The priest wasn’t telling the truth. I have used the same scenario in The Evidence Bible to show the foolishness of such a thought. God would be unjust to send anyone to Hell for not knowing something:
"No one will go to hell because they haven’t heard of Jesus Christ. The heathen will go to hell for murder, rape, adultery, lust, theft, lying, etc. Sin is not failing to hear the gospel. Rather, "sin is the transgression of the Law" (1 John 3:4). If we really care about the lost, we will become missionaries and take the good news of God’s forgiveness in Christ to them."
The confusion comes from misinterpreting the meaning of John 16:9: "Why will sinners go to Hell? Much damage has been done to the cause of the gospel by telling the world that they will go to hell 'because they don’t believe in Jesus.' This makes no sense to the ungodly. It seems unreasonable that God would eternally damn them for not believing something.
"However, the verse can be explained this way: If a man jumps out of a plane without a parachute, he will perish because of the results of gravity. Had he put on a parachute, he would have been saved. In one sense, he perished because he didn’t put on the parachute. But the primary reason he died was because of the effects of unforgiving gravitational pull.
"If a sinner refuses to trust in Jesus Christ when he passes through the door of death, he will perish. This isn’t because he refused to trust the Savior, but because he transgressed the Law of God. Had he 'put on the Lord Jesus Christ' (see Romans 13:14), he would have been saved; but because he refused to repent, he will suffer the full consequences of his sin. Sin is not 'failing to believe in Jesus.' Sin is ‘transgression of the Law’ (see 1 John 3:4)." From,The Evidence Bible.
Monday, April 12, 2010
