It Is Written

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Series Code: IIW

01:30 ♪[Theme music]♪
01:40 ♪[Theme music]♪
01:50 >>John Bradshaw: This is It Is Written.
01:51 I'm John Bradshaw. Thanks for joining me in Poland.
01:56 It's a fascinating country,
01:58 with a vibrant and a turbulent history.
02:02 It is gone to war with Prussia, and with Russia, more than once.
02:07 Poland was invaded in the 13th century by the Mongols,
02:11 and by the Swedes in the 17th century.
02:14 Even Austria controlled part of Poland at one time.
02:18 A million Poles died in World War 1.
02:22 World War 2 was especially hard on Poland.
02:26 World War 2 began in 1939 following the invasion of Poland
02:30 by Nazi Germany.
02:32 Six million Poles died during World War 2.
02:37 And Poland was a communist country from 1945 to 1989.
02:44 Today Poland is a beautiful country, and culturally rich.
02:49 Warsaw's international airport is named after the
02:52 Polish pianist and composer Frederick Chopin.
02:57 The first woman to win a Nobel Prize,
02:59 the only woman to win two, and the only person to win
03:03 a Nobel Prize in two different sciences,
03:06 in her case, in physics and chemistry,
03:08 was Poland's Maria Sklodowska, better known as Marie Curie.
03:15 Nicolaus Copernicus, the mathematician and astronomer
03:19 who set a cat among the scientific pigeons
03:22 when he claimed the sun and not the Earth
03:24 was the center of the universe, was Polish.
03:27 He advanced the idea that the Earth rotated around the sun,
03:31 and not the sun around the Earth.
03:34 But perhaps Poland's favorite and most famous son
03:38 is Karol Wojtyla, who was born here in 1920
03:42 in the town of Wadowice in the south of Poland,
03:46 about an hour from the border with the Czech Republic.
03:48 His father served in the Polish army.
03:51 His mother died before he was nine years old.
03:54 He had a sister who died before he was born.
03:56 His older brother went on to become a physician.
03:59 Karol became a priest in 1946,
04:02 a bishop in 1958,
04:04 an archbishop in 1964,
04:08 and a cardinal in 1967.
04:11 He was the Archbishop of Krakow from 1964 until 1978.
04:17 In 1978, the white smoke billowing from the chimney
04:22 on top of the Sistine Chapel
04:24 indicated the College of Cardinals had elected him pope.
04:29 He succeeded Pope John Paul the First,
04:31 who spent only 33 days in office.
04:35 British author David Yallop's book “In God's Name”
04:38 sold six million copies, and was subtitled,
04:41 “An Investigation into the Murder
04:43 of Pope John Paul the First.”
04:45 There was enough mystery about the death of John Paul the First
04:49 that claims like that don't come as a surprise.
04:52 But Yallop's journalism has been strongly opposed.
04:57 And that's not a surprise either.
04:59 John Paul the Second led the Roman Catholic Church
05:02 for 27 years, until 2005.
05:06 They love him here in Poland.
05:09 Tourists flock here to the home where the pope grew up.
05:13 He was raised in this home right behind me.
05:16 And years later, it's easy to underestimate
05:19 just how popular he was.
05:21 The first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years
05:25 visited 129 countries during his reign.
05:29 Five million people attended an open-air church service
05:32 he conducted in Manila in the Philippines in 1995.
05:37 As a teenager I made my own pilgrimage to see and hear
05:42 Pope John Paul the Second.
05:45 Five days before his 61st birthday, while he was greeting
05:48 a crowd in St Peter's Square in the Vatican City,
05:52 he was shot four times by a 23 year old Turkish man.
05:57 Just two years later the pope met with that same
06:01 would-be assassin in prison,
06:03 calling him “my brother... whom I have sincerely forgiven.”
06:09 The gunman served twenty years of a life sentence in Italy
06:12 before being released and deported to Turkey,
06:15 where he served more prison time on other charges.
06:19 In 2014 he returned to the Vatican
06:23 and visited John Paul the Second's tomb.
06:26 As not only a church leader but also a head of state,
06:30 John Paul the Second had a major political impact on the world.
06:35 He was responsible for regime change
06:37 in several different countries, and has been credited
06:40 with bringing about the demise of European communism
06:44 in the early 1990s.
06:47 His support for Poland's Solidarity movement
06:49 led by Lech Walesa weakened communism in Poland
06:53 and throughout Europe.
06:55 When President George W. Bush presented John Paul the Second
06:58 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
07:01 he said that John Paul's “principled stand for peace
07:05 and freedom has inspired millions and helped to topple
07:10 communism and tyranny.”
07:12 He met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989,
07:16 shortly before the fall of communism.
07:19 Gorbachev said later, “The collapse of the Iron Curtain
07:23 would have been impossible without John Paul the Second.”
07:27 As pope, Poland's favorite son was considered to be
07:30 the successor of St Peter.
07:33 And while he was loved and respected by many people
07:36 all around the world during his reign,
07:39 500 or so years ago,
07:41 he might have been viewed rather differently.
07:44 I'll tell you why in just a moment.
07:47 Go deep into the prophecies of the book of Revelation
07:51 with this week's free offer.
07:53 It's called “The Fall of Babylon.”
07:56 Now, here's how you can get it.
07:57 Visit us online at www.itiswritten.com,
08:02 or call us on 800-253-3000.
08:07 It's absolutely free,
08:08 and you will be blessed by this resource,
08:10 which will grow your understanding of God's word.
08:13 “The Fall of Babylon.”
08:14 Call 800-253-3000.
08:17 ♪[Music]♪
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09:01 Or visit itiswritten.com.
09:05 ♪[Music]♪
09:09 Thanks for joining me on It Is Written.
09:10 I'm John Bradshaw.
09:13 Before he became Pope John Paul the Second,
09:16 Karol Wojtyla was the archbishop here in Krakow, Poland
09:21 for 14 years.
09:22 Krakow was the capital of the kingdom of Poland for 500 years.
09:27 The place is beautiful.
09:29 It's overflowing with history.
09:31 The historic center of the city is now
09:33 an UNESCO World Heritage site.
09:37 The parks surrounding the old town follow the paths
09:41 of the city walls that surrounded old Krakow
09:45 in medieval times.
09:47 Wawel Castle was built in the 14th century.
09:51 The 1300s.
09:53 For hundreds of years it was the residence of Polish kings.
09:58 Beside Wawel Castle stands Wawel Cathedral.
10:02 About three dozen Polish kings and queens
10:04 have been crowned here,
10:06 and a number of Polish monarchs are buried here.
10:10 The first cathedral constructed on this site
10:13 was built in the 11th century.
10:15 The one there now has been standing for about 700 years.
10:20 Wawel Cathedral is the seat of the Archdiocese of Krakow.
10:25 It's where John Paul the Second served as archbishop
10:28 for fourteen years.
10:33 Before World War 2 began in 1939,
10:36 between 60,000 and 80,000 Jews lived in Krakow.
10:40 When the Krakow Ghetto was formed, 15,000 people were
10:44 pressed into an area designed to accommodate 3,000.
10:49 There are still small sections of the wall built around the
10:52 Krakow Ghetto standing today,
10:56 a grim reminder of a tragic past.
11:00 The plaque on the old Ghetto wall reads:
11:03 “Here they lived, suffered and perished
11:07 at the hands of Hitler's executioners.”
11:11 The vast majority of Krakow's Jews
11:13 perished in the holocaust.
11:16 Auschwitz is only an hour west of here.
11:26 Just across the Vistula River from Krakow's Old Town
11:31 are two museums housed in what used to be an enamelware factory
11:36 operated by a man named Oskar Schindler.
11:39 Steven Spielberg's Academy Award winning movie “Schindler's List”
11:43 was filmed here in Krakow.
11:45 The 1,100 Jews saved by Schindler,
11:48 worked in this very building.
11:56 Karol Wojtyla became the Archbishop of Krakow
11:59 32 years after World War 2 ended.
12:03 He died in 2005.
12:05 His funeral at St Peter's in the Vatican City
12:08 was an enormous affair.
12:10 It was attended by kings and queens,
12:12 by more than 70 heads of state,
12:15 including the President of the United States
12:17 and two former Presidents.
12:20 The people of Krakow are immensely proud of him,
12:24 especially that now he's known as
12:26 “Saint Pope John Paul the Second.”
12:30 He was canonized in 2014.
12:33 Now the Catholic Church doesn't canonize someone
12:35 without what they call a verifiable miracle
12:38 having occurred attributable to the person canonized.
12:42 In 2011, a Costa Rican woman with a brain aneurism
12:46 was reading a magazine with John Paul the Second's photo
12:50 on the front cover,
12:51 when he appeared to her in a vision.
12:54 She says she was healed.
12:56 Doctors seem to agree.
12:58 The church says there's no medical rationale
13:02 for the lady's healing, or for the healing of the French nun
13:06 who was healed of Parkinson's in 2005
13:09 after praying for John Paul's intercession.
13:12 Fifty two of the first 55 popes have been
13:17 declared saints by Rome.
13:21 When the Reformation began 500 years ago,
13:24 Martin Luther began speaking out against the papacy
13:28 and its teachings.
13:30 Now, even though there have been some unsavory popes
13:34 down through the years, some who bought their way into power,
13:38 some who sold indulgences,
13:40 allowing people to buy their way into heaven,
13:43 some criticized for not doing more to speak out
13:46 against the Holocaust, others who were famously immoral,
13:50 Martin Luther's beef wasn't really with individual popes.
13:55 Martin Luther and other reformers had an issue
13:59 with the papacy as an institution.
14:03 Well, what would Luther say about the papacy today,
14:06 especially with popular popes winning hearts
14:09 and making friends all around the world?
14:13 Well, Martin Luther did not believe that the papacy
14:15 was instituted by Jesus.
14:18 The Roman church teaches that Peter was the first pope;
14:21 that the current pope is the successor of Peter,
14:25 and that all popes after Peter have the same
14:28 authority that Peter had.
14:30 This is something called “apostolic succession.”
14:34 Luther knew that there's nothing in the Bible
14:36 that suggests Peter was ever a pope.
14:39 There's nothing that suggests Peter's authority
14:42 was passed along to each subsequent Bishop of Rome.
14:45 Luther knew Jesus didn't ever appoint Peter
14:48 as the leader of the church.
14:51 In the Jerusalem Council that you read about in Acts 15,
14:54 the authority figure was James, not Peter.
14:58 If Peter was the Bishop of Rome,
15:00 it's unlikely he'd have referred to Rome as Babylon
15:04 in 1 Peter 5:13: "The church that is at Babylon,
15:09 elected together with you, saluteth you;
15:12 and so doth Marcus my son."
15:15 In Old Testament times,
15:17 Babylon was the persecuting, idolatrous city/state.
15:22 In the New Testament book of Revelation,
15:24 written by John, a contemporary of Peter,
15:27 Babylon represents Rome:
15:30 "And on her forehead a name was written:
15:33 Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the
15:38 abominations of the earth" (Revelation 17 verse 5).
15:42 Keep in mind: John is referencing Rome here,
15:46 in an uncomplimentary way.
15:49 When John said “Babylon,” his readers said,
15:53 “Yes, we know who you mean. You're talking about Rome.”
15:59 So when Peter was writing about Babylon,
16:01 he definitely was not bragging.
16:04 He wasn't saying that he was the head of the Roman church.
16:08 Besides, Peter was married; popes today don't marry.
16:12 Matthew 8 and verse 14 refers to Peter's mother in law.
16:15 Now, the counter to that is when people say,
16:18 “Well, Peter's wife had died,
16:19 so when he was involved in ministry,
16:21 he was no longer married.”
16:22 But the Bible doesn't mention that.
16:24 That's conjecture of the worst kind.
16:26 There's nothing in the Bible to indicate that a priest,
16:29 or a pastor, or a minister, or a pope, or a bishop,
16:31 or an archbishop, or a cardinal, or anybody else
16:34 should not marry and should be celibate.
16:36 Now, of course, if that's the lifestyle that somebody chooses,
16:40 that's between them and God.
16:42 But there's nothing at all about mandated celibacy in the Bible.
16:48 Five hundred years after the beginning of the Reformation
16:51 in 1517, we have a church declaring people to be saints,
16:58 dispensing God's grace through sacraments,
17:02 claiming the authority to forgive sin,
17:05 selling forgiveness for money,
17:08 and claiming church tradition is as authoritative in matters
17:12 of faith as is the Bible.
17:14 Now, these were things that Martin Luther opposed.
17:18 They sparked the Reformation.
17:21 But 500 years later, the same conditions still exist.
17:26 What would Martin Luther say today?
17:28 What should anyone say?
17:31 Now, didn't Jesus build His church upon Peter?
17:36 Well, Martin Luther didn't think so.
17:38 I'll tell you why in just a moment.
17:40 ♪[Music]♪
17:42 >>Announcer: In Matthew 4:4, the Word of God says:
17:45 It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone,
17:48 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
17:52 “Every Word” is a one-minute, Bible-based daily devotional
17:55 presented by Pastor John Bradshaw,
17:57 and designed especially for busy people like you.
18:00 Look for Every Word on selected networks,
18:03 or watch it online every day on our website,
18:05 ItIsWritten.com
18:08 Receive a daily spiritual boost.
18:10 Watch “Every Word.” You'll be glad you did.
18:12 Here's a sample.
18:16 ♪[Theme music]♪
18:22 >>John: I about fell off my chair.
18:24 I was watching a nature documentary
18:25 when a man being interviewed said these exact words.
18:28 He said,
18:30 “It says in the Bible, and other writers have said it too,
18:33 the paradise is so close that you can't see it.”
18:37 Now, that's an interesting thought, except that,
18:40 you're right, it's not in the Bible at all.
18:42 It's like that pop song, “We Are the World,”
18:44 that contains a line that says, “As God has shown us by turning
18:48 stones to bread,” except that that's not in the Bible either.
18:51 Deuteronomy 4:2 says: You shall not add to the word which
18:55 I command you, nor take from it,
18:56 that you may keep the commandments
18:58 of the Lord your God which I command you.
19:00 John says something very similar in the Book of Revelation.
19:03 It's a good thing to quote the Bible, but you want to be sure
19:06 it's really the Bible that you're quoting.
19:09 I'm John Bradshaw for It Is Written.
19:11 Let's live today by every word.
19:13 ♪[Music]♪
19:27 Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written.
19:30 ♪[Music continues...]♪
19:32 Krakow, Poland, is home to one of the most renowned
19:35 Christmas markets in all of Europe.
19:38 The market is set up every year in the old town square,
19:42 the largest medieval square of any city in Europe.
19:46 There's plenty to eat,
19:48 plenty to drink,
19:50 plenty to look at.
19:51 ♪[Music]♪
19:58 Karol Wojtyla was the Archbishop of Krakow for 14 years before
20:02 becoming Pope John Paul the Second.
20:04 He was the leader of the world's one billion or so Catholics
20:08 for 27 years.
20:10 But did Jesus really establish the papacy?
20:14 Was the church founded upon Peter,
20:17 and was Peter really the first pope?
20:21 In Matthew 16, the disciples say to Jesus:
20:24 "Some say you're John the Baptist,
20:26 Some say you're Elijah,
20:27 some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
20:30 Jesus says, "Who do you say that I am?"
20:34 And Peter says, "You are the Christ,
20:37 the son of the living God" thats verse 16.
20:41 So Jesus says to Peter: Blessed are you, Simon Barjona:
20:47 for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,
20:50 but my Father who is in heaven.
20:52 And Jesus then says in verse 18:
20:55 "And I also say to you, that you are Peter,
20:59 and on this rock I will build my church;
21:03 and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
21:07 Now, this is straightforward.
21:09 Jesus said, “You are Peter.”
21:12 In the Greek in which this passage was originally written,
21:15 Jesus says, “You are Petros.” “a stone.”
21:20 And then, referring to Himself,
21:22 Jesus said, “Upon this rock; “Petra”, a large stone,
21:27 maybe a boulder even, “I will build my church,
21:31 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
21:35 Jesus didn't build His church upon Peter, or upon any man.
21:40 He built the church upon Himself.
21:42 Besides, the gates of hell did prevail against Peter.
21:46 Peter denied Jesus three times.
21:49 Jesus was referring to Himself when He referred to a “Rock.”
21:55 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4 says:
21:58 "The rock that followed them, in the wilderness, was Christ.
22:02 Psalm 18, verse 2 says:
22:05 The Lord is my rock,
22:07 Psalm 89, verse 26, calls God “the Rock of my salvation.”
22:12 Jesus called Himself the “Chief Cornerstone”
22:16 in Matthew 21 and verse 42.
22:20 The church was built upon Jesus, not Peter.
22:24 And that's no disrespect to Peter.
22:26 He was a fine man.
22:27 He was a great man.
22:29 God worked miracles through him.
22:30 He preached at Pentecost.
22:33 He wrote two books of the Bible.
22:35 He was a great guy.
22:37 But he wasn't a pope, and he wasn't the rock
22:40 upon which Christ built the church.
22:42 Jesus was that Rock.
22:44 The church was built upon Jesus himself.
22:47 A pope is said to be infallible when he speaks “ex-cathedra,”
22:50 something that only happens very occasionally.
22:53 Yet in Galatians 2 verse 11 Paul writes:
22:56 "Now when Peter had come to Antioch,
22:58 I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed."
23:01 Now, the passage would make you think that Peter
23:04 had no more or less authority than any of the other apostles.
23:09 There's nothing to suggest that Peter ever possessed anything
23:12 like infallibility, ever.
23:16 The Reformation began 500 years ago,
23:19 and even though since that time men like Pope John Paul the
23:22 Second of Poland have done a lot to make the papacy very popular,
23:26 around the world,
23:28 you'd have to imagine that Martin Luther
23:30 would feel much the same about the papacy today
23:34 as he did half a millennium ago.
23:36 Luther had major problems with statements made by Rome,
23:40 statements such as this one made by Pope Boniface in 1302.
23:46 Boniface wrote:
23:47 "Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is
23:52 absolutely necessary for salvation
23:55 that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
24:00 One thing that troubled Luther in his day was that the church
24:03 exerted an enormous amount of influence on the government,
24:07 taking a lot of positions that are not found in the Bible.
24:11 Five hundred years later, you still have the same thing.
24:15 Back then it was reason to start a reformation.
24:21 So let me ask you who you're building on.
24:25 Who does your faith rest upon?
24:27 In the parable, Jesus spoke about a wise man who built
24:30 his house upon a rock.
24:33 When the rains came and the floods came up
24:35 and the wind blew, the house on the rock stood firm.
24:40 He also talked about another house, built on the sand,
24:45 and when the same thing happened, that house fell.
24:50 It wasn't built upon the rock.
24:55 In San Francisco there's a luxury apartment building
24:58 called the Millennium Tower.
25:00 It's said to be one of the ten best residential
25:03 buildings in the world.
25:05 It's 58 stories high.
25:07 But in the last few years the building has sunk 16 inches.
25:12 Which isn't altogether alarming.
25:15 Buildings do settle.
25:17 But not only has it begun to sink, it's also begun to tilt.
25:22 It's not the Leaning Tower of Pisa by any means,
25:25 but it has a little lean that's noticeable
25:27 if you're living in the building.
25:29 So why is it sinking?
25:31 Well, there are varying theories.
25:33 Some say it's because of a tunnel built nearby
25:35 for a transit center.
25:38 But what we know is the foundations of the building
25:41 go down 80 feet, into sand.
25:46 The rock is 200 feet or so down.
25:50 The building isn't built upon the rock.
25:55 What's your faith built upon?
25:58 Jesus is the Rock of Scripture.
26:00 He's the Savior of the world.
26:03 He died on a cross for the sins of the world,
26:07 and He did that for you.
26:10 Are you building upon this Rock, Jesus?
26:13 Are you basing your life on His word?
26:17 Are you taking time to allow God's word to mold you,
26:20 to shape you,
26:22 to change you?
26:24 Are you allowing God to transform you?
26:27 Jesus is coming back soon.
26:31 In that day we'll see how important it is to build
26:33 upon Jesus, to build upon His word,
26:37 and to lean your life totally on Him.
26:43 Go deep into the prophecies of the Book of Revelation
26:46 with this week's free offer.
26:48 It's called “The Fall of Babylon.”
26:51 Now, here's how you can get it.
26:53 Visit us online at www.itiswritten.com
26:57 or call us on 800-253-3000.
27:02 It's absolutely free,
27:04 and you will be blessed by this resource,
27:06 which will grow your understanding of God's word.
27:08 “The Fall of Babylon.”
27:09 Call 800-253-3000
27:12 Thanks for remembering that It Is Written
27:14 is a faith-based ministry.
27:16 And your support makes it possible for us
27:18 to share God's good news with the entire world.
27:22 Your tax-deductible gift can be sent
27:24 to the address on your screen, or through our website at
27:27 ItIsWritten.com
27:30 Thank you for your continued prayerful support.
27:32 Again, our toll-free number is 800-253-3000
27:37 And our web address is:
27:39 www.ItIsWritten.com
27:44 Our Father in heaven, we are thankful today for Jesus,
27:46 the Rock.
27:48 The Rock of scripture, the Rock of our salvation.
27:52 We thank you for your word,
27:53 which shines light on our pathway, to lead us away
27:56 from darkness and fully into your marvelous light.
28:01 Father in heaven, I want to pray today that,
28:04 that we would open our hearts to you,
28:06 that your Spirit would take over our lives,
28:08 that we would seek to follow and honor
28:10 and worship and obey Jesus, that Jesus would be everything to us.
28:15 Friend, how is Jesus to you?
28:18 What are you building your life on?
28:19 It might be a tradition.
28:21 It might be a teaching that's not in the Bible.
28:23 It might be the say-so of somebody else.
28:26 It might be pleasure and self-seeking.
28:28 Perhaps you're neglecting this Jesus the Rock.
28:31 Perhaps you're not taking the Bible seriously.
28:33 Are you reading God's word?
28:36 Are you allowing it to be your strength,
28:38 your source of wisdom and guidance?
28:40 Friend, if it's time now for you to surrender fully to Jesus,
28:44 do so, would you?
28:46 Lift up your heart to Jesus.
28:47 Raise your hand to Jesus.
28:49 Open up your life to Jesus.
28:51 Father in heaven, take our hearts; make them yours.
28:55 Give us grace to allow your Spirit to guide us and keep us.
29:00 And join us inextricably to yourself.
29:05 We thank you, and we pray in Jesus' name,
29:08 Amen.
29:11 Thanks for joining me today.
29:12 I'll look forward to seeing you again next time.
29:14 Until then, remember:
29:16 “It is written,
29:18 man shall not live by bread alone
29:21 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
29:26 ♪[Theme Music]♪

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Revised 2017-05-03