Re The Universal Word, Theology 101, December
I agree that for the word of God, there are no outsiders — we are, after all, all children of God. And all of humankind has been created in the image of God. And it is God’s will that everyone be saved. But God has chosen to give us the gift of free will. Thus, we can choose to be separated from God; we can choose our own destiny even though He still sees us as His children.
I believe the Bible shows us how we are to live, how we are to make choices, and how we can be saved. I don’t believe that arrogance, prejudice and feelings of superiority are Christian feelings — here we see our human shortcomings, our sins as Christians. We are called to serve, called to humility, called to treat all others as Jesus treated the marginalized people of his time. Jesus gave us the great commission so that his plans for all of humankind can become reality. We need to enter into dialogue with others in love and humility, not with feelings of superiority. We are to love others by following the example of Jesus, who kissed the leper clean. Then others will understand that this is the only way to salvation, that the Good News is for everyone, that Christianity got many things wrong in its history, but that Christ didn’t get it wrong at all.
Also, we need to obey the will of God as revealed in the Bible without understanding everything, for God’s ways are not our ways. It is not for us to understand whether others will go to heaven or not, but we are to do the will of God as it is revealed to us through the word. The rest needs to be left up to God.
