Can you visualize in your mind…a woman in a third world country is living in horrible conditions and her two sons cling to life because of the curse of AIDS. Her husband has been killed because of their countries civil war that has lasted for decades. After months of unbearable suffering because of disease, she and her sons die…only to trade one place of hell for another.
In a scenario like this, does it raise questions about the love and justice of God? Some would say that it doesn’t seem fair to that young woman and her family!
An article that I recently clipped out of the Sacramento Bee was entitled, “Theologians Opening Heaven’s Gate A Bit Wider” stated, “Both catholic and Protestant theologians are denouncing the outdated notion that eternal salvation is limited to those who believe in Christ.”
The argument is: if God really loves the whole world, He could not possibly limit salvation to just those who were blessed to be born in a different place on earth and at a different time.
What about those who have never heard the gospel, never read a Bible or stepped foot into a church, do they get to go to heaven? How do we answer this question with compassion?
Well it starts with an open mind and our preconceived ideas thrown to the side so we can deal honestly with this subject!
John Stott said, “If we come to the scriptures with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it only an echo of our own thoughts and never the thunder clap of God, then He will not speak to us and we shall only be confirmed in our own prejudices. We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought….”
To answer the tough questions we must ask and answer
4 other questions:
1. Is Jesus The Only Hope For Salvation?
Several weeks ago we addressed this question…and we came to the conclusion that Christ is the only way based on the Bible’s reliability, integrity, authority and it’s reality.
John 14:6 “I am the truth, the life and the way, no one gets to the Father except by me.” Notice Jesus puts truth first!
Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
But wait, what about the O.T. folks, were they saved the same as we are? Abraham is a great example found in Romans that shows he was saved by faith in God! You could say that they were saved on “credit”, that is God overlooked their sins until Christ would die for their sins!
Romans 3:25 “…In His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.”
“Forbearance” = to hold back. Literally God reserved His judgment starting with Adam and Eve until Christ!
Just as we enjoy a new car now and yet we finish paying for it years later! Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David, Moses, Joshua, Daniel and all the others O.T. saints enjoyed the benefit of salvation even though Messiah would come many years after them!
So when the question is asked, “Will people in other religions eventually be saved by Christ? How do we respond?
Current theologians like…John Sanders & Clark Pinnock teach and I quote their book “No Other Name”…“The good and bona fide Hindu is saved by Christ and not by Hinduism, through the message of morality and the good life, through the mysterious person of Christ.”
They believe that other religions are a “schoolmaster” that unknowingly leads them to Jesus.
Where do they get this teaching?
a. The “Later light” theory.
After death the unsaved will be given the opportunity to accept Christ.
1 Peter 3:18-20
There are serous problems with this theology:
· “Preached” “Kerusso”= between His death and soon resurrection, Christ declared or proclaimed it as a finished work! He announced His triumph over death, sin and Satan!
· Lit. Past tense, 3rd person, indicative (already done)Key: the subject is not the spirits repenting, but Jesus’finished work on the cross.
· We have no idea what Jesus said to these souls; either demons or sinners.
· If demons, there is no salvation for them anyway!
· It is stretching the text to say that Jesus is still doing this. (eisigesis vs. exegesis)
· Mormons (baptize for the dead) and Catholics (purgatory) both teach this false doctrine.
b. There is salvation based on God’s foreknowledge.
The argument is that if the person born in a third world country was instead born in America or say Canada, God knows if they would have been saved.
Matthew 11:21,22 is used as one of their proof texts.
In reality Jesus is teaching that there would be less judgment based on the knowledge brought on by the mighty works. Jesus does not give assurance that the people of Trye and Sidon would be saved in future judgment. Again this is stretching the scriptures in a perverted direction!
c. God makes an exception based on one’s sincerity.
Because someone is devout and fears God, God credits their sin to Christ’s account.
Acts 10:34-35 is given as a proof text that God will save those in other religions.
Problems with this interpretation:
· Acts 11:14 says Cornelius was not saved until Peter preached to him.
John Sanders says, “Cornelius was already a saved believer before Peter arrived, but he was not a Christian believer.” Wrong again!
Just because someone has PHD after their name doesn’t’ always mean much!
PHD = “Possible Human Dummy”
· Remember, Peter receives a vision that convinces him that Gentiles are also included in the plan of salvation. Even God fearing Gentiles can enter into the plan of Christ’s redemption!
· Lastly, the text doesn’t say he was saved before he met Peter, only that he had a reverence for God. From Muslims to Mormons, they have a reverence and sincerity for God but they are sincerely lost still. They do not accept Christ’s finished work on the cross.
2. How Does The Scriptures Approach Other Religions?
Paul makes two major statements in this area:
a. False worship is idolatry and demonic.
1 Corinthians 10:20,21
We either worship the one true God or we worship idols.
Psalm 96:5 “For all the gods of the people are idols…”
b. False religions have evolved because of man’s corruption.
Romans 1:23 “Exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” NASB
Now I don’t deny that Buddhists have some truth to their teaching, such as good ethical teaching that you can find in Christianity.
But here’s the key: It is not necessary for a religion to be totally false in order for it to be disastrously wrong!
3. Will God Judge Those Who Have Never Heard of Jesus?
The best answer to this question is: God will judge people by what they did with what they knew.
This viewpoint is called “general revelation”. God will judge them by:
· Creation.
Romans 1:18-21
Man can clearly understand that there is a God by creation. I believe that an atheist is the ultimate suppresser of truth!
· Conscience.
Romans 2:12, 14-15
>>> Man was created with a “God conscience”! That is; every human being carries an innate sense of right and wrong; a knowledge that there is a moral code that dictates right and wrong.
>>> The Gentiles did not receive the 10 Commandments, but they have a basic moral law written in their hearts.
>>> God would not expect the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath holy (that’s a special revelation), but He would expect them to know that murder is wrong and stealing is bad for society.
Key: God will not ask those who have never heard of Christ why they did not accept him!
F.F. Bruce said, “God will judge by the light that is available, not by the light that is unavailable.”
Which now leads to the next obvious question…
4. What Will Happen At The Final Judgment?
So what will judgment be like for those who have been introduced to God through “general revelation”?
For starters (talking about the woman mentioned at the beginning of this message):
a. It will unveil that no person lives up to the light shown him or her.
Left to ourselves we all reinterpret nature to suit our own desires. We are all spiritually depraved!
b. It will unveil that nature cannot give us what we need.
No Jew or Gentile can live up to the perfect light revealed to man.
The verdict of God is clear in Romans 3:25 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:4 “…Let God be true and every man a liar…”
Every single person to ever walk on this planet needs the righteousness of Christ credited to his or her sin account!
That woman in a third world country, I firmly believe that if she desired to seek additional truth and additional light, she would have found it. How do I know that? Let’s use Paul’s own words as he stood among a pluralistic religious society, much like ours today…Acts 17:22-31
I’ve heard many people say that even though they did not get raised in a Christian home, but as they were introduced to a little truth and then as more truth was revealed later…maybe through a dream, or someone they came in contact with, etc.
I want to be very clear here, God’s dealing with those in other religions is a mystery and the final verdict is up to God not us. But we do know for a fact, that the biblical principle that God bases His judgment, is strictly on the knowledge He has with that person and God will take into account the response of every person that falls into the area of general revelation!
In the movie “Rudy” about the Notre Dame football team, a player is very mad about the coach’s decision to drop him from the team. The coach says to him…“Son, after years of teaching I’ve come to two conclusions that are very true…
1)There is a God, and 2)I’m not Him.”
Here’s the Key: General revelation that we’ve been speaking about is on a basis of judgment not salvation!
Let’s look at this from the words of Jesus…
Luke 12:47,48
By no means will one person’s judgment be the same as someone who has the knowledge of their sins. Let it be understood that God is not obligated to save one person, but He is obligated to be just!
Let me put it another way…How can God punish a person eternally when that person lacks the knowledge of his charges?
How many of you have ever said to your child…
“I feel like spanking you right now and don’t ask me why”.
Romans 9:14 “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be?”
Let me conclude with this…I would rather die as a person who has never heard of Christ than a person who has heard the gospel and did nothing with it!
I’ve come to realize that most people, who are more concerned with the fate of people of other religions, are less concerned about themselves! If the person who only knows “general revelation” for their truth, is better off eternally than the person who goes to church Sunday after Sunday with Bible in hand and is never born again!
And that’s a sad fact!
