New Church Life Mar/Apr 2015 | Page 64

Why Join the
General Church?
The Rev. N. Bruce Rogers

P

eople of every religion can be saved if they live according to the precepts
of their religion and by a life of charity have received remnants of good
and apparent truth. So say the Heavenly Doctrines in a number of places. (e.g.,
Arcana Coelestia 2284:4,5, 10648:1, Heaven and Hell 319, Divine Providence 254,
322, 327, 328:8, 330:3)
But if people of every religion can be saved, why then should anyone
want to join the General Church? What is the point of membership in such
a small church when there are much larger churches available? Or when
there are other churches with a much longer history and set of traditions
than the General Church?
How much more convenient for many of our members one of the local or
neighborhood churches would be, if everyone of every religion can be saved?
What is the point of membership in the General Church if no one needs to
join it to be saved?
This is an old question that has been discussed from time to time in
the Church and answers to it explored. Yet none of these answers seems to
stick. One answer is that the General Church espouses the Divinity of the
Writings. But that simply shifts the question to why anyone should want to
accept the Writings as Divine. Membership in the General Church supposes
acknowledgment of the Writings as such. The questions are inseparable.
If memory serves me, many years ago Garth Pitcairn employed an
expert consultant to look for ways to draw people to the Church. And if I
remember right, the consultant concluded that it would be difficult to do
so in light of the teaching that everyone of every religion can be saved.
I have been prompted to revisit the subject because of a book I was
given some time ago: In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary
Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church, by Gina Welch (Metropolitan
Books, Henry Holt & Company, LLC, © 2010 by Gina Welch).
I have just recently read the book. It tells of Gina Welch’s experience
with Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church, in which she participated
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