by jimwalton » Sun Sep 28, 2014 5:31 pm
In the Bible, heaven is not a place where good people get to enjoy eternal bliss, but an eternity of sharing life in a love relationship with Jesus. In direct answer to your question, only people who want to spend eternity with Jesus will spend eternity with Jesus. He won't force people there against their will.
You're likely familiar with John 14.6 where Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." By that we understand that the God is the Bible is claimed to be the only true God, and that Christ claims to be the only access door to him. As much as people would like to believe that all reasonable roads lead to God and heaven, there's madness in that method. According to the law of non-contradiction, it's just not possible that all belief systems are equally valid. If that were the case, the person who thinks they're all equally valid is just as right as the person who thinks they're not, which is just nonsense. The religions of the world contradict each other in significant ways. If we have integrity in our definition of truth, it's just not possible that all religions are equally true and are different roads to the same divine state.
But what about people from other religions, maybe people who have never heard? As far as worshipers of other religions that have not heard of Christianity, that's a different matter. We should establish that justice requires that people be treated fairly, taking into account all the surrounding circumstances of their situation (motives, resources, decisions, etc.) We learn from Romans 5.13 that "sin is not taken into account when there is not law." Although God sees that it's sin, and it is sin, there is no moral or spiritual accountability where there was no spiritual input. They will be judged according to the information they had, what they did with it, and their motives behind it. Every judgment will be fair based on what information people had, what they knew, what their motives were, and how they behaved given what they had access to. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair. So if someone hasn't heard of Christianity, they can't be held accountable for Christianity. But they will be held accountable for what they do know. As C.S. Lewis said, "We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him."
Am I OK with it? That's like asking if I'm OK with Chicago being a city, or with a banana being yellow. Truth isn't subject to a vote or my opinions of it. If it's true, it's true, and if it's true, the object is to get people to see the truth and accept it, rather than make up another truth that I may be more comfortable with.
In the Bible, heaven is not a place where good people get to enjoy eternal bliss, but an eternity of sharing life in a love relationship with Jesus. In direct answer to your question, only people who want to spend eternity with Jesus will spend eternity with Jesus. He won't force people there against their will.
You're likely familiar with John 14.6 where Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." By that we understand that the God is the Bible is claimed to be the only true God, and that Christ claims to be the only access door to him. As much as people would like to believe that all reasonable roads lead to God and heaven, there's madness in that method. According to the law of non-contradiction, it's just not possible that all belief systems are equally valid. If that were the case, the person who thinks they're all equally valid is just as right as the person who thinks they're not, which is just nonsense. The religions of the world contradict each other in significant ways. If we have integrity in our definition of truth, it's just not possible that all religions are equally true and are different roads to the same divine state.
But what about people from other religions, maybe people who have never heard? As far as worshipers of other religions that have not heard of Christianity, that's a different matter. We should establish that justice requires that people be treated fairly, taking into account all the surrounding circumstances of their situation (motives, resources, decisions, etc.) We learn from Romans 5.13 that "sin is not taken into account when there is not law." Although God sees that it's sin, and it is sin, there is no moral or spiritual accountability where there was no spiritual input. They will be judged according to the information they had, what they did with it, and their motives behind it. Every judgment will be fair based on what information people had, what they knew, what their motives were, and how they behaved given what they had access to. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair. So if someone hasn't heard of Christianity, they can't be held accountable for Christianity. But they will be held accountable for what they do know. As C.S. Lewis said, "We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him."
Am I OK with it? That's like asking if I'm OK with Chicago being a city, or with a banana being yellow. Truth isn't subject to a vote or my opinions of it. If it's true, it's true, and if it's true, the object is to get people to see the truth and accept it, rather than make up another truth that I may be more comfortable with.