Lesson #5: Are Members of the Church of Christ the Only Ones Going to Heaven? Hi, my name is J.D. Doe. It s nice to meet you. Where do you go to church? I go to the Methodist church over in Walnut Grove. I m visiting today with my sister, Mary Jones. You know that all Methodists are going to hell, don t you? Well, I guess everybody s got to learn the truth sometime. This scene has been acted out in numerous ways in the past in many churches of Christ. It is part of the reason that people in most denominations have a bad opinion of the church of Christ. Perhaps you have family members who you have invited to services, and they have experienced this situation. Obviously, there is a better way to approach teaching people about the subject of salvation and the church. This lesson will attempt to point out many different things to consider when approached with the question: Are members of the Church of Christ the only ones who are going to go to heaven? This is not an easy question to handle, and the way you answer it might create or eliminate teaching opportunities. How would you feel if you were treated like the visitor above? Would you want to investigate this congregation any further? Odds are that you would never return to that congregation. You would perhaps also believe that all members of the church of Christ share the view of Mr. J.D. Doe. With that being your perception, you would likely not want anything to do with anything related to any church of Christ. 24
This is a hot button issue and should be handled with care. - People tend to feel very strongly about their religion. - If we want future teaching opportunities (which we should), we should take care in how we answer. - Some may be simply trying to ruffle our feathers with this question, but we must not fall into their trap. - A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1 - A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition. 2 Tim. 2:24-25 - Treat a question like this as an opportunity to teach someone about the Bible. Don t come across with an I m right; you re wrong, and you re going to hell type of attitude. - Three characteristics are desperately needed in our teaching. - love: speaking the truth in love. Eph. 4:15 - patience: Convince, rebuke, exhort, will all longsuffering and teaching. 2 Tim. 4:2 - humility: in humility correcting those who are in opposition. 2 Tim. 2:25 - People should understand that we don t know everything and we are still learning. - They should also know that love is the motivation for our attempts to teach them. - We don t need to run people off before we ve even had a chance to teach them. Emphasize very early on that God is the judge. - Some may think that we are trying to act as judge and jury. - So we need to make sure that they understand that we know that God alone is the judge of all. - James 4:12, There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? - Hebrews 10:30, The Lord will judge His people. - We need to make sure that we don t come across as giving our own personal judgment on who is going to be saved and who is going to be lost. - Be careful to let the Scriptures speak for themselves. Point out that church of Christ is not the only name of the church that Christ built. - The Scriptures declare that Jesus built His church. - Matthew 16:18, And I also say to you that you are peter, and on this rock I will build My church. - His church is identified by various names in the New Testament. - Church (Acts 2:47; Acts 8:1) - Church of God (1 Cor. 1:2; Acts 20:28) - Church of Christ (Rom. 16:16) - Church of the firstborn (Heb. 12:23) 25
Make sure that you admit that there are good, moral, sincere people in all different denominations. - I believe that there are many good, moral, sincere people in all different denominations, as well as in all different religions. - This has always been true. From the New Testament, we know that there were good, moral, sincere Jews. Paul is an example. - We need to make sure that people understand that we don t view people in denominations as bad people. - on a side note, we don t need to look down upon them. - we need to teach them out of love and respect for them. Note that there may be churches of Christ which are not acceptable to God. - Just because a congregation may wear the name church of Christ does not mean that it is acceptable to God and a part of Christ s church that He built. - To be a part of Christ s church, it must be patterned after His church in the New Testament. See point #8. - There are many churches of Christ that do not adhere to the pattern of the NT. - The name on the building does not indicate faithfulness to God. - Revelation 3:2, you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Refer to passages that point out that Jesus died for the church He built. - The church is identified as the body of Christ. - Ephesians 1:22-23, And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. - There is only one body; thus, there is only one church. - Ephesians 4:4, There is one body. - Jesus is the Savior of the body, the church. - Ephesians 5:23, He is the Savior of the body. - Jesus gave His life for His church. - Ephesians 5:25, Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. The church that Christ built is the church that is patterned after the examples in the New Testament. - The New Testament describes His church in detail. - tells how it was organized, what work it did, and how it functioned. - To be sure we identify His church (the church He died for), we can compare churches today to the pattern which we read about in the New Testament. - Patterns have always been important to God. - Hebrews 8:5, See that you make all things according to the pattern. - See lesson on authority, particularly point #9. 26
Show from the Bible that good, moral, sincere people can be lost. - Paul was sincere in his beliefs as a Jew, but he was wrong. - Acts 23:1, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. - Cornelius was a good moral person, but He was not a Christian and not saved. - Acts 10:2, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. - It takes the right actions to be saved. - Matthew 7:21, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Ask your friend if there are good, moral, sincere people among the Catholic Church, Mormons, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. Will those people be saved or lost? - This is a question to use their logic against them. - People reason in their minds that God would not condemn good, moral, sincere people to hell. - But most people also will admit that members of certain churches (Catholic, Mormons, etc.) and other religions will be lost. - If God will condemn good, moral, sincere people in these situations, why wouldn t he condemn others who are also not following His word? Cite Jesus statement that many would be lost and few would be saved. - Matthew 7:13-14, Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. - Jesus says that the majority of people will be lost. - Notice also that He was making this point among religious people (the Jews). - He is not simply stating that the majority of the world who worship other gods will not be saved; but He is also stating that the majority of people who claim to worship the true God will be lost. - Matthew 7:21-23, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! - Jesus is saying the same thing in this passage: Many people who profess to be Christians will be lost on the day of judgment. - It should not surprise us that God will punish people who appear to be serving God. - He said He would. - Can we identify every person who is going to be saved or lost? - No, we don t have the ability to judge the hearts of men. 27
The answer to the question is this: Only members of the church which Christ built will be saved and go to Heaven! - The question every man and every church must ask is: Are we a part of the church which Christ built? - If we understand that Christ died for those in His church, we must also understand the importance of being a part of His church. - see point #7. - If we know that some churches are unacceptable to God, then it should be of the utmost importance to insure that we are members of a church that is acceptable to God. - see point #6 and also look at all of the examples of the churches in Revelation 2,3. - If salvation is important to you, make sure that you are a part of the church that you read about in the New Testament. - make sure that the church you attend does the same things that the churches in the New Testament did. - make sure that they worship in the same way as the New Testament church did. - make sure that they teach the same things. - make sure that they fit the pattern that you can read about in the New Testament. Don t ya ll teach that members of the Church of Christ are the only ones who are going to heaven? Do you have a few minutes? Why don t we sit down and talk about that for a while? 28
Note: this page comes entirely from material found on www.religioustolerance.org. The site is maintained by a group called Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Here is their statement of belief: We are a multi-faith group. As of late-2012, we consist of one Atheist, Agnostic, Christian, Wiccan and Zen Buddhist. Thus, the OCRT staff lack agreement on almost all theological matters, such as belief in a supreme being, the nature of God, interpretation of the Bible and other holy texts, whether life after death exists, what form the afterlife may take, etc. Current beliefs among the American public about salvation: The Princeton Religion Research Center (PRRC) 2 estimates that 6 in 10 Americans completely agree that the only assurance of eternal life is a personal faith in Jesus Christ. Since the PRRC estimates that 8 out of 10 Americans regard themselves as Christians, then about 75% of Christian adults hold some doubt about inclusivism. According to the Barna Research Group, among adult Americans: 86% believe that "eventually all people will be judged by God." 57% believe that good people will go to Heaven 39% believe that those who do not accept Christ as savior will go to Hell 46% agree and 47% disagree that all good people will go to Heaven. 3 There appears to be some shifting of opinion among conservative Christians. The 1996 Year in Review by the Zondervan News Service quoted Ron Nash, author of "Is Jesus the Only Savior?": "1996 helped reveal serious theological differences among America's 50 million evangelicals...in the issue of salvation, a growing number of evangelicals are embracing a position known as inclusivism which teaches that while the redemptive work of Jesus may be necessary for salvation, it is not necessary for people to know about Jesus or the gospel to receive the benefits of that salvation. It seems clear that 1997 will see this dispute to become even more divisive." A Beliefnet/Newsweek poll conducted in 2005-AUG asked 1,004 randomly selected American adults about their religious beliefs. 7 One of the questions was: "Can a good person who isn't of your religious faith go to heaven or attain salvation, or not?" Results were: Group Yes, they can attain heaven No, they cannot attain heaven Evangelical Protestants: 68% 22% Other Protestants 83% 10% Roman Catholics 91% 3% Non-Christians 73% 3% American population 79% 12% The margin of error of the Beliefnet/Newsweek poll is ±3 percentage points. The data from Evangelical Protestants is curious. Many, perhaps most, sermons in Fundamentalist and other Evangelical churches stress that nobody will attain Heaven unless they repent of their sins and trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In spite of this, at first glance, almost 7 out of 10 Evangelicals appear to reject this central belief. Perhaps they interpreted the reference to "a good person who isn't of your religious faith" as referring to a member of another Christian denomination, rather than to a person from a non-christian faith. Most Evangelicals believe that a certain percentage of members in all denominations are saved and thus would attain heaven. http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_savn.htm 6/18/14 29
BE READY TO GIVE A DEFENSE www.mtoglesby.com Are Members of the Church of Christ the only ones who are going to Heaven? Matthew T. Oglesby To answer this question, we must search the Scriptures to see what the word of God teaches about who will be saved. Let us try to approach the subject with humility and an open mind. The Bible teaches many things are involved in a person s salvation. First and foremost, we must realize we are saved by God s grace. We, as weak and sinful men, got ourselves in a situation in which we were powerless to get out. We sinned, and we were separated from God. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6). Second, we must also realize that each individual is called by God to do certain things in order to receive the conditional gift of salvation. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Belief (Acts 16:31), Confession of Christ (Romans 10:9-10), Repentance (Acts 2:38), Baptism (Acts 22:16), and lasting general faithfulness (Revelation 2:10) are all requirements for salvation. Our specific question is concerning membership in the church of Christ. Do you have to be a member of the church of Christ in order to be saved? Let s begin by talking about the church. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus declares to Peter that He was building His church. In Ephesians 1:22-23, His church is identified as His body. Later in Ephesians 4:1, Paul states that there is but one body, one church. From these verses, we know that there is only one church of which Jesus is the head. Furthermore, it is revealed that Jesus is the Savior of the body (Ephesians 5:23). Two verses later, Paul tells us that Jesus loved the church and gave Himself for her. Now, here is the conclusion drawn from these passages: To receive the benefit of Christ s death (the blood needed to forgive our sins), we must be a part of the body, His church. Now, we need to ask this question: How do we know whether or not we are a part of Christ s church? To answer this question, I would like you to consider two points. First, the name on the building does not necessarily indicate whether or not the congregation that meets there is a part of Christ s church. Christ s church wears several different names in the Scriptures: Church of God, Church of Christ, the Church, or Church of the Firstborn. Also, we need to realize that all churches are not acceptable to God even if they wear one of the above names. Jesus instructed a letter to be written to the church at Sardis. I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead (Revelation 3:2). Second, the New Testament provides us with a pattern to identify the church that Christ built. The Scriptures reveal how the early church was organized, the work that it did, its manner of worship, and how it functioned. To insure that we are a member of the church that Christ built, we can compare the congregation where we attend to the congregations we read about in the Bible. So, must you be a member of the church of Christ to be saved and go to heaven? Let me answer it as directly and completely as I can. You must be a member of the church that Christ built in order to go to heaven. Some churches of Christ may not be part of the church that Christ built. Some churches of God may not be part of the church that Christ built. So you are going to have to determine whether the local congregation where you choose to be a member of is part of Christ s church. It is a question of eternal importance. 30
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