Will Non-Christians Be Saved?

Can a person be saved without being a Christian? The answer from many of our unbelieving neighbors is “Yes.” But other folks are answering “Yes,” too — and who they are may surprise you.

A Catholic Priest Says “Yes”

Some time ago I read a newspaper article titled “Why do Catholics believe that ‘non-Christians’ can be saved?” The article, by a “Father Pasquini,” affirms that a person who knows nothing of Christ or His gospel can nonetheless be saved in that condition. The column includes this gem: “The [Catholic] church, however, makes adamantly clear that there are those who through no fault of their own will be saved.” Read that sentence again and let it sink in before you continue.

Pasquini quotes from “Lumen Gentium,” a decree issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1964. This “constitution” of the Catholic Church says that those who “do not know the Gospel of Christ or his church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience, those too may achieve eternal salvation.”

The author argues that “moved by grace” really means moved by Christ, and that “Christ consequently is the source of salvation for a person of authentic holiness, whether that person is specifically aware of it or not.” He offers the example of Indian leader Mohandas Ghandi, who made a gesture of forgiveness toward the assassin who gunned him down. “Is this not a holy act?” Pasquini asks. “Does this not require grace? Is one not saved who performs such an act?”

A Protestant Evangelist Says “Yes”

If you’re surprised to hear that the Catholic Church teaches this, get ready for another surprise. Listen to this excerpt from a 1997 interview between popular evangelists Robert Schuller and Billy Graham.

Graham: “I think everybody who knows Christ, whether they’re conscious of it or not, they’re members of the Body of Christ … whether they come from the Muslim world, Buddhist world, the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the body of Christ, because they’ve been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus … and I think that they are saved, and that they are going to be in heaven with us.”

Schuller (overjoyed): “What I hear you saying is that it’s possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and souls and life even if they’ve been born into darkness and never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you are saying?”

Graham: “Yes it is, because I believe that.” [1]

So Billy Graham says that someone can know Christ without being conscious of it. He says that some who “may not even know the name of Jesus” are nonetheless part of His body and are saved. This is probably an eye-opener for many of Graham’s fans!

Observations

I’m not sure, but I suspect that such positions stem in part from the influence of men like Augustine and Calvin, who taught that salvation is something God unconditionally and irresistibly thrusts upon a person. If one believes that, then it’s really not much of a stretch to theorize that God brings some people to Christ without their ever being aware of it.

Such thinking flies in the face of New Testament teaching about salvation. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” “Father Pasquini” deals with this passage by simply asserting that a person can be in Christ and not even know it! But the Scriptures say no such thing. Jesus told the Jews, “unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). Paul wrote that God will deal out retribution “to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

It defies both Scripture and common sense to say that one can know Jesus without being conscious of it, that he can be in Christ without believing in Christ. But that’s exactly what these men are proposing. I have to wonder if their teaching may reflect a desire to make the gospel a little less exclusive, a little less offensive. After all, why tell a devout Buddhist or Muslim (or atheist?) that he’s lost without Jesus, if he already has Jesus and just doesn’t realize it? If some men are saved without ever hearing the gospel of Christ, then why preach it? The great commission (Mark 16:15-16) loses its force.

“…for ‘whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:13-14).

God, of course, has the right to save whomever He wants. He will judge all men righteously and fairly (Romans 2:11). Whatever exceptions He may choose to make are His prerogative. But we have no right to presume that God will save a person on any basis other than what He has revealed. And God has revealed that salvation is in Christ alone. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). That is what we must proclaim to the world.


[1] Transcribed from a May 31, 1997 interview, cited in Phil Sanders, Adrift: Postmodernism in the Church (Nashville, TN: Gospel Advocate, 2000), p. 176.