Destiny of the Unevangelized
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Mystery
Mystery
should we beg the question to begin with?
Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to kill the righteous with the wicked, that the righteous would be as the wicked! Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do justice?”
He is the judge of all the Earth - not me.
“The hidden things belong to Yahweh our God, but the revealed things belong to us to know and to our children forever, in order to do all the words of this law.”
The glory of God conceals things,
but the glory of kings searches out things.
Restrictivism
Restrictivism
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among people by which we must be saved.”
(directed at rulers who had rejected name of Jesus)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(but do they have to know they’re getting to the Father through you?)
For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings, the man Christ Jesus,
The one who believes in him is not judged, but the one who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
can we call “not believing in God” a conscious action?
that if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in him about whom they have not heard? And how will they hear about him without one who preaches to them? And how will they preach, unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How timely are the feet of those who bring good news of good things.”
what if there is something Paul doesn’t know about?
And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this, judgment,
and asked for letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, both men and women, he could bring them tied up to Jerusalem.
“Enter through the narrow gate, because broad is the gate and spacious is the road that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it, because narrow is the gate and constricted is the road that leads to life, and there are few who find it!
very few people come to know Jesus… but God desires that all people be saved and come to knowledge of the truth!
who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
“The hidden things belong to Yahweh our God, but the revealed things belong to us to know and to our children forever, in order to do all the words of this law.”
The glory of God conceals things,
but the glory of kings searches out things.
sometimes we gotta stay in our lane and remember that not all mysteries will be revealed in this age… the hidden things do not belong to us but we can still try to search em out
is this contradicted by God’s love/character?
undoubtedly the most Biblically supported view
God has both perfect love and perfect justice
Universal Opportunity
Universal Opportunity
technically not mutually exclusive with restrictivism
qualified by someone who is diligently seeking after the Truth
For I have no pleasure in the death of the dying,” declares the Lord Yahweh. “And so repent and live!”
Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord Yahweh, ‘Surely I have no delight in the death of the wicked, except in the wicked returning from his way, and he lives. Turn back! Turn back from your ways, O evil ones, for why should you die, house of Israel?’
just because it gives God delight to save doesn’t mean that He can go against His own character/nature to do it.
The Lord is not delaying the promise, as some consider slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
what god wants does not equal = what actually happens (not because God is incapable, but because our sin gets in the way and God can’t/won’t contradict Himself)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
what if people are seeking and they live in an unengaged people group? will they still find?
Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and is a rewarder of those who seek him.
God rewards those who seek him.
What if dreams/visions/miracles are few and far between, instead of the norm? We have nothing to show that they are the norm.
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household!”
acts 10
Postmortem Evangelism
Postmortem Evangelism
For Christ also suffered once for sins,
the just for the unjust,
in order that he could bring you to God,
being put to death in the flesh,
but made alive in the spirit,
in which also he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
who were formerly disobedient, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while an ark was being constructed, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were rescued through water. And also, corresponding to this, baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, with angels and authorities and powers having been subjected to him.
Therefore, because Christ suffered in the flesh, you also equip yourselves with the same way of thinking, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for the will of God. For the time that has passed was sufficient to do what the Gentiles desire to do, having lived in licentiousness, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries, with respect to which they are surprised when you do not run with them into the same flood of dissipation, and so they revile you. They will give an account to the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Because for this reason also the gospel was preached to those who are dead, so that they were judged by human standards in the flesh, but they may live in the spirit by God’s standards.
“Truly, truly I say to you, that an hour is coming—and now is here—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and the ones who hear will live.
The one who believes in him is not judged, but the one who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the coming one!
(this is not meant literally, it’s a common jewish figure of speech)
Inclusivism
Inclusivism
ontological knowledge vs epistemological knowledge.
by grace through faith
isaiah burns the things he made an idol out of
people can respond by faith in what they know
we don’t lose the urgency of sharing the gospel because Jesus said to do it
And yet he did not leave himself without witness by doing good, giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying you with food and your hearts with gladness.”
people are judged based on how they respond in their innermost heart to this witness
who show the work of the law written on their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts one after another accusing or even defending them on the day when God judges the secret things of people, according to my gospel, through Christ Jesus.
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands.
Every day they pour forth speech,
and every night they tell knowledge.
There is no speech and there are no words;
their sound is inaudible.
Yet in all the world their line goes out,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has pitched a tent for the sun,
But I say, they have not heard, have they? On the contrary,
“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the inhabited world.”
who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
The Lord is not delaying the promise, as some consider slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, although they do not have the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written on their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts one after another accusing or even defending them on the day when God judges the secret things of people, according to my gospel, through Christ Jesus.
luke 12 parable you will be responsible for what you know
So Peter opened his mouth and said, “In truth I understand that God is not one who shows partiality, but in every nation the one who fears him and who does what is right is acceptable to him.
Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and is a rewarder of those who seek him.
And he made from one man every nation of humanity to live on all the face of the earth, determining their fixed times and the fixed boundaries of their habitation, to search for God, if perhaps indeed they might feel around for him and find him. And indeed he is not far away from each one of us,
For to this end we labor and suffer reproach, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of believers.
if we bring the Gospel to people they have a better chance of salvation
explicitly repenting and confessing Jesus as Lord is the only way to receive assurance of salvation… though we hope that godly nonChristians are saved, we aren’t banking on it - and we evangelize for so many other reasons
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Universalism
Universalism
Consequently therefore, as through one trespass came condemnation to all people, so also through one righteous deed came justification of life to all people.
and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
For in this way God loved the world, so that he gave his one and only Son, in order that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.
Therefore also God exalted him
and graciously granted him the name above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow,
of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth,
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own group: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming, then the end, when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For it is necessary for him to reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death. For “he subjected all things under his feet.” But when it says “all things” are subjected, it is clear that the one who subjected all things to him is not included. But whenever all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, in order that God may be all in all.