Every profession has a test that must be passed. Doctors have to pass medical requirements, accountants must be certified, and lawyers must pass the bar exam.
Such exams are an earthly, human reflection of God’s reality. He has an exam that must be passed before one can gain entry into His Kingdom.
God gives all mankind a simple test with a one word answer. “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?”
Many answer, “No.”
Many resent the test. “I am a good person. I don’t lie, cheat, or steal. Why can’t I go to Heaven when Christians, some of whom do all those things, can? It isn’t fair. In fact, it’s so unfair that I don’t think I want any parts of a God who’d say such a thing or of a religion who believes such a thing.”
That’s a reasonable answer. Its mistake is the egoistic presumption that God values being “reasonable” more than anything else.
God does not want people who are only “reasonable” in Heaven. If He was happy with “reasonableness”, He wouldn’t have bothered with people. He’d be happy with ever larger computers. He is looking for something else. God wants faith.
He has given us powerful minds. We can make things. We can program things. “Ye are as Gods.”, His Scripture tells us. We just can’t get carried away with the fact that reasonableness helps us work successfully with the things of creation.
The reason that we have to believe in Jesus Christ to be saved is seen when we look at the Apostle’s Creed.
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Most people have no trouble saying “I believe in God.” But, the Jews went beyond that. They understood God as father. To reflect that, one Creed begins, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty.” Moslems leave out the crucial “Father” part, and so are forced to leave a lot of love out of their lives, but do agree that He was the “Maker of Heaven and Earth.”
Christians carried on the Jewish notion of a Loving God, and, added “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” You can believe in God, and in God the Father, without believing in the Son, but that’s not what He’s testing.
The Son is a test on how faithful we are to His Scripture. He provided prophets to explain to us what would happen, and He is testing us on how faithful we are to the prophetic gifts He gave.
When Prophets, like Isaiah, give us prophecies that came true, we can read them, and decide to believe, or not.
Many of us believe prophecies simply because men like the Apostles believed them. The personal qualities of St. Paul, who was beaten, jailed, and eventually killed for talking about Jesus bore powerful witness. The fact that all the Disciples were Jews and all but John met painful deaths at the hand of the State was powerful testimony.
A worse fate may await those who believe that it is necessary to believe in Jesus for salvation and compromise or remain silent.
This is the best explanation I can give:
“God set up a test. Jesus is the question, and Jesus is the answer, and belief in the prophets is one reason the answer is what it is. I hope I’m doing a good job explaining it, and I’m sorry that I’m not doing a better job, but, at some point, the choice is yours. The rules are His.”
