Abandoning the Faith

            For the past 500 years, there has been a great dissension between the Catholic church and the protestant church. I wish that it were over things that didn’t matter. I wish we could call our points of disagreement foolishness and put them behind us… But the Catholic church has time and again shown that they are unwilling to stand firmly on the Bible, the very words of God. In the 1500s, the big problem was the selling of indulgences. In recent days, the big problem has been denying the basic tenets of the faith. 

            For those who don’t know, an indulgence was a certificate that you could buy to cover your sin. How easy is that! I know that if I sin (except for murder), I just have to go give a little bit of money to the priest, he hands me my “get-out-of-jail-for-free” card and I can keep on living like all is fine and dandy! There were those who had a problem with this back in the 1500s, most memorably the famed Martin Luther. He ended up writing a list of problems he saw in the Catholic church later being called “95 Theses.” Thus, truly began the birth of the reformation and protestant denomination. 

            Today, I wish to point out a single issue that Pope Francis has raised. Several days ago, during a Papal visit, a young boy had a question for the pope. This video and can easily be found in a Google search. I will provide the link at the end though. The boy, named Emanuele, was very emotional and couldn’t ask Pope Francis his question. The pope invited Emanuele onto the stage and held him for a moment as he cried. After the moment of tears, Emanuele was able to ask the pope his question. Francis had Emanuele return to his seat, and he explained the boy’s question. 

            Emanuele wanted to know if his father, who had recently died, went to Heaven even though he was an atheist. The pope answered, that surely the father of a boy like Emanuele, who was able to be strong and yet emotionally vulnerable and who baptized all four of his children even though he wasn’t a believer was surely a good man. And surely God would not abandon Emanuele’s father. Pope Francis never asserted that Emanuele’s father was in either Heaven or Hell. But he implied with the kids present that although God makes the decision of who gets into Heaven, surely God would not abandon Emanuele’s father to Hell. 

            One article I read pointed something that I also noticed during the video. Pope Francis is not afraid to engage hurting people in the ministry. He held Emanuele in his time of mourning. In this manner, the pope demonstrated exceptional leadership. However, as I watched this video and as my heart broke with Emanuele, I knew that what Pope Francis was saying was not in the Bible. 

            Now, yes, we hope that all of our loved ones who have departed from this life accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior before they died. But we cannot preach them into Heaven. Oh, how I wish we could. But the truth of the Bible is that “[Jesus] is the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through [Jesus]” (John 14:6). There is only one way into Heaven, into the presence of the Father, and that is through Jesus Christ. And unfortunately for Emanuele’s dad, for my loved ones who didn’t accept Jesus, and all those in the world who didn’t accept Jesus, Heaven is out of their reach. 

Romans 10:13-15 says, “For ‘whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’” 

            There are untold numbers of people who do not know the real Jesus of the Bible. They will die and go to an eternity in Hell because they did not believe in Jesus. This is the reality that is set before us. I’m so sorry to Emanuele, I feel the pain of loss of unbelieving family members. God will always make the final decision, but we cannot set the Bible aside for a false hope and a false comfort. But there is hope for those who still live. We can be set free from our sin and find hope in Jesus Christ who died for our sins and was buried and rose again on the third day! In Him, and only in Him, we can have eternal life with the Father. The church must stand firm on the Word of God and we must reject all those doctrines which contradict it. The Catholic church must return to the Word of God as their final authority. And we must carry the Good News of Jesus to the lost people around us and to the ends of the earth.

Here is a brief clip of what happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkeGXQEh_GY

*This video is in Italian but there are many articles online that offer a translation of what was said.

The Mission in Taiwan

     At the end of Matthew, in chapter 28, Jesus gave us what we call the Great Commission, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (v.v. 19-20a NASB). This is quite the task for us today. But just because it is a large task, doesn't mean we can sit on the sidelines and not play our part.
     Amy and I are blessed to go to a church where the mission of the church is "to declare God's greatness in every culture through the Jesus life." And when we say "declare God's greatness," we're talking about the whole of the Great commission. Psalm 96:3 says "tell of His glory among the nations." God desires for all people to be saved (2 Tim. 2:3-4), but not all will, the Bible is very clear that many will perish (Luke 13:23-28). I point out these verses to you to ask you to pray for the nations; and to pray for us (more on that later). I want to remind you that the condemnation for sinners is much greater than we think for those who are perishing and have perished. George Whitefield used to preach on the future of sinners in Hell this way:

"the torment of burning like a livid coal, 

not for an instant or for a day, 

but for millions and millions of ages, 

at the end of which souls will realize that

 they are no closer to the end than when they first begun, 

and they will never, ever be delivered from that place."

Jesus is the only way out of this future. And so we go, to declare the glory of God in all the nations, to preach Christ crucified, so that others may hear and live. We must go. We must go where we are at now, joining God in His everyday mission to make His name and glory known among those around us. And we must go to the nations, to make His name and glory known among all people, that as many as possible would come to know Christ and be saved from their sin and so that God would be glorified. 

     I mentioned earlier that Amy and I are blessed to go on a church that is mission minded. So we are seizing an opportunity to go to the nations. Specifically, Taiwan. We'll be teaching in the schools there by using Bible stories to present the Gospel. While we will be in an area that has been generally  reached by the Gospel, there are many people groups in the same area that have not been reached, and there are many among the reached peoples who do not know Jesus. So we're asking for your prayers as we prepare to go to Taiwan later this month for a little less than three months. 

• Pray that we would build relationships with those who are saved there, that we would build relationships with the lost who are there, and that would we would seize every opportunity to share the Gospel. 
• And pray for those who are unreached by the Gospel, that doors would be opened, hearts would be prepared, and the Holy Spirit would move through all the peoples in Taiwan. 
• Pray that we would build good relationships with the missionaries that are already over there doing this work and that we would be an added resource for this period of time.

Join me in praying for the unreached peoples across the world using Joshua Project: 

Unreached of Day Today