Posted on 05/13/2014 9:35:11 AM PDT by marthemaria
Pope Francis would absolutely baptize an alien from Mars, if one showed up at the Vatican and asked for it. During his weekly homily on Monday, Franics said that aliens which he imagines could be "Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them" should be baptized just like anyone else who asks for it, because it's not up to any human to decide who should receive the Holy Spirit.
In other words: if God prompts some Martians to come to Earth, find the Pope, and say "we want in on this Catholicism thing." The pope would probably say "OK. cool." But probably in Latin.
Francis laid out the hypothetical situation as part of a discussion of the early Church's baptizing of Gentiles. Basically, the earliest Church contained some tension over whether there was any difference between the very early Jewish followers of Christ, and Gentiles who converted from paganism to Christianity, who would be considered "unclean" by the standards of Jewish law. Peter eventually persuades his followers that everyone is open to becoming Christian by saying, "If then God gave them the same gift He gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?"
So here's how Francis tried to illustrate that point on Monday, with a much more modern example:
That was unthinkable. If for example - tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here... Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them... And one says, 'But I want to be baptized!' What would happen?"
What would happen? They'd get baptized, that's what would happen. He goes on:
"When the Lord shows us the way, who are we to say, 'No, Lord, it is not prudent! No, lets do it this way'... Who are we to close doors? In the early Church, even today, there is the ministry of the ostiary [usher]. And what did the ostiary do? He opened the door, received the people, allowed them to pass. But it was never the ministry of the closed door, never."
The Vatican's astronomer the same one who dismissed 'Intelligent Design' as 'bad theology' said in 2010 that he'd baptize an alien because "any entity no matter how many tentacles it has has a soul." But, again, only if they request it. So glad that's settled. Now all we have to do is wait.
You must be a liberal. Liberals cannot comprehend analogies.
FLASH!!!
Mormon church lauds Pope Francis, and ups the ante by proclaiming mormons will baptize aliens AFTER DEATH even though they do not "request it", as they do for human dead!
I thought Mr. Ed was a talking horse.
But if Mr. Ed is smart enough to want to be baptised, by all means let him. If there is a problem like the goat/horse/Martian doesn’t have a soul, there is no harm done.
I sure wouldn’t want to be the one that discouraged some being from accepting salvation or being obedient in baptism.
All rational animals, on whatever planet, are bound by the same moral law as humans. All of them would have the same potential for some relationship with God as humans.
It is possible, if such rational animals exist, that some of them have never sinned.
One thing is for sure. The bible is clear that “baptism” here on earth is for the descendents of Adam. No others need apply.
Would they be a fallen race, though?
It couldn’t be, unless Adam had some children that went on rocket ships to Mars, or something like that.
The more I study the issue and the math, the more I am lead to believe that our concept of time is the problem, and that the zero point field represents the most fundamental 'temporal force', as in pointing vectors being temporal phenomena. I won't get more intricate that that on an Internet forum.
What after ge redistributes other peoples money to them.
Well, will baptize a proxy.
And so... is Picasso the painting?
Yep.
Does that mean they’d baptize a demon if it looked like an alien? Whatever the heck that would be???
It couldnt be, unless Adam had some children that went on rocket ships to Mars, or something like that.
If some folk land in a space ship and say they are descendents of Adam, I’ll revisit what the bible says (and pray) to see how their story does or doesn’t hold water. It’s sort of a “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it” sort of thing.
He has already answered about redistributing wealth
Non sequitur. Try again.
If the gorilla had an understanding of God.
But it never really talked and never had such capacity for understanding.
That’d be up to God to decide.
Christ is savior, if it be God’s will, of any other life created in God’s image.
It is interesting to hear the comments on this thread.
Wouldn't help.... They do the 'Sons of Seth, daughters of Cain' thing....
right, you must be a stereotyping generalist...they don’t know what to say so they attempt to denigrate others
Christ is savior, if it be Gods will, of any other life created in Gods image.
Any others have a different path as God designed for them. But I’m not privvy to that knowledge regarding any specifics. It is for them, assuming they exist.
If thy can sneak though our borders, they can surely sneak in from another galaxy!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.