Atheists reject Christ in the sense that they deny Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead because he is God. Atheists also therefore reject the idea of eternal life and the necessity of salvation through Christ Jesus.
Everybody knows this. And nobody is shocked if a Christian tells an atheist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And if he retold Jesus’s own words “I Am, The Way, The Truth, The Life, no man comes to the Father but through Me.” Or even if he spoke the words of John the Baptist, which Catholics the world over heard on Sunday:
I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
Harsh, that. But who are you to judge God?
Of course, you don’t have to believe any of that, the Christian might tell the Atheist, but you’ve been told and you’re on you’re own.
Just as naturally, atheists in general don’t like to be annoyed with this kind of talk. But they don’t put the Christian’s behavior down to animus. Except, these days, to the extent the atheist embraces progressive ideology and believes the Christian’s ulterior motive is to ban his favorite non-reproductive behaviors.
An atheist might say the Christian is expressing “anti-atheism”, or that the Christian is “anti-atheist”, but both sound absurd. They sound absurd because it is taken for granted by both sides in the debate that each believes the other is wrong.
Now if we were to swap “atheist” for “Hindu” in the above not much changes, except the Hindu will be suspicious to the extent he believes the Christian wants to change the Hindu’s very culture and way of life. This same suspicion would be felt if the Christian were swapped by an NGO worker pushing acceptance of one of those non-reproductive behaviors.
The Christian might be called “anti-Hindu”, but it would be understood in the sense that the Christian is trying to talk the Hindu out of an error; and vice-versa as the Hindu answers the Christian in debate.
Again, nothing is changed if we switch out “atheist” for “Jew”. Enter this video (Shapiro is one of the forces behind The Daily Wire; Barron is an auxiliary bishop in LA):
.@BishopBarron explains to @BenShapiro the Catholic perspective on the afterlife.
FULL VIDEO => https://t.co/LNlkBwhD1i pic.twitter.com/aJOZtMxoU3
— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) December 16, 2018
Privileged? As in it would be nice, but, really, don’t put yourself out? Well, people are not used to hearing Church leaders say “You are wrong, the Church is right”. Most recoil at religious certainty, especially Christian certainty. They are affronted and disbelieve because of the certainty. Strangely, this is not the case of contingent scientific statements. Anyway, perhaps Barron had this in mind.
Reaction, as they say, was swift. Here’s one. Another. Another. Radical Catholic said:
I’m so glad Bishop Barron didn’t say anything to offend Ben Shapiro.
That would have been horrible.
“No, you have to convert. Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus.”
“Why do you hate Jews so much?!?”
PR disaster averted, I say.
Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus = Outside Church No Salvation. This is dogma in the Catholic Church, and is therefore required to be believed. There is also the idea of invincible ignorance, which describes the possibility of salvation to those who never had the opportunity to hear of Jesus. And there is the admission that, of course, Jesus will judge each man individually, regardless what each man calls himself. An unformed and error-filled conscience will not be admissible as a plea at your judgement, however. Particularly if you have carefully and over a long period of time been told of your errors (this is my own concern for myself).
He can be saved–by repenting and rejecting his Jewish delusions. The status of indigenous tribes who never heard the gospel is open to possibility. This is not true of open, explicit Christ-deniers. On that there is copious biblical data to the contrary
Such delusions include relying on or believing in religious texts which have Jesus himself boiling in excrement for the “crime” of calling himself God. This is not a minor point of difference in theology. This is a whopper; it creates an unbridgeable theological chasm. Both sides can be simultaneously right. Eucmenicism is a limited tool.
Bp Barron said that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the “privileged route” of salvation? Is this Catholic soteriology? Privileged? St Peter said (to Jews): “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” – Act 4:12
Replying to Marshall John Zmirak said, “It’s one thing to hope that the good will of the invincibly ignorant will be counted for implicit baptism of desire. It’s quite another to treat actual faith in Christ as if it’s just a first-class seat on the bus that has only one stop, Heaven.”
This is a sobering reminder that belief, even for Christians, isn’t enough. Every man must approach his own salvation with “fear and trembling”. But an explicit, knowing rejection of Jesus, the Church insists, puts you among the chaff.
Again, harsh, that. But easily amendable.