Thursday, December 13, 2007

Salvation sans Jesus

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/october/29.88.html

[Christianity Today] 13 Dec 2007--The cited document, under "Affirmations and Denials," No. 4, states: "The Bible offers no hope that sincere worshipers of other religions will be saved without personal faith in Jesus Christ."

The direct answer to the reader's question is no. The words quoted speak only of our own era, the almost two millennia since our Lord Jesus Christ lived, died, rose, and ascended. Moses appears in Hebrews 11:24-29 as a hero of faith, along with Abel, Enoch, Noah, the patriarchs, his own parents, and others. These Old Testament believers, so we read, looked for "a better country, that is, a heavenly one … a better life" (vs. 16, 35), which God had planned for them with us (v. 40). They trusted God's promises, which included indicators of the coming Christ, and their faith now stands as a model for us all. I, for one, expect to meet them in the world to come.

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