Mother Teresa – A Lost Soul?
Dear Friend,
If you research the influence of Mother Teresa, you will find that it is worldwide. In many different languages, you will find books, magazines, articles, DVDs, CDs, and even Concertos made to honor her and to praise her work for humanity. Some Christian pastors refer to her life as an example of Christian living. The unique aura that surrounds the person and work of Mother Teresa makes it difficult to truly analyze her life and beliefs. This analysis, however, needs to be made as the lives of countless millions of people are involved. Therefore, with compassion and deep concern, we have addressed the question: Was Mother Teresa a lost soul?
We ask that you respond in prayer and forward the article to others. We request also, if possible, that you post it on your Webpage.
In the Lord’s loving kindness and grace,
Richard Bennett
Mother Teresa—A Lost Soul?
In many countries, Gonhxa Agnes Bojaxhiu, better known as the highly esteemed Mother Teresa, is being presented as a role model. Since many people now accept the notion that all religions are legitimate ways to God, for them Mother Teresa is currently one of the best standards. She believed that all people can go to heaven by way of their own religious beliefs. People rationalize that if good deeds made Mother Teresa acceptable to God, some good deeds in their own lives will help secure their confidence that they, too, will one day reach heaven. Mother Teresa can easily become a reputable, across-the-board role model for those who hold these kinds of assumptions. Moreover, people are very reluctant to state anything against a person so recognized for an extraordinarily devoted life full of many good deeds. Consequently, examination of her life and her message can be a very sensitive issue. Mother Teresa’s life and message, however, must be measured against what our Lord Jesus Christ has said in His written Word, particularly because she finished her life spiritually bankrupt, as she from her early life on admitted to walking in spiritual darkness.[1] This repeated admission must be acknowledged for what it is in the light of Bible truth.
Darkness From the Beginning
Gonhxa Bojaxhiu, born in 1910, grew up in a very pious Catholic family in a fervently Catholic parish in Albania. Nevertheless, it took her six years to come to her decision to become a nun, which she did at age eighteen. By her dedication and devotion, she was convinced that she loved Jesus and had loved him since a child. She wrote, “From the age of 5½ years,—when first I received Him [through her first Holy Communion]—the love for souls has been within—It grew with the years—until I came to India—with the hope of saving many souls.”[2] On her way to India for the first time, she wrote home, “Pray for your missionary, that Jesus may help her to save as many immortal souls as possible from the darkness of unbelief.”[3] After nine years in India, she wrote to a Jesuit priest, who had been her confessor,
“Do not think that my spiritual life is strewn with roses—that is the flower which I hardly ever find on my way. Quite the contrary, I have more often as my companion ‘darkness.’ And when the night becomes very thick—and it seems to me as if I will end up in hell—then I simply offer myself to Jesus…I need much grace, much of Christ’s strength to persevere in trust, in that blind love which leads only to Jesus Crucified….I would not wish at any price to give up my sufferings.”[4]
There is but one Lord Jesus Christ and one Gospel as the Apostle warned believers.[5] Tragically, her private writings reveal that this utterly devoted woman never got beyond the darkness of the false gospel and “another Jesus” of the Catholic Church.
The Road to Perdition
In April of 1942, Mother Teresa made a private vow, “I made a vow to God, binding under [pain of] mortal sin, to give to God anything that He may ask, ‘Not to refuse Him anything.’”[6] Her later explanation was that she “wanted to give God something very beautiful…without reservation.”[7] Her work in Calcutta became that “something beautiful” she wanted to give to God. Disastrously, she did not know that the one who was calling her to this endeavor was not the Lord Jesus Christ, but “another Jesus,” to which her private writings give abundant testimony. In the time that it took to convince her superiors that she was to do this work, she wrote much to them. It is from these and other of her private letters that her regress into deeper darkness is visible.
Her first call had been at age twelve when she knew she wanted to “go out and give the life of Christ to the people in the missionary countries.”[8] At age thirty-six, she received “a call within my vocation” which occurred in 1946 during a train ride from Calcutta to Loreto. Of it she later wrote, “On the train journey to Darjeeling on 10th September 1946 is where the M.C. [Missionaries of Charity] begins—in the depths of God’s infinite longing to love and to be loved[9]….It was on this day in 1946 in the train to Darjeeling that God gave me the ‘call within a call’ to satiate the thirst of Jesus by serving Him in the poorest of the poor.”[10]
The “Voice” that gave this call spoke to her many, many times following the train ride, always insisting that she start a work among the poorest people. For example, she testifies in her January 13, 1947 letter to Archbishop Périer,
“One day at Holy Com [Communion], I heard the same voice very distinctly—‘I want Indian nuns, Victims of my love, who would be Mary & Martha. Who would be so very united to me as to radiate my love on souls….The thirst you had for souls brought you so far.—Are you afraid to take one more step for your Spouse—for me—for souls?…You did not die for souls—that is why you don’t care what happens to them.—Your heart was never drowned in sorrow as it was My Mother’s. We both gave our all for souls—and you?…your vocation is to love and suffer and save souls and by taking this step you will fulfill my Heart’s desire for you—That is your vocation.’…this voice frightened me…I asked Our Mother Mary to ask Jesus to remove all this from me. The more I prayed—the clearer grew the voice in my heart…‘Little one give me souls—give me the souls of the poor little street children—How it hurts—if you only knew—to see these poor children soiled with sin. I long for the purity of their love.—If you would only answer my call—and bring me these souls—draw them away from the hands of the evil one….For them I long—them I love—Wilt thou refuse?’”[11]
And again,
“‘My little one—come—come—carry me into the holes of the poor.—Come be My light—I cannot go alone—they don’t know Me—so they don’t want Me. You come—go amongst them, carry Me with you into them.—How I long to enter their holes—their dark unhappy homes. Come be their victim.—In your immolation—in your love for Me—they will see Me, know Me, want Me. Offer more sacrifices—smile more tenderly, pray more fervently and all the difficulties will disappear.’”[12]
Not only did she hear over and over again what she referred to as the “Voice,” always with the same content to the message, but she disclosed in a letter to the Archbishop that she had had three visions, of which she reported,
“1) I saw a very big crowd—all kinds of people—very poor and children were there also. They all had their hands lifted towards me—standing in their midst. They called out ‘Come, come, save us—bring us to Jesus.’
2) Again that great crowd—I could see great sorrow and suffering in their faces—I was kneeling near Our Lady, who was facing them.—…I heard her say ‘Take care of them—they are mine—bring them to Jesus—Carry Jesus to them—Fear not. Teach them to say the Rosary—the family Rosary and all will be well.—Fear not—Jesus and I will be with you and your children.’
3) The same great crowd—they were covered in darkness. Yet I could see them. Our Lord on the Cross. Our Lady at a little distance from the Cross—and myself as a little child in front of her. Her left hand was on my left shoulder—and her right hand was holding my right arm. We were both facing the Cross. Our Lord said—‘I have asked you. They have asked you and she, My Mother has asked you. Will you refuse to do this for me—to take care of them, to bring them to me?’
I answered—You know, Jesus, I am ready to go at a moment’s notice.…Since [then]—I have heard nothing nor seen anything, but I know that what ever I have written—it is true.—As I told you, I do not build on this—but I know it is true.”[13]
God’s Written Word Alone is Truth for Life
The highest authority that the true believer knows is God’s written word, the Scriptures. The Lord’s strong clear declaration is: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”[14] Since God’s written word alone is breathed out by Him,[15] it and it alone is the believer’s standard of behavior. It cannot be otherwise. Any voice contradicting Scripture is to be accounted as a liar and a deceiver, the voice of the evil one. It is heartbreaking to see how Mother Teresa, as a young girl, was led into a false gospel practiced by her pious Catholic family and taught to them by the Catholic Church. From there she became a nun desiring to bring souls out of darkness into believing faith in the Catholic Church. It is even more distressing to read of her being approached by a “Voice,” “another Jesus,” who brought an unbiblical message accompanied by three visions—visions to which she with great sacrifices blindly devoted herself. None of this could make her right with God, but she did not know it.
Tragically, she through her blind faith in Catholic doctrine and rituals was rendered unprotected against these stronger forms of spiritual deception that had beset her. Nor were her superiors of final protection, for all the while that her request to set up an order was being considered, she and they were believing, practicing Catholics—sincerely and unquestioningly living out a “gospel” that cannot save.[16] While Mother Teresa believed Catholic doctrine, she remained in darkness. She wrote that the darkness increasingly impacted her when, having set up the Missionaries of Charity, she began to run her newly erected order, i.e., the “something beautiful” on which the “Voice” had insisted. Warned by the “Voice” that she would suffer much, she attested to having expected physical sufferings, but she seems not to have expected that she would find herself so alone—abandoned by her “Spouse,” as it were. As she stated in a letter in 1961,
“When I help my Sisters draw very close to Jesus—when I teach them to love Him with a deep—devoted—personal love—I long to be able to do the same.—The Sisters in front of my very eyes I see them love God—come so close to Him—grow daily so much like Him—and I, Father—am just ‘alone’—empty—excluded—and not wanted.”[17]
She wrote yet again to Neuner,
“How cold—how empty—how painful is my heart.—Holy communion—Holy Mass—all the holy things of spiritual life—of the life of Christ in me—are all so empty—so cold—so unwanted. The physical situation of my poor, left in the streets unwanted, unloved, unclaimed—are the true picture of my own spiritual life, of my love for Jesus….”[18]
It is clearly evident throughout her private writings that she did not have in her heart “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[19] As the vision of establishing an order was realized and lived out, the foundational issue with which she was increasingly faced was that of the object of her hope and faith. Would it deliver? Her personal writings chronicle the fact that it did deliver the promised suffering. But on the salvation promised after the suffering,[20] it cannot deliver, for the Bible, the written Word of God, states otherwise.
Denial of the Gospel
Mother Teresa wrote numerous times of “Jesus”, consistently finishing many of her letters and documents with “Yours in Jesus, M Teresa MC.” Yet, she never mentions herself at all as a sinner trusting on Jesus Christ for salvation. Rather, she has His role and her role reversed, in that He needs her to sacrifice herself to save lives for Him; but she professes that she neither needs nor wants His love. The purpose of her work is stated in the founding “Decree of Erection” for her congregation:
“To quench the thirst of Our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls by the observance of the three Vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, and of an additional fourth Vow to devote themselves with abnegation to the care of the poor and needy who, crushed by want and destitution, live in conditions unworthy of the human dignity.”[21]
Clearly, the founding purpose of her congregation is diametrically opposed to the Gospel message that by faith alone a convicted sinner trusts solely on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. For Teresa and the religious order she established, the salvation of souls was to be obtained by the observance of four specific vows purporting to aid in quenching the insatiable thirst of the Lord Jesus Christ.
From Teresa’s private correspondence, it is abundantly clear that she thinks she loves Jesus. Lost in living out the imaginations of her own deceived heart,[22] she appears to be unaware that her message is a flagrant, clear cut denial of the true Gospel. Her writing shows that she absolutely did not know that being right with God is God’s gift through Christ Jesus’ perfect life and sacrifice alone. No good works are part of salvation, as Scripture so clearly states, “for by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast.”[23] In stating its primary goal, the founding decree of Mother Teresa’s congregation shows that neither she who started this work nor the Catholic authorities who gave it Catholic legitimacy knew anything whatsoever of the glorious Lord Christ—as if He needed us to quench His thirst.
Holding this completely unscriptural view of the Lord Jesus Christ and teaching it to others is an extremely serious sin, as the Scripture warns, “woe unto them…that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.”[24] That Teresa had been deceived by “another Jesus” is thoroughly attested to by her own writing—for her founding statement and the documents leading up to it contradict Who Christ is. This “Voice”, which she thought was Jesus, called her to be his light to the poor and beyond, and equipped her with a false gospel to live and perpetrate, which she did to her utmost. That false gospel is enshrined in the foundation statement of her Missionaries of Charity charter.
It is sobering to remember that the Lord said, “not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”[25] The Lord made the will of the Father abundantly clear when He said, “This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent.”[26] He explained also in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican that as sinners we come to God with the attitude of the publican who cried out, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”[27] True assurance and peace with God is absolutely God’s gift, as the Scripture so wonderfully explains, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”[28]
A Foundation Built on the Sand of Suffering and Good Works
The concept that good deeds make us acceptable to God was foundational to Mother Teresa. The AmericanCatholic.org website explains how she visited Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 7, 1981, to help the Franciscan community there launch a celebration of the 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Francis of Assisi. She was asked why St. Francis had such an impact on her life. She explained that an incident in the life of St. Francis that most appealed to her was his kissing of the leper. According to tradition, one day St. Francis had passed a leper on the road, too repulsive at first even to greet. “But then he came back and embraced him,” Mother Teresa related. “That was the beginning of St. Francis. That act of surrender made St. Francis…. After that he was ready to give anything!”[29] This purpose to save souls “by surrender” was in fact what Mother Teresa wrote in the explanation of the Constitutions of her order of nuns.
“True love is surrender. The more we love the more we surrender. If we really love souls we must be ready to take their place, to take their sins upon us and face the anger of God. It is only thus that we make ourselves their means and them our end. We must be living holocausts, for the world needs us as such.”[30]
What Mother Teresa wrote and lived is in fact official teaching of the Catholic Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it in this way,
“In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by h
is grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them. In this way they have attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.”[31]
In total contrast, Scripture declares that all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags.[32] Working for one’s own salvation, and the salvation of others, is explicitly ruled out by the Word of God. Grace, in Scripture, is shown to be absolutely God’s gift, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”[33]
Mother Teresa’s Lifelong Experience
The book much quoted here, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, has been published. It consists primarily of the correspondence of Teresa over a period of sixty-six years.[34] It reveals her total lack of knowledge of the Gospel. The letters from her own hand make known that for nearly fifty years she felt no presence of God whatsoever in her life. The crisis seems to have started at the time she began tending “the poor and dying” in Calcutta. It never grew less except for a five-week period in 1959. Eleven years after the founding of her congregation, she wrote to Father Picachy of her horrendous despair,
“They say people in hell suffer eternal pain because of the loss of God—they would go through all that suffering if they had just a little hope of possessing God.—In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss—of God not wanting me—of God not being God—of God not really existing (Jesus, please forgive my blasphemies—I have been told to write everything). That darkness that surrounds me on all sides—I can’t lift my soul to God—no light or inspiration enters my soul.—I speak of love for souls—of tender love for God—words pass through my words [sic, lips]—and I long with a deep longing to believe in them.—What do I labor for? If there be no God—there can be no soul.—If there is no soul then Jesus—You also are not true.—Heaven, what emptiness—not a single thought of Heaven enters my mind—for there is no hope.—I am afraid to write all those terrible things that pass in my soul.—They must hurt You.”[35]
Poignantly we realize Teresa did not know that the Lord alone is the source of everlasting life. Jesus Christ is the incarnate reality in Whom alone we find the Father and everlasting life. This is the reason why the Scriptures continually emphasize the truth that, “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”[36] The Lord God has appointed Him as the one and only Mediator and has ordained that all blessings shall come to souls through Him alone. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”[37] The Bible not only teaches Who the Lord Jesus Christ is, but it also excludes all others from His roles. To put forward other persons as ways to obtain God’s blessings or to purport to assist Christ in salvation is in fact a denial of His person. Pathetically, this is exactly what Mother Teresa consistently taught and did in her life. Thus to Archbishop Périer she wrote not only of going in the name Mary and for her glory, but also she mentions Mary’s desire for the conversion at Fatima,
“Your Grace [Archbishop Périer], please entrust the whole thing to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.—She is doing wonders in other lands.—She will do this for your Archdiocese.—She will take special care of your Missionaries of Charity, for in serving the poor, our aim is to bring them through Mary to Jesus, using the family Rosary as the main weapon. What desires she spoke of at Fatima about the conversion of sinners. We want to do Our Lady’s part in the slums.—Let me go in her name and for her glory. With her for Our Mother, and for her greater glory, Our Lord will not allow the work of love and self-sacrifice to be a failure—from His point of view.”[38]
The basic soul damning message of Fatima still lived out in Roman Catholicism is expressed in the words of the apparition, “Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice.”[39] The Lord Jesus Christ was the Perfect One, the only one who could make the one acceptable sacrifice for sinners. Such a work in His words “is finished.”[40] He the Christ is the Sole Lamb of God, “there is no more offering for sin.”[41] Mother Teresa’s upholding of Mary’s name and glory, and the blasphemous message of Fatima show just how deeply she held to Roman Catholic teaching. How appalling it is to read her words that she wanted to live and die for the ‘Immaculate Heart’. She wrote,
“Today—my God—what tortures of loneliness—I wonder how long will my heart suffer this….Let me not draw back from the sacrifice I have made of my free choice and conviction. Immaculate Heart of my Mother, have pity on thy poor child. For the love of thee I want to live and die an M.C. [Missionaries of Charity].”[42]
With her mind locked into such veneration and dedication to the “Immaculate Heart”, it is no wonder that she also wrote of the horrendous darkness and emotional pain that she suffered even while still asking Mary to be her Mother in the darkness,
“Please pray for me—the longing for God is terribly painful and yet the darkness is becoming greater. What contradiction there is in my soul.—The pain within is so great—that I really don’t feel anything for all the publicity and the talk of the people. Please ask Our Lady to be my Mother in this darkness.”[43]
In her letters, Teresa has given first hand testimony to the agony of living out the false gospel she had been taught. What is so grave is that in spite of all her prolonged agony in spiritual emptiness, she leaves no evidence so far that she ever questioned any of her authorities. Rather, all evidence now available is quite the opposite. Unlike Martin Luther who in his agony turned to the Bible, Teresa in her life turned to her superiors and confessors. Like Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits four hundred years prior, she also turned to Catholic mystics. Nor does she give any evidence, so far, of even having known anything about truth. Apparently, the pain of living a lie did not spur her to seek truth, for so far it has not appeared as an issue in her letters—rather, only the agony of desperate aloneness. Sadly all the evidence that has been documented points to the fact that Teresa had not received a love of the truth.[44]
True believers have the “Spirit of truth,”[45] and through that Spirit, a vital bond of union with Jesus Christ. If anyone has Christ as Savior, he or she has the Holy Spirit as Indweller. Anyone who claims to belong to Jesus Christ but gives no evidence of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit lacks the indisputable proof to establish his or her claim. No test could be more easily applied and none is more decisive, as Scripture explains; “now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”[46] The consolation of the Holy Spirit is so basic to Christian life that the Apostle Paul calls it “everlasting consolation;” “now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace….”[47] For those who are truly saved, “everlasting consolation” follows on the everlasting love, the eternal redemption, and the everlasting life that is found in the Gospel of grace.
Embracing False Ecumenism
Over and above her belief that the salvation of souls was achieved through religious vows and quenching the thirst of Jesus, she had strong convictions of the usefulness of all religions. She believed that every person is a child of God and all can find God through any religion. In her presentation at the United Nations in 1985, she said, “No color, no religion, no nationality should come between us, we are all children of God….When we destroy an unborn child, we destroy God.”[48] “The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved—they are Jesus in disguise. … [Through] poor people I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus.”[49] She also said, “Every AIDS victim is Jesus in a pitiful disguise; Jesus is in everyone….”[50] Naveen Chawla, Mother Teresa’s longtime friend and biographer, once asked her, “Do you convert?” She replied, “Of course I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu or a better Muslim or a better Protestant. Once you’ve found God, it’s up to you to decide how to worship him.”[51] It mattered not to Teresa that God set the manner in which we are to worship Him. As the Lord decreed, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”[52] Teresa accepted all religions and did not put her faith in the Lord of glory alone.
In 1986, Bob Bush, a former Jesuit priest, confronted her on this very issue at the headquarters of her congregation in Calcutta. He said to her, “You and the people in your houses for the dying must realize that a person is made right before God only by trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for sinners. You must be born again by the Holy Spirit and trust on the Lord alone.”[53] She would not accept this message, but continued believing that all religions bring people to God.
On the Way to Becoming “St Teresa of Calcutta”
Teresa spoke of herself becoming a Saint in the Roman Catholic sense. She wrote “If I ever become a Saint—I will surely be one of ‘darkness.’ I will continually be absent from Heaven—to light the light of those in darkness on earth.”[54] This inflated idea of her mission after death is an outright blasphemy against the sole assignment of Jesus Christ. His unique mission is to give “light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”[55] The Lord directly announced that He is “the light of the world” to banish spiritual darkness. He came as the light-revealing God, exposing mankind, so that all who believe on Him should be delivered from the darkness and the ruin of sin. Mother Teresa’s statement is not only offensively sacrilegious, but it shows her lack of any real understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ as the “Sole Fountain of Light” for the darkness of the world.
The process to sainthood for Teresa begun by Pope John Paul continues speedily. The very procedure towards canonization as a Roman Catholic saint makes her life and message all the more appealing to Catholics and to people across the world. While calling her up in prayer (which according to Catholic teaching, should take place after only she is recognized as a Saint), it is obvious that Catholics are already attempting to contact her through prayer as has been reported in Time magazine, October 5, 2007. Catholic priest V. M. Thomas was scheduled for surgery on September 6, 2007.[56] At his celebration of Mass, he asked those present to pray to Mother Teresa on his behalf. When he returned to the hospital for surgery, x-rays indicated his kidney stone had disappeared. This purported miracle is now being submitted to the Vatican to help validate what has been called Teresa’s fast track to sainthood.[57]
The Vatican not only publicly declares who are Saints, but it encourages mankind to contact these dead persons. The Vatican officially teaches, “Communion with the dead…Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.” “We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.”[58] Supposed communion with the dead and deification of the dead has held a prominent place in nearly every system of paganism. The dead are consulted to give help to the living, which is an alluring charm of the occult. The practice of communicating with the spirits of the departed is sinful, since the Scripture forbids it, “there shall not be found among you any one…that useth divination…or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer [one who calls up the dead].”[59]
The Consequences of Following Mother Teresa
Mankind loves darkness more than light as the Lord Himself declared, “this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light….”[60] Darkness is the emblem of ignorance, iniquity, error, superstition—whatever is opposite to truth and godliness. The darkness, superstition, gloom, and emptiness of Mother Teresa’s teachings, and of the Vatican upholding her, are unspeakably serious—so serious that if she died still believing the Catholic dogma she had consistently taught, then the consequence of believing and teaching a false gospel is her lot after death.
How dreadful it is to have religious feelings and yet have no saving relationship with the Lord. True believers adhere to the all-holy God and His written Word alone as their ultimate authority. Before Him, according to His written Word, persons are saved by grace alone through faith alone. Those who follow Mother Teresa’s standards deny these basic biblical truths. They are similar to the devout Pharisees in the Lord’s own time, who followed their religious traditions yet would not accept Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ of God. The painful, yet essential, message for these people is the same as the Lord gave to those Pharisees, “I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.”[61] If one denies that Jesus is who He claims to be, then one must deny His message. His message is simple but binding. As the Lord Himself declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”[62] Knowledge of Jesus Christ is the knowledge of God.
Since many are determined to hold to “a faith” like Mother Teresa’s, they are substituting a lie for genuine, saving faith in the Lord of Glory. How terrible is the conclusion of this unbelief, “ye shall die in your sins.” The one who persists in his or her rejection of the Christ of God will die in his or her sins, unpardoned and totally hopeless before the Lord God. Yet, how unimpressed are many by these fearful words, “shall die in your sins.”
Sadly misguided, there are those who say that it is harsh and unkind to speak of the future destiny of Catholics and those such as Mother Teresa. The example of Jesus Christ, however, teaches us better. The Lord did not hesitate to press this dreadful truth, nor should we. In the light of God’s Word, for us to remain silent would be dishonest and unloving. This truth needs to be proclaimed today. Men and women will not turn to Christ until they recognize their imminent danger of the wrath to come.
If a person passes out of this world “dead in sins,” then of necessity, he or she will yet be cast into the lake of fire, “This is the second death.”[63] The Apostle Paul clearly outlined this pending peril, “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[64] How completely shattered is the impoverished hope that believes that every one is a child of God and all can find God through any religion. How devastating it is to expect that our good works can earn salvation. We entreat the Lord God that this ignorance be removed from many minds and hearts and that the Holy Spirit bring to them life, conviction, and true faith.
Both Old and New Testaments tell us that we are spiritually dead to God. Adam’s sin brought death.[65] The Prophet Ezekiel states, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”[66] The Apostle Paul says, “the wages of sin is death.”[67] The great Gospel message is that which the Apostle Peter proclaimed: “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from our fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”[68]
Christ Jesus has purchased everlasting life for true believers. He alone has authority and power to give life. His words of assurance are, “I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
Richard Bennett of “Berean Beacon” Webpage: http://temp.bereanbeacon.org
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[1] Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, the Private Writings of the “Saint of Calcutta”, edited and with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M. C. (USA: Doubleday, 2007) p. 20; also Ch. 8–13. Mother Teresa hereafter.
[2] Ibid., p.15
[3] Letter to Blagovijest (Catholic magazine in Skopje, her home town), March 25, 1929, Mother Teresa, p. 15
[4] Letter to Fr. Franjo Jambreković, S. J., February 8, 1937, Mother Teresa, p. 20
[5] II Corinthians 11:4
[6] Letter to Archbishop Périer, September 1, 1959, Mother Teresa, p. 28
[7] Letter to Fr. Picachy, April 4, 1960, Mother Teresa, p.29.
[8] Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God (NY: Harper & Row, 1971) p. 84, quoted in Mother Teresa, p. 14
[9] Letter to Missionaries of Charity Sisters, April 24, 1996, Mother Teresa, p. 40
[10] Letter to Co-Workers, Christmas, 1996, Ibid.
[11] Mother Teresa, p. 48 Underlining in these quotations indicate the words of the “Voice” in the original.
[12] Letter to Archbishop Périer, December 3, 1947, Mother Teresa, p. 98
[13] Ibid., p. 99
[14] Isaiah 8:20
[15] II Timothy 3:16
[16] Brian Kolodiejchuk, Postulator for the cause of Canonization of Blessed Theresa of Calcutta, comments, “His [Archbishop Périer] decision was not based on the extraordinary phenomena that Mother Teresa had experienced but rather on the depth of her life of prayer, her obedience and zeal, and his judgment that her blueprint and rules proposed a concrete solution to a critical need in the Church.” Mother Teresa, Pp. 102-103.
[17] Letter to Fr. Joseph Neuner, October 16, 1961, Mother Teresa, p. 222
[18] Letter to Fr. Neuner, May 12, 1962, Mother Teresa, p. 232
[19] II Corinthians 4:6
[20] Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994), Para. 1477
[21] Mother Teresa, pp. 138-139
[22] Jeremiah 17:9
[23] Ephesians 2:8-9
[24] Isaiah 5:20
[25] Matthew 7:21
[26] John 6:29
[27] Luke 18:13
[28] Romans 4:4-5
[29] http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Teresa/Teresa_Assisi.asp 10/15/2007
[30] Mother Teresa. Quoted from Explanation of the Original Constitutions of the M. C. Sisters written by Mother M. Teresa, M.C., undated, Mother Teresa, pp. 331-332
[31] Catechism, Para. 1477. Emphasis not in original.
[32] Isaiah 64:6, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
[33] Romans 4:4-5
[34] The process of canonization requires that everything known about the person be collected and reviewed by the proper canonization authorities. The letters and documents in this book are part of that process.
[35] Letter to Father Picachy, September 1959, Mother Teresa, pp. 192-193
[36] Acts 4:12
[37] I Corinthians 3:11
[38] Letter to Archbishop Périer Nov 7 1947, Mother Teresa p 94
[39] http://www.circleofprayer.com/fatima-messages.html 11/3/2007
[40] John 19:30.
[41] Hebrews 10:18.
[42] Journal, February 28, 1949, Mother Teresa, p. 134
[43] Letter to Archbishop Périer, January 29, 1958, Mother Teresa, p. 174
[44] John 14:6; 8:31-32; II Thessalonians 2:7-10.
[45] John 14:17
[46] Romans 8:9
[47] II Thessalonians 2:16
[48] Christian News, Nov. 11, 1985, p. 17
[49] Time Magazine 12/4/89, pp. 11,13
[50] Time Magazine 1/13/86
[51] “Mother Teresa Touched Other Faiths”, Associated Press, Sept. 7, 1997
[52] John 4:24
[53] Recorded telephone conversation with Bob Bush 9/27/2007
[54] Letter to Father Joseph Neuner, March 6, 1962, Mother Teresa, p. 1
[55] Luke 1:79
[56] The 10th anniversary of Teresa’ death
[57] “Mother Teresa and the Kidney Stone”, www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1668857,00.html?xid 10/8/2007
[58] Catechism, Para 958 and Para 2683 respectively
[59] Deuteronomy 18:10-11
[60] John 3:19
[61] John 8:24
[62] John 14:6
[63] Revelation 20:14
[64] II Thessalonians 1:7-8
[65] Genesis 2:17
[66] Ezekiel 18:20
[67] Romans 6:23
[68] I Peter 1:18-19
