2Cor 11:3 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from ‘The Simplicity That Is in Christ’”

Ephesians 5:25-29 NKJV

25 . . . just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. . . . 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.

In the previous article (Supplement #1) we tried to remind pointedly why Jesus came to the world. The simple answer is to save sinners, who were alienated from God, and faced the reality of eternal damnation and destruction.

One of the oft discussed questions about the Oneness of Jesus as the “way, truth and life” to the Father is what will happen to all the millions of people who have never heard the name of Christ and know nothing about the Gospel? Let us consider:

"What Is Your Faith" is a long time Sunday morning television program in the Memphis, Tennessee area, a discussion among "prominent church leaders." The moderator is Roy Williams, minister of the United Methodist Church. He begins the program with this statement, "We enjoy sharing with you in whatever may be your interest. Some of you have problems and we would like to help you solve them. And we know that some of you have questions about your church relationship, and other relationships in life. So just write to us and we'll try our very best to be helpful to you." The following article is a transcript of one program presented years ago when we lived in Memphis. We thought it to be of particular interest since it concerned “who will be lost," and of course, who then will be saved. You are urged to read carefully as you consider this important question.

Panel: Rabbi James Wax, Jewish; James Netters, Baptist; Francis McRedmond, Catholic Church; James Hamill, Assembly of God; Nicholas Veiron, Greek Orthodox and John Simpson, preacher of East Frayser Church of Christ.

Roy Williams reading the first question. “What will happen to all the millions of people who have never heard the name of Christ and know nothing about the gospel?”

James Hamill: We've had it many, many times in the 11 years on this panel. It is a question that has given me problems for 45 years. I'm not sure that I have the answer but I know this; I know that God is merciful and gracious and good and that he will take care of those who do not have an opportunity to hear the gospel. On the other side of the coin, I know that it is the responsibility of we who believe in Jesus Christ, to tell the whole world that he did come into the world, that he did die on a cross, and was resurrected, that whosoever believeth in him would have life everlasting. I have a difficult time reconciling the truth that I confess to you - but I believe that every believer in Jesus Christ should work with all his might, and with all of his faith, and with all of his energy, to bring the gospel to every person and all the world. And when we do that then we will hare fulfilled our responsibility, and I think we will have to leave the results in the hands of a merciful God.

Williams: Rabbi, I believe that we ought to come to you next on this, because of course your religion does not accept Jesus Christ as Saviour. And so I'd like to hear from you on that.

Rabbi Wax: In Judaism we do not believe that we have a monopoly on religious truth. This is expressed in the twenty-fourth Psalm. In this Psalm the question is asked, "Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord and stand in his holy place?" The answer is: "He that comes with clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not taken my name in vain, etc . . ." You find this in the Talmudic writings later in which it is said, "The righteous of all people shall share in eternal life." And then you find the statement in the monities (transcription unclear, HT) of the tenth or eleventh century about the followers of Jesus, the followers of Mohammed were all children of God. And so we have no claim to have a monopoly on religious truth. You know in religion we deal a great deal in interpretation. After all, why do you have so many Christian groups - denominations, if it were not a matter of interpretation, when you get right down to it. We have to be humble about it and believe what we believe with all our heart and soul, but always with the understanding the inference that perhaps the other fellow's religion also has merit and validity.

John Simpson: It is a fact that two-fifths of the world's population is non-religious. They profess nothing religiously and it does pose a great challenge. It is a fact also the New Testament teaches that Jesus commissioned his apostles to go and teach all nations; go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The New Testament also says that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. I find no alternative but to go and preach the gospel to them, and I believe they will be saved through Jesus Christ. The only promise that I read in the New Testament is to those who accept Jesus Christ, and his will, and are obedient to him. Now what God will do with those who have never heard the gospel, we'll have to leave in the hands of God Almighty. But what God will do to me, in being responsible for them hearing the gospel, is another thing and is an awesome and fearful thing, and I must be about my Father's business. At least be more than just concerned. Be actively concerned.

Francis McRedmond: Of course God made all of us; we are all children of God, and just in his mysterious design some of us have heard about Christ and some of us haven't. But God loves others just as much as he does us. It is all a part of God's creation, and the New Testament says it's God's will that all men be saved. God has ways of doing it above and beyond any church, and God's will, he can save all men. And he could have made us all perfect in the beginning, but he decided to do it as he did. We are not to question the manner in which he did it. He loves each one, the pagans, they are made by God just as much as you are, just as much as the pope, or minister, or rabbi, or what have you. God loves not only all the human beings, he loves his whole creation, and he cares for his whole creation, and so that question doesn't worry me at all but at the same time, of course, we must do what is within our power to bring God's message to all mankind. In regard to the justice of God, in human affairs we don't judge somebody who didn't have knowledge of what they are doing, etc., so God's justice will be even more merciful than that. So that question doesn't worry me at all. God made the world, made everything in the world, he made all the beings of the world, he made all the human beings, and he loved us dearly, and each one would do according to his likes, will be judged accordingly. Those who haven't had the opportunity will be judged according to their knowledge and those who have had great opportunities like some of your people you will be judged a little more severely.

Nicholas Veiron: Besides the Great Commission that we should be concerned about -- preaching to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -- our concern should be about those who have heard the name of Jesus and about their further and fulfilling commitment to the Lord. We have a lot of work that has been left undone, and unfulfilled, in our very own backyard, if I may use that expression. This is not to imply that we should not carry the message of our Lord to areas beyond our domain, but to also be concerned about those who have heard the name of Jesus, have been so blessed, have been so made happy, because that is what a person committed to God is. He is blessed and happy at the same time and that is a beautiful feeling. We should be concerned about those close and those far away.

James Netters: The letter to the Hebrews gives a history of those who were taken away before Christ. They died in the faith that there would be a Savior. They were saved, according to the epistle Hebrews, by their faith. God being a just God will provide a way of giving salvation or saving those persons who have not heard the word yet. Yet we are responsible for carrying that word as far as we can and although we have not reached the ultimate parts of the world - we have not carried out that commission; we have been filled with the Holy Ghost and we should be witnesses into Jerusalem, Samaria, and Judea, and the uttermost parts of the earth, we have not reached all of the earth. My faith in God, I feel, he will provide a way of saving them through their faith. A man is saved by his own faith, his own belief, "so as a man thinketh in his heart so is he," said the Lord, and I believe he will provide a way.

James Hamill: I would not feel comfortable if we said on this panel that everybody is a child of God. Every person is a child of God by creation but not by regeneration, and we hear a great number of people these days who say that so and so is a child of God regardless of what his faith is, or is not, and I think that is misleading the people to leave the impression that everybody is going to go to heaven because he is created by Almighty God -- that is universalism and I don't believe that. I believe that those who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved. The New Testament teaches that. There is a difference -- I will have to make a difference -- in those that have never heard the message of Christ. I'm saying I don't know what will happen to those people and I have every confidence in the mercy and the goodness of God.

James Netters: I don't think that was the inference that everybody is a child of God. I think that every soul - God made the soul, and according to Genesis, when a man dies, the body goes back to the dust and the soul goes back to God which gave it and he will dispose of that soul according to his own disposition. I think every soul God made, and it's his, and he is concerned about it. Now what the ultimate disposition of it is that belongs to God. I understood that statement to mean that all souls are made by God, and loved by God, and belong to him, not that they are children of God by conversion.

James Hamill: But using it in this context is in fact saying that since God created men, and God is obligated therefore to save men. (And He does) if they believe in Jesus Christ whom he sent into the world to redeem.

James Wax: I have read and studied the New Testament at the feet of Christian scholars, and can't say that I have not heard what Jesus had to say, and the others who are prominent in the creation of Christianity, but I don't feel that I am going to hell. I really don't. You can't talk about a God of love and say Jimmy Wax has to go to hell because he didn't believe a certain way.

Roy Williams reads another letter at this point. "On the March 19th program the statement was made by one panel member that history is recorded in the Bible as unreliable, and that the gospel contain contradictions. Another member stated that the Jews do not have to accept the New Testament (i.e., new covenant [ht]). In the light of these statements there is nothing reliable upon which to base our faith, thus, why your program? Why have, "What Is Your Faith?" It might be well for all to read Romans 10:17." Now who wants to answer this letter.

Nicholas Veiron: There is room on this panel for this gentleman to come and join us and express "What Is Your Faith" in the manner in which he sees it. For this is the purpose of the channel to share. We are seemingly divided into various churches and synagogues. I would like to feel that we all belong to one faith in God, and in light of being perhaps a little criticized by my Christian brethren, that whether we worship in the shadow of the cross, which I do, and the cross means a great deal to me, and the resurrection. But whether we worship there or under the star of David, or by another symbol, or by no symbol at all, we stand in the brotherhood of man, and the Fatherhood of one God. But as divided as we are, taking humble pride in our religious affiliation, but nevertheless uniting in a humanity of believers in one God, and there is room even for a person that would say I believe in no God to discuss his faith.

John Simpson: We ought to wrestle with this while we are wrestling with the others. Paul said in Acts 17: “For we are all the offspring of God." We are all his offspring. Being then the offspring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, silver, stone, graven arts, etc., devices of men. This time of ignorance God winked at, or overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent. That’s all men everywhere to repent. For he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through that man whom he has ordained, Jesus Christ. He has given us assurance of that in that he has raised him from the dead. Now, in Romans 2, verse 2, we are told that we are going to be judged according to our works, and verse 11, we will be judged without respect of persons, in verse 16 that we will be judged even for the secret things and according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't argue with that. I believe that is right. The Bible says it, that settles it; I believe it. I believe there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. I believe the New Testament.

John Simpson: But I believe there's room for the teaching of the New Testament too.

Nicholas Veiron: John, isn't it true, as Rabbi Wax stated, that the reason why you belong to one church and Jim Hamill to another, and Father McRedmond to another, and Jim Netters and I to another, is because we differ not in the 27 books, we all believe in the listing thereof. But we do vary a little (quite a bit) on the interpretation thereof?

James Hamill: We need to keep in mind that all of us respect the opinions of others. I for one feel that any person ought to have a right to express his opinion. That doesn't mean that we all believe the same. It doesn't mean that we change God's word one iota by what we believe. The word is there, we can believe the word or we cannot believe the word. What we believe does not change God's plan. We don't want to think in terms of everybody having a right to express his opinion on this panel -- which is correct -- but that doesn’t make everybody right who expresses his opinion.

James Netters: Back to the original question. The Scripture that says there is no other name under heaven by which man may be saved; does that eliminate those who have not heard the gospel?

John Simpson: Yes sir, I believe it does. I believe it is our responsibility to take it; if not, why take it to them?

Father McRedmond: God could have revealed more to us about these things, but he didn't. We have to work with what we have. We've had so much of revelation and that's all we can do with it. It would be wonderful if God had made a complete revelation and each one of us to interpret the same way but he didn't. Each one of us look at revelation and different ones have different interpretations of it. We just have to do the best we can with what we have. God could have revealed more completely, but he didn't so we have to work with what we have, and maybe we are doing a good job with what we have, and maybe we are not, but we have to come back to the all-loving God. God who is all perfect created all these people, so-called pagans. Pagan means somebody who lives in the country - where it comes from -- whether he believes in God or not, he is God's creature. And surely God has a way to take care of them. We as human beings are very limited. As age goes on we find out how limited we were. Each succeeding century we find how limited we were back in the last century. So God is still in command and so he is going to take care of all his creatures. However, if we rebel against God and continue that rebellion God will reward or punish us accordingly.

James Hamill: If we are to take the position that God created all of us and somehow we are all going to be saved, then we have spent a lot of years and billions of dollars carrying the message to far off places among strange people -- strange to us -- and many missionaries have given their lives in sacrifice to preach Christ to a people that THEY believe would not be saved unless they heard the message of Jesus. And I believe with all my heart that God is good, gracious, and that somehow God will probably take care of many of these things that I just can't understand, but I'm not going to say that God created all of us, and God is going to take care of all of us, and dismiss it at that. We must do what we can to convert the world to Christianity, and if I were Jewish -- I guess they don't believe much in evangelism -- but I would do what I could to convert people to Judaism and I think that is the way it should be.

Francis McRedmond: I don't think anyone on this panel believes that God is going to save everybody. We are going to be judged according to our works, and each one is going to be judged according to whether he has done good or bad, and if we continue rebelling against God we will not be saved, but if we believe in God, and obey his commandments we will be.

Nicholas Veiron: Another concern of mine -- seemingly digressing -- is this: I am concerned as I mount my pulpit from Sunday to Sunday and other times too, and sometimes when I quote Scripture, especially New Testament in Greek. I wonder if I am saying it convincingly with the love that should be there for my people because I think that is an important factor. Christopher of the fifth century was to say that "after good example comes the instrument of preaching." As parents I think we should be very much aware of that. There are so many other ramifications and factors, the missionaries that preach to these people. They bring not just a quote from Scripture but they bring a loving person to represent Christ in that area and that is important. These things are factors as we all wrestle with issues at hand.

John Simpson: We must wrestle with something else now. Jesus said -- if you believe the New Testament -- “He that rejects me rejects him who sent me," and if we believe Jesus is the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey (Hebrews 5 :8), then we need to stand up and be counted. And if we don't, then we just need to join the forces of everybody that says that everybody is going to be saved. Are people going to be saved through Jesus or not? Now that's the question, and we have left the question. We've gone out here to philosophy about a God of love and what we think might happen. What we had rather happen. And I think we ought to stick to the question and answer that.

James Wax: Dr. Hamill made what I thought was an exceedingly fine statement both at the beginning of the discussion and later on. Do you concur in what Dr. Hamill said -- I don't want to provoke an argument.

John Simpson: That we would leave the salvation of those who have never heard of Jesus in the hands of God? Yes. But I believe that we have the responsibility to go and preach the gospel, and to preach Jesus Christ. Jesus said "whosoever shall confess me before men I'll confess him before my Father in heaven." (Matthew 10:32) 1 understand we are at opposite poles. I believe you are lost and I say that with all kindness and love because I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and I believe the New Testament, I believe that message. I've given my life to preaching and teaching it. I appreciate your integrity, and I appreciate your honesty and sincerity, but I can't take your position. I don't believe it will save me. I believe I would be lost. Consequently, I must call a spade a spade and I think you appreciate that.

Roy Williams: That is right up to me. One thing that has bothered me a lot in my preaching, in my study, in my experience as a Christian minister. When Jesus was here, and he kept pointing toward the Father, there were times when he just openly tried to get attention away from himself, and focus on the Father. For instance, his statement, “there's none good but one, the Father.” When Jesus was here, he preached the Bible, and the only Bible he had was the Old Testament. We talk about the Bible, and depending on the Bible, and all Jesus had was the Old Testament. As we mentioned several weeks ago, Jesus lived and died a member of the Jewish faith, the Jewish religion, and the night before he died he participated in one of the most solemn of all Jewish observances, the rite of the Passover Supper. He was faithful, and he went to the synagogue. He did everything that he could. He was faithful all the way through. The thing that disturbs me is this - this God whom I think of and whom I had been taught is unchangeable and changes not. Is he going to say to the Jews now, you fellows have been doing all right but I'm changing the rules, and from now on out it's an entirely different ball game, and as you said a while ago, you are lost. The thing I want to say, and just as brotherly as you did to the Rabbi, I couldn't be saved in the Church of Christ because there is no place for me and my ministry in the Church of Christ. So you see a lot of us are at different poles here. I want to close by saying this - I think when we all get to heaven, we are going to be surprised at the number of Jews and number of people there that we just didn't think would be there at all and if it had been left to us they wouldn't have been there. Thank you for this discussion. It's been interesting, and we'll get a lot of letters about this, I'm sure. (End of program)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The discussion reproduced above occurred on Sunday morning. May 7, 1977 (app.). After studying the answers given by these who represent different “faiths” in a very religious area of our country, was the question of who will be lost resolved in your mind? Do you believe that everyone not in Christ is lost? Secondly, "Who do you feel has the responsibility of teaching someone you know who is not a disciple of Christ the truth about Christ?" It would appear to this writer that many people have become influenced by the type of thinking represented by some of the panel members, and do not really believe that those who "know not God and obey not the Gospel" will be lost. Many also believe that it is somebody else's responsibility to teach those they know to be out of Christ.

A Gospel preacher stated some time back, “I am convinced that before long evangelizers will find no one to teach and convert, for there will be no one who admits to being a lost sinner. No one is lost, so there is no need to believe anything specifically about salvation, or do anything specifically about salvation, in order to be saved. Why be saved from something that does not exist, that is not a problem. No one is guilty of seriously violating the law of Christ concerning righteousness, so there is no essential need of repentance. We are saved by grace, aren't we? I'm no worse than others, am I? It's the pot (evangelist) calling the kettle (lawbreaker) black, so what right does he have? God is a God of love, isn't He? So what's the hassle. Why do I need to change my mind or my lifestyle?”

That the emphasis has changed from a Gospel of salvation from sin to a gospel of church identification there seems to be no doubt. A staff writer for the Christian Chronicle wrote in the February, 2007 issue, that he did not know of a single congregation that was growing as a result of Gospel preaching. I find this analysis very hard to understand.

Jesus did not tell his apostles to “go into all the world and establish and manage local churches!” He told them to “preach the gospel,” and, “make disciples.” So, have we moderns found a better way?

But, lest we put all the blame upon the speakers (pulpit preachers, senior ministers, etc.) let us be reminded that evangelistic authority passed away with the days of Timothy, Titus and others of that era. Congregations of God’s people are overseen (1Tim 3:1; 1Pet 5:1-5; etc. by bishops whose main responsibilities are laid out by Paul to the Ephesians:

4:11 And He Himself (that is, Christ) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head——Christ—— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (nkjv)

The conversion account of Cornelius in Acts 10, and particularly verses 34, 35, have been used by many to equate God’s forgiveness with man’s good deeds. The statement by Peter reads:

34 ¶ Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

The question comes up with this doctrine, what purpose did the suffering and death of Christ serve, if now all one has to do is fear God and do good deeds. But the question is answered emphatically; this is not what the Cornelius experience teaches, and is nowhere in the New Covenant Scriptures taught as a means for forgiveness of sins and entrance into eternal life.

What does the account in Acts 10 teach, if not that we are saved by respect of God and good deeds? Peter immediately begins to explain what the previous expression means.

ACT 10:36 The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) ACT 10:37 That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

ACT 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. ACT 10:39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: ACT 10:40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; ACT 10:41 Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

ACT 10:42 And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.

ACT 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

ACT 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word. ACT 10:45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. ACT 10:46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, ACT 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?

ACT 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? ACT 10:48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

NIV=ACT 10:34 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ACT 10:35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. ACT 10:36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. ACT 10:37 You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached-- ACT 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. ACT 10:39 "We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, ACT 10:40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. ACT 10:41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen--by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ACT 10:42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. ACT 10:43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

RSV=ACT 10:34 And Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, ACT 10:35 But in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ACT 10:36 You know the word which he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), ACT 10:37 The word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: ACT 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ACT 10:39 And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ACT 10:40 But God raised him on the third day and made him manifest; ACT 10:41 Not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ACT 10:42 And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. ACT 10:43 To him all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

ROM 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

ROM 3:5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

ROM 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

ROM 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

ROM 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

2CO 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2PE 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: