Belief in Jesus as the son of God and part of the Trinity seems to be a prerequisite for eternal salvation in most Christian faiths. On the face of it, this would seem to exclude Jews, who do not share that belief. Historical Jewish-Christian relations are something of a delicate subject for many Christian groups, and the current sets of dogmas for modern Christian groups in America w/r/t the salvation of Jews seems to be tough for me to find. Historically, there have been Christian sects that stated that no Jew could enter Heaven without faith in Jesus and the Trinity (thus Jews should be evangelized), while others proposed a dual path to salvation in which Christians are saved by faith while Jews are saved by observance of the Law (thus Jews do not need to be evangelized). Modern American Christian churches do not go out of their way, it seems, to publicize what their beliefs are on this topic.
The Roman Catholic church, for example, seems to reject the dual path to salvation, saying that all salvation comes through Jesus, while allowing that Jews can be saved without faith in Jesus through a mechanism which “remains an unfathomable divine mystery.” The RCC does not support institutional evangelization of Jews, but does call for individual acts of evangelism.
I realize that there are a lot of branches of modern American Christianity, but do any of them have explicit positions as to the salvation of Jews? Some Evangelical Protestants are very pro-Israel and pro-Jewish, perhaps as part of their eschatological framework, but do they think that those Jews are saved, or potentially saved, or are the Jews just necessary to keep around so that Biblical prophesies of the End Times can come true?
I’m not interested in a debate, but rather in what the official positions are, if they exist, or alternatively whether a position is ‘conspicuously absent’.
I think it’s largely a “we pray for them” thing among the mainstream Christians. While they respect that the Jews are God’s chosen people, and Jesus came from Jewish roots, they resent the Jews for not agreeing that Jesus is the Messiah. Plus, there’s always been a prevailing underlying opinion among old school Christians that Jews control wealth, grease the wheels of liberal policies they don’t like, and somehow threaten racial purity. Jews not believing in an afterlife also grinds their groins.
Still, these American Christians believe its their duty to side with Israel in case the next war is THE war. That way, they get a gold-lined ticket to Heaven because they protected God’s ungrateful children.
I grew up in very conservative pentecostal and Southern Baptist churches, and this isn’t at all accurate to my experience.
I didn’t see any “resentment” of Jews. There was no talk of Jewish conspiracies, no eugenics or “racial purity” ideas; and what Jews may or may not believe about the afterlife was not relevant to anything. Those ideas are completely absent in American evangelicalism. Jews were absolutely revered, if there was any opinion on them at all.
However, the belief that it is a Christian duty to “stand with Israel” is very strong. It is definitely believed that if America protects Israel, God will protect America; and if America turns its back on Israel, God will turn his back on America.
The rather liberal church I kinda belong to sez that the Jews (and pretty much all religions) will go to heaven if they lead virtuous lives. Some mild debate if that is THE Heaven or their own heaven. Having Jesus as your saviour is just a “fastpass”.
Few are damned forever, just those that led others into sin and won’t repent. It is assumed that Hitler, Stalin, etc will never repent.
But is there a doctrine as to what happens to individual Jews who die without being born again, or otherwise embracing Jesus and the Trinity? It’s possible to hold Jews in high regard and to defend Israel as a means to an end, while still thinking that Jews don’t go to Heaven unless they become Pentecostal, or Lutheran, or what have you, just like the unsaved Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus.
I’d like to separate a faith’s policy on Israel from from its teachings about individual Jewish souls, if possible. It’s the sort of sects that are huge Israel supporters but lack a specific dogma on Jewish salvation that I had in mind when I mentioned ‘conspicuously absent’.
Ahh yes, they would definitely say that faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation. So a Jewish person, no matter how pious, who dies without faith in Jesus would go to hell.
I would say that’s pretty standard among American evangelicals.
I don’t know about other sects, but the Catholic Church does not actually hold that anyone is without salvation. The sacraments and so on are conduits of God’s grace, but God is merciful and all-powerful, and can if He chooses extend His grace to anyone He wants to. In fact, it’s consistent with Catholic theology to have no human souls at all end up in Hell, and some Catholic scholars have suggested that that might be the case.
Yeah, the Catholic position is that God saves whoever He wants to, so Jews/Muslims/atheists can all get to Heaven too, by means of that “divine Mystery”. But ultimately that salvation comes through Jesus or via Jesus somehow.
So, we’re revered but we’re going to hell. About right. When a Baptist came to my door one day I told him no thanks, I’m Jewish (no reason to bring up the atheism bit) and he launched into a spiel about me better believe in Jesus or I’m going to hell.
Plus, my understanding is that the existence of Israel is necessary for the end times, and when that happens we all die in horrible ways.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
I’m talking about evangelicals here, not Catholics by the way, and not moderate Protestant churches.
The theological hair-splitting on this is the phrase “accept Jesus.” How does one accept Jesus?
Some think it means making a declaration of faith
Some think you don’t have to declare anything, but must “accept” Jesus in your heart.
Some think it requires some sort of action in addition to faith
And some think that living a “Christ-like life” in all facets is tantamount to “accepting Jesus” even without an actual declaration of faith. That’s how the envelope gets pushed far enough for Jews, Muslims, Hindus and even stone-cold atheists to experience salvation.
Of course, the ability to reconcile seemingly contradictory beliefs isn’t limited to religion.
From what I can read there, the United Methodists are very aware of the sad history of Jewish persecution at the hands of Christians, and wish to avoid repeating those errors; however like the Catholics they support individual evangelization of Jews and state that salvation comes only through being born again through Jesus Christ. They maintain that God’s Covenant with the Jews is still in force; they don’t address Jewish salvation specifically anywhere that I can see.
I guess the question is whether God made a covenant with Jews to save them. I believe that our denomination would say, Yes. There clearly is a covenant of reward for good behaviour. Whether that reward is temporal is a matter of debate. The concept of Heaven predates Christianity, but may not have been part of Classical Judaism. Regardless, without a supercessionist stance, we would assume that whatever happened to Jews of old would continue. Christ specifically told a parable regarding Abraham being in heaven as well as Lazarus, so it should be assumed that the reward for good behaviour is eternal. I think our stance largely falls on the side of salvation for Jews.
We would not use the words born again, that’s more an Evangelical term. We talk of salvation as achieved through unmerited and unwarranted grace. Christ’s sacrifice allowed that gracevto enter the world, but God bestows it without prejudice. From the book of resolutions
Not a question my church (Assemblies of God) covers in their doctrine.
I’d say the main Scriptural concept is in Romans chapters 9-11. In it, Paul argues that Judaism turned away from God in his time, and broke their side of the covenant. However, because God doesn’t ever go back on a promise, he concludes by saying all of Israel will be saved.
Exactly how it is parsed varies. Some believe “all Israel” only refers to the “remnant” who will accept that Jesus is the Messiah. Some believe that, once Jesus comes back and fulfills all the Jewish requirements for the Messiah, he will be accepted by all Jews as well, and thus they all are saved. Some believe that those who are already dead will also get to come. Some believe that Jews die, go to heaven, see Jesus, are forced to accept him, and then make it into Heaven. Still some believe that Jesus will not come back until everyone in Israel is converted to Christianity.
That was my understanding from the Catholic church teachings I grew up with. In fact, we learned about the Pharisees as hypocrites where professing and crowing about their devotion was not the path to God’s favour. I remember one year in grade school one of the poems we studied was Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt.
Kind of a pretty simple message for a Catholic school curriculum.
I do recall reading that some sects put a premium on recognizing Jesus as saviour, such that heathens who dies never hearing the “message” may go to heaven, but those who had heard the message and rejected it were damned - hence the desire to go forth and convert everyone. But I never heard that as the Catholic position.