Pope Francis, in a sermon preached in front of many Muslims at a mosque in the Central African Republic, expressed very clearly his thoughts about Islam. He said that Muslims are our brothers and sisters. Later that day he posted this same statement on Twitter.
 

It is time for born-again Christians to come to grips with the fact that this man worships a different God.

There is simply no excuse for a born-again Christian to have further doubts. It is not new for this Pope to say controversial things. Recently, he claimed that Atheists would go to heaven too. He said “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!” Roman Catholic theology, because it is works based, puts a great emphasis on doing good, and therefore is not evangelistic. For many centuries the devil used the Roman Catholic Church to murder anyone who didn’t agree with them, but now it seems he has shifted his strategy to being ecumenical. Even Mother Theresa said:

“We never try to convert those who receive aid from Missionaries of Charity to Christianity but in our work we bear witness to the love of God’s presence and if Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men — simply better — we will be satisfied. It matters to the individual what church he belongs to. If that individual thinks and believes that this is the only way to God for her or him, this is the way God comes into their life — his life. If he does not know any other way and if he has no doubt so that he does not need to search then this is his way to salvation.”

This is a common belief within Roman Catholicism. A college roommate once told me that he was becoming Roman Catholic, because “faith alone is found nowhere in Scripture.” He went on to say that “of course, we will be shocked, by just how many people make it to heaven. The God of Roman Catholicism is much less likely to send people to hell” in response to a question about whether Mormons and Jehovah’s witness and even Muslims will be saved. Muslims and Christians couldn’t teach anything more different. They deny Jesus is God and teach that he didn’t actually die on the cross. If this is true then Jesus never resurrected and in 1 Cor. 15:12-19 Paul says, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith”. It is impossible to go to heaven except through Christ (John 14:6) but not just any Christ, the actual Christ that is sitting at the right of the Father as we speak. I totally get it, in our nature we seek to want to make God less just, we want to make Him into a God in our own image. We do this in what is masked as love and a desire for all to be saved, in an attempt to be liked by all people. In doing so we end up trashing Christ, His sacrifice and His word.

When will Christians wake up? When will we start evangelizing our Catholic friends? How many more outrageous statements does this Pope have to make before you wake up to realize Roman Catholics and evangelicals cannot be together?