Will only Christians be saved?

greendawn

I asked a catholic priest if one needs to be a catholic to be saved, to compare with the JW belief that one has to be a JW to be saved. His answer was interesting and based on Romans 2:12-14 (NLT version)

"14 Even when Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they show that in their hearts they know right from wrong. 15 They demonstrate that God's law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right"

According to him even Moslems or Hindus that follow the law written in their hearts will be saved even if they don't have an accurate knowledge of Christianity. They will simply be jugded by the law of their conscience the law that God wrote in the hearts of all men.

That's far more flexible than the narrow dogmatic JW view that only they will be saved.

lovelylil

Greendawn,

I agree with that view completely. You do not have to become a Christian to be saved as God's plan is to save all through Christ and I believe through the church of Christ. This is my view.

But God's plan includes hope for all of mankind. That is why he is Love.

I used to ask my JW friends how can you teach God is Love and in the same breath say he will kill 99.9% of the world?

Dave_T

Actually, if you were Hindu or belonged to any other non-abrahamic religion, your first reaction would be: "Saved from what???"

Honesty

That's exactly the way one of our pastors explained it too, Greendawn.

Star Moore

Wow, Greendawn:

I believe that too...but never thought of using that scripture to apply it. I like the one in Math. 25 about helping of Christ's brothers..as a criteria and also, Ez. 9 about the ones 'sighing and moaning over the destestable things" and receiving the mark of salvation. Also, in Rev..about not recieving the mark of the beast as another criteria,.. Also, Mic.4:4 about beating swords into plowshares.. all of which don't require you to be a Christian.

Leolaia

The apocalyptic core of early Christianity, and the Judaism it derived from, emphasized eschatological judgment and the dualist division of humanity between the saved (who were few) and the damned (who were many). This point of view occurs most especially in the "Two Ways" traditions in the Epistle of Enoch (in 1 Enoch), 1QS and the War Scroll, the "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew, the Didache, and Barnabas (but also cf. the apocalyptic scenarios of Jude, Revelation and 4 Ezra). Paul also was heir to these views as well (e.g. Romans 2:3-5, 14:10, 2 Corinthians 5:10).

But there was also a universalist current as well that expressed itself, at least minimally, as a hope that there might be salvation for others, or that the damned are not eternally damned. In Jonah, Tobit, and the LXX version of Daniel, there is a clear hope that Gentiles would enter into the covenant and at least in the case of Jonah, the scheduled judgment and punishment did not come to pass due to God's mercy. On this basis, there was a similar hope that the harsh predictions of the punishments waiting for the accursed are only to induce them to righteousness but do not neccesarily reflect what would really happen to them. The Apocalypse of Peter admits that punishment in hell was not really eternal, but this fact should be kept a secret lest people commit sin without fear. The idea of purgatory, firmly in place in the Church by late antiquity (attested first by Clement of Alexandria and Origen), has solid Jewish roots as Jacques Le Goff (The Birth of Purgatory, 1981) shows. There are early hints of this idea in Didache 16:5 (i.e. people being saved by the fiery test) and Hermas: "It is necessary that this world perish by blood and fire ... now the ones having remained and having passed through the fire will be purified by it, just like gold casts off its dross" (4.3.2-5). Although such fire is the fire of persecution (cf. 1 Peter 1:7), the idea that it purifies is not a far leap from construing the fires of Gehenna as "purifying" and justifying one in the end. Interestingly, this idea of purgatory echoes the original Persian views of hell in which the fires have a positive, purifying nature.

barry

Greendawn thats the same explanation you would get from an SDA but the reason is not everyone beleives in th esecond chance theory as the JWs do. The SDAs beleive in a mixture of pre millenelism and A millenelism

LittleToe

CS Lewis was of a similar opinion.

Narkissos

The apocalyptic core of early Christianity, and the Judaism it derived from, emphasized eschatological judgment and the dualist division of humanity between the saved (who were few) and the damned (who were many). This point of view occurs most especially in the "Two Ways" traditions in the Epistle of Enoch (in 1 Enoch), 1QS and the War Scroll, the "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew, the Didache, and Barnabas (but also cf. the apocalyptic scenarios of Jude, Revelation and 4 Ezra). Paul also was heir to these views as well (e.g. Romans 2:3-5, 14:10, 2 Corinthians 5:10).

This structural agreement (a few saved vs. many lost), though, should not obscure the substantial disagreement about who is saved and how. Making faith, not works, the basic criterium opposes Paul to the doctrine of Matthew or Qumran (which also differ by the assessment of ritualism). Gnosticism too often uses the same dualistic pattern (the pneumatic chosen few vs. the mass of psychic / hylic), but of course the criterium is knowledge.

And the same substantial difference is also at work in the alternative universalist trends. They all involve a dialectical play on the dualistic pattern, but differing according to its various criteria. Where works are the key, the universalist trend will claim that "whoever gives a cup of water (which is still doing something) won't lose his/her reward". Where faith matters, "God has imprisoned all in disobedience/disbelief so that he may be merciful to all". Where knowledge is the criterium, ultimately "the world (which presently doesn't know) will know."

Will only Christians be saved?

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