[Apologetics] Please Criticize/Correct: The Gospel of Desire

[Stuart D. Gathman]

	T h e   G o s p e l   o f   D e s i r e

In the April 23 World Magazine,  
	http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=10558
Edward Veith said, among other things:

  In one area, the late pope was not traditional at all. By emphasizing that
  good works are the fruit of God's grace, he had many Lutherans and
  evangelicals thinking that Catholics now agree with them on justification by
  faith. But the pope applied this principle to other religions, as well. If
  Muslims and Hindus demonstrate good works, that must be a sign of God's
  grace. Now, Catholics are teaching that not just other Christians but
  believers in other religions can be saved, even apart from conscious faith in
  Jesus Christ. This ecumenical theology tallies well with relativism, making
  Catholicism palatable to our new polytheistic culture.

That is not a completely accurate description of this Catholic teaching.
George MacDonald does a better job in _The_Princess_and_Curdie_:

  "All men, if they do not take care, go downhill to the animal's country;
  many men are actually, all their lives, going to be beasts.  People knew it
  once, but it is long since they forgot it."
  
  "I am not surprised to hear it, ma'am, when I think of some of our miners."

  "Ah! But you must beware, Curdie, how you say of this man or that man that he
  is travelling beastward.  There are not nearly so many going that way as at
  first sight you might think.  When you met your father on the hill tonight,
  you stood and spoke together on the same spot; and although one of you was
  going up and the other coming down, at a little distance no one could have
  told which was bound in the one direction and which in the other.  Just so
  two people may be at the same spot in manners and behaviour, and yet one may
  be getting better and the other worse, which is just the greatest of all
  differences that could possible exist between them."

The liberal idea is that all roads lead to heaven.  Protestant teaching
is that Christ is the only road that leads to heaven.  Catholic teaching
is even more restrictive: the Holy Catholic Church, the Body of Christ,
is the only road that leads to heaven.  Vatican II says that God is faithful,
and will not suffer any to be lost who set foot on that road in faith.
A one sentence summary is, "Be true to the light that you have, and God
will give you more light."

The Catholic idea is that a sincere Protestant who is faithful to the truth
of Scripture, will eventually come to embrace the full truth of the
Catholic Church as he seeks after God.  Many Protestants do
come to that point in this life, but the new clarification concerns
those who do not become visible members of the Catholic Church before
they die.  Prior to Vatican II, it was assumed that these poor Protestants
were condemned to Hellfire.  The clarification is that those Protestants,
and others, who have begun the journey to Catholic faith, can be saved.

In the early church, many believers were martyred before they could be
baptized.  There was concern as to whether these souls were lost, since Christ
commanded us to "believe and be baptized".  The decision of the elders was that
these martyrs had a "baptism of blood".  Their sincere desire to obey
the Lord in baptism counted as baptism in the face of their death.
Hence, the "Gospel of Desire".  Those who are seeking after God, and obey
the light they receive, will be given more light, and on are their way
to becoming Catholic - even if death intervenes.

This is indeed different from a typical Protestant formula, but Protestants
such as George MacDonald and C.S. Lewis had a view closer to the Catholics (the
young Calormene in _The_Last_Battle_, _The_Great_Divorce_).  The important
point is that the Catholic teaching is the opposite of the Liberal idea that
"all roads lead to heaven": there is but one Way and one Church that
leads to Heaven.  Be sure you are on that Way.

-- 
	      Stuart D. Gathman <stuart at bmsi.com>
Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flamis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.