Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A friend's illogical gospel

Once an elder brother of a friend told me this, "For those who died without knowing Christ, God would judge them according to their works. If they are good, they will go heaven. However, if anyone who have heard the Gospel and rejected its message, that person will go to hell." Now this person was trying to console himself that his father, who died without Christ, is now in heaven because he was good, and also trying to defend God for sending people who had no chance of hearing to Gospel to hell (e.g. the millions of Chinese in China before missionaries from the West came).
"Then we should not preach the Gospel, because we are sending people to hell if they reject it," I replied.
"Preaching the Gospel is about heavenly warfare, and so we must preach," was his reply.
But this gospel made me a judge of men. If I judged that he is so evil and definitely hell-bound, I would preach the Gospel to him, perchance he may accept and be saved. If I judged that he is good and may go to heaven on his own, then preaching the Gospel gives him a chance to reject it and send him to hell. If this gospel is true, God has delegated part of his job at the Great White Throne to me.

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