Dave Hunt

[Catholic4Jesus]

I recently heard that the anti-Catholic Fundamentalist apologist Dave Hunt from the BereanCall Ministries (don’t know if anybody is familiar with them) has just passed away. He spent much of his years speaking out against the Catholic Church saying that it wasn’t Christian and that all Catholics are going to Hell and bringing up stuff like "The Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon. “The Pope is the Antichrist/False Prophet.” “The Jesuits did this/did that.” “Pope John Paul II wants to establish a One World Religion” “The Pope prays to idols of non-Christian religions” “We’re living in the end times.” And other stuff like that.

Luckily that’s not all he did in his ministry from the research I’ve done about him, but it is true that he has done some anti-Catholicism in his day. I hear that his partner, T. A. McMahon is an ex-Catholic and together they did a lot of anti-Catholic work in their ministry and has influenced him a lot. Now that he has passed away and since he most likely hasn’t repented of his slandering of the Bride of Christ, is it right to say that he’s in Hell right now or should we leave that judgment up to God? He probably was just ignorant and God probably had some mercy on him because of that. Yet at the same time, the Church also teaches that the farther one is away from the Church, the less likely they will be saved. I have no right to judge people, but God however does.

And I’ve always had a strange combination of anger and sorrow for “Christians” like him who try to slander the Church of God claiming that they’re doing it “in the name of God.” I feel angry towards them because they constantly come as “representatives of God” to tear down the Catholic Church, yet I also hope that God has pity on them so that they can go to Heaven when they die. My hope is that he is in Heaven and that God has opened his eyes and now sees the truth of the Church and is praying for his former anti-Catholic colleauges. Yet at the end of the day, only God knows whether he’s in Heaven or whether he’s in Hell. I have no right to judge because I don’t even know if I’m saved.

 

[Ad_Orientem]

Apart from Judas, we don’t know who’s in hell. We don’t know if any given person is culpably ignorant or not, or what graces and mercies they respond to or resist in their life or at the moment of their death. I’d go with your instinct – let God be their judge.

 

[MaryT777]

I second the thought let God be their Judge. I’m amazed at how one can make a living
bashing the Church Jesus founded.

 

[MarcoPolo]

is it right to say that he’s in Hell right now or should we leave that judgment up to God?

It is up to God. It would be a pious thing to pray for his soul.

 

[Lancer]

I understand your thoughts and feelings…me too…but it is imperative for me to fight against my natural instincts…and for me it is a fight… it is also imperative for us as Catholics to really make St. Paul’s admonition and truth about who we are really struggling against…the bedrock of our feelings…of our heart… about any particular person or group. Sure the person is someone we can identify…but that person is not the problem. Even when we are rejected or attacked be vitriolic anti-Catholic lies…we must stay focused on the real enemies of Catholicism. We engage or respond for their greater good…their well being…that is true Charity…its not about “winning”.

As far as Dave Hunt…we pray and entrust his soul to the mercy of God…with a deep desire that he rests in God’s peace…we should never even speculate about a person being in hell…but hope that he died in the friendship of the Lord. May he R.I.P.

Two scriptures for consideration.

Pax Christi

**Ephesians 6:11-13
Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition (RSV-CE)
**
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Colossians 1:15-17
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSV-CE)

The Supremacy of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born[a] of all creation; 16 for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

 

[Jennifoo]

:sad_yes: I understand your anger and frustration toward these types of extreme, rancorous anti- Catholics. I feel that way myself. I try to channel that anger into prayers for repentance and conversion.

It would not be correct to make statements about a certain person being in Hell. We simply don’t know nor have we been given the knowledge and authority to make such statements. It’s best to keep careful custody of your tongue on these instances.

It’s interesting to note that, in some instances, these extreme anti-Catholics turn people TOWARD the Church and there have been conversions because of them. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

 

[aspirant]

It is up to God. It would be a pious thing to pray for his soul.

Especially, I think, in light of the probability that most of his readers and fans will not be praying for him. We Catholics might help Dave Hunt when others will not!

 

[adrift]

Apart from Judas, we don’t know who’s in hell. We don’t know if any given person is culpably ignorant or not, or what graces and mercies they respond to or resist in their life or at the moment of their death. I’d go with your instinct – let God be their judge.

We do not know Judas fate.

A similiar question was asked of Michelle Arnold

Re: Has Judas Iscariot ever been nominated for sainthood?

---

Because of Judas’s betrayal of our Lord, pious Christian speculation has always been that Judas is in hell. For example, the medieval Italian writer Dante Alighieri, in his Divine Comedy, placed Judas in the deepest bowels of hell where he was continually tormented by Satan.

Theologically speaking, we do not know Judas’s fate. Some Christian theologians have presumed him damned based on Scripture passages such as Matthew 26:24 and John 17:12, but the Church has never officially declared that Judas is in hell. At this point, we will only know his fate in the next life, but we can say that it is highly unlikely that the Church would ever nominate Judas Iscariot for sainthood.

 

[NeedsMercy]

I did not know about dave hunt until I read this thread. I did read up on him. I am so sad to see our faith vilified so. Unfortunately, his is not the only voice doing this. I can understand (somewhat) that Hunt et al want to “save” us. What I can’t understand, however, is this deep-seated hatred that they have for us. I try to respect others’ beliefs, but this is difficult to do when they are denigrating ours. I was in the hospital about 3 years ago and I met a woman who was vigorously studying the Bible, taking notes, etc. We became engaged in conversation and started to speak about her religion(undetermined protestant). I made the mistake of bringing up Our Lady. I hadn’t even gotten the name “Mary” out of my mouth when she sternly said “Oh, no! We don’t believe in THAT!” Real disdain. I wanted to lash out but I walked away instead. I guess that’s the only thing that we should do. Walk away and say a prayer for them.

 

[Catholic1954]

I recently heard that the anti-Catholic Fundamentalist apologist Dave Hunt from the BereanCall Ministries (don’t know if anybody is familiar with them) has just passed away. He spent much of his years speaking out against the Catholic Church saying that it wasn’t Christian and that all Catholics are going to Hell and bringing up stuff like "The Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon. “The Pope is the Antichrist/False Prophet.” “The Jesuits did this/did that.” “Pope John Paul II wants to establish a One World Religion” “The Pope prays to idols of non-Christian religions” “We’re living in the end times.” And other stuff like that.

Luckily that’s not all he did in his ministry from the research I’ve done about him, but it is true that he has done some anti-Catholicism in his day. I hear that his partner, T. A. McMahon is an ex-Catholic and together they did a lot of anti-Catholic work in their ministry and has influenced him a lot. Now that he has passed away and since he most likely hasn’t repented of his slandering of the Bride of Christ, is it right to say that he’s in Hell right now or should we leave that judgment up to God? He probably was just ignorant and God probably had some mercy on him because of that. Yet at the same time, the Church also teaches that the farther one is away from the Church, the less likely they will be saved. I have no right to judge people, but God however does.

And I’ve always had a strange combination of anger and sorrow for “Christians” like him who try to slander the Church of God claiming that they’re doing it “in the name of God.” I feel angry towards them because they constantly come as “representatives of God” to tear down the Catholic Church, yet I also hope that God has pity on them so that they can go to Heaven when they die. My hope is that he is in Heaven and that God has opened his eyes and now sees the truth of the Church and is praying for his former anti-Catholic colleauges. Yet at the end of the day, only God knows whether he’s in Heaven or whether he’s in Hell. I have no right to judge because I don’t even know if I’m saved.

Leave Mr. Hunt to God’s perfect justice. May he rest in peace. Amen

 

[JustaServant]

Leave Mr. Hunt to God’s perfect justice. May he rest in peace. Amen

True, the problem now will be his legacy. Like the guy who wrote the “Two Babylons”, people will still believe what he wrote even decades after its been debunked.

 

[jrtrent]

As the OP pointed out, Dave Hunt was not just an anti-Catholic; he also wrote against Mormonism, the prosperity preachers, extreme Calvinism, pagan inroads into the church, evolution, the big bang theory, and other topics. He was an apologist, defending and contrasting what he considered orthodox Christianity from errors or attacks against orthodox belief. His anti-Catholicism was what was once considered just standard Protestant belief. That the Pope, or office of the papacy, was anti-Christ was and is held by many, and is even written into the confessional statements of Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, and probably others. Papal Rome being seen as the great harlot of Revelation 17-18 can be found in many Bible commentaries. These are historic and once-common Protestant beliefs, not a special form of anti-Catholicism.

The Pope as Antichrist: In Europe during the Middles Ages voices were raised against the claims of the Bishop of Rome. Some medieval Christians—notably radical followers of St. Francis of Assisi and of John Hus—argued that the pope was in fact the Antichrist because of his power, wealth and corruption. The pope’s use of military power, his accumulation of vast wealth and various moral scandals in the Vatican all seemed to support this belief.

The conviction that the pope was the Antichrist was held by almost all Protestants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. When the pope refused to support reformation in the church and began to use the power of his office to persecute the advocates of reform, Luther concluded that the pope was Antichrist. Most other Protestants followed Luther in that belief. 69.59.173.95/faculty/wscwritings/protestantsandthepope.php

Robert Godfrey also notes that many Protestants today are no longer convinced that the pope is the Antichrist, saying, “The Roman Catholic Church has changed some of its claims about being the only institution in which one can find salvation. It is willing to call Protestants in some sense separated brothers. There does seem to be more toleration and less commitment to coercion on the part of the bishop of Rome. We should be glad for these changes.”

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I have my own peculiar belief despite the church’s more recent ecumenical tendency.

Oddly enough my reservations don’t come from a Catholic source, but my wise old Protestant pastor.

Towards the end of his life we were discussing the Catholic Church, end times (which he didn’t take much interest in), false prophets and all the rest.

He made a few comments which surprised me. One was, word for word, “I sometimes wonder if Protestants get into heaven.” He went on to say the Reformation “was easily being the most violent episode in church history” and that “some of the things Luther said and did weren’t very Christian.”

For a man who gave his second youngest son the middle name Luther in his earlier years, he’d obviously done a bit of reading and thinking about the issue, to come to this sort of sea change.

I then said to him, “Well, if you believe that, why are you still Protestant?” He thought for a moment, and then replied, “They (the Catholic Church) have done a lot of damage at times”. And we left it at that.

Later, on another occasion, when we were discussing the Papacy, he got a bit worried, and cried out “It’s a heresy! (the Protestant position on the Pope) That’s what worries me!” He was dying of cancer by that time.

I knew the man well, and I had a lot of respect for his opinions. He was also prophetic. I found from experience that if he said he thought something would happen, it almost invariably did. He even predicted about his own church - “I think bugalug (another pastor I’ve got no time for) will get hold of this church after I’m gone, and wreck it! But he can’t touch the people!”

Sure enough, I found out some time later the pastor died around 2 or 3am in the morning, and bugalug called an Assembly meeting at 6am the very same day to get hold of my old pastor’s church. He then proceeded to wreck it, but couldn’t touch the people as most of them left, the majority leaving the Presbyterian church altogether.

So even in that unpleasant prediction about the inner city church he’d nurtured for years, he was correct.

Now I do get certain spiritual experiences. Some time after he died, he briefly appeared to me one night and simply said, “We’re not in heaven. We’re all in Purgatory. Oh, we’re not suffering any pain, so you don’t have to worry about that! (And here he looked pretty impressed). In fact, it’s pretty good around here.” But then he repeated, “We’re not in heaven.”

That’s been my private experience. Add that with his earlier question about Protestants getting into heaven, and I have my doubts. Most of them for example NEVER take part in the full sense of the Eucharist. And they continue to divide Christ’s Church established on Peter. By what authority? Luther? Who gave him the authority? Calvin? Ditto. Henry the VIII? Ditto.

In the case of someone like Dave Hunt, I think God would want to know where he got his facts from. If he was shown to be peddling lies, then God would expect him to explain.

However since I’ve got no doubt Mr. Hunt firmly believed in Christ, and probably lived a fairly ethical life in most other respects, then I suspect he’d be in Purgatory. But because of the damage he’s done in helping to keep alive the barrage of lies about the Catholic Chruch, I think he’d have a bit of cleaning up to do.

So I don’t think he’d go to Hell. But I don’t think he’s in heaven either. I think he’s in some part of Purgatory, which no doubt he didn’t believe in, until he ended up there.

That’s how I see it.

 

[Christy_Beth]

All this makes me wonder if Jack Chick is still around. He was alo a rabid Anti-Catholic. He also had some stuff agains moslems. Anyway, there are many out there trying their best to show the Catholic Church in as much of a bad way as they can.

I remember once seeing a two volumne set called “Roman Catholicism.” I never actually read it, but at least once seen it mentioned. I can’t remember who wrote it, but it may have been Dave Hunt. I read that it was considered the “Anti-Catholic bible.” It’s sad that this sort of stuff is out there. :sad_yes:

 

[garysibio]

Apart from Judas, we don’t know who’s in hell. We don’t know if any given person is culpably ignorant or not, or what graces and mercies they respond to or resist in their life or at the moment of their death. I’d go with your instinct – let God be their judge.

We don’t even know about Judas. He may have repented. We don’t know.

 

[NeedsMercy]

We don’t even know about Judas. He may have repented. We don’t know.

I dunno. I believe that Judas’ great sin was not that he had betrayed Christ (Peter did that too) but that he despaired of ever receiving God’s mercy and, thus, committed suicide.

 

[BA11]

I disagree with his beliefs regarding the catholic church and catholics in general, but I think it’s ridiculous to condemn anyone to hell let alone someone who spent their whole life professing Jesus. We have no way of knowing where anyone but ourselves stands because we don’t know the hearts of others. I will say this: I wouldnt want to have to stand before Jesus one day and try and explain why I spoke out against fellow christians my whole life. I’ll go ahead and try and convert the non-christians and leave God to sort out those of us who profess him.

 

[garysibio]

I dunno. I believe that Judas’ great sin was not that he had betrayed Christ (Peter did that too) but that he despaired of ever receiving God’s mercy and, thus, committed suicide.

Or he committed suicide because he felt so bad about what he did. We don’t know and it’s above our pay grade.

 

[aspirant]

All this makes me wonder if Jack Chick is still around.

He is still alive, but it seems like more and more work within Chick Publications is being turned over to other writers and illustrators. Jack is turning 89 in a few days.

He was alo a rabid Anti-Catholic. He also had some stuff agains moslems.

If you read a lot of Chick’s stuff, he clearly suggests that the Catholic Church invented Islam as a way to promote paganism. ROFL.

 

[flameburns623]

Wasn’t it Dave Hunt’s sister who famously became Catholic some years ago? Which seems to have truly stoked the coals of animosity Mr. Hunt felt for the RCC? He was no friend previously, but if memory serves me, he became most particularly outspoken against our Church when his sister converted.

Or perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me?

In any case, we cannot know the depths of invincible ignorance into which Mr. Hunt had fallen. We should, in charity, pray for the repose of his soul.