Pope Francis: The Vicar of the New World Order

We are in a day of deception thanks to the death of discernment. The one-world religion will be formed by a union of non-Christian religions with all professing Christians who have never been born again.

And I hope you realize that there is a difference between professing Christians who have never experienced a second birth and those who have been called out of the world, sealed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Welcome to Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell. Radio for the remnant, brought to you by Olive Tree Ministries.

Today, Jan spends the hour with apologist Mike Gendron. Jan and Mike consider the vicar of the New World Order, Pope Francis. Is there significance to the fact that he is the first Jesuit pope? And why are evangelical leaders so supportive of Pope Francis and the agenda of Rome? Isn't he leading the world to the one-world religion?

Here is today's program. Is the pope the false prophet? I don't know that, but he gives us cause for alarm. And what is coming out of the Vatican is at least like a movie trailer, a preview of coming attractions. As more churches degrade the message of God, trying to conform God's word to that of a politically correct world, they lay the groundwork for a great worldwide delusion.

And that delusion will lead to the false prophet, the anti-Christ, and a time of unprecedented destruction. And welcome to the program. That was actually the voice of Pastor Tom Hughes, not my guest. I'm going to introduce him in just a moment.

We look at one figure in this hour, sort of a global phenomenon. He goes by many names. The one that intrigues me the most, I think, is the vicar of the New World Order. And of course, that would be Pope Francis. And it would be an understatement to say that he is an unconventional pope, one creating a pathway, I'm going to say, of destruction.

And how is this possible? Perhaps he's not the holy man that many people think. My guest for the hour is Mike Gendron. He is a former Catholic. He's an evangelical apologist, speaker, teacher, author.

And he has a chapter in the book that we've been promoting on air here for a few weeks. And that would be the Terry James book, Lawless in Times War Against the Spirit of the Antichrist. Mike Gendron's topic title is Pontiff Proclaims All Go to Heaven. Well, actually, the pontiff proclaims a lot of things, and we'll talk about that this hour.

What about the pope's role in the forming of global government, winning the minds and hearts of evangelicals? We're going to talk about that. About the apparitions of Mary in this day of deception.

The apparitions are intriguing, fascinating, but oh, so deceptive, and a lot more. Mike Gendron, welcome to the program. Thank you, Jan. It's good to be back on your program.

Thank you so much. Mike, you have an interesting story and we are a little short on time, but I don't want to take the time away from you telling my audience exactly how you came to faith in Jesus Christ and left the Catholic faith. Sure, Jan, I love sharing a testimony of God's amazing grace in my life. As you mentioned, I was a devout Roman Catholic for 35 years until I opened the Bible for the very first time. And once I started reading the Bible, I had a crisis of faith because I discovered the Roman Catholic plan of salvation opposed the glorious gospel of Christ. And so my crisis came down to, should I trust Christ in his word or the traditions and teachings of my religion?

I knew that it was impossible to believe both. So in the process of reading the Bible, God granted me repentance. I ended up exchanging my religion for an eternal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, my savior.

So I soon realized that the only two things on this earth that are eternal are the souls of men and the word of God. I left my corporate career to pursue studying the Bible so that I could invest the rest of my time on the two things that would last through all eternity. During my last semester at Dallas Theological Seminary, we began inviting Roman Catholics to our home to share a gospel video. And within three months, we saw 17 Roman Catholics exchange their religion for a relationship with Christ. We never really set out to start a ministry, but we recognize the power of God's word and converting people and setting them free from religious deception. Now, 30 years later, the Lord has taken us all over the world several times, and we've had the opportunity to speak at conferences and seminaries, churches throughout the world, equipping the body of Christ to reach out to what we consider the world's largest and most neglected mission field, and that's the 1.3 billion precious souls within the Catholic Church. During those 30 years, I've been able to develop some excellent resources that help people evangelize their Roman Catholic friends and loved ones and really anyone who's lost in religious deception. So we provide books and gospel tracts and DVDs, also a website that not only has a lot of resources and articles, but we also send out a monthly e-newsletter to anyone who wants to sign up, and that's free.

So it keeps people up to date as to what's going on with the ecumenical movement, and everything is moving at a very rapid pace. Each month, we have new stories to keep people informed. Thank you for sharing that. I'll give your website here throughout the program. That's proclaimingthegospel.org, folks, and I'll remind you of that a couple of times in this hour.

There's so many bullet points I want to hit on here, and a program that's actually just under an hour long. I just kind of changed direction, Mike, in the last minute of my preparation and my notes in front of me, and I decided to start the hour after you shared your testimony, which is so uplifting, and head right to the issue of deception. And of course, the whole hour is about deception, but I don't know of something that's both intriguing, but ultimate deception at the same time. Some listeners know about this, and some don't, and that's these strange apparitions that are appearing literally all over the world, fooling millions and millions of Catholic people. For about a hundred years now, these apparitions of Mary, and she's being called the Queen of Heaven, and I've seen the Jim Tetlow production titled Messages from Heaven, We No Longer Carry It.

You can find that on YouTube, folks. Type in Messages from Heaven. Mike, talk to me a little bit about these apparitions that folks are seeing of Mary. Jan, they're appearing at an exponential rate, more and more places throughout the world. As you mentioned, the apparitions of Mary are really appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and she brings both messages of salvation as well as judgment to the people of the world. We've got people of all religions throughout the world that are flocking to these apparition sites to receive a message from Mary. I was recently interviewed on the History Channel, and the topic was the apparitions of Mary, and I said it's mind-boggling to know that people will spend thousands of dollars and travel thousands of miles to get a message from Mary when they can open their Bible right where they are and get a message from our Lord. But we know from Scripture, as the day of the Lord approaches, we should not be surprised that apparitions will continue to increase because God's Word tells us that the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders. So I really believe that these apparitions that we are seeing throughout the world are really Satan disguising himself as an angel of light for the purpose of uniting all the religions of the world. And I really believe the apparitions of Mary will one day be the catalyst to unite Islam and Roman Catholicism because both religions esteem Mary as the most revered woman who's ever lived. I'm going to play a couple of real short clips from the Tetlow film Messages from Heaven, and this is just a gripping film showing people and their utter enthusiasm for Mary, and they do think they are seeing Mary.

Now keep in mind, folks, this is some of the end-time lying signs and wonders the Lord talks about in Mark 13-22. Around the world, reports of supernatural events are drawing millions to apparition sites where the Virgin Mary is said to be appearing. Thousands of visionaries from every conceivable background describe a beautiful young woman glowing in radiant splendor. Her hair is going up. Yeah, she's beautiful. She's real big. Yeah, she's big.

She's just standing there. It just paralyzed us. It was so impressive. She emanated an incredible light. It was as if I had entered into another world.

There was such silence. She appears as a living, breathing, three-dimensional lady enveloped in exquisite light. Seers, when describing her, admit that the Queen of Heaven transcends human description. Millions flock to apparition sites hoping to encounter the Blessed Virgin Mary. Consider that 15 to 20 million Marian followers visit a single shrine in Guadalupe, Mexico every single year.

The shrine is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared in 1531 to see her Juan Diego. Many of the pilgrims claim miracles are still occurring in Guadalupe today, the result of Mary's continued presence. In war-torn Bosnia, an estimated 30 million pilgrims have visited Maggiugori since the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary began in 1981. Besides the six visionaries who regularly receive messages from the Virgin, thousands of pilgrims claim to see signs and wonders, experience healing, and hear the voice of Mary at Maggiugori. Unlike other alleged paranormal activities, evidence indicates that the apparitions of the Virgin Mary are of a supernatural origin and that her motives are pure. Her frequent messages to pray, turn to God, and work toward peace indicate a benevolent agenda.

Also, the good fruits attributed to her appearances cannot be overstated. Many individuals claim that they have drawn closer to God since their encounter with the Virgin. Others testify to the many signs and wonders as evidence that God has sent Mary in these last days.

Mike Gendron, lying signs and wonders? Yes, it's so true. In fact, Jan, I'd like to share one of the messages that the Roman Catholic Church has actually approved as a valid message from Mary. And I quote Mary speaking, in apparition of Mary, you saw hell where the souls of poor sinners go. In order to save them, God wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. If people do what I ask, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.

Only I can help you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. Jan, how do we know whether or not that's truly a message from Mary? Well, the Bible tells us in 1 John 4, 1 that we are to not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. So the best way to test any apparition is to test the veracity of their message with the authority of God's Word. When we do that, we know that this is not a message from Mary, but it's a satanic message to divert people's attention away from Christ to Mary as the Mediatrix of all graces. So this is demonic, is what you're saying?

Definitely, by the authority of Scripture. In my reading and studying online, the pandemic apparently has even accelerated these visions of Mary, I assume because people are fearful and they're seeking healing or seeking protection. This whole phenomenon is mushrooming here in 2021. It's fascinating to see that Muslims are flocking to apparition sites, especially in Fatima, which is a city named after Muhammad's first daughter. They're all looking for messages from Mary because the apparitions are saying that she is coming for all of her children. The apparitions of Mary are universalists. They bring a message of universal salvation. When we look at this unity between Islam and Catholicism, we know that one day these two religions will merge because there will be a global religion.

And I know you want to talk about that. Well, we can morph into that because I just think we're seeing so many things forming, even as we speak. The one world religion is on its way. Of course, the true church is going to be gone when this one world religion actually manifests itself. And you suggest that the one world religion will be made up of lots of things, liberal Protestants, Catholics who are not born again, perhaps Mormons. World religions will be represented in this one world religion, and tolerance and compromise will be what unites the various members of this one world religion. And they will give their worship to the Antichrist, interestingly, in the name of God.

Well, that's true. We see that in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 13, all who dwell on the earth will worship Him. That is the first beast.

Everyone whose name has not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life who has been slain. And then we see the false prophet, the second beast, causes the earth and those who dwell in to worship the false Christ. So one of the Pope's deceptive strategies that he's using to unite the world into a global church is to declare that all religions and all faiths lead to the same God. Another strategy that he's been using recently is to declare that everyone is a child of God. So the Pope is drawing all the major religions, including Islam and Orthodox Christianity, apostate Protestant Christianity, and even atheists to unite his brothers and sisters. Pope Francis has proclaimed that Allah and the God of the Catholic Church are one and the same.

He said, and I quote, I greet and cordially thank all of you, dear friends belonging to other religions, traditions, first of all, the Muslims who worship the one God, living and merciful and call upon Him in prayer. Jan, this is what really disturbs me because the Pope is calling for unity with Muslims who he says worship the same God. And yet at the Council of Trent, there's over 100 anathemas that condemn born again Christians because we worship the one true God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we believe that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. So over a hundred times we're condemned, but yet the Muslims are said to be part of God's plan of salvation. And that's even in the Catholic catechism, paragraph 841, the plan of salvation also includes the Muslims together with us. They adore the one merciful God mankind's judge on the last day. So you can see this global religion will include everybody, as you mentioned, except born again Christians.

When a rapture takes place, then we'll see that the global religion will move forward with an unprecedented rate. You're listening to Understanding the Times radio. I'm Jan Markell. I have on the line Mike Gendron. You can learn more at his website, proclaimingthegospel.org.

Mike spoke at one of my Understanding the Times conferences here in the last several years, and I'm basing my interview off of the chapter he has in the book Lawless, End Times War Against the Spirit of Antichrist. Remember there are 17 contributors to this book. Terry James, general editor. We've got Wilfred Hahn, Damon Duck, Larry Spargemino, my goodness, Nathan Jones, Todd Strandberg, Jonathan Brentner, Mike, Tom Hughes, Jim Fletcher, Dave Reagan, and others. You can find it in my online store at OliveTreeViews.org, OliveTreeViews.org. You can give my office a call or you can sign up for my various newsletters.

The book is offered in those newsletters. Mike, just a little diversion here. I'm not quite through with this rush to the one-world religion, but why is it so significant that Pope Francis is the, I believe he's the first Jesuit pope? Yes, he is the first Jesuit pope. I'm glad that you brought that up because the Jesuits were actually formed at the Counter-Reformation in the 16th century, and their goal was to eliminate all opposition to the Roman Catholic Church, and they wanted to build a kingdom for the papacy. Now, 500 years later, we have the first Jesuit pope, Pope Francis, and he's carrying out the Jesuit agenda to create this global religion and eliminate any opposition to the Roman Catholic Church and its agenda to unite the world. Interesting. I want to go back to this effort at a one-world religion.

Could actually do many, many hours just on this topic alone. None of this would be possible if it weren't for today the rise of the great apostasy. Of course, that's all predicted in the Bible, which again is fueling a false unity, and I'm getting to in just a minute their effort to unify with evangelicals, but I'm not quite there yet. In other words, this one-world religion wouldn't even be possible if it weren't for the death of discernment going on today in the church and including the evangelical church.

Well, you're right, Jen. In fact, the professing church as we know it today has really lost any opportunity to discern truth from error, and much of the blame has to go on many pastors that are no longer teaching the whole counsel of God and exegeting the Bible verse by verse. What's happening is when you don't get the word of God from the pulpit, then the people in the pew are not receiving truth, and when they don't have truth, then they can't discern what is false.

We see a great compromise going on. We know from Scripture that the gospel of Jesus Christ is exclusive. It dares to say that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So we can see that he is the way for those who are lost. He's the truth for those who are deceived, and he's the life for those who are dead in their sin. No one can come to the Father except through Christ. So it is an exclusive gospel, but unfortunately there are many pastors today that desire to be more popular and gain more influence, and so they're taking out the offense of the gospel and compromising it so they can draw a larger crowd. Indeed, a day of incredible deception.

Roger Oakland commenting on that. Despite the evidence that the apparitions are benevolent, a number of Christians are concerned that this phenomenon may be a grand deception. The Scriptures warn us very clearly that Satan is a master deceiver, and that Satan actually can appear as an angel of light.

And we know that the Word of God is light. Satan can actually manifest himself in the form of the truth or appear to be true and yet be deceptive. Satan, we're told, is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Or as Paul writes, he is the one who schemes or plans to deceive the whole world. He's the God of this world who blinds the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the glorious gospel. He has a master plan to deceive. And that's the theme of this particular hour, this incredible rampant day of deception. Talking to my gender in here, Mike, here's a quote of yours.

I believe I took it out of the book Lawless. You say, if we are in the season of the Lord's return, we must consider the office of the papacy to be the false prophet. He's using his office to establish a one-world religion and a one-world government. A lot of people, I would say, a majority of my listeners would agree with you. And others are shocked to hear a statement like that, that you might consider the office of a pope to be the false prophet.

Why don't you pack up what you're saying here? Sure, Jan. Of course, I don't like to give my opinion. I only go to the authority of God's Word. And by the authority of Scripture, we can say that Pope Francis is now the most influential and deceptive false teacher in the world, because he is leading multitudes down the wide road to destruction with a false and fatal gospel. And according to God's Word, in Galatians 1, 6 to 9, the Apostle Paul presented the gospel, and he said, if anyone comes teaching another gospel, they are to be anathema, or condemned, or turned over to God for destruction. And so when you look at the Roman Catholic gospel, in order to be saved, a Roman Catholic has to be baptized, do good works, and receive the sacraments, and go to the weekly sacrifice of the mass to have their sins forgiven.

They must obey the law. And this is clearly another gospel. It denies the sufficiency and the perfect and finished work of Christ on the cross. And the Roman Catholic Church continues the work of redemption on its altar. And so by the authority of Scripture, we can say that the Pope and all those who teach the Roman Catholic gospel are under divine condemnation. This is not my opinion, it's according to the authoritative Word of God. We have to warn people, because there is an ecumenical movement going on that seeks to unite Protestants and Catholics together, but we can never have unity with an apostate form of Christianity that denies the gospel.

AMT. And I'm going to get to that unification of Protestants and Catholics will be probably in the second half of the programming. Let me ask you this. The globalists knew they needed a globalist Pope. Is that one of the reasons, perhaps, they had him installed in 2013?

Well, I believe so. It was really a surprise to people throughout the world that this little-known man in Argentina rose to the papacy. We know that that's been his agenda from the get-go, is to have a global religion and to push the ecumenical agenda at a fast-forward pace. We see that last year, Pope Francis made a strong push for globalism. He called for a supranational body to enforce United Nations sustainable development goals and to implement climate change policies. So the Pope said an alliance must be forged between the earth's inhabitants and our common home, which is the earth, which we are to care for and respect. So he goes on to say that this alliance will generate peace, justice, and hospitality among all nations of the human family, as well as dialogue between world religions. Jan, you can see that he's tying in a global government with the unification of all religions so that we can sustain the earth's climate. It's interesting to note that the Pope fully supports Joe Biden, who happens to be our second Catholic president. And it's interesting because he overlooks Biden's pro-abortion and pro-homosexual positions because they both share the same socialist and Marxist agendas for globalism. And I'm glad you were blunt enough here to just say, I believe the Pope is a Marxist. I think it's kind of obvious. You know, it sounds to me, Mike, that more Catholics don't see this, that this man is a communist. Well, he is, but the Catholics have been indoctrinated from the time they can think. Okay. Remember, I was one of them.

Yes. And the power of indoctrination, Jan, is very powerful because to blind you from the truth, you end up having a fierce loyalty to the religion, which they believe is the one true church. And they're trusting their religion to get them to heaven. They're not trusting Jesus. Their loyalty is to the Pope.

It doesn't matter what he says. As you know, he's made some very bizarre statements and anyone with discernment would know that he's a false prophet, but the power of indoctrination really is seen throughout the Roman Catholic church. And it's just heartbreaking as we witness to Catholics how unwilling they are to consider the word of God. They'd rather embrace the words of the Pope. Staying in this theme here of the coming global religion, many remember that he met with a Muslim Imam that would have been in 2019, that would have been in the United Arab Emirates, signed a document that all religions are a pathway to God, that interfaithism will make the New World Order possible.

Again, folks, you're hearing the words of the ultimate globalist, at least one of the globalist leaders. How can you be a globalist leader and still be the head of the Roman Catholic church? Well, that's what happened in 2013. Mike, it was kind of mysterious, the stepping down of Benedict and the installation of Pope Francis. That was a very, very strange ordeal that happened some years ago now. Yes, it's almost unprecedented.

It only happened one other time. From what I know from the insiders within the Vatican, Pope Benedict actually stepped down because he did not want to deal with the pedophile cases that were running rampant throughout the Catholic church. And when you look at the contrast between these two popes, Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, Pope Benedict was a doctrinal guru. He's the one that wrote the Catechism of the Catholic Church that stands now as the authority of the Catholic religion. And you look at Pope Francis, he's more pastoral. He's deceived a lot of people into believing he is a humble man, but yet he wears the titles Vicar of Christ and Head of the Church.

So those are not humble positions when he steals titles given to the Lord Jesus Christ and the triune God. Here's where I want to go in part two of my programming and talking for the hour with Mike Gendron. And you can learn more at proclaiming the gospel.org. Check out his resources there. Mike is now an evangelical. He's an apologist, speaker, teacher, author, and he has contributed to the book Lawless, which I'll say more about as we close the program. Such an outstanding book.

It's one of our most popular products perhaps we've had in a number of years because of the 17 contributors. Mike Gendron is a contributor to the book and it's a chapter on, you may have figured it out by now, Pope Francis. Where I want to head in part two of my programming is what kind of inroads is Pope Francis making with evangelicals. You've heard us talking about making inroads with Muslims. Obviously the very deceptive apparitions of Mary might even play one more clip from Jim Tetlow's film on that topic if we have time, but I really want to focus in part two on how the inroads are being made to the evangelical church. Who is Bishop Tony Palmer? I'm going to play a clip of him so you can get acquainted with him. We'll do all of this.

I'm going away for just a couple of minutes, so I hope you don't go away because I'm coming right back. We hope you'll stay in touch with us online through OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org. You can call us central time at 763-559-4444 at 763-559-4444. Write us through the mail at Olive Tree Ministries and Jan Markell, post office box 1452 Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. That's box 1452 Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311.

All gifts are tax deductible. And check out all of our timely products in our online store at OliveTreeViews.org. More in a moment. Are you taking advantage of all of the platforms that Olive Tree Ministries provides? We are in unprecedented times.

The Bible says in 1 Chronicles 12 that God was pleased with the sons of Issachar who understood the times. Are you keeping up with the significant breaking stories today? If not, check our daily headlines posted at our website OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org. We post other articles in various categories as well.

What about the growing apostasy of the church? Check out our spiritual deception category of articles. We have an online store with dozens of relevant books and DVDs. Take advantage of these products that will help you grasp both current events and apologetics. Our radio programs are all posted to our website in both audio and video form. And we offer a print and e-newsletter. Sign up at our website under resources at OliveTreeViews.org.

We'll get through this new year together as we await His return. We're hearing all of our evangelical leaders begin to compromise. They're taking out the offense of the gospel and making it more acceptable to all people. And so many people don't know what the gospel is anymore. We have watched the death of the sermon for two decades with unsound doctrine and reckless teachers being celebrated in too many of today's churches. This ministry tries to take a stand against such error.

Here are Mike Gendron and Jan Markell to wrap up today's program. Most of the apparitions ask for a shrine to be built. And shrines are built for thousands all over the world. And people come and kneel before Mary. I've seen them walking on their knees, bloody knees, at Fatima and so forth. And they're doing this out of penance and trying to curry Mary's favor.

You don't have to do that. Furthermore, we don't need Mary's favor. We need Christ's redemption, His grace and mercy. And it comes to us by grace. It's not of works, otherwise it wouldn't be grace.

So you can't earn it. Never, ever did anyone in the Bible bow down before Mary, even when Mary was there at the birth of Jesus. It says they worshiped Him.

They didn't bow down to Mary or to Joseph. That was the voice of the late Dave Hunt, a friend of mine, one of my conference speakers some years ago now. And if you'd like to watch that Messages from Heaven production, again, go to YouTube and type in Messages from Heaven.

It's a Jim Tetlow production, and it's stunning. I encourage you to have Catholic friends perhaps watch that little production online, Messages from Heaven. I'm spending the hour with Mike Gendron from Proclaiming the Gospel Ministry. Mike, as you may have heard introducing the program, he gave about a five-minute testimony of his several decades as a Roman Catholic until he saw the truth and found the Gospel and now proclaims the Gospel. The fact that he spent over 30 years as a Catholic, now an Evangelical Christian. So we've been spending the first part of the program looking at deception.

Actually, that's kind of the theme of the whole hour. And the apparitions of Mary, the coming global religion, part of the one-world system that you read about, Revelation 13 and other places. I said that I want to eventually get to the extremely important topic, how the Catholic Church is now making gigantic inroads into Evangelicalism.

That's where I kind of want to head now. Mike Gendron, let me quote you here before we head into that topic. You say, Pope Francis is attempting to rebuild the religious Tower of Babel. He will stop at nothing to see that this happens in his lifetime.

What do you mean by that? And I think part two of my question, and I don't say this to be offensive, but Pope Francis's time is running out simply due to age. He is an aging gentleman. I question his role in end-time events simply because he's a man in his mid-80s. And Mike, when you and I are 85 or so, we're going to run out of energy too. Number one, what is this religious Tower of Babel?

And number two, how do you see him playing out the rest of his few years? Good question. I refer to the religious Tower of Babel going back to Genesis where God dispersed the population of the earth because they were building a tower in Babel. Now we see the attempt to reunite the world, not only globally in a government, but also globally in a religion and ultimately a global economy as well. This is all part of the Pope's agenda to rebuild this Tower of Babel. And we need to realize that the Pope is a monarch that rules over the Vatican City, and that boasts of being the headquarters of God's kingdom on earth. So it's Pope Francis who sits on the throne and has great influence over the nations of the world. Roman Catholics are scattered throughout the world, and this Pope has got this great control over many of the countries in the world because of his status as the monarch over God's kingdom on earth. It's really interesting as we watch the Pope, he did recognize that he is in his mid-80s and doesn't have much time left, but yet he's doing everything he can to bring about this agenda. And one of his most effective ways is to build bridges into the Protestant church.

He's made it clear that ecumenical unity among Protestants is his top priority. And he's rather successful. He's a very charismatic gentleman.

I'm going to play a clip here in just a moment of Tony Palmer, and I think we need to explain just who Tony Palmer is. We'll get to that in a minute. First of all, there are many Protestants. Now, how many of them are evangelical? It's hard to say, but many who do believe that the Pope is a brother in Christ.

Help me understand that. Well, I'm so glad you brought that up because in the eight years this Pope has been in the office of the papacy, he has managed to seduce a large percentage of Protestant pastors into believing that he is their brother in Christ. Jen, I say this on the authority of a LifeWay Research survey, where they surveyed 1000 Protestant pastors in America, and 63% said they believe Pope Francis is a genuine Christian. For someone who grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, this is alarming.

Look back at the Reformers. They called the Pope the Antichrist, and here we are 500 years later, pastors are calling him a brother in Christ. So clearly, as we've mentioned earlier, there's a total lack of discernment among Protestant pastors. We've got a gentleman, the late Tony Palmer, Anglican bishop, who seemed to be even on the staff of the Vatican.

I'm not quite sure about that. He goes as far as to say that the Protestant protest is over. He's going to say in this very short clip I'm going to play, that we have the same gospel. He's clearly an apologist for the Vatican.

And in this clip, he's addressing Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth Copeland's audience. He's going to say we're all Catholics again. We aren't protesting any longer.

It's just a stunning clip because I think that the effect of this has been overwhelmingly successful and positive in a very tragic way. Brothers and sisters, Luther's protest is over, is yours. In 1999, this was signed by the Lutheran Church, the federation worldwide. Later, about five years later, the worldwide Methodist signed the same agreement. But as of today, we still have had no Protestant evangelical that will stand up and sign this agreement to agree with our brothers and sisters that we are saved by grace through faith to good works.

And I believe that's something that needs to be fixed. There's a challenge for you. So the protest has been over for 15 years. And I get a bit cheeky here because I challenge my Protestant pastor friends. If there is no more protest, how can there be a Protestant church? Maybe now we're all Catholics again. But we are reformed. We are Catholic in the universal sense. We are not protesting the doctrine of salvation by the Catholic Church anymore. We now preach the same gospel. We now preach you are saved by grace through faith alone. The word alone was the argument for 500 years.

The word alone is near. You can read it yourself. The protest is over.

The protest is over. Okay, Mike Gendron, help us understand what we just heard. Tony Palmer, again, Anglican bishop, recently passed away here, a young man actually, saying that Catholics and Protestants have the same gospel.

Give me a break. This is blatant untruth. Jan, I want to take you back 500 years because at the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church taught that you are saved by grace plus merit, faith plus works, Christ plus other mediators, according to scripture plus Catholic tradition, and all for the glory of God and glory to Mary. So as the reformers that came along and said, No, this is not right. We're saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone, according to scripture alone, all for the glory of Christ alone. And the word alone is so important. Yes, Roman Catholics believe they're saved by grace through faith in Christ. It's what they've added to the gospel that keeps them lost in religious deception. They have to come to the cross of Christ with empty hands of faith.

They can bring nothing other than their sins, and they have to leave everything else behind. And that's where the exclusivity of the gospel comes in. Tony Palmer is basically saying the Reformation was a mistake. We know that the reformers were brutally murdered and burned at the stake because they would not compromise the gospel.

They knew from scripture that salvation is definitely by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. He was giving a rather convincing presentation. Again, this was to Copeland's ministry a few years ago. But Copeland's not the only one who seems to be caving to this. I've heard Rick Warren make very positive comments about Pope Francis, James Robeson. Quite frankly, there are a number of leaders who have done this and done this in a very proud manner. And I don't want to be hypercritical here, but I just question the discernment of some folks right now.

If we've probably had a title for today's programming, it might be the death of discernment. Well, you're right. In fact, I used to do conferences with Louis Palau.

Yes. He used to go down to South America. He'd bring all of our gospel tracts for Roman Catholics that we had in Spanish because he knew that Roman Catholics needed to be evangelized and needed to hear the true gospel. When Pope Francis, who is from the same place Louis Palau is from, when he became pope, this is what Louis Palau said. Pope Francis is a very Bible centered and Jesus Christ centered man. He's really centered on the pure gospel. He is a friend of evangelicals. So what happened to Louis Palau? Why did he compromise?

Do you have an answer to that? I think it's because he was a friend of the pope and he wanted to win more people through his influence and popularity. Rather than call Pope Francis a false prophet, he embraced him as a true brother in Christ and a gospel centered man. Pope Francis doesn't know the gospel by his own words and his own theology.

He denies the gospel of Christ. So it's hard for me to understand how an evangelist like Louis Palau could say that Pope Francis is a very Christ centered and Bible centered man. The session that's going on in the Protestant church today, we're hearing all of our evangelical leaders begin to compromise. They're taking out the offense of the gospel and making it more acceptable to all people. And so many people don't know what the gospel is anymore. Let's go back just for a minute here to 1994 ECT, Evangelicals and Catholics together.

This is some years ago now. Major leaders said evangelicals and Catholics must come together. Let's spend just a moment on who was the inspiration behind that. And does that document still circulate and have influence on leaders?

Yes, it does. In fact, we really have to go back a few years before Evangelicals and Catholics together in 1994. It was a Vatican council too that the Catholic church issued a decree on ecumenism. And that's what really got the ball rolling toward uniting all Protestants and Catholics together. In 1994, it was Chuck Colson and Richard John Newhouse who came together and co-authored this accord daring to say that we share a common faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it didn't stop there.

There were subsequent accords in 94 and 97. And then we had Catholics and Lutherans coming together, signing a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification. Of course, that one's really puzzling because that was really the spark of the Reformation. The doctrine of justification is what divided the Roman Catholic religion from evangelical Christianity. It was Martin Luther who said, if you get justification wrong, you get the gospel wrong.

And justification is the very hinge upon which the gates of heaven open or close. So for Lutherans to sign an accord with Catholics on that, it's really mind boggling. But Jan, then we had the Manhattan Declaration, and that was brought forth in 2009.

That one has been even more popular than the previous unity accords. And one of the statements in the Manhattan Declaration reads like this, and I quote, we are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences. So what they're doing is basically saying the Reformation was a mistake. Why did the Roman Catholic Church brutally torture and burn Christians if we all share the common faith?

But I need to share one other thing with you. The Manhattan Declaration actually has a person who heads up this entire unity accord. Over 600,000 evangelicals have now signed it, stating that we all share a common faith.

The one who heads it up is a man by the name of Eric Tietzel. It's amazing how that sounds so familiar with Tetzel, because this is his quote, there are a number of ignorant, angry rabble rousers who regularly lie about us to serve their small twisted propagandas. Some are filled with hate for those who don't comply with their version of Christianity. These fools harm and hinder the gospel. So you can see that this is a unity accord that has really divided the evangelical camp, because this is the statement people receive when they want to take their name off the Manhattan Declaration. Eric Tietzel believes their version of Christianity is wrong. He calls us fools because we hinder the gospel, but yet the Manhattan Declaration actually hinders the gospel from going forth into the Roman Catholic mission field. Because if Catholics share a common faith with evangelicals, the ones that sign it say, well, they don't need to be evangelists. If you just join me, you're listening to Understanding the Times Radio, Jan Markell.

I have on the line from Texas, Mike Gendron. You can learn more at his website, proclaimingthegospel.org. He's got a chapter in the book that we carry in our store, Lawless End Times War Against the Spirit of Antichrist. And the title of Mike's chapter is Pontiff Proclaims All Go to Heaven. And my goodness, the pontiff proclaims all sorts of things that are in some cases almost bizarre. He said that the Lord has redeemed all of us with the blood of Christ, all of us and not just Catholics, everyone, even the atheist. So he's just said a lot of things.

The magazine known as The Advocate, which is a gay magazine, declared him person of the year not too long ago. Of course, the pope won't call the homosexual community to any kind of repentance. So we've been speaking here of this segment of the program heavily about Catholicism's inroads into the evangelical community, which it is quite stunning. Consider the ECT, Evangelicals and Catholics Together, the Manhattan Declaration of 2009. And then, Mike, this is your statement.

Frankly, this statement I'm going to read from you could sum up our hour. You say people in the pew, that's my average listener, people in the pew don't know if the Catholic represents a mission field that needs to be evangelized or a Christian denomination made up of brothers and sisters in Christ. And I think that's so true. There's overwhelming ignorance going on. But again, contributing to that ignorance, the Tony Palmers, the Kenneth Copelands, the Manhattan declarations, the Evangelical and Catholics Together, we could probably go on and on and name a lot of contributors to the confusion.

Well, it's so true. I just want your listening audience to know that there can never be unity between evangelical Christianity and Roman Catholicism because we are divided on the purity of the gospel. We're divided on how one is born again. The Catholic Church says it's through the sacrament of water baptism.

We know it's the work of the Holy Spirit. We're divided on how one is justified. The Roman Catholic Church says you're justified by faith plus works.

And then they go and condemn anyone who believes they're justified by faith alone. We're divided on how one is purified of sin. We know it's the precious blood of Jesus.

For Rome says, no, it's through the fires of purgatory. We're divided on who mediates between God and man. We know there is only one, the man Christ Jesus. But Rome has many other mediators, including the priests and the popes and the sinless mediatics called Mary. Jan, ultimately, we're divided on the efficacy, the sufficiency and the necessity of Jesus Christ. So there can never, ever be unity with the Roman Catholic Church. It is a huge mission field that needs to be evangelized. So I hope your listeners will recognize with great compassion those who are perishing because they're deceived by a false religion that ultimately denies the gospel of Jesus Christ.

One more clip here. So some controversy today from Pope Francis that has people turning their heads a little bit on this one, the leader of the Catholic Church suggesting that the Lord's Prayer, the best known prayer in Christianity, which is prayed by not thousands, as I said earlier, but 2.2 billion people around the world may undergo a little bit of an edit. He says the phrase lead us not into temptation suggests that God induces temptation in his followers and do not let us fall into temptation would be more acceptable and closer to the original meaning of the prayer. We're just highlighting some of the things from this unconventional pope. You want to comment to that at all, Mike Gendron?

Yes, I do, Jan. When you look at the eight years of Pope Francis being in the office of the papacy, he's not only opposed the supreme authority of God's word, but he's also contradicted infallible dogmas of historic Roman Catholicism. Some of his bizarre statements include he denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He denies that there is a hell. And he says that atheists can make it to heaven as long as they are sincere.

So these are obviously fallacious statements. And I know, Jan, if you and I were in a church where the pastor said these things, we would get up and leave. And so the question for any Roman Catholic that's listening is, why don't you get up and leave?

Because you're obviously sitting under a church that has a false prophet that's deceiving people with all these bizarre statements. One more quote of you here. You say every small seed of error ends up producing a large tree of heresy.

The deadliest errors are Satan's counterfeit plan of salvation. I think, Mike Gendron, if there were a couple of themes of this hour, obviously, as I've said a couple of times, we're in a day of deception and a death of discernment. That's the only thing you can conclude when you hear some of the things we've covered here in just under an hour. But what we want some of the audience to take away, and particularly if they may be a Roman Catholic, would I be wrong here in saying that some of what Pope Francis says actually goes against historical Roman Catholicism?

I mean, it has to. Well, sure. Those are some of the statements I just shared.

Yes, yes, exactly. It's historic Roman Catholicism. And so there's actually a divide going on in the Catholic Church today because there's some conservative Catholic cardinals that are opposed to what the Pope is teaching now. And there's a real dilemma here because the Pope is said to be infallible whenever he teaches on faith and morals. There's a split in the Catholic Church today, and we'll have to wait and see what takes place.

Okay. Why don't you spend a couple of minutes here talking to an anti-Catholic who might be listening. And again, our takeaway from this hour on air here is the importance of where we spend eternity because eternity in the wrong place is unthinkable because eternity is a very long time. I know I have some Catholic listeners.

As a matter of fact, I'll get an email from them now and then, and probably we'll get quite a few at the end of this program. But I want you to take up to five minutes if you'd like and talk to a Catholic who may be listening. But let's zero in on the importance of salvation and not the way the Catholic Church is teaching salvation. Just to echo what you said, we can be wrong about a lot of things in this life and still survive. But if we're wrong about what we're trusting for eternity, we will pay for that mistake forever and ever. So it's so important right now that we search for the truth. And I often ask people, what is your authority for truth? How do you know where to find truth?

And it's amazing some of the answers we get. But if a Roman Catholic is listening today, I would say that the supreme authority for knowing truth is the infallible, inerrant, inspired Word of God. That has to be our supreme authority over all the teachings of men. And the Bible even encourages us to test every man's teaching with the Word of God, as we see in Acts 17 and 11. We also see one of the authorities of the Catholic Church is their sacred traditions. And yet in Mark 7, the Lord Jesus really opposed the apostate Jewish leaders because they nullified the Word of God for the sake of their tradition. So we need to encourage Catholics not to believe their tradition, but to believe the Word of God.

That is their supreme authority. The second thing I would encourage Roman Catholics to consider is that the Lord Jesus Christ is our all-sufficient Savior. His work on the cross was perfect. It was finished, and it was all sufficient to save sinners completely and forever. And that's why salvation is offered by grace alone. We cannot do anything to aid the Lord Jesus Christ in his work of redemption. In fact, if we were to suggest that we could do something to add to the work of Christ, that would be an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ, because he did everything. So we need to put all of our trust and hope and faith in Christ alone, and that would mean to repent of anything else we're trusting in in order to get to heaven. It's Christ alone.

So I would encourage anyone that's listening to consider the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know from the Bible that God is a holy and righteous judge, and that he must punish every sin that has ever been committed by every man and woman that's ever lived. Divine justice must be satisfied in order to escape the wrath of God. And that's why the Lord Jesus came to this earth. He came to satisfy divine justice for all those who would put their trust in him.

He bore the wrath of God so that we would not have to be punished in the eternal lake of fire. So anyone who puts their trust in Christ alone, divine justice will be satisfied by Christ on Calvary's cross. But if anyone who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ by adding anything to his finished work, they will meet the Lord Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment, and their divine justice will be satisfied when they hear the most terrifying words anyone could ever hear.

Depart from me, I never knew you, and they're cast into the eternal lake of fire. So it's so important for Roman Catholics to recognize it is Christ alone. That's the only way to be saved. And if you add anything to grace, Paul says, you've nullified the grace of God. So salvation by grace means you must repent of anything you're doing. We have a gospel tract entitled, Man Can Never Do What Christ Has Done.

And it really destroys the idea of a work's righteousness, salvation. We cannot do anything because Christ has done everything. So that's my encouragement to Roman Catholics that are listening, not to take my word, but to go to the Word of God, because ultimately, the Word of God is the imperishable seed that brings forth life to those who hear it and believe it. So there's no greater joy as an evangelist, to see those who are dead in their sin come alive in Christ by believing the Word of God. So that would be my hope and prayer for any Roman Catholic that's listening. I would also pray for your evangelical audience, that they would recognize the Catholic Church as a mission field, and to engage Roman Catholics about the gospel of Christ. You know, Mike, it may sound like we were a bit harsh on some of the things that we shared.

Not true at all. I can hear your heart. I hear your love for the unsaved Catholic that you're reaching out to on a daily basis.

That's what motivates me. In fact, there's no greater joy than to see people exchange their religion for a relationship with Christ. And for 30 years, we've had the opportunity not only to see it firsthand, but also to receive emails and phone calls and letters from people who have used our resources to come to know that Christ is their all-sufficient Savior. So Jesus said, unless you believe I am who I claim to be, you'll die in your sins. And He is the all-sufficient Savior.

And that's what we must embrace Him as. Mike has a chapter in the new book that we're carrying, Lawless, End Times War Against the Spirit of Antichrist. The chapter is about Pope Francis and Catholicism. It's one of 17 chapters in the book. I have a chapter contributed to this book as well. Jan, I want to commend you for your chapter in the book, Lawless, because it really laid the foundation for all the other authors to build upon. Good job, and thank you so much for the work that you do and praise God for your ministry. Thank you, Mike, so much. Check it out in my online store, OliveTreeViews.org.

Give my office a call or get on our newsletter lists and you can find out more information about Mike Gendron at his website, ProclaimingTheGospel.org. Let me go out of the program just with a couple of sentences here, because I think one of the most stern warnings Jesus gave is when He says in Matthew 24, see that no one deceives you. And Jesus warned His disciples about deception three times in 20 verses. And He was saying it's going to be so widespread and convincing that even the elect could be taken by it. So we are in a day of deception. We're in an hour of deception.

I would say it's unparalleled in church history. Would you be a truth seeker and a discerner of our times as we await His return? I want to thank you for listening folks, and we will talk to you again next week. We welcome your feedback when you write us at Olive Tree Ministries and Jan Markell at OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org. Call us Central Time at 763-559-4444. That's 763-559-4444. We get our mail when you write to us at Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311.

All gifts are tax deductible. We know our times can be discouraging. It is tempting to unplug from dark news and headlines, but God knew exactly where we would be at this point in time from the beginning of time. He has everything under control. He has engraved you on the palms of His hands, and everything is falling into place.