The Upper Room

12:01 AM

@LeeWoofenden Awesome :) and Thanks for the edit

@ThaddeusB I noticed!

Q: Is there a need for Christians to believe in Christianity at all, if they don't believe in Resurrection and Salvation through Christ alone?

12:28 AM

@LeeWoofenden - this one might interest you:

My question is directed to those professing Christians who don't believe in any of the key doctrines as propounded by evangelical Churches ( such as virgin birth, Resurrection, Jesus the only path to salvation). If you believe in the evangelical doctrine of salvation and you believe in evolution ...

liberal

ignore (or edit) the somewhat inflammatory language - the question is basically why do some believe salvation is possible outside Christianity

A: If salvation is possible from all religions, then is proselytizing required?

12:59 AM

@ThaddeusB I chose option 2: "edit the somewhat inflammatory language." However, as written, it doesn't apply to Swedenborgian doctrine, which does accept the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, and even (in its own way) Jesus as the only path to salvation.

However, I do have a blog post and a couple of answers here that bear on the general question from a Swedenborgian point of view: If Non-Christians can Go to Heaven, Why should Christians Evangelize?

Here is a response from the perspective of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and sort of from the perspective of the New Church, or Swedenborgian, churches that accept his theology. I say "sort of" because although there were a number of active and reasonably successful Swedenborgia...

A: According to Emanuel Swedenborg, will a good person who rejects Jesus go to Heaven?

From a Swedenborgian perspective, this is a trick question. Technically, according to Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), anyone who rejects Jesus ("the Lord," as Swedenborg refers to him) cannot go to heaven. However, Swedenborg's definition of "rejecting the Lord" is quite different from the usua...

Oh, and one more relevant blog post: Is Jesus Christ the Only Way to Heaven? This explains the "in its own way" that Swedenborg's theology states that Jesus is the only path to heaven.

@ThaddeusB You're welcome. 1995 rep! Just one more upvote! :-)

Nathaniel

1:37 AM

@ThaddeusB The next 24 edit reviews (which I need to get the silver badge) will probably take me a lot longer to get than the last 200!

2:14 AM

@Nathaniel That thought did occur to me - even the 10 to catch the great Affable Geek may take awhile

@LeeWoofenden We had previously discussed the salvation question, so I knew you had a bit different take on it. Not quite different enough for this question though, it seems. :)

@ThaddeusB @Nathaniel - try 308.

2 hours later…

4:40 AM

@ThaddeusB I just upvoted an answer of yours and put you over the top. Now everyone can blame the lack of edit reviews on me! ;-)

4:59 AM

......

[furiously downvotes ThaddeusB]

5 hours later…

10:12 AM

@El'endiaStarman The odds are against you!

TRiG

10:25 AM

@Nathaniel So ... that's bad news with a small dusting of "but it's not as bad as it might be"?

1 hour later…

Nathaniel

11:43 AM

@TRiG There can't be good news except in relation to something not good. The "good news" more specifically refers to the gospel, the gift of salvation.

2 hours later…

1:57 PM

@LeeWoofenden Hehe. Ending up with 3 A upvotes and 1Q upvote overnight, so got there comfortably :) ... @El'endiaStarman You'll at least get an occasional tag wiki suggested edit from me, so all is not lost

Nathaniel

2:23 PM

@ThaddeusB I guess I need to hurry up and get to 5k!

1 hour later…

3:25 PM

It feels weird making an edit and just having it show up right away. :)

3:50 PM

@ThaddeusB Don't let it go to your head! :P

2 hours later…