Why Is the Road to Destruction Wide and the Road to Salvation Narrow? A Meditation

Why Is the Road to Destruction Wide and the Road to Salvation Narrow? A Meditation on a Teaching by Jesus

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.

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 10:9 I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved: and he shall go in, and go out, and shall find pastures.
Mat 7:I3 13"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14"For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Not one word about works..or earning it..

Not one word about works or earning it . . .

WRONG !!!

Quote the entire passage instead of pretending a single verse is a summary of the whole.

Christ Himself makes it clear what single verse, out of context, sheep suits hide, too.

Matt. 7:14 How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life : and few there are that find it !
Matt. 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Matt. 7:16 By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?
Matt. 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Matt. 7:18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit.
Matt. 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire.
Matt. 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.
Matt. 7:21 Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven : but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matt. 7:22 Many will say to me in that day : Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name ?
Matt. 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me, you that work iniquity.
Matt. 7:24 Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock,
Matt. 7:25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.
Matt. 7:26 And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand,
Matt. 7:27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof.

The entire passage repeats the theme that someone has to bring forth good fruit.

Matt. 7:21 Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven : but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matt. 7:22 Many will say to me in that day : Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name ?WORKED)
Matt. 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me, you that work iniquity.

What is the will of the Father??

John 6:For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life,and I will raise him up on the last day."

>>I’m relieved to hear that. I fear that some, in protesting Catholicism, unwittingly reject the truth along with the false doctrine.

Its not just the Romans in this case. I heard the narrow path/wide path sermon all the time when I was Methodist. They tell you that salvation comes from faith and not works one week, then tell you that what you do or don’t do will send you to hell the next week. When you ask, they start spinning in circles because their official theology is salvation by faith alone, but their politics are of social justice, and that requires works so they preach works salvation to the members and sola fides to the newcomers.

But since they believe that you can “lose salvation”, then it boils down to a twisted doctrine of “faith through your free will saves you, but a lack of works (outside of the church, of course) condemns you.”

LOL, again with the single verse, out of context, sheep suit disguise.

Why not post all of John 6 ?

Including the part where Christ reiterates that His flesh and His blood are meat and drink indeed ?

Why not the portion of the same Chapter where Christ says he will raise up those who eat His flesh and drink His blood ?

Of course, folks are wise to the sheep disguise and the ravening wolves playing that single verse game aren't fooling anyone.

Here's a bit of the same chapter, those who actually care about Scripture should read the entire Chapter and then they'll see exactly how that out of context quote to which I replied is not the entire statement of His Will. Not by a long shot.

John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him ; and I will raise him up in the last day.
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets : And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard of the Father, and hath learned, cometh to me.
John 6:46 Not that any man hath seen the Father ; but he who is of God, he hath seen the Father.
John 6:47 Amen, amen I say unto you : He that believeth in me, hath everlasting life.
John 6:48 I am the bread of life.
John 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead.
John 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven ; that if any man eat of it, he may not die.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
John 6:52 If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever ; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.
John 6:53 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying : How can this man give us his flesh to eat ?
John 6:54 Then Jesus said to them :Amen, amen I say unto you : Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.
John 6:55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life : and I will raise him up in the last day.
John 6:56 For my flesh is meat indeed : and my blood is drink indeed.
John 6:57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.
John 6:58 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father ; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.
John 6:59 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.

And that is the end of the discourse... and what did Jesus say after that ????

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?
62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.
65 He went on to say, And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.,BR. 68 Simon Peter answered him “Lord, to whom shall we go? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE
69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

Your pope did not ask for THIS BREAD... he asked for the words of eternal life...

No dice, I see right through that sheep disguise.

Any way you frame it, slandering Christisns is slandering Christians and that's all that the wolves in sheeps clothing post, one slander of Christians after another.

There are a couple of clever wolves around with a bit better disguise, but the anti-Catholic crowd is by an large not the least bit Christian. They're just Self worshipers who having blasphemed the Holy Spirit are now blind and reaping the dianbolical results of their blasphemy.

Proof of that blindness is that someone can read what Christ Himself clearly says and totally miss the fact that those present knew Christ wasn't talking about bread or they wouldn't have abandoned Christ. So, the thinly disguised wolves follow those who abandoned Christ right out of His presence while shouting over their shoulder that they're actually following him.

Sad, very sad.

A man whose religion is based upon opposition to another’s religion is a man who’s in trouble.

I don't know of anyone whose religion is based o n opposing other people's religion.

I have seen that accusation lobbed at many on FR, but it's simply an accusation made by Catholics against non-Catholics in an attempt to discredit the non-Catholics.

Those who reject the false doctrine of Catholicism aren't in any danger of rejecting Biblical truth since they have the Bible to refer back to.

...” slandering Christisns is slandering Christians”....

What makes you think they’re Christians? How do you know? If they were Christians why would they oppose God’s written word?....why would they claim that which is not supported in Scripture?...why would they bow down to images and various other practices God forbids....?

Be sure you know their status in the Lord before you call slander slander when it is something else altogther.

Right, Tinkerbell, we doeth His Will without our body and in no way interact with the physical world, we just say the magic words.

Then Self and Self Alone Magic Words Salvation is your story and you're sticking to it.

So obviously what Scripture says doesn't mean much to people who rely on their magic words.

In FR’s Religion forum are many posts by people who will oppose only Catholicism’s errors. More than once I’ve been accused of being a Catholic merely because I quoted the Scriptures on a subject in which Catholics are right and the poster is wrong.

Giving the benefit of the doubt, I ascribe such behavior to vehement opposition to the false doctrines of Catholicism. But that won’t excuse opposition to the Scriptures.

And so, yes, I’ll get in their way, lest they lead others astray in an unthinking, moblike opposition that escapes one error only to fall into another.

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