Quote from Forum Archives on October 10, 2005, 3:47 pm

Posted by: forthright <forthright@...>

Forthright Magazine
www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross

COLUMN: Final Phase

How Should "Other" Christians Be Regarded?
by J. Randal Matheny

This is our fourth biblical answer to religious
questions proposed by a catechistic compendium. It
asks how "Christians" should be regarded who do
not belong to their particular group or
denomination.

It is common for those involved in religious
groups of which the Bible knows nothing to speak
of hyphenated Christians, that is, Christians who
belong to a denomination or group with its own
system of beliefs, government, polity, and
worship. People identify their "brand" of
Christianity by the name of their denomination.
The New Testament, however, is clear: one is a
Christian, nothing more and nothing less, or one
is not a Christian.

No line is clearer in all of Scripture than that
which God draws between his people and those who
do not belong to him. In the New Testament, the
Greek word ethne is often used of non-Christians,
meaning, "nations, Gentiles, pagans." God has but
one people, one nation, which is the church of
Jesus Christ. All others are considered as outside
of Christ. Such are "separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers to the covenants of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians
2:12). Both Jew and Gentile showed themselves to
be lost (Romans 1-2). Even those who tried to live
sincerely by their conscience rejected what the
created world revealed about God and thus made
themselves repugnant to him (Romans 1:18-32; 2:14-
16).

One must understand, first of all, who is a
Christian before one can consider one's
relationship to the non-Christian. The Christian
is one who has heard (welcomed) the message of
Christ (Luke 8:21; 11:28; John 5:24; Acts 10:14;
Romans 10:1-2,10,17; Ephesians 1:13-14), put one's
faith in him (Mark 16:16; Romans 1:16; Ephesians
2:8; Hebrews 11:6), repented of one's sin to serve
God (Luke 13:3,5; 24:47; Acts 26:20; 2 Corinthians
7:10), confessed the name of Christ (Romans 10:9-
10), and been immersed in water in order that
one's sins might be forgiven (Acts 2:38; Acts
22:16; 1 Peter 3:21).

It is popular thought to affirm that "we are all
God's children." By creation, it is true that we
all trace our "lineage" back to Adam (see Luke
3:38). But the Fall and the entrance of sin into
humanity has all but obliterated God's creational
paternity. The common human condition is sin and
its eternal consequences (Romans 3:23). Therefore,
without Christ, there is no salvation.

This means that Christians should regard all non-
Christians, religious or not, knowledgeable or
not, as objects of God's love who may be saved
through the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Otherwise, they will be punished eternally in
"eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels" (Matthew 25:41).

Many mouth the name of Jesus, but do not obey his
will (Matthew 7:21). Many belong to religious
groups and organizations, whose rules,
regulations, traditions, and creeds contradict
each other and, worse, cancel out the word of God
(Matthew 15:1-20). By their allegiance to human
teachings and systems, they forfeit any place in
the Kingdom of God. These, too, God would call out
of their religious "towers of Babel" in order to
be saved by the blood of Christ, joined to Christ,
and added to the one body, the church of the
living Lord.

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