What is the Purpose of This Conversation?

Acts 4:12 - Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Mk.16:15-16 - …Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned.
Rom.10:17 - So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Rom.10:14 - How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?

One of the most prominent conversations that takes place within the emergent movement as well as many of the seeker/purpose circles is the question about can a person be saved without the gospel? To simplify the question it surrounds this general scenario: If a person in another country never is reached with the saving message of Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross, can that person be ultimately saved if he acts upon the religious light he has? If he believes in a God, a Creator, and lives his life accordingly, does he have a chance to be saved?

As a preface let me observe that this is the first generation of orthodox evangelicals that have given place to this notion and that this is an extremely serious and eternal question that has implications for hundreds of millions of souls. And let me add that if we believe that is necessary for a person to embrace the gospel to be saved, but if a person dies without ever hearing the gospel he never could have been saved anyway, then the premise is the same. What is that premise?

That a person’s opportunity for salvation doesn’t necessarily depend upon his being reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And ultimately what both schools of thought promote, whether subliminally or overtly, is that it really doesn’t matter if people are reached. To say that it is better if they are reached even though their eternal destination may not fully depend upon it is hollow no matter how you dress it up with “we go to glorify God” verbiage. Without realizing we have been given the ministry of reconciliation and that people need to hear before they can believe, the intensity and burden we should have for the harvest is severely compromised regardless of our protestations to the contrary.

Here is my question concerning this question: What is the purpose of asking or contemplating this thought? If indeed the Great Commission is to preach the gospel to every creature throughout the world, then what purpose do these questions serve? Is it just speculation? Is it to soothe our conscience? Is it to protect God with a conjured up sense of fairness? Is it to smooth the roughness of exclusivity from the gospel? And if it turns out in eternity that no one could be saved without hearing the gospel, then how do you think God Himself feels about people who even surmise that some could be saved without hearing? And if it turns out in eternity that everyone could have been saved, then how does God feel about us writing off hundreds of millions to unelected status? Beliefs affect behavior, and the protestations of some not withstanding, the belief that men can be saved without the gospel affects the way and the fervency with which we attempt to spread the gospel. The same for the belief that those who die had no chance anyway. Even if we refuse to acknowledge it, what we believe has a direct correlation to our behavior.

Now one must invent some tortured and modern understanding of the clear teaching of the Scriptures to say that someone could be born again without believing on the Lord Jesus Christ according to knowledge. And if those who will not be reached were never chosen to receive salvation anyway, well that gives us insightful evidence into the choosing process of God. We then know God chose geographically. Not many Iranians will be reached, not because of radical Islam but because of God. Not many North Koreans will be reached, not because of Kim Jon Il but because of God. Not many from India will be reached, not because of the government but because of God. And ultimately all who will not be reached will not reflect the hedonism and lethargy of the western church, but because God did not will it. I suggest both thought processes misrepresent the length and breadth and depth of God’s desperate love and the fullness and uniqueness of His offer of eternal deliverance through His Son’s completed sacrifice. And the absolute clear teaching of the New Testament is that every person throughout the world needs to hear the only saving message of Jesus and His cross. And it is astonishing that this information obsessed generation refuses to recognize the eternal importance of spreading the most important information of all!

And so I ask again, what is the purpose of such theological surmisings? Why is there so little dialoguing about the prospect that no one can be saved without hearing the gospel, and that the offer of salvation is for everyone which is the expanse of God’s love for the world, and that we must be in loving crisis mode to spread the everlasting gospel ignoring the sacrifice. As I asked myself why people would be asking these questions on a consistent basis it occurred to me that they only served to diminish the sacrificial fervency that the early apostles showed in spreading the gospel. And we have settled into a comfortable theological niche that salves the conscience and ultimately dilutes the missionary effort regardless of how much we do now. No matter what you believe, the command is the same, but what you and I believe about the consequences of that command will affect how we obey.

150,000 people will die today, most of them to enter a Christless eternity. Now if those who never heard the good news might still be saved, well, save your tears. If those who never heard the good news could not have been saved anyway, well, save your tears. But even if you embrace either of those positions, and you are open enough to admit that just maybe you may be mistaken, then let us together fall on our knees and ask the Heavenly Father to revive us with a renewed sense of the Day of Pentecost which not only seals us, but empowers us to preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. How could it ever be wrong to passionately tell the entire world about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and leave the eternal results to the Father Himself? But how could it ever be right to prejudge the eternal results of lost souls via theological badminton, and all the while claim we are sacrificially and vigorously trying to reach everyone. We are only deceiving ourselves. Let us reach everyone throughout the world as if their eternity depended on it and as if they could not be saved without it. One day we will know even as we are known, but until that glorious day let us preach with an urgency that communicates to the world that this gospel is not just to help people here and now, but their very souls are at stake.

May our obedience to the Great Commission be such that the Lamb that was slain will receive the reward of His suffering!