verte76 said:
On the one hand I believe that Christ is the Son of God, and is God Himself, and I start all of my prayers in the name of the Trinity. However, I also believe that I have no control over the Keys to heaven, and it's for God to decide who gets in, not me, not a priest, not the pope, and not some TV preacher.
You've raised a good point here, Verte. No matter how we as Christians interpret the Scriptures, it is ultimately up to God to decide who's in and who's out. It's not up to any man to make God's ultimate judgement.
However, I believe that we do have a strong foundation on which to understand God's desire for us through the Bible. In it are statements that exclusively say that there is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ. Personally, I do find this disturbing. I am heartbroken to think that some child on the other side of the world may never hear of Jesus and never even get the chance to have faith. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "How can they believe unless they have heard?"
This is a very troubling reality, and has caused many to believe that God will allow those outside of the Christian faith into heaven by other means. While I sincerely hope this is true, I must admit that I have no BIBLICAL basis for it. If that's what God decides, I'll rejoice.
There are three basic camps of Christianity that on this topic. I read an excellent book on this, but unfortunately I don't have it handy as a reference, so I'll just have to paraphrase.
1.) All Inclusive: those who believe that God will allow all "good" and "sincere" people into heaven based on his mercy and grace. This is a popular belief in today's world, but is the stance with the least doctrinal foundation.
2.) All Exclusive: those who believe that God will allow only those into heaven who have professed faith in Jesus Christ as the only Son of God and the only path to salvation. This is likely the least popular belief in today's world, but has the strongest doctrinal foundation. I'm sorry, but this is pretty much what the Bible says.
3.) Other guys (I don't remember the name, sorry): those who believe that God will allow into heaven all of those who have professed faith in Christ, and will condemn to hell all of those who have specifically rejected him. (This would include those who have heard about Jesus and have had the chance to accept him, but have chosen not to). All of those who haven't had the chance to accept or reject (people living in distant lands where Christianity is not known) are in God's hands, and he will have his own special way of judging their fate.
Personally, I'm in the third group. I'm sympathetic to those who have no choice, but won't go so far as to say that every religion is a path to the same God. I'll be happy to answer any questions if I wasn't clear.