CAN THOSE WHO’VE NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL BE SAVED?
Rom. 2:12-15
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: IMPORTANCE OF REPUTATION
1. A guy was going 89 MPH. A cop pulled him over.
2. “Let me see your driver’s license.” “Don’t have one.”
“Let me see your insurance.” “I don’t have any.”
“Pop your trunk.” “I can’t - there’s a dead body in there!
3. THE OFFICER CALLED THE CHIEF. “Come here NOW! I have a guy who says he doesn’t have a license, insurance, and has a body in the trunk.”
4. THE CHIEF ARRIVES. He asks the man the same 3 questions and he cheerfully complies, giving him his license, insurance, and popping the trunk.
5. THE CHIEF SAID, “My officer here said that when he asked for your license, you said you didn’t have one; when he asked for you insurance, you said you didn’t have any. And when he asked you to open your trunk, you couldn’t because you had a dead body in there!”
6. The Driver looked astounded, scratched his head, and said, “I guess the next thing he’ll say is that I was going 89 MPH!”
7. The driver put a spin on the officer’s reputation. Our reputation is important.
B. THESIS
1. Atheist Dr. Ray Bradley says, “[Christians’] God will torture the majority of humans eternally in hell for the sin of unbelief, even though most of them have never even heard Jesus' name.”
2. He says there is no way such a punishment is either “just” or loving. Is it true that a person's salvation or damnation could simply be the result of a historical or geographical accident – they were born in the wrong place or time?
3. Are these charges true? The title of this message is, “Will Those Who’ve Never Heard the Gospel All Be Lost?”
I. PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS
A. CHRISTOCENTRIC VIEW OF SALVATION
1. ONLY MEDIATOR. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” There’s no other conduit between God & man.
2. THE ONLY WAY TO THE FATHER. “I am the Way….No one comes to the Father except through Me,” John 14:6. “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son…has made him known” Jn. 1:18. Jesus is the only revealer of the Father.
3. THE GATE/ DOOR OF SALVATION. “I am the gate of the sheep….I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” John 10:7, 9.
4. HE IS ETERNAL LIFE. “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” I Jn. 5:11-12.
5. REDEEMER/ ONLY ACCEPTIBLE SACRIFICE. “He will save His people from their sins” Mt. 1:21. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” 1 John 2:2. The Father was satisfied with His sacrifice, Isa. 53:11.
6. ONLY HIS NAME SAVES. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12.
B. GOD IS A GOOD & JUST GOD
1. God declared Himself to be “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” Ex. 34:6. That’s His good nature.
2. God will also judge justly, not meting out a harsher punishment than necessary, but taking into account all the facts of each case. As Abraham asserted, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Gen. 18:25. He WILL do right.
C. EACH PERSON GIVEN CHANCE TO MAKE HEAVEN
1. As Adrian Rogers said, “I believe with all my heart that there’s never been a person who died without some opportunity to have received Christ, had they lived up to the light that God gave them.” I believe that.
2. Josh McDowell & Don Stewart (Answers to Tough Questions), said, “We do believe that every person will have an opportunity to repent, and that God will not exclude anyone because he happened to be born at the wrong place and at the wrong time” (1993, p. 137).
D. ALL GIVEN GENERAL REVELATION
1. Paul in Rom. 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
2. Even those who’ve never heard the Gospel have it written on their hearts, “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them” Rom. 2:15.
3. However, all agree that General Revelation is not sufficient to teach us about God’s Son, Jesus.
E. ALL GIVEN SPECIAL REVELATION
1. I believe that every person receives a certain amount of special revelation, that is, a personal exposure to the reality of God & that He’s listening/ responding. If they respond positively to that, they get more light (Lk. 8:18; 19:26).
2. The goal of general & special revelation is to bring us to the saving knowledge of Jesus as our Redeemer (Jn. 6:45).
F. ALL SALVATION FROM JESUS ON CROSS
1. All salvation – even that of Adam & Eve, Seth, Enoch, Noah & Abraham – was made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
2. John said, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
3. Conclusion: Every human who makes it to heaven does so because the sacrifice of Jesus was applied to their lives.
II. DID THE O.T. SAINTS GO TO HEAVEN?
A.ULTRA-LITERALIST VIEW
1. An ultra-literalist view would say, “Unless they confessed Jesus with their mouths and believed in His resurrection in their hearts, they couldn’t be saved.”
2. But until the angel gave Joseph Jesus’ name, NO ONE OF THE ENTIRE O.T. PERIOD KNEW HIS NAME WOULD BE JESUS. Does this mean they all were lost?
B. GOD’S NATURE HAS BEEN GRADUALLY REVEALED
1. Adam and Eve only had God’s word in Gen. 3:15 (the proto-evangel), that a child would be born who would crush Satan’s head.
2. To Moses it was revealed that God’s name was JHVH or YHWH. To Moses was given the first 5 books of the O.T., including the history of creation, the flood, sin & sacrifice, and the founding of the line of Abraham as the chosen people to bring the Messiah through.
3. Only 4-5 individuals in the O.T. comprehended that God had a Son. Job perceived Him as the Redeemer (19:25) only, yet God clearly held Job in high regard.
4. The writer of Hebrews expresses the view of gradual revelation, “In many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the Truth] and in different ways God spoke of old to [our] forefathers in and by the prophets” Heb. 1:1, Amp Classic Ver.
5. My point is, since little had been revealed about God’s Son, would the O.T. saints be consigned to hell for not accepting what they hadn’t had the opportunity to know?
C. LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY FOR SALVATION?
1. Most people have a very limited understanding of who Jesus is, even today. Even less in the distant past.
2. In the whole O.T., we only have record that Abraham (John 8:58), Job (19:25), Agur (Prov. 30:4), David (Ps. 2:7, 12), poss. Isaiah (7:14) had a personal revelation of God’s Son/Redeemer, and trusted in Him. 5 people isn’t many.
3. What about all the illiterate masses under Moses, Samuel, David, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat, etc. They were children of Abraham and heirs of his covenant. Certainly all those that lived by the light they had were accredited with righteousness, just as Abram was in Gen. 15:6, when he believed God that he would have a multitude of offspring.
4. When Jonah preached to Nineveh, the message God gave him was very limited, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown (3:4).” They believed and repented and God forgave them, and presumably, since they had responded to God correctly, they went to heaven.
5. Even in the N.T., knowledge about Jesus was limited;
a. The thief of the cross next to Jesus said, “Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” That was enough.
b. The woman at the well accepted that he was the Messiah. That was enough.
c. The man born blind (Jn. 9:35-38) was asked by Jesus if he believed in the Son of Man. When he realized Jesus spoke of himself, he said “’Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”
III. WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO NEVER HEARD?
A. IT’S GOD’S WILL TO SAVE ALL PEOPLE
1. “…pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” 1 Tim. 2:3-4.
2. “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” 2 Pet. 3:9.
B. IN FORMER TIMES, GOD HAD LIMITATIONS, BUT NO LONGER
1. “Therefore God overlooked and disregarded the former ages of ignorance; but now He commands all people everywhere to repent [that is, to change their old way of thinking, to regret their past sins, and to seek God’s purpose for their lives]” Acts 17:30, Amp.
2. With the coming of the Gospel of Jesus, there is no longer any excuse due to ignorance. The whole world has been penetrated with the Gospel. With the internet & satellite TV, everyone who wants to hear, can.
C. BASIS OF JUDGMENT FOR UNREACHED
1. William Lane Craig debated atheist professor Ray Bradley at Simon Frasier University, Vancouver, Canada.
2. “What about the fate of those who have never heard about Christ? ‘How can God condemn people who through no fault of their own never had the opportunity to receive Christ as their Savior?’ A person's salvation or damnation thus appears to be the result of historical and geographical accident, which is incompatible with an all-loving God.
3. This objection is, however, fallacious, because it assumes that those who have never heard about Christ are judged on the same basis as those who have.
4. But the Bible says that the unreached will be judged on a quite different basis than those who have heard the gospel. God will judge the unreached on the basis of their response to His self-revelation in nature and conscience. The Bible promises salvation to anyone who responds affirmatively to this self-revelation of God (Rom. 2.7).
5. Now this does not mean that they can be saved apart from Christ. Rather it means that the benefits of Christ's sacrifice can be applied to them without their conscious knowledge of Christ. It all depends on their free response.”
6. “We may rest assured that no one will suffer in hell who could by any means have been won to Christ in this life. God leaves no stone unturned to rescue all who would respond to the convicting and wooing of the Holy Spirit.” David Hunt, In Defense of the Faith.
IV. EXAMPLES OF SPECIAL REVELATION AMONG THE UNREACHED
A. BOOK, ETERNITY IN THEIR HEARTS, Don Richardson
1. GOD OF THE SANTAL. In 1862, a bearded Norwegian missionary named Lars Skrefsrud and his Danish colleague, Hans Borreson, found 2-1/2 million people called the Santal living in a region north of Calcutta, India. They were waiting to be reconciled with Thakir Jiu, the “Genuine God” since their ancestors had sinned. Lars & Hans proclaimed that Jesus, the Son of the Genuine God, had reconciled them. 100,000 were immediately saved & baptized!
2. ETHIOPIA’S GEDEO PEOPLE. Several million quite different tribes share common belief in Magano – omnipotent Creator of all that is. The Gedeo tribe actually prayed to Magano. One leader, Warrasa Wange, saw a vision of two white-skinned strangers under a large Sycamore tree and he heard a voice that said, “These men will bring you a message from Magano. Wait for them.” In December, 1948 Canadians Albert Brant and Glen Cain arrived at the village in their truck and pulled under a large Sycamore tree and parked. Many thousands of Gedeo promptly accepted Jesus!
3. CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC’S MBAKA Missionary Eugene Rosenau sat spellbound listening to the Mbaka tribesman, “Koro, the Creator, sent word to our forefathers long ages ago that He had already sent His Son into the world to accomplish something wonderful for all mankind. Our forefathers…forgot what it was that He accomplished for mankind. Since that time, generations of our people have longed to discover the truth about Koro’s Son.” No wonder there was such a tremendous revival among the Mbaka people
4. THE KAREN OF BURMA. The Karen people were electrified and asked if he were the “white brother” they had been expecting for centuries. Their ancestors had said, “He’s supposed to bring us a book from Y’wa, the supreme God, which will free us from oppression.” 800,000 Karen converted to Christ!
5. THE LAHU OF BURMA. For centuries, the Lahu have had a tradition which said that Gui’sha – Creator of all things – had given their forefathers his written law, but they’d lost it. They couldn’t obey their Creator perfectly until they regained His laws. The Lahu had “prophets of Gui’sha” to keep the expectation of Gui’sha alive in their hearts. And the tradition, “Gui’sha himself will send us a white brother with a white book containing the white laws of Gui’sha lost by our forefathers so long ago!” They wore wristbands to remind themselves of their need. When missionaries arrived it was like the Book of Acts!
6. THE SHAN, PALAUNG, and KUI, tribes built extra rooms on their houses or a church-like structure in every village in anticipation for the day when God would restore the “Lost Book” to them to worship Him.
7. INDIA’S NAGA PEOPLE. About one million strong, this people had prophets in the 1600’s to whom God revealed His laws, many of which were remarkably similar to the Laws of Moses. 76% of the entire population of the Naga people became Christians and church members!
8. THE MIZO OF INDIA
An ancestor had a dream, “A great light will come from the West and shine upon Mizoland. Follow the light, for the people who bring it will be the ruling race….” The Mizo people also possessed traditions of a sacred book given to them but lost by their forefathers. 95% of the 3 million men and women accepted Christ!
B. MUSLIMS HAVING VISIONS OF JESUS
1. Article, “Visions of Jesus Stir Muslim Hearts,” CBN.com
"What's happening nowadays in the Muslim world has never happened before," said Father Zakaria Boutros, an Egyptian Coptic priest who is one of the foremost evangelists to the Muslim world. He says a cross-section of Muslims are accepting Jesus Christ. "Young and old, educated and not educated, males and females, even those who are fanatic."
2. One fanatic Muslim who came to faith in Jesus Christ is Samer Achmad Muhammed. He studied for years to become a Wahhabi sheik, one of the most virulent forms of Islam. He hated Christians and the church, but his heart changed when he heard the Gospel.
3. "I dedicated my life to Jesus Christ, Jesus forgave me for my sins,” he said. “He gave me eternal life and peace. And the second thing, I really suffered in my daily life, but I had peace, I had joy because Jesus entered my heart."
4. Muhammed is just one of many who are coming to Jesus. Heidi Baker of Iris Ministries sees thousands of African Muslims receiving Jesus and getting baptized.
5. "It's probably the only place in the world where they are coming so quickly,” she said. “Many people are having dreams. They see Jesus appear to them. Probably half our pastors were leaders, imams in Moslem mosques. They were leaders in these mosques, now they're pastors."
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. In December 1993, Bishop Haik was the chairman of Iran's Protestant Council and he courageously sent out an open letter to Western media publicizing fellow pastor Mehdi Dibaj's imprisonment.
2. Then on January 19, 1994, Bishop Haik disappeared from the streets of Tehran. The authorities reported his death to his family on January 30.
3. But his and other Iranian Christian martyrs deaths have not been in vain. Michael G. Maudlin, author of "Have You Seen Jesus Lately?", reports that:
4. "In 1977 there were only 2,700 evangelicals in Iran out of a population of 45 million. Of these only 300 were former Muslims. Today, there are close to 55,000 believers, of whom 27,000 are from Muslim backgrounds."
B. THE CALL
1. Prayer for those who haven’t heard.
2. Prayer for us to be better witnesses.
