Native Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Vikings, Aztecs, Zulu –
many societies were started after the debacle of the Tower of Babel. People grouped together by language and
migrated to far corners of the world.
Many of these societies had little or no
contact with Judaism and therefore no knowledge of Christ at all
till well after His servants began to scatter across the globe. Many generations lived, worked, and died
without exposure to the written word, or any personal witnesses to the events
being conducted in the Middle East.
So what happens to people who never knew the name of
Jesus? Accountability for truth comes
only to those who experience it. It
would be unfair to judge someone’s ignorance.
But then too our understanding of Salvation is not confined to some
future trip to Heaven, it begins now by learning to avoid evil. Those who lived without ever knowing this
precious truth are not to be envied, they are to be pitied. Imagine the amount of pain to be incurred
when left ignorant of the love, forgiveness, and hope found in Jesus. Given how much God loves us all, I personally
believe He would do everything in His power to demonstrate His love to those
unaware of the goings on in Israel. And
I personally do not believe that all those ignorant of Christ will be condemned
never to meet Him.
Herein lies a very important principle we keep
re-emphasizing; it is never our place to judge others. Only God is fit to judge, therefore to assume
we were qualified is a form of blasphemy.
Getting rid of that judgmental impulse that plagues Christians is a top
priority. It would go far in eliminating
the negative images we paint of God, that are usually steeped in our own
bias. Part of the problem here is rooted
in the idea that you get rewarded for your good deeds and punished for your bad
ones. This is more than just a
cause-and-effect view of your works; it is wrongly applied to your spiritual
life as well. You are not saved because
of any of your works (good or bad), you are saved from accepting the gift. Yet the idea
of punishment and reward persists, and neither is true.
It is not
punishment when you suffer the effects of choosing evil, those
are usually known consequences. God does
not need to add to the misery you have already brought upon yourself by your
own choices. You make enough trouble for
yourself on your own when you choose against good. Neither does God wait for you to perform some
random act of kindness before deciding to grant you favor. He is NOT Santa Clause. God gives you many blessings and gifts
without you ever doing anything to deserve them. This is because He loves you. If all God did was reward good behavior (he
would be fairly inactive), and we would likely die from lack of attention. Besides the good things we choose are in
themselves all the reward we need. The
joy of doing good is its own reward. If
you only gave in order to get back, you are effectively working/earning your
paycheck not really experiencing giving.
To truly give, you must receive nothing in return.
But there is an equal danger many people fall into which is
the trap of “being a good person”. These
folks have no need of religion, or Christ, as they believe themselves to be
‘moral’ people who try not to hurt others.
Since they are ‘good enough’ on their own, they reason this is enough of
an accomplishment. No need to further
muddy the issue with religion or God.
The problem here is the standard
of what is good and moral is completely subjective to the person
measuring themselves. They generally
compare themselves with others they know, and determine they are relatively as
good or better than the next guy. Given
that most people do not absolutely define good or evil, they are a complex mix
of the two components, they ALL think of themselves as good. The guy who steals your car reasons he is
better off than the rapist, who is better off than the murderer, who is better
off than the child molester. No matter
what level of bad behavior someone is engaged in, they refuse to see they might
not be all that good. Since there is no
objective standard, they are comfortable with the comparative measurements,
even though they hardly reflect the view of others.
This is the most
dangerous of human conditions; to believe you are good enough on
your own, that you do not need a savior.
It is the equivalent of a hardened cocaine addict refusing to see
himself as others do. If you refuse to
acknowledge you need help, you will not ever seek it. Some refer to this condition as the
‘unpardonable sin’. It is unpardonable,
because no pardon will ever be sought for it.
People convince themselves they are not doing any wrong to be repentant
of. They believe the condition they find
themselves in to be somehow God’s fault, and therefore believe they need do
nothing to alter it, despite what God may tell them. Rather than admit our mistakes, we arrogantly
cling to the notion, they are not mistakes in the first place. This is very dangerous, as this pathway is
the one the father of all evil walked.
Pride did not allow Lucifer to admit his error, and he thus degenerated
into Satan.
Better to be an addicted sinner, than an unrepentant
righteous person. Better to know your
need, than deny you have one. This is
why God is able to work with humble so much easier than with the proud. The humble know their own need, and beg God
to change them. The proud deny their
need, and trust in themselves and in their own wisdom to save themselves. Both the humble and proud may actually suffer
from the same condition of sin, they may both actively embrace evil to their
own detriment. But the humble hate
themselves for their failure. The proud
just refuse to look at their failures.
They make excuses. Or simply deny
the problems exist. This is why learning to listen to
what God tells you is SO important. We
need an objective benevolent voice directing us, advising us, convicting us
when we need it. We need help beyond our
own wisdom to save us. If you find
yourself not living up to what God asks of you, do not deny He ever asked –
instead ask forgiveness and strength and try again. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to change
God’s word to accommodate your choices; instead learn to make better
choices. Give God control of the desires
of your heart, and let Him take the ‘need’ out of your evil actions.
And what about ‘lifestyle’ sins? What about people who fall into the
categories of kleptomania, paranoid or violent schizophrenia, chemical
addiction (alcohol or drugs), and the like?
These kinds of habitual behavior that are a core part of the personality
present an unusually difficult challenge for the person looking to follow
God. They may be convinced of their
error, but feel powerless to alter it.
Homosexuality is a hotly contested condition with respect to
Biblical teachings. In short, it is a type
of sexual expression that is not considered good, the Bible condemns it. However, many claim to be ‘born’ with these
tendencies and completely unable to alter them.
Others are victims of abuse at early ages and are driven into this
behavior as what would have been ‘normal’ sexual expression has been
permanently corrupted for them. Still
others simply experiment with their sexual expression until arriving at this
lifestyle as a pure matter of choice.
Regardless of motive, once arriving in this lifestyle, few rarely decide
to change it. Then a sort of weird
phenomenon takes place with those who still seek to serve God, they try to bring all the basic principles
of Christianity into their gay lifestyle.
They attempt to live monogamously.
They attend church, try not to be judgmental, and work with their other
sins the same way everyone else does.
Does God love these people?
Decidedly YES. Can they be
saved? Again YES. Will saving them change who they are and
their sexual orientation? Maybe not. This part is up to God. The biggest issue a gay believer will face is
their own willingness to allow God to control their sexual desires and
expression – just like a straight believer (it is a difficult thing for
everyone to give up control to God). If
God never leads them to be any different than they are, who are we to judge? But refusing to allow God control, and
insuring that He never gets access to this part of their lives by trying to
make homosexuality as nothing more than ‘alternative’ is the beginning of
danger. It is just like what happened
when a straight believer, decides to keep God out of his affairs, multiple
sexual partners, adulterous rendezvous, etc..
Not being able to alter your own behavior is different than not
acknowledging if your behavior is what God wants for you. The most important thing to remember about
who can be saved, is that we are all the same in God’s eyes. He loves us ALL equally. We cannot judge, only God can. And His gift of life is available to all.
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