Questions
Heaven: Who Will Go There?
Gospel Guardian: Sir, I am a subscriber to your paper and have noticed you do answer Bible questions. So I will describe the best I can the statement made several times. Please keep in mind I do not ask you for your opinion. If you cannot give me chapter and verse to find your answer in the Bible, please do not give me your opinion.
Here is the statement: "No one will go to heaven but the members of the church of Christ." I have read the scriptures several times, and I want the chapter and verse, where a member is instructed or authorized by the scriptures to make the above statement. Also what is meant by the scripture which says, Do not sow discord?
Answer
No passage of scripture instructs or authorizes anyone to say, "No one will go to heaven but the members of the church of Christ," for the statement is not true, and the scriptures do not authorize one to make an untrue statement. Babies cannot be members of the church of Christ, but all who die in infancy will go to heaven; "for to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven." (Mark 10: 13-16)
The querist probably has misunderstood a statement that he has heard, and therefore has misquoted or misrepresented someone without intending to do so. When we misunderstand what we hear, and then try to tell in our own words what we think was said, we are certain to misrepresent what actually was said.
If the gentleman has heard someone say "several times" that all the saved are in the Lord's church, or that none is saved outside of the church of Christ, he heard a statement for which there is much scriptural proof. (Infants are safe, not saved. For one to be saved, one must first be lost. Infants have never been lost, therefore they cannot be saved; they are safe, and all who die in that safe state of infancy will go to heaven without ever having been lost and without ever having been members of the church of God.)
The scriptures teach that all the saved on earth today are in the church of the Lord, but not that all the safe are in it.
The New Testament meaning and usage of the word church compels us to conclude that all the saved are in it, and that it is impossible for lost sinners to be saved without being added to the church. The word church is a translation of the Greek word ekklesia which is composed of two Greek words: ek, meaning "out," and kaleo, meaning "to call." The church of the Lord means the Lord's called out people. Can one be saved and never be numbered among God's "called out"?
The church is God's kingdom. (Matt. 16:18,19) All who are delivered out of the power of darkness are translated into the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13) which is His church. If sinners can be saved outside of the church, they can be saved without ever being "delivered out of the power of darkness."
The church is the body of Christ. (Col. 1:18; Eph. 1:22,23) Reconciliation to God takes place in the body which is the church. (Eph. 2:16) If sinners can be saved without being members of the church, they can be saved without being reconciled unto God, and without being in the body of Christ.
On the day of Pentecost the Lord added all to the church, who repented and were baptized — all who were born of water and the Spirit. (Acts 2:38-47; John 3:5) If one can be saved and not be in the church, then one can be saved and never obey the gospel or be born anew.
The claim that sinners can be saved and go to heaven and never be in the church bought by the blood of the Lord (Acts 20:28) is contrary to everything the New Testament teaches on the way of salvation and the church of our Savior, and the only support any man can offer for' such a claim is his own "opinion" and our querist says he does not want that; well, neither do I.
As to the question on sowing discord, there are many passages of scripture which forbid that. And the meaning of those passages, among other things, is that it is sinful to disrupt the peace and harmony among brethren by defending the false theory or "opinion" that lost sinners can be saved and never be members of the church of our God. Of course, these same scriptures mean that it is wrong to defend any "opinion" of men and thereby destroy the peace and fellowship of brethren.