Laying a Charge to God’s Elect
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I am greatly discouraged by the sheer number of church pastors who apparently feel quite comfortable telling others they are going to hell. Apparently, they have some sort of insider information the rest of us don’t have. I don’t know if God has audibly spoken to them or if He has given them a sneak preview of the Lamb’s book of life, but they obviously know something the rest of us don’t if they can tell people they’re going to hell.
Someone sent me a direct message on Twitter the other day. She said, “I want to know if I am going to hell. Theoretically, of course. I was saved then I decided I don’t believe in Jesus years later. I did sincerely believe. Now I sincerely don’t. My dad–a minister–says I am going to hell. But I’m confused as to why.”
This seems to be a very common occurrence these days. Maybe it’s always been. I don’t know. But there are a lot of preachers bluntly telling others they are going to hell. I have known of people on their deathbed who have been told by a minister that he can’t preach their funeral because they’re not saved. Some minister, right? You’re dying and you’re going to hell. Good luck to you.
This is something that disturbs me on many levels. Primarily, it disturbs me because no one can rightfully make that assumption about another person. How can we possibly know? It’s a bit funny. If I was to tell another person they are committing a sin and I knew it because I had seen it with my own two eyes, they are likely to say to me, “Judge not that ye be not judged.” Yet, many Christians apparently feel entirely comfortable telling someone they are going to hell. Is it just me or there something wrong with this picture?
I can rightfully judge a person according to their actions. In fact, in the same chapter of the Bible as that verse–judge not that ye be not judged–the Lord actually instructs us to judge. He said, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine.” How can we possible follow that teaching without identifying–or judging–a person to be a dog or swine? When he said, “Judge not that ye be not judged,” He was not telling us to never judge. He was telling us to judge properly. Of course, he essentially condemns self-righteousness and hypocrisy in that lesson. But I believe we can take it a step further.
In Romans chapter 8, Paul asked, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” This is where we get into the limits of the kinds of judgments we are allowed to make. We can look at person’s actions and determine if they are right and wrong according to the Bible. I can label a person an adulterer if they’ve committed adultery. But what I cannot and should not do is assume a person is hell-bound. In fact, there is only one person throughout all of history I would feel even remotely comfortable in assuming they are in hell and that is Esau of the Bible. The only reason I would make that assumption is because we’re told God hated him. God did not just hate what Esau had done, but God hated him, we’re told.
Is Adolf Hitler in hell? I don’t know. What about Judas Iscariot? I really don’t know. No one does. We like to assume they are. We all know they deserve it. But don’t we all?
I was talking to a woman a few years ago after Michael Jackson died and she said to me, “I’m glad he’s dead and I’m glad he’s burning in hell as we speak.” Wow. Excuse me, I’ll have a plate of self-righteousness with a side of hypocrisy, please. First of all, there’s a big difference between accusation of guilt and actually being guilty. We have no idea if Michael Jackson ever did was he was accused of doing. Second of all, how can we possibly know he’s in hell? I call it self-righteousness because when we make such bold assumptions we are claiming to know what only God Himself knows. Not only that, but we assume this person we’ve condemned with our tongues is more deserving of hell than we are. Let’s not forget what Paul wrote. He said:
There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
It’s pretty hard to sincerely confess you’re in need of a savior because of your sin while at the same time condemning another for his sins and suggesting he belongs in hell. Do you know what I mean?
A few years ago Joel Osteen, pastor of the largest church in the United States, was on Larry King Live and he said a few things that got a lot Christians really riled up. He was asked about Jews and Muslims and atheists and whether or not these people are going to hell. Here’s what he said:
He really struggled a bit there because in one breath he suggested only those who profess a belief in Christ and live as a disciple can go to heaven and in another breath he said he couldn’t judge anyone because he can’t see their hearts. He got a ton of flack for that. A lot of Christians believed he was denying that Christ is the only way to heaven. Well, that’s not exactly what he said. He was half right–just not the half he gets credit for.
The key to knowing whether a person is saved lies somewhere in their heart. In Acts 26, Paul was talking with King Agrippa and he asked Agrippa, “Believest thou the prophets?” In other words, he was asking if Agrippa believed Jesus of Nazareth was, in fact, the Son of God. To which Agrippa replied, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” Agrippa would not profess a belief in Christ nor was he willing to live the life of a disciple and yet Paul said, “I know that thou believest.”
Wait a minute. Agrippa just said he didn’t believe. He didn’t admit he believed and he refused to live like he believed. So, how could Paul make such a claim? Well, Paul was an apostle. He had special insight that we can’t have today. Paul could look into Agrippa’s heart and know he was a believer which signified, of course, Agrippa was a saved person. Paul knew he was saved. The Lord knew he was saved. But Agrippa himself didn’t know he was saved. How is that possible?
Through Ezekiel God said, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Let me explain this in the most simple terms I know how. We don’t just wake up one morning and decide to believe. God has to first make us able to believe. He does so by giving us a new heart. In other places in the Bible, we see it described as God giving us spiritual life or making us born of His Spirit.
In John chapter 3, Jesus told a man by the name of Nicodemus he could not enter or even see the kingdom of God without first being born of the Spirit. In the conclusion of that lesson, Jesus tells him the Spirit moves when it and where it wants. In Second Corinthians, Paul said a natural man yet without spiritual life cannot receive things of the Spirit of God. When we put all of this together we understand we can’t believe or please God in anyway until we have been born of His Spirit which He sovereignly imposes on us. We don’t make that choice. At some point in our natural lives, God gives to us a new heart. At that point, we technically have a believer’s heart even if–like King Agrippa–our minds or actions don’t recognize it.
Romans chapter 2 says, “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts.” In other words, whether a person realizes it or not, he may have this new heart given by God which contains the fruits of the Spirit described in Galatians chapter 5–joy, love, meekness, even faith–though he may never make a public declaration of his belief or show virtually evidence of it. That’s how Paul could say Agrippa was a believer though Agrippa himself said he wasn’t.
By the way, I’m not getting sidetracked. This all fits in with our subject. I know every preacher out there places different conditions on us for eternal salvation. One preacher says we’ve got to openly profess a belief in Christ to be saved. Another says we’ve got to be baptized. So on and so forth. But where does Christ fit into our theology concerning this eternal salvation?
We’re told concerning Christ, “He shall save his people from their sins.” Isn’t that what all Christians believe? We all believe Christ is our savior. Isn’t that kind of the point of our religion? Yet, so many absolutely diminish the role He played in our everlasting lives. So much so, in fact, for countless people, His sacrifice was of no effect because these people didn’t fulfill the arbitrary requirements placed upon them by various preachers. You have to find it somewhat amusing when a preacher tells you–though he’ll never word it this way–that Christ saved you from your sins you unless you commit this particular sin over here. I’m sorry but Christ didn’t save you from that one. To them, Christ may have saved you from murder but not unbelief.
The truth is Christ saved everyone He intended to save. No exceptions. Anytime in the Bible we read how the Lord saved it is never followed by an if, and, or but. He just saved. He gets all of the credit and His love was unconditional. That means no conditions can be placed upon it before we receive it.
Yes, all saved people will believe–that is, they’ll have a believing heart. However, it is God who gives us that believing heart. We think we’ve got to go out and get a believing heart or born again or whatever, in order to be saved. No, the opposite is true. God gives us a believing heart to those who are saved. That is essentially the beginning of our everlasting life. Jesus said we’d be born of water. Then, in John chapter 4, He tells the Samaritan woman, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
To make the entire process really simple, let me explain it as a list of events. One, Christ saved a people. Two, those people are born of His Spirit at a time He chooses. Three, those people then have an obligation to openly believe and serve Him. Whether they do or not, it doesn’t matter in the eternal scheme of things because Christ already did the saving. As Paul said, “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.”
If you’re really thinking this through, then I imagine you’re next question is: If eternal salvation is completely unconditional as you say, then who gets saved and who doesn’t? That’s an excellent question. I’ll let Paul answer that one as he did to the Ephesians. He said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
I’ll tell you folks, I could spend all day on this and get really in-depth with it. But the point I wanted to make in all of this is that we cannot possibly know if a person is going to hell. If they are saved and have been born of the Spirit, there’s a chance they will outwardly display their faith. I believe we can assume a person is saved and going to heaven by the good fruits they bear. However, we cannot do the opposite. Like King Agrippa, a person may have a believing heart–they may be a saved child of God–but show no outward signs of it. Does that make sense to you?
“Condemning Assumptions | 071 Coffee & Cigarettes” Transcript
About The Author
Jeremy Sarber
I'm the pastor of one of the most blessed churches in all the world. I'm married to the most wonderful woman to walk the face of the earth. I'm host of possibly the most unconventional podcast on the Internet. I am thankful because I deserve none of it. Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email
