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.
