HOW TO SAVE GANDHI
This is an excerpt from the Message Board Jesus Loves Fellowship way back in 2000. I was answering a posters' question about the eternal destiny of Mahatma Gandhi. Here's what I had to say:
Though most evangelical Christians would believe that Gandhi will be eternally seperated from God, I cannot conceive it( a man like Gandhi, if given the proper chance of which he didn't, would have loved to have a relationship with Jesus Christ but "white-is-right" attitudes had given him a bad taste). Though me and Mike Feazell have our theological differences, I can agree that God can save anyone He choose after death. It does say that in Hebrews that after death, then comes the judgement but I don't see anywhere in that passage that God is lame duck in this respect. There are Christians that do believe that Gandhi will be saved, these people are called inclusivist. Their explanation is that because of the cross of Christ, God showed divine favour on Gandhi and Gandhi responded to the favour in best light he could at the time. Ronald Nash, author of Is Jesus the Only Way, stoutly disagrees with this assessment. He falls in the exclusionist camp (in other words Gandhi's in hell, too bad, even if the Christian church was filled with white racist attitudes which was a factor in Gandhi's rejection of Christianity at that time).In which I call an UN-Biblical solution to save Gandhi is that of "religious pluralism", in which all religions lead to God, they are same and have equal weight. John M. quoted the above scriptures in his post refuting this theory. Ronald Nash in the book, Is Jesus the Only Way rightly assess that pluralists eventually deny the essentials of historic Christian faith and give more credence to religions other than Christianity as higher truth. I may be strong when I say this but I don't know anyother way to say this that religious pluralism as presented as is, is a form of heresy on the body of Christ.I guess by now, that many will realize that I believe that inclusivist and exclusivist theories are the ONLY acceptable theories for the orthodox Christian. While I do believe that the inclusivist position is possible (and in a few instances God will actually make it probable!), my heart is with a theological camp within the exclusivist position. I would be classified by Nash as an Exclusivist P.M.E.(post-mortem evangelisation) which means I believe that Jesus is the only way PLUS NOTHING else but God will provide a universal access for all people (at anytime) to accept His Son Jesus as his Saviour. Anyone who thinks this is position is an invention of cultists, do your homework! Martin Luther once believed in post mortem evangelisation. He did not for one instance believe that this was a second chance for non believers. Martin Luther believed that those who had spurned or ignored Christ's grace would NOT be there. I take the same view. Today, British Anglican minister, Michael Green supports this theory and I have quoted him on the subject various times on the board. Surprisingly, in Southern Baptist seminaries (according to Nash), the exclusivist P.M.E. position is gaining ground and has it supporters in America. So I guess there is salvation even for Gandhi after all---and its NOT by the pluralist solution!
Though most evangelical Christians would believe that Gandhi will be eternally seperated from God, I cannot conceive it( a man like Gandhi, if given the proper chance of which he didn't, would have loved to have a relationship with Jesus Christ but "white-is-right" attitudes had given him a bad taste). Though me and Mike Feazell have our theological differences, I can agree that God can save anyone He choose after death. It does say that in Hebrews that after death, then comes the judgement but I don't see anywhere in that passage that God is lame duck in this respect. There are Christians that do believe that Gandhi will be saved, these people are called inclusivist. Their explanation is that because of the cross of Christ, God showed divine favour on Gandhi and Gandhi responded to the favour in best light he could at the time. Ronald Nash, author of Is Jesus the Only Way, stoutly disagrees with this assessment. He falls in the exclusionist camp (in other words Gandhi's in hell, too bad, even if the Christian church was filled with white racist attitudes which was a factor in Gandhi's rejection of Christianity at that time).In which I call an UN-Biblical solution to save Gandhi is that of "religious pluralism", in which all religions lead to God, they are same and have equal weight. John M. quoted the above scriptures in his post refuting this theory. Ronald Nash in the book, Is Jesus the Only Way rightly assess that pluralists eventually deny the essentials of historic Christian faith and give more credence to religions other than Christianity as higher truth. I may be strong when I say this but I don't know anyother way to say this that religious pluralism as presented as is, is a form of heresy on the body of Christ.I guess by now, that many will realize that I believe that inclusivist and exclusivist theories are the ONLY acceptable theories for the orthodox Christian. While I do believe that the inclusivist position is possible (and in a few instances God will actually make it probable!), my heart is with a theological camp within the exclusivist position. I would be classified by Nash as an Exclusivist P.M.E.(post-mortem evangelisation) which means I believe that Jesus is the only way PLUS NOTHING else but God will provide a universal access for all people (at anytime) to accept His Son Jesus as his Saviour. Anyone who thinks this is position is an invention of cultists, do your homework! Martin Luther once believed in post mortem evangelisation. He did not for one instance believe that this was a second chance for non believers. Martin Luther believed that those who had spurned or ignored Christ's grace would NOT be there. I take the same view. Today, British Anglican minister, Michael Green supports this theory and I have quoted him on the subject various times on the board. Surprisingly, in Southern Baptist seminaries (according to Nash), the exclusivist P.M.E. position is gaining ground and has it supporters in America. So I guess there is salvation even for Gandhi after all---and its NOT by the pluralist solution!
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