Destiny of the Unevangelized

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Mike Abendroth here. Glad to be here. Glad to be alive.

Brazil nuts. Czech Republic. Et cetera. All right. By the way, there's a man in my Southern Baptist Theological Seminary preaching class, and he spells his name J-E-A-N. And I want to say he speaks French, Creole, and English, and he's having to take the class in English since I speak neither of those languages.

And I ask him how to pronounce his name because Jean, something like that, I know it wasn't Jean. And he said Jean. And I wanted to go into my D .A. Carson Ted impersonation, Jean. So I'm sure I'm not getting it quite right, but it was very funny.

Reminded me of No Compromise Radio. You can pick us up, Twitter. We have a blog, Harry Harrington De La Genetes is taking care of that. He's chairman of our elders here at Bethlehem Bible Church. He writes once a week.

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No Compromise Radio, 307 Lancaster Street, West Boylston, Mass, MA 01583. Excited the new book is out, Things to Go Bump in the Church with Clint Archer and Byron Yawn, forward by Carl Truman. So thankful for that.

Super thankful. All right, today I'd like to talk about where do people go who have never heard the gospel? There's a great document put together by Kurt Daniel. And I remember it being entitled Calvinism, Implications of Calvinism, Calvinism in Church History.

I don't know the exact title to the document. It was a book, kind of a self-published booklet. Not really a booklet, it's probably four or five hundred pages. I have a Word document of it. And often if I think of something with church history in mind or Calvinism in mind or what's a hyper-Calvinist, questions like this, the destiny of the un-evangelized, I like to go to Kurt Daniel's site and take a look at it.

So these will be my own words probably for the most part, but from his outline, okay? So, see? See that disclaimer there? Credit to where credit is due. So what do we do? There's often questions about people that have never heard the gospel and where do they go?

So when did the gospel first get to Sri Lanka, Madagascar? How many thousands of people, how many generations, hundreds of generations or more, never heard the gospel? God is a God of love, a God of compassion, a God of grace, yet there's all these people that have never heard the gospel.

Where do they go? And so it plays with our emotions some, not as much as, you know, what about babies when they die or someone who's not mentally capable of understanding right and wrong, handicapped mentally somehow.

But this one still nonetheless is a difficult question because people's souls are at stake. Not technically at stake, of course, because they are already where they are. And that doesn't do much, but at least in our mind, and I think it has implications for missionary endeavors and understanding natural revelation versus special revelation is the gospel in the stars.

I think Bollinger wrote a book about that and D. James Kennedy endorsed it. So today we're going to talk about this subject, the destiny of people who have never heard that the eternal Son of God became man, cloaked himself with humanity, the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

And he, as our representative, because the law is do this and live and obey, and Adam fails, Israel failed, of course we all fail, Jesus Christ perfectly lives the life we could never live but had to live because God is as creator and judge, holy and right and righteous.

And so Jesus perfectly obeys the law. I think even Jesus, if you remember, on the cross, he's still honoring God by keeping God's law, the law that's reflection of himself, and that is he's honoring his mother on the cross and says, John, take care of my mother, who is now your mother.

Act like she's your mother. And so Jesus lives that life and he dies a substitutionary death. Lots of pagans in these islands would understand sacrifice and propitiation and assuaging the wrath of a small g god or goddess or both.

But here we have the God-man can be our substitute because he's a representative and can be our substitute because he's divine and all his righteousness that he has and has earned as a man can be bestowed on all those who would believe because there's an infinite value to the righteousness of the God-man.

So Jesus dies on the cross and is raised from the dead and those that look to him in faith, just like the snake that was put up on the pole and if you get bit by an adder and you look to that snake, you live because it's by faith, the non-meritorious instrument is faith, the just shall live by faith.

And so what if you've never heard that? I mean, you can look at the stars for a long time and you can think of maybe Orion has a belt and the dipper is big and that dipper over there is little and you can create a lot of things in the stars.

But man left to himself just looks up at the stars, looks at the sky, a woman left to herself just ponders and she can make like cross of dots and figure out a cross and you can understand that the eternal God-man, the eternal son of God rather, cloaks himself with humanity.

You can figure that all out and no, there's no possible way. So the other issue that goes along with the destiny of the un-evangelized is that God's sovereign. Now you say, yeah, I know God's sovereign, how does it fit into this puzzle?

Well, God sovereignly told Paul not to go to Asia but to go to Europe and interestingly, his first convert in Europe was Lydia, the person, a person from Asia. So the Holy Spirit checks where Paul's going to go and certainly that applied with others.

So let's say Thomas did go to India. He didn't go to Thailand. So what about all the people in Thailand? What about China before Hudson Taylor got there? The sovereignty of God is at stake as well because there are certain places that God by his own free will, that the triune God by his own choosing decided not to send missionaries at a certain time.

There are missionaries, you know, that have been there now and subsequent to that but no gospel for thousands of years. And you might contribute that to laziness of missionary endeavors, hyper-Calvinism, but eventually you've got to go back and say God sovereignly didn't have someone go to those islands for a long, long time.

What happens to people that have never heard Jesus Christ, the God-man's representative substitutionary life, and that he is alive now, confirmed, vindicated by the Holy Spirit, vindicated by the Father through the resurrection?

Now you've got some options. Option one, I think we have three options basically. Four options. First option is, and I want to think about it, option two, do all these people go to perdition? Do they all end up in the lake of fire?

Option three, if you've never heard the gospel, by some trans-dispensationalism, I think that's what Tony Evans calls it. Not really big on the word dispensational in any context, especially this one, especially.

Did I say especially? Especially. And fourthly, maybe half and half, certain percentage, there are 45 go to heaven, 55 go to hell, just some to heaven, some to hell. Roman Catholics, documents of the Vatican II, page 126, say regarding the un-evangelized, quote, those also can attain to salvation.

Even that language I don't like, but we'll read it anyway. Who through no fault of their own, yeah, forget Romans 5, 12, and the imputation of Adam's sin as a federal head, do not know the gospel of Christ or His church.

No comments too much about the church comment there. They also can attain to salvation, who through no fault of their own, do not know the gospel of Christ or His church, yet sincerely seek God and move by grace, strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.

Yowser, sincerely seek, move by grace, strive by their deeds to do His will. Maybe that sounds more like sanctification to you. If you do some study, you'll figure out that there are noble savages, in other words, when it comes to Roman Catholic doctrine.

Kurt Daniel calls them also godly pagans. I'm not laughing at Kurt. I'm laughing at those who would have that category. Now, when you try to solve a puzzle theologically, you go with what you know. There are difficult things.

We don't know certain things. We're trying to construct the answer to the question. What do we know is a good place to start? And certainly, we should start off with God can do whatever He wants, with whomever He wants, as often as He wants, as regularly as He wants, correct?

God is God. The second Helvetic confession, 1 -7, at the same time we recognize that God can illumine whom and when He will, and it says, even without the external ministry, for that is in His power, but we speak of the unusual way of instructing men delivered unto us from God, both by commandment and example.

So in other words, the Helvetic confession says there's a normal way that people get saved, but God can do whatever He wants. If He wants to bypass faith, for instance, then God could do that. Westminster Confession, 10 -3, I think it's 10 -3, if I can read my writing, so also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.

Now W. G. T. Shedd is a good scholar, if you want to read his stuff on hell, that would be an excellent choice. Shedd applies that part of the Westminster Confession not to babies and not to those who are incapable mentally of belief, but he applies that to heathen.

So also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word. Now many would believe that would be true for children, for those who are mentally handicapped, and those who are heathen, Shedd includes.

If you go on to 10 -4, it's the next paragraph of the Westminster Confession. Others, not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word and may have some common operations with the Holy Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ and therefore cannot be saved, much less can men, not professing the Christian religion, be saved in any other way whatsoever, but be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature and the law of the religion they do profess, and to assert and maintain that the man is very pernicious and to be detested.

Now if you look at Reformed doctrines, as Kurt Daniel has done very well, he says the theologians that are the big guns fall into a few categories regarding this topic. We don't know if any un-evangelized heathen are going to be saved, so R .L. Dabney, I would commend his systematic theology to your reading if you can get past his obvious glaring errors of being a Southerner during the Civil War, and that's not all.

You've got somebody like Shedd, some, maybe more, maybe just a smaller percentage of un-evangelized heathen will be saved. And then the opinion that is the most popular with Reformed theologians is the majority opinion, un-evangelized heathen will not be saved, not one of them, and so you could look at Charles Hodge's writing for an example.

Now certainly, thinking of Romans chapter 5 verses 12 to 19 and through 21, everyone has been given a federal head, and his name was Adam, and whatever Adam did, we all got credit for. You say, well I don't really like that, well A, you're a creature, B, you're a sinful creature, and this is God's universe to run whatever way he runs it, and even America is run by a federal government.

Representation, that's just the best way, and I know if I would have been in the garden I would have sinned sooner than Adam did, and if you could pick anybody to represent you in the garden, any man, any person who's only a man, I think you would have picked Adam.

Smartest, brightest, most competent, he's one day old and he's an adult, can you imagine all of us as babies being put on trial, it wouldn't work. Romans 5, 12, therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

And so, how can you have justification by representation, Romans chapter 3, 4, and 5? Well, Paul says representation's not a new thing, and he talks about Adam as our federal head, federal representative.

And so, that sin of Adam, not Eve's sin, not Adam's subsequent sins, but his first sin was credited to all mankind, so everybody gets credit with that sin. Consequently, we're then born of a sin nature, and I wouldn't deny that, but primarily, most specifically at Romans 5, 12 level, it is Adam's sin.

That's why babies die, and they've not committed any sin against God's law, because the wages of sin is death, and they have been given credit for Adam's sin. And you say, well, I don't like any of that.

Well, first of all, you would have sinned sooner. Second of all, it's God's universe. Third of all, you like federal representation. If you're a Christian, you love it, because Romans 5 goes on to talk about Jesus as our federal head.

And we didn't earn his righteousness, we didn't earn favor from God, Jesus earned it. And you'll see a wonderful symmetry between Adam and the last Adam, Jesus. Romans 5, 18, therefore, as one trespass led to the condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

For as by one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. And so, we are under the curse, we are under the wrath of God. We, by imputation, by nature, are sinful people, and we don't deserve anything.

So, we need to get that into our minds to start off with as we frame the discussion. That is to say, no one deserves, there's not been one person in Sri Lanka, in India, Pakistan, Massachusetts, California, doesn't matter what era, what age, what country, not one deserves salvation, not one has earned salvation.

We know that men are idol-makers. We know that men are unrighteous. Just read Romans chapter 1, you'll quickly figure that out, that we are the problem. And we know that there's only one solution, there's only one way that we can be declared righteous in God's sight.

We are condemned. We stand as condemned people. How are we no longer condemned? The opposite of the word condemnation is justification. That's why Paul says later in Romans 8, 1, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We are still guilty sinners, but we have been declared not guilty based on the works of another. Jesus Christ is the one who gives us hope. John 14, 6, Acts 4 .12, I was thinking I was going to say Romans 5 .8, but then I conflated the two.

Romans 5 .8 says, but God chose his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so we have Jesus Christ, who's the Savior. We have now been justified, Romans 5 .9, by his blood.

Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. If while we were enemies, we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

And that is going to give you rejoicing, Paul says in the next verse, Romans 5 .11. So this great salvation that we have, Christ Jesus, is not deserved. It's not earned by us. It's merited by Jesus, of course.

And the way it comes, Christ benefits. The benefits of the life and death of Christ, how do they come to the person? How do they come to a human? How do they come to a sinner? How are they given to us?

And we know the answer is through faith. That's the key. Now you say, well, what about exceptions? What about this, that, and the other? Okay, well, just we're setting it up. And so we're talking about sinners, we're talking about the Savior, now we're talking about salvation, and it's through faith.

Remember, you aren't saved through natural revelation. You aren't saved through nature. You aren't saved through looking at the sun, moon, and the stars. You aren't saved through your own conscience. You aren't saved through groupthink.

You aren't saved through society. You aren't saved through education, Romans 10 .16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

You need to believe. There's a responsibility for Israel, and of course for us as well, in Romans 10. The just shall live by faith, right? That's right. Because we all fall short, we've all sinned, there's no distinction.

And so it is to be received, Romans 3 .25, by faith. Romans 3 .26, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 4 .5, and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

So we know that the paradigm is sin, Savior, salvation. We're sinful. Nobody deserves to go to heaven, not even those people in Madagascar. Two, Jesus Christ's death is the only way anybody ever is going to get to heaven.

And the way it's applied, this great accomplishment by Christ, how it's applied is through the non-meritorious instrument of faith. That's what we do know, that people respond through faith. It's not through sacraments, it's not through parents, it's not through church membership, it's through faith.

So what we're trying to do is we're trying to figure out, how does this work? The people that have never heard the gospel, do they go to heaven or don't they? And so we're going to have to pick it up next time, part two, as evangelizing the heathen.

What I will say is this, let's forget about Sri Lanka for a minute and Madagascar. What about you? Are you born again? You must be born again. There's no sense trying to figure out this theological difficulty if you're not born again yourself.

Are you a real believer? Many are going to say to Jesus on that day, I did all kinds of stuff, I believed all kinds of stuff, but he's going to say, I never knew you. And so you want to make sure you know Jesus Christ through faith alone.

No Compromise Radio.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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