I did get a few good questions from my last post. Thanks to those who submitted them. One is in the title above. If Jesus is the only solution for sin and consequently the only way of salvation, then why hasn’t everybody throughout history heard of Jesus?
Bringing a person to the place where they can be connected to Jesus normally requires our (the Church’s) spreading the Word. Without a doubt, Christians spreading the story and the promise of Jesus has impacted millions if not billions of people, but there have been more people than that. Some have heard the message and rejected it for whatever reason. That is on them. There are still many more people. What can be said about their situation?
First, just because we have a mission, does not mean we are faithful at it. Could someone be damned because of my failure to speak about Jesus. I think we have to feel some of that burden. In the end, the Holy Spirit has to get through to a person to make the connection. Even my sharing the Gospel is not guaranteed to work. There is a mystery that we refer to as the “Theologians’ Cross”. This refers to the fact that we do not know why some can come to faith and others won’t or can’t. Whatever the problem is, I believe it comes into play as a partial answer to our question above.
God wants everybody to be saved. Jesus’ death is sufficient for everybody to be saved. But that doesn’t equal everybody will be saved. In fact, the truth is far from it. God, being omniscient, knows who can be reached and who cannot. I expect that there is some amount of “triage” where the resources of the Church are not wasted on those who won’t come to faith anyway. I think that is only part of the answer.
Clearly there are others who could. God tasks the Church with the mission but will not be limited to that route. Many Muslims, Hindus and perhaps others have had direct dreams from Jesus. These dreams lead them to seek out Christians, but Jesus himself makes the initial contact. Add Jesus direct to close the gap.
Another thing to consider is the vast volume of humans alive right now. The population has exploded so much that some believe that there are more people alive than have ever died. With mass media and more witnesses, a greater volume will be reached.
There is still a sizable gap, especially among the dead. I don’t think we are privy to all of God’s working, but there is an intriguing clue connected to Jesus’ “descent into Hell” in 1 Peter 3:18 to 4:6. Read more about this in my series on the afterdeathsite.com starting here: https://afterdeathsite.com/2017/03/14/christs-descent-into-hell-part-1/
In this story, we are told that Jesus went to “spirits” in prison. Who are they? They are people who disobeyed in the days of Noah. All of the population of the Earth at the time, except for Noah and his family perish and are stuck in Sheol because of their sins. Jesus preaches to them. About what? I don’t think it is to rub it in their face. In fact, 1 Peter 4:6 tells us (my translation)
For this reason, the dead were evangelized, in order that they might be judged according to the human flesh, but might live according to God in the spirit.
1 Peter 4:6
The idea that Jesus might evangelize postmortem is strongly resisted because some feel Romans 10 leaves all evangelism to the Church to do. Others feel Hebrews 9:27 says that eternal, irreversible judgment happens at the moment of our death. I would disagree with both.
Granted 1 Peter 3-4 is a very brief and inconclusive peek, but it could close the gap for us.
We are left with this tension that we dare not abuse. God wants us to tell everybody about Jesus. God also will not lose any of the elect (those who will believe) because of our failure to do so. I hope that helps.
Giving Christ 