The Christian’s Response to the Pope’s Death
by Christopher Hendrix
News broke last Easter Monday that Pope Francis died at the age of 88. What should the Christian’s response be towards this event? Many positive responses came from evangelicals about the Pope. Some of these were pastors who heaped praises over certain things about Pope Francis. Some even posted pictures with him, showing the world their claim to fame. Our Western culture tends to romanticize the dead, no matter who they were and how evil they were. This fact of our society is so bad that some have even romanticized aspects of Hitler’s life!
Mourning Rightly Over Death
On one hand, Christians ought to mourn the existence of death. Death comes to all because all have died in Adam. Our federal head, the first Adam, brought death to all humanity. The physical death of each person reminds us of the spiritual and eternal death that plagues mankind. When we see death, we mourn because of sin’s reign of terror upon the human race. When death claims another, we know the wrath of God towards our extreme rebellion against Him who created and sustains us. The death of every person causes us to mourn for sin and seek the Lord.
On the other hand, we must reflect on the person's life without romanticizing them. We should acknowledge their mission and purpose and evaluate it honestly in light of God’s truth. This introspective reflection is necessary to avoid calling evil good and good evil (Is. 5:20). What does a cursory reflection of Pope Francis’s life reveal?
Some Words and Actions of Francis
He gave assent to homosexuality by saying, “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with goodwill, who am I to judge?” He opened the door for atheists to lay claim to eternal life with their words by affirming a boy’s atheist father is in heaven. He changed the focal point of the Gospel from Christ to man by stating, “The poor are at the center of the Gospel.” He rejected man’s need for salvation by replacing it with man’s need for love and acceptance by saying, “A world without love is a world without God.” He upheld a system of belief that is bent against God. He led a group that worships an entirely different Trinity, not the Trinity of Scripture. They worship another Christ, one who is sacrificed at every mass. If they worship another Jesus, then they worship a different father who sent that christ and another spirit who was sent by that christ.
Some might respond, but what about his good deeds? Am I simply cherry-picking his worst moments to make him out to be evil? He fed the poor, advocated for a church that didn’t focus on so much an institutional aspect but a cultural agreement, and reformed some of the church in a better way. He appeared (though his actions say otherwise) to be more accepting of evangelicals and even reached out to other religious groups. The most glaring problem is that all of these externally good things done were void of an internal heart of faith. These good things were not done with the express aim to glorify the true God. Therefore, Hebrews 11:6 says all these things do not please God. It’s equivalent to Cain bringing his sacrifice to God versus Abel. Cain did a good thing! Externally he looked right. Internally, he was evil and devoid of faith. Therefore, God rejected him.
The Unseen Evil
We don’t look to Hitler or Stalin and say they were good, though they certainly did good things for many in their countries. Someone might say it is true, but the Pope did not lead to hundreds of thousands dying. In response, though the Pope did not lead to the number of physical deaths modern dictators have done, he has led to millions being deceived and accursed. Galatians 1:6–9 speaks to people like the Pope. Paul wrote, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” The Pope is accursed for bringing an entirely different gospel. Millions of souls have fallen to his deception. Hitler killed his thousands, the Pope his ten thousand.
The Christian’s Response
So then, what is the Christian’s response? It’s not to romanticize the man, for he is not worthy of that. It’s not to use him to give us cultural points with our catholic friends or social media. It’s not to manipulate our relationships with Catholics and lift him higher than he should be. It’s to mourn for his death and lack of repentance. Though he was counted with the evil, we still desired to see him repent. As far as we know, no public repentance took place. For this, we mourn that he died in his sins and did not turn to Christ. We don’t rejoice in his eternal damnation (Proverbs 24:17). Conversely, we rejoice that falsity and evil will no longer go forth from his mouth. He will no longer contribute to spreading lies, wickedness, and deception. He will no longer lead a system of evil bent against the true Gospel. He will no longer lead millions to hell (Proverbs 11:10).
This reminds us to pray for the next Pope. Pray for his salvation, repentance, and coming to true saving faith, which he will proclaim from his position. Pray that millions embodied in the pagan religion of Roman Catholicism will come out of this false gospel and turn to the true gospel. Pray that the next Pope undergoes a miraculous conversion from death to life, throws down the idolatry he is in, and leads many others to do the same.