1 1 The Salvation of Non-Christians According to Christianity
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However, as an orthodox Christian, I believe that both the fundamentalist view of salvation and the liberalist view are slightly inaccurate. While the view that it doesn't matter what you believe may compromise the Gospel, it is equally true that the fundamentalist view does not do justice to it. In a book I own called the Handbook of Christian Apologetics, the authors discuss the salvation of non-Christians from an orthodox Christian viewpoint. (Note: here, "orthodox" does not refer to the Eastern Orthodox Churches; it basically means "in line with real Christian teachings", as opposed to any kind of heresy (liberalist or traditionalist).)
The key, the authors of this book explain, is realizing that there are both objective and subjective dimensions to this issue. Objectively, Christianity does teach that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to heaven. Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) There is no getting around the fact that if Jesus was wrong when he said that, he is either (as the Handbook puts it) either "a liar" and "a blasphemer" or "an incredibly egotistical fool".
Now, subjectively, faith in Christ is necessary for salvation, but what kind of faith? Rather than basically quote this book at length (with its numerous Biblical citations), it would be more succinct in this forum simply to state the book's conclusion: these kinds of faith are necessary for salvation:
1) honesty and sincerity
2) a total commitment to the Truth not as something diffuse but as something absolute, implicitly a divine attribute
3) seeking not just the Truth but also Goodness, true morality, a fundamental option for good rather than evil, in general
4) love of Goodness not as something diffuse and general but as an absolute, a divine attribute
5) repentance for sin, however unclear may be the concept of the God to whom the pagan repents
6) faith in God, the God of natural revelation, the intelligent Designer of nature and the holy Source of the voice of conscience
7) a deliberate, free, and conscious response to divine grace, however dimly understood
Yet explicit knowledge of the incarnate Jesus is NOT necessary for salvation. We know people like Abraham, Moses, and Elijah were saved, yet they had no explicit knowledge of the incarnate Jesus.
The book points out, "The mere abstract, intellectual pursuit of truth is not sufficient to save you. But neither are intellectual mistakes sufficient to damn you."
I would like to close this message with the following account from the Acts of the Apostles:
"They took him and led him to the Areopagus and said, "May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean." Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new. Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: "You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God.' What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you." (Acts 17:19-23)
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