One perennial question lingers that plagues the redeemed
believer. If it does not bother us deeply—cause us to lose sleep even—we have
every reason to suspect the validity of our own conversion. The question is
this: what happens to those tribes who do
not hear the gospel?
Let’s answer this question two ways, first logically and
then directly with Scripture.
Suppose that God saves those who have not heard the gospel
on the pretense of their being isolated from the announcement of the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus. What premises would this conclusion demand?
It would require one of two premises (possibly both) to be true; (a) that the
taint of the sin-plague did not cause this tribe’s ultimate bodily and spiritual
death or else (b) that God saves some
other way than through the announcement of the gospel. Neither of these
premises fit the data of Scripture.
In fact, if such a tribe’s salvation had been guaranteed
through their NOT having heard the gospel, the most dangerous and reckless
thing would be for a Christian to preach it to them! At that moment, their soul
would then be put in jeopardy after having heard the good news. This would make
missions a danger to unengaged tribes by bringing knowledge that, if rejected,
could condemn them.
Let’s allow the Apostle Paul to answer the question in Scripture. In fact he addresses this question head-on in Romans 10:13-17,
For “everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have
not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to
preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those
who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah
says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from
hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
In this passage, Paul marches through a logical progression which
reaches the same conclusion to the one I gave above. Paul enumerates the
following points,
- The Gospel saves all who call upon the Lord (quoting Joel 2:32).
- One calls upon the Lord by believing The Gospel (defined in Romans 10:9-10).
- We must know the gospel in order to believe it.
- The Gospel must be preached in order to be made known.
- In order to be preached, the gospel requires preachers (missionaries) to those place where it is yet unheard.
In conclusion then, Paul answers the question of the fate of
the unreached, not with fire and brimstone (although I believe he had full
Scriptural warrant to do so), but rather by pleading with the Roman Christians
to march outward with the global gospel proceeding joyfully from their lips.
(This blog post has been excerpted from Pastor Matthew's book Un-Precious: An Invitation to the Joy of Christian Missions).
(This blog post has been excerpted from Pastor Matthew's book Un-Precious: An Invitation to the Joy of Christian Missions).
Matthew Everhard is the senior pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, Fl. Follow him on Twitter @matt_everhard.
No comments:
Post a Comment