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'People were often forcibly baptized in their thousands to 'protect them' from (so-called) "certain hell fire" - Roman Catholics believed that the unbaptized (including little children!) were bound for hell unless they could be reached in time! Indeed, Roman Catholic missions often accepted that it is better to torture people to the point of death in order to get them to "Accept Christ."'
Jesus spoke about those who do not know God as
'dead' (spiritually) (Matthew 8:22) and the Bible speaks of such
people who have no relationship with the true God as effectively
'lost' (Luke 15:24, 2 Corinthians 4:3).
Jesus gave the instructions that Christians are to 'Go into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature' (see Matthew
28:19-20, Mark 16:15-16 and Luke 24:47); so when we are called,
and respond in faith to that call, we are immediately given a
task to perform. We are to perform that task for the rest of our
natural lives, we effectively become 'Ambassadors for
Christ' (2 Corinthians 5:20), in other words, thereafter we
are to uphold the principles and teachings of our (heavenly)
government whilst maintaining a certain separation from the
principles/motivations of earthly governments. We hold to
this whatever paths our lives may take us on.
Of course, it is not quite correct to say that we must all become
evangelists (except in the more loose sense) since many
Scriptures reveal that we are all granted different gifts and
different 'talents' (Matthew 25:14-30, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11) -
so while a few may indeed be able to travel the world as
evangelists, the great majority must evaluate the gifts which the
Lord has graciously granted them, as well as the station, or
'outpost', in life to which they have been sent. Some elderly
widows may feel that they can do very little but Paul shows us
clearly that all have vital roles to play no matter which part
of Christ's Body they have been assigned! (1 Corinthians
12:12-27).
It is inevitable of course that in our great zeal to perform what
Christ has requested of us, we occasionally - in our evangelistic
claims - make well-meaning comments and statements which go
beyond clear Scripture. This means that people like Jonathan
Edwards, as well as some of the great missionaries, 'majored'
rather strongly on the claim that all will go straight to
hellfire at death.... unless we can get the gospel to them in
time!!
This led to the school of 'race against the clock evangelism' -
both Catholic and Protestant missionaries often adopted this
approach. In the case of the Jesuits, of course, this was
combined with the unscriptural doctrine of Baptismal
Regeneration - the teaching was that baptism - in itself -
can save! Therefore people were often forcibly baptized in their
thousands to 'protect them' from (so-called) "certain hell
fire" - Roman Catholics believed that the unbaptized
(including little children!) were bound for hell unless they
could be reached in time! Indeed Roman Catholic missions often
accepted that it is better to torture people to the point of
death in order to get them to 'receive Christ'! And if the
torture went too far and such people occasionally died, well, at
least the 'inquisitor' had done all he could!!
The fact that this often made the missioner more hideously cruel
than the worst of the pagans, and that such inflicting of torture
cannot possibly have any place within the Law of Christ,
apparently did not greatly trouble some such misguided
zealots!
In the 11th-12th centuries orders went out from the pope that the
Protestants of the French alps were to be forcibly "converted" to
Catholicism under pain of torture. Many of these so-called
"heretics" who refused to recognise the authority of the bishop
of Rome preferred to die and thousands of them did. Yet these
"heretics" fulfilled the Law of Christ in their behaviour and
fulfilled the Great Commission in their deeds. But the
so-called "Church" had become as cruel as any heathen
oppressor! And yet it is entirely possible that many thought that
such barbarity and cruelty could be justified in order to
'protect' from the assumed certainty of hell!
And yet to look again at the 'Great Commission' Scriptures of
Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15-16 and Luke 24:47, we must note that
NONE of these Scriptures say anything like,
'Wherever you fail to get the message of the gospel to people,
those people are bound for the fires of hell!'
So what reason do these Scriptures state for taking the message
of Christ to all the world? Let us take a close look at
this!
If we look at Matthew 28 first, it is essential to start the
reading in verse 18, since this gives the reason that the
gospel can now be taken to the world (NIV throughout):
'Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven
and on earth has been given to me. THEREFORE go and make
disciples of all nations..."'
(Matthew 28:18-19b, my emphasis).
What does 'therefore' mean? It means, 'for that or this reason;
consequently' (Cambridge English Dictionary).
By the way, just in case anybody has noticed that this is an NIV
quote and feels that this may be part of a hideous anti-KJV plot,
please allow me to hasten to add that the KJV also uses the word
'therefore' in verse 19.
So here is the reason that the disciples could then go right out
and preach the gospel. It is all about the authority
granted to Jesus. Please just note that Jesus does not add,
'And you had better get on with this as soon as possible to
prevent everybody from going to hell!'
So what is this 'authority'? We need to turn to Daniel 7:
'"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one
like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He
approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He
was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples,
nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is
an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom
is one that will never be destroyed"'
(Daniel 7:13-14)
We can corroborate that this refers to the setting up of Christ's
kingdom and the power of the gospel by looking at other
Scriptures:
'All things have been committed to me by my
Father....'
(Luke 10:22a)
'The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his
hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever
rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on
him'
(John 3:35-36)
Satan is bound by the cross of Christ. There the serpent's head
was crushed and the forces of evil routed. So certain was Christ
of victory as He went to His cross that He could say
emphatically,
'Now is the judgement of this world; now shall the prince of this
world be cast out' (John 12: 31).
So the coming of Christ and the limitation thereafter imposed on
the demonic realm (carefully note Luke 9:1-2 & Luke 10:17-20,
for instance), indicate that the age of Christ and His gospel had
arrived as foretold by all the prophets of the Old
Testament!
The age of the New Covenant was about to be ushered in and the
Old Covenant would soon be 'nailed to the cross of Calvary'! Here
at last - in the authority granted to Jesus Christ - the Church
Age was about to begin; nothing odd, nothing unusual, all the
prophets had looked forward to this. This certainly was not just
some temporal thing because the Jews had rejected Jesus and
surprised God! (as J.N. Darby, the 'father of dispensationalism'
so erroneously taught).
But John 3:36 also makes clear that those who reject the claims
of Jesus are in real danger of hell. However, the position of
those who never hear the gospel is not even
discussed.
Its time to look at the second of these Great Commission
Scriptures, Mark 16:15-16. Of course, we should initially point
out that there are claims that Mark 16:9-20 is not inspired
Scripture since these verses do not appear in some ancient
manuscripts. Yet, it remains the fact that these verses appear in
almost all of our Bibles and the arguments against the inclusion
of these verses are not strong or compelling enough to suggest
that we should completely discount them:
'He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good
news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be
saved, but whoever does not believe will be
condemned."'
(Mark 16:15-16)
Again, it is the rejection of Jesus Christ which is stated
to be spiritually perilous, no comment is made about those who
are never reached with this message! Some missionaries have died
in guilt because they felt that they might have got the gospel a
bit further than they did, and their failure means eternal death
for many souls that they might have reached with just one more
'evangelistic thrust' - but this paints a picture of a God who is
incapable of doing anything without human help and it is
unbiblical.
The truth is, God does not even need human help. God is
completely sovereign and has all power, that is, He is
omnipotent. The Scripture says that - should it be His will - He
could even raise up children from stones, or cause stones to sing
out in praise! Is this really a picture of a God who is fretting
in heaven, worried because His missionaries have never been able
to accomplish quite as much as He had hoped? Has God truly put
Himself in the position where, if people don't get the gospel
out, He has no other ideas of how He might do it?
Ludicrous!! That would be a picture of a half-hearted God
who is none too concerned about saving people, while the
Scriptures clearly portray a God who never ceases to reach out to
the lost!
Let us be aware of all the countries which excluded missionaries
(such as China), and how the gospel spread like wildfire in their
absence!! God is in complete control: He knows who will
eventually hear the gospel and who will not, in fact, He has
ordained it! None need feel guilty about the 'unreached' and we
can leave such people to God's mercy and wisdom.
And yet, nothing in Mark 16 says that the position of the
unevangelised is hopeless. The only comment is the danger of
rejecting Christ where one has clearly heard!
Luke 24:47 does not even make any comments about either rejection
of the gospel or about those who never hear, and neither does
Acts 1:8 where the Great Commission is also mentioned.
We cannot escape the fact that the Scriptures teach personal
responsibility for one's knowledge. Those who know and
don't act are held accountable, but those who stand in ignorance
of the facts are far less accountable. This principle is upheld
throughout the Bible (See Matthew 11:20-24, Luke 9:62 & Luke
12:47-48, for instance).
The Scriptures also reveal that God is quite capable of
evaluating one's response to Jesus Christ even if such a
person has never heard of Him! Before one quickly scoffs and
repudiates this, let me say that none can deny it since the saved
of the Old Testament are saved by the blood of the Christ who had
not yet even come into the world! Romans 2 tells us more:
'All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from
the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's
sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared
righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by
nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves,
even though they do not have the law, since they show that the
requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their
consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now
accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the
day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my
gospel declares'
(Romans 2:12-16)
This shows that it is possible for the 'requirements' of the law
, and it is the spiritual law which is plainly being
discussed, to be 'written' on the hearts of 'Gentiles' (or, those
not aware of the gospel), and states that this will be revealed
on the Day of Judgment!
This plainly shows that - rather than those who never hear the
gospel being already condemned to hell (as many so worryingly
believe), it could be that many of these people will finally be
saved.
But the objection could be raised that certain Scriptures (as we
have already noted) appear to talk of unbelievers as
(spiritually) dead, or 'without hope' (Ephesians 2:12, for
instance) - is this speaking of those who are headed for hell?
Absolutely not - it is commenting on the present condition
of those who do not walk with God - the disciples were instructed
to evangelize these people. Regarding being 'without hope,' we must recall that we ourselves are described as being 'without hope' in the world until we came to
Christ and found regeneration in Him. (Ephesians 2:1-22). Therefore, the comment concerns those not walking with God at the present time; if true believers were 'without hope' until they came to Christ, the comment plainly does not refer to the so-called 'reprobates' who are doomed to hell.
Without doubt, over the centuries
countless thousands of those 'without hope' have been evangelized. Yet it
remains the case that probably the majority who have ever lived
never heard the name of Christ. Yet nowhere does Jesus warn that
such people are headed for hell. But He does warn about
the consequences of the specific rejection of the gospel claim of
Jesus' Messiahship.
The New Testament makes it clear that it is better to have a knowledge of Christ during the present era of the Church, and best of all to be truly converted, but serious spiritual warning is reserved for those who learn well of Christ but decide to reject Him. Truly
we have to say that we do not know how things will finally turn
out even for many people that we love. They have not yet accepted
Christ, yet they might accept Him later in their lives, or even
on their deathbeds. God does not show us these things, but
neither is there any Scripture which states that the great mass
of humanity are simply 'fashioned for hell' - Yet God's
election will stand; if you and I are Christians now, God has
ordained it so. In the same manner, He ordained that others would
be included in the efficacy and scope of Christ's sacrificial
blood even though they may never have heard His name (the Old
Testament Patriarchs, for instance). This can reassure us that
God is well able to include other people within the numbers
finally saved - should it be His will (Romans 2:12-16).
In conclusion, Jesus did not reveal to the
first apostles that they were involved in some kind of desparate
race to get the name of Christ to as many people as possible
before their death, otherwise those people are bound for hell.
Without any question, this goes beyond what Jesus said. No such
'race' can possibly exist since God is completely in charge of
everything which happens in this world. We should certainly warn
all about the very real possibility of hell - and any listening
to our words will presumably already have come into contact with
the gospel, wherein lies responsibility!
'It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God'
(Hebrews 10:31)
So why should we evangelize the 'lost'? Because our Master, the
Lord Jesus Christ has instructed us to do so. This is the age of
the Church and Christ's kingdom has reduced the scope of the
demonic powers; Satan is unable to prevent people from being
added to Christ's Body, so we should be 'about our Father's
business'.
But the Church will not be able to evangelize the entire world
and we can rest assured that God is aware of this.
But to come to a philosophical conclusion that the message
of Christ will not reach the majority because God does not will
it to happen because He has fashioned the huge majority simply
for hell is simply Hyper-Calvinism - if not plain
fatalism and cannot be backed up by Scripture.
Robin A. Brace.
2003
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