What should a Christian say regarding the state of believers of other faiths?
Tolerance, love and peace are all the rage these days, but it seems like we are living in one of the least tolerant times in recent history. Our elites — politically and socially — will talk on incessantly about the need to respect others based on a myriad of categories and types. However, when push comes to shove we will see the true beliefs of our “enlightened” leaders, as we have most recently observed from Senator Bernie Sanders. It would seem as though our leaders would believe that only roads endorsed by them and their higher capacity for thought would be acceptable. Toleration is king, so long as you agree with them.
If you don’t know what happened recently, you can read about the incident all across the internet. In a nutshell, our esteemed Senator applied a religious test to a Trump nominee – Russell Vought. It would seem that Mr. Vought had the audacity of committing to writing his belief regarding the state of those outside the Christian faith. Senator Sanders jumped on the opportunity to grill Mr. Vought about his beliefs regarding the state of muslim adherents.
Mr. Vought could have take the opportunity to clearly articulate the Christian position on how to view those who are lost. Instead, a wishy-washy answer of “I am a Christian” was supplied to which the hearer could only imply nothing more than the affirmative to Senator Sanders’ line of questioning. While his answer is true, it was insufficient to adequately capture a complete answer.
A recent sermon from Pastor Jeff Black from the Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church in Daleville, VA addressed this issue directly. Can a person who sincerely believes their actions are righteous and holy earnestly expect to gain entrance to heaven, even if they were wrong in their assessment? Can sincerity gain you entrance to heaven? Or put in a more common phrase, do all roads lead to heaven?
Listen to this discussion to find out what answers scripture will teach us to this timely question!