Posted on 09/13/2024 7:29:49 PM PDT by Morgana
One day after being charged with aggravated sexual battery, a longtime Tennessee pastor died by suicide in a hospital bathroom, authorities said. David Mark Baker Sr., 57, was serving at Family Baptist Church in Columbia, had been a jail chaplain, and once ran for Maury County mayor.
On Sept. 10, Baker was charged with aggravated sexual battery in a case that involved a minor, according to Sheriff Bucky Rowland. Baker, released from jail on $200,000 bond, was scheduled to appear in court next month.
Columbia Police Chief Jeremy Alsup said Baker walked into a local emergency room on Sept. 11, “went straight to the bathroom and was soon found deceased in the bathroom.” Video footage shows Baker walking into the ER at Maury Regional Medical Center.
David Mark Baker Dies By Suicide
Baker also had a life-coaching business, wrote books and curriculum, started Independent Baptist Online College, and co-led a ministry called Fallen in Grace. News reports indicate he and his wife were parents of 11 children.
Baker, originally from New Mexico, had planned to become a lawyer. But after receiving a DUI and spending a night in jail more than three decades ago, he decided to become a pastor.
As part of his 28-year prison ministry, Baker assisted inmates who were trying to re-enter society. The pastor “developed a heart” to help restore people, he said. “It’s amazing how God can take one bad thing you’ve been through and use it for good.”
Baker co-founded Fallen in Grace with David Hyles, an Indiana pastor who was accused of raping a minor while serving as a youth pastor. Hyles was never charged. “If a preacher or Christian falls, we should pick them up,” Baker said of their restoration ministry. “So many times, people kick them when they are down.” Previous Controversy Involving David Mark Baker
When David Mark Baker Sr. ran for mayor of Maury County in 2022, controversy arose about his handling of sexual assault allegations at his former congregation.
Aimee Spires said while she was attending Lighthouse Church as a young teen, member James Earl Lovett sexually assaulted her. But she said Baker, then pastor of Lighthouse, told her not to make a police report because it would “destroy” Lovett’s family.
Baker refuted the claim that he told Spires not to go to the authorities. “I have turned in probably more people with my job in what I do to the authorities than just about anyone,” he said.
Spires did contact police, and Lovett was convicted in 2004 of sexual battery and aggravated sexual battery. He remains on the Tennessee sex offender registry.
A 2003 police report indicated that Lovett had confessed to Baker. The allegation came that Mr. Lovett touched [Spires] outside of her clothes, and I asked him what happened and he verified exactly what she told me,” the pastor said. “When I asked her what she wanted me to do, she said nothing, just have [Lovett] not come around me. At the time, I did not think that was something that needed to be reported because the allegation was [touching] outside of clothes.”
ChurchLeaders emailed Family Baptist for comment. No one answered the church’s phone, and the phone mailbox is full.
He is Baptist. Historically, Protestant reformers emphasized faith alone (sola fide) as the means to salvation, meaning that faith in Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation without the need for good works.
I think the most famous suicide in the Bible is of Judas Iscariot. His ultimate fate is in the hands of the one he betrayed. as we all are of course.
Organized religion. RUN AWAY as fast as you can.
If God wants to forgive him that’s up to Him.
I’m not helping.
What a coward.
How can a person repent who is committing suicide? Do you take the pills and then say you're sorry? He did this in a hospital bathroom, which he couldn't monopolize for a long time, and my guess it was with a gun.
Having had an emotionally ill friend commit suicide, I hope it is forgiven when the person is not right mentally. His problem was sin, guilt and hypocritical disbelief, not confusion. And a father of 11 -- and think not only of the victims, but the people he "helped" and "inspired."
I remember when the popular evangelist Ravi Zacharias was discovered to be a sex pest with masseuses. The whole ministry went up in smoke, his family and employees devastated, and many of his fans really struggled with feelings of betrayal. He erased any of the good he set out to do.
Agreed.
While the judgment of eternal damnation may not apply to all suicides—I leave that up to a loving God to decide—I certainly do think it applies in cases like this where it was a cowardly, irresponsible act to avoid accountability for grievous sin against a child, leaving his own many children in a state of horrendous grief and implied shame.
Protestantism and or evangelism contains many schools of thought. It is a blessing and a curse; Biblical Truth is either upheld or abused in varying degrees in the many types of churches. I respect both the Catholic and Reform traditions (although not the present pope-in-jay); however, I do not think either has the whole, entire Truth. That would be a logical impossibilty in view of scriptures.
It just seems entirely too easy these days for women who are so inclined to aid in the destruction of the lives of men.
Are you, as a freeper in response to the above film of an anti-pron activist, objecting to the woman who helped quash the international sex trafficking activities promulgated by PronHub? Or are you saying that the many women participating in the degrading practices of pronogrphy have all set out to destroy men, even the ones who were drugged and violently trafficked into it?
Please clarify how these women are inclined to aid in the destruction of men, other than the men who are using pron and preying on women, children and other males.
You are forgetting the other "solas"—sola gratia and sola scriptura. We are saved by faith alone, by the grace of God alone, in accordance with the scriptures alone.
God can remove His grace from those who sin against the Spirit, who are false teachers of the gospel, or who are wanton in disobeying His commandments and advice as revealed in the scriptures.
Let’s let scripture speak and men be silent.
Matthew 12:30-32:[11] “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
Mark 3:28–30:[12] “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin—for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.””
Luke 12:8–10:[13] “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”
Hebrews 6:4–6:[14] “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.”
Hebrews 10:26–31:[15] “For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
1 John 5:16:[16] “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.”
Every scripture you posted supports every claim I posted in 27.
However, I disagree with the wording of the interpretations you posted in a couple of areas:
Of sola gratia, you wrote, "once a person is truly saved by God’s grace, they cannot lose their salvation, even if they sin." I disagree in part, on this basis:
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.—Hebrews 6:4-8
Yes, we do not lose our salvation even if we sin. This is a fallen world, and we cannot extinguish sin completely on this side, as we have the flesh to cope with, and many sins also are done with our unwilling cooperation, such as wars and abortions paid for by our tax dollars, which we cannot sequester. However, there are sins that are so transgressive, those who commit them are making a conscious decision to risk a disgrace against the Spirit, such as a pastor who made the faithless escape into suicide that the OP described. God will decide justly.
Regarding works, it is true that no amount of good works will buy, bribe or merit our way into eternal salvation; only our faith in God's grace. However, some may infer that it's not necessary to make any efforts to build a Christlike spirit in one's self and community. This is getting it backwards; if one is indeed saved by grace and faithful to the God of the Bible, the fruits of the Spirit will over time cause the person to demonstrate the virtues cited in the gospels. Virtuous "works" do not cause the virtues; the faith in God's mercy and love engender the virtues and inspire the works that give evidence of one's conversion.
How is suicide Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
He wasn’t convicted, so we should not say “his victims”
So far what we have are accusations as far as I can see
It depends on which person. Protestantism to a large extent is “each person chooses his own path based on his own interpretation (or the pastor he follows)”
"Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for His honr and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.Catholics don't believe that suicides go to Hell, we just kNOW that it is a grave sin to take away what God has given, and at the same time we KNOW and TRUST in the love and mercy of God.Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human beinf to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.
If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on he gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.
we should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to Him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives"
I remember when normal, good families had 10 or 11 kids.
Now, it seems as if nothing good comes from those with more than 5.
BB - the Bible says nothing about the final state of suicides.
Ecclesiastes 7:17 says “Why should you die before your time”
1 Cor 6:19-20 says that our gody is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us, whom we have from God. That we are not our own, for we were bought with a price. SO glorify god in your body.
1 Cor 3:17 “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
As to your nonsense about Papal bulls - the first condemnation of suicide was by St. Augustine in City of God.
In 1533 deaths by suicide were not given a christian burial, but no papal bulls on that as far as I can find.
in short, we know that taking away what God has given (life) is wrong - hence we have to be opposed to abortion. And yet we know that God is merciful.
So, in short we say “suicide is bad, may God keep you away from this action”
“Protestants don’t believe that suicides go to hell, because there are no sciprtures to support it.”
Right. In fact Scripture supports them going to Heaven, as long as the person has accepted Christ as Savior. The word “everlasting” in “everlasting life” means something.
You can’t accept Christ, and His gift of everlasting life, and then have God reverse that. He’s immutable and will not change His mind. And he does not lie.
Of course, anyone who dies under any circumstance, who has NOT accepted Christ will go to Hell.
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