Dear Nigel,
Sorry for being too 'synthetic' in my answers. Sometimes we can be
misunderstood. God judges us according to our light. But we have to increase
our light with God's Grace. As I said earlier, only God can save us, unite
us to himself. Jesus takes us to the Father. You know Jesus, then you have
to proclaim his message. But those who have not heard about Jesus or do not
know him explicitly will live according to their conscience, according to
their lights, which they imbibe from their cultures, traditions and
religions.
--You say: > If we believe that all will be saved irrespective of whether
they believe in
Jesus or not, won't it be contradictory to what Jesus said?
*They may believe or not, that depends whether they came to know or not. But
they are within God's ssaving plan.
--You say: > So if everyone would eventually be saved, why are there so many
evangelists
around? Indeed, why does even our Catholic Church have missionaries and
all?
*The disciples of Christ have the duty of being living witnesses to the
Gospel of Jesus.
--You say: >Jesus claimed to be
the exclusive means of truth and salvation. People who reject him are also
rejecting God.
*The three wise men (Magi-astrologers) through the Grace of God came to
faith in Jesus. What about those who do not yet know that Jesus is the
Saviour? What about those who have not yet made that journey to Jesus? Can
those who are not Christian get to heaven? Yes, they can. I think we can see
part of the answer in the account of the wise men. By the Grace of God the
wise men were led to Jesus. Even though they did not know Jesus, they had a
desire to meet Jesus. In their own way, with their beliefs, they lived as
best they could and this eventually led them to Jesus. Vatican II says:
"Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ
or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved
by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the
dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation."(Lumen
Gentium ยง16)
--You say: People who claim that there are other ways to salvation are
wrong, Jesus said.
*Objectively, only God can save. Subjectively, we live in a culture and
religion and have our 'saviours' and 'healers'. Jesus is the Way, Life,
Truth. You and I acknowledge it and proclaim it. But what about those who
did not reach this stage, yet are living in good faith in harmony with their
conscience?
You say: > The Christian teaching of exclusive salvation is based on what
Jesus himself
said, and what the Scriptures teach.
*Yes and no. Yes, Jesus is the Saviour, only he can save. No, because we are
a 'little flock', those who do not know the Saviour explicitly can be saved.
Those who live well according to the nature (dictates of conscience), cannot
be condemned to hell by a God who is not a monster, but a loving Father.
They can be innerly baptized by the Spirit of God (cf.Jn 3:3.5-6). The
Church teaches about the threefold baptism: of water, of fire-desire and of
blood-martyrdom.
From: "Nigel Britto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Salvation of caste blind atheists (Bhandare)
Dear Fr.Ivo
>>From what I understand, the Bible makes it very clear that 'Repent and
Believe' is the only way to eternal salvation. At the risk of sounding
fundamentalist here, I'll emphasis another Biblical statement by Jesus
Christ.
If you don't follow me, you will not be in the kingdom of God (Matthew
7:26-27). If you reject me, you will not be with me in eternity (Matthew
10:32-33).
> "I am the light of the world," he said (John 8:12). "I am the way and
> the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you
really knew me, you would know my Father as well" (John 14:6-7).
Truth Liberates
*What is Truth?
Nigel Britto
