This chapter is worth the book by itself. The author also utterly refutes the late evangelist Billy Graham’s profoundly unscriptural tripe uttered during his interview with Robert Schuller on his “House Of Power” broadcast #1426 in December 1997 ( https://youtu.be/INPyY0QjgpY ) without directly mentioning him.
The chapter begins, “we now come to the third hard case concerning
election and reprobation. What is the eternal destination of those who never
hear the gospel? Are they in the same situation as dying infants? If some are
saved, they are elect; if not, non-elect. The issue touches on other issues
relevant to the debate distinctive doctrines of Calvinism.”
The chapter is divided into seven subsections.
The Reformed Position: Thirteen paragraphs. The author includes a repudiation of the changing Roman Catholic positions. He mentions the liberalism of noted author Pearl Buck and the expulsion of J. Gresham Machen over missions from the Presbyterian Church in the 1930s. References are also made to John Calvin, Charles Hodge, and Jonathan Edwards.
All Men Are Already Under God’s Wrath: Four paragraphs.
The Only Answer: Four paragraphs.
Christ Alone: Three paragraphs.
Objections: The
author addresses the following objections:
Objection 1: “God
is sovereign and is not limited to the gospel.”
Objection 2: “The
heathen who never hear the gospel are like Old Testament saints who never heard
but were still saved.”
Objection 3: “Did
not Christ say that many will come from the East and West (Matthew 8:11) and
that He had other sheep (John 10:16)?”
Objection 4: “What
about Cornelius the Gentile who is called a God-fearer in Acts 10:2?”
Objection 5: “What
about the good Muslim or the good Hindu?”
Objection 6: “What
about non-Christian Jews?”
Objection 7: “What
about the Greek philosophers?”
Objection 8: “Middle
Knowledge gives the answer how the un-evangelized might be saved.”
Objection 9: “Since
Christ died for everyone, nobody is condemned except for rejecting the gospel.”
Objection 10: “There
is a second chance after death (1 Peter 3:19) or reincarnation. Eventually
everyone hears. God owes everyone the right to hear the gospel.”
Objection 11: “Does
God not bring the gospel to people in ways other than the Bible?”
Objection 12: “Could
God not bring the gospel by dreams, visions, and angels as He did in the Old
Testament?”
Objection 13: “What
about the many stories of non-Christians who were saved by faith before they
heard the missionaries?”
Objection 14: “If
a person who never hears the gospel lives up to the light that he has, God will
get the gospel to him so that he can believe and be saved.”
Objection 15: “It
would not be fair to God to condemned those who never hear of Christ.”
Four paragraphs follow the responses to these objections.
Election and the Problem: Three paragraphs.
Conclusion:
If the unevangelized had any other way of salvation, then the need for
evangelism and missions would be killed at once. A true view of the lost state
of the unevangelized and the good news of the gospel gives us a greater
encouragement and urgency to bring the gospel to everyone. Charles Hodge
observed: “The proper effect of the doctrine that the knowledge of the gospel
is essential to the salvation of adults, instead of exciting opposition to God’s
Word or providence, is to prompt us to greatly increased exertion to send the
gospel to those who are perishing for lack of knowledge.
We should also be where words supposedly spoken by the Hyper-Calvinist
John Colette Ryland to a young William Carey when Carey proposed to send out
missionaries: “Sit down, young man. When God wants to save the elect, He will
do so in His own good time without you or me.” Fortunately, most Hyper-Calvinists
do not believe that, but few of them send missionaries out, support evangelism,
or tell the gospel far and wide.
The unevangelized are not just in so-called deep, dark Africa, for
there are millions of Christians there. There are millions of unevangelized
non-Christians in ‘Christian Europe’ and ‘Christian America.’ Let us bring the
gospel to all of them.
