Please help Reformed believers spread the Gospel to Roman Catholics when “Pope Francis” travels to Philadelphia later this year

Pope Francis is Coming to Town!

Mark it on your calendar: “Pope Francis” is Coming to Town.

The funds that are being solicited here will help to print tracts and buy meals and T-shirts for those who will be participating in the street evangelization events.

It takes only a few moments to make a donation here. Please consider prayerfully how you might help this effort to move forward.

http://www.gofundme.com/opstcyprian.

13 Things You Didn’t Know About “the Papacy”

[Please note: Elsewhere I have written about the trip that “Pope Francis” will be making to Philadelphia, September 26-27, and also the street evangelism efforts that that a number of Reformed believers are going to be participating in. I’m offering this article here (or some edited version of it) as the text for the hand-out piece to be given to Roman Catholics who are coming to Philadelphia and adoring this “pope”. If you decide to read this through, please take a minute to comment -- let me know if I missed anything, or if there is a point that I should not be making -- thank you. - John Bugay.]

13 Things You Didn’t Know About “the Papacy”

Popes over the centuries have enjoyed great power and privilege as “the Vicars of Christ”. And in our days, we still see large audiences giving adulation to the particular man who holds the title of “Pope”.

But “the papacy” is not biblical, and nor was it affirmed by early church writers or councils.

In fact, this document will make the claim that “the papacy” as an institution is a later add-on to Christianity – kind of like a leech – a fraudulent institution that evolved by making claims for its own authority based on illegitimate criteria – these were criteria that earlier writers understood to be fraudulent, but which later history (aided by the wealth of the Roman emperors and the later fall of Rome) could not easily argue against or resist.

Have you noticed that we rarely hear of “the papacy” nowadays? In fact, the words “papal” and “papacy” are not used at all in the “Catechism of the Catholic Church”, despite its history of claiming both worldly and spiritual power. Now we hear of “the successor of Peter” or “the Petrine ministry”.

In fact, concepts like “Roman primacy”, “the Papacy”, and “the Petrine ministry” were concepts “developed” long after the Apostles lived, and they were superimposed back upon history as a way of consolidating papal power in the middle ages:

“It is clear that Roman Primacy was not given from the outset; it underwent a long process of development whose initial phases extended well into the fifth century” (Klaus Schatz, “Papal Primacy”, 1996, pg 36).

“Pope Francis” is Coming to Town

One of the challenges that we face in dealing with the papacy today is the aura of celebrity that accompanies modern popes in the era of mass media. “Pope Francis” may be diminished, but he’ll still get lots of media coverage.

That’s why it’s so important to help out here. When “Pope Francis” visits the US later this year, he’ll be greeted by some true brothers in the “city of brotherly love”, Philadelphia, who will be informing the awe-struck Roman Catholics there of the true nature of the papacy and what the Gospel really is.

Geoff Robinson is coordinating the activities, which he’s named “Operation St. Cyprian”. The idea, of course, is to promote a time in the church when claims of papal authority were rejected in the early church. Cyprian was a bishop of Carthage from 250-258 AD; he rejected the notion of a papacy, or a “bishop of bishops”, or compulsion by “tyrannical terror” (in this he accuses the bishop of the Rome at the time, “Pope Stephen”). This is from The Seventh Council of Carthage under Cyprian:

It remains, that upon this same matter each of us should bring forward what we think, judging no man, nor rejecting any one from the right of communion, if he should think differently from us. For neither does any of us set himself up as a bishop of bishops, nor by tyrannical terror does any compel his colleague to the necessity of obedience; since every bishop, according to the allowance of his liberty and power, has his own proper right of judgment, and can no more be judged by another than he himself can judge another. But let us all wait for the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only one that has the power both of preferring us in the government of His Church, and of judging us in our conduct there.

Geoff has set up a “GoFundMe” site to help raise money for incidental expenses related to the event: http://www.gofundme.com/opstcyprian:

We will be stressing the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and the necessity of trusting Jesus alone to be declared righteous before God and to have peace between God and man.

We need to raise funds to cover miscellaneous expenses ranging from the printing of materials to share to t-shirts for our volunteers to fees and SEPTA tokens. We also want to provide some food and drink to our volunteers in their downtime so they can focus on sharing the gospel.

We are [also] attempting to establish a debate between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant apologist. The expenses, including airfare, of the two will need to be paid along with costs for the venue. Any funds above the $2500 will be used to establish a debate or an event to invite contacts to discuss matters pertaining to the gospel.

Any extra funds that are not spent will be given to one or more organizations that engage in evangelism, which will aid us in our efforts.

Let’s help take care of this request: http://www.gofundme.com/opstcyprian. Please donate if you can; if you can’t, please share this link on Twitter or Facebook or other places where you might share things.

If you can help, contact Geoff at: geoff.papaloutreach@gmail.com.