Mikhail Gorbachev admits he is a Christian - Is that so?

Oh my goodness gracious, Mikhail Gorbachev is a Christian!!! - He is about as Christian as I am the tooth fairy.  Roman Catholicism is NOT Christian - never has and never will be!  Read:  Revelations 17 & 18. 

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By Malcolm Moore in Rome

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.

Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.

– Nothing like praying to a dead man who is most certainly in hell for,  John 14 v 6  “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me.”

His arrival in Assisi was described as “spiritual perestroika” by La Stampa, the Italian newspaper.

“St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ,” said Mr Gorbachev. “His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life,” he added.

–  St Francis is about as far away from being Christ as Satan is from being God.

Mr Gorbachev’s surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.

–  He was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist?  Was he tortured?  I think not.  Millions of Christians were murdered, tortured, or otherwise persecuted by the Soviet Union.  Mikhail Gorbachev ran this anti-Christian empire.  He willingly chose to deny the one and only living God and His son Jesus Christ.  Millions of people thought history had their lives taken from them in the most horrific ways because they REFUSED to deny Jesus Christ.  Note that the Roman Catholic church can take credit for a big percentage of these murders throughout history. 

Mr Gorbachev, 77, was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and his parents were Christians.

          –  Oh, I feel much better now.

In addition, the parents of his wife Raisa were deeply religious and were killed during the Second World War for having religious icons in their home.

–  Ah, Satan does not care who he kills (true believer, deceived believer or unbeliever) as long as he can get their soul before they accept Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. 

Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a “closet believer”.

–  ‘Closet believer’?  You either deny Jesus Christ or you don’t - there is no in between. 

Mr Reagan held deep religious convictions himself. However, until now Mr Gorbachev has allowed himself to express only pantheistic views, saying in one interview “nature is my god”.

          –  So if ‘nature’ is Gorbachev’s god is he saying that ‘nature’ is the Roman Catholics god as well?  Hmmm…

After his prayers, Mr Gorbachev toured the Basilica of St Francis and asked in particular to be shown an icon of St Francis portraying his “dream at Spoleto”.

St Francis, who lived in the 12th century, was a troubadour and a poet before the spiritual vision caused him to return to Assisi and contemplate a religious life.

Even in his early days, St Francis helped the poor, once giving all of his money to a beggar. As well as spending time in the wilderness, he also nursed lepers and eventually became a priest.

“It was through St Francis that I arrived at the Church, so it was important that I came to visit his tomb,” said Mr Gorbachev.  “I feel very emotional to be here at such an important place not only for the Catholic faith, but for all humanity.”

He also asked the monks for theological books to help him understand St Francis’ life.

          –  He should have asked for the bible to help him understand salvation through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ only.

Father Miroslavo Anuskevic, who accompanied the former Soviet leader, said: “He was not recognised by any of the worshippers in the church, and silently meditated at the tomb for a while. He seemed a man deeply inspired by charity, and told me that he was involved in a project to help children with cancer.

          –  Pity, feeding the poor and helping children with cancer can’t get you into heaven.

“He talked a lot about Russia and said that even though the transition to democracy had been very important for the world, it was very painful for Russia. He said it was a country which has a great history, and also a great spirituality.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/19/wgorbachev119.xml

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Who is St Francis?

St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the ecology, was a Roman Catholic saint who took the gospel literally by following all Jesus said and did.

Francis of Assisi was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without a mite of self-importance.

Serious illness brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life as leader of Assisi’s youth. Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led him to a self-emptying like that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road. It symbolized his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: “Francis! Everything you have loved and desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise and hate, if you wish to know my will. And when you have begun this, all that now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter, but all that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy.”

From the cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano, Christ told him, “Francis, go out and build up my house, for it is nearly falling down.” Francis became the totally poor and humble workman.

He must have suspected a deeper meaning to “build up my house.” But he would have been content to be for the rest of his life the poor “nothing” man actually putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up every material thing he had, piling even his clothes before his earthly father (who was demanding restitution for Francis’ “gifts” to the poor) so that he would be totally free to say, “Our Father in heaven.” He was, for a time, considered to be a religious “nut,” begging from door to door when he could not get money for his work, bringing sadness or disgust to the hearts of his former friends, ridicule from the unthinking.

But genuineness will tell. A few people began to realize that this man was actually trying to be Christian. He really believed what Jesus said: “Announce the kingdom! Possess no gold or silver or copper in your purses, no traveling bag, no sandals, no staff” (see Luke 9:1-3).

Francis’ first rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels. He had no idea of founding an order, but once it began he protected it and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion and loyalty to the Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time when various movements of reform tended to break the Church’s unity.

He was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter, but always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases. He did try to convert the sultan of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade.

During the last years of his relatively short life (he died at 44) he was half blind and seriously ill. Two years before his death, he received the stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side. [Emphasis added by Deborah]

On his deathbed, he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, “Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death.” He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior to have his clothes removed when the last hour came and for permission to expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.

http://www.americancatholic.org/features/francis/who_was.asp

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St Francis sounds like a really nice guy, pity he was deceived into believing in another Jesus and thought that doing good works would bring him salvation - his Stigmata is nothing other than a manifestation of demonic possession/affliction and an outward sign of who he actually worshipped/believed in.