Autumn smoke,
Thanks for posting. I hope you’ve been well. Yes, the gospel writers each show how Jesus is is fulfillment of the Torah both in teachings and in life. That’s one of the meanings of “Christ”. It’s this view of Jesus that allows me to say he is a messiah/Christ and Lord(King) even if I’m not a trinitarian.
What if Christianity and church and its teachings about Jesus point to God and His grace? They don’t contain it, no book or church or theology can contain God. Nor are they givers of grace or salvation, grace is God’s to give only and He gives it as He wills.
I think where Christianity goes awry is when it denies grace outside of the church (either it’s institutions, it’s scriptures, or its doctrines). Catholicism leaves room for God to be God and only says the Church is the truest or most sure way to encounter God’s grace. That’s understandable because if you didn’t believe your church was the “best” you wouldn’t be a member! We also are loved and sustained by one God. one Lord so it’s not a free for all of believe what you will.
Where the problem is where as the evangelicals like to think that anyone who doesn’t go to their bible studies are damned. This is likely due to never really meeting a devout person of another faith.
Some scriptures I was thinking about and how they relate.
The speck and the log: how we would be best served by fearing for our own salvation before giving out predictions for salvation for others
The ungreatful debitor: we have received an abundance of grace and we should not then feel justified to count the sins of others, less our Lord rethink His mercy to us!
Pay of the workers: If God chooses to save only those who repent in the next life or accept those of a more inclusive creed than ours then God can do that. If we were God we could do it our way, but thank goodness we are not.
Hi ZenFred!
It’s nice to talk to you again too!
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. When you say, though, that you can accept that Jesus is a Messiah, the scripture reveals him to be the Savior of the whole world.
A few scriptures come to mind,but especially these two: Jesus himself said that no
one can come to the Father except through him. That would preclude any other ‘messiah.’
And also there’s the scripture in Acts 4:12 which says about Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
The whole of Hebrew Scripture points to Jesus, and you said that you agree with that.
But I’m particularly thinking of Isaiah 49:5&6 which says, "…And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him, He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
So He is not the savior only of the Jewish people, or of those Gentiles who would believe in him, but of the whole world. He is more that just “a messiah,” he is The One who was sent by God.
Yes, in the broad sense of the word, there are many messiahs. The definition of ‘messiah’ being someone who is anointed by God to perform a specific task. Moses was ‘a messiah’ in that he saved the Israelites from Egyptian slavery; King David was ‘a messiah’ in that he defeated many of Israel’s foes and saved them from those who would conquer them militarily. But there is only one Messiah who is savior of our souls.
Jesus said the he would draw all of mankind unto himself. God himself only knows the fate of the “righteous” of other faiths. If they have lived good lives, perhaps they’ll have a chance to go through Jesus to God at their death or at their judgement right after death. I don’t think we can know that. I might be wrong in this, though, and would leave it to others to comment also.
Gabriel of 12’s post was excellent. None of the other ‘world teachers’ can save us.
Peace to you.
Autumn Smoke
