Pope To Atheists:
See You Upstairs

The headline leaped of the front page off the newspaper as I opened it early Thursday morning. "Pope To Atheist: See You Upstairs" it said over a picture of Pope Francis pointing to the sky.    The by-line said, "Pope Francis, ... has opened the door to salvation for atheist, saying God will forgive them if they obey their consciences."

There’s much about Roman Catholic theology with which I have problems and find to be less than biblical, but this I thought was unbelievable.    Not only was such a thought contrary to good conservative evangelical theology, it was contrary to official Roman Catholic theology.    Could it be that the Pope could be saying that you don’t even have to believe in God to go to heaven?

Immediately I thought, ‘what about all those crosses on the walls of all those Catholic churches, convents, hospitals, schools, and seminaries’.    Has the Pope just thrown away the cross.     I immediately thought I’d write a blog post called, "The Pope Declares The Cross Unimportant."     After all, it anyone can be saved just by obeying their consciences, why did Jesus die?      The cross would be totally unnecessary.

Sure enough, as I began reading, it certainly looked like the Pope had declared that atheist didn’t have to believe in God to go to heaven.     The article quoted the Pope as saying, "God will forgive them as long as they behave morally and live according to their consciences." and "God forgives those who obey their conscience".     I felt my temperature rise.     This isn’t even good Catholic theology.      How could he just throw away the Cross of Christ?      How could he just negate the Divine Sacrifice?      This was heresy.      What would be the point of preaching the gospel if everyone was going to make it even if they not only didn’t receive the sacrifice of Jesus, they didn’t even have to believe God existed.

Knowing the pagan media is almost totally incapable of properly reporting theological issues I thought I’d poke around the internet a bit before I blogged about this latest heresy. Sure enough the secular news media was all over this suggesting that this new Pope was going to modernize (read liberalize) the church, and shift the direction of the church by doing away with the divisive theology of the Cross.

To get to the bottom of this issue, I decided to find the letter in which Pope Francis had said these things. 1      The report was based on a Pastoral letter response to a series of questions posed to him by atheist Italian publisher Eugenio Scalfari.     The response of the Pope is really quite good and warmly pastoral as he responds to a hostile atheist, and in which the Pope gives a rather clear testimony of his own personal relationship with God through Jesus.     Much of the discussion involves the idea of Christians having better dialogue with unbelievers. 

At the heart of his reply that sparked the newspaper reports, the Pope says,

As for the three questions you asked me in the article of August 7th. It would seem to me that in the first two, what you are most interested in is understanding the Church's attitude towards those who do not share faith in Jesus. First of all, you ask if the God of the Christians forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith. Given that - and this is fundamental - God's mercy has no limits if he who asks for mercy does so in contrition and with a sincere heart, the issue for those who do not believe in God is in obeying their own conscience. In fact, listening and obeying it, means deciding about what is perceived to be good or to be evil. The goodness or the wickedness of our behavior depends on this decision.
The Pope’s warm heart is evident as he seeks to build a loving dialogue with a hostile atheist with the hope that this dialogue will allow further discussion with others who have similar questions.      And "No", the Pope did not suggest that non-believing atheist go to heaven.     In fact, he shares his personal story of faith and how scriptures and the church confirm and inform that faith.     Nowhere, as the National Post headline suggest, did the Pope say to atheist, "see you upstairs."     Nowhere does he suggest that atheist will be in heaven as long as they obey their own conscience.      No where does he say anything that would negate the Divine Sacrifice on the Cross.

Please understand that I am usually fairly hard on what I see as significant errors in Roman Catholic dogma and practice but in all fairness, Pope Francis did not say what the secular media made him out to be saying.       Perhaps the pagan media, that does not even understand basic theology,  can only see a church being relevant if and when it joins them in their unbelief. blind tolerance and lacking all sense of absolute truth.

In fact, Pope Francis says, "God’s mercy has no limits if he who asks for mercy does so in contrition and with a sincere heart."     Yes, he does go on to talk about atheist obeying their own conscience but nowhere does he suggest that gains them entrance to heaven. 2     His reference to conscience, if you read the letter carefully, is meant as a touch point of conversation and dialogue with atheist.      Nowhere do you find a reference to that being the way of salvation

It is true that God’s mercy has no limits.      No matter the depth of ones sin or unbelief, or even hostility to the gospel, the depth of God’s mercy is deeper still.     There is no place you have been, nothing you have every done, said, or thought that is outside the reach of God’s mercy.      This mercy was displayed most graciously to us when God provided the way of forgiveness through the death of His own Son on the Cross.     If it were possible to be part of God’s Kingdom by our own merits or still in unbelief, then the cross would be totally unnecessary.    The fact is, that the problem of the human race is our rebellion against God.     This rebellion leaves us separated and alienated from God.     An atheist, and all those who have not come to the cross where mercy and grace are found, continue in their rebellion and thus do not receive the grace and mercy of God offered at the cross.

The world and the media have a hard time understanding the centrality of the Cross.    In fact to them it is foolishness and the sooner the Pope, and the rest of the church does away with the cross, according to them, the sooner the Church enters the 21^st century.     In fact, it is the centrality of the message of the cross that is at the heart of Christian teaching that makes us so relevant in a fallen, broken world.
　

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.   (1 Corinthians 1:18)
But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.(1 Corinthians 1:23-24)
　
　
1 Read the Pope’s entire letter:
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/09/full-text-of-popes-letter-to-atheist.html

2 My next blogpost will investigate a morning devotion delivered by Pope Francis to Vatican staff on August 22 in which he address this same issue of non-believers doing good as they obey their conscience. His point being that believers and non-believers can actually meet at the point we both seek to do good in the world