I often think about this great controversy of universal salvation, and how it relates to our confession of Christ as the only savior. Can a Buddhist who lived and died hundreds of years before Christ was revealed yet be saved by Christ? I understand the answers given which point out that his salvation may come in the future age, or that when he passed on, he would have seen Christ and acknowledged Him, or that, if he was a wicked man, he might be saved from his hellish environment.
At any rate, I was reading in 1 Corinthians this morning and came across this passage, and wondered if there was something here that relates to those in other belief systems.
1 Cor. 3:10 -15: “As a skilled and experienced builder, I used the gift that God gave me to lay the foundation for that building. However, someone else is building on it. Each person must be careful how he builds on it. After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that foundation is Jesus Christ. People may build on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. The day will make what each one does clearly visible because fire will reveal it. That fire will determine what kind of work each person has done. If what a person has built survives, he will receive a reward. If his work is burned up, he will suffer the loss. However, he will be saved, though it will be like going through a fire.”
As I read this text this morning, it occurred to me that Christ has always been the foundation, since before the “foundation of the earth.” (1 Peter 1:20 - “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,”)
Could it be said that the various systems of belief, both before and after Christ’s appearance on earth, have all been built on the foundation of Christ? I was reading Dennis waite’s “Back to the Truth: 5000 Years of Advaita” and noted that much of that belief system correlates to Christ’s teachings, but again, much clearly does not. Christians would say the system is poorly built, and maybe the walls of that and other systems will not last, but the adherents and builders of such will be saved?
The question popped up, and now I await a better understanding!
Loren