The first time I spoke out against Mother Teresa is when I saw her picture on the front cover on Christianity Today. I checked her background, beliefs and supposed good works, and came to the conclusion that she was more a demon than she was a saint; and that she was an anti-Christ and an apostate if there ever was one. I went on my radio program and gave my opinion that she was a fraud. Of course, I was attacked by the evangelical media for being mean, unloving, and unkind. The natural theologians such as Frank Pastore, Greg Koukl, J. P. Moreland, etc. gushed over Mother Teresa like teenage girls over a pop-star. She was praised and honored throughout the evangelical world, and I was the “lone voice in the wilderness” warning people that she was a fraud. If you have not been watching the news, then you no doubt missed the fact that a new biography of Mother Teresa has been published. The author is a Roman Catholic who was granted permission to study her written documents. Now that Mother Teresa has been canonized a saint, everything she wrote has been archived. What did this official biography reveal?
Mother Teresa had become an agnostic many, many years ago. Not only did she doubt the existence of God and of Jesus, but she finally came to the position that doubt was the only thing her soul possessed. She never preached the gospel or talked about Jesus to her Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh patients. She herself had no assurance of faith and no assurance of hope.
I watched to see if the evangelical natural theologians, who had praised her as an example of what it means to be a Christian, would now come to my position that she was a fraud. But, lo-and-behold, they have been busy in the evangelical media defending her doubts and agnosticism as healthy, vigorous, faith. I sat listening to the Hugh Hewitt Show, and The Frank Pastore Show, on KKLA, telling their audiences that Mother Teresa was a great Christian because she had her doubts that God existed. Various magazines have come out and stated that Mother Teresa was a great woman because she admitted her doubts, and we ought to follow her example by admitting that we also doubt God, the Bible, and the Gospel. One evangelical radio program in LA devoted an entire program to have Christian people call in, and explain how they doubt the existence of God, the inspiration of Scripture, the Trinity, and the Deity of Christ. The host boasted that he was as honest as the saint Mother Teresa, because he had the same kind of doubts she had.
I picked up my cell phone and called the program, and was told that they would not accept calls from people who were not honest about their doubts. I had told her that I had “full assurance of faith” (Heb 10:22), and “full assurance of hope” (Heb 6:11). I was prepared to quote 2 Tim 1:12, 1 John 5:13, and Rom. 8:38-39, that the true believer has absolute confidence and assurance not only that God exists but that he is a child of God, his sins forgiven, and he is on his way to Heaven. I was told that I was dishonest by claiming I have full assurance of faith.
After reflection, I now clearly see that natural theology cannot give assurance of faith or hope to anyone. They can only claim that what they believe is probably true. I am so happy that I can confess full assurance of faith and hope.