I have a question for a general population of Christians. First I must list certain understandings to clarify who I'm posing the inquiry to. The following is a list of basic beliefs of the plurality (if not the majority) of Christians:
1) If you are a Christian, you are going to heaven when you die.
2) If you are not a Christian, you are not going to heaven when you die, you are going to hell.
If you believe both of those statements to be true, then it is to you that I am posing my question.
My question is this: "When did Christianity become the saving religion?"
What I mean, broadly, is that since Christianity didn't exist before Jesus, there must have been a previous saving religion, or else everybody who ever lived before Jesus was doomed to hell because there was no way that they could have been saved. I do not think anyone believes that (even the most fundamentalist conservative exclusivist Christian). I will state now, a third belief:
3) Before Jesus of Nazareth, Judaism was the saving religion.
The topic for discussion is not where Jews went when they died before Jesus (although it is closely related), but what religion is the "right" religion. I think most Christians would say that Judaism was, because it was the only one that worshiped the true God (YHWH).
So, given the 3 beliefs stated above, I will proceed to a higher specificity of inquiry.
If Judaism was the saving religion before Jesus, then one can say that if one were not a Jew, they were damned (damned meaning "sent to hell"). If one were to argue that Jews and non-Jews all went to a waiting area until Jesus died, and then got ministered to by Jesus in the afterlife, then I think it would be safe to say that everybody who died before Jesus died got into heaven. Who would say no to Jesus once they're already dead? Therefore, either Judaism was the only saving religion, or everyone who died before Jesus' death got into heaven.
Now, I want to try and pinpoint the time Christianity became the saving religion. There are a few moments in Jesus' career that might have signified this beginning. The first is Jesus' birth.
Did Jesus' birth institute Christianity as the saving religion?
I think the answer to this can be readily declared to be "No." The reason for this seems self explanatory. If the birth of Jesus was the transition from Judaism to Christianity as the saving religion, then had Mary died from complications of the birth, then she would have been damned for not being a Christian. Likewise, as soon as Jesus' umbilical cord was cut, the gates of hell would have been ripped apart by the sudden influx of souls, since nobody in the entire world would have been a Christian and every death would be an extra tick on the roll. I think it is correct to conclude that the birth of Jesus is not the beginning of Christianity.
The next time that it could have began was the teachings of Jesus. As soon as Jesus began teaching people, Christianity became. This would make sense, right? As Jesus taught people, they would have converted to his teachings, and they would be saved. The ones who rejected his teachings would then be damned. The problem with this, is that the majority of what Jesus taught had little to do with himself. Jesus taught ethics and proper worship of God. He didn't teach people about "inviting Jesus into their hearts" or anything that modern Christians would claim as the meaning of Christianity. Jesus taught people to love God and love one another. If, therefore, Jesus' teachings instituted Christianity, those who accepted his teachings went to heaven (even if they knew nothing about Jesus as God incarnate), and those who didn't embrace his teachings were damned. This also would mean that as soon as Jesus started speaking, everybody would be going to hell, because only the people in earshot of Jesus would be saved. This is preposterous in my opinion. This theory also ignores the resurrection. If Jesus had not yet atoned for the sins of the world and had been resurrected, then how could anyone be called a "Christian"? Jesus taught people how to worship within Judaism. I conclude, therefore, that the teachings of Jesus did not institute Christianity as the saving religion.
Now I move to the death of Jesus on the cross. Now that Jesus has died for the sins of the world, people can start believing it. Modern Christians would probably agree that being a Christian means believing that Jesus died for the sins of the world, and that believing this will save them. So when Jesus died, people could start believing in his sacrificial death. The problem with this view, however, also seems readily apparent. If a devout Jew was standing nearby, one who had just traveled from Alexandria to visit relatives, and witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus without knowing the surrounding circumstances and was so shocked by the gruesomeness of it that he had a heart attack and died, he would be going to hell. As soon as Jesus died, hell would have to expand to allow all the souls into it. Every Jew in the world (along with every one else, of course) who died following the death of Jesus would be going to hell, no matter how much they loved the true God and worshiped him in sincerity and purity. This seems unreasonable. After all, there is no resurrection yet! Another crucial point in modern Christianity is that one must believe that Jesus rose from the dead a day and a half after his death. The resurrection is what ensured that Jesus wasn't a fake, but really was God, right? Jesus conquering death so that we could have eternal life, right? Therefore I conclude that the death of Jesus was not the beginning of Christianity as the one true saving religion.
Up until this point, it should be noted, that if Christianity is not yet the saving religion, Judaism is still. Therefore devout (and sincere) Jews would not be damned even up until Saturday night before the resurrection.
The resurrection then seems to be the last moment in which Christianity could have began. After all, there wasn't really much left for Jesus to do (aside from Pentecost, which doesn't really make one a Christian or not). Therefore, it must have been Sunday morning at dawn, when Jesus rose from the dead to be seated at the right hand of the father, that Christianity became the one true saving religion of the world. This means that as soon as Jesus body disappeared from the tomb, heaven stopped checking people in. As soon as Jesus had been resurrected, he would have gone up to heaven and wondered why no one else was joining him. This would mean that a Jewish man in Spain could be on his deathbed early Sunday morning, and if he died a minute after Jesus had been resurrected, he would go to hell, and for all eternity he'd be wishing he had kicked the bucket just a moment sooner. I think it is safe to say that this theory must also be concluded to be false. It seems very unreasonable, doesn't it? A devout Jew, outstanding in commitment to God who loves his neighbor and follows all the laws of the Torah and worships God with all of his being, would be damned to hell for eternity if he died just a minute too late. I am unwilling to conclude that God would do that.
What does this mean then? There's no other time that Christianity could have become the saving religion, right? I suppose, if one were to say that the Jewish man mentioned above could go to heaven after dying the Sunday morning of the resurrection, one would have to make other exceptions. What about two minutes after the resurrection? What about three? You can see where this is going. If we don't condemn everyone who died after the minute Jesus was resurrected from the dead to hell, then we have to start modifying our theory. If not, we risk never drawing the line that separates Judaism as the saving religion from Christianity as the saving religion and today there would be two true, saving religions! Modern Christians can't have that! Let us discuss further possibilities, then.
How about, when the last Jewish man (or woman) dies who had been alive at the time of the resurrection of Jesus. That way, as soon as that man dies, everybody who is alive would have had the opportunity to accept or reject Jesus, right? Therefore, a Jewish man born early Easter Sunday morning (before the resurrection) could remain a Jew his whole life and go to heaven, while his younger twin brother who came out just a few minutes later (after the resurrection) would go to hell, wishing for eternity that his older brother would have taken less time. This also seems preposterously ridiculous.
What can we do then? When can we say that Christianity became the saving religion and Judaism ceased? No matter where we draw the line in time, if we draw it, we are declaring that God actually condemned the majority of the world by sending Jesus into it.
But isn't that what Christians do anyway? Christians claim that Jesus is the savior of the world, and yet it seems that Jesus really was the cause of condemnation rather than salvation.
Unless, of course, one can say that only those who truly reject Jesus are the ones that are damned. This is another topic completely (which I will address shortly in another post). Unless we can say that it is possible for people who have never heard of Jesus can go to heaven, then it appears that Jesus is the cause of the damnation of most of the world population, and that Holy Week marked the largest influx of souls to hell that history has ever seen.
So I ask those who claim to be Christian: "Where to you draw the line?"
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