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.
The Pope was a false teacher. I can't imagine God letting him into heaven.
The issue is not whether your grandma was a member of an organized religion, but whether her "God fearing" meant that she has accepted Jesus. If she was truly God fearing then she probably had. And she probably wasn't working like she did, to earn her way into heaven, she was probably working because she loved God and she loved people.
If she hadn't accepted Jesus, all those works won't save her and they are in vain. But I suspect that she had accepted Jesus.
Jesus said it was the ones that loved Him that would obey Him. Paul said that the way we come to know what love is, is that God first loved us. So do you see the order.
God loved us first while we were yet sinners.
He provided His son to redeem us while we were yet sinners.
Because God loved us, we learn what love is.
Because God loved us, we develop the capacity to love back and to love others.
That love results in obedience to God and produces good works.
Jesus said that on judgement days there would be preachers who pointed to their works and Jesus would say "I never knew you". And Jesus would list the works of the righteous and they would say, "When did we do that Lord?"
It's the relationship that's key. Without that, all the works in the world are in vain.
Rev. Cline Franklin is about as ignorant as they come.
Funny read, thanks.
Read the rest of the chapter. We are told to judge righteous judgement later.
There are certain judgements we are not allowed to do, such as judgements we have no business doing because it would be hypocritical. One of these areas is who is saved or not.
Now, we do have the right to seriously question, but we can't say for sure somebody is going to hell within the church.
Of course, we all know anybody who doesn't truly accept Christ.....as the Scripture testifies about him and not in some other false gospel version.....will go to hell.
The question is.....would God allow a teacher of heresy into his kingdom?
My Grandmother says that she will get into heaven because she observers all church rituals and the laws of God.
I show her in the Bible where Christ preached that he is the truth the life and way. And I show her the verses Paul writes regarding the nature of faith vs. works
My Grandmother is a life long Catholic and she did not want to hear what I had to say. She says she observes the sacraments and that the Church tells her that will get her into heaven.
I am praying that she will see the light and accept by faith and not by empty works alone before its too late.
The Holy Spirit uses ministers to feed us among other methods
****
Oh I agree....but as we move closer to His coming...the systems become more corrupt. Do we sit in corruption or do we move out of it? He said, "Come out of her my people." What was He talking about? We better know, because the judgements He pours out on her, the one staying in her will get also.
Do you think God was impressed with dressing a corpse up and carrying it around for 3 days on a board? Jesus didn't get that, he was washed, wrapped and put in the tomb and raised in 3 days. Did you hear on Fox News where the pope is hit in the forehead 3 times with a small mallet to break the seal and release the spirit to go into the next pope. Guys...they aren't hiding anything at this point. This system is called a whore...it also states she has many daughters who will return to her, which will make a bigger system.
Methodist fight Baptists....Baptists and Methodist fight Catholics....haven't any of you all studied battle stategy's, or looked closely at history? "There is nothing new under the sun."
Because this is a battle for souls, your souls....everyone is so busy trying to prove someone else's religion wrong and they are all the SAME, they are becoming more alike as time goes by!! Divide and conquer....has always worked.
Give people a cause to fight, let them take sides and they are happy. But the agenda NEVER changes and there will be a One world order with a One world religion.
We're already so close you might as well quit arguing cause your sitting in it so deep you can't see it.
Then reject the belief that she is a co-mediator and co-redeemer.
Then we will chat.
No, there are 73 books in my Bible--46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. And the decision as to which books ended up in the Bible was made by the Catholic Church.
>>>>>>>I keep hearing this "we gave you the Bible" tripe from RCs.
"Tripe" would be a charitable description of your writings.
What about false teachers? Can they go to heaven?
The Pope may have believed Jesus was his savior.....I certainly believe he did! But, would God allow a man who led millions astray into his kingdom?
There have been many Catholics on this very forum that say anybody who dies outside of the Catholic church "knowing" it is the so-called "true Church" will go to hell.
Hmm.....parallel with Mormonism there.
And you are a pinhead. Fortunately for you, stupidity is not a bar to entering into Heaven.
Romans 11 says God will eventually save every single Jew that has ever lived.
He has not left his chosen people. But, he has opened the gates to the Gentiles. Once his plan of redemption for the Gentiles is complete, he will give the Jews a big shock and they will know that Christ is the Savior. They will then accept him and will be saved.
That would be a different "queen of heaven". For example, Nebuchadnezzar was called "king of kings" in the OT, as was Jesus later.
http://home.nyc.rr.com/mysticalrose/mary.html
You're gonna have to be a more skillful anti-Catholic bigot to make that one fly.
Prove that the church right after the death/resurrection of Christ taught RCC doctrine. I love how you guys always say "we are the real church" and can't point to anything in REAL early church history. I note the early church creeds don't teach your doctrine.
I come from a Born Again family. I married a Catholic girl and some members of my family did not attend the wedding because it was in a Catholic Church.
I think it is probably pretty widespread, their beliefs. I consider myself a Born Again christian, because I have repented my sins at the altar and have given my life to Jesus. I try not to judge others and leave that to Jesus also.
I also believe Catholics do not worship the Pope as they do Jesus, although they may give him too much attention for my beliefs. The same goes for Mary.
Exactly. The verse does not apply to Jesus because of some other piece of theology. The same goes for Mary; another piece of theology tells us something about Mary's innocence, and that helps us know how to interpret the "all" in this verse. That's why the verse does not prove that Mary sinned any more than it proves that Jesus sinned.
-A8
If they believe it has God's Truth .... and they reject it .... that's apostasy, I believe. Why would someone who consciously rejects God go to heaven? Or even want to go to Heaven?
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