The Hope(lessness) of Religion

The late John Cardinal O'Connor at an anti-abortion march

"(Catholic) Church teaching is that I don't know, at any given moment, what my eternal future will be. I can hope, pray, do my very best--but I still don't know. Pope John Paul II doesn't know absolutely that he will go to heaven, nor does Mother Teresa of Calcutta." John Cardinal O'Connor, 1990

How sad it is that over one billion people on earth who believe themselves to be Christians have no assurance of eternal life despite what Jesus Christ clearly taught regarding salvation. 

This is what Christ proclaimed: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) The apostle Paul, who came to believe in Christ after he encountered him on a journey to Damascus, wrote this concerning eternal life in Jesus Christ: "But what does it (scripture) say? 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.'"(Romans 10:8-11)

John Cardinal O'Connor was the Archbishop of New York from 1984 until his death on May 3, 2000. And yet he refused to believe what his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ proclaimed concerning salvation. Jesus Christ was no ordinary man or religious leader; he was God incarnate and the savior of mankind who came into this world in human form to suffer a violent death on a Roman cross so that men such as John O'Connor didn't have to pay for their own sins.

And yet O'Connor didn't believe that, nor does the Roman Catholic Church believe that. In fact, the Catholic Church has never believed what Jesus Christ taught in regards to salvation and eternal life. What then does the Catholic Church teach in regards to salvation and eternal life? That salvation is a lifelong process that begins at birth and continues on until after death when the sinner has finally paid for his own sins in a place called purgatory. Then, and only then, can the sinner be admitted into heaven.

Though Christ never taught such nonsense, the Roman Catholic Church has proclaimed that false gospel since its inception in the Fourth Century A.D. In the classic Modus operandi of a religious cult, the Catholic Church arrogantly claims that no one can be saved outside of the Roman Church. The Roman Catholic Church teaches an unbiblical gospel of works as opposed to the biblical gospel of salvation by faith. 

In fact, a Catholic Monk named Martin Luther launched what became known as the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century after he opened his eyes to this scripture written by Paul in an epistle he penned to the early church at Ephesus: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) After Luther read that scripture, he rejected the Catholic gospel and went on to promote the genuine biblical gospel of salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ's death on Calvary's cross for all sin and His resurrection from the dead.

Where is John O'Connor spending eternity? We don't know. But we do know that if he left this world trusting in the Roman Catholic Church for salvation instead of Jesus Christ, he's not spending eternity in heaven. Nor is anyone who put their faith in a manufactured, man-made gospel over the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

The bible clearly states that God "does not lie." (Titus 1:2) Jesus Christ is God; the second person of the Trinity, and he doesn't lie. His proclamation concerning eternal life through faith in his death on the cross for all sin is the ultimate truth. However, fallen men can and do lie, and don't be fooled by their religious titles or their outward piety. It is through these types of men and their corrupt religious institutions that the devil promotes his eternal destruction.