Rick Warren Points Network Followers to the Contemplative “Sabbath”

Rick Warren Points Network Followers to the Contemplative “Sabbath”
October 12th, 2008 | Author: Lighthouse Trails Editors

On October 1st in his weekly e-newsletter, Rick Warren points followers to Pete Scazzero’s contemplative “Sabbath” experience. In the article, “Why Can’t We Stop!”, Scazzero states: “One of the keys to our freedom is a rediscovery of Sabbath-keeping – a radical, countercultural, essential spiritual formation practice for us as pastors.” While many readers of this article may think that Scazzero is simply encouraging Christians to make sure they take a day of rest each week, what they probably don’t know is that Scazzero is a strong proponent for contemplative mystical prayer. And contemplatives don’t just believe in a day of rest – they believe in entering what they call the silence or sacred space through repetitive mantra-like prayer.

Scazzero has been the topic of several Lighthouse Trails articles, largely because of his books which heartily promote the mystics and their prayer style as well. 1 In Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (the book that is featured on Rick Warren’s website), Scazzero points readers to some of the most prolific teachers of eastern-style meditation, many of whom are outright panentheists such as Meister Eckhart, Basil Pennington, and Tilden Edwards. Scazzero also gives instruction on meditative practices such as lectio divina and “centering down.” In a two-part expose’ of Scazzero’s book, documentation shows clearly that his “emotionally healthy spirituality” is anything but healthy. (Part One, Part Two)

Interestingly, in the article Rick Warren posts, Scazzero says: “As one theologian stated, ‘To fail to see the value of simply being with God and ‘doing nothing’ is to miss the heart of Christianity.” What he doesn’t tell readers is who this “theologian” is. It is Catholic “theologian” Leonard Doohan. Scazzero may have seen the quote in Lynne Babb’s book, Sabbath Keeping, a book where Babb recommends readers turn to panentheist and universalist Tilden Edwards for further spiritual guidance. It is Edwards (founder of Shalem Institute) who says: “This mystical stream [contemplative prayer] is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality” (from his book, Spiritual Friend).

When Scazzero says “simply being with God” and “doing nothing,” he is referring to what contemplatives call entering the silence or putting the mind into a stillness. It is not surprising that Rick Warren resonates with such language. One of the people Warren and his wife Kay look up to is mystic Henri Nouwen, who had a huge affinity with mysticism. This state of stillness (of the mind) is a common theme among contemplatives. Contemplative advocate Beth Moore says: “[I]f we are not still before Him [God], we will never truly know to the depths of the marrow of our bones that He is God. There’s got to be a stillness.”2 However, the mind cannot naturally be put into a still state, and this is where mantra meditation, or focusing on the breath or particular words comes into play. There cannot be this stillness of the mind without some form of mantric-like practice. This is why all “evangelical” contemplative proponents endorse the mystics. But this state of stillness is the same state entered by Hindu mystics, Buddhist mystics, and New Age mystics. And that realm entered is NOT the realm of God but rather is a demonic realm.

On Scazzero’s website, he offers the following link to an interview he recently had with Canadian radio host Drew Marshall where they talk about Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and its connection to contemplative mysticism: radio interview In the interview, Scazzero says that Christianity needs monasticism, which he identifies as that which has come from the Desert Fathers. Drew Marshall is a proponent of contemplative spirituality and has no doubt influenced many Canadians in this direction.

Also on Scazzero’s website is a link called “contemplative spirituality” in which he recommends many contemplative mystics such as Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Robert Webber, Richard Foster, and Phyllis Tickle. It is Thomas Merton who likened the contemplative experience to an LSD trip. 3

Rick Warren’s promotion of Pete Scazzero is not an isolated incident. He has been doing this for many years, as Lighthouse Trails has documented frequently. With potentially tens or even hundreds of millions of people now part of the Purpose Driven network, Warren’s promotion of contemplative spirituality will have far-reaching effects. And as long as popular Christian leaders endorse, sponsor, and work with Rick Warren rather than warn others about him and his teachings, they are responsible with him for the proliferation of contemplative/emerging spirituality and the dangerous deception that comes with it.

Related Information:

About Spiritual Direction

Beth Moore and Contemplative Spirituality

Why We Say Beth Moore is a Contemplative Advocate
Lighthouse Trails Publishing

Advocate: one that defends or maintains a cause (Webster’s Dictionary)

In our article, “Rick Warren Points Network Followers to the Contemplative ‘Sabbath’”, (article posted above) we state that Beth Moore is a “contemplative advocate.” Some people have a hard time with this statement. Why do we say she is advocating contemplative spirituality? Below is our explanation:

The Be Still DVD by Fox Home Entertainment was released in April 2006. Featured speakers included Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Max Lucado, Beth Moore and many others. There is no indication on the DVD that Beth Moore is against contemplative prayer (the subject of the DVD), and in fact when we spoke with her assistant shortly after the release of the DVD, she told us that Beth Moore did not have a problem with Richard Foster or Dallas Willard’s teachings.

Furthermore, a statement was issued by Living Proof Ministries (see statement) that clarified: “[W]e believe that once you view the Be Still video you will agree that there is no problem with its expression of Truth.” Living Proof is offering to send a free copy of the DVD to anyone who receives their email statement and wishes to view the DVD, saying that, “[I]t would be our privilege to do this for you to assure you that there is no problem with Beth’s participation in the Be Still video.”

First a look at the DVD: In the Be Still DVD, countless enticements, references and comments clearly show its affinity with contemplative spirituality. For instance, Richard Foster says that anyone can practice contemplative prayer and become a “portable sanctuary” for God. This panentheistic view of God is very typical for contemplatives. As Ray Yungen points out, those who practice contemplative prayer begin to view God through panentheistic (God in all) and interspiritual (all is united) eyes. Thomas Merton, whom Foster has admired publicly for many years, believed that all human beings have divinity within, and this divinity can be reached through contemplative prayer, thereby making the Cross of Jesus unnecessary for union with God.

The underlying theme of the Be Still DVD is that we cannot truly know God or be intimate with Him without contemplative prayer and the state of silence that it produces. While the DVD is vague and lacking in actual instruction on word or phrase repetition (which lies at the heart of contemplative prayer), it is very misleading. What they don’t tell you in the DVD is that this state of stillness or silence is, for the most part, achieved through some method such as mantra-like meditation. The purpose of the DVD, in essence, is not to instruct you in contemplative prayer but rather to make you and your family hungry for it. The DVD even promises that practicing the silence will heal your family problems. We hope you will take some time to study the research we have been providing over the past six weeks on the Be Still DVD. We are confident that if you take a careful look at what this DVD is promoting you will come to the same conclusion that we have, that this project is an infomercial for contemplative practice, and because of the huge advertising campaign that Fox Home Entertainment has launched, contemplative prayer could be potentially introduced into millions of homes around the world.

The question must be asked, is this Be Still DVD an accurate “expression of Truth,” as Beth Moore says it is, and is there truly “no problem with Beth’s participation” in this project? If Beth Moore is actually a contemplative, then she does belong on the DVD. If that is the case and she is indeed in the contemplative camp, we hope and pray she will openly and honestly acknowledge this. Apologizing one moment and commending the next certainly will leave many confused. However, Beth Moore’s statement on the DVD leaves little room for speculation: “[I]f we are not still before Him [God], we will never truly know to the depths of the marrow of our bones that He is God. There’s got to be a stillness.” Moore says that it is not possible to “truly know” that He is God without “a stillness.” She is not talking about a quiet place but rather a stillness of the mind. And this is absolutely the theme in the DVD. Thus, unless you practice this stillness of the mind, your relationship with the Lord is inadequate. According to Beth Moore, you don’t even know Him in the way you should.

You may be asking yourself, where does Beth Moore really stand with regard to contemplative. The answer to that may at least partially be found in a book she wrote in 2002 called When Godly People Do Ungodly Things. In a section about “Unceasing Prayer” Moore states: “I have picked up on the terminology of Brother Lawrence, who called praying unceasingly practicing God’s presence. In fact, practicing God’s presence has been my number one goal for the last year” (p. 109).

Moore says: “A head full of biblical knowledge without a heart passionately in love with Christ is terribly dangerous–a stronghold waiting to happen. The head is full, but the heart and soul are still unsatisfied” (p. 60). This language is very indicative of contemplatives and echoes Richard Foster who said we have become barren within or Rick Warren who said the church is not fully mature without contemplative prayer. However, all of this talk leads one to think that the Word of God is little more than a philosophy and needs the help of contemplative prayer to be effective at all. The insinuation is that the Holy Spirit is dormant and ineffective without this extra stimuli. This is perhaps why contemplative-promoter Rick Warren says the last thing Christians need is another Bible study. Contemplatives are making a distinction between studying and meditating on the Word of God versus loving Him, suggesting that we cannot love Him simply by studying His Word or even through normal prayer–we must practice contemplative to accomplish this. But the Bible makes it clear that the Word of God is living and active, and it is in filling our minds with it that we come to love Him, not through a mystical practice that is never once mentioned in the Bible, except in warnings against vain repetitions and Old Testament warnings against divination.

Moore builds her case for contemplative in her frequent references to Brennan Manning in her book, suggesting that his contribution to “our generation of believers may be a gift without parallel” (p. 72). This is indeed a troubling statement made by a Christian leader who so many women look to for direction and instruction in their spiritual lives. Many of those women, in reading Moore’s comments about Manning and her quoting of him in the book may turn to the writings of Manning for further insights. When they do, they will find that Manning is a devout admirer of Beatrice Bruteau of The School for Contemplation.

Bruteau believes that God lives in all creation, stating: “We have realized ourselves as the Self that says only I AM, with no predicate following, not “I am a this” or “I have that quality.” Only unlimited, absolute I AM.

And yet in Abba’s Child, Manning says that Bruteau is a “trustworthy guide to contemplative consciousness.” Manning, whose view of the Cross is very similar to that of Brian McLaren, promotes contemplative and states:

[T]he first step in faith is to stop thinking about God at the time of prayer.

Choose a single, sacred word or phrase that captures something of the flavor of your intimate relationship with God. A word such as Jesus, Abba, Peace, God or a phrase such as “Abba, I belong to you.” … Without moving your lips, repeat the sacred word inwardly, slowly, and often.

When distractions come, … simply return to listening to your sacred word…. [G]ently return [your mind] to your sacred word. (Brennan Manning)

Beth Moore quotes Manning from his book Ragamuffin Gospel calling the book “one of the most remarkable books” (p. 290) she has ever read. But it is this very book that reveals Manning’s true affinity with contemplative spirituality. In the back of the book, Manning makes reference to Basil Pennington saying that Pennington’s methods will provide us with “a way of praying that leads to a deep living relationship with God.” However, Pennington’s methods of prayer draw from Eastern religions. In his book, Finding Grace at the Center, Pennington says:

We should not hesitate to take the fruit of the age-old wisdom of the East and “capture” it for Christ. Indeed, those of us who are in ministry should make the necessary effort to acquaint ourselves with as many of these Eastern techniques as possible. Many Christians who take their prayer life seriously have been greatly helped by Yoga, Zen, TM and similar practices. (from A Time of Departing, 2nd ed., p.64)

Manning also cites Carl Jung in Ragamuffin Gospel as well as interspiritualists and contemplatives, Anthony De Mello, Marcus Borg, Morton Kelsey, Gerald May, Henri Nouwen, Annie Dillard, Alan Jones, Eugene Peterson, and Sue Monk Kidd.

For Moore to call Manning’s book “remarkable” and to say his contribution to this generation of believers is “a gift without parallel” leads one to conclude that Beth Moore has absorbed Brennan Manning’s spirituality.

We know that many are upset because we call Beth Moore an advocate for contemplative spirituality. However, we beseech those who are bothered by our reports to search out this matter completely before drawing pre-mature conclusions. Find a way to come to an understanding of what contemplative really is, and then ask Beth Moore to renounce the spirituality that Brennan Manning and Richard Foster are propagating. If she will not do that (which would also include removing her book When Godly People Do Ungodly Things from the market) then she does indeed belong in the contemplative camp and for us to say she is a contemplative advocate is accurate and needful to say. If, however, she will renounce the teachings of these mystic proponents (Foster, Manning, etc) and make it clear that when she says “stillness” she in no way means a stilling of the mind as Foster, Manning and other contemplative mystics teach, she will do a great service to many Christian women and put much confusion to rest. In addition, in order to clear up this present confusion, she would need to remove herself from the 2009 Focus on Marriage seminar, in which she openly and willingly shares a platform with mantra proponent Gary Thomas or ask event organizers to remove Thomas from the schedule. All this to say, if Beth Moore is not a contemplative advocate, she needs to correct her past actions that prove otherwise and make a clear and public declaration. Lighthouse Trails has received a number of angry emails and calls from women who want Lighthouse Trails to stop saying this about Beth Moore, but we are presenting solid facts in a non-vitriolic, straight-forward manner, and we believe we are compelled by the Lord to do so, as are all believers required to defend the faith.

Postscript: The Be Still DVD is being widely promoted and can be found even in your local video rental stores. Couple this DVD with the fast growing CCN (Church Communication Network – hosts of the marriage seminar with Moore and Thomas) and we can safely say that contemplative prayer is quickly becoming “normal” in Christianity. But before we are too swift to think “oh well, maybe it isn’t that bad,” listen to these words by mystic Richard Kirby: “The meditation of advanced occultists is identical with the prayer of advanced mystics.” That statement is taken from Ray Yungen’s book, A Time of Departing. Ray saw this coming back in 1994 when he sat and listened to Richard Foster and soon realized Foster was promoting the teachings of mystic Thomas Merton.

The Commonalities of Catholicism and Islam

Catholicism & Islam: Ties That Bind
McMahon, T.A.

The above title became a source of controversy when I used it for a talk given at a recent prophecy conference. What I found curious about the commotion was that it came from Catholics (and some evangelicals) who had yet to hear my presentation. Furthermore, the title reflects the hope and prayers of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Rome has been tilling this "common ground" with Islam for decades, as evidenced by the 1994 Vatican publication, Recognize the Spiritual Bonds Which Unite Us: 16 Years of Christian-Muslim Dialogue. Why, therefore, would anyone be upset by my simply repeating what the Roman Catholic Church very much desires?

Actually, the real controversy stems from confusion created by the Church of Rome herself. In her zeal to be the spiritual voice of the world's religions, she talks out of both sides of her ecumenical mouth. Regarding her relationship to Islam, not only has she made to those of the Muslim faith some theological overtures which contradict Christian orthodoxy, but even worse, there are ties between the two religions which go a lot deeper than most people realize. Let's first consider some commonalities between the two faiths.

Starting with the number of adherents, Catholicism and Islam each exceed one billion, nearly all of whom enter their respective faiths as infants. More than 16 million babies are baptized into the Roman Catholic Church each year. It's a family thing. My sisters and I were baptized as Catholics because our parents were Catholics, and they and their siblings were baptized into the Church because their parents were Catholics. That's the primary way the faith is propagated.

Practically speaking, although baptism is not part of Islam, all children born into a Muslim family are Muslims. Their official "confirmation" follows as soon as they are able to confess the shahada ("There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger"). This baby-oriented process for increasing their ranks has been a motivating factor in the Vatican/Saudi-sponsored lobby against UN endeavors to introduce contraception and other methods of population control, especially in third-world countries.

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today; Catholicism is the largest religious body among those professing to be Christian. If the number of followers was a good measure for selecting a religion, then Islam and Catholicism would definitely be the way to go. However, the Bible has no such yardstick. Rather, Jesus said, "[W]ide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Mat 7:13-14).

Most people are aware of the veneration and even worship of Mary found among Roman Catholics, but not many know that much the same deference exists among Muslims. A chapter in the Qur'an is named after Mary ("Surah Maryam"). From the outskirts of Cairo to Bombay to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, hundreds of thousands of the Islamic faith have congregated wherever processions carry her statues and where her apparitions are said to have appeared. She is esteemed above the most revered women of the Muslim faith, including Muhammad's two favorite wives, Khadija and Aisha, and his daughter Fatima. The hadith teaches that Muhammad selected Mary as his first wife upon entrance into Paradise (for more about Mary and Islam see "Mary Who?" in TBC Oct '00 ). One of the most popular Catholic apparitions of Mary is referred to as Our Lady of Fatima.

Catholic and Islamic prayers have many similarities. For the Muslim, praying to Allah five times a day is altogether an act of obedience, and the prayers are always repetitive. As one former Muslim puts it, "It's hardly intimate communication with Allah;...it's done more to escape the punishment due to those who neglect prayer." Most prayers prayed by Catholics are also rote and repetitive, saying the rosary being the best example. Repeating 16 "Our Father's" and 153 "Hail Mary's" is far from personal communication. Furthermore, when a Catholic goes to confession the priest assigns rosaries as severe punishment, or penance, for one's sins.

Prayer beads were a part of Islamic devotion to Allah long before an apparition of the Blessed Lady taught St. Dominic to pray the rosary beads in the thirteenth century. Prayer beads, by the way, are a stock item in ancient and modern paganism. On an ironic note, Catholic Church historians credit the prayers of members of the Confraternity of the Rosary for a major naval victory over the Turks, which "saved Europe from the Mohammedan peril."

Catholics and Muslims regard pilgrimages as a means of obtaining favor from God. The hadj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is a required (one-time) journey to Mecca. For Catholics, pilgrimages historically have been acts of religious purification, often induced by the promise of indulgences. Multi-millions of Catholics travel yearly to hundreds of shrines (nearly all dedicated to Mary) located throughout the world. The Crusades were indulgence-stimulated attempts to regain Jerusalem from the infidel Muslims in order to re-establish Catholic pilgrimages. Incidentally, the Church of Rome offered the crusaders full pardon from purgatory should they die trying to liberate the Holy Land. Similarly, Islam offers rewards in and assurance of Paradise to those who die in religious battles (jihad), including suicide bombings.

Roman Catholicism recognizes Allah as the God of the Bible. In 1985, Pope John Paul II declared to an enraptured audience of thousands of Muslim youths, "Christians and Muslims, we have many things in common as believers and as human beings....We believe in the same God, the one and only God, the living God...."

But how is that possible?

Historically, Allah was a pagan idol, supreme among many idols worshiped by Muhammad's Quraish tribe long before he was born. Will Durant in his classic, The Story of Civilization, writes,

Within the Ka'aba, in pre-Moslem days, were several idols representing gods. One was called Allah; three others were Allah's daughters, al-Uzza, al-Lat, and al-Manat. We may judge the antiquity of this Arab pantheon from the mention of Al-il-Lat (Al-Lat) by Herodotus [fifth century B.C. Greek historian] as a major Arabian deity. The Quraish paved the way for monotheism by worshiping Allah as chief god....

Archaeological evidence uncovered in Arabia is overwhelming in demonstrating that the dominant pre-Islamic religion was the worship of the moon god, Allah. Muhammad simply eliminated the other 300-some deities, including Allah's daughters, making Allah supreme while retaining many of the pagan rituals and symbols associated with him. For example, the crescent moon was the symbol of the moon god from the time of the Sumerians and the Babylonians through the time of Christ and right up until Muhammad's arrival. It's hardly a coincidence that Ramadan, the Muslim time of fasting, begins and ends at the time of the crescent moon. Nearly all of the moon god rituals and other idolatrous practices, including kissing the Black Stone, praying toward Mecca, running around the temple and between the two hills of Safa and Marwa, were pre-Islamic rituals.

Catholicism's zeal to relate to Islam makes one wonder how honest it is about its own perspective on God, based on the "Sacred Scripture." God is referred to as Yahweh or Jehovah about 9,000 times in the Bible. Never is He thus referred to in the Qur'an. He reveals himself in the Scriptures as "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob/Israel." He is the Father of the Jews, "the God of Israel." In the Qur'an, Allah never refers to himself that way. God calls the Jews His "chosen people." He gave them the land of Israel as a heritage "forever": "And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever" (Eze 37:25). God's covenant is with Isaac (Gen 17: 19-21), while Muslims believe Allah's covenant is with Ishmael.

Allah has a completely different attitude toward the Jews than does the God of the Bible. Allah commands his followers to "Take not the Jews...for friends" (Sura 5:51). While the Jews are referred to in the Qur'an as "the people of the book" (i.e., the Bible), if they refuse to convert to Islam they must pay a tribute tax to their overlords and become subservient to them: "Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by his messenger, and follow not the religion of truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low" (Sura 9:29). According to the hadith, which most Muslims regard to be nearly as authoritative as the Qur'an, Muhammad is quoted as saying, "The last hour will not come before the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them." Again, the hadith says that, related to the Day of Judgment, Muslims will fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees that say, "Oh Muslim, Oh servant of Allah, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him." Catholicism has its own grievous and well-documented history of slaughtering the Jews.

Further comparisons between Jehovah and Allah demonstrate clearly that they cannot be one and the same. Jehovah has a Son: "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (1 Jn 4:14). Allah has no son: "And say: Praise be to Allah, Who hath not taken unto Himself a son, and Who hath no partner in the Sovereignty..." (Sura 17:111); "Allah hath not chosen any son, nor is there any God along with him" (Sura 23:91). Whereas God the Father declared from heaven concerning Jesus, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mat 3:17), Allah of the Qur'an condemns such a belief: "...the Christians say: Messiah is the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouths. They imitate the saying of the disbelievers of old. Allah's Curse be on them, how they are deluded away from the truth!" (Sura 9:30 - The Holy Qur'an www.orst.edu/groups/msa/index.phpl).

While there are both clear and critical differences between the biblical God and Allah, nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church accepts them as one and the same God. The following quote is from Vatican II:

The Church has also a high regard for the Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to men. They strive to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of God, just as Abraham submitted himself to God's plan, to whose faith Muslims eagerly link their own.

Although not acknowledging him as God, they venerate Jesus as a prophet, his virgin Mother they also honor, and even at times devoutly evoke. Further, they await the day of judgment and the reward of God following the resurrection of the dead. For this reason they highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds and fasting (Nostra Aetate, Vatican II).

Consider carefully the above quote (taken from what the Roman Catholic Church claims is an infallible council) and you will realize what truly binds Catholicism and Islam together: They both have a Jesus who cannot save their souls. The Qur'an teaches that Jesus did not die on the cross: "And because of [the Jews] saying, We slew the Messiah Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger—They slew him not nor crucified, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain" (Sura 4:157). Vatican II may give Muslims credit for "venerating" Jesus, but in fact, it's a bogus Jesus. Sadly, Catholicism also has a false Christ. It teaches that His death on the cross was not sufficient for our salvation. Not only must His sacrifice (which, according to the Scriptures, was offered only once to take away our sins completely [Heb 9:28]) be "re-presented" as a daily sacrifice for sins on altars around the world, but Catholics must expiate their own sins through sufferings here on earth and in purgatory.

Finally, Vatican II spells out clearly what Islam and Catholicism regard as their hope for salvation: "...they highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds and fasting." This is works salvation. In Islam, a person is accountable for every thought, word, and deed. His or her life is to be lived according to what is pleasing to Allah as found in the Qur'an and the hadith. In addition, there is shari'a, which is the body of rules that attempts to cover the totality of Islamic religious, political, social and domestic life. Breaking such laws involves various forms of temporal punishment. At the Last Judgment Allah will determine one's eternal destiny as He places one's good and evil works on the divine scale: "Then those whose scales are heavy [with good deeds], they are the successful. And those whose scales are light are those who lose their souls, in hell abiding" (Sura 23:102,103). The hadith vividly describes the tortures of hell.

A friend of mine, James McCarthy, produced a video titled Catholicism: Crisis of Faith in which he interviews about a dozen people leaving Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. He simply asks them on what basis they expect to get to heaven. Only one made any reference to Jesus. The overwhelming response was that they felt they were pretty good people, and were fairly confident that their good deeds outweighed their bad ones. Although the Catholic Church states that it is only by God's grace that one can enter heaven, it becomes very clear that what is meant is that grace is required to enable one to do the works which qualify one for heaven. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, they "obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ" (par 1821) and they "can merit for [them]selves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life" (par 2027).

Pope John Paul II addressed a Catholic community in Turkey with these words: "I wonder if it is now urgent, precisely today when Christians and Muslims have entered a new period of history, to recognize and develop the spiritual bonds that unite us." No! What is "urgent" is that Catholics and Muslims be set free from the spiritual bondage of attempting to qualify for heaven by their good deeds. Pray that their hearts would be open to receive the gift of eternal life (Rom 6:23). TBC