Evidence for God from Science

madscientist wrote:Thx to everyboidy for answering. Its kinda clearer now.
But one thhinng.. i know there - i believe there will be not christtians only in heaven (altgough i dont think we'll remember from this world a single thing but anyway...) - but why then its said often "Christ is the only way to salvation?" Ofcourse if you were born as a hindu, for example then you'll believe hindu is the right religion etc. So unfair if it wouldnt. And bless God for that!
But why then we tend to say Jesus is the only way toward salvation? IS it only for those who KNEW about him and does this leave out those who were in other religions?

Canuckster1127 wrote:

madscientist wrote:Thx to everyboidy for answering. Its kinda clearer now.
But one thhinng.. i know there - i believe there will be not christtians only in heaven (altgough i dont think we'll remember from this world a single thing but anyway...) - but why then its said often "Christ is the only way to salvation?" Ofcourse if you were born as a hindu, for example then you'll believe hindu is the right religion etc. So unfair if it wouldnt. And bless God for that!
But why then we tend to say Jesus is the only way toward salvation? IS it only for those who KNEW about him and does this leave out those who were in other religions?

There's the rub.

John 14:6 seems to be very clear as to the exclusive claims of Christ in this regard. If people who have never heard can be saved without specifically knowing Jesus Christ but rather are saved based upon the purity of their heart or excellence of their works, then that contradicts all that the Scripture says.

I know some strong Christians who take the early Chapters in Romans to ive indication that there is a path to salvation that can be taken by others who have not heard Christ. I frankly believe the point of that passage is to demonstrate that natural revelation is sufficient so that any condemned apart from Christ in this manner are without excuse. It's an entirely other matter to infer that there is salvation available outside Christ himself.

Calvinist theology simply states that any such are lost, to my knowledge.

Arminianism has a spectrum of sorts on this, but with the concept of universal availability of salvation has to reconcile God's Justice to the distribution of the message.

Universalism for the most part just by passes the need for any universal calling and just jumps to universal salvation for all, or in the very least a non-eternal judgement in hell averted by annihilation.

The bottom line as I see it, is that yes, it is in God's hands. God will not violate His Word in this regard and so in view of the exclusive claims of Christ, any watering down of this in an effort to attribute our evaluation of justice is suspect and carries profound implications throughout soteriology and missiology in particular.

Byblos wrote:

Canuckster1127 wrote:

madscientist wrote:Thx to everyboidy for answering. Its kinda clearer now.
But one thhinng.. i know there - i believe there will be not christtians only in heaven (altgough i dont think we'll remember from this world a single thing but anyway...) - but why then its said often "Christ is the only way to salvation?" Ofcourse if you were born as a hindu, for example then you'll believe hindu is the right religion etc. So unfair if it wouldnt. And bless God for that!
But why then we tend to say Jesus is the only way toward salvation? IS it only for those who KNEW about him and does this leave out those who were in other religions?

There's the rub.

John 14:6 seems to be very clear as to the exclusive claims of Christ in this regard. If people who have never heard can be saved without specifically knowing Jesus Christ but rather are saved based upon the purity of their heart or excellence of their works, then that contradicts all that the Scripture says.

I know some strong Christians who take the early Chapters in Romans to ive indication that there is a path to salvation that can be taken by others who have not heard Christ. I frankly believe the point of that passage is to demonstrate that natural revelation is sufficient so that any condemned apart from Christ in this manner are without excuse. It's an entirely other matter to infer that there is salvation available outside Christ himself.

Calvinist theology simply states that any such are lost, to my knowledge.

Arminianism has a spectrum of sorts on this, but with the concept of universal availability of salvation has to reconcile God's Justice to the distribution of the message.

Universalism for the most part just by passes the need for any universal calling and just jumps to universal salvation for all, or in the very least a non-eternal judgement in hell averted by annihilation.

The bottom line as I see it, is that yes, it is in God's hands. God will not violate His Word in this regard and so in view of the exclusive claims of Christ, any watering down of this in an effort to attribute our evaluation of justice is suspect and carries profound implications throughout soteriology and missiology in particular.

Here's another take on it that has bothered me for quite some time. Would it not be a little arrogant of us Christians to think that what Jesus meant by him (Christ) being the only way to salvation as opposed to him (God) being the way to salvation? I mean, if Christ is God and we certainly believe that he is, then why could he not, as God, be the way to salvation to non-christians who believe in him? I'm not even sure that makes any sense.

Gman wrote:Here is where I get confused... Jesus calls a non-jewish ROMAN centurion (a guy not even allowed in the temple and knows probably nothing about the jewish faith) as having one of the greatests faiths in all of Israel? Luke 7:9.

Go figure...

madscientist wrote:hey thx to everyone helping to asnwer this...
Still scary to imagine that only those who knowa bout Christ will b saved - if that is what the Scripture says.

God is loving and merciful and not willing that any should perish, despite what some will say. People end up in hell because they reject the offer of salvation, not because they never had a chance.