February 27, 2019 – Click here to listen
I have good news and bad news this morning. Which do you prefer first? Okay here is the good news: The United Methodist Church has voted down something called the One Church Plan which would allow individual churches and regional annual conferences to decide whether to ordain and marry LGBTQ members. Rudolph Merab, a delegate from the Liberia Annual Conference, spoke against the One Church Plan. “We keep talking about trying to be united, but, in fact, we continue to talk about being divided,” Merab said. “It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error.”
The Traditional Plan that he endorsed would strengthen the enforcement of language in the denomination’s rulebook stating that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” cannot be ordained as ministers, appointed to serve or be married in the church.
I say bravo! I’m happy to see the United Methodists adhering to what the Bible has to say about this subject. Now for the bad news: Too bad the Pope is not on the same page. These headlines, found on TechnocracyNews.com, screams at Christians worldwide:
One World Religion: Pope Francis Signs Historic Covenant With Islam
Over and over again, the word “God” is used to simultaneously identify Allah and the God of Christianity. Here is just one example . . .
We, who believe in God and in the final meeting with Him and His judgment, on the basis of our religious and moral responsibility, and through this Document, call upon ourselves, upon the leaders of the world as well as the architects of international policy and world economy, to work strenuously to spread the culture of tolerance and of living together in peace; to intervene at the earliest opportunity to stop the shedding of innocent blood and bring an end to wars, conflicts, environmental decay and the moral and cultural decline that the world is presently experiencing.
On top of that document it boldly declares that “the diversity of religions” that we see in the world was “willed by God” . . .
Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept;
In essence, this is saying that it is the will of God that there are hundreds of different religions in the world and that they are all acceptable in His sight.
Geez is the Pope ignoring Jesus and that there is but one way to see heaven and that is through Him? Jesus is the only way to heaven. Such an exclusive statement may confuse, surprise, or even offend, but it is nonetheless, true. The Bible teaches that there is no other way to salvation than through Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He is not a way, as in one of many; He is the way, as in the one and only. No one, regardless of reputation, achievement, special knowledge, or personal holiness, can come to God the Father except through Jesus.
Jesus is the only way to heaven for several reasons. Jesus was “chosen by God” to be the Savior (1 Peter 2:4). Jesus is the only One to have come down from heaven and returned there (John 3:13). He is the only person to have lived a perfect human life (Hebrews 4:15). He is the only sacrifice for sin (1 John 2:2; Hebrews 10:26). He alone fulfilled the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17). He is the only man to have conquered death forever (Hebrews 2:14–15). He is the only Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). He is the only man whom God has “exalted . . . to the highest place” (Philippians 2:9).
So, what about Muhammed, Buddha, and other avenues purported to be our salvation?
Acts 4:12
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”