Posted on 06/25/2015 6:53:00 AM PDT by Salvation
Why Is the Road to Destruction Wide and the Road to Salvation Narrow? A Meditation on a Teaching by Jesus
Msgr. Charles Pope • June 24, 2015 •
In the gospel earlier this week, we read a warning from Jesus that too many people just brush aside: Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few (Matt 6:12-13).
I have commented on this blog at some length in the past on the serious problem of universalism (the notion that nearly everyone goes to Heaven). I will not create another whole post on that just now, but you can read one of those older posts here: Hell is for real and not rare.
But just to summarize, most people today have the teaching exactly backwards. Whereas Jesus says “many” are on the road to destruction and only “a few” travel the narrow road (of the cross) to salvation, most reverse what Jesus says and claim that many go to Heaven and only a few (if any) go to Hell. Don’t do that. Jesus is not playing games with us. No one loves us more than Jesus does, and no one warned us more of judgment and Hell than Jesus. And even though He doesn’t give percentages for each category, do not refute His words by trying to make “many” mean “few” and “few” mean “many.”
The question does surely arise as to why many walk the wide road to destruction and Hell. Is it because God is stingy or despotic? No. God surely wants to save us all (Ez 18:23; 1 Tim 2:4). The real answer is that we are hard to save and we must become more sober about that. We have hard hearts, thick skulls, and innumerable other traits that make us a difficult case.
If even a third of the angels fell, that ought to make us very aware of our own tendency to fall. This should make us more humble about our own situation. The fallen angels had intellects vastly superior to ours and their angelic souls were not weighed down with the many bodily passions that beset us. But still, they fell! Adam and Eve, possessing preternatural gifts and existing before all the weaknesses we inherited from sin, also fell. Are you and I, in our present unseemly state and vastly less gifted than the angels, really going to claim that we are not in any real danger or are easy to save?
We need to sober up and run to God with greater humility, admitting that we are a hard case and in desperate need of the medicines and graces that God offers. He offers us His Word, the Sacraments, holy fellowship, and lots of prayer! We need not be in a panic, but we do need to be far more urgent than most moderns are about themselves and the people whom they say they love.
Consider some of the following ways we can be a hard case in terms of being saved (Disclaimer, I do not say all these things are true of you personally, just that we, collectively, have these common tendencies):
1. We have hard hearts and stubborn wills – While some of what this includes is specified more below, here is a good place to begin. God, speaking to us through Isaiah the Prophet, says, I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead is bronze (Is 48:4). He is talking about us!
2. We are obstinate – If something is forbidden we seem to want it all the more. St Paul laconically observes, When the commandment came, sin sprang to life (Rom 7:9). If something is harmful we want it in abundance, but if it is helpful we are often averse to it. We like our sweets and our salty snacks, but vegetables rot in the refrigerator. In the desert the people of Israel longed for melons, leeks, onions, and the fleshpots they enjoyed in Egypt. Never mind that they were slaves then. But when it came to the Bread from Heaven, the Holy Manna, they said, We are disgusted with this wretched manna (Num 21:5). We are obstinate, turned outward toward sin instead of inward toward God in a Holy embrace. Jesus sadly remarked that judgment would go poorly for many because The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed (Jn 3:19).
3. We don’t like to be told what to do – Even if we know we ought to do something, or to stop doing something, the mere fact that someone is telling us often makes us either dig in our heels and refuse, or else comply, but resentfully rather than whole-heartedly.
4. We are not docile – When we were very young we were fascinated with the world around us and kept asking “Why, Mommy?” or “Why, Daddy?” But as we got older our skull thickened; we stopped asking why. We figured we knew better than anyone around us. The problem just worsens with age, unless grace intervenes. St Paul lamented, For the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths (2 Tim 4:3-5).
5. We love distraction and don’t listen – Even when saving knowledge is offered to us, we are too often tuned out, distracted, and resistant. ADHD is nothing new in the human family. God says through Jeremiah, To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it (Jeremiah 6:10). Jesus invokes Isaiah to explain why He speaks to the crowds only in parables: For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed (Is 6:10).
6. We are opinionated – We tend to think that something is true or right merely because we think it or agree with it. Having opinions, even strong ones, about what is right and true is not wrong per se. But if God’s Word or the Church’s formal teaching challenges your opinion, you’d better consider changing it, or at least making distinctions. The last time I checked, God is just a little smarter than you are. His official teaching in the Scripture and the Doctrine of the Church is inspired and you are not. Scripture says, All we, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way (Is 55:8). Or again, Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? (Is 29:16) Or yet again, Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?” (Is 45:9) But still many go on with their own opinions and will not abide even the clear correction of God.
7. We have darkened intellects due to unruly and dominating passions – Our strong and unruly passions cloud our mind and seek to compel our will. Too easily, without training and practice in virtue, our baser faculties come to dominate our higher faculties, making unreasonable demands for satisfaction. And thus we love to tell ourselves lots of lies. We suppress the truth and our senseless minds become darkened ( Romans 1:21). The catechism says, The human mind … is hampered in the attaining of … truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin. So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful. (Catechism #37). And the Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium 16, says, But very often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasoning and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator.
8. We are lemmings – We are too easily swayed by what is popular. We prefer ephemeral notions to ancient and tested wisdom. Tattoos, tongue bolts, and piercings are in? Quick, run out and get one! Whatever the fad or fashion, no matter how foolish, harmful, or immodest, many clamor for it. Let a Hollywood star get a divorce and soon enough everyone is casting aside true biblical teaching against it. The same goes for many other moral issues. What was once thought disgraceful and the stuff of back allies is now paraded on Main Street and celebrated. And like lemmings, we run to celebrate what was once called sin (and is still sinful from any biblical stance). Instead of following God we follow human beings. We follow them and the “culture” they create, often mindlessly. Yes, lemmings is the right image.
9. We live in a fallen world, governed by a fallen angel, and we have fallen natures. Many seem to abide all of this quite well and make quite a nice little home here.
10. If all this isn’t enough to show that we are a hard case, consider a “few” others. We are so easily, in a moment, obnoxious, dishonest, egotistical, undisciplined, weak, impure, arrogant, self-centered, pompous, insincere, unchaste, grasping, harsh, impatient, shallow, inconsistent, unfaithful, immoral, ungrateful, disobedient, selfish, lukewarm, slothful, unloving, uncommitted, untrusting, indifferent, hateful, lazy, cowardly, angry, greedy, jealous, vengeful, prideful, envious, contemptuous, stingy, petty, spiteful, indulgent, careless, neglectful, prejudiced, and just plain mean.
So if the road to destruction is wide (and Jesus says it is) don’t blame God. The road is wide for reasons like this. We are a hard case. We are hard to save. It is not that God lacks power, it is that we refuse to address much of this. God, who made us free, will not force us to change.
We ought not kid ourselves into thinking that we can go on living resistant to and opposed to the Kingdom of God and its values, but that then magically at death we will suddenly want to enter His Kingdom, which we have resisted our whole life. Jesus said that many prefer the darkness. Is it really likely that their preference will suddenly shift? Will not the glorious light of Heaven seem harsh, blinding, and even repulsive to them? In such a case is not God’s “Depart from me” both a just and merciful response? Why force a person who hates the light to live in it? I suppose it grieves God to have to abide such a departure, but to force a person to endure Him must be even more difficult to abide. I am sure it is with great sadness that God accepts a person’s final “No.” Yes, the road is wide that leads to destruction. It is wide because of us. The narrow road is the way of the cross, which is a stumbling block and an absurdity to many (1 Cor 1:23), who simply will not abide its message. So, we ought to be sober about the Lord’s lament. We ought also to be more urgent in our attempts to secure our own unruly soul and the souls of those we love for the Kingdom. The blasé attitude of most moderns is rooted in the extremely flawed notion that judgment and Hell are not real issues. That is a lie, for it contracts Jesus’ clear word. Why is the road to destruction wide? Because we are hard cases; we are hard to save. We ought not be unduly fearful, but we ought to run to Jesus in humility and beg Him to save us from our worst enemy—our very self. If you don’t think you’re a hard case, read the list above and think again.
>>“Well yes, Mr. Bryanw92, those will be your responsibility. But you understand the car is a free gift.”
Excellent analogy. I equate those “conditions” with the faith you need and the “call” of Christ to bring you to him.
Now, the rest of the stuff: oil changes, tires, tags, etc are the fruits of salvation. I could own a 911 and never drive it one mile and it would still be mine. The oil would last forever, the tires would never wear out. I could keep it in the garage with no tags or insurance and it would still be mine.
But, I would not get to enjoy it. Same thing with the fruits of our obedience. Its not payment or a condition. They are the things that make Christian life better than secular life because we know that we are living out a public life in Christ.
Now, I would take that Porsche as I took my Christianity: I’d get out there and drive the wheels off it. I’d change the tires, change the oil, buy insurance, etc.
And I would know that if I stopped because I was too tired to drive anymore, that it would still be mine waiting in the garage. No one can come and say, “You didn’t change the oil in the car, so we are taking it away from you.”
Christians are more than disciples. We are in the family, with His Life spark in us. We are indwelt by His Holy Spirit Who is tasked with raising us up in the Way that we should go. We are not ‘following’ to some future destination where Salvation will then be obtained. We are already Saved and His Spirit is in us, evidenced by walking after His Spirit instruction. James wrote about this, as from the human perspective. He said he would show his faith by his works. He didn’t say he would obtain saving faith by his works.
Picking holes in the analogy doesn’t disprove anything, because the analogy doesn’t aim to prove anything. It is merely an illustration, to demonstrate the foolishness of those who think obedience to the King somehow EARNS their way into His kingdom and contradicts His statement that entrance is free.
But in order to prove that Jesus requires something of His disciples, we need only turn to the Scriptures - which we’ve done. Maybe we should ask why some get into the kingdom, while others who want in are shut out. What makes the difference?
I’ll have to leave it there, my friend, since the day’s half gone and I’ve got work that needs doing. But I’ll check back later, so let me know if you think the discussion is worth continuing. :-)
Again, try viewing this new covenant which Jesus introduced on the night of Passover before His crucifixion as a family thing. Then perhaps you can find deeper meaning in the parable of the talents and the servants, deeper than the number of coins banked and gained and taken to give to another. HINT: it is not about getting saved, it is about rewards for those entrusted with His Life. But to ‘get it’ you first have to understand how God’s Life gets into the dead soul of man. God remains Sovereign of His Creation ALL His creation, even His family members.
The post you are continuing to ignore further back in this exchanges was going to go into the people to whom Jesus addresses His words, and their point in the temporal arrangement divided by the cross. When Jesus was preaching the Kingdom arrived, He was preaching tot he Jews, bringing the Kingdom to the Jews, as He graphically illustrated with the woman who came begging for the healing of her daughter. when Jesus addressed His Disciples after His resurrection and before His ascension He gave them as members of His family a family command.
And the power to accomplish that He Promises would arrive 'not many days hence' (at Pentecost). When Jesus addressed Saul on the Road to Damascus, the Gospel was being preached by family members and Saul was persecuting the family. Jesus told Saul it is hard to keep kicking against the prickings of the Gospel preached. When Saul got born from Above, He took up the family business ...
pingaling
My mistake - I misread your statement “Christians are more than disciples” to mean “disciples are less than Christians”. (Now that WOULD have been an error, huh? But it’s not what you meant at all.)
Thank you for explaining, my friend, and please forgive my misunderstanding you.
Now I really must go. :-)
bE SAFE, AND THANKS FOR THE ENGAGING DISCUSSION!
Someone either believes in the power and perfection of the Holy Spirit, or they don't.
John 14:24He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words. And the word which you have heard, is not mine; but the Father's who sent me.
John 14:25These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you.
John 14:26But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.
John 21:24This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things, and hath written these things; and we know that his testimony is true.
John 21:25But there are also many other things which Jesus did ; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.
Scripture states that the Holy Spirit will teach the Apostles all things and will ". . . bring all things . . ." to the minds of the Apostles. Scripture also clearly states that there are many other things Christ did, so many the author uses the phrase, ". . . the world itself, I think, would not contain the books that should be written" to describe how much else was done.
We have a good bit that was written by people who were ordained by the Apostles and we know what those who were ordained by the Apostles learned was based on what the Apostles taught them, brought to the remembrance of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit. The Apostles taught those they ordained how to interpret Scriputure plus all those things that were not written down, the huge volume of what Christ did that does not appear in Scripture.
What those who were taught by and ordained by the Apostles handed down is identical to what the Catholic Church has always taught and still teaches including the fact that Christ left us a visible, organized, Church and the fact that the authority given the Apostles passes down to those they ordained. Then through those who the Apostles ordained to us through those who are ordained generation after generation.
As I said, someone either believes in the power and perfection of the Holy Spirit, or they don't.
Someone who believes in the power and perfection of the Holy Spirit knows the Holy Spirit protects the Truth as it passes down to us including the proper interpretation of what was written down as Scripture.
Those who deny the perfection and the power of the Holy Spirit by throwing Scripture in the garbage prove that while they believe in the perfection of anti-Christ, anti-Christian, Jewish Rabbis and are therefore Pharisees of the school of Jamnia, they absolutely refuse to accept the the power and perfection of the Holy Spirit. Like true Pharisees, they reject Christ because they demand a Savior of their own fashioning.
When someone denies the perfection of the Holy Spirit they’re both denying the Trinity and blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Christ tells us that a bad tree does not bear good fruit so anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit cannot understand and correctly interpret Scripture as blaspheming the Holy Spirit is not just the hallmark of a bad tree, it's the hallmark of the worst sort of bad tree. A tree that grows out of the sin Christ says cannot be forgiven in this life or the next.
What anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit has to say with regard to Christianity or Scripture is worthless even when, like Satan, they mix Scripture or a proper interpretation of Scripture in with their lies the same way good feed has rat poison mixed in to kill those who swallow it. Mixing the poison of Self and Self Alone into interpretation of Scripture is the same thing as mixing the poison into good feed and leads to the damnation of those who swallow it.
Like Satan, such folks quote Scripture. Like Satan they follow their Self and Self Alone rather than Christ. Like like Satan they lead others away from Christ and to their Self.
Whether they intend to lead others away from Christ or are simply themselves under the strong diabolical delusion Satan spreads makes no difference. Either way, such folks are Judas goats leading sheep to their own destruction.
Proof of the Truth of these facts is not only in Scripture, it’s staring everyone in this country in the face every day.
When there are no longer a sufficient number of faithful Catholics and other Christians in a society to resist those anxious to take the doctrine of Self and Self Alone to it’s logical conclusion, the society becomes a Pagan society exactly the why the United States has now officially embraced Paganism.
Have a nice day
Serve Rome, serve the Vatican which is making arrangements for the ET gods to whom your pope will bow. Serve Rome, and be served up by the non-Christian pope and his minions.
Keep it up, see if you can lead a few more souls to turn away from the truth in the Bible and follow your 'self and self alone' foolishness. EVERY Christian is in God's family and has the Holy Spirit indwelling them, so they are never alone, never following self. They are being raised up in the Way that they should go by the Spirit of the family within them. Paul explained that in minute detail, details which apparently are too tough for catholics to comprehend but simple enough for children. So some catholic sacrilege apologists bleat 'self and self alone', or the alternate foolishness catholic's like to bleat, 'sola scriptura'. Meanwhile, the Christians on this Planet hear the Shepard's voice and follow Him. They ignore the bleating of satan's little helpers.
That is our ASSURANCE that everything recorded in the scriptures is inspired and infallible..the word of God..
Scripture also clearly states that there are many other things Christ did, so many the author uses the phrase, ". . . the world itself, I think, would not contain the books that should be written" to describe how much else was done.
The exact quote is... John 21:25 Douay-Rheims Bible
But there are also many other things which Jesus DID ; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.
WORDS MEAN THINGS... Jesus DID many things..not taught other things or spoke other things, or practiced other things... .. this refers to His miracles
Everything God wanted us to know was recorded under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit...
Only about 15% or so of all Mormons will get to be with GOD the Father on Level One.
Thank you so much for sharing your insights and testimony, dear brother in Christ!
bump
Bkmk
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.