[Vision2020] More than one path to salvation

[Ralph Nielsen]

This survey fails to account for religions in which there is no  
promise of eternal life after death, as in the Theravada tradition of  
Buddhism, which is practiced in Sri Lanka and Thailand, and in the  
Hebrew religion of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.

In both of these traditions there is no such thing as an eternal soul  
that survives death. However, popular Buddhism adopted the idea of  
reincarnation, but with ultimate cessation of this process as the  
ultimate goal.

In the Hebrew religion of the Bible the idea of an eternal soul that  
survives the body is specifically mentioned only once in the Hebrew  
Bible (Daniel 12:2-3). Daniel is also the latest book in the Hebrew  
Bible. Its prophecies are what Bible scholars call "retrospective  
prophecy."

In the Torah/Pentateuch there is not a hint of an afterlife. God  
himself made this crystal clear, "Then the LORD God said, 'See, the  
man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he  
might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat  
and live forever" (Genesis 3:22). So God sent the man and woman out  
of the garden of Eden and placed the cherubim with flaming sword to  
prevent them from getting back in and eating of the tree of life. God  
had never intended humans or animals to live forever. We were made  
from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7, 19) and when we die we will  
return to the dust from which we were made (Genesis 3:19). Here we  
have no idea of an eternal soul. We are products of the planet earth  
and to earth we will return.

This religious idea is widespread around the world. Most people don't  
need to be bribed or threatened with eternal life in a heaven or a  
hell to live morally with their fellow humans.

Ralph



[Vision2020] More than one path to salvation

Scott Dredge sdredge at yahoo.com
Mon Jun 23 11:45:14 PDT 2008

<http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1817217,00.html>

Americans of every religious stripe are considerably more tolerant of
the beliefs of others than most of us might have assumed, according to
a new poll released Monday. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
last year surveyed 35,000 American, and found that 70% of respondents
agreed with the statement "Many religions can lead to eternal life."
Even more remarkable was the fact that 57% of Evangelical Christians
were willing to accept that theirs might not be the only path to
salvation, since most Christians historically have embraced the words
of Jesus, in the Gospel of John, that "no one comes to the Father
except through me." Even as mainline churches had become more tolerant,
the exclusivity of Christianity's path to heaven has long been one of
the Evangelicals' fundamental tenets. The new poll suggests a major
shift, at least in the pews.