My friend Michelle Wiggington posted the video below on Facebook. It raises in me an age old battle. I firmly believe Jesus' words in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me," but at the same time, can I condemn folks like Gandhi - or anyone for that matter - to Hell? My friends from seminary will get a real kick out of this quandary because I have never in the past hesitated to sitting in God's chair and quickly dispatching any and all who disagreed to Hell. Take a few minutes to watch:
Is this New Age thinking or is it truth? I am a Christian priest and I will always preach the Gospel message as it is found in Holy Scripture. However, my experience with the family who would not allow their father to be buried from our church this past weekend has soured my stomach a bit. They firmly believe that they were the only "Christians" and the rest of us were going to Hell. I wanted to tell them which level of Hell they were destined for because of their spiritual pride.
How far does God's grace extend?
Anyone know the teaching of the Church Fathers on this one?
Please forgive my ramblings, I'm just on the banks of the river engaged in a wrestling match. (Genesis 32:22ff)
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I'm rusty on my patristic Fathers now so I can't say how they would argue.
I answer the question by appealing to our limited human natures and God's sovreignity. He can do what He wants to do. It isn't our place to know where He put Ghandi. On the other hand, He has given us specific answers on what we must do to inherit eternal life. He has also indicated that choosing otherwise carries heavy consequences. They're His consequences to give however He sees fit. So where Ghandi is isn't anyone's business but God's.
As priests, it *is* our place to point people to the Way, Life, and Truth and to proclaim it without equivocation- but we're called to do this with Charity.
I recently had a similar experience with a hostile family. Not a fun experience. Threw me for a loop, too.
Mike (Elmore) Bertrand
I, too, firmly believe in Christ Jesus' words in John 14:6, however I have a bit of a different spin on what he was implying. I believe Jesus was making a comment about the divine nature, Christ, which is eternal and can not be confined, limited, into one material body. I believe the prophets and Christ Jesus were trying repeatedly through out the Bible to get us to recognize that the Christ is an eternally manifested set of God ordained behaviors and that if we implement those same attitudes and behaviors, we will be expressing Christ and doing the works Jesus did and greater.
I look at it like this "no one comes to (recognize) the Father except through me (Christ like behaviors ie love, honesty, integrity, intelligence, wisdom, grace, see the Sermon on the Mount, the Be-attitudes) . I always ask myself, "how are people reassured "God is Love"? Am I expressing the loving qualities Christ Jesus expressed? Am I honoring every person on this planet as the child of God right now? Christ Jesus didn't see any difference ie Jew or Greek, circumcised or uncircumcised, he did not honor matter ie Lazarus in the grave for days or circumstance ie blind from birth when it came to healing. Jesus worked from the divine operating system-Christ. This operating system is eternal.
"New Age thinking or is it truth?" I feel it is universal truth. Look at what is happening across the globe. The freedoms inherent in our Constitution are based on Biblical teachings. All people are "wrestling" to shuck off imposed limitations of one sort or another and to see love expressed right where they are. The world has been making progress toward "loving your neighbor as yourself" and will continue to do so. Brace yourself, with the advent of social media we are all recognizing our true brotherhood at an unprecedented pace. With so much progress, can you even begin to imagine our world in 10 years, exciting - Love at the helm of thought across the globe.
"How far does God's grace extend," John asks. I think it is answered in this "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down." Ps145:13,14 "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." If we feel we are in need, God's grace is there always, an open fount free for all.
Michelle Wigginton, C.S.
The bible says, only by the power of the Holy Spirit can one say, "Jesus is Lord". This to me is the litmus test. If your faith is not centered on Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross then you are lost. Period. I don't know all that Ghandi said, but if he did not/could not make the above declaration - then he is lost. The Holy Spirit CANNOT lie.
A Catholic may hold as an opinion that all non-Catholics such as Gandhi are in hell but, thank God, that's not Catholic doctrine. (When Rome excommunicated Leonard Feeney in 1953, for disobedience, not his teachings, it made that clear in its statements to the public.) Such extremism, while allowable, is a convenient strawman for Modernists (such as mainliners) and secularists to have a go at the orthodox.
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