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As long as I follow God and Jesus Christ I will go to heaven. I am saved even if I refuse
to enter the Church of Christ.

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"As long as I follow God and Jesus Christ"


Letter to the Editor:
GOD'S MESSAGE, May 2009, p.4

TO SAY  THE   LEAST,   the doctrine  that membership in the Church of Christ is necessary for salvation is highly problematic. For what about the people to whom it is extremely improbable to preach the doctrines you uphold—like those in very remote tribes or in places where Christianity is illegal? As for me, it's my conviction that as long as I follow God and Jesus Christ I will go to heaven. This is all that matters. I am saved even if I refuse to enter the Church of Christ.

Carlo Ulack
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

 

Editor's reply:

Indeed, as long as we follow God and Jesus Christ,   we   can  hope   to go to heaven. However, to say this on one hand while refusing to be a part of the Church of Christ on the other, is an in- consistency, for Jesus Christ, whom God made Savior (Acts 5:31), clearly identified whom He will save:

"I am the door; anyone who comes into the fold through me will be safe." (John 10:9, Revised English Bible)

Clearly,    anyone   who   wants     to be saved   must   enter  into  the   fold through our Lord Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul   makes  it clear that the fold or flock referred to is the Church of Christ which Christ   purchased  with His blood: 

Take heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has appointed  you overseers,    to   feed   the   church of Christ which   he has  purchased  with his blood."  (Acts 20:28,   Lamsa TransIation, emphasis ours)

Notice that  Jesus  Christ    invites those who want to be saved to enter not just any church  but His  Church, the  Church of Christ. It   is  therefore not surprising that it is the members of the Church of Christ—-those  who heeded Christ's invitation—whom the Bible guarantees of salvation:

"For a husband has authority over his wife just as Christ has  authority over the church: and Christ is himself the Savior of the church, his body.

''Husbands,  love your  wives  just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it."
(Eph. 5:23, 25, Today's English Version, emphasis ours)

Lest anyone suppose that   people outside Christ's fold or Church will likewise  be    saved,   the   Bible   ascertains that  "God will   judge  them"    (I Cor.  5:12-13, Ibid.). Therefore, for  a person to go to heaven or be saved, he must not refuse to enter the Church of Christ,  because becoming a member of this Church is,  in  fact,  following the will of God and of Christ.

As to the people who live in places that can  hardly be  reached   by  the preaching of the true gospel, Apostle Paul explained their case in relation to salvation:

"All who sin  apart  from   the  law will also perish apart from the  law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law".

"(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law   are  written on their hearts,  their consciences  also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing,   now  even   defending them.)" (Rom.   2:12,   14-15,   New International Version)

Apostle Paul   taught  that  those who had   not   received   the   gospel   will    be judged through the law that is written in their hearts with their consciences bearing witness. Those who have not  been reached by the preaching of the words of God also know what is good and bad because there is a law written in their hearts.   For instance,  even  those  who have never heard the gospel   preached know that acts such as murder and theft are evil, for their conscience dictates so. Thus, the people who sin apart from the law will be judged through the law written in their hearts. God will judge those who are being judged by their hearts because He is greater than our hearts, and knows all things (John 3:20).

Nonetheless,   people   like   us   who have the opportunity and means to listen to the true gospel have the responsibility to fulfill what God requires of us in order to be saved. We must "seek the law" because on the day of Judgment, we will be judged according to the gospel (Mal. 2:7; Rom.  2:16). ___________________

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