Bible-believers are the only ones to be saved

Corzhens

The title of this thread is the spiel of some Christian sects. I've heard it from Jehovah's Witnesses and even in some fundamentalists Born Again. But is that true? My question is this - what about the Muslims and other non-believers of Bible? What if those non-believers have been so good with their performance in life than those who believe? As stated in the Bible - Jesus said that he is the way, the truth, and the life. Without Him, no one can come to the Father. Now, if that is true then it is clear that non-Christians cannot be saved.

djcatholic

I think a lot of people are working towards saving those who are misguided. However, as I have grown in life, I have found that much has been given to those who have done good in life, irrespective of their beliefs. In that way, I feel I have become a little more "secular" in my view. My faith is my own.

Simona

I have thought and worried over this topic in the past. But my view has changed to now sort of believing that everything is predestined. Not to say that we don't have free choice, we do, but yet it is like all has been played out already, so we are destined to fulfill the path that has already been chosen. 

So in this respect I do not stress myself over who is saved or not and trying to save others. And in the sense that people die as believers of other religions, I believe they go to where they believe they will go, and to them this might be their heaven, but in the Christian view, it might actually be a type of hell, if that makes sense. 

briannagodess

I don't really know if non-Christians cannot go to heaven. Although I am a Catholic, I do know a lot of Muslims and other people from different religions as well. For me, God is just and forgiving. Although these other religions didn't use the bible or believed in him, if they have lived a good and honest life, I doubt they wouldn't go to their rightful place as well. 

To be honest, that's where the conflict begins, you know, the differences in religion. Maybe there is a heaven for them, maybe there is a different one for us. Maybe what we believe in is what's going to affect our after life. 

arthnel

I'm a bible believer and I love the teachings of Jesus.  I do however ask myself regularly what if I had been born in the east, like China or Tibet? I am forced to accept that my religion was practically forced on me and I was not given much choice. Therefore I try not to force religion at anyone. It could have been very different from birth.

joshposh

The major religions out there will say that they are right and everyone else is wrong.  Because I don't believe in any of that, I think it laughable.  Everyone is so worried about a supposed afterlife that none of you can prove exist, but you spend your entire life trying to get there.  I find that odd and somewhat disturbing.  Some religions say that if you die in their day (suicide bombing) then you have a free pass to heaven.  Does that sound right to you?

I think all religion should come to an end.  Then and only then will the human race can put aside just one of the differences and come to a better understanding of one another.  If we all were color blind then that would be another hurdle we can get past.

Simona

@joshposh, so imagine all religion comes to an end. There is no religion. But then there is spirituality. Spiritual experiences exist and are real for people. Unless you have one of your own, you might think everyone else is just hallucinating. 

Then consider eastern medicine, and the idea of chakras and meridians. These are things unseen that are not yet proven by science, but people believe they are real. Ask anyone who has had acupuncture or study your own ailments through the view of body meridians and you'll see there is truth and correlation there. 

There is stuff unseen, just because we can't see or perceive it doesn't mean it's not there. Like black matter in the universe. And science is always learning more that makes past understanding wrong. Like gravity was once thought to be just the pull downwards towards the heavier mass, now it is thought that the heavier mass actually warps the space around it, which means the warped space is the cause of the pull.

After you wrap your head around stuff like that being real, then you start to look at religions and wonder where they came from, and what fairy tales are actual spiritual truths. 

artyarson

That is kind of untrue. You can believe in whatever or don't even have any religious beliefs. However, you have to be a man/women with a good will. Those people are appreciated by God, I guess. Actions speak way louder than words and prayers.

briannagodess

@artyarson

You're right, your actions in life determine your real character. You can be a sinner in life even if you belong in a religious group. You can be a great moral person even if you don't have religious beliefs. It all comes down to you as a person, how you act, how you treat people and how you think. It doesn't matter what religion you came from, as long as you are a decent and principled person. Heck, even the highest leaders of a religion commit sins, so are they worthy of being in an eternal afterlife more than a person who doesn't believe in the bible but lived his life rightfully? So yeah, that's my two cents.

spence88

According to John 1:1, the Bible is the Word of God. Let it speak for itself. The Bible claims to be God's word over 2,000 in the OT, the phrase "word of God" occurs over 40 times in the New Testament. The word of God is absolute. If you believe the Bible, then you should agree with John 1:1, and it must be perfect and true.

Now, man cannot save himself, he cannot inherit God's kingdom in his own will, NO ONE, BY HIS OWN POWER, IS GOOD ENOUGH TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Romans 3:23), that's why Jesus was sent to Earth to die and save us from our sins (Romans 3:24). The only way to heaven is through redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24-25). This is so so that no man can boast in the presence of God (I Corintihans 1:29, 31). So how can we be saved? Only if we believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. (Romans 10:9).

fcuco

Once again, the semantics are important here, you are not supposed to believe in the Bible, what you are expected to do is to believe and have faith that the Bible is the word of God. Then everything else starts to click and make sense, otherwise it sounds like you should "believe" in a book, it is not the actual book, is the message, the Bible is just the medium.

spence88

I see what you mean, some people believe in God, but they don't believe in the Bible, which makes no sense because the Bible IS the word of God. If you believe in God you have to believe His word. It is that very idea that makes their disbelief in the Bible paradoxical. The first paragraph of my post stressed the point that the Bible is indeed God's word, and it would be contradicting for a person to believe in God but not the Bible.

UCFKnightSteve

djordjem87

I find this ridiculous really. I am not going into religion in general whether it is real or not but more about the fact that it is kind of strange to realize so slate that we have one God and they have one God and so on. It seems that paganism is something forgotten or those Gods were not real or something like that. My people were pagans once and then we decided not to be any more and we realised that we were Christians actually. After that Christians decided to split and share same but different Christ. In all of that mess we ask if we are going to be saved!?

spence88

Hm. I'm confused. We Christians have one God. We believe He is the Creator of the universe, the one and only God. We definitely have no right to be saved, but Jesus Christ did it for us, shed the necessary blood of redemption on the cross and died for our sins. Without Christ's death on the cross, we cannot be saved.

Martha

It's quite clear as a Christian that based on the bible,you cannot be saved unless you first accept Jesus as your saviour because he is the way, the truth, and the life. Hence, non-Christians could not possibly be accepted into an eternal life with God in heaven. 

Some religions blatantly distort the words in the Bible to advance their own cause and promote their church which they call as Christian church. Some Christian groups worship Jesus as part of the Trinity and Godhead while other groups teaches their members that Jesus is only a human being, a special one because he is called the First Born child of God. Some would even contend that Jesus is equal to us. 

It is true that Jesus died for our sins and paid our debts on the cross once and for all, but unless you accept this truth and live your life according to the standards expected of us by God, you cannot be saved. Muslims and Buddhists have their own version of what is heaven or nirvana. Their members could have come to the saving knowledge of Christ if they only listen to what Christians have been saying all along. There are indeed Muslims and non-Christian who have been converted to the Christian faith and have the opportunity to be part of God's family.