The Death of Pope Francis: A Good Thing
There are many things that have been said about the death of a pope. But I think very few will say what I am saying for the reasons I am saying them. I do not say the man’s death is a good thing because I hate the Roman Catholic Church. As a protestant, Evangelical/Pentecostal if you are curious about the specifics, my prayer and desire is for the Roman Catholic Church to wake up and realize that they are in the wrong on so many theological issues. Two that I can quickly point out are the praying to saints and proclaiming that the virgin Mary was sinless.
The praying to saints is idolatry for as we are told in 2nd Timothy 2:5-6 there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. And the teaching that Mary was sinless goes in complete contrast to the teachings of Romans 3:23 that tells us all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Then the 10 Commandments have been changed in the catechism when compared to Exodus chapter 20 removing the one which forbids making a graven image and bowing down to it. What they did was double the commandment not to covet by making an extra section about your neighbor’s wife to cover up for that annoying detail. There are other elements of the Roman Catholic teachings that exist to be pointed out as flawed when compared to the Bible. But, that is not this post’s focus.
The focus is that Pope Francis died on April 21st of 2025. The man was at best an apostate, and at worst an abomination in the eyes of God. Strong claims, I know but I can back them up with both scripture and news articles about things that he has done. As the man said: “Big claims require big evidence.”
In December of 2023 the Associate Press reported that Pope Francis had said that priests could bless same-sex civil unions so long as they aren’t confused with the rite of marriage. This goes against the fundamentals that homosexuality and blurring the line between the sexes of man and woman has always been an abomination in the eyes of God. The Old Testament civil and ceremonial laws for the nation of Israel make this quite clear. And the New Testament is bold in declaring that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And we are told that light cannot have any fellowship with darkness. Likewise, Christians cannot bless that which is in opposition to what God had declared to be good and holy. (Leviticus 20:13 and 1st Corinthians 6:9-11, 2nd Corinthians 6:14)
According to the UK news outlet The Independent, Pope Francis also went on record and said that the big bang theory and evolution are true because saying they aren’t is calling God a magician with a magic wand. The idea of a “big bang” that all things originated from a specific point in space and time doesn’t go against the Biblical narrative of Genesis 1. And this theory was developed by the priest Georges Lemaître. The issue is stating evolution is the only answer otherwise we make God a “magician with a magic wand.” This statement is inconsistent with the Biblical declaration that God is almighty and can make the world by simply speaking things into existence. It doesn’t make Him into anything other than what He already is. The being far above all other things who still cares about us His creations. It is the magicians, sorcerers, and those who practice magic that are trying to become like God through the power of demons. This is Pope Francis conforming to the pattern of this world. And we know that the spiritual forces of evil in this world seek to eliminate God from being allowed to hold any type of relevance in our lives. Which is why all the theories of evolution are getting promoted as the answer when they often fail to account for factors such as irreducible complexity and the way DNA needs to be properly set up to work. I can admit chemical randomness has the likelihood to paired together the atoms needed to make one of the polypeptides used to transcribe DNA. But how likely does it seem to randomly create the matching opposite, then pair them together with several others at the exact same time to a couple million times over, and put them in order so that it actually creates a meaningful set of instructions to create a protein? Let’s not also forget that inside the cell there needs to be several organelles to read the DNA, transcribe it to RNA, and build the protein. But, our sinful spirits like these ideas because on the surface they let us pretend God doesn’t exist.
And now the worst offending moment of Pope Francis’ career. In 2024, while at a world religions summit he said that all religions are like languages to reach God and that all get there because God is God for all. This goes completely opposite to the words of Jesus in His Last Lecture recorded from John 13 through 17. When Jesus is answering questions from His disciples these words are recorded in John 14:6.
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
And the reason why this is so important is because the narrative running through the Bible is always that after God made everything mankind rebelled and to uphold justice the sentence for this rebellion must be carried out. But Jesus has paid the penalty for us and because of that paid penalty we are able to be counted as free of sin if we accept Jesus as the one to pay the penalty for us.
Because Pope Francis did not take this opportunity to say something like; all religions are searching for God but He is holy and thus we cannot ever come to Him without being made Holy. And because God is God for all He has made a way for all and that is Jesus who has offered us His holiness if we give up our sin and choose to follow Him trusting that we are clean and able to live a new life because He is God and has taken our place of death… Pope Francis could have done many things in his career as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. But he has not done well and drove it in a direction that puts it at odds with the Bible while failing to teach the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Him being removed by God is a reason to rejoice for it means that there is a chance for a new Pope who shall use his place of appointment to bring the Roman Catholic Church back to True Christianity. That is what we must pray for as the various bishops meet together and decide on who shall be their next leader.
Courage and Godspeed!
And here is an after thought I had a few minutes after publishing this piece. Some of you will object to my statements that Pope Francis is an apostate and or abomination in the eyes of God saying he is a priest. I counter with Matthew 7:21-23 which says;
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”