Re: [asa] Isolated humans

I have heard Christians (including young-earthers) speculating that
perhaps Christ reveals himself to them in his own way (maybe even after
physical death) and that all will have a chance to accept or reject him
one way or another. Admittedly this is extra-biblical speculation for
the express purpose of preserving our sense of appropriate divine
justice in just these questions. I'm not aware of any passages that
refute the possibility, and once Paul uses an interesting premise (I
Cor. 15:29)
asking rhetorically why else would somebody be "baptized for the dead"
as he is making another point. Perhaps some extravagant Catholic
traditions have grown up from these kinds of hints. But I think in the
end, it does come down to trust. We have a sense of justice that must
be at least in part God given, and if we can't trust God to do the
ultimate right thing by everybody, then, well, we've got bigger problems
than nit-picking about who's in and who's out.

You're right about the missions dilemma. Interestingly enough many
Calvinists have always been strong on missions which always seemed
ironic to me, since they of all people could have the motivation to sit
back and say it's already all been pre-ordained by God and we can't save
anybody. But they don't try to look at that side of it. They just see
the command "Go and make disciples ..." and consider that to be their
marching orders. The results are in God's hands. Even though I'm not
a Calvinist, I think that's a spiritually well-grounded and Biblical
approach to all this. I also like C.S. Lewis' approach with the
Calorman who, to his own surprise, wound up in Aslan's paradise despite
his life spent in apparent worship of a different god. "No good deed
done for Tash is done for Tash but is done unto me, and no vile deed
done in my name is done for me but is done for Tash" --or so I think
the words went. (I know works don't save... but they are the evidence
of salvation.)

If a native never hears the direct news, perhaps he still responds to a
revelation that is given to him beyond what is available in "natural
theology". And whatever name he gives it, if any, it may well be Christ
at work in his heart. Which preserves the essential doctrine that only
Christ saves. ("Fourth Wiseman" by Henry Van Dyke is a wonderful story.)

--Merv

Randy Isaac wrote:
> The question I have is not a new one, and has been hashed around a
> lot, but it does still bother me. Hitchens referred to it in his book
> and debate as well. How do we understand the notion that the gospel of
> Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, with all its
> soterial implications, is the unique path for reconciliation to God
> when a significant portion of the human population did not even have
> the possibility of hearing about the gospel?
>
> Coming from a very mission-minded church, I've always heard pleas for
> "reaching those who have never heard" the gospel, with the
> responsibility on our shoulders to heed the great commission to share
> the good news. Somehow, the fact that a significant part of the world
> could not be reached for many centuries with any technology
> available no matter how zealous we may be, seems to put a different
> twist on it.
>
> If "original sin" dates back to the common human ancestral community,
> however that occurred, how is it that there is no commonly available
> gospel? The thread on natural theology revealed several different
> views of whether and how much we could learn about God through nature.
> I didn't hear anyone argue that we could learn about salvation from
> nature.
>
> The standard answers I grew up with seemed to revolve around God's
> accountability for humans being set relative to the amount of
> information/revelation we had so that all were without excuse. That's
> where Romans was usually cited. That of course led to the inevitable
> retort that we should leave indigenous people in their ignorance.
> Which didn't help matters.
>
> Far be it from any of us to question why God did it this way or claim
> "God surely wouldn't have done that" or the like. Yet, I confess it
> does leave me with a most uncomfortable feeling. Yes, I suppose I
> should just be content with "that's the way it is" but....
>
> Randy

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Received on Fri Nov 2 18:44:40 2007