How important is it for people to know and respond to the Gospel?
Jan 22
One person explained it to me like this:
1. Christians don’t need to hear it explained or expounded upon on Sunday morning. Most people who show up to church on any given Sunday already know it.
2. And when it comes to non-Christians, other faiths have revelations about God too; Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on truth.
3. It is narrow-minded, judgmental, and arrogant to think that people must become a Christian to be saved. Jesus is surely more gracious than that.
4. People in other religions (Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) may be following Christ through their religion without knowing it is Him they are following. If so, they don’t need to become Christians.
5. Rather than teaching young people that Jesus is the only way to the Father, you should allow them to determine these types of things on their own. It is not our place to say who is or isn’t going to heaven.
6. In light of this, I would not be overly concerned with telling people that Jesus is the only way.
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I have also been told:
1. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
2. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
3. There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.
4. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
5. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
6. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?
7. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
8. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
9. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
(Read the comments to hear my response to both sides of the argument.)
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Here is my own response: God told Adam and Eve that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would surely die. Yet God had an ace up his sleeve that He didn’t reveal to them. I find no fault in holding hope that God has another ace up his sleeve for those who do not take advantage of the ace. But why risk the fate of someone else’s soul on such a weak hope, since God has never himself stated that such another ace exists?
We must only look at what God stated (even if he’s got another ace up the sleeve): God has indeed punished the wicked before, and he warns us that this was done as an example for us (2 Peter 2:4-6) and we must take God at his word. It is a dangerous thing to not take God seriously. That was Adam and Eve’s mistake, and we shouldn’t make it again. It’s what’s got us into this mess.
Well, you know I am with you 100%. Of course it would be wonderful to think that everyone gets into heaven, regardless of whether or not someone decided to follow Christ in his or her lifetime. But like you said, we need to work with what we’re given (the Bible) and that’s not what I’m reading in it. Do I want to believe something that makes it a little easier to be a Christian, a little easier to sleep at night, since I don’t feel like I need to go out and tell people about Jesus (which, let’s admit, can be scary), or do I want to believe in the truth?
From my take there is no other ace, and the only hope for another “ace” is actually just whether there is a post-death, pre-judgment opportunity to correct course (this would still have to be salvation through Christ). As you stated, though, why take this slim chance?
Since you mention original sin, I have a question for you. Was it inevitable that Adam and Eve would sin and be banished from Eden? This is not a predestination/predetermination question so much as a question about whether God had a plan for our perfection that did not involve our sin.
The reason I ask about original sin is that sin came in the form of knowledge. Heaven is presented as a place where we will know fully (1 Cor 13), so Heaven doesn’t seem like a new Eden (since some knowledge was missing) so much as a place where we can exist when we become more like God. If this is true and Satan knew this, it would make sense that part of his temptation of Eve would be that she and Adam would be like God.
Hey Drew, I’ve always read “we will know fully” to imply that we will know God/Christ/true life fully–not so much that we would know evil (and good). I wonder that if in heaven, the curse in its entirety (including the knowledge of evil) will be reversed. Otherwise, I am amazed that we will not sin in heaven. Yet still, I believe we will experience perfection of full knowledge of everything God intended for us to know–I don’t think He ever intended for us to know evil, so my hope is that in heaven that will no longer be there as a stumbling block for us. I’ve heard others say that perhaps we will still know about evil, but our knowledge of God will be so overwhelming since we are in full communion with God, that our knowledge of sin will no longer tempt us.
I guess that would mean that I do agree that perhaps God had a plan for our perfection that didn’t involve sin. I wonder how awesome it would have been to follow that plan. I guess we now have to learn “the hard way.” I hope in heaven that we can start learning the best way.
My general belief about Heaven is kind of like you alluded to. There is a lack of temptation, but only because we have at that point given all of ourselves to Him, so a knowledge of sin does not equate to a temptation to sin (as it does for us in our current state).
Regarding what knowing fully means, I guess I always took it for granted that fully knowing God automatically resulted in us fully knowing sin (as it would simply be the polar opposite of God). I may be oversimplifying, though.
Regarding the alternate plan not involving sin, it would be awesome to not have a sin nature to have to be delivered from to follow God’s plan. No doubt.