Faith Questions Lenten Series - Salvation for Non-Believers

Most of the questions we are asking in this Faith Questions Lenten series are impossible to answer with certainty.  Yet they are issues of great importance to us.  Certainly it is the case with the salvation of non-believers. 

            In times past this may have been just a theoretical question for many people… What about all those heathens in foreign lands who don’t know Jesus?  But with the church in western culture declining at an alarming pace the question is far closer to home.  Parents of adult children often ask the fate of their children whose lives do not include Christian faith.  Are they damned?  What about other family members, friends, neighbors and co-workers?

            I believe many people have come to a very weak conclusion about these things.  When I say “weak” I do not mean to suggest it is a lazy conclusion.  It is in fact very well thought out and deeply hoped.  When I say weak I mean that it isn’t based on a solid foundation.

            This weak conclusion is that if a person is basically good God will save that person.  When they die they go to heaven.  If they are basically bad – well then they go to hell; if such a thing exists.  And we are back to the topic of our first faith question of what happens after death.

            I suppose ideas like this come from an internal sense of justice – or karma; that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.  Also there is the judgement parable in Matthew 25.  You’ll remember that there the sheep and goats are separated.  The sheep are those who have done acts of charity and thus go to heaven.  The goats are those who have neglected good works and thus go to eternal punishment.

            While there is indeed scriptural support for such ideas, it’s still weak.  Answering the question of what happens to non-believers is not the main thrust of Matthew 25.

            Instead of the weak conclusion that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell is the idea of universal salvation.  Some people argue that a truly good and loving God would not damn people to eternal punishment.  If God is truly all-loving then God will bring salvation to all.  The Unitarian Universalist Church is based on the idea of universal salvation.  Bible texts like the one we read from Colossians 1 can support this thought.  Verses 19-20 read, “For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of the cross.”

            In seminary we used to joke that all things included every mosquito that ever lived and every blade of grass your lawn mower clipped.

            The idea of universal salvation has appeal.  It puts it all into God’s hands.  We then don’t have to worry about anything.  But the idea of universal salvation also has problems.  Continue on with the Colossians reading and you come across verses 22-23, “He has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him – provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.”

            What then is our answer?  What is the Bible’s answer?

            I think we get the clearest and strongest answer if we look at Romans 10:7-17 which we read earlier.  “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?  And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?”  (vs. 13-15a)

            If the question of salvation for non-believers unsettles us, then that is its intent.  Ultimately salvation is God’s business.  Not our own.  Our business is the proclaim God’s love and salvation as fully and completely and widely as we can.  That message we see repeatedly throughout the New Testament.  Jesus’ last words in Matthew are, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them all that I have commanded you.”

            As children of God we are not to be content as long as there is still evangelism work to do.  We do not rest until that is complete.  And there’s plenty to do!

            Now, do we go door to door like the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses?  No.  That’s more annoying to people than helpful.  And any parent of a grown child who has stopped going to church knows that if he or she nags the situation will just get worse.

            No one ever said the task is easy, but Jesus gave us advice, “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves…” (Matthew 10:16).

            Driven by love we use our minds to creatively and endlessly witness to the love of God.  From there it is God’s work.  Our work, our privilege, is to share it.

            What about salvation of non-believers?  I can’t say.  The Bible doesn’t give a clear answer because that’s God’s business.  Our business is to let the question unsettle us into action.