This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, answers to your questions in Contending for the Faith, and in Understanding the Scriptures, Dave and Tom will resume their conversation on God’s salvation. In addition to this radio program we publish a monthly Newsletter, which we make available free of charge. We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials including books in print, e-book and audio book formats, CD’s, DVD’s, and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word. For a complete list of materials or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at POB 7019, Bend , Oregon 97708 . Call our toll free order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org . If you would like a copy of this broadcast on compact disk ask for Program #1907, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. And now, if you would like to watch Dave and Tom, our weekly broadcast is available on DVD, ask about a subscription when you contact us. You can also download both audio and video podcast at our website. If you receive television programming from Sky Angel you will be able to view our video, A Woman Rides the Beast, featuring Dave Hunt on June 24 th starting at 12:00 noon Eastern. We invite you to tune in. Those of you who attended our first annual conference last year know what a blessed time of learning and fellowship it was. We’re planning our second get together for this August 9 th through the 11 th here in Bend . The Judgment Day Conference will again feature Dave and Tom, plus special guest, archeologist and Middle East expert Randall Price, former Israeli General Shimon Erem, and just added to our list of speakers, former Palestine Liberation Organization militant Walid Shoebat, imprisoned for acts of terror and violence against Israel, he is now an advocate for his former enemy. All the information is at our website or ask about registration when you call or write. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program.
RELIGION IN THE NEWS
Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from Reuters News Agency, February 5 th , 2007 , with a headline: Will Pope Benedict Become a Mormon After He Dies? The following are excerpts: Pope Benedict was baptized at birth, and will most likely be baptized again one year after his death, not by his Roman Catholic church, but by a Mormon he never met. The Mormons, a U.S. based denomination officially named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or LDS, encourage members to baptize the dead by proxy in the belief they are helping the deceased obtain full access to heaven. There was no reason theologically why a former pope or any other church leader shouldn’t be offered the same opportunity given to the rest of mankind, LDS church spokeswoman Kim Ferrah said. The Catholics are not the only non Mormons on the church’s list of those baptized, Jewish Holocaust victims, Protestant reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin, and Muhammad Ibin Abdel Wahab, founder of Saudi Arabia ’s stern version of Islam have all popped up on the list. Pope Pius the 12 th was baptized three times, and also sealed in eternal marriage to a fictional Mrs. Eugenio Pachelli, Saint Ignatius Loyolla, founder of the Jesuit Order of Priests, was also sealed to a bogus wife. Mormons believe the early Christians strayed from the true faith, and only the LDS church returned to the right path. All those who lived before 1830, were thus unable to join the church, and have full access to all the glory of heaven.
Tom:
Dave, these are just excerpts from this news article, and Catholic Archbishop was interviewed about this, and he said, Oh, it’s just laughable. Well, it’s their belief, this is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it’s their belief, and certainly the Roman Catholic church has their beliefs and we don’t believe this is biblical, nor is the belief in purgatory biblical. So now you have an interesting situation here. Does this baptism get them out of purgatory?
Dave:
Well, Tom, there is no baptism that will get them out of purgatory even under Catholic doctrine, as you know, they don’t believe in baptizing for the dead. By the way, we ought to turn to 1Corinthians 15, since this came up. It’s rather interesting because this is a scripture that really throws a lot of Christians, because we have Verse 29 that says: “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? Well, doesn’t that sound like the early church practiced baptism for the dead? No, because if you go through this chapter—let me just high light a few things. Verse 15: We are found false witnesses, we, and so forth. Verse 17: ye are yet in your sins—if in this life only we have hope in Christ—we are of all men most miserable, Verse 19, on and on like that. It’s we, us, you, and suddenly, in Verse 29, the point of this change: What shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? Talking about somebody else. The pagans, of course, baptize for the dead, like the Mormons do. Well even they—see, Paul is giving various illustrations here: you throw a grain of wheat in the ground, God gives it a new body, you know. You can’t say that there’s— even nature tells you there is something after this. So, Verse 29: What shall they do—if the dead rise not at all? Why are they baptized for the dead? And then, Verse 30 goes right back: And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Obvious distinction between they, them, and we and us. Now Tom, of course you were Catholic and you were baptized as a baby and you knew that didn’t save you.
Tom:
Absolutely not. Dave, as I’m going through this article, just to repeat some of these things: Pope Pius the 12 th was baptized three times, and also sealed in eternal marriage to a fictional Mrs. Eugenio Pacelli. Now we have a conflict of religious belief here. Number one, it would be a sin, a major sin, the unpardonable sin almost, for a Roman Catholic priest to get married. But now the belief on the part of the Mormons is unless you have a wife, you’re sealed with a wife in, you know, the third heaven,—was it the third heaven? Yeah, you’re not going to have spirit babies, you have nothing to procreate spirit babies with, right?
Dave:
Right. Well, at least they got one thing right. Pius the 12 th , his name was Eugenio Pacelli when he was a cardinal, so we give them credit for a little research there.
Tom:
But it’s a little problem Saint Ignatius Loyolla, now you’re compounding the problem, founder of the Jesuit Order of Priests? So now all of these priests are going to be sealed?
Dave:
Tom, this really relates to psychology. There’s no salvation except through the gospel. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes it. Not being baptized, and certainly not being baptized after you die. The Bible very clearly teaches believer’s baptism. The eunuch whose chariot Philip was invited into, he was reading from Isaiah 53, and he says, Well, who is this about, and so forth. Philip preached Christ, it said, beginning at that passage he preached Christ. Now that man believed the gospel, and then he said: Well, here’s some water, what would hinder me from being baptized? Well, Philip said: If you believe with all your heart you may be baptized. (Acts 8). Okay. So it’s very clear baptism is for those who have been born again through faith in Christ. It will not save you, and certainly somebody else being baptized by proxy for you after you are dead. Well, I guess the Mormons can feel that they are really getting a lot of people in the Mormon church, and this is going to be the big one, the true church. Tom, you know Mormonism as well as I do, what did Brigham Young teach? You will never get there, nor will I, he says, until you get the approval of Joseph Smith, because he fits right there with Jesus.
Tom:
And certainly, no wife can come forward unless Joseph Smith says, Yes, come forward, according to the teaching. Dave, and this is a great concern that I have, you know, Mormonism now it’s in the millions, it’s world wide, the Roman Catholic church one billion world wide, but what about the scriptures? You know, we would accept everything the Mormons teach, everything the Roman Catholic church teaches if it was true to the scriptures, that’s the bottom line.
Dave:
Well, Tom, as we’ve been talking about psychology, you can’t have a job as a Christian psychologist if you believe in the Bible because that rules it out. And you can’t really be a practicing Mormon or a bishop or whatever if you go by the Bible. You couldn’t be a Catholic priest if you go by the Bible, because you’re out of a job. So that’s a problem, Tom, and we’re trying to call people back to the Word of God, not to anything that we believe or espouse, not to some church, search the scriptures daily and see whether what we are saying or anybody else is saying is true.
