When I was young, I sometimes felt troubled by the exclusivity of Christianity.
This was not so much because I had doubts about Jesus, but because I was concerned about the many who had never heard the gospel, and it seemed unjust that God should condemn a significant portion of the human race who had never been given a chance for repentance. That no one deserved to go to heaven I of course knew. But that a stillborn infant or a pagan who had never heard the gospel should deserve to go to hell, that was an idea I simply could not accept. To allow people to be brought into existence only to deliver them over to eternal punishment? It would have been better had they never been born!
"...God speaks to all, even if his final word is Jesus Christ."
Fortunately, though some Christians still speak as if children and ignorant persons are condemned, it is not a teaching we find anywhere in the Bible. On the contrary, Jesus says “Let the little children come to me” (Matt. 9:14), and Paul, speaking to the pagans at the Areopagus in Athens, declares “God overlooked the times of ignorance. But now he now he commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:29-30).
In short, God speaks to all, even if his final word is Jesus Christ. As the Psalmist says: The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies above proclaim his handiwork. There is no language or tongue where their voice is not heard (Ps. 19:1-3).
As Christians, we often place a great deal of emphasis on conversion. This is as should be, but we should never forget that God’s speaking to a person does not begin with his or her conversion. On the contrary, conversion is the culmination of a long conversation that began from the moment that person took their first breath. We don’t win converts, and though God may condescend to give us a role in that process, our attitude ought to be that of Paul, who says: I planted, and Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (I Cor. 3:6)
As we enter the season of Epiphany, the traditional season of the Christian year commemorating God’s revelation of himself to the Gentiles, we have much to be thankful for, but ought especially to remember those whose eyes have not yet been opened to see the glory of God in the face of Christ. In our reaching out to them, let us never forget that, though the threat of damnation is real, it is not the fear of hell but the love of God that will draw, as Jesus says, “All men to himself.”
Commentaires