I was a bit surprised that I was drawn into the discussion, and might have handled it differently if I'd had the chance to reflect and wasn't concentrating on my next zoom meeting in half-an-hour. But here's what I believe, and without apology or equivocation: eternal life in Christ is a free gift offered to all who believe in Him. There are no performance tests, no novenas, no nothings for qualification for this gift: you can't earn it, there's no good boy, bad boy distinction and even notorious sinners are not excluded. But baptism is the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace of God's salvation through His Son. Without that, we who are above ground don't get passage to that eternal life in Christ.

Part of the problem is that we in this kingdom have come to believe that the kingdom of heaven is just a better version of what we have on earth: my backhand is better, I don't struggle to get upstairs, I eat lamb chops or prime rib every night, and drink single malt scotch rather than blended, everyone gets along with me and I don't think those who don't are idiots. Wrong. The evidence is that it's a reversal of what we have on earth (Lazarus and Dives), that those who have nothing will have it more abundantly, that those with much will have it stripped away. We will all be there naked before the Divine, and they "w[ere] judged according to what they had done" (Rev. 20:14). And those not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire (id.: 15)

Put another way, why would a Hindu or a Buddhist desire eternal life in Christ? He presumably (in this internet age) had the chance to figure out whether Jesus' claims were true, and whether he would believe what He said? Why should we who profess the faith in Christ crucified want to spend eternity with people who don't accept His death, resurrection and ascension? Arguing from the point of view of the stillborn infant or the person living in a cave in outer Mongolia butts against the philosophical fallacy of arguing from an emergency. Christ's teachings apply to all, which is why we try to reach that cave dweller and pray that God has somehow reached the stillborn infant in the womb, as the psalmist says (139:13; Jeremiah 1:5).

I admit that an all-powerful divine can save anyone He wants: Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, Vladimir Putin, the list is endless. But I don't believe in a God who pulls the rug out from under us, saying by the way, it all was a joke: I didn't really mean that you have to believe in the divinity of my Son; he was just a man like every one of you. I choose to believe that He sent His only Son to die for our sins. No other faith can claim that. A pastor who states otherwise ought to be looking for another job.

David Duggan is a retired attorney living in Chicago. He is an occasional contributor to VOL