What About the Others?

I bummed a ride with my parents yesterday, and I caught about 7 minutes of Christian radio before I asked my mom to turn it off. I used to like talk radio because it made me think, but now I loathe it. Lately, I have zero patience for even a hint of the "I have all the answers" attitude, especially if they have sponsors to cater to. I hope my blog doesn't give off that stench.

Before the channel was changed, the guy was talking about people calling in with the question: what happens to people across the globe that have never heard about Jesus? Are they sent to Hell simply because no one got to them with the message yet?

Of course the talk show guy referenced Romans 1, which says:

¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For 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 men are without excuse.

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Essentially, no one will have an excuse when their number is called because God made what needed to be known "plain" to them. Maybe to get the ball rolling, the people need to first recognize the most obvious of God's characteristics, like "his eternal power and his divine nature," but if they fail that first test there is no way they'll accept Jesus.

I've always heard about that chapter when this subject comes up, but never about John 14. I'm sure I read this verse many times, but I never noticed it until a few weeks ago.

²²Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"

²³Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. (John 14:22-24)

Maybe I'm missing something, but it really seems like Judas is asking a similar question. He asks why the disciples are receiving all of this revelation (the Holy Spirit, God incarnate, etc) and not the rest of the world. Jesus doesn't respond directly to his question because it assumes something false, that God hasn't revealed himself to other people.

In reality, God is readily available to embrace ANYONE who will love him. It is simple math. If anyone loves God, they will obey what little teaching they know to obey, and God will "come to him."

It's like God is saying "If anyone will just love me, I will move heaven and earth to see that they become my adopted children."In one of my classes in college, I was taught that it is all up to us to bring the gospel to all the corners of the earth and if people perish without knowing Jesus, it's because we've abandoned that call. So it's all my fault of some guy dies in New Guinea without having heard about Jesus?

What a guilt trip. I think guilt trip preaching does two things: (1) it scares normal people away from the Church and (2) it attracts the nut jobs who are always looking for another leader to impress or cult to join. That's why there are people willing to go to a street corner and hold up a sign that says "Turn or burn." they've been taught to feel guilty if they aren't doing something (no matter how ineffective or dumb that something may be).

Who knows? Maybe they've been directed by God to stand there. I can't really judge their prayer life, but I know that every time I've thought about doing something like that it's because I felt guilty, not because I was led to do that by the Spirit.

So I don't agree with that guilt trip message, that it's all up to us. It's not up to me. If God had a plan for me to go and talk to a person from New Guinea, and I decide to ignore that call despite multiple signs given to me, God could call someone else to do it. God's redemption plan is not dependent on anyone because He is in total control of time itself. If New Guinea man will love God, there will be a way for him to know Jesus.

There is no need to pressure people to go out and witness. If they don't already want their friends and family to know Jesus, there is something amiss with their own salvation. (Have you ever heard someone giving a sales pitch when even they don't believe what they're saying?) And if that's true, you don't want them representing Christ to people who haven't heard the gospel. So the real need is for people to be encouraged and equipped to hear from God on their own. Once they are able to do that, they won't need to be prodded to do ministry. They will do it out of love for their God.