A couple months ago, we surveyed our church to ask for topics they would like to have a biblical perspective on. We said nothing was off limits. If you'd like to check out any of the messages, you can do so by clicking HERE.
At the end of the service this past Sunday, we allowed people to text in their questions. Some of those questions we answered on the spot, but for those I felt needed more explanation, I'm going to deal with those through this blog over the next few weeks. I'll provide some general thoughts of my own based on Scripture, but then I'll refer you to more-thorough resources, which basically say what I would say anyway. Additionally, I encourage you to explore the Scriptures yourself. As I said in the final message of the series, each of us has the responsibility to know why we believe what we believe, and "why we believe" something should not be just because a pastor or denomination told you.
What will happen to those who die without ever hearing the gospel?
This is obviously a question that carries much weight. It's questions like this that make me frustrated when we debate issues like worship styles instead of making disciples. Several things to consider with this question. First, just by the nature of this question, the conclusion has been made, and rightly so, that salvation is not possible apart from surrender to Jesus Christ (responding to the gospel).
Second, we must deal with the issue of how people hear the gospel. Romans 1 is a great place to go on this issue. In this chapter, we see that all men are without excuse because God generally reveals Himself to everyone. At the same time, we see in Scripture that a more specific revelation comes from both God Himself and via the church (Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19-20). This is why the Great Commission is the something that we cannot play around with.
When you get down to it, the Bible teaches that those who die without Christ are eternally separated from God. It doesn't give any loopholes to this truth. If there were exceptions to this, just think of the implications... If people can earn salvation by default, should they not hear the gospel, then couldn't we just tell all Christians to stop sharing their faith so that people can default into Heaven because they didn't hear the gospel? Clearly, this goes against the command to "Go, make disciples."
At the same time, I believe God desires that none should perish, so in some way, He gives people the opportunity to know Him and respond to Jesus. As believers, we cannot be lazy or apathetic when it comes to sharing the gospel.
Here's a great article that provides a very detailed response to this question. I fully agree with this article, and I believe it gives a very biblical perspective on the issue... http://carm.org/those-never-heard-gospel
And to complicate the issue even more, though we know that God does not desire for any to perish, Christ tells us numerous times and in a variety of ways that the road of those who are perishing is crowded and well traveled while the road with those who are living eternally as part of His bride are few and far between. This fact comes out clearly in quite a few of His parables as well. He makes it more than clear that heaven will not be over-crowded. This is quite grating and offensive to our modern pluralistic "all roads lead to heaven", "it doesn't matter what you believe" mentality.
ReplyDeleteBut that said, we are still to evangelize and "go unto all the world".