Posted on 04/14/2005 12:00:51 PM PDT by Dean Baker
Baptist church 'fake pope' sign attracting attention, criticism By JEANNINE F. HUNTER, hunter@knews.com April 13, 2005
NEWPORT, Tenn. - Two days after being posted, a church marquee message that questions the purpose of the papacy is still attracting attention in this small community.
"What I am trying to do is to let people know there's only one way to heaven through Jesus Christ," said the Rev. Cline Franklin, pastor of Hilltop Baptist Church. "There's no need for help. God sent his son, Jesus Christ. We're all priests if we're saved. I don't need to go to anybody else to pray."
The sign's side facing Broadway, the main thoroughfare in Newport, reads, "No truth, No hope Following a hell-bound pope!" On the other side, facing the church parking lot, it reads: "False hope in a fake pope."
The message appeared days after Pope John Paul II's funeral last week.
"It is unfortunate when it comes from within the Christian church. It's really sad," said the Rev. Dan Whitman, 54, pastor of Newport's Good Shepherd Catholic parish and Holy Trinity parish in Jefferson City. "You learn how to deal with it and pray not to be that way yourself."
It does not reflect mainstream Baptist thought, said Dr. Merrill "Mel" Hawkins, associate professor of religion and director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City.
"When you see signs like that, they are almost like relics or artifacts of a bygone era," Hawkins said.
He spoke about animus between Protestants and Catholics persisting after the Protestant Reformation and for centuries, during which "harsh things were said, couched within misperceptions, misunderstandings."
Among the major misperceptions is that Catholics "venerate the pope on the same level as Jesus," Hawkins said, and that "the pope is connected to their salvation in place of Jesus Christ."
Catholics make up about 12 percent of the population in the South.
"Catholics are a minority faith in the South, and there's often bias toward minority religious communities because people don't understand," he said.
James Gaddis, a lay speaker who also chairs the board at First United Methodist Church, said he had not seen the sign but had heard about it.
"I understand that it's very degrading," he said. "I think it's tragic that any church group would stoop to this posture."
Following Tuesday night's council meeting, Newport Mayor Roland Dykes Jr. said he was a little saddened by the message.
"It doesn't behoove any of us to determine who is going to heaven or hell. I think the pope is a highly, highly respected person," he said.
Franklin's church is a five-year-old independent Baptist church. When asked what the message meant, he said: "What does 'pope' mean? It means father. We have a heavenly father, and the Bible says we shall call no man a father. "
He said people have been driving by or taking pictures or calling to share their views. He said the intent was not to offend Catholics and people are misunderstanding the sign.
Copyright 2005, Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
Religious zealots are self-righteous legalists who conveniently ignore the Scriptural warnings directly aimed at them. [John 7:24; Matt 23:28; Rom.2:28-29, etc., etc.]
Well, the goal for him is to pull me more into belief.
But, really, it would never be my place to judge another's belief in God. I've always thought that the belief grows in depth as the heart matures in the church. Ideally, children are luckiest because they learn from those all around them. Perhaps their faith and joy is greater.
it doesnt matter what they think, only what you know
Condemn and rebuke are two different things, so I'm glad you cleared that up.
On the question of translation, as requested, Paul didn't write, "Is it not your business to judge those within? God will judge those outside." In accurate English, Paul wrote, "Do ye not judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth."
Paul did not say that it is our "business" to judge others, that would contradict what the Lord said (Matt 7:1-3). There isn't one place in Scripture where Paul said we should judge others or that it is our "business" to judge others.
Finally, Matthew 18:15-17 has nothing to do with judging others. It is about how to handle it if someone offends you.
Very true. As I mentioned before I'm just curious as to what other "options" are out there.. :-)
yes, unfortunately big edifaces, whether made of brick or of air, never save anyone
Just wanted to let you know - not every denomination believes these things - that "Catholics and other religious people "Bound for Hell" because they don't worship correctly."
Catholicism follows the Jewish symbolism in their worship and going to a synagogue you will see many things they do there that reflects. St. Paul was the leader of the people who did not follow the Jewish ways (but instead the Gentile ways) and his order of service was different then St. Peter who did follow the Jewish traditions.
That is why you will see Protestants revere St. Paul while the Catholics revere St. Peter. Protestants follow St. Paul's teachings about how to conduct a service while Catholics go by St. Peter who followed the services of the Jewish services.
Both are correct.
The only thing that will be asked when we die in order to get into Heaven is this:
Who do you KNOW?
If you answer Jesus - then it does not matter what your doctrine is - because it is about a relationship with the Lord that gets us into Heaven and into a personal relationship with the Father. Jesus is our Bridge over troubled waters!
And for those who don't know or never heard about Jesus - St. Paul said that God has given us a spirit to recognize God - so that we cannot claim we're innocent if we have never heard of His Son.
Look at Cornelius in the New Testiment who had never heard of Jesus - but God made a special way for him and his whole household to come to the Father through Christ.
It says that God - the Father - was pleased with Cornelius (BEFORE - Cornelius became a Christian!) because he reverenced God and gave alms to the poor!
A word of caution to us is to not judge others' Christianity (including the pope)- Only God know everyone's own heart!
This includes Catholics and Protestants - we are not to judge each man's heart - for no one knows a man's heart or relationship with him except God.
or edifices, either
The devil doesn't "trust" in Jesus for salvation. So the Devil is not saved. Belief meaning "mere mental accent that Jesus is the Son of God" does not result in salvation. One must believe meaning "accept the substitute sacrifice and place their trust in Jesus". The person who does that is saved and neither life nor death can separate them from the love of God. They have been "perfected forever".
I found an idependent resource re: origin of "Allah." Actually written. Sorry no link, I am copying from a book (yes, paper and everything!):
"Allah (allah, al-ilah, the god) was the principal, though not the only, deity of Makkah [an Arabic tribe]. The name is an ancient one. It occurs in two South Arabic inscriptions, one a Minaean found at al-'Ula and the other a Sabaean, but abounds in the form HLH in the Lihyanite inscriptions of the fifth century- B.C. Lihyan, which evidently got the god from Syria, was the first Centre of the worship of this deity in Arabia. The name occurs as Hallah in the Safa inscriptions five centuries before Islam."
History Of The Arabs, Philip K. Hitti, 1937, p 96.
I'm enjoying it.
Hey. Unless they've changed the rules since I was a kid - and they probably have - as a heretic our good Baptist minister is on the fast track to the infernal regions himself.
Here's a second "unless" in John 6:
"Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me UNLESS> it has been granted to him by my Father." [John 6:65]
That's a real special "unless", too, isn't it? :)
Christians do believe that the Bible teaches that there is only one way to the Father, and that is through Jesus, but if this guy thinks he knows where the Pope's heart was on that issue, then he is deluded. I personally believe that John Paull II knew Jesus as Savior. I guess eternity will tell us.
I wish the Catholic bashers, many of whom practice Christianity themselves would wake up and understand that the liberals and Islamo Fascists are now undertaking a "divide and conquer" approach. It is far more important to be together as "Christians" than to be divided as churches.
LOL
bttt
Ping.
Do you understand Repentance?
"?This is all old stuff, going back to Luther and Calvin."
Exactly. Before that, just about ALL of Christendom believed in the Apostolic Succession and the seven Sacraments.
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