What About the Person in Africa Who Never Gets To Hear About Jesus?
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Introduction
Introduction
You’re talking to a buddy of yours that is very skeptical about Christianity and he shoots off one question after another about God, maybe in hopes of truly learning about God or maybe just to trip you up so he has an excuse not to believe in God. Then he hits you with this… “So let me ask you this… You’re telling me the only way to heaven is by believing in Jesus… WELL What about that person in the middle of Africa! They’ve NEVER heard about Jesus! Would your good God send him to hell when he never even had the opportunity to know who Jesus is?”
Wow! Didn’t see that one coming huh? How do you respond? If we say, “well of course he’d go to heaven!” then the argument arises “Well then I guess Jesus is not the ONLY way to heaven!” But if we simply say, “well if that person doesn’t believe in Jesus, he’s going to hell.” Then we are faced with a multitude of other questions. Like… “well then, how can you say your God is so good?” or “Do you think that’s fair?”
This is a question that has to be answered with much care, but it is a question that MUST be answered! Because it reveals so much about who God is and His desire for all to know Him!
Illustration
Illustration
I want us to take a look at 3 completely different people with 3 completely different cultures.
First is Jacob. He was raised in a strict Muslim household. And while he may have heard about Jesus, He was only taught that he was a great prophet, not that he is God, not about his death, burial, and resurrection, and not that he is the way to salvation. At a young age, Jacob got involved with a local terrorist cell. by the age of 20, he was on to his first terrorist mission… in the end, he, along with 12 innocent bystanders were killed by Jacob’s terrible action! When Jacob died, he still had not learned the truth about Jesus. So where did Jacob go when he died? heaven or hell?
Next is Edward. He grew up in New York City. Both of his parents were very wealthy and never had time to think about church or anything else besides work for that matter. Edward followed in his parents’ footsteps and became a VERY successful business man himself. He passed by a small church on his way to work everyday and occasionally wonders what church is all about, but he doesn’t have time for that. Later in life, Edward finds out he has a deadly disease, and just one month later that disease takes his life. Still Edward had not heard about Christ. You may think this would never happen in America because everyone knows about Jesus! But I assure you, there are people in America who are never taught the truth about Christ! So where did Edward go after he died?
Finally, we have an elderly man in a small African village who has never even heard of God! He looks around and sees creation and sometimes wonders where it all came from. He wonders what the point of life is. But no one has ever had the opportunity to find him and teach him about Jesus! He dies at an old age still never even hearing the name Jesus. Where will he spend eternity?
We may think, “well there’s no way Jacob should make it to heaven because of the horrible things he’s done.” We may also think that since Edward had every opportunity in the world to seek out what was going on in that little church he passed on a daily basis, he does not deserve heaven either. But what about the poor little old man in Africa who has never heard of Jesus. Would God really allow HIM to spend an eternity in hell?
As we think about this answer there are 2 approaches we can take.
1. We can determine our answer based on how we think God should act.
OR
2. We can determine our answer based on what the Bible says.
And of course today we are going to look at God’s Word to answer this question!
But in order to rightly address this issue, we must first learn a few truths. The first...
A. What does the Bible say about the character of God?
Now, there is way more to God than the characteristics we will discuss today, but we will look at just a few to help set the stage to answer our question.
God’s moral purity
The first is:
God is holy.
Christian Standard Bible Psalm 99
9 Exalt the LORD our God;
bow in worship at his holy mountain,
for the LORD our God is holy.
There are 2 basic aspects of God’s holiness. the first is that
He is unique.
He is separate from all of creation. This is proclaimed in .
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15
11 LORD, who is like you among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
revered with praises, performing wonders?
There is NO ONE that is like God. He is holy and exalted above all.
But the second aspect of His holiness is
He is absolutely pure and good.
He is completely untouched by the evil in this world. And does not participate in it AT ALL!
Habakkuk addresses God this way:
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous?
Why are you silent
while one who is wicked swallows up
one who is more righteous than himself?
And because of His holiness, his separateness from sin, He will not allow it in His presence.
In addition to being holy, He is also
He is righteous and just.
Whatever God does will always be right because God himself is the final standard of what is right. Moses said this of God:
The Rock—his work is perfect;
all his ways are just.
A faithful God, without bias,
he is righteous and true.
(NLT)
New Living Translation Chapter 32
his deeds are perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
how just and upright he is!
And because He is both righteous and just, He MUST treat people as they deserve! And as the judge of the world, He will always do what is right! Last week Pastor Bill gave one of the best illustrations of God being just I have ever heard. So if you were not here, I highly encourage you to go listen to it on the church website. But in short, we expect a judge to punish those who do wrong in our society. Well God is the most high judge. So when someone sins against the Holy God! They WILL be punished! Which brings us to our next characteristic of God:
God is wrathful toward sin.
God intensely HATES all sin!! His wrath burns hot against sin. And it is that wrath that will eventually consume all who reject Jesus and continue in their sin. It’s just as Jesus said in ,
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3
The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
So for those who do not receive God’s salvation will receive that wrath.
You may be wondering, “Well if this is true, then how can God forgive people and not punish their sin if he is just and wrathful toward sin??”
Well that is what our final characteristic of God addresses...
God is good.
You see God must punish our sins and He must pour out His wrath on sinners because he is a righteous and just God. But He is good because He made a way so that we can be pardoned from that punishment… And since we are not paying for our wrong doing, someone else has to! And that’s where Jesus comes in. God sent His son to die on the cross for our sins. And while Jesus was on that cross, God poured out His wrath upon Him… the wrath that we deserved! Justice was served to His innocent Son instead of us, the ones who earned that wrath. And this is one of the MANY reasons why we can say God is good!
Imagine a cereal killer standing before a judge to receive his sentence. The judge looks him in the eye and says this: “When I look at the things you have done, I am sickened, disgusted by the thought of how anyone can do these things. Justice must be served! The penalty of your horrendous actions is death!” The man begins to weep learning of his fate. Then the judge continues, “and that sentence must be paid in FULL… but not by you.” He looks up confused. “I am giving you freedom and my one and only son is going to take the sentence for you.”
We hear this and think that is CRAZY!!! But it is exactly what God did for us. In the eyes of a holy God separated from sin, sins are sickening and disgusting to Him. And our sins deserve His wrath. We DESERVE the sentence of death… spiritual death!! But God instead sent His Son to earth to die as a sacrifice for our sins. He took our place when He died on that cross! Why? Because God is good and He loves us!
Ok so we know that God is holy, righteous, just, and wrathful towards sin, but He is also a good good father! But...
B. What does the Bible say about man?
The Bible tells us that
Every single person ever born into this world is lost.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
There is not a single person in this world who has never sinned. And just 1 sin makes us guilty before our holy God!
And the Bible also tells us:
There is no salvation apart from Christ.
1 Tim 2:5
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus,
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Scripture is very clear that JESUS is the ONLY way to salvation. There are no exceptions to that in the Bible! Again Pastor Bill discussed this in depth last week, so it is worth the listen if you were not here.
So with what we
So in light of what we’ve seen about God and man in scripture, we will answer our question this morning:
What about the person in Africa who never gets to hear about Jesus?
David Platt once said in a sermon, “This questioned is often asked of me: What about the innocent person in Africa who has never heard the gospel? Will he go to heaven? I would say the answer is an absolute YES! But the problem is the INNOCENT person in Africa does not exist.”
Two Big Questions:
The answer is yes.
1. Would God allow someone to go to hell if he has never heard about Jesus?
The answer is yes.
And right now you are possibly thinking, “There is no way that can be true! That’s just not fair!”
God is fair
so… is it?
2. Is it fair for God to punish those who have never heard about Jesus?
Now it’s easy for us to answer this question based on our feelings about God, or even answer based on our own guidelines of fairness. But I want our decisions and answers to be based off of God’s Word and not opinions. So I want us to consider 4 things before judging God’s fairness this morning.
4 considerations before judging God’s fairness:
The first consideration is:
First I want to
1. What is it that actually sends a person to hell?
What is the cause of the punishment of hell? This is an important question to ask! because if it is the lack of choosing Jesus that is the cause of a person going to hell then it would totally be unfair for God to send someone to hell without them having a chance to hear about Him. But in all actuality, that is NOT the root of the reason for people going to hell! Sin is the reason! Our sin has caused us to be sentenced to a penalty of spiritual death.
Imagine finding out you have a VERY rare, VERY deadly disease. The dr. tells you that you have 2 months to live and he is very sorry but there is no known cure for this disease. And just like the dr. said, 2 months later, the disease overtakes you and you die.
Now, what you didn’t know is that across the world, Doctors in China had been testing out an experimental drug to cure this disease and THEY SUCCEEDED in finding a cure! Had you known about this cure, you could have acquired it and your life would have been saved! But you just didn’t know… No body told you.
So what was the cause of your death? When people look at your death certificate, what does it say? Cause of Death: Lack of knowledge of cure for deadly disease? or would the rare deadly disease be listed as the cause? The disease of course! Because that is what killed you!
In the same way,
It is sin that causes a person to be sentenced to hell!
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is not the lack of knowing Jesus that leads to death. But knowing Jesus IS the cure!
The second thing to consider is:
2. Every person on earth is capable of knowing God exists.
And there are 2 ways any person can know that God exists! The first is:
A. Through Creation
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul addresses God’s wrath as a present reality that is being revealed. And some may argue, but maybe they just don’t know better! Paul anticipates this response and immediately addresses it in this passage. Paul is saying everyone knows better, because everyone knows truth, but they suppress it. In fact the following verse, verse 21 goes as far as to say that all people, everywhere and at all times, “knew God” because as verses 19 and 20 says, that God clearly reveals himself in the creation of the world!
Obviously, we can not know everything there is to know about God through creation, but when we look at everything around us, there is no denying that there is a creator! We can know that whoever created everything around us must be a being of unimaginable greatness! So we see this and we are obligated to either believe this truth revealed to us or suppress it.
Just about every one of us has one of these…
-Pull out cell phone-
Have you ever sat down and wondered how they came about? What makes it work? There are so many inticate pieces to making this function! And I bet sometimes you sit and think “this phone MUST have just spontaneously apeared one day! Or maybe it is a product of evolution! I mean I used to have this little flip phone about 10 years ago and nature must have caused that little flip phone to evolve into this iPhone!” NO! We look at this piece of technology and we know that there has to be someone who created it AND had a purpose for creating it!
We should have the same thought when we look at the world around us! If the iPhone has an intricate design, what about the earth, the sun, moon and stars, the solar eclipse we witnessed a couple weeks ago, and how about plants, animals, and people?!
When Megan was pregnant for Cadence, every single week we would watch videos on what was going on inside Megan’s womb as our sweet baby girl was being developed. And as we learned about how her little organs we being developed and all her cute little features were beginning to form, we just stood in awe at the fact that there was no denying that God is a mighty creator who set all of this into motion! In fact here is a little clip of one of those videos.
-1 minute Video-
And each week we watched these! Never missing a single one!
You see, there is evidence of God all around us, so we have no excuse not to believe in God!
But in addition to Creation around us, every person is capable of knowing God exists because of their own
B. Through Moral Conscience
Deep within each human being is a sense of what is right and wrong. Paul addresses the moral conscience in
New Living Translation Chapter 2
12 When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law. And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it. 13 For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight. 14 Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.
So for even those in Africa or anywhere else who have never heard about Jesus or the difference between what is right and wrong instinctively know the difference. And just like you and me, they choose not to obey it and do what is wrong instead of what is right!
In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis points out that some may argue that this is a learned behavior as some would learn the multiplication table in school. Lewis responds with this, “I fully agree that we learn the Rule of Decent Behavior from parents and teachers, and friends and books, as we learn everything else. But some of the things we learn as mere conventions which might have been different — we learn to keep to the left of the road, but it might just as well have been the rule to keep to the right — and others of them, like mathematics, are real truths.”
He goes on to explain that we may learn how to follow rules that lead to right and wrong, those things are absolutes. Like multiplication, there are numerous ways to learn how to multiply, it is absolute. 2 x 2 will ALWAYS be 4 no matter which method you use to get there.
But when we look at our moral conscience, those morals must have been established by some higher power… God!
Through creation and our moral conscience, God reveals himself to all mankind. This is what theologians refer to as General Revelation.
So the third thing we must consider is:
3. Has the person who never heard about Jesus responded to the revelation he has been given?
We must consider this, if God has revealed Himself to someone through His general revelation and they do not respond to what God has revealed to him, is God obligated to give more revelation to that person? Absolutely not! If someone does not respond to what God has already made clear about Himself, He has absolutely no obligation to that person at all!
If I were heading out on a trip and my wife were to kiss me goodbye and say, “Here you go honey, I got you this map and compass to guide you to where you are going.” and when I get into my truck, toss it out the window, what will happen?? I will be lost with no way of knowing where I am going!!
Is it fair for me to then say, this is all Megan’s fault that I am lost! She should have given me a high powered GPS to get me where I need to go!
NO WAY!! This would be all my fault for not using the directions she gave me in the first place.
In the same way, we can not fault God for not giving more revelation to those who have ignored the revelation already given them.
Finally, it is important to know that:
4. If a person sincerely seeks to know the God of creation, God will provide a way for him to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And scripture COMPLETELY supports this claim.
“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.
You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
These are promises from the Word of God!!
And another example of this is the story of a man names Cornelius in
Cornelius was a Roman Soldier who knew God and feared Him, but he did not know the gospel of Jesus so he was not a Christian.
He sought God because of what he DID KNOW about Him, and guess what God did? He sent an angel to him is a vision to tell him to send men to go get Peter from Joppa and bring Peter back to Him. And when Peter arrived he explained to them the gospel of Jesus and how all their sins could be forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ… And you know what happened? Cornelius and all his friends and family accepted Christ and became Christians. And when they died, they all entered into the presence of God in heaven!
You see,
God has many ways to get the truth to those who sincerely seek him!
Preachers and Missionaries
Angels
The Bible and gospel literature
Visions and dreams
And you may think that God doesn’t use visions and dreams anymore like he did with Cornelius! Well let me tell you, He still does!
I am AMAZED at the stories that continuously come from missionaries ministering to Muslim communities! Over and over again, God is reaching them through dreams!
Listen to this article in CBN News about God’s work in the Muslim community!
Several years ago, Ali took the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
Several years ago, Ali took the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj.
Ali recalls, "Of course when I went to Mecca I was going there in order to pay hommage to the Kabba and to fulfill the requirements in Islam."
But the trip became more of a spiritual journey than he could ever imagine.
"That night I saw Jesus in a dream. First, Jesus touched my forehead with his finger. And after touching me, He said, 'You belong to me,'" Ali recalled.
"And then He touched me above my heart," he continued. "'You have been saved, follow me. You belong to me,' he said."
Ali's story in Mecca was told and dramatized in a DVD called "More Than Dreams."
"I decided I'm not going to finish the pilgrimage. Whatever it takes, I'm going to follow that voice," he explained.
The film documents and dramatizes Ali's story and several other Muslims who came to faith in Jesus through a dream or vision.
"We're seeing that all around. We're hearing about people that have never even thought about Jesus as savior," Tom Doyle, with e3 Ministries, said. "They're content Muslims and they're having dreams over and over."
Doyle and his wife Joanna take the gospel to the Muslim world.
"I think our God is a fair God, that He's righteous and just, and people are seeking and they don't know where to go," Doyle said.
"Maybe they don't have a Bible, maybe there's no missionary in the village," he said. "He'll get the message to them somehow."
The phenomenon of dreams and visions has surfaced throughout the Muslim world, from Indonesia to Morocco.
"In the church if you ask how many people came to Christ, 80 percent will say, 'I saw Him in a dream,'" one woman in central Asia told CBN News.
A Christian friend challenged her to ask God to speak to her personally.
"So I decided to ask Him," she said. "The next day ... in my dream I saw Jesus ... I decided to come to Him."
"I had one lady write me ... she said, 'I turned on the television and there you were ... the words that were coming out of your mouth were so peaceful I fell asleep,'" Farraj recalled.
The article goes on to tell story after story of Muslims coming to Christ because of dreams and visions given by God! So you see when someone sincerely pursues God, He will not abandon them!
"She said, 'When I fell asleep I ended up having a vision of Jesus and I saw the Lord,'" he continued. "She said, 'As soon as I looked over I knew that Christ was the sacrifice, the son of the God."
So
Final Thoughts:
In light of these 4 considerations,
Can we say God is unfair?
Doyle said the dream or vision is usually the start, not the end, of a Muslim's conversion.
Can we say God is unfair? Absolutely not!
Absolutely not!
God is more than fair, He is gracious!
"Nobody goes to sleep a Muslim and wakes up a Christian, but it knocks down the false barriers that are inherent in Islam," Doyle explained.
And honestly, we should MUCH prefer God be gracious than fair. Because if He were only fair and not gracious, we would have no hope of eternity with Him.
The Doyles said beneath the current revolution in the Middle East, there's a spiritual earthquake.
But the most important question we must ask is:
"As things heat up politically and spiritually within Islam, man, the Holy Spirit is moving even more powerfully," Joanna said.
"This is the time when hearts are open, people are desperate, governments are changing," her husband added. "Everybody's foundation has massive cracks in it and Jesus is the answer that can come in and fill that need."
How have I responded to the revelation given to me?
Many veteran missionaries to the Muslim world say dreams and visions, along with satellite television, are introducing Muslims to Jesus in unprecedented numbers.
Each of us here today knows of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. And if we ignore that revelation, we are responsible for our decision! So if you have never accepted Jesus as YOUR Lord and Savior and want to do so today, Pray with me...
They add that more Muslims are coming to Jesus than at any other time in the 1,400-year history of Islam.
The Doyles want believers in the West to join this spiritual revolution.
"Not everybody is going to go the Middle East. But they can pray," Doyle said.
"And no government, no leader can block intercession around the world," he said. "So we need to pray as believers that God would continue to push the gospel out to the ends of the earth."
everal years ago, Ali took the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj.
"Of course when I went to Mecca I was going there in order to pay hommage to the Kabba and to fulfill the requirements in Islam," he recalled.
But the trip became more of a spiritual journey than he could ever imagine.
"That night I saw Jesus in a dream. First, Jesus touched my forehead with his finger. And after touching me, He said, 'You belong to me,'" Ali recalled.
"And then He touched me above my heart," he continued. "'You have been saved, follow me. You belong to me,' he said."
Ali's story in Mecca was told and dramatized in a DVD called "More Than Dreams."
"I decided I'm not going to finish the Hajj, the pilgrimage. Whatever it takes, I'm going to follow that voice," he explained.
The film documents and dramatizes Ali's story and several other Muslims who came to faith in Jesus through a dream or vision.
"We're seeing that all around. We're hearing about people that have never even thought about Jesus as savior," Tom Doyle, with e3 Ministries, said. "They're content Muslims and they're having dreams over and over."
Doyle and his wife Joanna take the gospel to the Muslim world. He's also the author of the upcoming book, Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?
"I think our God is a fair God, that He's righteous and just, and people are seeking and they don't know where to go," Doyle said.
"Maybe they don't have a Bible, maybe there's no missionary in the village," he said. "He'll get the message to them somehow."
The phenomenon of dreams and visions has surfaced throughout the Muslim world, from Indonesia to Morocco.
"In the church if you ask how many people came to Christ, 80 percent will say, 'I saw Him in a dream,'" one woman in central Asia told CBN News. Her identity is being protected for security reasons.
A Christian friend challenged her to ask God to speak to her personally.
"So I decided to ask Him," she said. "The next day ... in my dream I saw Jesus ... I decided to come to Him."
Hazem Farraj hosts "Reflections," a satellite program for Muslims. He said he often gets feedback about dreams and visions.
"I had one lady write me ... she said, 'I turned on the television and there you were ... the words that were coming out of your mouth were so peaceful I fell asleep,'" Farraj recalled.
"She said, 'When I fell asleep I ended up having a vision of Jesus and I saw the Lord,'" he continued. "She said, 'As soon as I looked over I knew that Christ was the sacrifice, the son of the God."
Doyle said the dream or vision is usually the start, not the end, of a Muslim's conversion.
"Nobody goes to sleep a Muslim and wakes up a Christian, but it knocks down the false barriers that are inherent in Islam," Doyle explained.
The Doyles said beneath the current revolution in the Middle East, there's a spiritual earthquake.
"As things heat up politically and spiritually within Islam, man, the Holy Spirit is moving even more powerfully," Joanna said.
"This is the time when hearts are open, people are desperate, governments are changing," her husband added. "Everybody's foundation has massive cracks in it and Jesus is the answer that can come in and fill that need."
Many veteran missionaries to the Muslim world say dreams and visions, along with satellite television, are introducing Muslims to Jesus in unprecedented numbers.
They add that more Muslims are coming to Jesus than at any other time in the 1,400-year history of Islam.
The Doyles want believers in the West to join this spiritual revolution.
"Not everybody is going to go the Middle East. But they can pray," Doyle said.
"And no government, no leader can block intercession around the world," he said. "So we need to pray as believers that God would continue to push the gospel out to the ends of the earth."