Question: Pope Benedict XVI declared..."Whoever seeks peace and the good of the community with a ...

Question: On 11/30/05, Pope Benedict XVI declared to 23,000 people in St. Peter's Square in Rome, "Whoever seeks peace and the good of the community with a pure conscience, and keeps alive the desire for the transcendent, will be saved even if he lacks biblical faith." Could this explain how pagans throughout history who never heard the gospel could be saved?

Response: Everyone in every culture and time in history knows from abundant evidence that the universe was created by a God infinite in wisdom, power, and purity (Rom 1). God promises, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jer:29:13And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
See All...). He will reveal Himself to everyone who truly seeks Him.

Not everyone, however, who claims to seek God, is seeking the true God. Most "seekers" are seeking a false god of their own imagination that will give them what they want. This is a flaw in the "seeker friendly" church growth movement: giving people the "religion" they want instead of the convicting truth they need. The Athenians claimed to be seeking truth; but when Paul on Mars' hill revealed the true God to them, "some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter." Very few believed (Acts:17:32-34 [32] And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. [33] So Paul departed from among them. [34] Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
See All...).

The truth will never be popular. Many Jews, confronted by biblical proof, knew that Jesus was the Messiah but did not want their false view of the Messiah disturbed. So Jesus said, "And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not" (Jn:8:45And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
See All...). Benedict XVI did not tell his fawning audience the truth but what they wanted to hear (2 Tm 4:3,4).

The Pope's words are unbiblical and misleading. Having a "desire for the transcendent," does not equal seeking the one true God. Nor can seeking "peace and the good of the community" be equated with receiving as personal Savior the One who "made peace through the blood of his cross" (Col:1:20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
See All...). Nor has anyone a "pure conscience": "There is none righteous, no, not one...all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God..." (Rom:3:10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
See All..., 23). God has written His law in every conscience and every person knows that he has broken that law many times. When Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," the woman's accusers, "convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one..." (Jn:8:7-9 [7] So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. [8] And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. [9] And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
See All...). The Pope and his Church offer false hope to sinners.