Should We Mourn the Pope?

Pope Francis died the day after Easter this year at 88 years old. I’m a few days behind the ball, so this announcement is likely not a surprise to anyone by now, especially if you have a smart phone, a laptop, a television, a newspaper, or even smoke signals. My point is that something like this is big news around the world. I want to address our little corner of the planet – specially the Christians at Bayview Bible Church. What should our reaction be to the passing of this man?  

During moments like this, we are all likely only one or two degrees of separation from someone who is seriously sad about Francis’ passing. We all have neighbors, coworkers, and even family members who claim Roman Catholicism as their belief system. What should be our response or our prepared answer when we interact with the Catholics in our lives? Should we, for just a moment, forget our differences, head to the Hallmark store, and find a “Sorry for the Loss of your Pontiff” card? It sounds like a complicated situation, since everyone involved is, after all, some form of Christian in the broad sense of the word.

Now, just in case you got seriously lost on the internet and wound up here by mistake, let me fill you in on the fact that Bayview Bible Church is a Protestant church. If you don’t have a dictionary handy, that means we are Christians, but we are not Eastern Orthodox and we are not Roman Catholic. We are a product of the faithful saints who were ejected from the Roman church when they challenged reckless teaching and practice some 500 years ago.  
All this to say, for a Protestant, the words and decrees of the Bishop in Rome carry about as much authority as that of a mall cop-in-training. It isn’t a stretch to say that rejecting the office of the Pope is actually a key part of what makes us Protestant.  

“True,” you say, “but I have a lot of friends who look to the pope for guidance. Whether I follow him or not, I can share in their grief. Right?”  
I would counsel that while you can certainly meet your friends in their grief, you should not share in their grief. I'll explain in a moment.  

If you’ve keenly noticed by now that I seem standoffish toward Francis, that’s because I absolutely am. “Why? What did he ever do to you?” The simple answer is this: he was the pope.  

Let me remind you of who Francis claimed to be, and what countless multitudes of people all over the world believed him to be. The following statement from the official Roman Catholic Catechism nicely summarizes the Roman teaching of the office of the Pope.

"The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful. For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered." (Catholic Catechism, 882).

Do me a favor and go read that again. Now, let me highlight what is being said. According to Rome, the Pope is Peter’s successor and thus is the supreme foundation of unity for all the faithful. He is called the “pontiff,” a word with a root that means “bridge-maker” and is accurately translated as “high priest.” He is believed to have universal power over the entire Christian church, a power that cannot be challenged.
 
While I’m only going to deal with the claims of this single paragraph, some other activities of the Pope deserve an “honorable mention.” He also is believed to have the ability to absolve people of their sins, to speak ex cathedra (in an infallible way), and to hold the highest interpretive keys of the Holy Bible.

Back to the paragraph from the catechism. Here is why I take issue with Francis and every other so-called pope, one claim at a time.

The pope is not Peter’s successor. Nowhere in the New Testament is Peter said to hold primacy over the other Apostles or given the specific burden of establishing a continual office of a bishop in Rome with the mission of ruling over the entirety of Christianity. More than that, the Bible tells us that the office and work of the Apostles was temporary. Consider Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:19–21
[19] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, [20] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, [21] in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. (ESV)

There is no apostolic continuity beyond the foundation of the church!

The Pope is not the foundation of unity for all the people of God. In Colossians 1, Paul speaks of Jesus in a way that demonstrates that God the Son, not any mere man, is the head of the church.

Colossians 1:17–18
[17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. (ESV)

No pope has ever been the bridge-builder between God and man. Sometimes I wonder if any of the popes have ever read and considered the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews. If they understood it, they would take off their huge hat, hang their heads, and repent.  I say this because the message of Hebrews is clear: Christ’s sacrifice has sufficiently met God’s standards, nullifying any need for another high priest. This means sacrifices are never to be repeated or reinstated, and there is no need for an inadequate, sinful man to absolve us of our sins.

Hebrews 9:26
[26]...But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (ESV)

Because Jesus has accomplished what no priest could, we look to him and to him alone as our mediator to God.

1 Timothy 2:5
[5] For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus... (ESV)

Church, there is much more I could say about the office of pope and the authority he is believed by many to have, but I hope this is enough for our purposes. With everything I’ve said in place, I’m going to make what I know is a strong statement.  

The office of pope is, by its very existence, a blasphemous office.

I’m making no claims that Francis ever kicked his dog or that he owed his neighbor money. He may have been very pleasant to be around. None of that changes the fact that ever since the invention of the office of the pope in the Fourth Century, these men have created continual, global confusion as to how the sinner might be made right with God, and to whom people should look for ultimate guidance, absolution, communion with God, and spiritual formation.

Should we mourn the loss of Pope Francis? We should not. I would encourage you to pray that the office of pope would somehow disappear entirely. A better suited emotion in this situation is pity. I pity the man. He was, himself, deceived into believing many wrong things that Scripture opposes. Consider this: the man who believed himself to be the mediator between God and man did, this past Monday, come face-to-face with the actual mediator between God and man. I do not know the details of that meeting, but I assure you that once it was over, there was no lingering confusion.  

In the odd chance that a Roman Catholic reads this, I want to implore you to consider what’s been said here. Open your Bibles to the Epistle to the Hebrews and read it carefully. Once you are finished, ask the question, “How does a human pope fit into God’s plan for his people?” I pray that you see the answer plainly: there is no place for the office. Abandon the human tradition that has bound so many for centuries. Look to Christ alone as your one source of forgiveness and mediation. Many former Catholics have experienced the freedom I am describing. You can, too. I would highly recommend, by way of a printed resource, the book “Are We Together?” by the late R.C. Sproul. Give it a read and let’s grab coffee.

I should say, as a final and related note, that I do have a category for appreciating a pope in a secondary way, and that is when he acts as a co-belligerent with Protestants to work for the general betterment of Western Civilization. Many popes have done that in a variety of ways. Francis, however, seemed bent on destroying the foundations of Western Civilization, so I cannot offer him any praise in this regard, either (but that’s a blog for another time).