Interesting Questions-25
"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). ___________________