Francis dedicated his entire life to laboring within the world’s largest heretical denomination—one that has more than a billion adherents. He was Supreme Pontiff of it for his final 12. He spent 67 of his years in the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), an order created for the specific purpose of countering and eradicating the teachings of Protestantism. 

In the days since Pope Francis died, I have seen a number of Protestants write about his legacy. Some of these writers have expressed great appreciation for him while others have expressed great concern. The reactions to these articles, and especially the critiques, have been interesting to me. Some people have expressed dismay that their fellow Protestants would use the opportunity of the pope’s death to detail their concerns about the man and his office and even to discuss his eternal state.

Though I know it can seem unkind to use a person’s death as an opportunity to write about his flaws, it’s important to remember some key facts about Pope Francis, the papacy, and the Roman Catholic Church.

This is one of those key facts: For as long as he was pope, Francis was the world’s most prominent false teacher. Though there are many other false teachers in this world, none of them had even a fraction of his reach or power and none were regarded with such respect.

Throughout Francis’ life, he consistently affirmed the errors of Catholic doctrine that are detailed in its official documents (such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church) while adding new errors of his own. Never in his life did he proclaim a gospel through which sinners are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and never did he expect it of the millions of clergy he oversaw. Rather, he consistently preached a gospel in which human effort must be added to divine grace. Furthermore, he consistently venerated Mary as one who, with Jesus, co-mediates the relationship between God and man.1 He dispensed countless indulgences which are said to lessen or remove the torment a believer must face in purgatory—punishment he must endure in order to become sufficiently holy to enter heaven.2

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