I have recently been thinking about the question, "Can someone be saved by the blood of Jesus without knowing the story of Christ's sacrifice on the cross?" Generally, most Biblical scholars believe that God makes exceptions for those who are disabled, die at a young age or lived before Jesus' earthly ministry. We know that after the crucifiction Jesus went to the paradise part of Hades, preached the gospel and took the faithful followers of God with Him. I have no doubt that you will find many familiar names from the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) in heaven. But what about the tribal Indian living in a remote island who has never heard of Jesus? What about the devout Jew who wants to have nothing to do with Jesus because of how the Christians have mistreated the Jewish people throughout history? Who makes the cut? Or is this even something we can expect to answer?
This entire thread of thought came up while reading The Gospel According to Moses - What My Jewish Friends Taught Me about Jesus by Athol Dickson. The book describes the experiences of a devout Christian who discovers the hidden treasure of Jesus in the Torah. The author starts going to Torah studies as the only Christian in a room surrounded by orthodox Jews. One day a man asked Athol if he thought Jews who did not accept Jesus as Messiah were going to hell. This led the author on soul searching truth for what makes one person saved and what makes another person forever damned.
While all Christians can tell you the simple, Sunday school answers to this question. The reality starts to become a little sketchy when we see that real life does not always fit well into prefab constructs. God can and does make exceptions. If He didn't, we would think of God as a cold, unloving monster. After all, what kind of loving deity would allow a newborn to go to hell just because he dies at a young age?
The Bible is clear that God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). God is no respecter of persons.
Just so that I am not declared a heathen here, I believe that salvation is obtained only by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Jesus is the Messiah. Romans 6:23 (KJV)says, "For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Since salvation is a gift, do you have to know who gave it in order to receive it? Did the rules of redemption change after the death and resurrection of Jesus?
Athol wrote, "Jesus is the one and only path to God, but there are many paths to Jesus." Can this really be true? Or do you have to say the right prayer in the right way? If you have to really mean it, how do you know when you really mean it? By saying that there are many paths to Jesus, Athol is not trying to lay a foundation for all religions being equally valid. Instead, he is trying to show that the redemptive power of Jesus may extend beyond the commonly accpeted forms supported in Christianity. Could a devout Jew be saved who loves God with all of his heart, strives to keep the Torah, repents of sin, forgives others and believes that God has made a provision to forgive his sin? Doesn't this seem reasonable? Of course, human reason has nothing to do with truth sometimes. It may have seemed reasonable to Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. But this action caused the downfall of mankind.
In Romans, Paul wrote that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But what really does that mean? Is Elohim or Adonai enough?
Athol makes the point using several passages from the Hebrew prophets that God has a redemptive plan for the Jews. Just read Ezekiel 37:11-14 and Jeremiah 31:31-34 to see that God's plan may be bigger than many Christians first thought. Athol indicates that God's plan involves restoring the entire nation of Israel. Of course, Biblical scholars will continue to debate what these passages mean. But we can't really dismiss the implications of these passages especially in light of Romans 11:26 where Paul makes the claim that all Israel will be saved.
I don't really know who will and will not be saved. That's God's job to decide. But I do know that the only way to know for sure is to accept Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. Why risk eternity when the way to eternal life is so clear to see?
In the meantime, I will not judge the souls of anyone. Seeking to avoid questions that cause unnecessary strife, I will simply focus on loving others. I will humbly and gently share the truth about Jesus to whomever will listen.
