Luke 13:23
In August 2005, Newsweek and Beliefnet asked 1,004 Americans what they believe and how they practice their faith. Among the questions was this one: Cana good person who isn't of your religious faith go to heaven or attain salvation, or not? Here are their responses:
Yes No Don't know
Evangelical Protestants 68% 22% 10%
Non-Evangelical Protestants 83% 10% 7%
Catholics 91% 3% 6%
Non-Christians 73% 3% 24%
Total 79% 12% 9%
The responses are interesting.... Most people believe those of different faiths will be saved. Among Catholics and more liberal Protestants, that view is overwhelming. Even the majority of those who view themselves as"evangelical" agree. This would suggest that most believe manywill be saved. Is that true?
Jesus was asked a similar question (Lk 13:23 "And someone said to him, "Lord,will those who are saved be few?"), and He spoke often on the subject. Note that He taught few will be saved. Many think the opposite, that many will be saved, or to put it another way, that most people will go to heaven. Yet Jesus taught that few would be saved - Lk 13:23-24 "And someone said to him, "Lord,will those who are saved be few?" And he said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able."; Mt 7:13-14 `"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
We do well to remember only eight souls were saved during The Flood - Gen 7:21-23"And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock,beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left,and those who were with him in the ark."; 1 Pe 3:20"because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.";2 Pe 2:5 "if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;" Only three souls escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah - Gen 19:24-30"Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley,God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters." Only two men out of 603,550 over the age of 20 were permitted to enter the land of Canaan - Num 14:26-32 "And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, "How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.Say to them, 'As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness."; 1:45-46 "So all those listed of the people of Israel, by their fathers' houses,from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war in Israel-- all those listed were 603,550." Sadly, there will be few who find the way that leads to life (Mt 7:14).
And what is the way that leads to life? Again, we find Jesus taught that He is the only way.Many think all religious people will be saved. As some put it, "It doesn't really matter what you believe..." Yet Jesus taught that no one comes to the Father but through Him - Jn 14:6 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." We do well to remember the example of Cornelius, a religious person who needed salvation -Ac 10:1-6 "At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, "Cornelius." And he stared at him in terror and said,"What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside." ;11:14 "he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.'"
There are other examples of many other religious people who needed salvation. We will look at these in part two of our lesson.
