by Nnaoke Ufere, PhD
Christian doctrine holds that salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ, and that those without such faith will not enter heaven. A number of biblical texts are typically cited in support of this position. In John 14:6 it is written that Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Taking such text and others at face value, Christians boldly proclaim that only those who profess Jesus as Lord and Savior will enter the gates of heaven. Therefore, whether one goes to heaven and be with God for eternity or suffer eternal punishment in hell depends solely on whether one accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Jews and Muslims who also love God the Father, and large swaths of the world population who have never been exposed to Christianity, are condemned to the torture chamber called hell.
Jesus will not be in heaven if only Christians are allowed into heaven. Jesus was not a Christian. He was a practicing Jew. He died a card-carrying Jew. Christianity emerged during the so-called Apostolic Age in about 62 AD, that is, 33 years after Jesus died as a bona fide Jew.
My understanding and interpretation of the scriptures informs that God is not Jewish or Muslim or Christian or Buddhist. God encompasses all people, every belief system, all cultures, and all His creations. God is in everyone, irrespective of how you worship him or don’t. God’s covenant is all-inclusive – for all humanity.
Accordingly, God cannot and must not be claimed exclusively by any particular religion, including Christianity.
The often-cited verse in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” did not state that the “me” is Christianity. It says you go through Christ (the me) to the Father, not through Christianity.
The good news of the gospels is not so much that you accept Christ, but that you live Christlike. Matthew differentiates between being Christlike and simply liking Christ or being a Christian. According to Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, and clearly delineated what it means to live Christlike and what it takes to enter heaven:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me… Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”
As an ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church USA, it is my believe that Jesus Christ is the free tollgate through which all of humanity enters the kingdom of God, including Jews, Muslims, Christians, Baha’i, Buddhist and all other believers and non-believers. Matthew 25:31-46 above stipulates the primary admission criteria. Being a Christian is not one of them.
For centuries, this proclamation by Christians of their exclusive claim on and access to heaven has been a major roadblock to building relations between Christians and Jews, Muslims, and other faith traditions.
I personally believe in the gospel of inclusion. It’s my solemn conviction that any person who lives a Christlike life is saved regardless of religion. When John wrote, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2), he made clear that the forgiveness of all sins is a gift to all humanity, not just Christians.
In concurrence, Pope John Paul II made his position on this matter abundantly clear when he wrote, “The gospel teaches us that those who live in accordance with the Beatitudes — the poor in spirit, the pure of heart, those who bear lovingly the sufferings of life — will enter God’s kingdom,” regardless of whether they profess Christ. Before Pope John Paul II, St. Augustine affirmed that the Christian Church has some people whom God does not have, and God has some people whom the Church does not have.
What all this means is that non-Christians who live faithfully within their own religious traditions, who do not profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, are qualified for salvation.
If Jesus is disqualified from heaven because he was never a Christian, then who will judge the living and the dead? Heaven will become a case of the inmates running the asylum. Heaven will become hell. God forbid.
