Seth Udinski, FISM News
At the center of Christian orthodoxy is the truth that believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is necessary to experience eternal life with God in heaven. Indeed, when the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas what he must do to be saved in Acts 16, Paul responded in this way:
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.
Sadly, there is a growing number of Christians that reject this core tenet of the Christian faith, according to a study released by Pew Research Center on Nov. 23.
In a study exploring the way Americans answer the theological quandaries that arise from human suffering and evil in the world Pew Research Center studied over 6,000 Americans and found shocking results from many representatives of Roman Catholicism and Mainline Protestantism. While the overwhelming majority of Christians answered that they believe heaven is a real place, 68% of Catholics polled and 56% of mainline Protestants claimed that people do not need to believe in God to get there.
The study dives into several important questions about the sovereignty of God, the reality of hell and Satan, and the moral responsibility of evil in the world. More importantly, the results highlight an apparent discrepancy in theological fidelity among professing Christians. The specific heresy that these professing Christians are confessing is universalism, the belief that God will save everyone in the end, no matter if they repent and believe in the Lord Jesus or not.
This is cause for grave concern in a world where outside forces are becoming increasingly hostile against the church, and theological shortcomings within are becoming all too common.
Christians must hold fast to the truth of the words of our Savior Jesus Christ, through whom is the only way to eternal life. Jesus said in John 14:6:
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.