Good Enough?

I have a bunch of friends on Facebook who are Roman Catholic.  I love them, they are . . . my friends. Probably because of that, I have had the opportunity to see several times now a video of the current pope addressing the tearful question of a young boy who had the opportunity to ask him if he will ever see his recently deceased dad ever again.  The boy was very aware that his dad was an atheist. 

Long story short, the boy, and most people who watched the video are led to believe that because the father was good to his children, God would not reject him and therefore we are to conclude that the boy will see his father in heaven someday.  So, the pope did not directly say an emphatic yes, but he certainly led everyone to believe it was a resounding yes.

There is one element in the pope’s statement early in the video that I whole heartedly agree with: only God can decide who gets into heaven.  But does God’s word teach that if we are good we will get into heaven?  That God will not reject us because of this?

I feel compelled to address that.  It’s gonna perhaps rile some fur.  I offer this post today so that my Catholic friends and perhaps even Protestant friends can understand why indeed there are theological differences between us.

The Pope was superseding the truth of scripture when he told the boy he would see his dad again.  To say that a person’s good deeds or good-hearted intentions will get them into heaven is a lie.  Further, if and when a person is relying on their own good deeds to get into heaven, there will always be this nagging question.  Have I been good enough?  Did I commit one sin too many?  What if I didn’t get to confess my most recent sins before I die? What if I needed to be perfect to get into heaven?  There is this fear that they might just come up short.  Just yesterday I had the opportunity to speak with someone with a terminal illness who was thinking just that.

Andy Stanley wrote a short book a few years ago. Its title is, “How Good is Good Enough?” (If you live in my locality and would like a copy let me know and I can get you one.)  Great question, isn’t it?  How good IS good enough?  Well I guess we could vote on it, or the pope could decide for us.  Sure, that makes sense, we could depend on human opinion as to whether a person has been good enough to get into heaven.  Personally, I’ve seen that attempted in funeral eulogies many times over the years.  People just don’t want to believe that if a person rejected God all their life they wouldn’t get into heaven and worse yet go to hell. Tell you what, I don’t want to believe it either but I know I must believe it. 

Whether you are Protestant or Catholic, what troubles me most about the whole conversation of thinking we might have been good enough to get into heaven is that it leaves Jesus lying in a ditch rotting somewhere on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Folks, what was the only reason that Jesus went to the cross?  I thought it was because the whole lot of us weren’t individually or collectively good enough to save ourselves!  If it wasn’t for this reason then pity the poor man named Jesus because he died believing the greatest lie ever: that he died for you and me!

The heart of the issue is that people, Protestants and Catholics, alike don’t want to trust the Bible and accept what it teaches.

I so often hear people say,” I don’t think I can trust the Bible because men wrote it.” Yet, with audacity, we have no problem borrowing from it the whole notion that there is a heaven.  We acknowledge there is such a thing as a good-hearted person but deny that what helps define that element of goodness is from biblical concepts.  When we suffer injustice, we go running to the 10 commandments of the Bible to validate the injustice felt.  We acknowledge there is a God but reject HIs will for us based on the notion that we can’t trust the men who wrote the different components of the Bible.  Well that’s a slap in the face for God, to think He’s not capable of being in 100% control of the whole process! 

Friends, how can we believe, knowing that there is a God who created this whole universe and holds it together in perfect balance, that it would even remotely be an issue for Him to guide the process of pulling the Bible together?  Further why do we struggle so much that it contains truth?

There is a principle of logic, the law of non-contradiction, that becomes a sticking point and creates a crisis of belief for anyone wrestling with accepting the Bible.  It kicks in when determining what truth is.  It assumes that the truth is incapable of contradicting itself.  In other words, when a statement is made, it either is the truth or it isn’t, but it cannot simultaneously be both.  So, does the Bible contain truth or doesn’t it?

I believe the Bible contains the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth and because of that, I boldly respectfully disagree with the Pope.  There is no one except for Jesus Christ himself who was and is perfect enough, good enough, to get into heaven.  He possesses the power to offer His blood sacrifice to cover for our sins so we can acquire eternal life.  We should also remember it is not a universal application.  By that I mean it does not cover anyone and everyone who chooses to reject Jesus. 

So here are some take-aways so that Protestants and Roman Catholics can better understand why we are different.

·         Jesus Christ alone is the head of the church.  No human being has the authority to override scripture nor preach contrary to what is written in scripture. 

 

·         We are saved by the Grace and Mercy of God’s love freely given to anyone who has faith in the saving work of Jesus as he died on the cross for us and rose again to eternal life.  Being good is impossible to perfect.  It cannot earn us the right to be in heaven.  Neither are we loved more or favored more if we maintain a perfect attendance record for the practice of ritual (Protestant or Catholic)

 

·         Nowhere in the Bible does it promote praying to anyone other than the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Toward the end of the video the pope says to the little boy, “Talk to your father pray to your father.” There should be no doubt he was referring to his earthly deceased father. To pray to anyone other than the Trinity is a teaching of the church not the Bible. In fact, the Bible clearly teaches that we are not to do that! 

 

While not touched on in the video, I might as well address a few other areas of contention:

·         The concept of purgatory is a teaching of the church, not the Bible.  There is no purgatory mentioned in the Bible to be purged and punished in.  And we cannot pray, pay, or work to change another person’s eternal destiny. It is set the moment we die.

 

·         No human being has the authority to forgive sin.  Yes, we should confess our sins to each other, but no human is the position to grant forgiveness.  That is God’s domain and not one of his anointed representatives.

 

·         And for Protestant and Catholic friends who get confused, we are not saved by agreeing with the facts about Jesus. (Even Satan’s demons are capable of a confession like that!)   We are saved by believing, trusting, surrendering, and following Jesus.

 

·         As well for Protestants and Catholics alike, we are not saved by or through water baptism. Water Baptism is an ordinance given to us by Jesus intended to be an outward visible testimony of what’s changed (our identity) within our spirit.  Water Baptism has no efficacy in determining a person’s eternal home. To rely on this alone would invalidate Jesus’s death on the cross. So why is infant baptism done?  Mostly superstition.

 

·         As followers of Jesus we are called to acts of love and compassion in response to the gift of forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life that was earned for us by Jesus.  These acts cannot earn God’s favor or be a ticket to heaven.

 

I offer all this for the purpose of understanding why we differ in theologies.  It may seem offensive to challenge such theologies.  You might even feel like saying, "Well aren't you riding the high horse today!"  If I'm wrong, please, show me where it says that.  Hopefully challenge leads us all to question our practices and grow in our faith.