My good friend Brad, whom I met when I was working on Columbus, has brought up some really great questions regarding Jesus and the way to God. We have been commenting on each other’s blogs, but I think the conversation deserves a post of it’s own, and to catch you all up to speed and bring you into the discussion, I will post the main points of our comments here.
Brad’s Post-
“What did He mean?

‘I am the way, the truth and the light; no man

cometh unto the Father but by Me.’

(John 14:6)

this is a fundamental part of the Christian religion. however, theologians have come up with three different interpretations of this very fundamental passage.

First: this means that we can only obtain salvation through knowing and coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the traditional view held by many Christians, especially evangelical Christians. simply put, if you do not believe in Jesus, you cannot obtain salvation.

Second: Jesus meant that we had to live our lives, or at least do our best, in the way that He did. there is ambiguity in this view on the level of success needed to obtain salvation. i don’t believe that this philosophy is very strong; it seems to be a weak interpretation.

Third: this last view basically starts with the fact that none of us are worthy to get to the Father. we are all sinner and there is nothing that we can do that would make us worthy for Him or for heaven. BUT God is merciful and has sent his son to take the fall for our sinful nature. in the above quote, Jesus is noting that it is through Him, and through Him only, that we are able to get to God. this does not necessarily require belief in Him because Jesus has already taken the punishment for us. ”

My Comments (two in one):

“Romans 10 says 13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” 14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom R510 they have not heard? And how will they hear without a R511 preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”

My point with my above post is to say that saving faith comes from 1. believing which comes from 2. hearing which comes from 3. someone preaching, which comes from 4. those who are sent(Christians).

I believe that Jesus wants everyone to be saved, but that salvation comes from faith. Without faith, there is no salvation. In that way, God is saying that he is exclusive. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love the world, he does, he just isn’t going to force us into a saving relationship with him. At the same time it shows the urgency for us to share the good news of salvation with everyone else.

What do you think?”

Brad’s Responses:
#1.
“Dan,
you got yourself a good looking kid there. i can’t believe you have a two year old though. that’s crazy. anyway, i wanted to respond to your comment on my xanga. for the most part, i agree with you that salvation requires beleif in Christ, but i have some serious qualms with this exclusivistic view. it just seems to be inconsistent with my notion of God as being omnibenevolent. For example, I have heard that there are millions of people in China who have never heard of Jesus Christ. it just seems that God would not, or could not, punish these people for something that is pretty much out of their control. i don’t really know what to make of this problem because it certainly contradicts my belief that we need to believe in Jesus to be saved. what’s the answer? i think our best option may be to suspend making a judgment on the issue.
#2.
Dan,
in resonse to your post:
i think your first point is beautiful. no one has ever pointed out the cycle in a clear way like that to me before. but i still have a problem with exclusivism. part of my problem is that i feel that we can never live up to what we should. i understand there is certainly a great deal of urgency for us to bring non-believers to a relationship with God. but as we used to talk about, this can take quite a bit of time and more than likely requires entering into a sincere relationship with the non-believer. how then can we reach the millions of non-believers…or most importantly the millions who have never even heard of God, let alone Jesus? is this feat even possible? and if not, how is it fair for God, who is by definition fair, to send someone who has never heard of Him or his son to eternal damnation? that’s what i really struggle with.”
My Response:

I have to agree with you if you mean that this sounds like God isn’t fair. But He isn’t fair in a wholly different way. It is not fair that we have a chance at redemption. Because, like you said, “we are all sinners and there is nothing that we can do that would make us worthy for Him or for heaven.” The part that is unfair, is that “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philipians 2:8). This is unfair! He was perfect and wanted relationship with us, but we, through sin, became unreachable without his perfect sacrifice. We all deserve death, but we now have an option of redemption. That’s good news!
This is why it is urgent that we lead people in the direction of Jesus. And this is why we need to do it in a loving way. In a way that shows that it is actually good news that we are bringing.

There are two basic extreme views that we need to balence out as we look at what salvation means. I want to quickly examine both views and then discuss my conclusions.

1.  The Bad News Evangelism 

This usually comes into play when you have ONLY an eternal perspective and your whole goal is to just “get their butts into heaven.” This kind of mentality usually leads to horrible ways of evangelism that actually do more harm than good. Examples are street preachers who yell “slut” to college girls that walk by to generate a crowd, followed by turn or burn preaching”, and colonialistic missionaries who try to teach the gospel and their western culture instead of just the gospel. This kind of evangelism also usually ignores teachings on helping the poor, being stewards of our money and the earth and of even Peter’s teaching here:

“Dear brothers and sisters, you are foreigners and aliens here. So I warn you to keep away from evil desires because they fight against your very souls. Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world. “

Bad news Evangelism ignores the present and places all emphasis on the future.

2. The “We are not Pat Robertson” or ” the social justice view” or “eternally ignorant” or “only conservative evangelical jerks go to hell” view.

In reaction (and different readings of scripture) we find ourselves on the other end of the spectrum that insists that all roads lead to God. There are too many passages to list that in my mind contradict this view(if you ask in the comments I will make a list). This view usually places it’s emphasis on the present and usually ignores the eternal perspective. This is dangerous because there is much talk about evangelism and specific salvation in the Bible and God’s justification of sinners as a major part of that. If we don’t see the ugent need to lead other’s to Jesus than we are actully offering the tempory, and witholding the eternal. People may see some good in this life, but they will wonder why you didn’t lead them all the way to the Way.

As Mark Driscoll says “This is the closest we’ll be to hell and the closest the lost will get to heaven.”

My Conclusion:

I believe that both conclusions help us see aspects of God’s character that helps us know him better. I just think both views end up lacking. Following Jesus in some ways is simple, but it’s also complex. I think that we need to have balance in realizing that our next life is the reason that we need to live such a good, welcoming, and evangelistic lives today. Caring for the poor helps us to know Jesus better and to show his love to those we are helping. At the same time our prayers should include hopes for salvation for those who don’t know Jesus.