Salvation Without Christ?

Salvation Without Christ?

Is there another route to Heaven?

If you pose a question to Christians about how you can save your soul and go to Heaven rather than be damned to Hell for the most part you’ll get the same answer across the board. They’ll tell you there is only one way, faith in Jesus Christ.

Now there’s a bit of variation on the exact way this works, some like the Pentecostals believe you have to show that the Holy Spirit/Ghost has entered you by speaking in tongues, and Catholics believe you need to maintain a certain level of grace by various rituals and confessing your sins, etc. But overall they believe that the only way to Heaven is through Christ alone. This is backed up by various Bible verses:

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. -John 14:6 NASB

12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.” -Acts 4:12 NASB

9 as10 a person

So this all seems pretty clear cut, that is until we get to the topic of “God’s Chosen People”.

Evangelical Christians I’ve known throughout my life have always had a certain level of reverence for the Jewish people. In the recent past, I’ve questioned some family members who are Evangelicals about their opinion of the ongoing genocide against Palestinians by the Israeli state, and their answer was, “Well the Israelis are God’s chosen people”. I guess this excuses them for murdering tens of thousands of children, but who am I as a heathen to have an opinion?

This obviously shows a lack of critical thinking on the Evangelicals' part, but it is unfortunately a common thought pattern among Evangelicals. I of course counter with the fact that not all Israelis are active believers in Judaism, more so resembling racist nationalists than religious zealots, and beyond that how some Rabbis have pointed out that Zionists are basically trying to force God’s hand by taking the land by military might rather than doing thing’s in God’s timing.

Then I also like to pose the question to them if they believe Jews are going to Heaven or Hell, and most will respond with Heaven…but how is that possible if they don’t accept Christ? There are Messianic Jews, who basically still practice all of their usual Jewish rituals, but believe that Christ was both the prophesized Messiah as well as being divine, but they don’t count at least according to the Israeli state as even being Jewish, so let’s stick to talking about Jews who hold themselves to the Old Laws of Moses.