How ironical that one "infallible" pope banned this perverse group (for which he may have been poisoned!), and then another brings it back! These the murderous arm of the Pope, the Ustase, during the war in Croatia, about which the media stayed silent, and this under our own eyes, in the early 1990s!!
IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
APRIL 30, 2013
(first published April 24, 2009) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist
Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061,
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and
unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at
the end of the article) –
This
report gives some background into the founding and influence of the
Jesuits, keeping in mind that the newly elected Pope Francis is the
first Jesuit pope.
The following is excerpted from the book CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICISM: A POWERFUL ECUMENICAL BOND,
which is available from Way of Life Literature. Contemplative
mysticism, which originated with Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox
monasticism, is permeating every branch of Christianity today, including
the Southern Baptist Convention. In this book we document the fact that
Catholic mysticism leads inevitably to a broadminded ecumenical
philosophy and to the adoption of heresies. For many, this path has led
to interfaith dialogue, Buddhism, Hinduism, universalism, pantheism,
panentheism, even goddess theology. One chapter is dedicated to exposing
the heresies of Richard Foster: “Evangelicalism’s Mystical Sparkplug.”
We describe the major contemplative practices, such as centering prayer, visualizing prayer, Jesus Prayer, Lectio Divina,
and the labyrinth. We look at the history of Roman Catholic
monasticism, beginning with the Desert Fathers and the Church Fathers,
and document the heresies associated with it, such as its sacramental
gospel, rejection of the Bible as sole authority, veneration of Mary,
purgatory, celibacy, asceticism, allegorical interpretation of
Scripture, and moral corruption. We examine the errors of contemplative
mysticism, such as downplaying the centrality of the Bible, ignoring the
fact that multitudes of professing Christians are not born again,
exchanging the God of the Bible for a blind idol, ignoring the Bible’s
warnings against associating with heresy and paganism, and downplaying
the danger of spiritual delusion.
A major section of the book is
entitled “A Biographical Catalog of Contemplative Mystics” which deals
with dozens of the current-day contemplative promoters as well as the
ancient “saints” and mystics that are being resurrected today, including
the following:
Angela of Foligno, Anthony the
Great, Augustine, Benedict of Nursia, Bernard of Clairvaux, Ken
Blanchard, Bonaventure, Brother Lawrence, Catherine of Genoa, Catherine
of Siena, Larry Crabb, Anthony De Mello, Dominic, Meister Eckhart,
Tilden Edwards, James Finely, Richard Foster, Matthew Fox, Frances de
Sales, Francis of Assisi, Alan Griffiths, Madame Guyon, Hildegard of
Bingen, Ignatius of Loyola, Willigis Jager, John of the Cross, William
Johnston, Julian of Norwich, Thomas Keating, Morton Kelsey, Thomas a
Kempis, Sue Monk Kidd, Peter Kreeft, John Main, Brennan Manning, Thomas
Merton, J.P. Moreland, Henri Nouwen, Basil Pennington, Eugene Peterson,
Karl Kahner, Thomas Ryan, William Shannon, Henri Le Saux, Philip St.
Roman, David Steindl-Rast, Henry Suso, John Michael Talbot, Johann
Tauler, Wayne Teasdale, Pierre Teilhard, Teresa of Avila, Teresa of
Lisieux, Majorie Thompson, Phyllis Tickle, Robert Webber, Dallas
Willard, John Yungblut
The book contains an extensive index.
482 pages
Available in print and eBook editions from www.wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143
___________________
IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA (1491-1556) was the founder of the Jesuits or the Society of Jesus. He was pronounced a saint in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.
Ignatius was “converted” by reading the legendary lives of Catholic saints (in The Life of Christ by Ludolph of Saxony and The Golden Legend
by Jacopo of Varazze) and by allegedly seeing a vision of the baby
Jesus in Mary’s arms. Ignatius vowed to “serve only God and the Roman
pontiff, His vicar on earth.”
He also devoted himself to Mary. At
the pilgrimage site of Our Lady of Arantzazu in Spain he made a vow of
chastity to her and entrusted himself to her protection and patronage.
He spent an entire night venerating the Black Virgin at the Abbey of
Montserrat near Barcelona and surrendered his sword and dagger to her
(http://www.ignatiushistory.info/conversion.html).
Loyola’s asceticism was extreme. He
lived for a year in a cave, wearing rags, never bathing, and begging
for his food. All of this was an effort to do penance for his sins. He
scourged and starved himself and slept very little. He taught that
“penance” for sin requires “chastising the body by inflicting sensible
pain on it” through “wearing hairshirts, cords, or iron chains on the
body, or by scourging or wounding oneself, and by other kinds of
austerities” (The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, First Week, Vintage Spiritual Classics, p. 31).
The Society of Jesus was approved
in 1540 by Pope Paul III with the papal bull “Regimini Militantis
Ecclesiae” (To the Government of the Church Militant) and was a major
part of the brutal, deceptive Counter Reformation. The Jesuits were
called the pope’s “shock troops.” By 1650 there were 15,000 of them
operating throughout the world. Pope Paul was a staunch proponent of the
Inquisition and the founder of the Council of Trent, which issued
curses against those who refused to accept Catholic doctrine.
Ignatius’ Jesuits took a vow of
complete submission to the pope, the superiors of their order, and the
Catholic Church. They were determined “to go without questioning
wherever the pope might direct,” and were instructed as follows: “Let
every one persuade himself that he who lives under obedience should be
moved and directed, under Divine Providence, by his superior, JUST AS IF
HE WERE A CORPSE, which allows itself to be moved and led in any
direction.”
In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius taught absolute obedience to Rome:
“WE MUST PUT ASIDE ALL JUDGMENT OF
OUR OWN, and keep the mind ever ready and prompt to obey in all things
the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy Mother, the hierarchical
Church. We should praise sacramental confession ... the frequent hearing
of Mass ... vows of religion ... relics of the saints by venerating
them ... the regulations of the Church ... images and veneration of
them. ... Finally, we must praise all the commandments of the Church,
and be on the alert to find reasons to defend them, and by no means in
order to criticize them. ... If we wish to proceed securely in all
things, we must hold fast to the following principle: WHAT SEEMS TO ME
WHITE, I WILL BELIEVE BLACK IF THE HIERARCHICAL CHURCH SO DEFINES” (The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Vintage Books edition, Rules, 352-362, 365, pp. 124-124).
The members of Ignatius’ Society
were willing to lie, steal, and kill for the pope and for their Jesuit
superiors. The Jesuits plotted and often succeeded in the violent
overthrow of governments and the assassination of non-Catholic leaders.
They were instigated in the Gunpowder Plot, which was an attempt in
November 1605 to kill King James I and the members of the British
Parliament. Six months earlier Guy Fawkes had taken a solemn oath with
his co-conspirators, which oath “was then sanctified by the performing
of mass and the administering of the sacraments by the Jesuit priest
John Gerard in an adjoining room” (David Herber, “Guy Fawkes,”
http://www.britannia.com/history/g-fawkes.html).
Ignatius is very influential in the modern contemplative prayer movement through his Spiritual Exercises. These emphasize purifying oneself through asceticism and using the imagination in prayer. The Spiritual Exercises is intended to be a handbook for retreat directors, and it takes about a month to go through the entire course.
The first three weeks correspond to
the three-fold path of Catholic mysticism. Week One is a time of
“purgation” and purifying through confession and asceticism. Week Two is
a time of “illumination” by meditating on Christ. Week Three is
“unitive,” characterized by intimate and habitual union with God.”
Visualization prayer is a
central part of Ignatius’ exercises. The practitioner is to spend four
or five hours each day in this practice. He is to walk into biblical and
extra-biblical historical scenes through the imagination and bring the
scene to life by applying all five senses, seeing the events, hearing
what people are saying, smelling, tasting, and touching things--all
within the realm of pure imagination. He is even to put himself into the
scene, talking to the people and serving them. Ignatius encourages
practitioners, for example, to imagine themselves present at Jesus’
birth and crucifixion.
Consider some excerpts:
“Imagine Christ our Lord present before you upon the cross, and begin to speak with him ...” (First Week, 53).
“Here it will be to see in
imagination the length, breadth, and depth of hell. ... to see in
imagination the vast fires, and the souls enclosed ... to hear the
wailing ... with the sense of smell to perceive the smoke ... to taste
the bitterness ... to touch the flames” (First Week, fifth exercise,
65-70).
“I will see and consider the Three
Divine Persons, seated on the royal dais or throne of the Divine Majesty
... I will see our Lady and the angels saluting her. ... [I will see]
our Lady, St. Joseph, the maid, and the Child Jesus after His birth. I
will make myself a poor little unworthy slave, and as though present,
look upon them, contemplate them, and serve them...” (Second Week, 106,
114).
“While one is eating, let him
imagine he sees Christ our Lord and His disciples at the table, and
consider how He eats and drinks, how He looks, how He speaks, and then
strive to imitate Him” (Third Week, 214).
Visualization prayer has become very popular and widespread within the modern contemplative movement, but it is heretical.
First of all, visualization prayer is disobedience. The Bible contains everything we need for faith and practice. It is able to make the man of God “perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible contains everything we need to learn how
to pray correctly, and it says nothing whatsoever about imagination
prayer. This is not the type of prayer that Jesus taught us to pray
(Matthew 6:9-15).
Second, visualization prayer is vain and foolish because it is pure fantasy.
We can’t imagine Jesus’ birth beyond the simple facts described in
Scripture. We don’t know what Mary or Joseph or baby Jesus or the room
or the manger or the angels or the shepherds or the wise men looked
like. We don’t know what they said to one another. We don’t know the
temperature or the exact smells and tastes. If I try to imagine such
things I am entering into the realm of pure fantasy.
Third, visualization prayer is not faith. Faith is not based on imagination; it is based on Scripture. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). God has given us everything we need in Scripture and our part is to believe what God says. “But
these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31).
Fourth, visualization prayer is presumptuous because it goes beyond divine Revelation. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The
secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are
revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all
the words of this law.” By going beyond what the Bible says and
trying to delve into Bible history through the imagination, I am leaving
the revealed things and entering the secret things.
Fifth, visualization prayer is dangerous.
It is dangerous because it adds to Scripture. If I get in the habit of
visualizing Bible scenes, I can easily think that my visualizations are
authoritative. I can fall into Rome’s error of accepting extra-biblical
revelations. It is also dangerous because demonic entities can involve
themselves in my vain imaginings. Satan influenced Peter’s thinking
(Mat. 16:22-23), and he can certainly influence mine if I venture into
forbidden realms.
Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises are filled with Mary veneration. The practitioner is instructed to pray the Hail Mary many times and to ask Mary for grace.
“A colloquy should be addressed to
our Lady, asking her to obtain for me from her Son and Lord the grace to
be received under His standard...” (Second Week, 147).
Ignatius also recommended praying Hail Holy Queen
(“Three Methods of Prayer,” p. 258). This blasphemous prayer addresses
Mary as holy Queen, the Mother of Mercy, our life, our love, our hope,
and most gracious advocate:
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us;
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Ignatius taught a works gospel, which is cursed by God according to Galatians 1:6-8.
He says that some are in hell
“because though they believed they did not keep the Commandments” (First
Week, Fifth Exercise, 71).
He says it is “necessary for
salvation” “that as far as possible I so subject and humble myself as to
obey the law of God our Lord in all things” (Week Two, “Three Kinds of
Humility,” 165).
Ignatius promoted the use of spiritual directors.
One of his practices, called Revelation of Thoughts, involves examining
one’s soul and exposing its contents to a director. It is based on the
heresy of Catholic confession.
Ignatius promoted the repetitious Breath prayer, which he called “a measured rhythmical recitation.” He described this as follows:
“With each breath or respiration, one should pray mentally while saying a single word of the Our Father, or other prayer that is being recited, in such a way that from one breath to another a single word is said” (The Spiritual Exercises, “Three Methods of Prayer,” p. 258).
The Lord Jesus forbad vain repetitions in prayer (Matthew 6:6-7).
Next to Ignatius’ tomb in the
Chiesa del Gesu, the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, is a 16th century
statue depicting Mary violently casting Protestant Reformers Martin
Luther and John Huss out of heaven because of their doctrines of
“scripture alone” and “grace alone.”
The statue’s title is “The Triumph
of the Faith over Heresy” and it was created by Pietro Le Gros. It
depicts official Catholic doctrine that was encapsulated in the
proclamations of the Council of Trent, which issued a curse against any
person who believes that the Bible alone is the standard for faith or that salvation is by the grace of Christ alone.
In spite of the ecumenical ventures of the Catholic Church in recent
decades, the Council of Trent has never been rescinded and was quoted
authoritatively by the Vatican II Council of the 1960s.
The same monument in the Jesuit
Church features an angel gleefully tearing up a small book, depicting
either “heretical” Protestant books or the vernacular Bible translations
that were condemned by Rome.
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