In the letter dated April 6, 1926, Gandhi wrote,
"Dear Friend, I have your letter. I am afraid it is not possible for me to subscribe to the creed you have sent me. The subscriber is made to believe that the highest manifestation of the unseen reality was Jesus Christ. In spite of all my efforts, I have not been able to feel the truth of that statement.
"I have not been able to move beyond the belief that Jesus was one of the great teachers of mankind. Do you not think that religious unity is to be had not by a mechanical subscription to a common creed but by all respecting the creed of each?
"In my opinion, difference in creed there must be so long as there are different brains. But who does it matter if all these are hung upon the common thread of love and mutual esteem?" he asked, addressing Milton Newberry Frantz, a Christian elder in the United States.
*Gandhi led India's independence movement through nonviolent campaigns.
The eternal fate of Gandhi, who died in 1948, was argued by Christian evangelicals. When posed as a question to former President Jimmy Carter (a Sunday school teacher, Democrat, and born-again evangelical) in an April 2017 interview with The New York Times, he said that he could not say whether Gandhi is in Hell for not being a Christian and not trusting only in Christ.
But a megachurch pastor, Robert Jeffress, challenged Carter's uncertainty when he argued that Gandhi is indeed going to Hell.
"It doesn't matter if someone is a sincere follower of another religion; they are sincerely wrong," Jeffress said.
He argued that God has already made the judgment.
"He (Jesus) has said 'Nobody comes to the Father except through me.' And when we stutter about that truth, and hesitate and try to be humble in front of people, we are responsible [for] leading people to Hell because we are suggesting there is another opening somewhere, and we have shirked our responsibility as ministers and proclaimers of the truth of God's word," Jeffress declared.
I agree with Robert. God has already made the judgement in His Word. Though I am not one who will sit down to argue who and who will or will not make it to heaven (because that is strictly God's business) but God has given us a clue. Our works are not enough, no matter how good they are.
Our works, to be acceptable before God, must be propelled by our faith in Jesus. In other words, we live and do what we do by the grace God has given us through Jesus. So yes, I believe the Word of God that Jesus is the ONLY way to Him.
"Dear Friend, I have your letter. I am afraid it is not possible for me to subscribe to the creed you have sent me. The subscriber is made to believe that the highest manifestation of the unseen reality was Jesus Christ. In spite of all my efforts, I have not been able to feel the truth of that statement.
"I have not been able to move beyond the belief that Jesus was one of the great teachers of mankind. Do you not think that religious unity is to be had not by a mechanical subscription to a common creed but by all respecting the creed of each?
"In my opinion, difference in creed there must be so long as there are different brains. But who does it matter if all these are hung upon the common thread of love and mutual esteem?" he asked, addressing Milton Newberry Frantz, a Christian elder in the United States.
*Gandhi led India's independence movement through nonviolent campaigns.
The eternal fate of Gandhi, who died in 1948, was argued by Christian evangelicals. When posed as a question to former President Jimmy Carter (a Sunday school teacher, Democrat, and born-again evangelical) in an April 2017 interview with The New York Times, he said that he could not say whether Gandhi is in Hell for not being a Christian and not trusting only in Christ.
But a megachurch pastor, Robert Jeffress, challenged Carter's uncertainty when he argued that Gandhi is indeed going to Hell.
"It doesn't matter if someone is a sincere follower of another religion; they are sincerely wrong," Jeffress said.
He argued that God has already made the judgment.
"He (Jesus) has said 'Nobody comes to the Father except through me.' And when we stutter about that truth, and hesitate and try to be humble in front of people, we are responsible [for] leading people to Hell because we are suggesting there is another opening somewhere, and we have shirked our responsibility as ministers and proclaimers of the truth of God's word," Jeffress declared.
I agree with Robert. God has already made the judgement in His Word. Though I am not one who will sit down to argue who and who will or will not make it to heaven (because that is strictly God's business) but God has given us a clue. Our works are not enough, no matter how good they are.
Our works, to be acceptable before God, must be propelled by our faith in Jesus. In other words, we live and do what we do by the grace God has given us through Jesus. So yes, I believe the Word of God that Jesus is the ONLY way to Him.
Amen!
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