Tell that to Saint Peter when God used Saint Paul to set him straight.I suppose he “bordering on heresy” too. What does God’s Word say? (Jn.14:6).
Peter was not teaching false doctrine. Peter was making a mistake in an area discipline. Disciplines and doctrines are not the same thing. Disciplines are rules. Doctrines are truths.
God did not send Paul. Paul was a bishop who was summoned to the Council of Jerusalem like every other bishop of that day. Like every bishop of the time, he was given the floor to express his concerns and he did.
Observe the narrative very carefully. Paul never addresses Peter by his given name, Simon. He always addresses him by his title, Cephas. Among our people, this is only done when there is acknowledgement of authority and the right of office. Paul, while making his case for the gentiles, is careful not to tread on the office of Peter as the Rock. Paul never accuses Peter of false doctrines.
What does Pope Francis say? (
Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven, The Independent, December 10, 2013) If there are Atheists who go to heaven, I’m sure that Pope Francis would agree that there are many “heretics” who go there as well. One can have a high I.Q. and all the book knowledge in the world, and still be dead wrong (opus citatum: Stephen Hawking, “So here’s how it all happened without God…”) Shhh! A moment of silence please. President Obama is speaking at the Mandela Funeral in Johannesberg. Wow! Just look at all the teleprompters.
Actually what Pope Francis said is not quite this. But if you want to go there, let’s address it from the point of view of solid moral theology.
No one is required to violate his conscience in order to get to heaven. That’s where Pope Francis is coming from.
If a man believes that X is the highest good, but he does Y because you tell him to o Y; even you’re right and Y is a higher good than X, the fact is that he chose Y not because he believed it was a higher good, but because it pleases you. In that case, he has elevated you to a god and has failed to do what he believes is a higher good in order to please you. This kind of choice is not pleasing to God.
While man is naturally ordered toward the higher good and while man has a moral duty to seek the higher good, there is never a guarantee that man will always find it. Human nature is very complex, as is the human mind. So if a man dies while in search, but not having become convinced that he has found it, he can be saved, because of the good that he has achieved and because of his desire to find the ultimate good, which we already know, but the atheist does not yet know.
On the other hand, if a man is dishonest and chooses not to search so as not to find, then he signs his own death sentence. This is the big difference.
Our theology is not so black and white that it condemns people who are in search of truth, even if they have not arrived. At the end of the day, faith is a two way street. Man must search, but as Augustine says, God must find him first and God must give the gift of faith. Faith is a gift that God gives at different times and in different measures, because only He knows our hearts, what is good for us and when.
I’m impressed that you know the hearts of these men so well. I thought the secrets of the heart and conscience were known only to God, the individual and those with whom he shares them.
Are you saying that you know for a fact that the pope is a heretic?
