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.
You are correct. And people have a right to be disgusted at him. No-one is calling for his arrest; they're just pointing out what a jerk he is. Censorship is not needed in a free society because public scorn and rebuttal counters destructive speech. But take away scorn and rebuttal, and all you have is destruction, as the pornographers, communists, america-haters and sexual perverts have quite well demonstrated.
Where do you get this notion? None of the Fathers teach this. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it teach this. In fact, the very opposite is and has always been taught in the Church.
-A8
I could respect the Baptists and their beliefs, as a matter of fact if the Catholic Church went south I would become Baptist - except for one thing. I have never seen such a group of prideful hateful people. The purposeful ignorance of Catholicism is stunning and I can only attribute it to envy.
WTF are you talking about?? I have never seen so many "christians" (little c on purpose) bear false witness.
-A8
From 500 to 1500, the Catholic doctrine was the only doctrine expounded by Christianity. That is the thousand years I referred to. I could probably have added a couple hundred years and pulled that to as early as 300.
Before 300, the historical record is quite scarce, due to the persecution of Christians. Also, doctrines did become more defined as time went on. But there was no successful dissent from these doctrines until the Reformation. The Reformation doctrines simply were never expressed until then. Yes, various individual doctrines were expressed, but the argument made was that the Catholic doctrines were false enough to make Catholicism insufficient for salvation. The doctrines which would do so would be numerous, and no population held none of the doctrines called false by such preachers. Ergo, if the preachers' claim is true, not one soul was saved between 500 and 1500 AD. That viewpoint is not able to be reconciled with the promises of the bible.
"The RCC is claiming Jesus did not come in the flesh, altho they do not come right out and say it."
You need to read the Profession of Faith Catholic make.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
Here is a link to a Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Eucharist.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm#3
-A8
Is there something wrong with using a quotation from Plato in one's tag line?
-A8
I have never seen so many "christians" (little c on purpose) bear false witness.
*****
I have never seen so many christians so deceived but then we were told that would happen....weren't we?
>> Then how do we account for all of the VISIONS that so many folks put FAITH in these days? <<
I think you misunderstood me. Private revelations, if they lead to true faith, are certainly a blessing. So many saints have been called to their unique vocations through private revelations. But they were merely PRIVATE revelations... No-one else is BOUND to believe on the basis of such revelations. And no doctrine is based on private revelations.
BriarBey, you are equivocating on the word "fleshy". The Catholic Church teaches that Mary had no *sinful* nature. The Catholic Church also teaches that Mary was 100% human, flesh & bones, not a spirit, not a ghost, a bona fide human being. The Catholic Church also teaches that Christ was fully human, flesh and blood, not a ghost, not a spirit, but a true human being. The claim that Christ was not fully human, not flesh and blood, is the heresy called Docetism, which has always been thoroughly and explicitly condemned by the Church.
-A8
BriarBey, what evidence do have for this claim? The Church has always wholly and completely rejected such a claim as heresy. Only a pure and unblemished sacrifice could atone for the sins of the world. Hence Christ could not have inherited original sin.
-A8
I am Born Again, but what that means to me is I have have accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.
I do not believe that others who have, be they catholic or whatever, do not go to hell, because they have accepted Christ as well, just not the same way. If they lived their faith, they will go to heaven. Who they worship, and how they live their lives is important. As is confessing of sins, and repentance.
You gave me no scriptures where it says babies were baptized. There are many households that could be baptized without including children. Surely if this was such important dogma at least one example of a child obeying the gospel would have been given in the word. I did not ask for a bunch of your "Father's" opinions on the matter just scripture.
The Bible never preaches that we should worship the Holy Spirit. Does it therefore follow that we should not worship the Holy Spirit?
-A8
God from God, Light from Light,
****
So what you are telling me is.....man had the power and capability to kill God for 3 days. Wonder who was running things while He was dead.
Oh wait...no that's not it...God gave himself to Satan for 3 days, because it is taught that hell is where you burn, not "sheol" the GRAVE. Forget the Lake of FIRE at the end of the book.
Forget that everyone Christ raised from the dead, He said they were sleeping. Wonder why they got to sleep and Christ ....oh sorry God had to go to hell and burn for 3 days, while who the heck knows was running the world.
Oh and not only that...you have to factor in, you get judged TWICE. You are sent to heaven or hell when you die, and then at the end of the book when all the dead are resurrected, you get judged AGAIN, when all the books are opened. Wonder if God will have goofed up and sent someone to the wrong place. How much more can we twist scripture to fit mankinds vain imaginations.
How totally corrupt and full of every wicked thing the worldly built church has become, just as prophecied.
How vain mankind is, how arrogant and rebellious this world has become.
My bad.
From a Catholic Homily:
that is, the three people that were born without original sin: Jesus Himself, Saint John the Baptist, and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Jesus, of course, is God, so He had no sin. Saint John the Baptist was freed from sin at the moment of the Visitation when he leapt in his mother's womb upon hearing the words of Our Blessed Lady. At that moment, Our Lord removed original sin from his soul. He had been conceived with sin, but was born without. And, of course, now our Blessed Lady, who was conceived without original sin and, consequently, born without original sin. For not even one instant of her entire being did Satan have any dominion over her.
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