The Pope Claims Giving Most of Your Money Is the Gospel: smacks of Marxism

The National Catholic Reporter reported:

Focusing on poverty and sacrificing for the poor are the heart of the Gospel, not signs of communism, Pope Francis said at his morning Mass.
Furthermore, if Christians don't dig deep and generously open up their wallets, they do not have "genuine faith," the pope said Tuesday during the Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
But "poverty is precisely at the heart of the Gospel. If we were to remove poverty from the Gospel, people would understand nothing about Jesus' message," he said, according to Vatican Radio.
Being fully Christian means being rich in spirit, faith, the Word, wisdom and zeal -- things that Jesus has taught and offered all people, he said.

Focusing on poverty and sacrificing for the poor are the heart of the Gospel, not signs of communism, Pope Francis said at his morning Mass.Make sure, however, that this huge amount of "wealth in the heart" also impacts the wallet, he said, because "when the faith doesn't reach your pockets, it is not a genuine faith."
Pope Francis said the "theology of poverty" is based on the fact that Jesus -- in his divine richness -- became poor; he lowered himself and sacrificed himself to save humanity.
The beatitude "Blessed are the poor in spirit" means "letting oneself be enriched by the poverty of Christ and not wanting to be rich with those riches that are not from Christ," he said.
Christian giving goes beyond plain charity, which is good, but isn't the "Christian poverty" believers are called to embrace, he said. "Christian poverty is: I give to the poor what is mine, not the excess, but also what is necessary" for one's own well-being.

End quote.

It went on to say that giving to the poor enriches us because Jesus said He is in the poor. The ultimate gift, the Pope said, is of giving of himself in the Eucharist as he becomes "bread for us".

At the heart of this is Rome's Liberation Theology, developed by the Jesuits. It's basically social justice. Contrary to Francis' claim, it actually is communistic or at least Marxist.

The RCC has historically been a harsh government of sorts; it is a state religion, dictating to it's citizens how to worship God and what to preach and not preach. They slaughtered myriads of Christians through the centuries. Even The Crusades was Rome's military attempt to take back Jerusalem from the Muslims. The RCC's city, Vatican City, has a seat at the UN as well.

The liberation theology of the pope is the same as Tim Keller. On Keller, ES Williams says:

Pastor Peter Naylor, an Old Testament scholar, writes a chapter entitled, “The Church’s Mission: sent to ‘do justice’ in the world?” He examines Generous Justice in order to understand what Keller teaches about the mission of the church....
In Generous Justice Keller writes: “Jesus, in his incarnation, ‘moved in’ with the poor … In Proverbs we see God identifying with the poor symbolically. But in the incarnation and death of Jesus we see God identifying with the poor and marginal literally.” Naylor comments: “The Bible does not present the incarnation as moving in with the poor. Christ came into the world to save sinners … When Keller focuses on poverty and injustice, he distorts the incarnation and crucifixion, and takes us away from the purpose of both – which was to save sinners – and leads us into the byway of social transformation. He is leading us to concentrate on the wrong goal.” 

End quote.

Sounds very much like what Francis said. He also said, according to the NCR:
"When people strip themselves of the material, "Jesus works within" them and they are enriched; when people give to the poor, Jesus is also working in the poor, "in order to enrich me when I do this," the pope said."

End quote.

What  Naylor noted regarding Keller in ES Williams' article, should be equally applied to the pope too:

"He approaches the text with a predetermined agenda that distorts his interpretation. For example, his interpretation of Christ’s mission is skewed from the spiritual and eternal plane to the temporal and social plane."

Redistribution of wealth is Marxist  and Scripture does not teach that. In fact, it talks about an evil king who did such a thing.

1Th 4:11  and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12  so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

2Th 3:8  nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. 9  It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 

Eph 4:28  Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 

Rom 13:8  Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 

Mar 14:7  For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me.

1Ti 5:8  But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 

Rom 14:12  So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. 

And in 1 Samuel 8 we see what a dictatorial marxist king would look like in the person of Saul (yes,even dictating who would have what career--sound like USSR?), as the people rejected God and instead, wanted to be like the word and so demanded a king:

1Sa 8:10  So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. 

1Sa 8:11  He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 

1Sa 8:12  And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 

1Sa 8:13  He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 

1Sa 8:14  He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 

1Sa 8:15  He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 

1Sa 8:16  He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 

1Sa 8:17  He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 

1Sa 8:18  And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day." 

Rush Limbaugh, as an unregenerate man, saw right through this pope to his Marxism and false gospel:

But it was just yesterday on this program that I, your beloved host, just your average guy on the radio here, suggested that the pope's encyclical on climate change was nothing more than Marxism, nothing more than communism.  Well, get this from the National Catholic Reporter.  "Pope Francis:  Concern for poor is a sign of the gospel.  It's not communism."  Now, I do not believe that Il Papa nor the Vatican are responding to me.  I think they are responding to what they assume a lot of people are going to think about his encyclical....  
But I've never heard it put this way.  If Christians don't dig deep and generously open their wallets, they do not have genuine faith, and that's in quotes, genuine faith is in quotes.  So people's faith in God, religious faith is now, according to the Vicar of Christ, directly related to how wide open their wallets are.  Now, wait 'til you hear what opening up your wallet means.  And I'm reading here from the National Catholic Reporter.... 
In other words, you can't just give your disposable income to charity. You have to give money that you yourself actually need, and until you give up what you need for yourself, you are not being charitable.  That's what Il Papa is saying.  Anybody can give disposable income.  That's no big deal.  You've gotta give up what you need.  In other words, instead of paying the electric bill or buying whatever, that money needs to go to the poor.  And if it doesn't, you're not genuine.  Your faith isn't genuine. 

End quote.

Moreover this obssession with the poor, which is supposed to be some sort of sign of being a REAL Christian, both according to the pope and to Keller, is the sin of favoritism (it also is using a group of people to one's own agenda--a means to an end).

Exo 23:3  nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute.

Lev 19:15  "You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. 

The Gospel has absolutely nothing to do with how much you give to the poor. That actually was something the Pharisees did to prove they were more spiritual than everyone else. In fact, they took from giving to aid their parents and gave to God, but Jesus condemned this:

Mat 15:3  He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

Mat 15:4  For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.'

Mat 15:5  But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or his mother, "What you would have gained from me is given to God,"

Mat 15:6  he need not honor his father.' So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.

Mat 15:7  You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

Mat 15:8  "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

Mat 15:9  in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"

The pope is doing nothing different.

Moreover, the Gospel is about the total depravity of Man in sin, under God's righteous wrath, the Person and finished work of Jesus Christ in His life, death, and resurrection, of repentance from sin, turning to from the flesh and turning to Christ Jesus for salvation and justification. The pope has it completely wrong.

In fact, he twists the beatitude about being poor. Scripture says:

Mat 5:3  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Poor in spirit", not poor in wealth. This is about those who recognize their spiritual poverty before the thrice Holy One of Israel and their need for forgiveness and salvation----NOT an attempt at buying one's way into Heaven or becoming poor to earn salvation. Let's not forget that this giving away of all your wealth to the poor is nothing more than indulgences and works righteousness, condemned wholly by God.

In dealing with the poor, we should define what "poor" really is biblically speaking. Today's poor in America have cell phones and satellite dishes, even cars, people who are often overweight, too. While we are to give to the poor as God directs (not by our emotions and certainly in wisdom and discernment), the Christian's first priority is to the household of faith:

Gal 6:10  So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. 

Moreover giving many not always entail money. It may mean something like food during an especially difficult trial, or it may mean extra clothes someone could use. In today's society, with many who lie about being poor (I've seen them well dressed and wearing gold jewelry), those who abuse the system, those who manipulate the emotions of passersby by using their "children" to get more money, those who commit fraud with our welfare system, we should not squander God's money by giving it to them. What they need most is the Gospel. So we need to be very careful in our society.

The most important thing is that as biblical Christians when we do give, we give not in order to gain favor with God, and certainly not to gain salvation, but we give because God has been so kind to us and when He blesses us financially, we want to share that out of love for Him and for others.  This is sanctification, but the RCC gain, blends sanctification with salvation, to their doom.

Isn't it interesting that the richest religion in the world which houses multitudes of priceless art work and gold and rubies and silk inside a palace, isn't willing to give it all up to sell and give that money to their poor? Do as the pope says, not as he does is absolute hypocrisy.