Recently I read an article by a man in a leadership position in a particular Christian organization in which he attempted to answer this question. Tragically, his response took what has become all too familiar as an alarmingly increasing number of supposed defenders of the faith have chosen to lay down arms and take what they feel is a, kinder and gentler approach. I suppose that like many in our world today uncomfortable with the forthrightness of God’s Word they seek to chip away and ignore the parts they find distasteful in a misguided and vain attempt to “Win people to Christ” without their knowing it. The effects of this strategy, which is actually antithetical to God’s clearly stated plan, are evident by the lukewarm “Churchianity” that has substituted the truth of God for a lie. In light of this pervasive slide toward anything goes, may I share God’s perspective from His Word?
God is a God of wrath and judgment!
I recognize that this does not sit well with those convinced that the contemporary American Churches biggest problem lies in better “marketing,” but if we would humbly allow God to be God and quit trying to dress Him up so He will be “respectable” that we might take Him around our friends we would actually see sinners humble themselves before Him and know that He is also merciful. Here are a few examples:
1. You do not even get three chapters into the Bible before you see the judgment of God fall upon Adam that resulted in literally billions of deaths. Every person who has ever and will ever die testifies to the fact that God judges sin!
2. Only three chapters later and we see every person on the planet killed with the exception of eight and realistically according to 2 Peter 2:5 and Hebrews 11:7 the others got to go along because of Noah’s righteousness. So one guy got saved and seven people get to ride his coattails, everyone else dies.
3. In 1 Samuel 15:3 God said through the prophet Samuel, “Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."(NASB) God was so serious about judging the Alalekites that when Saul failed to kill everything he lost the kingdom and it was given to David.
This could go on and on; however, I trust that most people are familiar with this from the Old Testament. On the heels of this argument typically comes the rebuttal that those passages are from the Old Testament and we now have the New Testament and Jesus only taught love and forgiveness. To that I would submit that Jesus is the God of the Old Testament, in addition to the fact that God doesn’t change Mal 3:6 “"For I, the LORD, do not change”(NASB); His Word doesn’t change Ps 119:89 “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.”(NASB); God never changes His standards of right and wrong Ps 119:138-144 “You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness And exceeding faithfulness. My zeal has consumed me, Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words. Your word is very pure, Therefore Your servant loves it. I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth. Trouble and anguish have come upon me, Yet Your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever”(NASB).
Furthermore, I would add that in the first book of the New Testament alone Jesus Himself no less than 17 times talks about the wrath and judgment of God. (Matthew 5:22, 29-30; 7:22-23; 8:12; 10:15, 28; 12:36, 41-42; 13:40-42, 49-50; 16:26; 18:34; 22:7, 13; 23:33-36; 24:50-51). We are all familiar with the theme of Revelation as being the judgments of God poured out on the world. Is there any place in that book that we find that those who were never evangelized escape judgment? The New Testament is bookended with this idea of the wrath of God and as you look through the pages you clearly see that the subject is dealt with over and over as none of the writers seek to “soften” the reality. The wrath of God is a fearful thing and they work hard to get the point across because anyone who doesn’t specifically and individually put their trust in Christ alone will fall under this judgment.
The only way out is through Christ.
I will not belabor this point as I am directing my comments toward the Church and my hope is that there would be no question about this. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”JN 14:6 (NASB) There is no other way that Jesus taught and there is no other way that the Apostles taught. For example, in Acts 16:31 when asked by the Philippian jailer what he needed to do to be saved Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (NASB) There is no other way and any insinuation that a person could be saved outside faith in Jesus Christ alone prior to death (“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” Heb 9:27 NSAB) is contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture.
What is it that God says?
Although there are others, I would like to submit one passage that unquestionable answers this issue and that is found in Romans 1. The theme of Romans could be summarized as being about the righteousness that comes from God through Jesus Christ. Paul opens the letter with a greeting in the first 17 verses and then in verse 18 he answers everyone’s question about what happens to anyone who has not trusted Christ as Savior when he writes, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” I really don’t know what more God could have said to make this any clearer. “wrath of God is revealed from heaven,” this is very clear as to what is coming, “wrath” and who it is from, “God.” That wrath is directed at “all” and Webster’s says of all: 1a : the whole amount, quantity, or extent of. b : as much as possible. 2: every member or individual component of. 3: the whole number or sum of. Then there’s the “ungodliness and unrighteousness,” that would be all who are not saved by “believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul then goes on for the rest of the chapter to address the issues that will undoubtedly be brought up by people. In verse 19 we see what we already know, everyone already knows all about God because “God has shown it to them.” He has shown everyone “His invisible attributes” which are “His eternal power and divine nature” as we see explained in verse 20 meaning that there is no person who has their mental faculties that doesn’t know that there is a God and that He is all powerful. Why did He do this? Paul goes on in 20 to say He did it so that everyone is “without excuse.” So those people that are in question, the ones who have never heard, they already know and if they would respond to the light that God has given to everyone He would have made sure that they got more; just as He did with Lydia, the Ethiopian eunuch, and Candice the Queen of the Ethiopians because, “For there is no partiality with God.”(Rom 2:11NASB) However, you can know that all those people we’re talking about are no different than the ones who have heard the good news and reject it because in verse 21 we see that “although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give Him thanks.” They disregard and disrespect Him no differently than anyone else and they will be judged just like everyone else who isn’t in Christ.
We may not like it, we may not agree with it but it is a clear fact that cannot be reasonably denied. This is why it is incumbent upon us as the Body of Christ to take seriously the command to go and tell people. This is why we are here, what will you do about it?
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