Dick Fischer wrote:
>My hesitation comes from giving what could be false hope. If Christ is
"the way" then there should be no other way. If there is another way,
Scripture surely doesn't spell out many alternatives.>
There seems to be two main passages in scripture that indicate Christ is the only way. I have a somewhat unusual way of interpreting these verses, although I'm sure theologians have a name for it. The two passages are, first, where Jesus says " I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father except through me", and second, where Peter says that there is no other name (Jesus) under heaven whereby men must be saved. The way I read this, the atoning sacraficial death and resurrection of Jesus is indeed the only way to salvation. But scripture also says that God will have mercy on whom God will have mercy. I'm sorry, I don't have chapter and verse on this, Paul said it in one of his letters, quoting Moses from Exodus. The point here is that God is sovereign. Do the two passages above prevent God from showing mercy to someone who has never heard of Jesus? If God wants to use the blood of Christ to cover the sins of a faithful old testament jew, or an infant, or an Australian aborigine who are we
to object? I don't think we can tell God that these people can't be saved because they didn't believe in Jesus.
Brent
-----------------------------------------------
FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com
Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Sep 07 2000 - 13:52:03 EDT