According to a new survey, a majority of Americans, including evangelical Christians, believe that other religions besides their own can lead to eternal life:
The findings, released Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don’t know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.
Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attendees said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.
In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view….
Certainly, it’s one thing to be tolerant of other faiths, just as you can be tolerant of other political opinions or lifestyle choices. But just because I tolerate other faiths doesn’t mean I believe they’re right.
As the article points out, the Bible is very explicit when it comes to the subject of salvation. In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” That seems pretty definitive to me.
Further, Paul writes in Romans 5:19: “For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus] the many will be made righteous.” He doesn’t say, through the obedience of “some guys” you’ll be free of sin or by praying to Allah five times a day. No, only through Jesus comes righteousness and eternal life.
I don’t expect that non-Christians would agree. But it is frustrating when people who are supposedly Christians don’t even understand the most basic foundations of the Bible.
So where is the problem? Are many of those in the survey who call themselves Christians not really Christians? Or are we not doing a very good job of teaching God’s word to those we minister to? I suspect it’s a little of both. Unfortunately, though, it’s not enough to simply call yourself a Christian.
Well, unless you read it in a survey.
