Some are surprised that the Roman Catholic Church led by a Jesuit Pope has approved same-sex blessings. But the Papacy has long been identified by careful students of Bible prophecy as “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth” (Revelation 17:5).
God’s Word says, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination”(Leviticus 18:22 NASB95). Revelation 17:4 describes a fallen Church clothed as a woman in purple, and holding in her hand a golden cup filled with abominations. She is riding a beast filled with blasphemous names (Revelation 17:3).
Historically, the Papacy has exercised enormous influence and control through state powers. She has commanded death for those who disagreed with her dogmas and who refused to submit to her power. If same-sex blessing doesn’t qualify as an abomination it is hard to know what would.
The vatican document granting approval to same-sex blessings is called Fiducia Supplicans, and was released on December 18, 2023.(1)
It addresses the concept of blessing in “irregular situations and same-sex couples.” It is true that the document limits marriage to “The exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children.”(2) It also insists several times that it is not granting legitimacy to same-sex unions.(3)
However, consider this line from paragraph 31: “Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations, and for couples of the same sex…”(4) When the document refers to “couples” in the context of same-sex relationships, notwithstanding its protests, it is validating them by referring to the combination of persons in the relationship as a “couple.”
I had to ask myself as a Protestant pastor, What would I be willing to pray for same-sex couples? Would my prayers differ substantially from what the pope suggests? Yes they would.
The pope suggests that priests offer prayers for same sex couples who “to desire to entrust themselves to the Lord and His mercy, to invoke His help, and to be guided to a greater understanding of His plan of love and of truth,” “who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”(5) “The ordained minister could ask that the individuals have peace, health, a spirit of patience, dialogue, and mutual assistance—but also God’s light and strength to be able to fulfill His well completely.”(6)
I can and would pray for all these things for these individuals, but never in a way that recognizes an illicit sexual union as a “couple.” I would not refer to the illicit union even as a relationship. A sexual liason between two persons of the same sex has no more legitimacy than the sexual “relationship” between a rapist and a rape victim. Two same-sex sin practicing persons do not qualify morally as any kind of valid relationship. Such a union is contrary to the design and will of God.
This does not mean that God or that we hate such persons, or refuse to see in them a mighty destiny as persons made in God’s image, persons of moral worth, persons not only capable of but designed for holiness. But it does mean that we identify their activity as sin and as being immoral. We see the persons involved not as subhuman but as persons caught for a time in confusion and error. We are not their final judge or arbiter. But within the boundaries of God’s Church we cannot condone this or other immoralities.
Liberal Protestantism has much to answer for, as does Catholicism. The books of Daniel and Revelation tells us we will see a repetition of the persecution of faithful believers by conservative but apostate Protestants.
Viewer, if you are Catholic and still watching, if you are seeking to be faithful, I commend you for your persistence. Let me suggest what I think is happening.
Revelation 18 offers a final snapshot of the alignment of the powers of earth. A day is coming in which all apostate religion is working together. Under this head will be all apostasy, including Protestant apostasy. The political and corporate powers of earth will also be fully aligned under that head. Roman Catholic leadership is not now in a premier position of global leadership, but doing all that it can to have part in that threefold global power. Does the pope view the approval of same-sex blessings as a price that he must pay to further his quest for global power? If this move was made for that reason, there is no reason to think that papal leadership will change direction.
Political and corporate powers have relatively short horizons of power, but the Papacy is far reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She works in terms of centuries.(7) The testimony of Scripture suggests that virtually all the Roman Catholic Church and virtually all Protestantism, in the end, will “become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit” (Revelation 18:2). We are living in a time of corruption and moral decay. Only a people who make God’s Word the test of all truth will be faithful during the apostasy now unfolding. Tradition is as unreliable as human creeds. Are we ready to rethink everything and let God’s Word be supreme? Both Protestants and Catholics need to beware human authorities and let God’s Word reign supreme in our experience.
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Notes
1. Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, on the pastoral meaning of blessings, Dec. 18, 2023, https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en
2. Ibid., p. 2.
3. pp. 1, 5-6.
4. p. 5.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p. 6.
7. The Great Controversy, pp. 565-566