Gospel.com Blog

This is one of the more vexing questions that Christians encounter (or ask themselves): if Jesus is the only way through which we’re made right with God, what does that mean for people who never hear about him? It’s one thing to hear the Gospel and choose to reject it; but what about somebody who never had a chance to hear, let alone reject, the message of Jesus?

Christians have taken many different approaches to this question. I’ll highlight responses from two different online ministries below. Do you agree with either (or both) of them?

Uplook Ministries answers the question by arguing that God works in people’s hearts in many more ways than just through overt preaching of the Gospel. They conclude:

God has promised us that, if we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). He is not eager for anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). “For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:12-13). We do not know how God is dealing with people in lands yet unreached by the gospel, but from Scripture we can see that He will never condemn anyone unjustly, but will be faithful to reveal Himself to anyone who looks for His salvation.

We also know that John saw in heaven “…a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10). Not only every nation but every tribe will be represented in heaven.

Notice that they all sing the same song. We are not saying that sincere Muslims or Hindus, trusting in their religion, will make it to heaven. There is only one Saviour, and everyone in heaven will be there through the salvation provided by God’s Lamb, the Lord Jesus.

Read the full answer at Uplook Ministries.

The Faith Facts ministry answers the question:

…the Bible also teaches that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2)! And it implies that whoever seeks after God earnestly will find him (Deuteronomy 4:29; Psalm 86:5; Proverbs 8:17; Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 7:7-8). God is fair as well as just. We are confident, for example, that the Old Testament patriarchs who lived by faith before Jesus’ earthly ministry, are in heaven. So certainly some people have gotten to heaven without knowing Jesus in the personal way that the New Testament speaks of. Ultimately only God can judge as only He knows the individual’s heart. We hold out hope that for those who have not heard but have not rejected God, those have been misinformed, or those who are unable to understand (children, mentally ill, etc) may be pardoned by a just God.

Certainly, the Bible does not teach “universalism.” Universalism is the idea that everyone gets to heaven.

The Bible clearly teaches that the only certain way to heaven is through Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). We are confident that God will not hold anyone accountable for any knowledge he did not receive. At the same time, the Bible emphatically states that Christ is the only sure way to salvation. Anyone who has heard of the saving grace of Jesus, and rejects it, would be thumbing his nose at God (John 3:36).

Read the full answer at Faith Facts website.

Do these answers satisfy you?

Share your thoughts!

Can compassion be considered a universally accepted ethical and religious standard?

Karen Armstrong recently developed the Charter for Compassion as a way of extrapolating the Golden Rule—a rule that the Charter argues is reflected in every major world religion—into a statement of compassionate thinking and action.

At the moment, about 17000 people have called themselves affirmers of the Charter, and the list includes such celebrity signatories as the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Paul Simon and Meg Ryan.

Here’s the first paragraph from the Charter for Compassion. Although, it’s worth reading the entire thing:

“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

The Charter has garnered quite a bit of global religious support. Do you think it’s compatible with Christianity? Is this truly a document that we can all agree on? Should Christians sign it?

Today is Friday the 13th. Does that make you nervous? Did you glance anxiously over your shoulder on your way in to work this morning? Carefully avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks or walking under ladders?

Probably not. I’ve never met anyone who took Friday the 13th, or any of those thousands of other little superstitions, seriously (although it’s interesting how long they’ve stuck around, given that few people give them any credence). Americans, and Christians in particular, aren’t a superstitious lot… or are they?

This morning, I took stock of my life to see if anything I did could be called “superstitious.” And I was surprised to realize that in fact, I often act on what you might call “Christian superstitions.”

By “Christian superstitions,” I mean spiritual activities performed not because they contribute to my life as a Christian, but out of fear, routine, or a sense of obligation. When I do “Christian activities” mindlessly, out of guilt, or “just because I’m supposed to,” those activities become little more than dumb superstitions. Here are a few examples from my life:

How often have I mumbled the same old prayer before meals without giving any thought to what I was saying? Surely, a prayer in which I am not even paying attention to the words has no value at all.

How often have I gone to church on Sunday morning out of a sense of “Christian obligation” rather than a desire to worship? If I’ve just spent an hour sitting in the church pew daydreaming about the latest Batman movie or worrying about work, I’ve just wasted an hour of my life on a pointless activity.

How often have I dropped money in the offering plate at church because I’m expected to, and not because I want to gratefully give back to God? I may be helping the Kingdom of God financially, but the activity is robbed of any of the spiritual import it’s meant to have. If I give of my time or money for no other reason than “that’s what Christians are supposed to do” or out of a vague sense of guilt, that’s just empty superstition.

As you can see, I can be quite good at taking praiseworthy spiritual activities and turning them into meaningless religious routine. I don’t think that’s much more useful than avoiding black cats on Friday the 13th.

What about you? Every Christian must struggle at some point with the challenge of keeping our daily and weekly spiritual activities from becoming empty routine. How do you stay on guard against this tendency toward superstition?

[Photo by flickr user rachdian; used under a Creative Commons license.]

What do you think?

One fascinating facet of humanity is how many different religions we have. And for every religion there are people who are sincerely convinced that it’s the truth.

While I doubt anyone would argue that Christians should remain wholly ignorant of the beliefs of other religions, I do wonder what your approach is to learning about other religions.

How much should we learn about other religions?

Share your thoughts!

Are the world’s religions all just different paths to the same destination? Most Christians would answer “no,” as traditional Christianity teaches that Jesus alone can bring us into a relationship with God. But how would you respond to somebody who asked you, personally, if Islam or Buddhism or another religion ultimate led to God?

Here’s how RBC Ministries answers the question:

The major religions that still survive today have lasted a long time, gained many followers, and produced complex and highly developed cultures. Those that have survived into the 20th century generally uphold a moral law similar to the biblical 10 Commandments.  But the world’s major religions do not share a consensus about how to come to terms with our failure to live up to the moral standards of our faith.

While all major contemporary religions have a fairly close general consensus regarding the moral law—the kind of behavior that deserves to be classified as virtuous or sinful—they fall far short of showing us how to come to terms with our own failure to live up to the moral standards of our faith.

According to the New Testament gospel of Christ, knowledge of the moral law brings awareness of sin and guilt (Romans 3:19,20; 7:7-13; 1 Timothy 1:7-11), but is in itself not a means of salvation. Knowledge of the moral law only brings condemnation, and with condemnation comes guilt and the many destructive ways people try to suppress it (legalism, self-righteousness, scapegoating).Only reliance upon Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection in our behalf provides a solution to the awareness of moral condemnation and agony of guilt that rises out of knowledge of the moral law. Only Christianity offers access to God because it answers the problem of evil and guilt.

Read the rest of RBC Ministries’ answer at their website.

Is that a good answer to the question? Do you think that all religions lead to the same God—and if not, how would you answer somebody who asked you why not?

What do you think?

If I were to go to your Facebook page, what would I see listed under “Religious Views”?

Defining your “Religious Views” can be a deceptively complicated experience. Many people aren’t comfortable with labeling themselves so succinctly, because taking on a label often means taking on all the connotations of that label. You might understand what it means to be “Baptist” or “Catholic,” but do all of your acquaintances and friends? Will they in turn label you as a nutcase if you say you’re “Presbyterian?” Should you care if they look at you askance for being “Anglican?”

A recent conversation on the definition of the term ‘evangelical’ comes to mind (see this Jesus Creed post if you’re interested in exploring that). Nowadays, the word “Evangelical” carries some very unchristian baggage along with it in some people’s minds.

A Washingtonpost.com article, Soul-Searching on Facebook, provides some insight into the thought process that goes into the “Religious Views” question:

Creating a Facebook profile for the first time, Eric Heim hadn’t expected something so serious. Hunched over his laptop, he had whipped through the social network Web site’s questionnaire about his interests, favorite movies and relationship status, typing witty replies wherever possible. But when he reached the little blank box asking for his core beliefs, it stopped him short.

“It’s Facebook. The whole point is to keep it light and playful, you know?” said Heim, 27, a college student from Dumfries. “But a question like that kind of makes you think.”
[...]
Of its 250 million users worldwide, Facebook says more than 150 million people choose to write something in the religious views box.

Later in the article Piotr Bobkowski, a doctoral student at UNC, talks about his research:

He has found that a significant portion of privately religious young adults — almost a third in the case of Protestants — avoid identifying themselves by their traditional sects.

Many teens, Bobkowski said, prefer to portray themselves as spiritual but not religious: “That’s why you see all these little one-line creeds popping up.”

What about you? What does your Facebook profile say your religious views are? Do you think there’s good reason for religious people to tiptoe around labels?

If Christianity, Islam, and many other religions call for their followers to help the poor or do good works within society, does it make sense for Christians to team up with followers of other religions to perform those good works? Is it possible (or a good idea) to jointly pursue such common purposes even if you have very different theological goals? How does your church approach this issue in your community?

Share your thoughts!

If you moved to a new country and found yourself faced with unfamiliar customs, religions, and politics, where would you turn for information? Would you turn to local media (TV, movies, newspapers) for help understanding day-to-day life in your new home? Where would you begin?

That’s a challenge faced by millions of Muslims in America, many of whom have moved to the United States without a clear understanding of Christianity and without anyone to help them get connected to local culture. Many have never interacted meaningfully with Christians, just as many Christians have never done so with Muslims.

Mission Network News reports on The Crescent project, which is devoted to building bridges between Muslims and Christians in the West:

Misunderstanding and misinformation. These are the problems affecting relationships between Muslims and Christians. One organization is trying to change that, while equipping Christians to help Muslims better understand Jesus.

President and CEO of Crescent Project Fouad Masri says, “Our goal is to equip and enable Christians to reach out to the millions of Muslims in America with the claims of Jesus and give them a chance to respond.”

Masri says there’s a reason he started the ministry. “I discovered that a lot of Muslims moving to the West do not have any Christian friends. The majority of Muslims today have never been to a Christian’s home. So they come to America, and their view of our values and our religion is what they see on television and in movies. Muslims are not hearing the claims of Christ.”

Read the rest of the article or visit The Crescent Project’s homepage.

Back in January, InterVarsity reported on a panel discussion held at the University of Washington where the participants responded to the question, If Christians would listen, what would you say?:

Three atheists, one agnostic and one Christian volunteered for a panel discussion to consider the question, “If Christians would listen, what would you say?” Well, they did have a lot to say—and the InterVarsity students who sponsored the event humbly listened. The honest dialogue turned into a riveting evening that engaged the hearts and minds of believers and non-believers—to the benefit of all.

Often Christians are perceived as being close-minded and judgmental, especially on certain topics.

The panel said some sobering things like, “Where are the real Christians who live out what Jesus taught?” You can read the full story at StudentSoul.org. Student Soul is a division of InterVarsity’s web ministry devoted to bringing readers and writers together for conversation about faith, real relationships and and life on college campuses.

Election.

Could there be a more contentious word for the American follower of Christ? There are political elections. Elections in which voices from every side of the aisle will sputter about how Jesus would vote. And there is the matter of spiritual election in which one is predetermined to be heaven-bound or not.

Two issues that, in my opinion, should elicit a very similar response: prayer, Bible reading, a healthy understanding of the grace we are given and urged to give by Christ, and humility.

Prayer because—let’s be honest—without God’s guidance, we are left to our own wisdom, which is a terrible position to be in.

Bible reading because each of these ideas are complicated. Everybody needs to determine for themselves how to vote and what to believe, and appealing to the sourcebook of knowledge is a great place to begin.

Grace because chances are if you have or have had acquaintances, friends or family in your life you know what it is like to disagree with someone. Who hasn’t understand why a loved one would believe something? Who hasn’t been on the receiving end of that bewilderment?

Humility because as history has shown us there’s a lot of ways to make a fool of ourselves. Better to know one’s position in God’s kingdom than to be pompously prideful.

Plenty of people will enumerate reasons about who you should vote for, but we’d urge you to enter into the voting booth with a discerning heart and the knowledge that your true allegiance is not to a government but to God.