"Mother" Teresa
"Mother" Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in what is now Yugoslavia/Bosnia on 8/27/10. The diminutive nun arrived 1/6/29 in India, where she started assisting the needy and eventually established the now-global "Missionaries of Charity" organization. "Mother" Teresa, and those who work with her, never try to convert to Christ the dying people for whom they care. Instead, "Mother" Teresa declares: "If in coming face to face with God we accept Him in our lives, then we are converting. We become a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Catholic, a better whatever we are. ... What God is in your mind you must accept" (from Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work , by Desmond Doig, p. 156, as quoted by Dave Hunt, Global Peace and the Rise of Antichrist , p. 149).
Acknowledging that "Mother" Teresa is a good woman from the human perspective, does not answer the question: Is "Mother" Teresa a regenerate Christian in the Biblical sense--a woman and an organization with which Christians should associate and work? The secular world has honored her with the Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and accolades on every hand. In 6/85, she received from President Reagan the highest United States civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom award. In 10/85, she received the "warmest ovation of the United Nation's 40th anniversary celebration." It is not all that surprising to see the world, Catholicism, and liberal Protestantism offer unqualified applause to "Mother" Teresa. More significant and difficult to understand is the applause being given to her by those claiming to be Bible-believing Christians. This, though, is evidenced on every hand ("Is Mother Teresa a True Christian?" by David W. Cloud, pp. 5-6).
"Mother" Teresa is a thorough-going Catholic. She is a great worshiper of Mary; she believes the cracker of the mass is Jesus Christ; she believes all men are children of God. In her speech before the United Nations in October 1985, she said, "We gather to thank God for the 40 years of the beautiful work of the United Nations for the good of the people. No color, no religion, no nationality should come between us--we are all children of God. ... When we destroy an unborn child, we destroy God" (11/11/85 Christian News ).
Other notable quotes from "Mother" Teresa (12/4/89 Time , pp. 11 & 13):
(a) "The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill , the unwanted, the unloved--they are Jesus in disguise . ... [through the] poor people I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus." [On another occasion, she again demonstrated her pantheistic religious philosophy: "Every AIDS victim is Jesus in a pitiful disguise; Jesus is in everyone.. ... [AIDS sufferers are] children of God [who] have been created for greater things" (1/13/86 Time ).]
(b) "You must make them feel loved and wanted. They are Jesus for me."
(c) "I love all religions. ... If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there." [On another occasion, she again demonstrated her false gospel that 'there are many ways to God': "All is God--Buddists, Hindus, Christians, etc., all have access to the same God."]
It should be clear that "Mother" Teresa is anything but an Evangelical Christian. She is a self-sacrificing woman who is following a false religion. Consider some quotes from her speech at the 10/84 Worldwide Retreat for Priests:
(a) "At the word of a priest, that little piece of bread becomes the body of Christ, the Bread of Life."
(b) "Without a priest, without Jesus going with them, our sisters couldn't go anywhere."
(c) "When the priest is there, then can we have our altar and our tabernacle and our Jesus. Only the priest put Jesus there for us. ... Jesus wants to go there, but we cannot bring him unless you first give him to us. This is why I love priests so much. We could never be what we are and do the things we do without you priests who first bring Jesus to us."
(d) "Mary ... is our patroness and our Mother, and she is always leading us to Jesus."
No one would deny that "Mother" Teresa is doing a marvelous piece of wonderful humanitarian work among the poor and neglected of the world, but what gospel does she preach to them? She is definitely not leading them to the one, true, eternal salvation through the finished sacrifice of Calvary. "Mother" Teresa provides the classic example of compassionate and charitable deeds divorced from truth. She says that her purpose is to bring her patients closer to the "God" in whom they already believe; so that a Hindu becomes a better Hindu, a Buddhist a better Buddhist, etc. (Vatican II says those of all religions are somehow saved through the Church.) She tells how to witness for Jesus: In an interview with a nun who works with "Mother" Teresa (reported in Christian News ), dying Hindus were instructed to pray to their own Hindu gods!:
"These people are waiting to die. What are you telling them to prepare them for death and eternity? She replied candidly, 'We tell them to pray to their Bhagwan, to their gods.'"
She was instructing these staunch Hindus to pray sincerely to their own Hindu idols and she felt that if they did this, God would certainly not judge them! No matter how plausible from man's earthly vantage point, when good works are conducted by unregenerate religious people, what is promoted is a cursed false gospel, encouraging the lost heathen to have hope in their false gods, even as they lay upon their death beds. In God's eyes, therefore, the entire endeavor is a cursed one, and no Christian should support, assist, or praise a work cursed by God!
The following is from an interview with a Catholic nun, "Sister" Ann, who worked in Kathmandu, Nepal, with "Mother" Teresa's organization Missionaries of Charity. The interview was conducted 11/23/84 at the Pashupati Temple.
Q: Do you believe if they die believing in Shiva or in Ram [Hindu gods] they will go to heaven?
A: Yes, that is their faith. My own faith will lead me to God, ... So if they have believed in their god very strongly, if they have faith, surely they will be saved.
Q: Today it does not seem that the Catholic Church is trying to convert anymore. I know that John Paul II is saying now that those of other religions are saved. You do not believe they are lost anyway, right?
A: No, they are not lost. They are saved according to their faith, you know. If they believe whatever they believe, that is their salvation.
Obviously, then, "Mother" Teresa is both a pantheist and a Universalist--Universalists maintain that Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and other non-Christians can get to heaven without saving faith in Christ; they are those who believe that all who sincerely follow their own religions or beliefs will be saved. "Mother" Teresa tells Muslims and Jews that they worship the same God that Christians worship. "Mother" Teresa has even called atheistic communists children of God!
"Mother" Teresa is very much in the mainstream of the ecumenical world evangelization project "Evangelization 2000." She was on hand in June, 1987, by invitation, to help dedicate the offices of Evangelization 2000 in Rome. She is an honorary member of Lumen 2000, the electronic media aspect of Evangelization 2000. The first issue of New Evangelization 2000 features "Mother" Teresa prominently with photographs of her, and one entire article entitled, "Mother Teresa Promises Support." (Reported in the 2/15/93 Bold Truth Press .) ["Mother" Teresa was also scheduled to join the Dalai Lama and hundreds of other world religious leaders at the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993 in Chicago, Illinois. She was scheduled to lead a closed session of key participants on future co-operative efforts among the world's religions, but was forced to cancel for health reasons.]
"Mother" Teresa is also involved in various projects with New Agers and "one-worlders." In 1985, "Mother" Teresa attended a conference sponsored by the United Nations University of Peace whose featured agenda was a call to bring about the New World Order. Others participating in the "Spirit of Peace" conference included Marilyn Ferguson, leading proponent of the New Age movement; Prince Bernhardt of the Netherlands, commonly known as a leader of the one-world secret elitist society, the Bilderbergers; "His Holiness" Tenzin Gyatso, the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet; Helen Caldicott, president of "Physicians for Social Responsibility," an organization favoring U.S. unilateral disarmament; Bishop Desmond Tutu, proponent of leftist revolution in South Africa; and New Ager Robert Muller, Ass't. Secretary General of the U.N., in charge of co-ordinating the work of 32 specialized agencies and world programs. [Reported in "Ecumenism, 'Global Spirituality' and Mother Teresa," Christian Inquirer (April 1985), p. 26; and The Prophecy Newsletter (Vol. 1, No. 5, p. 6.)]
"Mother" Teresa also participated in the "Summit for Peace" in Assisi, Italy, in November 1986. This blasphemous prayer meeting was arranged by the Pope and was attended by leaders of many different religions, including Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Shinto, Sikh, and North American Indian--all of whom united in prayers for world peace (11/10/86 Time , pp. 78-79).
Biblical Discernment Ministries - Revised 3/96
[Mother Theresa died in 1997 and based on the gospel she taught and lived by, she is now awaiting the White Throne Judgment and will be judged for her sins. While many ignorant Protestant clergy still laud her as a true Christian, she was anything but. No one will ever deny she did true humanitarian work but she came in the name of a false gospel, she preached a false gospel, and died in that false gospel. The way of salvation is through Christ and Christ alone. No one can work their way to Heaven, for if we could, then Christ died in vain because salvation would have been available by human effort. Self-works are an affront to the Cross of Christ. Mother Teresa is another casualty of the false church of Rome. If you are reading this and want to follow in her footsteps, you have become seduced by a false system and in need of salvation. - Dr. Ken Matto]