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page 2 © 2002 Let us Reason Ministries (www.letusreason.org) - used with permission |
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article Paul makes it clear Rom. 2:12-13 "For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified." Jesus made it clear that no one can keep the laws demands. Paul brings his treatise of the law in relation to Israel to a conclusion by stating unequivocally Rom. 3:9-12 "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one." v:19-24 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ,being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Nothing could be clearer. Paul asks the rhetorical question "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law."(Rom 3:31) Faith in whom God, yes; but through Jesus Christ. "knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified."(Gal 2:16) There are others who are held in high esteem in the church and are used as examples of spirituality that people should know more about. Mother Teresa held that a pagan can sincerely follow his religion of works and be saved by Christ despite himself. Her concepts of salvation are made clear by these statements, "I love all religions. ... If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there." [On another occasion, she again demonstrated her false gospel that 'there are many ways to God': "All is God--Buddists, Hindus, Christians, etc., all have access to the same God."] (12/4/89 Time, pp. 11, 13) Loving the people of the religions is what we are told to do, but loving their religions we are not told to do. In an interview with a Catholic nun, "Sister" Ann, who worked in Kathmandu, Nepal, with "Mother" Teresa's organization Missionaries of Charity. The interview was conducted 11/23/84 at the Pashupati Temple. Ques: Do you believe if they die believing in Shiva or in Ram [Hindu gods] they will go to heaven? Answer: Yes, that is their faith. My own faith will lead me to God, ... So if they have believed in their god very strongly, if they have faith, surely they will be saved. Ques: Today it does not seem that the Catholic Church is trying to convert anymore. I know that John Paul II is saying now that those of other religions are saved. You do not believe they are lost anyway, right? Answer: No, they are not lost. They are saved according to their faith, you know. If they believe whatever they believe, that is their salvation. "Mother" Teresa tells Muslims and Jews that they worship the same God that Christians worship. "Mother" Teresa has even said atheists are children of God! On Conversion: "What we are all trying to do by our work, by serving the people, is to come closer to God. If in coming face to face with God we accept Him in our lives, then we are converting. We become a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Catholic, a better whatever we are, and then by being better we come closer and closer to Him. if we accept Him fully in our lives, then that is conversion. What approach would I use? For me, naturally, it would be a Catholic one, for you it may be Hindu, for someone else, Buddhist, according to one's conscience, What God is in your mind you must accept."(Mother Teresa, Her people and her work Desmond Doig p.136) No one can deny that "Mother" Teresa did wonderful humanitarian work among the poor and needy, but this is not the Christian message but a Christian work. But can it be considered Christian work if it is divorced from the gospel? It is universalism. The concept that everyone has the Christ within has always been part of the New age movements core belief system. Robert Schuller's article in the Summer 1986 issue of Possibilities magazine stated that, "The Christ Spirit dwells in every human being, whether the person knows it or not" (p. 12). So now we are to accept that we are born with Christ instead of with sin. The Bible says the very opposite, Galatians 3:26-28 "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Robert Schuller is a universalist who believes that all people are the children of God. That making one aware of their sinful condition is destructive. "We know the things the major faiths can agree on. We try to focus on those without offending those with different viewpoints, or without compromising the integrity of my own Christian commitment" (USA Today, March 23, 1989.) When the Pope visited Los Angeles in 1987" Schuller said: "It's time for Protestants to go to the shepherd [Pope]. Schuller has stated "if he came back in 100 years and found his descendants Muslims, it wouldn't bother him...." This is more than just warming your hands at the enemies fire. Popular speaker Tony Campolo has written "We want to convince the whole human race that there is a God who established the infinite value of every person, who mystically dwells in each person ..." (A Reasonable Faith: Responding to Secularism, p. 59). "I do not mean that others represent Jesus for us. I mean that Jesus actually is present in each other person" (ibid. p. 192). This disregards the doctrine of sinful humanity needing a spiritual rebirth and from a man who is supposed to be a respected Christian minister. Robert Schuller has said the very same thing "The Christ spirit dwells in every human being whether the person knows it or not nothing exists except God" (Possibilities, p. 12 Summer 1986, pp. 8-12.) Campolo also said, "Jesus is the only Savior, but not everybody who is being saved by Him is aware that He is the one who is doing the saving." In an address at Prestatyn (UK) in 1988, Campolo again expressed his "Jesus is in everyone" philosophy: "One of the most startling discoveries of my life was the realization that the Jesus that I love, the Jesus who died for me on Calvary, that Jesus, is waiting, mystically and wonderfully, in every person I meet. I find Jesus everywhere. The difference between a Christian and non-Christian is not that Jesus isn't in the non-Christian--the difference is that the Jesus who is within him is a Jesus to whom he will not surrender his life. You say, 'Are you saying that Jesus is present in everybody?' I am only telling you what it says in John 1:9; He is the light that lighteth every man, every woman that cometh into the world. The minute you start saying that God isn't in some people, you're on the verge of Fascism. Why? Erich Fromm saw that. The minute you can look at somebody and say God isn't in him--he is only in Christians--that person is pure demon." Has Campolo changed his views over the years? According to a 1/24/97 PBS's television interview with Charlie Rose, not a bit-"I am saying that there is no salvation apart from Jesus, that's my evangelical mindset. However, I'm not convinced that Jesus only lives in Christians" (National Liberty Journal, 8/99). The occultist Alice Bailey who was ahead of her time in many respects had this to say about the wider road and Christ in all people, "This is the challenge which today confronts the Christian Church. The need is for vision, wisdom and that wide tolerance which will see divinity on every hand and recognize the Christ in every human being." (Alice Bailey From Bethlehem To Calvary, p. 273, Lucis Publishing Company: New York, 1937) |
