February - the Free Presbyterian church of Scotland

Protestant View 63
both spiritual and temporal control over all nations” (www.bereanbeacon.org/
articles/The_Popes_Plans_on_Organizing.pdf).
While God may permit the Papacy, which is essentially worldly and totalitarian,
to continue for a time and even become stronger, He will indeed awake,
but in answer to the prayers of His true Church as she cries to Him, “Stir up
Thy strength, and come and save us” (Ps 80:2), and as she pleads, “Let God
arise, let His enemies be scattered” (Ps 68:1).
NMR
New Papal Perspective on the Abuse Scandal
It was to be expected that, the Pope, in his traditional end-of-year address to his
cardinals, would mention the ongoing child-abuse scandal involving Roman
Catholic priests, if only to try to mitigate the damage done to the vast religiopolitical
institution he leads. In fact, almost a third of his speech was devoted
to the scandal, which he portrayed in an unexpected way. Having expressed his
dismay at the “abuse of minors committed by priests”, he said, “We are well
aware of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and of our
corresponding responsibility. But neither can we remain silent regarding the
context of these times in which these events have come to light.”
He proceeded to condemn “a market in child pornography that seems in
some way to be considered more and more normal by society”. He seems to
have been diverting attention from the gravity of priestly sin and shifting some
of the blame onto society by implying that the priests were infected by what
was “considered more and more normal in society”. Being no more than
religious worldings, priests possibly were infected in this way, but they profess
to be above the filth of the world.
Still speaking about a market of immorality, the Pope went on to make the
following amazing statement, “The Book of Revelation includes among the
great sins of Babylon – the symbol of the world’s great irreligious cities – the
fact that it trades with bodies and souls and treats them as commodities”. How
extraordinary, when this reference to Revelation 18 in fact describes Romish
Babylon! It reminds us of the last pope describing the abuse scandal as “the
mystery of iniquity”, the very description of papal Rome given in Scripture (2 Th
2:7). Rome is being condemned out of her own mouth.
May many Roman Catholics, deceived by the pseudo-piety of that spiritual
Babylon, hear the call of the gospel to the saving of their souls. May they
comply with the call, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of
her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues”.
NMR
The Act of Settlement in the House of Lords
On January 10 there was a brief discussion in the House of Lords about the Act
of Settlement (by which Roman Catholics, and those married to Roman Catholics,
are excluded from the British throne). No one present was prepared to