Individual Progressive Revelation

How much does a person have to know or believe in order that, if he or she died, would go to heaven?

Would God wait on a person’s death if he or she was on the way to being saved? This question comes out of thinking about the goodness of God. God is perfect in His goodness by definition, so it seems safe to assume that God would do everything in His power to cause a person to live until they were to trust in Christ before he or she died.

I know a guy (Let’s call him “Man X”) who gave his life to Christ and about a year after faithfully coming to church came in my study and asked me in a roundabout way, “So, Jesus isn’t God, right?” As in, after coming to church for over a year, with him listening in the congregation faithfully every Sunday morning, Man X wanted clarity on this because he had heard that Jesus is God from someone else. The thing is, during the time that Man X was listening under me, I know for a fact that I have taught that Jesus is God over and over, nearly on a weekly basis. In fact, during this period, I was accused by a Jehovah’s Witness for teaching that Jesus is God in my sermons (he supposedly listened to at least one of my sermons, and accused me of not teaching what the Bible says, and that Jesus was God was his accusation against me). This proves that I was teaching the biblical doctrine that Jesus is God.

So what do we have here? Man X gave his life to Christ, but did not understand the most basic and one of the most fundamental doctrines in the history of Christianity. The question is, was he saved when he first gave his life to Christ (Though he did not believe that Jesus is God)?

The issue here, since we are talking about Jehovah’s Witnesses, is that Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is not God, as discussed above. Now, the way I would address this is that the J. W.’s are teaching a different Jesus than what the Bible teaches. We know that Jesus is God not only by what the Bible says about Him, but also by what Jesus says about Himself in the Bible. The Bible records what Jesus says (for instance, He said, “I and the Father are one;” see John 10:30), and the Bible records what Jesus did (for instance, raised people from the dead; see John 11). So not only did Jesus teach that He was God, but also, only God could do the things that Jesus did. Jesus showed the world that He is God.

With this in mind, that the J.W.’s teach a different Jesus, the question comes up, is the Jesus that the Watchtower Society teaches sufficient to save people from their sins? The answer is no. Paul says in Galatians 1:6-9,

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

There is no other gospel. Why? Because there is no other Jesus! God became man and came to earth to save us from our sin. He was raised on the third day and after He revealed Himself to a bunch of people, He ascended into heaven. He defeated death. This is not what the J.W.’s teach. It is not the same “Jesus.” What do they teach about Jesus? I have written on this pretty extensively on this in other areas, so please see the links underlined in the text. For now, I don’t want to get off track.

The question is then, is this Man X saved who came to Christ and then a year later learned that Jesus is God? Was he saved before he knew that Jesus is God? What is the difference between his experience and the experience of a J.W.? Since Schrödinger’s Cat doesn’t work in reality, we have to come to the conclusion that either he was saved or he wasn’t saved in this before he really knew period. This is different than the position of a Jehovah’s Witness in that their doctrine does not even allow for Jesus to be God. But in the case of Man X, he was always going to be on his way to know that Jesus is God. We can know this from hindsight.

The question is, would God send him to hell if he died before he came to know that Jesus is God, and gave his life to Christ, even to an insufficient Christ at the time?

For one thing, we are assuming that there is a case where it has happened that a person like Man X has died before fully knowing who Jesus really is, but the question is, should we assume such things (can we prove it?)? Secondly, God knows what Man X would choose in every possible world. Man X was already on the way to becoming a Christian (and did) who recognizes that Jesus is God. He trusted in Jesus being the way, the truth and the life before he knew that Jesus is God.

On top of all of this, Man X is still alive. This whole situation is based on a hypothetical situation. Man X, either way we look at it, is now in reality a follower of the true Jesus Christ and the true and only gospel. It was never the case where Man X died before he knew that Jesus is God. God in His sovereignty and goodness, sustained the life of Man X until he reached understanding and beyond his understanding of the deity of Jesus. Ultimately, then, this is an in-house debate, and hopefully something to get you curious. So did God wait on Man X to finally come to the truth? Or did He know what was going to happen all along?

It seems that this all goes to show that we need to be careful in what we assume that people believe about Jesus. This is where apologetics comes in. We should ask questions concerning the definitions of such things. This is one major thing in apologetics, discussing the definitions of certain words, like “Jesus” and “Christian” and “sin” and “salvation.” For instance, someone can say, “Jesus is my Savior” but what we should know behind that claim is “what do you mean by the word “Jesus” and “savior?” Mormons would say something very different than what a Christian would say. Mormon doctrine teaches that “Jesus” is the brother of Lucifer, the devil, and that Jesus is not God. About salvation, a Mormon would teach that “it is by grace you are saved, after all you can do.” There are extreme differences in the two comparisons here. In fact, they are in complete contradiction. The truth about reality then, cannot be both of these, but can only be one or the other at best. This is why we should not only know the truth, but we should know how to articulate it, and defend it.

Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus

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Apologetics and Evidence

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