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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 6, NUMBER 16, 2006 WILL THE GOOD PEOPLE OF ALL CHURCHES BE SAVED?
A couple of years ago I called on a young man and his wife for a home Bible study. The young man had left a denomination to become just a Christian, but he had subsequently quit attending the worship assemblies of the church. I asked some questions to try to discern the problem. He in turn asked me if I believed that people in other churches were lost. He thought members of the church of Christ were much too narrow minded. The vast majority of religious people agree. Certainly this question deserves our attention, for it involves the salvation of souls (Matthew 6:26-27). So, we inquire, will the good people of all churches be saved? Basis of Answer The apostle Paul commands, “Test all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). But, what shall be the standard by which we test? If we answer the problem on the basis of our feelings, what our parents say, human wisdom, church creeds, or the advice of most preachers, almost all will conclude, “Yes, the good people of all churches will be saved.” But we must “walk by faith” to be saved (2 Cor. 5:7), and “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). So, to be correct, we must set aside all merely human sources and consult the Scriptures. What do the Scriptures say? The opinion that the good people of all churches will be saved is based upon at least four assumptions. We will test each of these assumptions by the Bible to see if they are true. Will Good Morals Alone Save? If people who are morally good will be saved regardless of what they believe and practice, then good morals alone will save. Is a morally upright life all that is necessary to salvation? The Roman centurion Cornelius was “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always” (Acts 10:1-2). Furthermore, he was a “just man” and was so morally good that, although he was a Roman soldier, and the Jews generally hated them, he had “a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews” (Acts 10:22). I dare say you will not find a man more pure in life than was Cornelius. And yet, he was in need of salvation (Acts 11:13-14). You see, despite his upright life, he, as all others except Jesus, had sinned (Romans 3:23) and thus had earned death (Romans 6:23). Unless a person has lived a sinless life, and none have (1 John 1:8-10), good morals alone will not save you. In fact, if good morals alone will save, the death of Jesus was unnecessary, for there are morally upright people who are Muslims, Jews, pagans, and even agnostics, infidels, and atheists. Will these people be saved apart from Christ? Is One Church AS Good As Another?
The contention that the good people of all churches will be saved is also based on the assumption that one church is as good as another. Is this true? It is certainly true that one human denomination is as spiritually good as any other. But does this mean that such denominations are as good as the church Jesus built? For example, God accepted the sacrifice of Abel while He rejected that of Cain (Gen. 4:3-5). Why? Because Abel’s sacrifice was “by faith” (Heb. 11:4). He offered what God commanded (Rom. 10:17), whereas Cain did not. Was one sacrifice as good as another? Was a sacrifice based on opinion as good as one offered by faith? Or, consider the gospel message. Is the gospel from man as good as that from God? No, the gospel of Christ is “the power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16), but all human gospels bring a curse (Gal. 1:6-12). We must speak what we believe (2 Cor. 4:13), and “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). It is never as good to walk by opinion as it is to walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7). So, then, are the denominations of men as good as the church Jesus built? Christ certainly did build a church (Matt. 16:18), and He has but one (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4). The Pharisees were a sect of Jesus’ day. When the disciples warned the Master that a saying of His was offensive to this sect, He replied: “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch” (Matthew 15:13-14). If a preacher says the same thing about a human sect today, most people think he is a narrow-minded bigot. Was the Lord a narrow-minded bigot, or did He simply have the courage to state the truth? Now, honestly, is a human denomination as good as the church built by the Son of God? ….to be continued Keith Sharp, Stand, April, 1992
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