If we understand that faith in Christ was not meant to be our "ticket to heaven" then we can begin expanding our heart to include non-Christians in who we consider to be "saved". For many of us who take the bible to be our rule of faith and practice - and if you're a Christian but not a Roman Catholic Christian then the Bible is your rule of faith - you believe the Bible does not allow you to be so inclusive.
Friends, lend me your ears. The Bible should lead you to a more inclusive faith if you don't ignore the following:
“Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.” (1 Jn. 2:11)
“Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” (1 Jn. 3:10)
“Anyone who does not love remains in death.” (1 Jn. 3:14)
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 Jn. 4:8)
“Do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.” (3 Jn. 1:11)
It’s really simple. An evil person is one who does evil. A righteous person is one who lives righteously.
“Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous.” (1 Jn. 3:7)
Let's get more specific:
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah is born of God.” (1 Jn. 5:1)
That being the case, then Mohammad, and all Muslims are born of God (born again). According to the Quran: “The angels said, ‘Mary, God gives you news of a Word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, who will be held in honor in this world and the next, who will be one of those brought near to God.'” (Qur’an 3:45)
Here's a common response I get when I propose this: "Mohammad? Born again? Seriously Kirby? You call yourself a Christian?"
For many Christians you must be a believer in Jesus or you are not born again, and not going to heaven. What if someone said or believes the following: “Jesus is the Messiah. He is sinless, supernaturally conceived through a virgin named Mary by the spirit of God, was taken up to be close to God and will return to be the judge of the world. He is the Word of God. He is the Word of Truth. He heals the sick and the blind. He can even raise the dead.” Would that be a sufficient faith in Jesus to be considered born-again? That’s no doubt more understanding about Jesus than the thief hanging on the cross next to Jesus had, the one to whom Jesus said, “This day you will be with me in Paradise.” It’s more information about Jesus than was given to most everyone presented with the Gospel in the book of Acts. One would think if it’s faith that gets you to heaven, then whoever said this is saved. Guess who said this? It was Mohammad. Yes, Mohammad. It’s in the Qur’an. And over 1 billion Muslims believe this.
Does that stretch your heart? Let's stretch a little farther.
How about an atheist? Can an atheist be a born-again child of God? That seems rather counter-intuitive, doesn't it?
But what did Jesus have to say about that?
The righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Mt. 25:37-40)
Can an atheist do that? Notice who is considered righteous. It's those who do good. If you know the rest of the passage you know that the ones who didn't do these things were considered cursed and sent "into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels," and "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
These passages make it obvious that both Jesus and John taught that when God judges men as to whether they get a "ticket to heaven" or not the judgement is based solely on their conduct, and nothing else. These and many more passages show that while religious people will want to confine salvation to only Christians God and his Son Jesus had other ideas. They are much more inclusive than that.
In order to be godly, we need to stretch our hearts to be more like Gods, and not let denominationally biased interpretations keep us from it.
