Jesus Denies Salvation
to those Who Don’t Know Him
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SINCERITY WILL NOT SAVE, SAYS
JESUS
SINCERITY WILL NOT SAVE, SAY THE
APOSTLES
BIBLICALLY CAN CATHOLICS BE SAVED?
GRACE IMPLIES NO SALVATION FOR
NON-CHRISTIANS
One of the most notorious traits of Christian belief is it’s narrowness. This is reflected in the doctrine that unless one knows of Jesus and accepts him one cannot be saved. One will go to Hell forever.
If you read the “infallible”
decrees of the Roman Catholic Church you will see how the Council of Florence
The bigoted wishful thinking that makes Christians think one needs to know and believe in Jesus explicitly came from Jesus himself as we shall see. The new Catholic doctrine embracing the ecumenical movement which aims for religious unity is heretical.
The biggest reason that many religionists are more tolerant than they used to be is because of the overwhelming influence of the modern tendency to teach, "Think and believe what you like and God will be happy as long as you are sincere." They are under severe social and political pressure to take this stance. Some teach that sincerity is dangerous outside the true faith for sincerity can lead one astray but that is more a criticism of the consequence that can take place not the sincerity itself. The same people teach that love is dangerous - which it is - and that doesn't imply that they think love is bad.
In the past, Christianity held that if a man murdered prostitutes to prevent them passing on venereal disease that man was evil and sinful BECAUSE of his sincerity. The law of the land takes the same approach as the Church. You are considered an evil person if you smash up statues in a Catholic Church and you can't point to the Bible where it commands you to destroy idols to get the law to change its mind. Your faith won't get you off the hook.
If you thoughtlessly fire a brick over the wall and kill somebody you are still regarded as an evil person despite your harmless intentions and your sincerity. You will go to jail for manslaughter. Some praise you that you didn't do this in malice. Others wisely observe that recklessness and thoughtfulness do more harm in life than malice. You put flightiness before the welfare of others. That is worse than malice. There is a limit to what harm malice will make you do and often you will do nothing. Feeling malice doesn't mean you put something before the target of your malice. Carelessness does.
The good intentions of a person who lets their dog do exactly what it wishes all the time don't alter the fact that this person is practicing a form of cruelty. Discipline is necessary.
The Church always taught that we do evil only for the sake of the good in it. There is a sincerity even in insincerity. You are sincerely thinking insincerity is good.
You would need to be very sincere that you were right and God was wrong if you would go to Hell to suffer forever for your sin. That is extreme martyrdom! It is impossible to beat that for sincerity.
The Church says that a man can have original sin and believe he doesn't but that doesn't exonerate him of this sin. It doesn't rescue him from the fact that original sin separates him from being united in intimacy with God even if he thinks he is in God's bosom. The Church says that baptism and not sincerity is what deals with original sin. The idea that sincerity will save by itself is totally incompatible with true Christian belief.
If a bishop when ordaining a priest refuses to do it validly the priest will not be a true priest at all. His belief that he is a priest will not change that. God will not take his sincerity into account and treat him as a real priest and let him have the power to change the bread and wine at the Eucharist into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Christian doctrine certainly indicates that having certain beliefs is absolutely necessary for salvation.
SINCERITY WILL NOT SAVE, SAYS
JESUS
Jesus Christ claimed to be the only way to God and that sincerity will not save. This is no surprise for the Book of Ecclesiastes condemns marrying and giving in marriage and all activities under the sun as vanity. Vanity is stupid pride and a sin. The book says the only exception is getting wisdom from God meaning not just wisdom by itself but wisdom put into practice. So marriage is not sinful unless you are some kind of saint. The teaching that all human actions are vanity and pride implies that divine guidance is necessary for goodness and salvation if salvation is possible. So you do your best and it is vanity. But if you obtain knowledge from God and are wise in God’s estimation you have a chance of avoiding this sin of vanity.
Jesus accepted
Genesis as divinely inspired history and so he approved of Genesis when it said
that Eve was punished by God for believing the snake. Though she meant well she was still
condemned. She thought the evil she was
doing was good for she didn’t know what evil and good was. That was what she ate the forbidden fruit for
to get that knowledge. Read the account.
Jesus said that the
man who had his master’s money and buried it instead of investing it to make more
money from it would be severely condemned.
The man was sincere when he thought his master would praise him for what
he did but the master rejected him and Jesus said God would do the same. The man cannot be accused of having done no
good for he accepted the money and he buried it and gave it back but his
goodness could not save him.
The Jews accused Jesus
of casting out demons by the Devil’s power because they suspected the Devil was
helping to advertise him. Jesus said
that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand so Satan couldn’t be casting
out Satan and said that the Church was his kingdom. He therefore condemned denominationism
and affirmed clearly in this that nobody can be saved or a Christian unless
they know of him and the salvation he brought.
They must profess the Christian dogmas.
If pagans are saved and don’t know they are in union with Christ then if
they disapprove of the Church he founded we have the kingdom divided against
itself that Christ said didn’t exist in his religious system.
Jesus told the Jews
they were guilty of the eternal sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in
saying Satan was doing his miracles.
They really thought Satan and Jesus were plotting to make Jesus look
good. They thought Satan didn’t need to possess people and so didn’t mind
putting demons out or he was planning something so bad that it made it
worthwhile for him to help Jesus fake exorcisms. Jesus was saying that unbelief, excusable or
not, blocks ones salvation.
Jesus said that he was
the bread of life and that anybody who did not eat that bread would have no
life in them and he said that the Holy Spirit he gives would satisfy every
spiritual thirst (John 4:14). The
implicit incitement to hatred and intolerance and pride in this is very
alarming for he made these promises as if unbelievers could not avail of them
for he said that one has to go to him to receive it and the listeners would
have understood him to mean coming to him in explicit faith and obedience. If sincerity were enough, they would have
been unknowingly fed by and with Jesus.
First, Jesus was
running down the experience of others who find satisfaction in their god and
calling them liars and boasting about himself.
Anybody who has ever enjoyed another God, say
Second, he is telling Christians
to believe that only he satisfies which making them do the same thing. It is pride to say that you have the only
source of spiritual satisfaction the way they do it. How could you find as much satisfaction in a
God who sends people around you to Hell forever and who created the law that
whoever dies in sin must rot there forever as you could in one who does
not? There are Christians who do not
believe in eternal punishing and we must believe then that if Jesus is right
and sends people to Hell that their faith is in error and so they cannot have
as much satisfaction as they would have if they knew God better and that he
does that. There is a problem then in
the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise unless it is made easy for Christians to agree
on doctrine if they want to for if it is true then the more doctrinal accuracy
the more Holy Spirit because when doctrine is needed before you can get the
Spirit then the more doctrine the more Spirit.
Jesus said that the road to damnation was smooth while the road to Heaven is rocky and few find it (Matthew
Thomas asked Jesus what the way of salvation was. Instead of telling him that he knew and had the
way which he would have done had sincerity been enough, Jesus said that he was
the way, the truth and the life and that no man could come to the Father except
by him (John 14:6). This implies that
sincerity alone cannot let you into Heaven – you have to be right too. The context is about the way to salvation
therefore Jesus meant he was the essential way to God and the essential truth
that leads to God. Therefore having the truth
is necessary for salvation and there is no salvation for one who has the wrong
faith. Jesus called himself the truth
that is the only way to God to emphasise that you have to know some of the main
truths about him to be saved. He
stressed his being the truth to emphasise that no other man could be the only
way to God. The wrong man or even the
wrong perception of Jesus would mean you miss the only way to God. The Catholics see a wafer that they think is
Jesus to be the only way to God so they have the wrong Jesus. Jesus’ words would be of little value if a
wafer could be claimed to be Jesus and make no difference even if it is not
Jesus. Why stop at wafers? Why not proclaim other Messiahs like Henry
James Prince or Father Divine or Vissarion to be
Jesus? Jesus said having the right Jesus
was important. He condemned false
Messiahs.
Jesus informed a
Samaritan lady, Samaritans were Jewish heretics, that salvation comes from the
Jews (John
Jesus told the Samaritan woman that she and her co-religionists did not know what they were worshipping for those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth for "God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality)" (John 4:24). Because God is bodiless or a spirit we have to be spirits too to worship him. Whatever could Jesus have meant by such a statement? He certainly was supporting the Gnostic doctrine that you treat your body as not you or part of you and that you live like a spirit or as if you didn't have a body. By implication, Jesus was denying that his resurrection body was a real body despite its power to materialise. He said then that because God is a spirit we must worship him in truth. What does that mean? It can't mean, "God is a spirit so we must worship him in reality or really worship him." That makes no sense. If God is supreme then spirit or not he is entitled to our worship. If God is a spirit then he can be everywhere and see all things. So Jesus must have meant, "Worship God by the truth for God knows and sees all". He will see if you have the truth or not and will treat you accordingly. When you have the truth of God, God is pleased for you agree with him and this is worship. Those who do not have the truth will not be accepted by God.
Jesus told the Jews
that unless they believed in him they would die in their sins (John
In the very same
chapter, Jesus told his apostles that if they continue in his teaching then
they are really his followers or Christians and they shall know the truth and
the truth will make them free (verses 31,32).
This says that if you try to be good you will see the truth for God’s
grace will speak to you. Anybody who
does not believe properly is a bad person.
Jesus said that anybody who wants to do right will know that he is from God (John
He also said that
anyone who believes and trusts in him is saved and he who does not is damned
already (John 3:18). He said this to
Nicodemus who also believed in a God who would not accept the sincerely wrong
idolater – there is no other kind of idolater anyway. So Nicodemus would have taken him to mean
that unless you know of Jesus you cannot be saved and Jesus did not clarify so
he was clear enough and Nicodemus had the right understanding. Also, when idolatry makes God exclude you it
follows that if you do know of Jesus but the picture is too distorted you are
no better off. You have another Jesus
who cannot save (2 Corinthians 11). So
you have to know of the real Jesus to have any hope. The present tense Jesus used accentuates the
impossibility of being saved without knowing of him for it was only at the
start of his ministry and there wasn’t much reason to believe in him then for
he hadn’t even made his come-back from the grave yet and yet here he was saying
that nobody who “believes” in him will be condemned and whoever does not
believe will be rejected and “is condemned already” for not believing in God’s
only Son. This clearly implies that
sincerity is insufficient for you could not blame anyone for refusing to
believe at that stage.
If you have not paid
to get on the bus and are found out you will be thrown off for the sake of
justice. And even if you feel that the
bus service owes you money, you should be put out. If you think you can pay for your sins and
have not how can sincerity get you into Heaven?
God will permit you being expelled from the bus so he can penalise you
for sincerity and ban you from Heaven for being wrong.
Jesus said that he knows his own and his own know him (John
Most Christians say that Jesus will save you from sin and Hell if you are a sincere unbeliever though you won’t know that it is him. They say that the exclusive salvation doctrine means that only Christ and not his religion is absolutely necessary for salvation.
But if sincerity
will do then why didn’t Jesus save us secretly and secretly send his spirit to
guide us into charity? There would be no
need for a supernatural and infallible giver of revelation like a Bible or a
Church. To give them would be the sin of
doing needless miracles. So the fact
that Jesus spoke of revelation infers that you have to consciously believe in
him and hear of him to be saved.
The apostles would
not have suffered to deliver a gospel message to all people if they had thought
that sincerity was all that was required.
Some Christians say
that Jesus said that other religions could not work for he was compassionate
and it needed saying (page 26, God, That’s Not Fair!). But if sincerity cannot save it is because
God refuses to accept it though he should so it is anything but compassion.
The accusation
against Christians that they are inciting their followers to intolerance by
saying that Jesus is the only way to God even if they believe that Jesus will
save those who don’t know of him by working in their souls like an anonymous
saviour is true. It is saying, “I don’t
care if there is a more plausible way to salvation, I proclaim Jesus as the
only way to God.” It is an intrinsically
arrogant attitude and when going that far is allowed then other forms of
intolerance towards other religions must be allowed. Christians accuse those who say such things
about their belief in Jesus of indifference.
Humanists recognise that everybody has different likes and
dislikes. Right and wrong in the
subjective sense is not the same for every person because each person has
different needs. Therefore we encourage
people to do whatever they like to help their Humanist life. Religion when it claims the right to proclaim
Jesus the only way should also encourage people to try out other saviours if
they wish. I have noticed in my own past
religious life that I got sense of peace of turning to
SINCERITY WILL NOT SAVE, SAY
THE APOSTLES
The evidence
indicates that the early Church universally rejected with horror the idea of
anybody who was not a born-again Christian being saved. Salvation was activated at conversion even
before Church membership. This makes it
plausible that when the Bible warns that those who do not believe in Christ
will not be saved that it means just that.
There is no evidence for a non-literal interpretation so it is
unjustified. Christians may reject the
non-literal interpretation but that is because the literal one is unpalatable
and philosophically unsound. But their
motives are dishonest and unjust for their book often diverts from logic.
Peter “[because he
was] filled with [and controlled by] the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:8 AB) said
concerning Jesus, “And there is salvation in and through no one else, for there
is no other name under heaven given among men by and in which we must be saved”
(Acts
When Peter told the
Jews and pagans on Pentecost that they had to repent and be baptised in the
name of the Saviour – implying that they had to know about Jesus – to be saved
he was telling them that sincerity was not enough. Many of them would have thought they were
right with the divine. They too were
told to join forces with Jesus to be saved so they were not saved and had to
repent of their sins all over again because any past repentance did them no
good for they had the wrong gods or did not know Christ.
Paul said that if we
are wrong to think that Jesus rose from the grave then we are still in our sins
(1 Corinthians
Philippians 3:3-11 is
a powerful testament to the apostolic doctrine that sincerity was no use. Paul said that he was blameless and sincere as
a Jew but that was no use and was really rubbish. He did not please God until he accepted
Christ.
The apostles would
not have suffered to deliver a gospel message to all people if they thought
that sincerity is all that is required.
Paul said that he was ruined if he did not preach the gospel (1
Corinthians
In 2 Corinthians
4:1-6 we read that anybody who does not see that the gospel is true will perish
and is influenced by the Devil. So
anybody that does not believe does not want to believe and will be lost forever
for that.
The Bible never says
that anybody entered Heaven even in the Old Testament without faith in
Christ. Jesus said that Abraham and
David were saved but he said that they foresaw him.
Acts 10:2, 22
allegedly says that the Godfearer, Cornelius, was
righteous before he converted to Christianity implying that Christians can
believe that some people are saved without an explicit faith in Jesus. Cornelius could give alms and pray and fear
God and still be an unsaved sinner in verse 2.
The New Testament says that these things never prove that one is
righteous before God. Luke denigrated
human works in the Gospel so he did not intend to infer that Cornelius was
accepted by God. Cornelius was not saved
until he believed the gospel (
In the context of
finding God for salvation, Acts
Acts
Ephesians 5:8-14
tells us that the Ephesians were in darkness once and are in the light now and
because they are in the light they have the effects of the light which are
goodness and having the truth. When
people read this they assume the apostle is just saying that they had only
error before and that is what he means by darkness. But he said the truth was an effect of the
light and not the light itself so the light is the grace of God that draws one
to the truth and makes one holy. He was
saying that the Ephesians were in the darkness of being totally cut off from
God. The sincerity they had then could
not save them and there was nothing to praise in that sincerity. They were in darkness not in twilight or dusk
so there was no light.
Romans 3 describes
all humankind as useless and sinful.
They may do good but it is done with a bad or selfish motive so it is
not good from God’s perspective. Paul
told the converts that they were not saved but dead in sin until they converted
to Christianity so this denies that people who sincerely thought they were
saved by God before conversion to Christ were really saved and so it says
sincerity is insufficient.
Hebrews 11:6 says
that without faith it is impossible to please God. This is said in the context that if anybody
comes to God without believing in him and that he rewards and punishes they
will not be accepted. This means that
whoever has no belief in what God has revealed will not be saved for God is not
happy with them. If faith is the first
or foundational requirement then that means that sincerity is not enough. To sincerely not trust God and to have no
faith in him will prevent salvation. If
that is the case then why can’t there be other doctrines that are necessary for
salvation? Verse 1 makes it clear that
faith is trusting that what is hoped for will come. Then it says that this faith makes you
perceive that God made all things. This
tells us that faith is not just trusting in a God that may exist but is
trusting in the doctrines God has revealed.
It commends Abel’s faith and says that faith was Cain’s failure. All of us trust in the God that may exist if
he exists but this tells us that the if must be dropped. It is referring to dogmatic trust. Hebrews stands as proof that any other texts
that seem to say sincerity is not enough probably are saying that. It commends Abraham’s faith when he was
willing to slaughter Isaac his son. He
trusted in God’s command that this was the right thing to do even though God
had promised him that he would make a great nation out of Isaac. Hebrews is telling us that we have a duty to
believe in the gospel and are immoral if we do not. We cannot like such bigotry.
1 Peter 4:18 says
that even the righteous, meaning the Christians who have God working in their
lives, are scarcely saved for God judges sinners. That indicates that outside the Church there
is strictly no salvation even if you have a very easy religion that you
sincerely believe in for it wouldn’t be harder for the people of God than
anybody else.
1 John 4 tells us
that anybody who is born into God’s family loves others implying that he who is
not born does not. It says that anybody
who does not love does not know God for God is love. The Church says it means know God as a
friend. But it can mean simply
know. It probably does when the
friendship bit was not expressed. What
the chapter is really saying is that you have to be a believer and a Christian
to love and that if you are not you don’t love or know what love is. Any love you have when you are not is just an
unacceptable counterfeit however closely it matches the real thing.
1 John 3 states that
only when our love is not just talk but something active can we be certain that
we are children of the truth. It says we
know God lives in us by the Spirit he has given us. (Our love involves advancing the revelation
that God gave most of all for there is no true love without it so what we are
told is that we can learn the truth and if we err its our own fault. It says we know we have the Spirit if we feel
inclined to love and keep the commandments.)
The insinuation then is that only you yourself can know if you really
have an inclination to keep the commandments.
Given that since Adam, man prefers to defy God and be a good-living
hypocrite it could not be any other way for you can’t know anybody else’s
soul. So you cannot tell by others if
they are true Christians. You can only
speak for yourself. So you are more sure
of yourself than other Christians and are more sure other Christians are saved
than non-Christians meaning that Christianity urges you to be suspicious of the
good works of pagans and to be more inspired by those of Christians. You would be forbidden to stress the goodness
in the unbelievers to make them feel good about themselves which is an
essential if you want to convert them.
Obviously God would rather have them turned off the gospel than this
meaning he is able and willing to damn them for not knowing the good news of
Jesus Christ. 1 John 3 also tells us
that the commandments of God that we must follow if we are to know we have the
Spirit in us and are right with God are: Believe in Jesus and love one
another. Notice how the interpretation
that Christians have that believe means believe and practice the belief being
considered as one unit is eliminated for the word belief here for it is
distinguished from love in this case.
When God commands us to believe on pain of sin that clearly implies that
he does not accept that we have the right to change our mind about Jesus or
disagree. To damn people for losing
their belief and accepting people who do not believe because they have never
heard would be unjust discrimination.
This indicates that we cannot know we are children of the truth and that
the Spirit is in us unless we know the Christian gospel. A being commanding you what to believe is not
a good being. He should let you think
what you like as long as you mean well and are careful. 1 John 3 shows only one thing, that the early
Church felt the need to scare people and make them feel bad about thinking in
any way different from the Church in order to get them to believe in its Jesus
for the case for him and his claims was so bad that threats were their only
hope.
The Handbook of Christian
Apologetics says that sincerity is not enough and seven conditions must
fulfilled for it to suffice. The
conditions are, sincerity, total commitment to the truth as an absolute –
something that is right objectively, being open to truth, repentance for the
love of God no matter how vaguely God is understood, faith in some holy being
speaking to you through the conscience and reliance on the grace of God (page
326). My objection to this is that all
sincerity would contain these things implicitly. For example, the Atheist who would love God
and who does good will be saved by God despite rejecting belief in him for
though he does not realise it he has a relationship with God. Another objection is the view that you need
to hold that there is an objective truth.
Some people really do think that there is no absolute truth and that
reason is of no help though they live a normal life and are sincere about it so
the Handbook is bigoted on this point.
The apostles clearly
taught that hearing the word of God of the real Jesus is necessary for
salvation.
Jesus and his
apostles repeatedly stated that you have to know of Jesus to have any hope of
salvation. To have a small or distorted
knowledge of Jesus is as bad as following the wrong Jesus so it will not
suffice. And then you have to proceed to
spiritual knowledge – the sense that Jesus is in your soul giving you faith and
hope and charity and that you are engaged in a personal relationship with him.
BIBLICALLY CAN CATHOLICS BE
SAVED?
Protestants know,
not believe, that when Paul said that no one could be saved by law-keeping
(Galatians 3:11) he meant that there is no salvation for anyone who thinks that
they must obey to stay saved even with God helping them for the Jews thought
that. Catholics cannot be saved for they
believe what the Jews did. The Catholic
must leave the Church to be saved.
The Bible sees getting saved as being forgiven for your sins and your future ones before they even happen so faith and repentance the once is enough. Catholics deny this saying that if you sin in the future you must repent afresh afterwards. Catholics don’t have biblical salvation. Paul said this is no use for you sin again as soon as you get forgiveness (Romans 3) so God will not accept repentance for the past alone.
The Churches would
engage in public debates in every parish to work out the true doctrine of
salvation if they cared for truth.
Jesus said he was the way the truth and the life and no man could get to
God but by him. The apostles taught that
Jesus was the only name under Heaven by which a man could be saved. Jesus said that anybody who got into the
kingdom any other way than him was a robber.
The Bible teaches that Jesus is the only way to God.
Why is Jesus the only way to God?
Is it so that we can get easy and fast access to God through him?
It must be for no other reason would justify it. It makes God friendly and welcoming.
How is Jesus the only way to God?
Theologians say he is because he has paid for our sins to God.
Is Jesus the only way to God because he is the only person who can atone
for our sin?
The Catholic Church says he is and so that his role doesn’t mean he
cannot have people who are the only way to him such as priests.
Jesus said, “I am the way”. He didn’t
say, “I will be the way”, meaning that he would become the way when he is
crucified for sins. He was the way when
he spoke. He told people who didn’t know
of his plan to atone for sin that he was the way for them and the way they must
use NOW. For them, he could be the way
only if he was treated as the only spokesman for God and the man who had to put
you right with God and the direct line to God.
Priests who claim to mediate between Jesus and the people are committing
a heresy so great that they are NOT true Christians.
Jesus atoning for sins would not necessarily mean he was the way. He would be merely taking away the sins or
the barrier between man and God. The
bulldozer that takes down a wall that stops you getting to the Hotel is not the
way to the hotel. Jesus being the way
means more than him just breaking down a wall but showing you the way and
leading you personally. He does it
alone. He doesn’t use intermediaries.
If you need priests to let you near Jesus then the priests are in effect
the only way to God if only that they are the only way to the only way to
God. Jesus promised delivery from
oppression and the danger of oppression including religious oppression. That was why in God’s plan he had to be the
only way to God. The priesthood of the
Roman Catholic Church denies this. If
the priesthood are needed for salvation then clearly what objection could there
be to the idea that you need some man’s permission to go to Jesus? The Catholic priesthood gives you permission
to become baptised and be a Catholic, it gives you permission to go to Heaven
after forgiving your sins in confession and need I go on? What objection could there be that you need
to go to
The Catholic Church
leads only to eternal damnation according to the Bible and its own principles
so Protestants have to detest anything Roman Catholic which is not the same as
hating Catholics.
GRACE IMPLIES NO SALVATION FOR NON-CHRISTIANS
The Bible says that
those who have never heard or responded to the gospel will not be saved. It sees no injustice in this for it holds
that they will not be punished for not believing as long as they would have
tried to believe or check out the Christian faith but they will be punished as
their sins deserve in Hell forever (page 46, God, That’s Not Fair!).
The Bible say that
it is the duty of all to seek God (Deuteronomy
The Roman Catholic
Church claims to be the one true Church.
Today, Roman Catholics still hold that there is no salvation out of the
true Church but add the new doctrine that anyone who is sincere and does what
is thought to be right is a part of her.
They are said to belong to her because they want to be right and since
Catholicism is true they are implicitly Catholics. She says that all who sincerely adhere to a
false religion will be saved (Handbook of Christian Apologetics, pages
324-328).
Here is the only
objection, “God can give grace to the victims of false religion because any
misleading it does is justified when it brings them more light. He has no choice for it is better to deceive
to refute lies when not doing it will lead to greater deception.” Still, we wouldn’t be able to trust this God
for he could be deceiving us for a mysterious purpose. He could not bring us to the truth if he lies
for then we wouldn’t know what the truth is.
We would be capable of believing neither in Jesus or in God. The evidence for the perfection of Christ has
no value for the Roman Catholic because she or he embraces a faith that teaches
many bad things as the word of God.
God’s revelation is
not entitled to be called a revelation if we cannot have full confidence in
him. We would be still in doubt
especially when we can’t understand his plans.
If the objection works then most religionists who do not know a lot about it are not right with God. Children, for example, are not saved until they get old enough to be able to memorise a complete list of dogmas.
It is unjust to send
people to Hell for not having the truth unless there is some reason we cannot
understand why this has to be done.
Doctrines apart from
ethics would be of no account if it is true that the sincere will be
saved. They only lead to division and
strife.
You cannot will
without thinking first so you do not will your thoughts. When you cannot help what you think God would
have programmed you to believe the truth if he wanted to save you in Heaven. Those who are to be saved would know the truth
so conscious faith in Christ is required for salvation.
Belief is not a free
act so if you don’t have the truth then God spites you and wants you in Hell.
CONCLUSION
Correct Christianity is totally bigoted.
It insists that agreeing with the Bible and believing it is absolutely
necessary to salvation. You need to
consciously know Jesus to be saved.
Those who say that believing in the Christian gospel is necessary only
for those who reject it knowingly will have to say, “Believing is not
absolutely necessary for salvation. Just
knowing what the truth is and refusing to believe it is sinful.” This means that disobedience not disbelief
itself is where the sin is in. The Bible
is totally clear that faith in Christ is necessary for salvation for the Jews
were not considered right with God until they came to Christ in faith.
BIBLE QUOTATIONS
FROM:
The Amplified Bible
BOOKS CONSULTED
A Shattered Visage The Real Face of Atheism,
A Woman Rides the
Beast, Dave Hunt, Harvest House,
All Roads Lead to
Blind Alley Beliefs,
David Cook, Pickering & Inglis,
Catholicism and
Fundamentalism, Karl Keating, Ignatius Press,
Christianity, David
Albert Jones, OP, Family Publications,
Crisis of Moral
Authority, Don Cupitt, SCM
Press,
Documents of the
Christian Church, edited by Henry Bettenson, Oxford
University Press,
Ecumenical Jihad,
Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Press,
European Union and
Roman Catholic Influence In
‘God, That’s not
fair!’ Dick Dowsett, OMF
Books, Overseas Missionary Fellowship,
Handbook of
Christian Apologetics, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch,
Human Rights,
Michael Bertram Crowe Veritas,
In God’s Name,
David Yallop, Corgi,
Is the Roman
Catholic Church a Secret Society? John V
Simcox, Warren Sandell and
Raymond Winch Watts & Co
Is There Salvation
Outside The Catholic Church? Fr J Bainvel SJ, TAN,
Jesus the Only
Saviour, Tony and Patricia Higton, Monarch
New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of America and the
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, 1967
Radio Replies, Vol 1, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press,
Radio Replies, Vol 2, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press,
Radio Replies, Vol 3, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press,
Religious Freedom, A
Fundamental Right, Michael Swhwartz, Liguori Publications,
Roman Catholicism,
Loraine Boettner, Presbyterian and Reformed
Publishing Company,
Spy in the
The Case for Faith,
Lee Strobel, Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2000
The Church of Rome,
Wilson Ewin,
The Last Temptation
of Christ, Its Deception and What you Should Do About it, Erwin T Lutzer, Moody Press, Chicago, 1988
The Truth that Leads
to Eternal Life, Watchtower,
The Unequal Yoke,
John R Rice, Sword of the Lord,
The
Unholy Sacrifices of
the New Age, Paul de Parrie and Mary Pride, Crossway
Books,
Vicars of Christ,
Peter de Rosa, Corgi Books,
Walking with
Unbelievers, Michael Paul Gallagher SJ, Veritas Dublin 1985
What About Those Who
Have Never Heard? Radio Bible Class,
Whatever Happened to
Heaven? Dave Hunt, Harvest House,
Publishers,
When Critics Ask, Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, Victor Books, Illinois ,1992
THE WWW
www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/LEFEBVRE.TXT
Archbishop Lefebvre and the Declaration on
Religious Liberty. This page argues that
Vatican II never changed the position of the Church on religious liberty though
the Archbishop said it did and contradicted tradition and eventually made his
Society of St Pius X break with
The Church says the state needs God and must
worship God as a state. The Church still
rejects the doctrine that every person has the right to believe in whatever
religion his reason tells him is true for nobody has the right to be
wrong. True nobody has the right to be
wrong but nothing can be done about this for everybody has the right to follow
reason as they see it as long as they are doing their best. The doctrine of the Church is that error
should be suppressed for the common good of the people. For example, if censoring Protestantism would
lead to civil war you have to tolerate their error. If Protestants are taking members from the
state Church and can be peaceably stopped it is a different story. The Catholic doctrine of religious liberty is
that nobody can be forced to believe – that is all.
www.catholicism.org/pages/summary.htm#inv
Doctrinal Summary by Br Thomas Mary MICM. This page
informs us that Catholic teaching is that if you hear of the Catholic Church
and don’t join it or study it your damnation is guaranteed. It affirms that babies that die without
baptism will be banned from Heaven forever.
Can Non-Catholics be Saved?
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/debate9.htm
Friday, 22 February 2008