Denver Seminary

Our little dog, Sophie, is a "species-ist." She loves people and dogs (she seems to think they're the same), but she doesn't acknowledge the existence of anything else. Cats, bunnies, squirrels, and birds all sit on the path right in front of her, but they might as well be invisible. I can't even get her to react when I confront her with them! Today as I observed her on our walk, I started wondering how often we are like that when it comes to people who are different from us or who live in places we don't see. Are they as invisible to us as other animals are to Sophie? This raises one of the most challenging and controversial questions related to missions: What is the fate of those who have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel and respond to God in repentance and faith? Will they be condemned to a Christ-less eternity, as many throughout the history of the church have contended? Or may they, on the basis of an acknowledgement of their sinfulness and need for salvation, be saved without explicitly knowing about Jesus? FRAMING THE ISSUE The whole Bible is the story of mission. The one true God, the creator of the universe, is in the process of creating a people for Himself—a specific kind of people who will live in such a way that the nations of the world will be attracted to God and worship Him alone. This works well in places where the church has been established and can be observed. But where this is not yet the case, it is imperative that God's followers go wherever people exist without an opportunity to learn to worship the one true God. Just as God scattered the people of Babel so they would obey His command to fill the earth, and just as God used the persecution following Stephen's martyrdom to scatter the believers out from Jerusalem, so God wants to scatter His people to make disciples of all people groups, wherever they are found. It is imperative that God's followers go wherever people exist without an opportunity to learn to worship the one true God. With this in mind, however, we run into an apparent contradiction. Scripture seems to offer two contrasting positions concerning how and whether people will be saved. In one place, Paul says, "God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). But in another letter, Paul writes, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?" (Rom. 10:13–14). God desires all to be saved, but only those who have heard and call on His name will be saved. How can we reconcile these two statements? This dilemma has vexed people for centuries, presenting both intellectual and emotional challenges. Bible-believing Christians have come to differing conclusions. In this short article, I don't have space to deal with those positions. I am more concerned with the growing number of skeptics within the Christian community who oppose the view that the unevangelized are condemned to eternity without Christ. I've heard at least three types of objections to the idea that people will go to hell if they have not responded explicitly to the gospel. COMMON OBJECTIONS One set of objections comes out of Western culture. American Christians, particularly younger believers, are profoundly shaped by the relativism and pluralism they've been taught. Many doubt that we have the right to demand that people change their religions. "Who are we to say that a person needs to convert?" they ask. "Aren't their ways ultimately as good as ours?" Further, they detest the idea God would send people to hell simply because they had the misfortune to be born out of reach of the church or missionaries. Another set of objections is primarily relational, coming from the way the world's demographics 8 FALL 2016 MAKES YOU THINK agustavop/iStock THE IDEA THAT GOD COULD ACT IN A WAY THAT, IN OUR ESTIMATION, ISN'T LOVING OR FAIR DOESN'T SQUARE WITH WHAT WE WANT TO THINK ABOUT GOD.

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