Question: Dear Greg,
I have two questions. I’ve always heard that this isn’t the time of salvation and that no one can come to the Father lest the Father draw him. I’m a bit confused. From other teachings, it appears that if you don’t give your heart to the Lord before you die then you are lost. What happens to our loved ones if they don’t repent and turn their lives over to God before they die?
Thanks,
Linda
Answer: Dear Linda,
There is nothing in the Bible that specifically states that “this” (whenever someone lives) isn’t the time of salvation, but that there is a later “time”. This kind of idea would, of course, give rise to the idea of “who cares” or “why try?” because God will take care of everything at some other “time”. In fact, both Old and New Testaments militate against such an idea, with urgency and repentance preached. People were urged to repent, and in the New Testament, to accept Jesus Christ. If “this” is not the time to be saved, then why the urgency in the Bible?
What happens to Communists, Buddhists, Moslems, atheists, etc.? The Bible does not answer that. Whether these people are our loved ones or not, the Bible does not answer the question. For example, the Bible does not tell us “why” about many things. Why does God let bad things happen to good people? The Bible doesn’t say, exactly—it says that bad things do happen but the “why” is not fully explained. When the Bible doesn’t explain something we can safely conclude that our loving heavenly Father has given us what we need and for some reason those things which are not essential have not been revealed. It is possible to spend a great deal of time speculating about what God has not revealed and at the same time miss what he has. At Plain Truth Ministries we believe that the main things given to us in the Bible are the plain things. The main, important and critical things are plain, they can be understood, they’re available and we don’t need to be rocket scientists or Hebrew and Greek scholars to understand.
Hope this helps.
In Christ,