Born Again (45)

John 3:17-18 (C)

Christians often hesitate to say for sure whether a non-Christian who has died has been condemned to hell. They say that this is something that rests solely in God's hands, and it is not known to us. However, if we have any respect for God at all, then we must say that the fate of each unbeliever is in fact known to us, for God has revealed it to us. When the non-Christian dies, he is thrown into an everlasting hell. There he will suffer conscious extreme torture – pain! agony! madness! – beyond anything that we have known or imagined, for an endless duration, and where each second's suffering is just as fresh as the one before.

The only reason to withhold judgment on the issue is the possibility that someone has become a Christian in the final seconds before his death. Of course, when this happens, the person has died as a Christian and not a non-Christian. But let us never hesitate to say that someone who has died as a non-Christian is now suffering extreme torment in hell. It might not make us very popular at funerals, but if those who attend do not believe, then they will likewise perish.

In light of what God and Christ have done to secure salvation, it is blasphemous to say that the Christian faith is not the only way to salvation or to escape condemnation. Remember what had to happen: God had to send his Son to die on the cross. If there was another way to secure salvation, if God had willed another standard for satisfying his own justice, then evidently even God himself did not know about it.

For someone to say that there are other ways to salvation would be to say that God was mistaken about his own nature and his own decree. And it is as if he walks up to Christ while he was on the cross and says, "What are you doing? We don't need you. You are being crucified for no reason." And a Christian who acknowledges that there might be other ways to God is doing the same thing. It is as if he walks up to Christ on the cross and says, "What are you doing? They don't need you. Nobody does. Don't you know that you are suffering for nothing?"

This is the implication of denying the exclusivity of the Christian faith. Accordingly, a church member who denies this doctrine should be repeatedly entreated, corrected, and rebuked. But if there is no repentance, and if he refuses to affirm that only Christians will enter heaven and all non-Christians are condemned to hell, and especially if he is vocal about this horrible blasphemy, then he should be excommunicated.

The person who denies the exclusivity of the Christian faith might consider himself compassionate toward other people, and he is unwilling to think of the great number of non-Christians as condemned. But under this cloak of humanistic love is his resentment against God and an utter disdain for the cross. The person who insists that only Christians are saved has nothing to answer for, but it is the one who says that there are other ways that must defend his blasphemy.

On the other hand, the more we emphasize and glory in the exclusivity of the Christian faith, that the only way to have eternal life and to escape everlasting hell is to believe in Jesus Christ, the more we honor God's love and Christ's sacrifice. We accept what he has provided with reverence and gratitude. At the same time, we dare not and wish not tell others that all will be well even if they mock God's love and spurn Christ's suffering. Few people are more wicked than those who say that even non-Christians can be saved, who blaspheme God and deceive men in the same breath.

I realize what God has saved me from and what he did to secure this salvation. So I am not about to turn against him by saying that all that he did for me was unnecessary, for indeed he has declared that faith in Christ is the only way. And whether as a church member or as a church leader, I am not going to let anyone blaspheme like this with impunity. But for such a person, the greatest punishment is yet to come, for "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).

Even if you consider yourself a Christian, if you have compromised the precious and crucial doctrine that Jesus is the only way to salvation, then you have committed a terrible sin. If you have suggested or even entertained the idea that there might be another way to God, you are a great sinner. You have called God a liar, and it is as if you have spat on Christ as he hung on the cross, and joined the reprobates as they mocked his suffering.

Your contempt for God and for Christ disgusts me, and it is hard for me to think of a word insulting enough to describe someone like you. I would be ashamed to call you a brother or sister in Christ. You are unworthy to even be in the same room with those of us who affirm that "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

And in fact, someone who blasphemes God and mocks the work of Christ like you might not be a Christian at all, but you might still be under condemnation, being prepared for everlasting hellfire. If you think that there is another way to salvation, then you should try it and see what happens when you die. But if you are unwilling to entrust your soul to a non-Christian way, then why do you suggest that other people can do it and be saved? You hypocrite!

Nevertheless, God is merciful, and even someone despicable like you can be forgiven, that is, if you will now repent and affirm the truth, that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, to salvation, to escape everlasting condemnation, and that all non-Christians will suffer in hell forever.

(to be continued)