The Rev. Adam Hamilton (right), a United Methodist pastor and candidate for the U.S. Senate from Kansas, chats with a volunteer June 1 at the Wesley House in Pittsburg, Kan. Hamilton leads Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist congregation in the U.S. The Wesley House is an outreach ministry of First United Methodist Church in Pittsburg, Kan., that feeds needy families in the area. (Photo courtesy of the Hamilton campaign via UM News).
Now and Not Yet | Aug. 16, 2026
This is a post on theology, but it starts with politics. Specifically, politics in my former state of Kansas, where Democrats are hoping Rev. Adam Hamilton will break a nearly 100-year streak of Republicans holding both Senate seats. Nate Silver, who consistently has one of the best track records in political prognostication, has the race historically close.
You know it’s close because Hamilton’s opponent Roger Marshall has called in outside help like Senator Ted Cruz to take some shots. The shot he took was at Hamilton’s theology. In a sermon from 2022, Hamilton shared that he believed a person who is not Christian could potentially be saved. Cruz called it heretical, saying it, “directly contradicts the Bible.’ Before addressing the accusation directly, two things need to be said.
Politics
First, as someone with about 25 years of experience with weekly preaching, about 10 years less than Hamilton, I would hate for someone to have watched every sermon I preached looking for controversial or errant statements. I’m very confident that from time to time, particularly when I go off-script, I have said something I regret. I also have had changes in my theology over 25 years. If Hamilton’s opponent is going through his sermons and this one moment from four years ago is the best he can come up with, I think Hamilton is in pretty good shape.
Second, even if his statement is heretical, Hamilton’s theology is not relevant to his Senate campaign. As Kansans consider who should represent them, the candidate’s positions on issues, character, and trust are the keys. Theology may influence whether you agree with the candidate in those areas. For example, I would not vote for a pastor who wants to repeal the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote because he or she believes theologically that women shouldn’t have that authority. But it wouldn’t be the theology, it would be the policy position.
Theology
Now we get to the question of theology itself.
Hamilton’s sermon was part of a series where he was answering questions from the congregation. The second most frequently asked question was something to the effect of what happens to people who don’t believe in Jesus when they die.
I hope we all ask this question. If I am a Christian, in part, because of how I was raised, then what about a Muslim who follows Islam, at least in part, because of how she was raised? What about the young child who never had a chance to understand, or the person who was never exposed to Christianity at all? Or, maybe even harder, what about the person who was beaten in the name of Jesus under the pretext of “spare the rod, spoil the child,” a common misappropriation of Proverbs 13:24. How could that person be expected by God to believe when they were abused by the authority of God’s name?
You should watch the first 15 minutes or so of the sermon yourself to get his answer, but I’ll give the summary. God is revealed in a variety of ways. God is most fully revealed by being made flesh in Jesus. As a Christian, I believe that if you want to know who God is you need look no further than Jesus. At the same time, that does not mean only Christians know something about God. When other major faiths say something like “love your neighbor” (and they all do), they are correct. It’s not incorrect for a Hindu to say that even though they don’t believe in Jesus. Paul witnessed to this in Acts 17 when he preached on Mars Hill. He commended what could be affirmed of the pagans’ faith and then said, “There’s more that you don’t know. Let me tell you about Jesus.”
Hamilton’s conclusion is that God’s grace is big enough to allow for people of other faiths to be saved if, using Hamilton’s image, when they reach Heaven they are willing to say to Christ, “Ahh. It was you all along I was searching for.”
Cruz says Hamilton is heretical because in John 14 Jesus says, “I am the way…”. Hamilton agrees with Jesus. “Jesus saves” is standard Christian orthodoxy. Jesus is the way. Jesus saves. But John 4 does not say how Jesus saves. There are too many theories of atonement (how we are made “at one” with God) to discuss here. Those theories go all the way back to the beginning. The penal substitution theory that you hear in most evangelical churches is actually one of the later theories. Some of the earliest theologians like Origen believed everyone would ultimately be saved. Some like Gregory of Nyssa believed in what I will call a very large heaven and a very small hell. In all cases, the reason for salvation was the saving act of Jesus. The difference in who is saved is based on how Jesus saves, not if Jesus saves.
So Hamilton is right when, at the end of his sermon, he says this is not an uncommon belief. The reaction from his detractors exposes an extremely important rift in Christianity right now, a rift that I believe is driving people away from faith every day. Cruz, as well as many of those who claim the word “evangelical,” is arguing for a God of exclusion. It’s a theology that says, “Almighty, all-powerful, all-loving God can do anything, and has chosen to save you. But only if you believe in the right things.” That’s not a loving God. And, historically, it’s not the universally held view of God. Thinkers like those I’ve mentioned above, along with people like John Wesley in the tradition I am in, have been able to reconcile this apparent contradiction by insisting that God’s grace is beyond our understanding. Hamilton is right - I will be surprised at some of the people I see in heaven. Believing that is not heretical. It’s graceful. If all Christians practiced this grace, we just might see a resurgence in the number of people who find their way to Jesus in this lifetime.
The Rev. David Livingston (Courtesy Photo)
The Rev. David Livingston serves as superintendent of the Southeast Nebraska District of the Great Plains Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. This post is republished from his Substack blog, "Now and Not Yet."