Mother Teresa's beliefs (from the Berean Call)

TBC Extra

Living by Faith

Dave Hunt

A life that is pleasing to God must be founded upon His truth and lived in obedience thereto. As the psalmist said, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105). There is a path along which we must follow Christ (Matthew 16:24); a path which Satan doesn't know and upon which he cannot touch us (Job 28:7-8; Isaiah 35:8-9); a path of God's protection and guidance, a path of obedient, loving service to Christ and to others--where love both lives and speaks the truth (Ephesians 4:15). How tragic (and unloving) to live an otherwise exemplary life of sacrificial service to others and yet fail to speak God's truth.

Mother Teresa [now deceased] provides the classic example of compassionate and charitable deeds divorced from truth. She says that her purpose is to bring her patients closer to the "God" in whom they already believe; so that a Hindu becomes a better Hindu, a Buddhist a better Buddhist, etc. (Vatican II says those of all religions are somehow saved through the Church.) She tells how to witness for Jesus:

One day they brought to our home a man with half his body eaten away. Worms crawled all over him, and the stench was so terrible....As I was cleaning him he looked at me and asked, "Why are you bothering?"

"I love you," I said...."For me you are Jesus coming in His distressing disguise."...Then...this Hindu gentleman...said, "Glory be to Jesus Christ." ...He realized that he was someone loved. ( New Evangelization 2000, Issue 9, pp 11-12)

Tragically, this "Hindu gentleman," though lovingly cared for physically, was left in his spiritual corruption with all of his superstitions and false beliefs intact. He was left in his sins to die without Christ, a Hindu who was "loved," but not loved enough to be told the truth that would rescue him from hell!

Time magazine asked Mother Teresa a number of questions in November 1989. Her answers were revealing:

Q. Here in Calcutta, have you created a real change?

A. [We've] created a worldwide awareness of the poor.

Q. Beyond showing the poor to the world, have you conveyed any message about how to work with the poor?

A. You must make them feel loved and wanted. They are Jesus for me...in disguise.

Q. What do you think of Hinduism?

A. I love all religions....

How poor must one be in order to become "Jesus in disguise"? And how much money or possessions must one acquire to cease being "Jesus"? This loving woman hides a false gospel under emotional slogans. She launches the ones she loves from a clean bed into a Christless eternity and is praised for doing so! It is wrong to preach about a future life in heaven while neglecting to help those who suffer in this present life. Yet is it not equally wrong to fail to prepare souls for heaven while caring well for their bodies on earth? Pastor John MacArthur visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta in August 1988 and reported the following:

We asked her questions that might reveal her spiritual state. Her answers were troubling: "I love and respect all religions"--an unthinkable remark in light of the hellishness of India's dominant religions.

"All my people die beautiful deaths," she told me. I am convinced Mother Teresa is providing false comfort to the dying." (Masterpiece, Winter 1988, p. 6)

Yes, we dare not just mouth doctrine but must live it. Don't forget, however, it is doctrine, God's truth, that we must live. Truth held in the head that is expressed only in words but not in deeds is hypocrisy. On the other hand, love without truth is sentimentality. Parents who fail to discipline their children (a veritable plague these days) do not really love them. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten," Christ says (Revelation 3:19). Must we not do the same if His love is in us?

How thrilling to know that God has a purpose for our lives. Yet many Christians sink into discouragement, discontent, depression, and despair, feeling that their lives are too difficult, unhappy, and meaningless. That should never be the case for any true believer. But what of the elderly, bedridden, or just ordinary Christians with seemingly little influence upon others?

A life that is devoted to loving and praising God (no matter how lonely and hidden from men's eyes) may bring a greater reward in heaven than that of someone who is on radio, television, writes books, and is known worldwide. Be true to God first, in all purity of heart-devotion to Him, in diligent study of His Word and in prayer "without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Trust Him to be your strength, to live His very life through you in the power of His Holy Spirit. Such a life of faith brings joy beyond expression!

Every life impacts others. It is not enough simply to "live a good life" without standing up for the truth and contending "earnestly for the faith" (Jude 3). Yes, our speech must be "always with grace" but it must also be "seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6). We must be kind, gracious, patient, loving, tender, compassionate. Yes, "love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:8). But it would be a failure of love not to correct those who are straying from God's truth.

Neither the world nor the church likes correction. Many Christian parents fail to discipline their children, thinking they are being kind, sympathetic and loving by giving in to their whining demands. Parents thereby train their children to be disobedient, lazy, undisciplined, self-indulgent, lacking in concern for others, and contemptuous of authority. Paul taught his "son in the faith" to "endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3).

Of Christ it was said, "...who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2). We can endure the persecution that comes from being true to Christ if we know the joy that awaits us. We can even know that joy now in the midst of trial. Christ's joy was not only in having us in His presence, but even more than that, in having done His Father's will. To know that we have been true to Him, that we have taken this talent of time and being, which He has entrusted to us (Matthew 25:14-30), and have used it to His glory, brings joy not only in this life but throughout eternity.

God has made us eternal beings. Every person ever born will continue in existence forever, either in the ecstatic bliss of God's presence (Psalm 16:11) or in the unimaginable horror and remorse of separation from Him forever. The choices we make, the manner of life we live, and our attitude toward God, His Word, and others, carry consequences not only for this life but for eternity. Life on earth is short; eternity never ends. That fact is awesome to contemplate and in itself should cause us to live by faith in Him.

We walk by faith. Faith is not a power to aim at God to get blessings from Him, but faith opens the heart to God's will and brings obedience to His Word. Knowing we are in God's hands and that He loves and cares for us doesn't guarantee that we may not be persecuted and even killed for His sake. But it assures us that He will be with us and will give us the grace to endure in His strength and with joy, whatever trial comes, so that He may be glorified in our bodies, "whether by life or by death" (Philippians 1:20).

Calvinism and election (excerpt from Berean Call)

I don’t remember any emphasis on the sovereignty of God, election, foreknowledge, predestination or the work of the Spirit...
Hunt, Dave
February 1, 2007

QUESTION: [similar to several others]: While I was in a Baptist church I heard nothing but “whosoever will may come,” “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved,” “as many as received Him...”—all of this from man’s standpoint. I don’t remember any emphasis on the sovereignty of God, election, foreknowledge, predestination or the work of the Spirit drawing to salvation. When our Baptist pastor came under the teaching of some Presbyterians and began teaching these things, it caused a stir in our church. I asked, “God, which am I supposed to believe?”

I was helped greatly by Horatius Bonar’s God’s Way of Holiness and by Jonathan Edward’s view of the will. That man has been endowed with a free will by his Creator is undeniable. But what makes the will make its choices? According to Edwards...our choices are determined by what we think is the most desirable....

[But] the mind of the sinner never thinks God to be a good choice....So unless the Spirit of God moves upon the person and the mind is changed through the miracle of the new birth, our mind...will lead us away from God. Yes, Jesus invites us to come to Him (John 7:37)...but who is it that wills to come? Only...the Father and the Holy Spirit [can] cause...the renewed sinner [to] embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Even Jesus said, “No man can come to me unless the Father...draws him” (John 6:44).

In view of this, the controversy between brothers in Christ...could be put to rest....I appreciate your stand for the truth [but] am grieved with the ongoing controversy over Calvinism and the free will of man.

RESPONSE: I respect your earnest concern. Bonar and Edwards were highly esteemed Christian leaders, but the Bible, not any man, is our authority.


You say that God gave us “free will”—but then you ask, “what makes the will make its choices?” If something or someone “makes the will make its choices,” free will is not free. You say that no one has a desire to come to Christ until they are regenerated and “the Father and the Holy Spirit...cause...the renewed sinner to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.” Surely you see the grave contradiction!


If Calvinism is true, God mocks the vast majority of mankind. He calls, “Come unto me,” to those who can’t respond because He doesn’t cause them to come. Yet He will send them to the Lake of Fire for not coming, even though He could have caused them to come! The literally hundreds of times in the Bible that God calls men to repent and weeps over Israel through His prophets are a further mockery. And He damns forever in the Lake of Fire for not believing the gospel those who can’t believe unless He regenerates them and gives them the faith—and yet He refuses to do so? Is this the “God” in whom you believe? I hope not.


Of course, God is sovereign and can do whatever He pleases, and we cannot complain. But He assures us that He loves the entire world (Jn 3:16) and would “have all men to be saved” (1 Tm 2:4). Indeed, “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16). But this Calvinist God damns multitudes He could save. The biblical God does all He can to bring all men to Himself, but each one must choose. Of Israel, He laments, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” (Is 5:4). Jesus wept, “How often would I...and ye would not!” (Lk 13:34).


The word “freewill” appears 17 times in the Old Testament. Calvinists deny free will. They say that only those whom God causes to repent and believe the gospel will do so. Only after He has “regenerated” the sinner can God supposedly, by “irresistible grace,” give him faith to believe. But the Bible says, “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely” (Rv 22:17).


Calvinism says we must be regenerated before God can cause us to believe. The Bible says we are regenerated by believing the gospel: “being born again (‘regenerated’)...by the word of God...which by the gospel is preached...” (1 Pt 1:23-25). John writes, “that believing ye might have life [i.e., be regenerated] through his name” (Jn 20:31). The Bible teaches a new birth through believing the gospel. Calvinism teaches that “regeneration” comes by an act of God before the sinner even believes the gospel. That is clearly not biblical.


This is not “hyper-Calvinism” but the Calvinism of “moderates” such as John MacArthur, R. C. Sproul, John Piper, D. James Kennedy, et al. They say that God loves all men—but has a “different love” toward those for whom Christ didn’t die and does not want in heaven and thus will not regenerate. That is hardly love, which is why we titled my book, What Love Is This? Have you read it? In it I deal with your question in depth. You would benefit from its thorough treatment of the subject.


Does God really want all mankind to be saved (as the Bible says) or just a select elect? Did Christ die for all (as the Bible says) or just for a select group? These are vital questions that deserve our attention. On our radio programs (Search the Scriptures Daily), all available on our website, and in our articles and Q&As of the past 20 years, you won’t find an undue emphasis on Calvinism.


You say I deal with Calvinism too much. Yet you complain that only Calvinists talk about the sovereignty of God, election, foreknowledge, predestination, or the work of the Spirit drawing to salvation. Must we remain silent in the face of false views that are presented on these important subjects? Everywhere I go, Christians tell me that Calvinism is causing confusion and division in increasing numbers of churches.


I appreciate your concern and often tell the staff that I prefer not to mention Calvinism—but we try to answer the questions we are asked. I have attempted to avoid direct reference to Calvinism unless absolutely necessary. Ironically, you have caused me to respond to these things once again.

I like John Macarthur still even though I disagree with his Calvinism. No teacher is perfect neither is there a perfect church.