thoughts out !oud

a Christian’s news, views, opinions and occasional poetry …

Heathens, heaven and hell

Posted by Mathew | 26 July 08

[The writing of this article owes itself to the inspiring and thought-provoking post, and ensuing comments discussion, The 'Innocent' Heathen? over at Duane's Mind. Be sure to check out the comments related to his post!]

You would agree that all human knowledge is finite - we can’t know everything. (I mean that as a statement - I doubt anyone could say with absolute certainty that this is incorrect.) You would also agree, based on a traditional interpretation of the Bible, that Christianity teaches the following: God is Holy; mankind is sinful; mankind is destined for Hell; God, by His Graciousness, provides a remedy for mankind’s destination; Jesus, alone, is that remedy; those that acknowledge Jesus are redeemed; the redeemed are taken into God’s Holiness in Heaven; those who reject Jesus are not redeemed and go to Hell.

In other words, Christianity makes it very clear that Jesus is absolutely required and is the only means by which anyone can avoid Hell and enter Heaven (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; Luke 10:22).

And the objection to this, quite naturally, is: what about those who don’t know or have never heard and will never hear about Jesus? It would not be fair that God would deny them this remedy.

And it wouldn’t be fair. And it wouldn’t be Just to condemn anyone without sufficient grounds.

However, Scripture is also clear that no one is without excuse - no one has any excuse to deny their own sinfulness (Rom 2:1-20). It does not matter if they do not know their sin by that name or label; but it is sufficient for them to know that in some measure, shape or form, that they are inadequate on some level. It is only a very recent philosophy that argues that man is essentially good (contrary to what Scripture claims); yet for thousands of years, philosophers maintained that we are not.

So, first point, here’s our ’sufficient grounds’. We are not perfect and an honest man will freely admit that he has his faults. Further, accepting Christianity’s premise that God is Holy and we ourselves must be Holy (or perfect) in order to abide with Him in Heaven, something must happen in order for us to become perfect.

Scripture teaches that, individually, no one can achieve perfection by their own efforts (Eph 2:9). It must be up to God to reach out to us and bridge the gap. Enter: Jesus.

Second point: for those of us living in so-called Christian countries, where there’s freedom of religion and Christian churches aplenty, here’s a fact: Jesus Christ died to save you from your sins irrespective as to whether or not you believe in God. Christ died for all, regardless, so that all might have redemption.

For those of us living in areas of the world where we might not even ever heard of Christianity, let alone Jesus, this one fact still remains: Jesus Christ died to save you from your sins irrespective as to whether or not you believe in God. Again, Christ died for all, regardless, so that all might have redemption.

Now, you will recall that we stated above that human knowledge is finite. We cannot know the mind of God, apart from what He reveals to us (most notably via Scripture). What we do know (at least, those of us with exposure to Christianity) is that Jesus is required for our redmeption.

Those who have been exposed to the Christian message have two options: 1) accept it and be redemmed; 2) reject/deny it and risk condemnation.

Those who have not been exposed to the Christian message … we don’t know their options. Our knowledge is finite! We know Jesus’ work on the cross is a mandatory requirement for their redemption and we also know that God is Just. We therefore have faith that the Lord God will do what is right (Gen 18:25), in accordance with His Justness, Holiness and Mercy. No Christian can tell you if Socrates or Ghandi are in Heaven or Hell - we simply don’t know and it’s not up to us to judge the eternal destination of anyone. God is the ultimate Judge - it’s His job!

Our responsibility having heard the Christian message of repent and be saved is to act on it and receive it.

Rest assured that God will work out the details of salvation for those who haven’t heard and haven’t had the ‘opportunity’ to reject this message.

It’s God’s problem, not ours. I think He’s big enough to handle it, too.

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