[GraceChristianChat] WHAT OF THOSE WHO HAVEN’T HEARD?

[Charles Sawyer]

From: THE CASE FOR FAITH Chapter 5


WHAT OF THOSE WHO HAVEN’T HEARD?

Serial killer David Berkowitz was fortunate. He lives in a country

where people freely talk about Christianity. Someone told him about

Christ’s offer of forgiveness, and he says he has confessed his offenses

and put his faith in Jesus. But what about people who live in places

where the gospel isn’t routinely discussed or where its dissemination

is actually outlawed?

“Isn’t it unfair to condemn them when they never heard about

Jesus and merely followed the religious traditions of their parents?”

I asked.

Zacharias reached over to pick up his Bible. As he opened it and

flipped to Acts, I caught a glimpse of the many places where he had

highlighted key verses in yellow.

“The Bible says first of all that nobody will be in the presence of

God apart from the fact that the person and work of Christ made it possible.

That’s the price it took: Christ’s death on the cross as our substitute,

paying the penalty we deserved to pay. Now, some people are

born into one culture or another, but the apostle Paul said something

very interesting about that when he was speaking to the Athenians.”

Zacharias lifted his reading glasses out of his pocket and slipped

them on so that they perched on his nose. Then he read part of a passage

where Paul was debating some Greek philosophers:

160 THE CASE FOR FAITH

>From one man he made every nation of men, that they should

inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for

them and the exact places where they should live. God did this

so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and

find him, though he is not far from each one of us.21

Removing his glasses, Zacharias looked up at me. “This is important,”

he said, “because he’s pointing out that there’s a sovereign plan

in creation, where each person is assigned a place of birth. God knows

where we will be born and raised, and he puts us in a position where

we might seek him. We are clearly told that wherever we live—in

whatever culture, in whatever nation—he is within reach of every

one of us. There is always the possibility of a person crying out on

their knees, ‘God, help me,’ and if that happens there are ways in

which God can minister to them that are beyond our understanding.”

“For example?”

“For example, he might send someone to share the gospel with

them. Or let me tell you what happened in the case of a Muslim

woman who worked for a very well-known institution in her country.

She told me how she was leaving her office at the end of her day’s

work and was very unhappy in her heart. As she was walking, she

muttered, ‘I don’t know why I am so empty,’ and after that, out of the

blue, she said, ‘Jesus, can you help me?’ She stopped on the sidewalk

and said to herself, ‘Why did I name him?’ Well, that woman

ended up becoming a Christian.

“In her case, I think God saw a heart that hungered for him but

did not know how to reach him in the cloister of her existence. I think

this was God breaking past the barriers of her environment because

she was already breaking through the barriers of her inner life, seeking

after him. Thus, God can reach into any cultural situation in

response to anyone who wants to know him.

“Another way of looking at this issue comes from Romans, where

Paul says God’s infinite power and deity are revealed to everyone

through creation.22 Then Paul says God put the law in our hearts and

our consciences that we might seek after him.23 And he talks about the

word of Christ that is necessary for a person to come to know him.24 I

think more and more that this word of Christ comes within the framework

of different cultures.

“What do I mean by that?

Objection #5: It’s OTfhfeen sCiveh atol lCenlagime Joefsu Fs aIsi tthhe 1O6n1ly Way to God 161

162 THE CASE FOR FAITH

“I have spoken in many Islamic countries, where it’s tough to talk

about Jesus. Virtually every Muslim who has come to follow Christ

has done so, first, because of the love of Christ expressed through a

Christian, or second, because of a vision, a dream, or some other

supernatural intervention. Now, no religion has a more intricate doctrine

of angels and visions than Islam, and I think it’s extraordinary

that God uses that sensitivity to the supernatural world in which he

speaks in visions and dreams and reveals himself.

“One of India’s greatest converts was a Sikh, Sundar Singh, who

came to know Christ through an appearance of Christ in his room in

a dream one night. It had a tremendous impact on his life and he

became a Christian. So there are ways that God can reveal himself

that go far beyond our own understanding.

“Now, if God is able to give the word of Christ in various settings

in ways we can’t even understand—if he’s not far from us wherever

we are, if he is able to speak through the general revelation of creation

and through our conscience—then we have to accept the fact that we

are without excuse. Every human being will know enough truth so

that if they respond to that known truth, God will reveal more to them.

Does that mean they have to have as much of a volume of truth as

someone in another setting does? I don’t believe so.”

I tried to summarize his point. “You’re saying that regardless of

where a person lives in the world, regardless of the culture in which

they live, anyone who responds to the understanding that they do have

and sincerely seeks God will in some way be given an opportunity to

respond to him?”

As I spoke, Zacharias was weighing my words with care. “I

believe so,” he replied. “We have to be very careful here, but I believe

that if a person genuinely and sincerely seeks after him, there will be

some way God makes available for that person to hear of him. If that

person would not have responded to God under any circumstance,

then perhaps he will not hear of him. But all people know enough to

condemn them; they do not need to hear John 3:16 in order to be lost.

They are lost because they’ve already rejected what God has spoken

to them through creation, their conscience, and other ways. Because

of that, we will all stand accountable before him.”

“So sincerity is important?

“Sincerity is not salvation,” came his response. “But I think sincerity

brings about the possibility of God revealing himself to you.

Some may seem sincere and when Christ is presented to them, they

reject him. They fail the test of truth.”

I said, “You believe, then, that the amount of information a person

needs to have concerning Christ can vary widely?”

“Yes, I believe so. The danger of a Western perspective is thinking

that if something isn’t neatly packaged, it’s no good. And unfortunately,

some Western Christians think that unless a person says the

creed just like they do, they don’t know God.

“Yet what does an infant know of his mother? He knows she nourishes

him, she changes him, she embraces him, she kisses him—she

must be a friend. That child doesn’t know his mother as well as he

will when he’s eighteen. But he knows her enough to love her. I

believe that as God reveals himself there are levels of understanding

that are bound to vary.”






















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