Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), who is also pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (where Martin Luther King Jr served as pastor) took considerable heat over the Easter weekend in response to his tweet:

“The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether you are a Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves.”

Warnock deleted the tweet, but not before many criticized him for downplaying the Resurrection of Jesus, the central article of Christian faith, and accused him of heresy for saying that we are able to save ourselves by a commitment to helping others, a sentiment directly contrary to the Protestant theology of sola fide, that we are saved by faith alone. The idea that we are able to save ourselves, of course, is contrary to Catholic theology, as well, which teaches that we are saved by the grace of God made available to us through the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by our cooperation with that grace by means of faith in Jesus as Savior and a life lived according to His divine commands.

Critics pointed out that Warnock received his theological education from Union Theological Seminary, which has a reputation for being theologically liberal. Still, it’s one thing to be theologically liberal. It’s quite another to reject the central premise of Christian faith that God saves us and that He accomplished our salvation through the victory of Jesus Christ over death.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.