Do Jewish People Go to Heaven? What About Sincere People of Other Religions?
Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear
J.D. Greear
4.9 • 624 Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2022
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
Show Notes:
* For a while, the Hebrew "religion" was the only religion God had given—they were God's chosen people in the Old Testament.
* The Apostles taught Jesus as the only way to salvation. Jesus' interaction with Gentiles was very infrequent, and his statement about being "the way, the truth, and the life" was spoken to Jews, in a Jewish context.
* But that wasn't a departure from the Jewish religion; instead, Jesus taught that it was a fulfillment of the Jewish religion. The Apostle Paul explains in Romans 4 that Jews in the Old Testament were saved in the same way we're saved now—they just were saved by looking forward to the Messiah, and we're saved by looking back at the Messiah.
* The bigger question asked is about sincere people in every religion. There are five general views on this:
* Universalism: Believing that God reveals himself to everyone, and so just by merely being human, all of us are saved.
* Pluralism: Everyone essentially believes in the same God, but has a different name.
* Inclusivism: Jesus is the only way, but faithful believers of any faith are saved
* Anonymous Christian Thesis: A person may not claim to be a Christian, but they might see the stars and the moon and all of creation and believe in a creator, and then God counts them as saved because they accept general revelation.
* Post-Mortem Evangelism: There is a chance to be saved after death… Jesus will witness to a person upon death to those who have not been evangelized.
* Exclusivism: You must have explicit faith in Christ and the gospel during your life to be saved.
* That last one is what I believe the Bible teaches.
* All of this is about bringing God glory (Romans 3: just and the justifier; Romans 9: wonder at his mercy; Isaiah: God would send salvation that his name would be great on the earth and all would know that salvation belongs only to God.)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody, welcome back to Ask Me Anything. |
| 0:20.2 | My name is Matt Love. |
| 0:21.3 | I'm here with Pastor J.D. |
| 0:22.2 | Greer, and this is the podcast where Pastor J.D. |
| 0:25.0 | answers some of your toughest theological, ethical, and leadership questions. |
| 0:30.0 | Our question today comes from one of our listeners named Linda, and she asked, |
| 0:34.2 | did Jewish people go to heaven? |
| 0:36.1 | And what about sincere people of other religions? |
| 0:39.0 | And that's just such a great question. |
| 0:40.3 | So, J.D., what do you think? |
| 0:41.4 | Linda, thank you for that question. |
| 0:43.0 | And there really is, I think there's two different questions there. |
| 0:46.0 | Really kind of the bigger question is, what about sincere people of every religion? |
| 0:49.3 | But specifically, the Jews, because the Jews for a while, I mean, the Hebrew religion was the only religion |
| 0:54.6 | that God had given and, you know, there were God's chosen people. So what about them specifically |
| 1:00.2 | if they continue to be faithful Jews, even if we separate it from the question of other religions. |
| 1:05.5 | What about them specifically? You know, the apostles very clearly taught from the beginning preaching to Jews that there was no other name that you could be saved through other than Jesus, Acts 412, and neither is their salvation than any other. |
| 1:18.6 | For there's no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved. |
| 1:21.8 | Jesus, John 146, I am the way speaking to Jews in a Jewish context. |
| 1:26.8 | You know, Jesus' interaction with Gentiles was |
| 1:29.2 | very, very infrequent. So, you know, him saying, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, |
| 1:34.0 | the man comes to the Father, but by me, that's a statement to Jews. You know, but that wasn't like |
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