So the question is whether people who call on God can be saved if they don't believe in Jesus. for example, Joel 2:32 "... Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved...". But we know from John 3:16, Romans 6:23, Acts 4:12 and many other verses that only in Jesus is salvation found.

1 John 4 addresses our discussion last night very well. You mentioned verse 7 "Let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." Taking this verse out of context, it's easy to say that anyone who feels any sort of 'love' (puppy love, lust, mother-teresa love) is automatically saved. This is obviously not a correct interpretation. Thankfully, the term 'love' here is defined in the rest of this chapter 4: v17-19 "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement... There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not be made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us." This boldness only comes through the hope given to us in salvation by Jesus Christ. In the specific case of muslims, I would go so far as to say they don't have love, because there religion is based on fear of an angry allah and many of them are taught to even hate non-muslims. Initially, the fear of the Lord's anger at our sin is what can drive us to seek salvation, but this type of fear does not need to exist in a mature Christian whose sins have been covered and who is living harmoniously in God's ways. There is a different type of fear that continues to exist in a Christian, and this is made manifest as a sense of awe for God's power.

How did He love us? v10 "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." I think of 'propitiation' as a potential for salvation, b/c in 1 John 2:2, it says that He was the propitiation for the whole world. Certainly Jesus's death on the cross made it possible for all mankind to be saved, but we know that not all men will be saved. I heard a sermon reduce it to these four possibilities. There are five other possibilities besides these, but they all involve the word 'NONE' in the place of 'All' and 'SOME', four of which would clearly do us no good:

(1) Jesus died for SOME of the sins of SOME of the people -- but these people can't rid themselves of the rest of their sin, so all are doomed.

(2) Jesus died for SOME of the sins of ALL of the people -- same problem as in (1).

(3) Jesus died for ALL of the sins of ALL of the people -- so then everyone would be saved, mass murderers, Osama bin Laden, Hitler; I'm not saying it's impossible for these people to become saved, but even the "worst" people in our eyes would automatically go to heaven in this case 3. But this is the conclusion we must reach if we substitute the word 'payment' for 'propitiation' in 1 John 4:10. As another example, in Noah's time the people in the world were destroyed by the flood because of their corruption (Gen 6:11); certainly they weren't sent to heaven!

(4) Jesus died for ALL of the sins of SOME of the people -- This is where the doctrine of grace and election come in to play, and it is the only reasonable possibility. The converse which coexists with (4) is that Jesus also died for NONE of the sins of SOME of the people. Thus we see that 'propitiation' must not be confused with 'payment' in 1 John 4:10.

Getting back to 1 John 4:1-3, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know that a spirit is of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world." The word 'spirit' here doesn't refer to demon possesion, but rather teachings that promote error. This passage does not mean that any religion that says 'Jesus came to earth' is automatically valid. For example, they must believe Jesus was the Son of God and that He rose again from the dead and that His death was a payment for sin. Certainly, if a religion denies the human-state of Jesus, it is automatically not of God.

1 John 6 says "... He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us..." I think this is evidenced in {a friend's} point last night. He is not able to understand the transcendent communication that occurs between believers united in the Holy Spirit. There's definetely still hope for him though, even though he firmly believes that no one can be sure that they have true salvation and he is unwilling to openly listen to what true Christians have to say. I met a really nice guy in GCF last week. He told his lab friends that he had gotten saved and their jaws dropped. Everyone thought he would be the last person in the world to get saved because he was fighting so hard against God. They even started saying that they should get saved too since he got saved, because he had reasoned his position inside-out and could argue against God to anyone. {The friend} is in the same position, believing that no one can convince him of the truth.

My verse of the year is Romans 10:14 "How shall they call on 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?" Man cannot be saved by the Law. Without Jesus there is only the Law. But one saved to Jesus is removed from the dominion of the Law. Therefore, man can only be saved through Jesus. Let us therefore be beacons of light that cannot be hidden to preach Jesus and Him crucified, that we may shine with an pervasive light on all of our friends.