SOME WHOM CLAIM TO BE CHRISTIAN WILL BE LOST!
Perhaps a good place to begin is with the observation that not everyone who claims to be a Christian will be saved. We have this on pretty good authority — that of Jesus Christ himself: Not everyone who says to me,
“Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.” (Matt. 7:21 – 23)
The biblical position simply cannot be reduced to the claim that “everyone in our religion is saved and everyone else is lost.” (Substitute “denomination,”“association,” or any equivalent term for “religion” and the point still holds.) We are not espousing the notion that membership in our religion, or our church, comes with a free pass to Heaven. We fully expect that some of the members of our churches are going to get an especially severe punishment in Hell! The reason for this is that God will judge people based on what they know. James warns his readers to be cautious about becoming teachers, “for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1).
In one of Jesus’ parables (Luke 12:42 – 48), the servant who knew his master’s will but didn’t do it received a heavy punishment, while the servant who didn’t know, although still doing things worthy of punishment, got a relatively light sentence. The principle that Jesus enunciates at the end of this parable is clear: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48).