Greetings gregor,
You have just hit on one of the most dogging and haunting questions ever raised by the Christian faith. (i.e. What happens to all those who lived before the coming of Christ or to those who have never heard the Gospel?) I must say you do like to open cans of worms.<g>
Of course there is no totally satisfactory answer for the thinking Christian this side of heaven. However having said that, let me throw out a few thoughts on an issue. First I need to set the background.
I would suggest that God is a just and loving God. To those who would point to how the nature of God has seemed to change through out the Bible, I would suggest that it is just that: "seemed to change". I believe that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I believe that the Bible records throughout history how God's people viewed their God and how God continued to bring them along to a fuller and more complete understanding. I would suggest that God inspired the thoughts of the Biblical writers, allowing them to put down in their own words what God had revealed to them.
I would suggest that its not God's nature which has changed, but God's people's understanding of God's nature which has changed. When I first read the Old testament from a literal point of view as a teen, I found a God I could not respect or worship. I found a God who supported the beating of slaves as long as they didn't die. (Ex. 21:20) I found a God who ordered Parents to execute their children if they curse them. (Ex. 21:17) I found a God who ordered the destruction of nations and the plunder of their wealth. (Num 31:1-12) I found a God that condoned the killing of all the children except for the virgin girls who the soldiers were to save for their own use. (Num. 31:17-18) I could continue for hours, but I think you see the point I am making.
I also found a Bible that denied what we know to be the truth. For example in Joshua 10:12-14 we find an account were the Lord stopped the sun from circling the earth for a day so that Israel could continue to wage their war against the Amorites. Clearly the writer did not understand that it is the earth which journeys around the sun and if the earth did stop spinning in order to lengthen the day that the gravitational pull would destroy it.
Early in my Christian Journey I rejected the literal interperation of the Bible which generally is derived from a "verbal" view of inspiration and adopted what is known as the "dynamic" view of inspiration. Clifton J. Allen in describing the view of dynamic inspiration stated: "a dynamic view of inspiration is not dependent on a mystical, inexplicable, and unverifiable inerrancy in every word of Scripture or on the concept that inspiration can allow no error of fact or substance. Rather, it accepts the Bible in wholeness and unity as inspired: inerrant as the only completely authentic witness to God's self-revelation in Christ and his salvation through Christ; inerrant because its truth is the perfect instrument of the Spirit to bring men to faith and righteousness and hope; and inerrant because its teaching, interpreted by the life and work of Christ, is the infallible guide as to how the people of God ought to live and what they can surely believe under the leading of the Spirit of Christ."
Now to your question: Would you agree that somehow through the ages and through the dispensations and through the prophets and the law that God has kept the playing field level?
Gregor, I believe that God deals fairly with all mankind. I believe that God deals with each person at the level of their understanding. To whom much is given, much is required! Luke 13:47-48 says: "that servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (NIV)
Doesn't the 11th Chapter Hebrews make the case that for those who were faithful to the knowledge they had, God was was proud to be "called their God"? (Heb. 11:16) The list reads like the list of who's who of the Old Testament starting with Abel. The writer goes on to say that "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." (Heb. 11:39-40) Note that they are included at the "Final Arrival": "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteours men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."
Those who believe they know the full truth and who wish to limit the free will of God may want to read again John 10:16. For some reason when Christians quote Jesus from John Chapter 10 they seem to always stop at the 15th verse. The 16th verse says "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd." (NIV)
Who are these other sheep? Are they only the Gentiles? Could they be the Baptists or the Pentecostals? Could they be the Native American Indian who worshiped their God of creation long before the Gospel reached these shores? Could it even possibly be the followers of other world religions? I don't know!
What I do know is that God has given me only one Gospel to take forth as a Christian and it is the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
To complicate the answer to your question further take a look at 1 Peter 3:18-20 were the writer says: "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built."
There are those who hold the view that the phrase "who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built" was an illustration of the type of spirits Jesus preached to. They would go on to say that Christ "in the spirit" went to Hades between his death and resurrection in order to "offer salvation to sinners who had died without hearing the gospel and getting a chance to repent."(The interpreter's Bible)
Could you ask an easier question next time?<g>
Cisco |
