When it comes to their faith lives, folks with a deep conviction can be extremely defensive.
I've even heard some go so far as to claim that those who don't follow the same belief system and faith practices they do will even end up in hell when they die.
The fact is that neither you nor I, nor anyone else on this planet, has any idea whether any individual human being is going to end up in heaven or hell for eternity.
That lack of knowledge holds for everyone from your local rabbi to the Pope. Our ultimate fate is God's alone to know.
My own faith is rooted in Jesus Christ. I practice and celebrate that faith in the Catholic Church. That is mostly because it is the church in which I was born and raised. I went to Catholic school for 12 years as a child and teen. I even later graduated from a Catholic university as an adult.
While it is my belief that my Catholic Church is the best way to practice the Christian faith, in no way to I believe it is the only way. In the end, it's not about the Mass or the building or the priest. The Church is none of those things.
The Church is Jesus Christ. He is not only the center, he is everything.
In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
In the famous verse of John 14:6, Jesus says: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Nowhere does Jesus say that in order to get to heaven you must go to church - any church. He says that all authority is his. He says that he is truth and life. He says to follow him and his teachings if you want to be assured of eternity with the Father.
Don't get me wrong, church is important. That is especially true of the Catholic Church. As I've written a number of times in the past, Jesus Christ founded His Church. It was important to him to have authoritative leadership and teaching continue.
In Matthew 16:18 we find this foundation: "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Jesus founded one Church. The word "catholic" itself means universal.
However, in John 14:16-17, Jesus said: "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. That helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn’t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you."
Here Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come into the world. He also states that the Spirit will not only live with us, but will live in us.
Jesus founded one Church, and that universal Catholic church continues today, more than 2,000 years later.
However, the Holy Spirit did indeed come into the world and into our hearts. The Spirit has worked to inspire men and women in ways that have contradicted that universal Catholic Church over the centuries.
It would be dangerous, in fact totally wrong, to say and believe that any and every possible means of practicing a form of Christianity is healthy and appropriate.
Misguided men have formed many harmful practices over time in the name of a church. Any honest assessment of even the Catholic Church history would show that misguided men can do a great deal of harm in the name of faith and church.
Many have seen the abuses within various Christian churches and decided to maintain a personal relationship with the Lord. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is not preferred, and you are cheating yourself if this is your practice.
In Matthew 18:20 we hear Jesus make his famous church and family proclamation: "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” He tells us straight out that when we pray and worship him together, he will be present with us.
Whatever church you belong to, and even if you choose to maintain a personal or familial relationship with him, you cannot be making a mistake if your true center is Jesus Christ and his own words.
The teachings of the prophets in the Old Testament are excellent for education and inspiration. The preaching of the disciples in the Acts of the Apostles, the teaching of Paul, and other New Testament works are outstanding guides to follow.
But the fact remains that where his Word is present, there is truth. If you follow that Word, those teachings, then you are likely to end up in the spending eternity in the presence of the Father.
In the end, Jesus Christ is the Church.
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