[ikurrina]

"Those Roman Catholics are wrong. I don't think it is true, however. My mother and father are both very devout RC's and I know that they don't believe that devout Muslims are saved. Muslims do not believe in salvation through Jesus Christ (who by His death paid the penalty for our sins that we could never pay) so to believe that they are saved by being devout Muslims is wrong doctrine."

I guess this is an area where "devout RC's" aren't always in agreement! I imagine most of us would accept Mother Teresa as a devout Roman Catholic. Here's what she says about the conversion experience:

"What we are all trying to do by our work, by serving the people, is to come closer to God. If in coming face to face with God we accept Him in our lives, then we are converting. We become a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Catholic, a better whatever we are, and then by being better we come closer and closer to Him. If we accept Him fully in our lives, then that is conversion. What approach would I use? For me, naturally, it would be a Catholic one, for you it may be Hindu, for someone else, Buddhist, according to one's conscience. What God is in your mind you must accept." [Desmond Doig, "Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work."]

[Pablo64]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

I've read the quote from Mother Theresa (who's work I respect very much...I have a cousin who was adopted from one of the orphanages that Mother Theresa helped run), but the problem that opens for me is that it is more of the "all roads lead to God" theology that I can not accept.

Aside from being a doctrine heavily promoted by New Age philosophy, it flies in the face of simple logic. If it was not necessary for Jesus to die for our sins, then why would He have put Himself through all that. I mean, why step down from His rightful place of glory, humble Himself by becoming a man (as scripture teaches us) and then allow Himself to suffer and be put to a cruel death by the very ones He created? If "all roads lead to heaven" then God didn't need to do any of that....we could all just find our own way, or at least some way that didn't involve Jesus going to the cross for us.

Jesus said "I am the way [not just one way], the truth [not a version of truth] and the light [not one among many]".

This does not in any way discount the wonderful works of charity and kindness that Mother Theresa and thousands like her over the ages have done in God's name. The Bible tells us that if we have true faith we will also have good works (the one is a natural outpouring of the other), but it is also very clear that salvation is by faith alone.

Peace.