Universalist Pastor Calls Matt "Condescending" in Recent Article

Once again I've seemed to stir the pot.  This time because of my article "True Christians will Mourn Their Sin" in the Times Gazette last week.  United Methodist pastor Georgette Gaston wrote an editorial in response.

She begins by saying that the Beatitudes, from which my text was taken, are words reserved for the future escatalogical kingdom, in which God restores all of Creation.  I found this quite interesting for two reasons.  First because of the obvious contradiction.  If this passage is talking about the time in the future when the creation has been restored, why will there be a need to mourn? 

Secondly, I wonder why Ms. Gaston capitalized the word "Creation"?  I'm inclined to think that it was merely a typo, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a result of a pantheistic worldview.

My favorite part of the article was when she called me "condescending."  Ms. Gaston said,

I was disappointed by the condescending language used by Pastor Timmons throughout the article.  While his overall message is an important one, his use of phrases like "proper feelings" of a Christian, "how you can determine if you are a 'true' child of God," "Some who profess to be Christians," "marks of a 'true' believer from a false professor" along with other exclusive insider language grieved my spirit.

It is my opinion that you cannot read this and not pick up a universalist flavor.  Evidently, according to Ms. Gaston (and keeping with the classical liberal/ modernist viewpoint) everyone is a true child of God, its just that some people don't know it yet.  Still, it is funny that she found my language "condescending."  How terrible of me to say that there are people who are not Christians out there!

Coming in a close second in my personal favorites was the ever so common label of schismatic.  Says Ms. Gaston, "This sort of theology encourages divisiveness and dependence on self rather than intentional disciple building."

Actually, these words encourage dependence: on Christ alone for salvation because sin is not able to be dealt with by human hands.  At the same time, Ms. Gaston's words are somewhat insightful .  The real purpose of the Beatitudes is to describe and distinguish a true child of God from a false professor.  So, in the Beatitudes, Jesus is being divisive!
In conclusion, Ms. Gaston says, "Christianity is not a religion of guilt, but of faith that frees us to be the person God purposed us to be..."  Along with her gender, these words disqualify her for the ministry.  Ms. Gaston proves she doesn't know her Bible very well.  Christianity is a religion of guilt.  When we sin, we are guilty before God.  Christ came for the purpose of taking the punishment that a guilty one deserves and, by passing on His righteousness to His people, allowing them to be declared "not guilty" on the Day of Judgment.

I understand that the article I wrote was not your typical happy, slappy message, but it was an important one.  It was a message of calling people to repentance: of which mourning sin is part and parcel.  It is my prayer that Ms. Gaston will come to realize that she is out of accord with the Scripture and has compromised the gospel.  And surely, if there is anything that ought to be mourned, it is the fact that she is leading others in the way of destruction.