You probably have difficulty even pronouncing his name, don’t you? Aleksandr (pronounced like our Alexander) PanayYAHtov (that’s how you pronounce his last name) is a 32 year old wildly popular singer IN RUSSIA. You can’t be faulted for never having heard of him and for having no opinion whatsoever about him. So THINK! How can the billions and billions of Asians, Africans, and various aboriginal Indian tribes of North and South America be faulted for never accepting or believing in Jesus Christ in previous centuries? They never once even heard of Him! Multiplied millions of them lived in centuries prior to Jesus Christ’s birth in Bethlehem! Christianity was totally unknown in China until 635 A.D. Even then it was a Roman Catholic monk who introduced Roman Catholicism to a comparatively few Chinese! Yet millions of Christians say such folk are without excuse, die lost and are sent to hell by a loving, merciful and understanding God. Of course they argue, “These people don’t go to hell for rejecting Jesus Christ. They go to hell because they are sinners.” That is similar to the old argument that people who fall to their death from great heights don’t die because of the fall, but because of the sudden stop! Even if hell only lasted a millisecond, how can divine justice consign blinded, ignorant human beings to eternal death who lived and died never having had a chance at salvation?
Again, a counter argument they will offer is, “But in Romans Chapter 1 it clearly says they are “without excuse.” Well, it does say someone is without excuse, but it does NOT say those who have never heard the gospel are without excuse. Many are prone to forget that the Book of Romans is actually a letter and was originally penned without verse and chapter divisions. Paul says that those without excuse were the people who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). He says the people to which he refers had manifestly been shown by God those things that could be known about him (verse 19). He says “they knew God” but were unthankful and became vain in their imaginations (verse 21). They “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to…beasts” (verse 23). “They changed the truth of God into a lie” (verse 25). “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (verse 28). They were “covenant breakers” who knew the judgment of God. (See verses 31 and 32). If it hasn’t begun to dawn on you yet just WHO Paul is talking about, he tells us quite plainly in verse 17 of chapter 2: “Behold, thou art called a Jew!”
When Pharaoh told Moses and Aaron, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice. I know not the Lord,” he spoke the truth! He didn’t know the Lord. The only gods he knew were the gods of Egypt: Ra, Isis, Osiris, Horus, etc. How could he be faulted for rejecting Jesus Christ or for failing to pay homage to the God of the Hebrews. That’s exactly what Moses called him when speaking to pharaoh. (See Exodus 5:1-3).
It was the Jews who changed their God. “Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit” (Jeremiah 2:11). Only the Jews did that. It was the Jews who exhorted Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship, who “took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan” (See Acts 7:37-43 and Psalm 106:19-20). The Jews were covenant breakers. (See Jeremiah 11:10).
It was the Jew, and the Jew only, who knew the judgment of God: “He showed his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. HE HAS NOT DEALT SO WITH ANY NATION, AND AS FOR HIS JUDGMENTS, THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN THEM. Praise ye the Lord” (Psalm 147:19-20).
If believers would read the prophets, they would not be so prone to buy into Satan’s lies. If they would listen to God speak through those prophets, they might see and understand more truth than they do. Missionaries can’t begin to imagine the needless anguish they cause mothers and fathers whose parents and grandparents have died having never had their minds opened to the reality of Jesus Christ and His mission to earth. Upon first hearing the gospel, a question surely asked time and again would have been,”What about my mother and father? They died a few years before you arrived with this wondrous message?” Do you really think the only honest answer that missionary could give them would be to say, “They are burning in hell right now and will burn for ever and ever?”
Oh, yes, there is one other argument many will raise to support their argument all humanity have an equal chance at salvation wherever or whenever they live. Their argument? If someone lives up to whatever light afforded them during their existence on earth, they will be saved. Not a single scripture supports that argument. In fact scripture clearly states that the knowledge of salvation gives light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. (See Luke 1:76-79). That is the plight of all humanity. “There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after God…And the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:11, 17-18). They all sit in darkness and the shadow of death.
God help you to understand is my prayer. (To be continued,,,,)
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley