Nancy Pearcey’s book, Finding Truth, asserts that the Christian worldview is superior to other worldviews because it best explains our world and is logically consistent. [1] Part of the Christian worldview is that God exists, that he is a person, that he loves us, and that he is just. But yet in the Christian doctrine of salvation, which states we must believe in Jesus to be saved and go to heaven, we are faced with three contradictions.
- If God is a God of love and justice, how can he condemn people to hell who have not heard of Jesus, who have a distorted view of Jesus, or whose culture and/or religion tell them Jesus is irrelevant.
- Everyone agrees that God made us finite. Being finite means our ability to know what is true is limited. So how can God require us to believe in the extraordinary events of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection which occurred over 2,000 years ago? Also, not everyone in the world has the time and resources to investigate all the different religions to see which is superior. How can God require us to do something he made us incapable of doing?
- There are well over 70 passages in the New Testament that teach salvation is through belief in God, or through our conduct, pattern of behavior, motivation, use of abilities, and repentance. If salvation is only through belief in Jesus, why did God place these verses in the Bible? Is God trying to confuse us?
So what kind of God do we worship? Is he a God that claims one thing and yet does another? Is he a God who claims to be a God of love and justice and yet condemns people to hell who either have not had the opportunity to know about Jesus or who do not have sufficient proof to convince them of the validity of Jesus and his teachings?
That is not the God I worship. The contradictions we have described above are so inconsistent with the life and teachings of Jesus who is our best guide to the character of God. The only logical solution to this problem is that our doctrine of salvation must change.
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[1] Nancy Pearcey, Finding Truth, Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2015, p. 181.
