What Precisely Must One Believe About Jesus
In Order to Have Eternal Life?
Robert N. Wilkin
Executive Director
Grace Evangelical Society (www.faithalone.org)
Irving, Texas
Introduction
I came to faith in Christ while a senior in college at a State university in
California through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. After two years of
involvement as a student in campus evangelism, I joined staff. For four years I
served as a full-time campus minister whose primary job was to evangelize
students.
During my seven years at Dallas Seminary I was involved in a number of
evangelistic ministries. I served with Campus Crusade at Southern Methodist
University, was involved in the high school ministry at First Baptist Dallas, was a
chaplain at Baylor Medical Center, and pastored an independent Bible church for
three years.
Though my formal major at Dallas was New Testament, informally I
majored in evangelism. Nearly every paper I wrote in seminary touched on the
gospel. My master`s thesis (on perseverance) and doctoral dissertation (on
repentance and salvation) both dealt directly with evangelism.
After my seminary studies were complete, I continued to have a burden for
clarity in evangelism. After teaching in two Bible colleges, I devoted myself full-
time to a ministry whose aim is to promote clarity in evangelism and discipleship.
I say all this so that the reader will know this topic is not merely some
passing interest for me. This topic has been my passion since the Fall of 1972
when I was freed from the grips of a legalistic cult group and came to know the
grace of God.
This topic tends to generate a lot of heat since it is such an important one
and since people are not in agreement on the answer. Unless we adopt a pluralistic
attitude that it really doesn`t matter what one believes about Jesus as long as you
love Him, we must face this question honestly.
My desire here is to share my burden, one influenced by many years of
struggle and study on the topic. I hope it helps others think through this issue,
regardless of whether or not they agree with my conclusions.