GTADA ep5: Destiny of the Unevangelized - Part 1

Godly Talks and Devil's Advocates

Destiny of the Unevangelized (Main Source: Across The Spectrum)

Show Notes

Voices: Tim, Matt, Doug, Ben

• “Even the demons believe” (James 2:19)
• Great Divorce by CS Lewis
• Across the Spectrum by Greg Boyd & Paul Eddy
• Annialationism - is a Christian belief that at the Last Judgment those not receiving salvation are destined for total destruction, not everlasting torment.
• Restrictivism/Traditionalism/Exclusivism - refers to the fact that orthodox Christian doctrine maintains only faith in the Jesus Christ of the Bible leads to salvation or heaven.
• Universalism - is a school of Christian theology which includes the belief in the doctrine of universal reconciliation, the view that all human beings will ultimately be restored to a right relationship with God in Heaven and the New Jerusalem.
• Pluralism - As acceptance of the concept that two or more religions with mutually exclusive truth claims are equally valid.
• Universal Opportunity Before Death - Universal opportunity is the idea that anyone who has a heart to receive the gospel will indeed come to receive the gospel by the power of God.
• Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)
• Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10)
• Scripture regarding God blinding people
• 2 Cor 3:14, 4:4
• Jn 12:40
• Is 6:7-13, 29:10
• Lk 8:10
• Rom 11:8
• Deut 29:4
• Eph 4:18
• 1 Pet 3:18-21
• Hope After Death/postmortem evangelism - another chance to choose to follow Christ after death.
• Love Wins by Rob Bell
• Inclusivism - one of several approaches to understanding the relationship between religions, asserts that while one set of beliefs is absolutely true, other sets of beliefs are at least partially true. It stands in contrast to exclusivism, which asserts that only one way is true and all others are in error.
• Parable of Sheep & Goats (Matt 25:31-46)
• The Greatest Commandment (Matt 22:37-40)
• Romans 10:9-10
• Lazarus & the Rich man (Luke 16:19-31)
• Arminianism
• Calvanism
• Verses on Everlasting torment
• Lk 13:28
• Rev 20:10; 14:11
• 2 Thess 1:8
• Lk 16:24
• Jude 7
• Dan 12:2
• Matt 25:46, 30; 13:42,50; 8:12; 22:13; 24:51
• Verse on the one who can kill the soul (Matt 10:28)

Posing the Question - Why is this question so important

You have been a missionary for a couple of years. You have just started seeing fruit from your labor. One of your first converts asks to speak to you in private:

He tells you how happy and grateful he is God sent you to share the news about Jesus. But he wants to ask you a question that has been plaguing him for months. His father died a few years ago before you ever came to this village. His father was a good man, respected in his village and loved by everyone, but he died without ever hearing the gospel.

The new Christian asks you, Does my Father have any chance of being in heaven or will God send him to hell just because he was born in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Outside of the fold - Views typically considered to be outside of mainstream Christianity

We arent going spend much time on these since they are fairly easy to refute either logically or through scripture, but they are at least worth mentioning:

Annihilation - Agnostics and Atheists
Pluralism
Universalism
In the fold - Inside Mainstream Christianity
Restrictivism
More Lenient Views
God Does All He Can do (Universal Opportunity Before Death)
Hope Beyond the Grave
He has not Left Himself without a Witness (Inclusivism)
CS Lewis and Inclusivism
Emeth
The Great Divorce - Hell is a choice

We should mention this only in passing as being our main competition in modern secular culture. So of course there is no heaven or hell if there is only the material life. Many people regard themselves typically as too scientific and not superstitious enough to believe in anything other than what they can materially prove exists and therefore it is logical from that point of view to regard that there is nothing after death. A sub point here worth discussing at some other point is whether or not those who go to hell are annihilated, but that is more concerned with what happens in hell whereas this particular topic is more centered around who goes there and under what circumstances

Jesus is only 1 of many paths to God/Enlightenment. Jesus is neither ontologically nor epistemologically necessary for salvation.

Since most religions have very conflicting views on how one would be saved, pluralism seems very silly. I would be interested in meeting someone who was truly a sincere pluralists.

Most people at least in the United States who pretend to be pluralists really mean that they don’t really believe in anything. They accept all views as equally valid like a parent who accepts their child pretending to be a fireman or a basketball player as equally valid. Someone who goes about saying everything is true is basically saying nothing is true.

is the doctrine that all sinful and alienated human souls—because of divine love and mercy—will ultimately be reconciled to God.[1] In other words, everyone would go to heaven.

Christian Universalism while usually being considered heretical is the closest to the mainstream Christian views in that it relies both upon a monotheistic God and a Savior, Jesus Christ, in order to save. A couple of big problems with Universalism are 1. It conveniently ignores all scripture in regards to hell. 2. It does not adequately explain how this view could be reconciled to God’s sense of justice. Even the most liberal minded believer would have a difficult time squaring with certain human beings being automatically granted heaven. IE Hitler, those who torture, rape, abuse children, etc.

1 Source: Wikipedia

Not all of these views are necessarily in contradiction and since they are all supported by 1 form of scripture or another, you have to figure out how to reconcile them all together.

Salvation is restricted to those have heard the gospel and have made a conscious decision to accept it. What they should have known is sufficient to condemn them.

• Scriptural Argument
• Romans 1:18-22
• Acts 4:12
• 1 Timothy 2:5
• John 14:6
• John 3:18
• 1 John 5:11-12
• John 17:20-21
• No hope after death - Hebrews 9:27
• No hope for “sincere” people of other religions
• They are deceptive and under God’s judgement (Exodus 20: 3-6, Chronicles 13:8-9, Isaiah 37:18-19, Acts 26: 17-18
• Sincerely religious people in the Bible still needed Jesus - Acts 9:2, 10:30-33
• Majority of people are lost, “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few who find it (Matt 7:13-14)
• Church History: Augustine, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Carl Henry, R.C. Sproul, Ronald Nash

Objections

• This view is unfair
• Response:
• People are judged on the basis of what they should have known, not on the basis of what they did not know. They are left without excuse because the glory of God is revealed throughout Nature and is available to all.
• We can’t call God unfair. To what standard of justice can we hold God to.
• Calvinist position already holds to an election. This is not really different. Opportunity to believe is a part of that election
• The fact that it is not fair is what makes it true. Life is not fair.
• According to this view, babies and mentally disabled cannot be saved
• Response:
• If people cannot make responsible decisions, they cannot sin.
• Again we must resist making ourselves judges for God. God may elect some babies and mentally disabled while passing others by.

The next 3 views find restrictivism problematic. They all draw from similar verses to make their inferences on God’s justice but they draw from different verses and different viewpoints with their conclusions.

• God is all powerful. He uses humans when it pleases them, but does not need them to get the job done.
• The Bible teaches that God wants everyone to be saved He takes no delight in the destruction of any soul however wicked