| Letter#51 "We're
All Making for the Same Place"
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| My dear Mr. Isaacs: |
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| It surprised me to
learn that you think "after all is said and done, it makes no difference what
religious denomination people belong to if they are sincere, so long as persons born Jews
remain Jews, and persons born Christians remain Christians, as we're all making for the
same place." I wonder by what standard of judgement, if any, you reasoned yourself into such a God-denying conclusion? Surely you did not use the Old Testament as your standard, as every Jew should. I am confident that if you had done so, you would not have found anything in the Books of Moses that warrants such indifferentism. The Mosaic Law teaches Oneness with a big O. It has but one God; one chosen people of God; one priesthood and series of sacrifices of God; one religious creed of God's making; and but one God- ordered ceremonial system. Obedience to the Mosaic Law was mandatory; violation of it being punishable by the priests and judges, according to the will of the One True God. Hence our fathers of old in Israel did consider that there is a great "difference what religious denomination people belonged to," as they knew the religion of Israel to be the one and the only existing religion of Almighty God. And it remained the one true religion until the priesthood of Aaron, and the sacrifices, were no more, when it was displaced by the religion of the New Covenant. All other religions than Judaism (of which a remnant still exists) and the Christian religion are man-made. Your un-Jewish declaration ought not to have surprised me, considering that you believe Jews are Jews, and Christians are Christians by birth. The teachings of Moses and of Jesus warrant no such conclusion. Reception into the Covenant of Abraham, traced through the male line, comes through circumcision, "The soul of the uncircumcised child shall be cut off from his people" (Gen. 17:11- 14); whereas reception into the Body of Christ is through baptism, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned" (St. Mark 16:16). Religion is a sacred thing, and indifference as to whether it be of God or of man, is as unsound a conclusion as is lack of concern whether man obeys or disobeys its mandates. Religion, reduced to its simplest term, is the principle that binds man in conscience to God. It is the virtue that causes man reverently to worship and obey God, his Creator and moral Lawmaker, according to the will of God. It is also an inward, heartfelt dependence upon, fear and love of God, expressed by man through the purity of his life, and the performance of charitable deeds in behalf of the poor, widows, orphans, the sick, etc. That is the sense in which St. James defines it in his Epistle (1:27), wherein this Bishop of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem made plain that faith must be expressed in works, without which it is dead. God's religion came from God, and to God it makes a mighty difference whether you or I belong to His denomination or one not of His making. Ignorance of the law is an excuse in religion; hence persons sincerely "making for the same place," though travelling along the wrong road, are not culpable. Though that assumes they have not been shown the right road to their destination, as I have endeavored to show you through my letters. What I have said in this paragraph may be reduced to this God's religion is of God, and it came to the world directly from God through two great personages, Moses and Jesus one for a period of time that has expired; and through the other from thence on, to continue until the end of the world. The principle of religious indifference, which permeates the intellectual atmosphere of our time, is of Protestant and not of Jewish origin. It has caused Protestant Church after Protestant Church to drop those Catholic doctrinal beliefs, to which Protestantism adhered from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, even though it repudiated the Mother Church. The result has been that the difference between the non-Catholic denominations have become, and are still further becoming, so slight that the choice between them is less and less doctrinal, and more and more a choice of ministers, according to their preaching ability, sincerity and influence, and the possibility of making the desired social contacts. Thus the principle on oneness, demanded by God and called for in the Bible (held to be the Protestant rule of faith), which calls for "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. 4:5), is more and more a thing of the past in nearly all of the hundreds of Protestant denominations. This Prof. George Herbert Betts, of the Northwestern University (Methodist), definitely proved in a book called, "The Belief of 700 Ministers." It contains a tabulation of replies to 56 questions received from 500 ministers and 200 Protestant theological schools. The following percentage of them denied or were uncertain of these basic Christian truths - the omnipotence of God, 13%; the Mosaic story of creation, 53%; miracles, 32%; the inspiration of the Bible, 45%; revelations as recorded in the Old Testament, 44%; baptism as essential to becoming a Christian, 56%; Jesus died for the sins of the world, 30%; the resurrection of Jesus, without which St. Paul says "our faith is in vain," 16%. They surely cannot be "making for the same place," as they are headed the wrong way; in fact a great number of them have no place to go, as 43% of them deny or doubt the existence of heaven; while 47% of them question the existence of hell. Is it any wonder that Prof. Betts, himself a Protestant, noting the departure of Protestantism from Christian basic principles, concludes that "No (Protestant) denomination, except perhaps the Lutherans, has any right to demand that fixed creeds be taught their young." The same doctrinal confusion exists in Jewry, except among the Orthodox, who have some unity in their concept of the nature of God; believing in revelation, miracles, and a personal Messiah. It is this doctrinal incoherence that causes Jews to designate as "Jews" children of Jewish parents who repudiate belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Evidently you did not pay any attention to the last letter I sent you. Therein the first of the four characteristics of Christ's Church is shown to be oneness. A Church that is not one in principles of basic import is not of God, however sincere its members may be. Such unity of belief exists in the Catholic Church throughout the world. All the popes, bishops, priests, and lay members of the Church are one in believing every one of the doctrines that Prof. Betts proved a large percentage of Protestant ministers either deny or doubt. Catholics are one in standing four-square for every single article in the Apostles Creed. It makes a world of difference which road you travel on when you make your monthly trips from Chicago to Denver; and it makes just as much difference what religious road you take from this world to the next. There was a time when all roads led to Pagan Rome; but there never was a time when all roads led to heaven. God's road map was at one time the Old Testament; it is now the Old Testament and the New Testament in combination. God's chief guide was Moses, followed by successive occupants of the Chair of Moses until the end came to the Jewish papacy about twenty centuries ago. The chief guide who displaced him, was Peter, followed by successive occupants of the Chair of Peter, who function today, and will continue to function until the end of the world. Take no chances, my friend. The safest way to make the journey to the place where you imagine all denominational lines lead, is to follow the Messiah, who called Himself the exclusive "Way." Led by the Guide to whom He delegated His authority and directing power, you may travel with confidence through life's rough road to the heavenly Jerusalem instead of up a blind alley. |
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