Must we believe in Jesus to get to heaven? Does our life on earth as we have lived it count for nothing? Why is ‘salvation’ even required? The Theology Class at this blog continues today…
I am very sorry that after my entry here on Tuesday I did not receive an answer from Kristine, who posted such a marvelous entry here earlier. I thought that the questions I asked were meaningful and important, and I was really hoping that she might shed some light on them from her point of view.
In case you missed Tuesday’s class (this blog is Sunday School All Week!), let me reprint the questions here…

You have given us ample testimony to the truth as you know it, Kristine (and thank you for that, again), but I am wondering now if you might help us with an understanding of the reason for all this. Why has God set it up this way? That is, why does what we actually do in life have nothing to do with our salvation, and why is it that only the way in which we believe, the person in whom we believe, can guarantee us Paradise, and that if we believe in the ‘wrong’ person or path, we are ‘choosing’ hell?
And these few further questions, Kristine…
Why is ‘salvation’ required in the first place? What have we as a species of sentient beings done that is so bad that God condemns each of us, in a sense, before we are born, leaving it to us to seek ‘salvation’ from this condemnation?

While we are waiting hopefully for a reply from Kristine (or any other firmly believing Christian who may be able to help us with a response), I’ll go to this entry from a person posting as “Nin”…

Do you really think that your judgment before God is going to come down to a scenario like this? Here’s God speaking: “Uh, I see all these wonderful things that you did in your life. You were good here and here, not so good here and here. All in all, I could let you into Heaven with me if only right here, if you would’ve done this one more good thing of helping this old lady across the street- you would’ve made it. I’m so sorry, but off to Hell you go. You just missed. Bye, Bye.”
Kind of nonsensical, isn’t it… That’s why achieving eternal salvation and eternal life with God is not based upon doing “good works”. How good is “good” is a silly way to base salvation upon. And if achieving eternal life with God after death can be achieved by being “good,” then Jesus was the biggest fool in history, because he went to a horrible death on the cross for nothing.
“The truth shall set you free”, and there is no freedom in basing salvation upon doing “good works.”

I agree, Nin. Yet I am still wondering, is “salvation” required at all? What makes “salvation” necessary? What are we being saved from? And why? How have we gotten into a position where “salvation” is necessary. And please don’t say, “By being sinners,” because little babies are not “sinners,” and yet certain Christians teach that even tiny little babies cannot get to heaven unless they are baptized and by this means, through their surrogates, accept Christ.
i agree with you, Nin, that trying to “figure out” WHICH “good deeds” are “good” and which are only mediocre is silly. And, are good deeds “good” if they are motivated by greed, or the chance to gain notoriety or honor? Does motivation have anything to do with it?
I liked the response of Susan to Nin’s entry. Said she…

Nin,
You wrote: Do you really think that your judgment before God is going to come down to a scenario like this? Here’s God speaking. “Uh, I see all these wonderful things that you did in your life. You were good here and here not so good here and here. All in all, I could let you into Heaven with me if only right here, if you would’ve done this one more good thing of helping this old lady across the street- you would’ve made it. I’m so sorry, but off to Hell you go. You just missed. Bye, Bye.”
I think a scenario which is equally nonsensical is the one in which God would say, “I see all these wonderful things you did in your life, and I have to admit that you were just as good if not better than some Christians and you even helped the old lady across the street… but gee you didn’t say the magic word “Jesus,” so sorry, off to hell you go.”

Yes, Susan, I, too, find this a bit implausible. I can’t for the life of me get someone to give us an answer as to WHY we have to believe in Jesus to avoid going to hell, other than that “Jesus said so.”
Later in the exchange Nin wrote…

If we could reach heaven based upon what we do here on earth in this life. then Jesus was a huge fool for going to the cross because he thought that his death was to redeem our sinful nature.

What sinful nature, Nin? What sinful nature does a 6-year-old have? Or, for that matter, even a 99-year-old? Gosh, my grandma was the nicest person you’d ever want to meet. What sinful nature are we talking about? And please don’t fall back on that old saw, “Everyone has committed sin. No one can claim perfection in the eyes of the Lord…”
Who was it that said that “perfection” (whatever that is) is required by the Lord? Are you seriously saying that unless a person behaves perfectly (by some measure to which we are not even privvy) in every single solitary second of their life, that they are subject to judgment, condemnation, and everlasting suffering in the scorching fires of hell — unless they are “saved” by their belief in Jesus? Is this the theology the world is asked (or should I say, “required”) to accept? Is this the God that the world is invited to believe in? A God who would judge, condemn, and punish a little old lady who dies at 99 after a lifetime of goodness and kindness and gentleness, who just happened to be Jewish?
Let me put this to you simply…W H Y W O U L D G O D N E E D T O A C T L I K E T H I S?
Class?
(Are there any Christians in this class? Kristine? Anybody…?)