Headline News

Pope Francis Held Secret Meetings With Same-Sex LGBT Couples During US Trip

Yayo Grassi, an openly gay man, brought his partner, Iwan Bagus, as well several other friends to the Vatican Embassy on September 23 for a brief visit with Pope Francis.

Published

11 years ago

October 2, 2015

Geoffrey Grider

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Pope held private meeting with same-sex couple in U.S.

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Romans 1:26,27 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This month, Pope Francis has called high-level meetings at the Vatican to discuss how to include openly gay and lesbian people within the church. His secret meeting last week with same-sex couples shows you the Popes true intentions. Prepare yourself for full and complete acceptance of openly-gay LGBT Catholic church members. Pope Francis is building his One World Religion, and the gates of Hell fully support him. Grassi said the Pope has long known that he is gay, but has never condemned his sexuality or his same-sex relationship. Hmm…I bet.

Yayo Grassi, an openly gay man, brought his partner, Iwan Bagus, as well several other friends to the Vatican Embassy on September 23 for a brief visit with Pope Francis. A video of the meeting shows Grassi and Francis greeting each other with a warm hug.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Grassi said the visit was arranged personally with the Pope via email in the weeks ahead of Francis’ highly anticipated visit to the United States.

“Three weeks before the trip, he called me on the phone and said he would love to give me a hug,” Grassi said.

The meeting between the Pope and gay couple adds another intriguing twist to the strange aftermath of Francis’ first-ever trip to the United States. Since news broke on Tuesday of Francis’ meeting with Davis, conservatives have cheered the seemingly implicit endorsement, while liberals have questioned how much the Pope knew about her case.

The two encounters — one with a gay couple and one with a government official who ardently opposes homosexuality — have left the Vatican scrambling to issue statements that seek to de-politicize the Pope’s meetings and agenda.

On Friday afternoon, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that Grassi had asked to present his friends to Francis in Washington.

“As noted in the past, the Pope, as pastor, has maintained many personal relationships with people in a spirit of kindness, welcome and dialogue,” Lombardi said.

Earlier on Friday, the Vatican said that the meeting with Davis was not intended as a show of support for her cause and “the only real audience granted by the Pope at the nunciature (embassy) was with one of his former students and his family.”

“That was me,” Grassi said.

Grassi, who is 67, added that he is willing to talk about his private moment with the pontiff because he was upset about media coverage of the Pope’s meeting with Davis.

“I want to show the truth of who Pope Francis is,” he said.

Pope Francis taught Grassi in literature and psychology classes at Inmaculada Concepcion, a Catholic high school in Sante Fe, Argentina, from 1964-1965. Grassi said that he is now an atheist.

Grassi said the Pope has long known that he is gay, but has never condemned his sexuality or his same-sex relationship. In the video, Francis says he recalls meeting Grassi’s boyfriend in Rome.

“He has never been judgmental,” Grassi said. “He has never said anything negative.”

Grassi said that he asked for the meeting in Washington because the friends he brought along have been through difficult times and wanted to receive of a blessing from the pontiff.

At the end the meeting, the Pope hugs both Grassi and Bagus and kisses them on the cheek.

“Obviously he is the pastor of the church and he has to follow the church’s teachings,” Grassi added. “But as a human being he understands all kinds of situations, and he is open to all kinds of people, including those with different sexual characteristics.”

While not changing church teaching, which considers same-sex relationships sinful, Pope Francis has often emphasized mercy over judgment. In 2013, for example, he famously said, “Who am I to judge” gay priests who seek to do God’s will. He also reportedly met with a transgender man from Spain in January of this year.

At the same time, the Vatican has refused to recognize France’s ambassador to the Holy See, Laurent Stefanini, who is openly gay. And Francis has show little inclination to adjust church doctrine on sexuality.

“It reminds us, again, that the Pope meets with all sorts of people on his trips and that such meetings are not an ‘endorsement’ of anything,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large at America magazine.

“In this case, for example, he is not endorsing same-sex marriage. But if Mr. Grassi’s account is accurate, then it makes me happy to know that the Pope keeps in contact with his old friends, both gay and straight. For friendship and welcome are at the heart of the Christian life.”

This October, the Vatican will hold a major meeting, called a synod, to discuss how to minister to gays and lesbians, among other issues facing modern Catholics.

While Grassi describes his relationship to the Pope as very close, they haven’t always agreed on same-sex rights.

During Argentina’s heated debate over same-sex marriage in 2010, Grassi chastised the Pope for opposing gay rights. At one point, the future pontiff suggested that same-sex marriage is the work of the devil.

“You have been my guide, continuously moving my horizons—you have shaped the most progressive aspects of my worldview,” Grassi wrote to the future Pope in an email, according to National Geographic magazine. “And to hear this from you is so disappointing.”

Grassi told CNN that Francis — then Cardinal Jorge Margio Bergoglio — wrote back, saying that he was sorry to have upset his former student and promising that “homophobia” had no place in the Catholic Church.

Grassi said he believes the Pope was “misled” into meeting with Davis, who served six days in a Kentucky jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Davis’ lawyers had portrayed the papal meeting as an endorsement of her cause. After several days of questions and culture-war sparring, the Vatican said that was not the case.

“The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis, and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects,” Lombardi said in a statement issued Friday morning.

The question of who, exactly, set up the meeting between Davis and the Pope has been the subject of fervid media speculation this week.

Vatican officials have said that such an encounter could only have taken place with the planning and approval of the Holy See’s nuncio — or envoy — to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. source

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Conspiracy Theory

The Real Reason That They Now Hate The Time-Honored CI Scofield Study Bible Is Because It Defends Israel’s Future And The Right Division Of Scripture

Published

1 day ago

May 9, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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The Rothschild-Funded Scofield Study Bible Myth Is A Smear Designed To Attack Dispensational Truth, Rightly Dividing And God’s Future For Israel

There is a fresh round of online Bible “discernment” making the rounds, and like most of what passes for discernment on social media, it comes wrapped in just enough historical trivia to sound impressive, and just enough conspiratorial fog to keep people from asking for actual evidence. The claim is that the time-honored Scofield Reference Bible was secretly funded by the Rothschild banking family in order to create a pro-Israel, pro-Zionist, dispensational Bible that would deceive generations of Christians. That is a very serious charge. It is also a very serious charge that collapses and evaporates the moment you ask one simple question – where is the proof?

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16,17 (KJB)

The documented publishing history of the Scofield Reference Bible is not hidden. The first edition appeared in 1909 through Oxford University Press, and the 1917 edition is listed by the Library of Congress as published by “Oxford university press, American branch.” Oxford University Press itself is not some Rothschild front operation; Oxford describes OUP as “a department of the University of Oxford.” So where did the Rothschild story come from? From inference. From insinuation. From anti-dispensational writers connecting Scofield to elite circles, then connecting elite circles to Jewish financiers, then connecting Jewish financiers to Zionism, then dragging in the Rothschild name because it gets clicks. That is not history. That is guilt by association wearing a trench coat.

MUST-READ: Tucker Carlson and John Rich attempt to smear CI Scofield and his KJV Study Bible

CLICK TO ORDER YOURSELF A BEAUTIFULLY-BOUND EDITION OF THE OLD SCOFIELD STUDY BIBLE!!

The actual historical support behind Scofield’s work points not to the Rothschilds, but to Christian businessmen and Bible-believing associates such as Alwyn Ball and John T. Pirie, men connected with the Bible conference and Brethren-influenced world that helped spread dispensational Bible study in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One historical account says Scofield was encouraged by Alwyn Ball and introduced to Oxford’s Henry Frowde, after which Oxford University Press took up the project. A 2025 fact-check likewise found the Rothschild-funding claim false and pointed instead to non-Jewish support behind the Scofield Bible’s preparation.

But let’s be very clear: we do not defend Scofield because Scofield was perfect. He was not. No Bible teacher is. We do not defend Scofield because his notes were inspired. They were not. We do not defend Scofield because a study Bible should replace personal Bible study. It should not. We defend Scofield for the right reason, because the central framework he helped popularize — rightly dividing the word of truth — is biblical.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJB)

That is the verse the critics cannot get around. They can mock dispensationalism. They can sneer at prophecy charts. They can act like anyone who believes God has a future for Israel has been hypnotized by 20th-century politics. But the command to rightly divide did not come from C. I. Scofield, John Nelson Darby, Oxford University Press, or any banking family in Europe. It came from the Holy Ghost through the apostle Paul. The real issue is not Rothschild money. The real issue is Romans 11.

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Romans 11:1 (KJB)

That one verse detonates the whole replacement theology system. God has not cast away Israel. Israel is blinded in part, not erased. Israel is fallen, not finished. Israel is set aside nationally for a season, not dissolved into the Church.

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Romans 11:25 (KJB)

That is why Scofield is hated. Not because someone discovered a secret Rothschild receipt. Not because Oxford printed a Bible, and not because the man had connections. Scofield is hated because his reference Bible helped millions of ordinary Bible believers see the difference between Israel, the Church, and the nations. It helped them understand that the Church does not inherit Israel’s earthly kingdom promises, that the Body of Christ is a revealed mystery, and that the Lord will catch out His Church before the time of Jacob’s trouble.

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (KJB)

There it is. The catching away of the Church is not a Rothschild doctrine. It is Bible doctrine. Israel’s future restoration is not a Rothschild doctrine. It is Bible doctrine. The distinction between prophecy and mystery, law and grace, Israel and the Body of Christ, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God — these are not inventions of a study Bible. They are truths found in the Book when the Book is believed as written.

Should we test Scofield’s notes? Absolutely. Every note in every study Bible must be judged by the pure words of God. Scofield was a commentator, not an apostle. His notes are not Scripture. But the crowd yelling “Rothschild!” is usually not calling people back to the King James Bible. They are often trying to herd Bible believers away from dispensational truth and back into covenant confusion, replacement theology, amillennial fog, or post-trib panic.

That is the sleight of hand. They pretend the issue is “Who funded Scofield?” when the real issue is “Do you believe Romans 11?”

The Scofield Reference Bible was not perfect, but it was used mightily because it pointed Bible believers to a framework that made sense of the Book without stealing Israel’s promises, flattening the dispensations, or forcing the Church into the time of Jacob’s trouble. The devil does not care if you own a Scofield Bible. He cares if you learn to rightly divide. That is where the attack is really aimed. So let the internet rage. Let the replacement theologians sneer, and let the prophecy mockers recycle their Rothschild memes. The born again Bible believer does not need a conspiracy theory to explain why God still has a future for Israel. We have the Scriptures, and the Scriptures are enough.

Some Fun Facts Connecting CI Scofield And DL Moody

1. Scofield helped with Moody’s St. Louis campaign shortly after his conversion.
Scofield was converted in 1879, and by that same period he was involved with Moody’s evangelistic work in St. Louis. One biographical summary says Scofield was assisting in Moody’s St. Louis campaign and serving with the St. Louis YMCA.

2. Moody later invited Scofield to speak at Northfield.
Moody’s Northfield conferences were a major platform for Bible teachers, evangelists, missionaries, and premillennial Bible students. Frank Gaebelein’s historical article says Moody recognized Scofield’s gifts and invited him to speak at the Northfield Conference.

3. Moody persuaded Scofield to leave Dallas and pastor Moody’s own church in East Northfield, Massachusetts.
This is probably the most important direct connection. In 1895, Scofield left his Dallas pastorate and became pastor of the Trinitarian Congregational Church in East Northfield, Massachusetts — Moody’s own church, connected with the Northfield and Mount Hermon schools. Gaebelein says this happened “at Moody’s insistence.”

4. Scofield’s Northfield pastorate also put him over the Northfield Bible Training School.
That role placed Scofield right inside the Bible-training world Moody had built. The Gaebelein article says the pastorate carried with it the presidency of the Northfield Bible Training School, and that Scofield remained at Northfield for seven years.

5. Scofield’s Bible correspondence course was later administered by Moody Bible Institute.
Dallas Theological Seminary’s Scofield Papers page notes that Scofield developed a Bible correspondence course later administered by Moody Bible Institute, and that he regularly spoke at Bible conferences including Niagara and Northfield. Gaebelein likewise says the course was later carried on by Moody Bible Institute and had been taken by large numbers of students.

6. Scofield presided at Moody’s funeral.
That detail shows the relationship was not merely institutional. It reflects Scofield’s standing in Moody’s circle near the end of Moody’s life.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

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When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Donald Trump

MAGA Pastor Mark Burns Insists That Thursday’s Prayer Ceremony Over The Towering Golden Trump Statue Called ‘Don Colossus’ Was ‘Not Idolatry’

Published

1 day ago

May 9, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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Christian MAGA Pastor Mark Burns Dedicates Towering Golden Trump Statue At Doral While Insisting The Political Graven Image Is ‘Not A Golden Calf’

There it is, standing under the Florida sun at Trump National Doral, a towering golden image of Donald Trump, raised up on a pedestal, unveiled with a public dedication ceremony, and then explained away by a Christian MAGA pastor who had to immediately assure everyone that this was “not a golden calf.” When you have to begin your ceremony by saying “this is not a golden calf,” you have already told us what it looks like. This is total preparation for lost people to be decieved when the man of sin is revealed, and the worship of his image will begin.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Revelation 13:15 (KJB)

The statue called “Don Colossus,” reportedly stands 22 feet high including its pedestal, depicts Trump with his fist raised after the Butler assassination attempt, and was dedicated by Pastor Mark Burns at Trump National Doral in Miami. Burns insisted that the statue was not worship, saying it was about honor, resilience, freedom, patriotism, courage, and the hand of God over Trump’s life. My dad used to tell me when I was a kid, “don’t pee on my boots and tell me it’s raining”, and we can certainly apply that here. What do the Roman Catholics say about Mary? “We don’t worship her, we venerate her”. As Doc Ruckman used to say, “Oh yeah, man, that’s the business”.

BREAKING NEWS: Evangelical and Jewish religious leaders gather today in South Florida to pray over a golden statue of President Donald Trump called ‘Don Colossus’. This is IDOLATRY that needs to be both called out and condemned. Total preparation for the coming Antichrist. Flee… pic.twitter.com/wNc6LwL7fX

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) May 8, 2026

But this is not merely about a statue. It is about the Christianization of political personality worship, where patriotism is treated like piety, a political leader is framed in near-messianic language, and pastors who should be preaching Paul’s gospel are standing beside golden images explaining why it is not really what your Bible-trained eyes tell you it resembles. The issue is not whether God spared Donald Trump’s life. God is sovereign, and every man’s breath is in His hand. The issue is what men do with that mercy afterward. Do they point sinners to Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Saviour? Or do they build a golden monument to the man, gather a crowd, dedicate it with religious language, and call it a movement? That is where the line is crossed.

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This is the Laodicean church in full bloom: rich, political, image-driven, self-celebrating, and completely unable to discern how far it has drifted from New Testament Christianity. The Bible-believing Christian can thank God for preserving a life without turning that life into an icon. We can pray for rulers, as the Scripture commands, without polishing them into golden symbols. We can love our country without confusing America with the kingdom of God.

What happened at Doral is a warning sign. It shows just how deep the merger of evangelicalism, nationalism, celebrity politics, and end-times delusion has become. The pastor says it is not worship. Fine. But the optics are not neutral, the symbolism is not innocent, and the Bible is not silent. A golden image, a political strongman, a religious dedication, a crowd of admirers, and a pastor insisting it is not idolatry. We who believe The book have seen this movie before.

The Dedication Of ‘Don Colossus’ Golden Idol

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Big Pharma

Plannedemic 2.0? Moderna Is Now Working On A New mRNA ‘Vaccine’ For Hantavirus In The Next Strike From The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex

Published

2 days ago

May 8, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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Moderna Stock Rises On Hantavirus Vaccine News As The Same mRNA Machine That Powered COVID Fear Gets Ready For Its Next Big Pharma Payday

This is the same end times machinery, the same pharmaceutical empire, the same fear-based conditioning system, and the same mRNA platform being warmed up for another run at global compliance. COVID was the rehearsal. Hantavirus, Bird Flu, Disease X, or whatever name they attach to the next medical emergency is just the next act in the same production. Don’t let them memory-hole COVID and rewrite what happened. Don’t let them pretend their draconian mandates were harmless, the deaths unavoidable, the injuries were imaginary, the censorship was justified, or the fear campaign was noble. And when they do it again, this time don’t comply.

“So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.” 2 Kings 4:40 (KJB)

The COVID vaccines were rushed, oversold, politically weaponized, and forced upon millions of people through mandates, threats, job loss, travel restrictions, censorship, social shaming, and spiritual intimidation. Churches were closed. Small businesses were crushed. Families were divided. Doctors were silenced. Dissenters were branded as dangerous. NTEB lost our Facebook page with a quarter-million followers for reporting the truth. And after all that, the same people who told you to “trust the science” now want you to trust them again as they prepare the next mRNA product for the next outbreak narrative. That is not medicine, that’s psycological conditioning. This is exactly the type of system the last days would produce: a world trained to surrender bodily autonomy, economic freedom, travel rights, speech, employment, and conscience whenever a centralized authority declares an emergency.

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The world is being trained to accept a new priesthood: unelected health officials, pharmaceutical executives, military-linked researchers, media gatekeepers, and global-policy managers who believe they have the right to decide what goes into your body, where you may go, what you may say, and whether you may participate in society.

Moderna saw a rise in Thursday morning trading after announcing positive Phase 1 data for its mRNA hantavirus vaccine. The results showed the vaccine was well-tolerated and generated strong immune responses across all dose levels, a significant finding given the absence of an FDA-approved hantavirus vaccine. source

The Mark of the Beast does not arrive in a vacuum. It arrives in a world already trained to obey. It arrives in a world already taught that personal liberty is selfish, that resistance is dangerous, that bodily submission is civic virtue, and that access to normal life can be turned on or off by a government-approved system. COVID taught the world the language of Antichrist government: comply or be excluded.

SMOKING GUN: Here is a 2025 patent for an mRNA hantavirus vaccine. Is the “Father of the Vaccine” Donald Trump going to do it to us again with Operation Warp Speed 2.0? pic.twitter.com/qjvhLZisPm

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) May 7, 2026

The same generation that mocked Bible believers for warning about global control then watched the whole world lock down in a matter of weeks. They watched vaccine passports appear. They watched people lose their jobs for refusing a medical product. They watched censorship become public policy. They watched buying, selling, traveling, worshipping, and working become conditional. And now, here comes another outbreak headline, another mRNA opportunity, another biotech stock jump, another “urgent need,” another reminder that the deadly machine was never dismantled. The child of God should not be afraid — but he had better not be asleep.