Question:
What will be the ultimate end of the millions of heathens who had no opportunity to hear of Christ for hundreds of years? Did God do all He might have done for these people during those years? Had they had the living preacher, could not these have been saved, who will not now have eternal life?
Answer:
In God’s great plan, there are many things of which we know nothing, but we cannot say that millions have lived without any knowledge of Christ. They may not have heard His name, and they may not have had the theory of the gospel as we hold it, but the apostle Paul declares that they were without excuse (see Romans 1:20). And he tells us why they were without excuse— for even though they may have been shut away from God’s living human messengers and all printed messages, still “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” And in the tenth chapter of Romans, where the same thought is suggested of the necessity of hearing the gospel, the apostle asks: “Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” Verse 18. But this is simply a quotation from Psalms 19:4.
We recall the striking comment that Bishop Taylor, who did such noble work in Africa among its heathen tribes, made upon Psalms 19:1-6. He commented somewhat as follows:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork”—God’s great common school. “Day unto day uttereth speech”— God’s great day school; “and night unto night showeth knowledge”— God’s night school. “There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard”—God’s great common school of the nations. “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world”— God’s great common, universal, day-and-night school. Then he told of natives he had found in the very heart of Africa, who had laid aside all their idols, and had reached out after the living God, the God that made all things, and had simply given themselves to Him by speaking the name which they themselves used, saying, “I am your man.” Connect that with 2 Chronicles 16:9: “The eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.”
One single ray of light shining from the throne of God, cherished in the heart and dominating the life, will save. The life may be imperfect, and knowledge may be minimal, but if the dominating thought is of God and loyalty to Him, God requires no more. The Father will bring the added knowledge and the great illumination. All these things the heathen worlds have had, and there have been instances all the way through, among these heathen tribes, of those who have risen above all environments and have thought out, through the aid of God’s Spirit and heavenly angels, the salvation and peace which come through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wickedest city that we have a record of was Sodom, yet God saved Lot out of Sodom, and rescuing Lot, condemned the rest of Sodom because everyone in Sodom could have known, just as truly as Lot did, the way of salvation, if they had desired it.
All those teachings that demand another probation for those who are lost are certainly antibiblical, contrary to the apostles’ teachings. God has done and will do everything that He can and that man permits, with man’s free will, to save mankind. On the other hand, God will not do injustice to those who do not long for these things or yield to the highest conception of good. Man has misused life; God simply takes it away from him, and man dies.
