Few people
would recognize the name of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. But Agnes came to be known as “Mother Teresa
of Calcutta” and this title was a name recognized worldwide by the time of her
death in 1997. Mother Teresa was a Roman
Catholic nun who also actually won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She spent a great part of her life caring for
the sick and dying, the “poorest of the poor,” in the slums of India.
Mother
Teresa is an icon in the Catholic Church and has influenced multitudes, causing
many to want to be like her. It has been
said of her that:
- She “spent her life with the Lord”
- [Upon her death] “The world has lost a saint on earth, but gained an extraordinary powerful intercessor in heaven”
- “I am convinced that she is already in glory”
- “Mother Teresa imitated Christ and her life was a lesson in love”
- She was “an extraordinary missionary”
- “She was in every sense a woman of the Gospel”
- “She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world”
- She has “opened for mankind the portals of heaven and shown us the Heart of God”
These are just
a few of the things said about her by archbishops, cardinals, fellow nuns, and
a former U.N. secretary-general. See the
quotes on the Catholic EWTN link here:
But Mother
Teresa has made some comments that should be disturbing to any true Christian. According to an EWTN article, Mother Teresa
is quoted as saying:
“There is
only one God and He is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is
seen as equal before God. I’ve always
said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better
Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic.”
See here:
On another
website devoted specifically to Mother Teresa, a priest who knew her states:
“Here is a
short testimony of someone who was closely associated with Mother Teresa for 23
years: ‘I am a Hindu and I never saw the
slightest evidence in all my 23 years of knowing Mother Teresa in the
Missionaries of Charity, of converting [other people to Christianity]…’”
And also:
“When I
asked her whether she converted, she answered, ‘Yes, I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu, or a
better Muslim, or a better Protestant, or a better Catholic, or a better
Parsee, or a better Sikh, or a better Buddhist.
And after you have found God, it is for you to do what God wants you to
do.’ She wanted people to come closer to
God (however they understood Him)…” See
here:
So Mother
Teresa was concerned about making you a better “whatever you are.” Really?
And if you were a Satanist, would she have helped you to become a better
Satanist, as well? Is it an act of
Christian love to cause someone to be more deeply entrenched in false doctrine
than he is already? It seems so, according
to Mother Teresa. But this is not love
at all and this is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth of the gospel will help a person to
remove himself from that false
doctrine, not embrace it (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
In encouraging
them to be a better Hindu / Muslim / Sikh, etc., she absolutely ignored the
fact that Jesus said that He is the only
way to God (John 14:6).
To make
matters worse, many of those whom she steered more deeply into their false religions
were on their deathbeds, desperate for one last chance at the hope of eternal
life. Herein was a small window of
opportunity for real hope and real help for those dying souls, and she
held back the truth of the gospel from them!
She could
have attempted to turn them away from
their error. But what began as an
incredible opportunity for salvation in a place of deep spiritual darkness,
ended up being a wasted opportunity. Those poor heathen souls in India had great
physical needs, but their greatest
need, salvation, was not met by Mother Teresa’s message. What they needed was the simple, biblical
gospel of Jesus Christ, which is “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans
1:16).
We have seen
attempts by Catholics to justify Mother Teresa’s method, but no argument and no
amount of damage control can justify this clearly unbiblical behavior. This is not
how a Christian should share the gospel or convert the lost. Instead of having “profound respect for all
religions,” she should have presented Jesus Christ alone as the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).
Not only was
Mother Teresa a voluntary victim of the Catholic Church’s unbiblical
works-based system of salvation, she was also a voluntary victim of her own unbiblical
universalist idea (the idea that everyone
is a child of God).
Sadly, in
spite of her undeniable faithfulness to the Catholic Church and her unmatched
labor and continual sacrificial giving, she experienced what she called “the
dark night of the soul” for many years during her ministry. In her very personal writings to her
superiors, she wrote:
“How cold –
how empty – how painful is my heart – Holy Communion – Holy Mass – all the holy
things of spiritual life – of the life of Christ in me – are all so empty – so
cold – so unwanted. The physical
situation of my poor, left in the streets unwanted, unloved, unclaimed – are
the true picture of my own spiritual life,
of my love for Jesus…” [Emphasis added]
See the link below.
What an
incredible statement to make by someone who claims to belong to Christ! She wholeheartedly held to the Catholic
Church’s teachings, and a more faithful follower could hardly be found. Yet, the pitiful Mother Teresa felt miserable,
alone, and desperate. By her own
admission, she never knew God’s peace during these many years, if she ever knew
it at all. Maybe – just maybe -- God
intended through this to show the utter futility of salvation by works, by
using someone of her caliber to reveal that truth. If Mother Teresa (who was so totally devoted to
her works) could not have peace about her salvation through good works, then
how could anyone?!! (Philippians
3:2-9)
We fear that
the canonization (sainthood) of Mother Teresa is inevitable. She was so loved by so many that she will be
eagerly rushed by the Catholic Church to the status of “saint.” This makes her increased influence all the
more disturbing. Multitudes will end up
in a Christless eternity (Matthew 7:13-14) because of her
words. She should have heeded and shared
the simple biblical gospel (Acts 16:31), rather than her false
universalist / Catholic “gospel” (Galatians 1:8-9).
Please
prayerfully read the link below. It is
an article from a former priest who makes a hard-hitting, yet compassionate,
case concerning Mother Teresa’s work and her pitiful plight:
