THE BUBBA and HERSCHEL LETTERS
by Miles McKee

This series of fictional letters is dedicated to those among us who, while saying they are Gospel believing believers, also say they have no problem with Rome. Would they, however, have a problem with a new church and pastor coming to town and masking the same claims as Rome makes for herself? Read on and see where you stand on this!

Dear Bubba,

Just the other day I ran into the new preacher in town, Pastor Epop. He was a pleasant kind of chap with a cheerful and warm face. Having introduced myself, I said I was keen to know what his church believed. He told me and I thought I’d report my findings.

The first doctrine Pastor Epop held was that his church was the only true church on the face of the earth. In fact it was, according to him, the very church that Jesus had come to found. I thought this to be a strange and boastful claim but felt I shouldn’t mention it. After all, he was new to town and the Lord, I’m sure you’ll agree, wants us to be loving and nice to other Christians.

I then asked him about salvation and he told me that it is a very important subject. Salvation, he said, was, in point of fact, to be found by belonging to his church. Apparently, he has been invested with some kind of magical or supernatural power to enable him and all the other pastors he ordains to change wine into blood and little round wafers into the actual body of Jesus. He is able to then offer up Jesus for our sins in some kind of bloodless sacrifice. I was kind of taken aback by this since I thought the Bible said that Jesus had been offered once for all but he insisted that without taking part in this ritual of eating and drinking the actual body and blood of Jesus, as administered by him, I could not be saved.

I began to say that eating flesh and drinking blood sounded very much like cannibalism but before I got the words out he said that the one thing that would help me understand his view on things was to realize he was Christ’s representative. I suggested to him that all Christians were His representatives but he said that while that was true to a certain extent it was not what he meant. What he meant was that when Jesus went back to heaven, he appointed Pastor Epop as His visible and very present representative on earth.

I was not sure if I was listening to some form of religious lunacy but he was serious and plausible and besides I didn’t want to be rude because we are all one in the Spirit, aren’t we! Even though I found his opinions very disconcerting, I asked him if taking his form of communion would completely save me. As it turns out, vital as this ceremony is, there were up to six more ceremonies that I had to participate in. One of them was baptism. I quickly informed that I had already been baptized, once by the Presbyterians, as an infant, and a second time by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ when I became a believer and then I went to the local Baptist church where they dunked me. I told him that I thought by this time I had all bases covered. But, according to him, at no time was I actually baptized because the churches in which I was baptized with water were not under his authority or approved by him and the Holy Spirit would only baptize me into Christ when I underwent a ceremony performed by him or his approved representatives.

Well, by this time, I was somewhat knocked for six and asked him if there was any chance he could be mistaken. The answer was a firm and resolute no! You should have seen it when I asked him this. The smile left his face and a cold steely look came to his eyes as he stubbornly stated that every time he spoke on matters of faith and doctrine he was infallible and could not make a mistake. I’m not sure if I grasped what he was saying but it seemed that, since he was Christ’s representative on the earth, when he decreed a doctrine, God was pleased to and maybe even obliged to endorse it.

But you know Bubba, it’s not for us to judge. I didn’t like what he was saying but he says he hates abortion so he can’t be all bad. Do you think it would be right to attend his meetings?

My problem is that I suspect someone making all these claims has surely lost the plot. I went to my pastor and he agrees. He says that someone coming to town and opening up a new church which teaches these things should be shunned. And besides that, he told me that these positions are already held and promoted in every detail by the Church of Rome. It seemed apparent that Pastor Epop had stolen his ideas from them.

So now I’m even more confused because my pastor says that pastor Epop is evidently an evil worker, false prophet and deceiver but next Sunday evening the local churches are having an ecumenical gathering at St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic Church. So why give Rome a pass on her teachings? If Pastor Epop’s teachings are condemned and these teachings are just the same as the Church of Rome’s why do we still accept Rome?” As the Bible says, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander”

I‘ve racked my brains on this one. The only thing I can come up with is that Pastor Epop is wrong because when I asked him how many followers he had he said he was just starting out and didn’t have that many at the moment. Rome, on the other hand, has millions of followers and has been around for ages. Mind you, my neighbor, Brother G. Truth, told me that just because an error or heresy is ancient and popular it doesn’t make it any less of a heresy. So perhaps that means the Roman Catholics wouldn’t be any more right or any less wrong than Pastor Epop.

Anyhow, I’m not really sure what to do. Please advise. If pastor Epop or someone like him came to your town would you accept him or oppose him? Please give me your insight!

What an amazing conversation you had with that Pastor Epop. Obviously the man is not in full possession of his faculties. I quite agree with your pastor that he should be shunned. How can anyone claiming such absurdities possibly be anything other than a wolf? However, I disagree with your pastor about the Church of Rome being similar to Pastor Epop’s lot. I know many Roman Catholics and they are very nice people. Some of them, I’ll admit, are RC in name only but others of them take their faith seriously and love Jesus. I’m sure your pastor is quite wrong to equate Pastor Epop’s teaching with that of Rome. Anyhow if he really thinks that Rome is so whacked out in her doctrine why does he accept them as a valid church?

Thanks for your letter. Since last you wrote, I ran into Pastor Epop again. What a nice guy! You know, that has to speak volumes. He’s really very gentle and mild mannered. When I come to think of it, he’s friendlier and more pleasant than many of the folks in our church.

However, I asked him for more of his time so that I could better understand his doctrinal position. I needed to clarify this business of going to heaven and asked him if I became a member of his church and took the 7 ceremonies would I get to heaven.

I was quite amazed at his answer. He replied that absolutely in no way no. The only people who would go to heaven straight away, he said, were super saints. The rest of us had to go to an intermediate state called Tory-Purga. I didn’t much like the sound of that and he must have seen it in my face because he then said that Tory-purga was a temporary abode for the dead and after we had been punished there for our sins we would be released. You know Bubba, I didn’t like that prospect one little bit and wondered why any right minded person would sign up for this kind of religion.

However, Pastor Epop then told me that he and his other pastors had power to shorten time spent in Tory-Purga. Yes indeed, according to Pastor Epop the time in torment could be shortened if we paid money for a certain ceremony to be performed. Now what was the name he gave to that ceremony? Well you know me---head like a sieve----but you know the one I mean, the one where he magically turns bread into Jesus. I wondered to myself what the poor would do for, after all, poor folks have no money and it’s money which shortens the length of time their relatives spent in Tory-Purga. It seems to me that Pastor Epop’s church favors the rich and mighty because they are the ones who can afford to have this ceremony performed.

But you know, Bubba, Pastor Epop is such a nice man. He hates abortion and divorce and all the other things that are killing our society. Boy, what a strong advocate he is for returning prayer to schools. I think, at the back of it, we have a lot in common.

One thing that troubles me is that Brother G. Truth tells me that our Lord Jesus Christ paid for the sins of His people at the cross and to say that people had to go to Tory-Purga is an attack on the Lord Jesus Himself. According to Brother G Truth this doctrine, promoted by Pastor Epop, undermines the very heart of the Gospel. But you know Bubba, sometimes I wonder about Brother G Truth. Sometimes I think he takes the Bible too literally.

Once more thanks for your note. It’s really good to have fellowship with you so often. Yes I know what you mean about Brother G. Truth. He often takes things too seriously. Mind you, behind it all, he really is a heck of a nice guy. I think, however, he fails to realize that at the end of the day there is fault in every church. There is no one whose doctrine is absolutely accurate.

However, I’ll be the first to admit that, on the other hand, Pastor Epop’s teachings seem to totally contradict scripture. But we must all remember, there none of us qualified to judge. The thing is, that God looks at the heart not at the doctrinal statement.

That’s profound! I never thought of it in that way. I must remember that. God looks at the heart and not the doctrinal statement….cool!

A bit of bad news. Brother G. Truth has withdrawn from our church because of our meeting with St Bridget’s. He told me that in good conscience he could not accept Rome as being other than a perverter of the faith. The guy is a bit of a dinosaur and really out of touch with what the Spirit is doing. He also says that Rome is not the only one he refuses to endorse. According to him, and for the same reasons he wants nothing to do with Rome, he refuses to give any semblance of support to Pastor Epop. For him, Epop is the same cat with different whiskers!

Well as for me, I think on this one Brother G Truth is right. I can’t see the difference either. But, my problem is, if we accept Rome we should accept Pastor Epop also. After all, they are saying the same things and if it is outlandish and wrong for Pastor Epop to claim these beliefs it is equally wrong for Rome to hold to her teachings. Yet among my friend there is not one who doesn’t accept the Roman Catholics as fellow Christians. It’s as you say, a matter of heart and not doctrine.

But, Brother G. Truth says that Rome and Pastor Epop blaspheme in equal measure and that to fellowship with either of them is to look Jesus in the face and spit on Him. He says, however, that we should be loving and kind to individual Roman Catholics and members of Pastor Epop’s congregation: But, he says, until they come to see that Christ alone is the only savior and redeemer they need to be evangelized. According to Brother G Truth, salvation is by grace alone and this grace is not, nor can be infused into us by the taking of religious sacraments or ceremonies.

Brother G Truth is way out there! He says there can be no visible unity unless there is doctrinal unity in the Gospel. For Him, the one true Church is found in Christ alone. Christ alone is our righteousness, he says, and to look to anyone or any church to save us is an act of unbelief and disloyalty.

It’s all getting far too heavy for me. I think we should all just love one another for that’s what Jesus wants.

Mind you one thing does nag at me and that is something that Brother G. Truth mentioned. He said that it is obvious that Pastor Epop’s teachings are erroneous, dangerous, deceitful, destructive and dishonoring to the Savior and His gospel. However these teachings are the very same as those of Rome except for the fact that the Pope has been replaced by Pastor Epop. Other than that, the two churches and their doctrines are identical. There is a great outcry from Bible Believers against Pastor Epop because he’s the Johnny come lately; but why is there no outcry from the same people against The Church of Rome?