“You’ll never change anyone’s mind about God,” wrote Greg Koukl over at Stand to Reason recently. I completely agree with him. Even the most formidable apologists for the Christian faith never save anyone. It’s the Lord who opens blinded eyes and stopped ears. It’s the Holy Spirit of God who testifies along with our testimony. Without his work in the hearts of unbelievers, Christians are powerless to accomplish anything of eternal value. We are utterly dependent on him.
Let me give you a perfect example.
A Perfect Example
One thing about writing on Christian subjects in a public forum like the internet: you never know who may end up reading what you’ve written. We received this anonymous comment on an older post yesterday:
“This God of yours is going to send billions to hell for simple things. The simplicity of the sins is almost laughable. And you are calling such a person good and loving. In fact, you are asking nations to praise an avowed ‘enemy of humankind’. If you know them by the fruits, then what more bitter fruit is there than jehovah, the ethnic cleanser of the bronze age. You Christians are crazed or you do not see the consequences of worshipping a criminal.”
Hmm. Think there’s any chance of changing this person’s mind about God? I certainly can’t do it. But I do believe the Lord can.
Anonymous was commenting on a post about treachery, in which I gave three biblical examples of that sin: Saul misusing his God-given authority to bring harm on his nation, the disloyalty of Eliphaz to his friend Job, and Jeremiah’s use of the image of a wife who deserts her faithful husband to “trade up”. Possibly none of these struck Anonymous as particularly egregious offenses. He or she writes, “The simplicity of the sins is almost laughable.” I assume by “simple” Anonymous means violations of charity so trivial and commonplace that one should hardly expect God to bother addressing them at all, let alone calling men and women to account for them over the course of eternity.
Almost Laughable Simplicity
I suppose a faithful husband abandoned by a cheating wife may disagree, but for the sake of argument, let’s grant Anonymous’s point. Saul’s edict showed terrible judgment, but in the end, nobody actually died. Eliphaz’s failure to give Job the benefit of the doubt was painful for his friend, but in the end, nothing terrible happened to Eliphaz, and God restored Job’s fortunes twice over. And the husband/wife scenario in Jeremiah is, after all, only an analogy; in real life, the only one cheated on was God. So, fair point, Anonymous, no human beings were irreparably harmed in any of my examples. No lives were cut short and no blood flowed. Let’s agree the examples I cited are simple things common to mankind: authority figures make the occasional bad decision, friends make the occasional miscue, wives occasionally cheat on their husbands.
God is holy, and if he wanted to send anyone or everyone to hell for a single offense you or I might consider trivial, I would have no argument. Who am I to argue with my Maker? But in fact that is never the case. Nobody goes to hell for one sin, let alone one trivial sin. Solomon writes, “God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” It won’t be one strike and you’re out, even if it could be. At the great white throne, God will judge the dead by every single thing they have done over the course of their entire lives, all the “simple things” and many things much, much worse.
Surely even Anonymous might agree there are some things people do that deserve hell. Perhaps ethnic cleansing* would qualify?
God and Fairness
In fact, God has let quintillions of offenses slide throughout human history, both major and minor. Paul told the Athenians, “The times of ignorance God overlooked” and the Romans that in his divine forbearance God passed over former sins. Jesus himself encouraged his followers to love their enemies because the Father sets them an example by making his sun rise on the evil and the good, and by sending rain on both the just and the unjust. We see this all around us in life: God allows leaders with bad judgment to continue leading, false friends to continue talking nonsense, cheating wives to hurt one man after another and, for that matter, cheating husbands to hurt partner after partner. He does not immediately pass judgment on the basis of a few “simple” transgressions, but allows even his enemies to “store up wrath” for themselves over the entire course of their lives, establishing long term patterns of behavior that reveal what is in their hard and impenitent hearts.
Speaking of hearts, if the great white throne were a judgment based on human standards, we might call it unfair, since we can only look at a person’s actions and not their motives. God is not limited in this way. Scripture says, “God looks on the heart.” Jesus says, “I am he who searches mind and heart.” Paul writes that the Lord “will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart”. God knows not just the things we have done but all the things we would do if we thought we could get away with it. When God judges the world, nobody will be treated unfairly.
Clearing the Record
Furthermore, the Bible teaches the very worst offenses may be cleared off the record — all those quintillions, if necessary — whether against other people or against God himself. “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people.” This includes, for example, calling God a criminal. It also includes all sexual offenses, idolatry, thievery and greed, just for starters. Those who ask God for forgiveness can absolutely count on receiving it. Paul writes about people who had lived lives of sin and says, “Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” If God had made no way of escape for sinners, we might have something to complain about, but that is not the case.
If billions of people eventually go to hell, it will be because they preferred it to a relationship with the Father that he freely offers us through putting our trust in his Son for salvation, not because God is without mercy.
But Greg Koukl is right: In and of itself, nothing I say about God can change anyone’s mind. Only the Lord himself can do that. All the best, Anonymous, and thank you for your comment.
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* I am assuming “ethnic cleaning” refers to the divinely ordained Israelite conquest of Canaan (“save alive nothing that breathes”). The sins of the Canaanites were anything but trivial. If incinerating generations of infants is the sort of sin Anonymous finds “almost laughable”, we will just have to agree to disagree. Moreover, God granted even this despicable culture four hundred years to repent before judging it. Further, in the process of judging Canaan, God preserved alive any Canaanites who put their trust in YHWH, including prostitutes and traitors. One of these even became an ancestor of Messiah.
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