World Religions and Salvation

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
WORLD RELIGIONS AND SALVATION
OUTREACH SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
EPHESIANS 2:1-9
JANUARY 27, 2008

Soteriology is a word that is loved by theologians, philosophers, people in the academic world. They love words like soteriology. I think normal everyday people are not particularly fond of big words like that and yet this word soteriology is very important because it refers to the study of salvation and many of your questions that you have sent me, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of questions—many of them have to do with soteriology. They have to do with salvation. Many of them have to do with world religions and how the world religions view salvation. It’s appropriate that we look at this on this Outreach Sunday and seek to answer your questions biblically.

First of all, we’re going to deal with salvation and the world religions. What do the world religions have to say about salvation? We’re going to look at Islam. We’re going to look briefly at Islam, at Buddhism, at Hinduism and Judaism. Of course, you have written many questions about these religions. I have pages but I will read a few. Here’s one. “It’s just not fair. Every time I try to tell someone that Jesus is the way, I get, ‘Well, what about the Jews? What about the Hindus? What about the Buddhists? What about the Muslims? They were brought up to believe what they believe. They would be judged unfairly. They have not had equal opportunity to hear the Word and certainly not the environment to believe. How will God make it fair and how should I respond to those that ask these things?’”

Another question: “Christians, Muslims and Jews are referred to as ‘people of the Book.’ They recognize a very similar if not the same Old Testament account. Is their God the same as we worship? Do they have hope of salvation?” Those are just a couple of many, many questions on this subject of world religions.

I would like to take a brief look at Islam. In the world today there are more than one billion people who are of the Islamic faith. Many of them are nominal. Many of them are cultural Muslims. They do not read the Koran. They do not study the Hadith and they do not live by Sharia Law. But true Muslims, true people of the Muslim faith read the Koran. They probably read the Torah as well. They read the Koran. They study the Hadith. They seek to live by Sharia Law. Certainly, every faithful Muslim lives by the Five Pillars.

The first pillar is Shahada. Shahada means, “confession,” “to make confession,” and a faithful Muslim seeks to make confession every day and that confession would be, for a Muslim, “There is no god but Allah and Muhammed is his prophet.” A faithful Muslim would say the Shahada every day.

The second pillar of Islam is the Salat. Salat is Arabic for “prayer.” Of course, Muslim people, if they are faithful, pray five times a day at the sound of the crier coming from the minaret. They pray prostrate, face to the floor, facing Mecca. In the early days of Islam, Muslims prayed facing Jerusalem but when the Jews and the Christians rejected Muhammed, he told his followers to turn away from Jerusalem and begin to face Mecca and so, they pray the Salat, their ritualistic prayer, five times a day at the sound of the crier.

The third pillar is the Zakat. Zakat means, “purification” and it really has to do with almsgiving. Muslim people seek to be faithful in giving a percentage of their income as alms. The word is Zakat because they believe that you purify your bank account, you purify your income, you purify all of your money only when you’re giving a portion of it in the form of alms so, Zakat.

The fourth pillar of Islam is Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and it is the month of fasting. If a Muslim is faithful, he fasts in the month of Ramadan during the daylight hours so from sunrise to sunset there is neither eating nor drinking for the faithful Muslim in the month of Ramadan. After the sun goes down each day there is great feasting, great fellowship and great festive joy. Prior to the rise of the sun of course Muslim people eat but during the daylight hours they fast during the month of Ramadan.

The fifth pillar of Islam is Hajj and Hajj means, “pilgrimage.” Of course, a faithful Muslim must make the Hajj at least once in his or her life and they travel to Mecca. There at Mecca they circle the Ka’ba at Mecca. If they’re faithful they circle the Ka’ba several times. They kiss the Black Stone which allegedly fell from heaven. If they are a faithful Muslim, they also go outside of Mecca and they go to Mina and Magdalefa. They go to Arafat and there they perform ritualistic prayers and goat sacrifice. This is all part of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Of course, a faithful Muslim is also seeking to live faithfully by Sharia Law. That which is forbidden under Sharia Law is forbidden for them. That which is approved is okay for them. Muslims believe that this is the path to salvation and it’s works-based salvation. It’s works-based salvation and in this life, you really can’t know for sure that you’re going to be saved. At the Judgement Day there will be two angels. One angel will take a look at your life and how you have honored the Five Pillars and whether you have lived by Sharia Law and then another angel will look at all the bad things you have done and they will weigh one against the other and the scale will tip and that will determine your eternal destiny. So, it’s works-based salvation. The only way that a Muslim can know that he or she is going to heaven is if they die a martyr’s death in Jihad against the infidels but even that is works-based salvation, so in Islam we have works-based salvation.

In Hinduism—and of course again there are many Hindus in the world, hundreds of millions of Hindus in the world. There are just wonderful people in the Hindu world and many colorful and wonderful cultures in the Hindu world. In Hinduism there are many sacred writings. Some of their sacred writings are called the Vedas. The Vedas kind of summarize Hindu theology, Hindu philosophy and Hindu morality. Of course, there are other sacred writings including the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavad Gita is a portion, just a portion of the Mahabharata, which is another sacred writing of Hinduism. In the Gita there is a conversation between the god, the Avatar, the Lord Krishna, and the soldier Arjuna and their conversation focuses on the subject of salvation. In the Hindu world and in Hindu theology, salvation is tied to karma and reincarnation. The Hindus believe that the soul never dies. They believe that the Law of Karma determines the process of reincarnation. They believe that every person will be reincarnated almost countless times over vast spans of time, over ages, and the way that you are reincarnated is determined by the Law of Karma. If your karma is good you will progress in your reincarnated form. If your karma is bad you will regress in your reincarnated form. Although the Hindus really define salvation differently than the monotheistic religions of the world, still it is works-based salvation. In Hinduism it is all works-based salvation, good/bad karma.

We look at Buddhism. For many Buddhists, Buddhism is not so much a religion as a philosophy of life but we should understand that within Buddhism there is a great deal of theology and for many Buddhists all over the world it is very much a religion. The primary sacred writing in Buddhism is the Tripitaka. The Tripitaka is simply a word which means, “Three Baskets.” The Tripitaka consists of the Basket of discipline, the Basket of discourses and the Basket of higher dharma. Collectively, the Tripitaka portrays Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist morality and even Buddhist theology.

Of course, a faithful Buddhist seeks to live by The Noble Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path of Buddhism is indeed noble. There’s much nobility in it. The First Fold of The Eightfold Path is Knowledge of Truth. The Second is Intention to resist evil. The Third is saying nothing to hurt others. The Fourth is respecting life, morality and property. The fifth is hold a job that doesn’t injure others. I think it would be hard for an NFL football player to be a Buddhist. The sixth is strive to free one’s mind of evil. The seventh is control evil feelings and thoughts and the eighth is practicing concentration.

Again, a lot of good, a lot of morality, a lot of nobility in The Eightfold Path but it is works­ based salvation. Buddhism like Hinduism believes in reincarnation. There is progression or there is regression and it’s all based in your works. It’s all based on whether your works are good, whether you’re living a good life or whether you’re living a bad life. It’s works-based salvation and the truth is this is even true of Judaism. Judaism as it has been held by the Hebrew people down through the centuries tends to be work-based. The Old Covenant is interpreted although there certainly is grace in the heart of God. The Old Testament is interpreted as basically teaching the Old Covenant, basically teaching that if you obey My law, I will bless you. You see kind of a simple summation of this in the First Psalm, Psalm chapter 1 in the Old Testament, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly or stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers for his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law and his Torah he meditates day and night. Blessed is he blessing through obedience, blessing through conformity to the law Judaism tends to be a works-based faith.

There’s a lot of good in the religions of the world and a lot of truth. I’m not up here today to rag on religion. That’s not my purpose at all. I’m just wanting to be clear that when you look at all of the religions of the world, they are works-based in their soteriology, salvation through works. That’s true of all the world’s religions.

Now let’s look at Jesus and the subject of salvation. The name Jesus is the Hebrew name Jeshua. Jeshua means, “to save.” It comes from a verb meaning, “to save.” “You shall call His name Jesus” the Angel of the Lord said, “for He shall save His people from their sins. You shall call His name Jeshua for He shall save His people from their sins and He is the Savior.” That is one of two very precious titles consistently given to Christ in scripture. Jesus is Savior. Jesus is also Kurios. Jesus is Lord. So, He is Savior. He is Lord.

You’ve submitted many questions about salvation and Jesus. Again, pages and pages of questions. I could never begin to get to them all. Here’s an example. “How do I know I’m good enough to go to heaven? I used to be a Mormon. I’m so confused. I’ve never felt good enough. I’ve accepted Christ as my Savior but I continue to sin even though I try to keep all of God’s commandments. How does this impact my being a Christian and will this condemn me to God’s wrath or hell?”

“What happens to people who die that have never heard or been exposed or understood the Gospel? For example, babies, mentally handicapped, tribal people.”

“I know I am saved by asking Jesus to be my Savior but what about all the people who lived and died before Jesus was born? How can they be saved?” Tons of questions like this. Tons of wonderful questions.

Let’s look at Jesus. He is unlike all the religions of the world. Jesus came into the world, sent by the Father. He is Immanuel, God with us. He was born in Bethlehem; He took our flesh upon Himself to share our nature. The Bible tells us Jesus then lived a sinless life, a perfect life, with moral righteousness. He did this that He might ultimately provide the perfect sacrifice for humanity, that He might be the Lamb of God, the Lamb without spot or blemish, and that He might go to the cross and represent the people of the entire earth in sacrifice. For this He came into the world. For this He was born, that He might die. And so, Jesus went to Calvary. He went to the cross and He bore upon Himself the sin of the world—not just my sin and your sin but the sin of the world.

It says in I John, chapter 1 and in I John, chapter 2, verse 1, “He is the expiation for our sins and not for our sins only but also for the sin of the whole world.” Jesus went to the cross and He died for all of the sin ever committed. In one final sacrifice the Son of God, Son of Man, gave His life in substitutionary atonement, dying for my sin and for yours, paying the penalty for our sins. Then the Gospel. He gave the Gospel which to this day we continue to proclaim and the Gospel is simple. It is this. Believe in Jesus and receive Him as your Savior and your Lord. This invitation is given to everyone in the world. If you will believe in Jesus and receive Him as your Savior and Lord, in that moment all of your sin is forgiven you. In that moment the righteousness of Christ, as He alone is righteous, is imputed to us, invested upon us and we are declared righteous. In that moment, He places His Holy Spirit within us and we are given a new nature. We still have the old nature. We still have the sin nature but Jesus comes to tabernacle or temple within us. This is the Gospel. This is the New Covenant. This is the New Testament.

So, you see, when I was 5 years old, I knelt with my mother in the living room of our home. Most of you know this, and I knelt by my mom’s side, my knees on the floor, my elbows on the sofa and Mom and I prayed together and I prayed after her. I asked Jesus to be my Savior and my Lord. In that moment, all my sin was forgiven. My lifetime of sin was forgiven in that moment by the grace of Christ. All my sin was forgiven although I remain a woeful sinner. To this day I am a woeful sinner but I am forgiven and I am declared righteous because the righteousness of Jesus is imputed to me, vested upon me and so, I am declared righteous. It’s not my righteousness. It’s His righteousness. I’m not saved by my works. I’m saved by His works. Of course, in that moment Jesus came to tabernacle within me and sent His Spirit within me. Although I still have the sin nature, I’ve got this new nature too in Christ Jesus. That’s the Gospel and there’s nothing like it in all the religions of the world. You see, we’re saved by grace and so, we have the teachings of scripture. By grace you are saved through faith. It’s not your own doing. “It’s a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” So, we’re saved by grace through faith.

If you’re a Christian you don’t need to worry about whether you’re saved. You ARE saved. You live your life in the confidence of salvation. You’ve received Jesus and the cross and His Lordship and you are saved. You’re bound for heaven. Your ticket is punched and you live with the joy of that. As a Christian we seek to do good works but it’s not because we’re trying to save ourselves. We’re already saved. We seek to do good works because we love the Lord. We’re so grateful for His grace. That’s why, in Ephesians 2:8-9, “By grace you are saved through faith. It is not your own doing. It is a gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast.” “We are His workmanship,” verse 10, “created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared before Him that we should walk in them.” So, we’re not saved through works. We’re saved for works. We’re saved for good works, not through good works. We’re saved through the good works of Christ but for us it’s grace. I hope you understand the Gospel because this is just so critical.

My mom died today. For almost two days Mom has been in a coma-like state and we’ve not been able to talk to her although we’ve sat by her side these last two days. It’s kind of a vulnerable time for my brothers, Greg and Gary, and for myself and even for our wives. We loved my mom and tears have been very close to the surface. We’ve just kind of been unusually emotional. When the phone call came after the Chapel service this morning before we came in here for the 8:45 service, that Mom had just passed away between the two services, I just kind of broke down. I thought, “Do I want to preach this next service?” Gene had kind of been ready. He knew that my mom might pass away and he was ready to kind of give a back-up talk on a missionary trip that he had taken and some application from that which I know would have been great. We’ll have to get that another time, Gene. I wanted to preach because I know this is where my mom would want me to be and this is what my mom prayed for and has prayed for decades that I would serve Christ in the ministry.

My mom could not have been a more loving mom. My brothers and I saw the love of Jesus through my mom. People who know my mom and have known my mom know you won’t meet a kinder woman. She served Christ in her home, in her church and in her army of friends. A good person but I tell you this. She’s in heaven today. She’s in heaven right now. She’s with Jesus and she’s not there because of her kindness. She’s not there because of her good works. She’s not there because of her ministry through the years. She’s there only by grace. My mom is in heaven because of the works of Jesus. My mom is in heaven because of the righteousness of Christ. It’s all Christ. That’s the Gospel.

Gene, in his prayer, mentioned that Bill Morris passed away this past week. Bill Morris was one of our faithful Sunday School teachers through the years. I remember a few years ago Bill came into my office. He had written new curriculum for 5th grade Sunday School. I think he wanted to take me through every word of it. He was just so excited and such a servant of Christ who loved kids and Bill is in heaven today but it’s not because of his works. It’s not because of his ministry. It’s because of Jesus, the works of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. I hope you understand.

Now some people wanted to know about people who have never heard of Jesus. “What about people who lived before Jesus ever came into the world?” “How about the Native American Nations that lived here before the Gospel and the Europeans ever came here?” “What about people today in many parts of the world who really have never heard of Christ or never been told the true story of Christ and heard the real Gospel?” What about people like that?

Of course, we don’t know the answers. That’s the bummer. The Bible just doesn’t give us answers to some of these things. The Bible is very clear. You accept Christ and you’re saved. You reject Christ and you’re in deep doo doo, speaking theologically… The Bible doesn’t tell us about people who haven’t accepted or rejected Christ or they haven’t really heard of Christ. The Bible doesn’t really deal with that. There are some passages that are hard to interpret. One is Romans, chapter 2, verses 13-16 where the Apostle Paul writes, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified and when the Gentiles or when the nations do by nature what the law requires, they are a law unto themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when God, according to My Gospel, judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” Wow! That’s a tough passage. We don’t exactly know what Paul’s meaning is there or what the Holy Spirit is saying there but some have interpreted it to mean that in the nations there are people who have not yet received the truth of scripture but God will judge them by their heart and their conscience.

Then there is Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 23, where we’re told about the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly city. We’re told that “in the city there will be Jesus and in that heavenly city there will be innumerable angels in festive gathering.” How cool is that? “Innumerable angels in festive gathering,” and that “in that heavenly city there will be the Church, the Ecclesia, the Assembly, the Church of the First Born registered in the heavens. The Church of Christ—He is the First Born of many brothers and sisters. The Church will be there. The angels will be there but then we’re told in that Hebrews passage that “in the heavenly city there will also be the spirits of just men made perfect,” the spirits of just persons made perfect, and who are they?

Personally, I think it’s probably referring to the Old Testament saints but there are some scholars and theologians who think it refers to people in every generation who have longed for God even though they have not necessarily heard the Gospel. Tough passages. Then there’s I Peter, chapter 3, and Ephesians, chapter 4. In I Peter, chapter 3, we’re told that Jesus, when He died on the cross and before He rose from the dead while His body was still in the tomb, that in the Spirit, He went and preached to the spirits of those who disobeyed in the days of Noah.

Well, did He preach judgement? Did He preach victory? Did He preach the Gospel? We don’t know. We do know the word for preach in this I Peter:3 passage is the Greek word “kerusso” and this word normally refers to the proclamation of the Gospel but of course that makes the passage difficult because that would mean that Jesus, in the Spirit—between His death and resurrection—went and preached the Gospel to those who had disobeyed in the days of Noah. A tough, tough passage.

Then of course Ephesians 4 speaks of Jesus ascending and descending into the lower parts of the earth and “leading a host of captives on high.” Another tough passage. Of course, Revelation, chapter 20, verses 11-15 speak of the Judgement of the Great White Throne, the Final Judgement when God judges the souls of all the dead through all of the ages. It’s the Judgement of the Great White Throne. It takes place at the consummation, after the Millennium, if you’re a Pre-Millennialist. Understand, Christians are not there. Christians are saved the moment they confess Christ. The moment they die, their soul goes to heaven. The Bible says, “We have already passed out of death into life and are passed out of judgement.” In Christ there is no condemnation. Christians will be evaluated at what is called the Berna Seat and that’s for the purpose of giving out varying rewards but this is the Judgement of the Great White Throne. The non-Christian dead throughout all of history, Revelation, chapter 20:11-15. That’s a tough passage. It says, “The books will be open.” It says that rthe souls will be judged in accordance with their works. It says that the Book of Life will be opened. If anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life they will be eternally separated from God. It begs the question, “Do some of these people have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?” These are tough issues.

The one thing about them is very clear. If anyone is saved it is only through Christ. It’s His atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world and for the sin of the world all time. It’s that atoning sacrifice that makes salvation even possible. It’s that sacrifice that makes grace possible and it’s only through Christ that anyone can be saved. But, you see, we simply know that when someone accepts Christ they are saved and they’re heaven-bound. When someone rejects Christ, they’re in trouble, and we leave the rest to God because the Bible isn’t really clear on the rest. We leave it to God.

I can tell you this. There are people around the world who are living only for themselves. They have no hunger for God and no hunger for righteousness but, you see, if we go to them with the Gospel, we can save their soul. If we go to them with the Gospel, the Gospel has power to change the heart and the mind of a human being. Much is at stake. We’ve been told to take the Gospel to the nations. I promise you, if we don’t do it, there are people who would have been saved who will be lost because we were not faithful. The charge is clear that we must take the Gospel to the nations.

With regard to the subject of salvation and those who lived before Christ or who have never heard, there’s a mystery there. Remember what we said at the beginning of this series. We live this life in Christ with mystery. “Right now, we see in a mirror,” the Bible says enigmatically. “One day we will know fully even as we have been fully known.” So, we live by faith. We know if you accept Christ, you’re saved so we take the good news to the world.

That leaves us with the final point and that has to do with our call and commission. In light of all of this, what we’ve said about the religions of the world and their teaching of works-based salvation and then of course Jesus and salvation by grace through faith. We have a call and we have a commission to take Jesus to the world. This is the Great Commission, Matthew 28, Mark 16, Acts, chapter 1, “You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Go therefore and make disciples.” You should go with a lot of confidence. Go with a lot of joy.