What about people who never get a chance to hear?

More excerpts from my e-mail. What happens to souls who never get a chance to hear the gospel? My reply:

Souls who lived before Jesus came? If they had access to the old covenant, they could be saved under that covenant. Which leads us to the great masses of people who never got a chance to hear under either dispensation.

We get a possible answer from something that Peter wrote. After Jesus was dead, but before the resurrection, He went and preached the gospel to the worst generation that ever lived, the people from the time of Noah's Ark. Think of how the earth would be if the Nazi's had won WWII and their culture had spread across the face of the earth and you might have some sense of just how corrupt things had become at the time of Noah.

Why would Jesus go and preach to them? Did He say, "Neener, neener, continue to burn in hell because you didn't listen to Noah? The redeemer Noah believed in has finally come and I am He. Don't you wish you had made different decisions in your lifetime?" Somehow, I don't think that would be gospel (good news) to them. He couldn't even have told them that it was good news because some of their descendants would be able to be saved. They didn't have any descendants. The only way it would be good news would be if they had a chance to believe it and act on it.

Which would lead you to believe that they all probably are in heaven right now and there must be some sort of second chance for everybody, so everyone will probably be saved in he end. Right?

I don't think so. I've spend a whole lot of time thinking about this, and this is what I am thinking.

Most people think of heaven as a place with beautiful homes, no crime or disease, and great golf courses. We will have to go to some sort of "church" once a week, maybe even once a day, but this would be a small price to pay for being able to escape for 40+ hours of work every week. Shoot, you could trade three hours of church a day for eight hours of work and most people would take you up on that one. That's the common picture of heaven, and it's deeply flawed.

God is a triune being. He is the ultimate relational being. And in saving us, He is calling us into union with Himself. We will become part of Him. He will always be God and we will always be man, but we will live in beautiful harmony with the conscious awareness of His presence throughout all the ages to come. Jesus described the relationship as the relationship between a vine and a branch. Shared life.

Nobody wants to go to hell, but not everyone will want to go to heaven. CS Lewis told a story about a man in hell. He was living all alone, miles and miles away from everyone else. One day he decided to catch a bus and go visit heaven. He wandered around for awhile. Nobody threw him out. Nobody made him leave, but eventually he took the bus back down to hell again. He didn't belong in heaven and he didn't want to be there. I think he just about nailed it, except for the part about nobody throwing him out.

The question isn't ultimately based on access to information. It's based on a willingness to repent, to acknowledge the goodness of God, and to willingly live in harmony with Him.

There will be those who see Him who will fall in love with Him, joyfully abandoning themselves to a life of totally intimacy and harmony with Him. Others will be unwilling to surrender their autonomy, no matter what the cost. To someone outside the kingdom, I would of course recommend reading the New Testament with an open heart. But I would also recommend reading with an open heart that is specifically seeking an inward revelation of the beautiful God. I've read to the end of the book, and understand this much about the story. It's a love story. All the pain and suffering, but in the end it's a love story. The greatest love story of all.

(But what about missions? If there is a chance people can hear or make a decision after they die, why should we support missions? Because Jesus said so. Because I could be wrong. Because to God, a person is saved from a whole lot more than hell when they get saved. People are slaves of Satan. They are delivered from the kingdom of darkness so they can walk in God's marvelous light. Even if a person could be saved later, Jesus doesn't want them to have to wait. I have always supported missions and I always shall.)