on the Sabbath.  Maybe he’ll have
a Gentile partner who can handle my heart.  When I
was in Jerusalem in 1999, most of the Jews aren’t
religious at all.  There were porno shops in Jerusalem.  The TV movies from America and Europe
showed some nudity and sexual sins in the movies.
I should have gone to Hebrew University to talk to
someone about the divorce rate, teen pregnancies,
and veneral disease in Israel.  I caught a bus to
the big mall in Jerusalem.  I thought I was in America.  The teenage girls were dressed just like
American teenagers(short skirts, belly exposed, etc.)
Is. 58:1 reads, “Arise, and set the trumpet to your
mouth and show my people their sins.”  I don’t see
anyone on TV doing that.  Maybe I’ll write a book
and show Israel their sins.  They would never let
me back in the country again.  If they don’t turn
from their sins, just like America, I think God will
do something about it and it won’t be pretty.

Vegdude wrote: While arguably not explicitly commanded by God, free enterprise - that state in which individuals and groups may do whatever they wish in the economic sphere, EXCEPT violate the rights of others - is the only economic system I’m aware of that’s consistent with what He has revealed in Scripture.

Almost everything we are told Jesus said and did is contrary to the spirit of Capitalism, e.g that you can’t serve both god and money

Christian96,
Please understand that I am just a lay person. Not a minister or Messianic rabbi. My opinion is just that: my opinion. I believe that God said which day is His Sabbath. I believe that, if one looks at what happened at Mt. Sinai when the Israelites had made a golden calf and bowed down and worshipped it, while saying to themsevles and Moses when he had come down the mountain with the two tablets of stone, that they had worshipped God by bowing down to idols, that had it not been for Moses’ intercession with God, He (God) would have destroyed them.

Instead, God made a Covenant much more in detail than the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. He gave the two tablets of stone to Moses the second time, and added His Statutues, Judgements and Laws to help Israel understand how to keep the Ten Commandments. The Judgements included the annual feasts of the Lord, added to the Sabbath Commandment.

Thus, the Israelites had not only the sacrificial system to foretell the coming of Messiah in the flesh, but also the weekly and annual special times He set aside for the study of God’s plan of salvation.

The animal sacrifices were there to help them remember that Messiah would come and be their Sacrificial Offering for breaking the Law of God, as contained in the Ten Commandments. Thus, the written Torah was given to Israel so that, when they considered the Laws they had broken, and what it was that they had missed in their studies during each annual feast of the Lord, they could attend to their individual weaknesses.

Without the Sabbath and the Feasts as outlined in Leviticus 23, the thematic study would be left to chance. With Israel’s behavior at Mt. Sinai, God knew He needed to give them extrea help to obey.

Thus, to answer your question as honestly as I am able, when God says something, and writes it with His own finger, then yes, I believe that when God set up his special day wo be with His children, He means what He says.

RonTruth—-The Sabbath was made for us to rest from
our labors.  I am resting in a chair or couch while
watching a game.  However, the men and/or women I
am watching in the game are not resting from their
labors.  Am I therefore condoning their behavior
just by watching it?  Of course, if I had a heart
attack on a Saturday afternoon, I would hope the
Jewish Christian doctor would come to the hospital
to do labor upon my ailing heart.  Using your comment
by Yeshua(Jesus) “the sabbath was made for man”
seems to imply that our bodies were designed to labor
6 days and then rest 1 day.  Therefore, does it matter which day a person rests?  The Bible seems
to say “yes it does matter.”  What is your opinion?
Also, Yeshua talked about a “Sabbath Day’s Journey.”
I travel approx. 15 miles to worship.  What is a
Sabbath Day’s Journey?  What did Yeshua mean,
“Pray that your flight is not on a Sabbath.”
Thanks for your help.
Shalom.

Christian96,
Yeshua said that “The Sabbath was made for man. Not man for the Sabbath.” When we at home do our laundry and the washing machine is still running as the Sabbath begins, we don’t run right over and turn it off. We let it finish it’s cycles and stop. We don’t start another load. The Jewish religious leaders of Yeshua’s day were very strict. They also loaded the Sabbath down with many heavy regulations and burdens.

I would guess to say that if you feel a need to strictly protect the hours of Sabbath, perhaps you could ask a friend, or family member who may not feel as you feel about the Sabbath, and ask if they could tape the game for you, or come on over and do the taping in your home. God knows your heart, and that you are trying to be true to His word because He Who is the Word, gave it to Moses and us,

God bless you

Ron Truth—-Shalom to you.  I hope you had a nice
Sabbath.  I’ve been attending Sabbath services with
Jews and gentiles on Friday night and Saturday
mornings for the last 10 years.  There has been
something that has been on my mind for a long time.
If I am really going to be true to the Sabbath I’m
going to have to quit watching ballgames on Saturday
afternoons.  I brought this up at a Shabbat service
a couple of weeks ago and a Jewish fellow said,
“tape the games and watch them later.”  What’s your
opinion about this issue?

Christian96,
Keep up the searching. Many people who keep Sunday as a worship day are beginning to discover that the Bible is only about one religion and calendar. The important thing is that the God of the pre-incarnation Testament is the Messiah of the Judeo-Christian Testament. They both testify of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and their plan of salvation for those who “keep the commandments of God and have the faith and testimony of Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha-Maschiach).

His purpose was to graft in the goyim from throughout the world, grafting them into the Olive Tree of the Covenant God made with Abraham. When we become Christian, we become Jews of the spirit, the same as Jews do who believe in Yeshua and His promise of salvation for those who follow Him, meaning follow His moral law contained in the Law the pre-incarnate Christ gave to Moses.

Baruch Ata Adonai Elohenu
I hope you had a happy Sabbath.

Shalom

Rontruth—-You seem to be well read in the history
of Christianity.  Thank you for your response.  In
1999, I went to visit my sister and brother in law
in Cairo, Egypt for a week.  My brother in law
worked for an American company in Cairo.  I left
Cairo and flew to Israel where I had arranged to
stay in a bed and breakfast in Jerusalem.  One day,
while watching The Ten Commandments with a couple
from New Zealand in the living room, a lady from
Richmond, Virginia came running into the room asking,
“Who would like to go to a Messianic service tonight?”  I ask, “What’s a Messianic service?”  She
replied, “Jews who believe in Jesus.”  I and the
couple said, “Yes, we would like to go.”  At the
service I met a very attactice blond Jewish lady
from Finland.  We became friends. She later took me
to have services with the Tabernacle of David congregation which was also Jews who believed in Jesus.  Later, she introduced me to a Rabbi for
The Shepherd of Israel congregation.  They also were
Jesus who believed in Jesus.  The Rabbi gave me permission to attend services with them for Yom Kippur.  I enjoyed spending time with both Jewish
groups which treated me very well.  I did learn that
Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus would hastle the
Shepherd of Israel congregation.  They would come
outside and throw rocks at the windows.  It didn’t
happen while I was there. Thank God because I probably would have gone outside after them.  I was
raised in a coal mining town in West Virginia where
I learned to do a lot of fist fighting as I was growing up. Both Jewish Christian congregations not
only keep the festivals taught in Leviticus but
also kept the dietary laws also taught in Leviticus
and kept the original Jewish Sabbath.  I enjoyed the experiences so much that when I came back to the
states I sought out Messianic Jewish congregations
and continued to go to services with them instead of the Sunday services I had been raised in.  As I studied why the change from Saturday to Sunday, I
discovered Constitine changed the Sabbath from
Saturday to Sunday.  I am on DISH network.  I receive channel 3ABC which is a Seventh Day Adventist station.  One night the teacher taught
that the change from Saturday to Sunday is taught
in the Catholic catechism.  Is that true?  Thanks
for your rational response to my suggested questions President Obama could ask the Pope.  He probably
isn’t going to get into dogma with the Pope but it
would help clarify some of the problems between
the Catholic Church and other denominational beliefs.
I haven’t gotten into the changing of Passover to
Easter.  That’s a whole different issue.  Easter is
mentioned once in the Bible and it was improperly
translated.  The word is Pascal which means “Passover.”

Christian96,
I think that the early Church leaders, without any Scriptural authority, made the changes you list, and this was before ever there was a “pope,” because in AD 135, the non-Christian Jews, following the lead of a Jew who claimed to be the “real Messiah,” said he could lead them in rebellion against the Romans, and that they would defeat the Romans in battle.

At that time, the Christians and Jews kept the same Sabbath, the same annual special sabbaths and the pilgrim Feasts of the YWHA (the Lord), and the Romans could not tell Jew from Christian because, other than the Jews believing there was salvational significance in circumcision, and some still practiced the animal sacrifices, the rest of the religious calendar remained as it had been for thousands of years, all the way back to Moses and before.

The Christians did not believe in war; Yeshua (Jesus) had taught them the ways of peace. The Jews, on the other hand did believe in war. Especially after all the wars that they had to fight for 2,400 yerars before Yeshua Ha-Maschiach (Jesus Christ.)
The non-Christian Jews with whom the Judeo-Christians (the first Christians, in fact) worshipped, tried to press them into service to fight the Romans. Many Christians were killed because they were, as it were, caught in the crossfire between ethnic Jews and Romans.

It was called the “Barkochpha rebellion” in AD 135.
That was when many Roman and Greek pagans began coming into the early Church. Soon, they outnumbered Jewish Christians.

It was during that period from the second century AD into the fouth century AD, that the Church leaders decided to get rid of the “Jewish” Sabbath, the Passover and 8 days of unleavened bread including the third day of Passover; Early First Fruits, and Feast of Weeks, and Yom Tarouha, and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), with the annual sabbaths. They changed them because, at first, it was to make Christianity appear different than what has become known today at least as “Judaism.” They took the pagan sungod and Diana days and put Jesus’ name on them.

“Judaism” was simply that religion that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai, including all the Feasts of the Lord listed above. 
Each Festival has a spiritual theme, apart from the animal sacrifices and Temple services observed throughout the year. Lambs and goats and bulls, etc. were sacrificed daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.

But, the sacrificing of animals and Temple priestly services were replaced by Yeshua’s sacrifice for once and for all. But, Isaiah 66:23 says that all the new moons, and their attendant holy convocations will be observed in the new earth. The Jews were to spead this Gospel thoughout the world. They were selfish and did not do so. The Greatest Jew Who ever lived, through the power of His sacrifice and His perfect life, did what the Jews of themselves could never do.

We cannot do any better at doing it ourselves than the ancient Israelites did.

I think the initial motives for the changes were that they thought they were saving lives. Indeed, they may well have saved human life. But today I think that Christians who go back to the actual religion that Christ taught His disciples to teach the world, rather than the philosophized, theologized-away perverted Christianity of today is likely what Yeshua (Christ) wants His people to do.

I don’t think that Obama would, or even could address such issues with the politician-pope.

re: By freedom loving american, July 10 at 10:58 pm # :

“freedom loving american” writes: “The one true evil are the popes…”

The one true evil?? Um, hello?

Right here in the US capital we have an ultra-secret group of room-mating, right-wing (and very anti-Catholic) evangelical “Christian” US members of Congress who listen regularly to sermons telling them that it’s their duty to hate their wives and kids in order to be sure of having sufficient loyalty to the group (which they themselves call “the Christian Mafia”). US Christian fanatics have no peers when it comes to evil connivance and poisonous doctrines.

The virulent hatred of many right-wing US Christians for the Catholic Church is so amusing, because the only things that are really wrong with the Catholic Church - for example, its rigid intolerance and hypocrisy concerning human sexuality - are equally wrong with US right-wing Christianity.

Right-wing Christians have morphed into Israel’s biggest fans, so I guess they had to replace the Jews in their fevered imaginations as the Source of All Evil. Expressing overt anti-Semitism has become so awkward, when you’re holding yearly fundraisers for “Christians United For Israel”. Consequently, Catholics now play the role as the Source of All Evil.

The orginal definition of sin was “missing the mark” and it was an archery term.  When you missed the mark, you missed the bullseye.  Too bad the Christian churches don’t teach the truth about that…or many other things. *Original Sin* has held many people in bondage for centuries,  not to mention the guilt!

If *Adam and Eve* committed the first *sin,* and were the first people, then incest was certainly the mode du jour.   I like to remind people of that.

As for me, I was born right the first time.

I just love the fact that the conservative sex police thought they had their man in this pope, and he’s so not delivering.

This was, after all, the famously anti-gay, anti-abortion Cardinal Ratzinger.

But as Pope, it turns out that although he’s still being conservative on sexuality, that’s not the top priority for him. He’s much more passionate in his decidedly left-liberal views on economics, capital punishment, war, and Israel/Palestine.

Like most “modern” church leaders, or leaders of any human organization of today, the Catholic pope is a politician. He retains power by using his influence over the “faithful” (a small minority of his followers, usually no more than about 20% of all those who claim to be Catholic, but never, or almost never attend). In positions on abortion or stem-cell research, he attempts to gain political influence over the populations of other countries, whose people may well not be anything approaching Catholic.

His curch teaches that Yeshua Ha-Maschiach (Jesus, the Messiah in the language He spoke), created a whole new religion. The Scriptures teach that Yeshua came from His enthroned position in Heaven, sent by God the Father, to live out the Law of Moses to it’s fullest, not do destroy the Law He (Yeshua) gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai) He got rid of all the added rules and regulations that the rabbi’s had added over the centuries, but kept the Law of Love as He, Himself had given it.

Yehsua was born a Jew. He learned, as He grew older that it was He Who had given His covenant to Abraham and Jacob and Moses. Indeed to Adam and Eve when they sinned. It was given to provide a way so that they might be brought back into harmony with His character, which is based in the Ten Commandments. His unchanging Ten Words. Adam and Eve recognized their sin when He gave them His Ten Commandments, which they had never heard of before.

That is what is meant when someone says we live “under the yoke of sin.” Because we are human and selfish, we break His Law. Yeshua (Jesus) lived it perfectly, kept all of the special times each year, called the annual festivals of holy convocation at Jerusalem, except during His last year on earth, when He kept them at Capernaum, north of Jerusalem. He did that to show the world that He wanted the festivals to be observed by everyone, everywhere; no longer just at Jerusalem.

They are Passover with the eight days of unleavened bread (that will be celebrated in the new Jerusalem after His second coming, Shavout (Pentecost), Yom Taruah (the feast of the Trumpet of God that will sound when He comes the second time), Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles (practiced now because He promised to Tabernacle with His redeeemed ones in the New Jerusalem. The other special days are found within the ones mentioned. And Shabbat every week.

No longer needed were the rabbinical regulations about things like how long a stick of wood could be carried on Shabbat, or how heavy a stone could be, or which foot to put your shoes on first, or rules that allowed a young man to even force his parents out of their property IF he willed the property to the Temple priests at his death, just to mention a few. The rabbi’s and priests had great power, and used it to enrich themselves with mansions in the hills outside Jerusalem while the poor lived in the streets of Jerusalem.

He replaced the earthly priesthood, and serves in Heaven in that role, and soon to return.

Questions for President Obama to ask the Pope:

(1)  Why is the Vatican working with Germany to
take control of the European Union?

(2)  Why did the Vatican change the Christian
sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?

(3)  Why did the Vatican change Passover to Easter?

(4)  Why did the Vatican make December 25th the
birthdate of Jesus?  The only birthday I can find
celebrated in the Bible was for Herod and John the
Baptist lost his head during that celebration.

I believe President Obama is naive to think that Pope’s dogma will change. But President in such a short time has shown that he picks his relation not on the base of reality but wishful thinking. Look at his cabinet members two wall street thieves are running the stimulus package and two war mongers are running his State and defense departments and his VP is out of control loudmouth. I think he should come down of his holly pulpit and face the reality.

The one true evil are the popes…always has been always will be..if there is a hell those scum will be in the center of it..

My grandmother used to tell me to make sure I prayed for all the little catholic kids, for they were all going to hell for their idol worshipping ways.

Add Barry to the long list of presidents that have pandered to the pontiff.

Remember, any one who attends or sends any money to the catholic church is aiding and abetting child molestation.

The Pope does not speak for God; God has already spoken for Himself.  He has decreed among other things “thou shalt not murder,” “thou shalt not steal,” “thou shalt not bear false witness” (lying/fraud), “thou shalt not envy.”  There is much more, but these commandments alone are enough to proscribe virtually every tenet of socialism, fascism, statism, “state capitalism”, nationalism, militarism, corporatism, and every other economic and political evil in existence.  It’s a pity that someone so respected and revered by so many of the world’s professing “Christians” would not understand this.  If they do not repent, they will follow him straight to economic oblivion, and more importantly, spiritual oblivion.

While arguably not explicitly commanded by God, free enterprise - that state in which individuals and groups may do whatever they wish in the economic sphere, EXCEPT violate the rights of others - is the only economic system I’m aware of that’s consistent with what He has revealed in Scripture.  This is not the same as “state capitalism,” “corporatism,” or any other “ism” premised on the idea of slavery (that some have the right to rule over others without the latter’s informed and revocable consent).

The Nazi Pope.  The Archbishop of Stalingrad.  Look at all those smiling fools behind him, reaching out to touch his expensive threads.  What a bleeping world!

Oh, by the way, Obama is anything but a liberal or a progressive for that matter, He’s a dyed in the wool status quo guy with lots of impressive window dressing. You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time and you can’t fool me.

Why, “in god’s name”, does every head of state have to visit this guy, who heads the church of holy perversion? Catholics are a strange group. they pray to Jesus, Mary and a pantheon of saints, to find their car keyes. I wonder if they ever pray to God, the real God(not Jesus).

What can Obama gain from this meeting, except a photo op and phony blessings from a man of little knowledge. Once again, it will make him look good. To show how much knowledge this guy has, He visited a former Jewish concentration camp, in Poland, I think and obviously emotional, asked “where was God?”, when all of this happened.

The Pope has done little or nothing to solve any of the devastating problems that this world faces and for that matter neither has the Dalai Lama. Both are basically useless religious figures venerated by the brain dead. So, it’s a photo op to please the brain dead.

The Pope is seeking Redemption? or at least some new converts?
Ratz and the Chruch has been under fire for numerous ‘Mortal Sins’- Child Molestation, Reinstating Holocaust Deniers, condemnation of condoms.
Ratz needs Obamas approval more than Obama needs his, or his church. The Catholic Church has finally met it’s match- A wave of Rejection which rivals the era of Reformation, and this time they can not threaten, torture or kill off the opposition.
The Vatican has been the archetype to both political and religious sects as to the ways and means to subjegate it’s followers and destroy the oppostion.
Meglomaniac have always envied the power and wealth of the Vatican- even when calling them ‘The Great Whore’ (Hagee).
But now the Church is crumbling because they no longer are able (or equipped) to force adherence or Observance to their dogma. Now they have to EARN their place in the hearts and minds of Humanity and must find an ally who inspires the masses, speaks to their needs and concerns. Obama is not only a beacon of Hope to those of Us who voted him in, but to many in various countries around the world. 
Ratz is neither ‘Left of Center’ nor a Humanitarian- he’s an Opportunist who sees a ‘savior’, he hopes will resurrect his faultering religion.

Perhaps the good *poop* would suggest that Catholic churches be taxed to help advance the agenda of the *progressive* (or was it liberal) president; working for social and economic justice and “distributing” the wealth.

Hypocrisy has a unique stench.

Maybe Obama can show Pope Inquisitor Ratzi he isn’t such secular guy. It is curious that the Catholic Church, a monopolistic corporate hierarchy, doesn’t like to have rivals. No surprise at all. If they really wanted to end poverty there are all of those billions of $ worth of material treasures they can sell and buy the food and means to raise food and build homes, dig wells and end poverty in Africa. But it would violate the Bible’s dictum that “we shall always have the poor with us” so they don’t. [Bad idea to go against the holy writ of the Holy of Holies and God of Gods etc…]

I believe Pope Ratzi, as well as his predecessors, have generally been classical conservatives, a rare breed in the U.S.  The classical conservative sees any social order as a living organic whole, rather than a machine which can easily be taken apart and tinkered with (the classical liberal view).  One does not take apart living organisms except under dire circumstances but seeks to regulate and if possible to improve them incrementally.  Within this framework, the poor are part of the social organism and are to be be taken care of by their betters and by the state, at least as long as they remain submissive and obedient.  The overall direction and regulation of the social order remains with the existing and traditional authorities; with the demise of monarchy and aristocracy, that would be the bourgeoisie—and the Church, of course.

Oddly, the closest political philosophy to classical conservatism we observe in the U.S. is the welfare statism professed by those popularly called “liberals” or “progressives”.

It’s very curious that this highly authoritarian view of human society is now supposed to have become a leftist view.

Why does Dionne claim Obama as a liberal? What criteria make him anything other than a moderate with conservative leanings and liberal rhetoric? And suggesting Benedict XVI is a Christian Democrat when he has been a life-long conservative and former Hitler Youth is another stretch. Define your terms and methods of deduction, please.

So the Nazi Pope admires Obama yet finds him conservative on economic reform. Take a number and join the queque.

As he is so often, Mr, Dionne is superficial again. While it is possible that the Pope is concerned with the poor in Africa and Asia he undoubtedly is even more moved by the horrible consequences of Friedman-capitalism in the overwhelmingly catholic countries of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.