How much Israelite ancestry must I have?

[postroad]

I am informed that belief in Christ is not an absolute requirement for salvation. That is if I'm a physical descendant of Abraham.

Would that include all those nations that he sired or only those through Isaac through Jacob. What percentage would be required for any such exemption?

[Overcomer]

postroad wrote:

I am informed that belief in Christ is not an absolute requirement for salvation. That is if I'm a physical descendant of Abraham.

Then you have been misinformed. Jesus himself put it this way: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

The Jews in Christ's time mistakenly thought they only had to be physical descendants of Abraham to be saved. See here:

https://www.gotquestions.org/Jews-saved.html

We are all born with sin natures that we cannot change. But God cannot give eternal life with him to sinners. Christ gives us his righteousness -- righteousness that he has simply because he is BOTH God AND man -- in exchange for our sins. He brings our dead spirits alive in him when we accept him. This is why he is the only way to God. If you reject Christ's gift of righteousness, you remain in your sin and you remain separated from God for eternity. Your choice.

[postroad]

[Replying to post 2 by Overcomer]

Then God deliberately hardened national Israel in order to send untold millions into hell?

[Elijah John]

postroad wrote:

I am informed that belief in Christ is not an absolute requirement for salvation. That is if I'm a physical descendant of Abraham.

Then you have been misinformed. Jesus himself put it this way: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

The Jews in Christ's time mistakenly thought they only had to be physical descendants of Abraham to be saved. See here:

https://www.gotquestions.org/Jews-saved.html

We are all born with sin natures that we cannot change. But God cannot give eternal life with him to sinners. Christ gives us his righteousness -- righteousness that he has simply because he is BOTH God AND man -- in exchange for our sins. He brings our dead spirits alive in him when we accept him. This is why he is the only way to God. If you reject Christ's gift of righteousness, you remain in your sin and you remain separated from God for eternity. Your choice.

So..that would rule out all of the heroes of faith in the "Old" Testament, then, wouldn't it? After all, none of them "accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior". The only Savior they knew was YHVH, who says,

"I, even I am YHVH, and besides me, there is no savior."

(Isaiah 43.11)

Or if those righteous in the Old Testament get some exemption, why not others who seek God? Or as Judaism puts it. "righteous gentiles"?

Only Christianity and Islam make exclusivist claims for salvation. Judaism does not.

Maybe Judiaism is right about this, and God and His wisdom, love and mercy transcends your theology, the Gospel of John, John 14.6, and the Bible itself? Have you considered that possibility?

[showme]

I am informed that belief in Christ is not an absolute requirement for salvation. That is if I'm a physical descendant of Abraham.

Would that include all those nations that he sired or only those through Isaac through Jacob. What percentage would be required for any such exemption?

The name "Abraham" means "father of the peoples"/nations/Gentiles, and the covenant was for them to be circumcised. That "covenant with the peoples" (Zechariah 11:10), was apparently broken by the "staff" who was called "Favor", who was the false prophet Paul. The other "staff"/shepherd, who were taken to "pasture the flock doomed to slaughter", the Gentiles, was Peter, the "worthless shepherd" of Zechariah 11:16-17. The nations sired through Abraham include Ishmael, and Edom. "Favor" is the name used for Paul, because of his false gospel of grace, being in God's "Favor".

New American Standard Bible (Zechariah 11:10)
I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

[postroad]

[Replying to post 5 by showme]

From your perspective I must be better off being a non believer than a follower of Peter or Paul?

[showme]

[Replying to post 2 by Overcomer]

Then God deliberately hardened national Israel in order to send untold millions into hell?

Hell exists in the mind of Dante. The hell in the bible is Sheol, the pit, the grave, and everyone dies and winds up dead, and hopefully buried in a grave (Jeremiah 31:30).

[showme]

[Replying to post 5 by showme]

From your perspective I must be better off being a non believer than a follower of Peter or Paul?

Well, you have less to over come when it comes to being a believer in the falsehoods of Paul. As with "everyone" (Jeremiah 31:30), you will still die, and you will still be judged at the white throne judgment seat for your deeds. If you take care of the needy, you would be well ahead of those with the "mark of the beast", who must drink from the cup of the wrath of God. It is like the son who said he would do his fathers chores, but didn't, and the son who said he wouldn't do his father's chores, but did. Who do you think will do better when the father judges both sons?

[postroad]

[Replying to post 7 by showme]


Seems a lot of suffering is implied in the texts?

Revelation 14:11
And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.�

Matthew 25:41
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Why resurrect the wicked?

Acts 24:15
and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.