My crazy life

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Who will get into heaven?

An article in USA Today on the Baylor Religion Survey struck me today.

Here's a quote:

But Dougherty says the survey found 61% of Evangelical Protestants and 46.4% of black Protestants say only Christians will get into heaven.


Only 61%? What are the other 39% believing? I am just wondering if some of those 39% are folks that "say" they are church members, or if they are truly attending a church that they might not be saved or at the least not properly discipled.

You can read the article here.

Another article based on the same survey, which describes how the people polled view God and religion can be found here.

What say you?

3 Comments:

  • Shows me that the church is doing a poor job of discipleship!

    By Blogger Kevin Bussey, at 2:10 PM  

  • I'm an evangelical and I would be in the 39% answer "no"......what about infants?.....or children before an "age of reason" (which noone really agrees on)......what about the mentally challenged?.....or the seeker alluded to in Romans 2 who may or may not hear the name of Jesus?......or those who lived before Christ and believed in the the life giving atonement of the coming Messiah?

    Certainly it can be argued that these aren't all "Christians"...but it is reasonable to assume that they may be in heaven, and this may account for your 39%......

    By Blogger nhe, at 1:28 PM  

  • Nhe,

    Thanks for visiting and commenting on my site.

    I can definately see where you are coming from in your comment, I guess I was approaching the issue from where I was getting the impression that some of the 39% believed that Buddhists, atheists, good people....i.e. other people groups that are accountable.

    As for the lost heathen in Africa or the uttermost parts, I believe like it talks about in the first 3 chapters of Romans, that with their own consciences telling them right from wrong, they are guilty and will not get in. I've heard stories of how God has miraculously (sp) made himself know to tribes in the middle of nowhere that were seeking Him.

    I guess the whole gist of what I'm getting at with the Lost heathen of the world, is if you take the argument of not hearing the Gospel ad nauseum to its logical end, the most effective evangelism we could do is to close all the churches and burn all the bible and in 2 or 3 generations, the whole world would forget Christ even existed, thus everyone is saved.

    Those who lived before Christ, I believe that they had the law and the Prophets to point them to the coming Messiah.

    A good book that helped me shape my beliefs was Evangelism Explosion by D. James Kennedy, it has a couple chapters in the middle that spoke directly to those issues.

    Again, thanks for stopping by and I hope you continue to check out this little corner of the blogosphere.

    By Blogger Rob, at 12:15 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home