Or not.
I am a Christian who has accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. But I’m not really an exclusionist. Faith is the key, not doctrine. Original text or sayings can be edited, even for purposes that ultimately serve God. My less educated understanding of Jesus’ use of the word “Father” (as in the Lord’s Prayer) was not equivalent to the “Official King and Absolute Ruler of All Things.” Of course, that is what God may be. But Jesus use of the term “Abba” was (to borrow a phrase from another website) “a term of tender endearment by a beloved child, an affectionate, dependent relationship with one’s father,” perhaps even protector, the way Catholics see the Pope as “Papa.”
I think the Greek culture, where one’s Father was a person largely to be feared, messed up the meaning. “Coming to the Father” means, to me, the act of raising one’s little arms up to Daddy, asking to be picked up, nurtured and protected. Consider the context of how Jesus described the holy nature of little children, and that one must “become like one of these” to access to the Kingdom of Heaven.
The text we are discussing was not Jesus’ issuance of an absolute rule, regulation or law. It was simply an encouragement to remain childlike, arms raised in hope, when we approach the Father.
The assertion doesn’t really make sense. What about all the people who were already dead by the time of Jesus’ ministry? Were they in hell?
I’d forgotten I’d posted this (post#11). Damn, I’m good.
I find Matthew 25 interesting in this context: those who are saved get told that it’s because they fed him when he was hungry, and gave him clothes, and visited him when he was sick. And they express disbelief: uh, no; we didn’t feed you when you were hungry; we didn’t give you clothes, or visit you when you were sick.
The reply: no, see, when you do it to them, you’re doing it to me.
So if how you interact with him is the way to God, and how you interact with others is the way to him; and if the way you treat your neighbor is the way you treat Jesus, such that salvation ensues if you (a) love thy neighbor as thyself, and therefore (b) love God with all thy heart, then aren’t you already done by definition?
In the opinion of this liberal Xian whose views often please no one, it’s often easier to convince someone that someone was literally resurrected than it is to get them to willingly feed the hungry, ect. Maybe that’s where the “way is narrow” thing came from.