Bible Students

Some Thoughts on “On Guard” by William Lane Craig (chapter 10)

This week’s reading covers the tenth chapter of On Guard, “Is Jesus the Only Way to God?” The Bible makes the explicit claim that Jesus is the only way to God. In fact, it says there is salvation by no other name under heaven. As Christianity was spread throughout the globe and cultures clashed, an important question began to be asked: Is Jesus really the only way to heaven? Many other cultures have their own views of how to get to heaven, as well as their own set of values which make them to be virtuous people for the most part, even in the eyes of Christians. Will they be condemned to hell, even though their works are better than the works of many Christians? 

The short answer is, yes. No one truly lives righteously. This is made especially clear when considering that even Christians are not allowed into heaven based on their good works, but on the works of Jesus. The goodness of a Christian is something that grows after salvation, and is not the determiner of it. There are many good people, but I believe there is a strong case to be made that the primary moral responsibility of every person is to “love the Lord your God,” and only afterwards “love your neighbor as yourself.” I remember watching a popular teacher online address a statement made by an atheist. The atheist challenged his audience by saying, “show me one moral thing a Christian can do that an atheist can not do.” The online teacher, reflecting on this, then noted that the primary difference between Christians and atheists is loving God. This is the first and primary moral command. Even people of other religions who seem to be outwardly good are inwardly evil, for they have rejected God. 

Many will criticize Christianity for its exclusivism. Many believe it is cruel to claim exclusivism in regards to Christ’s redemptive work. However, truth often seems unkind to those with hardened hearts. Others will say that the belief of exclusivism is a result of cultural upbringing, and therefore does not have factual basis. This is an example of the genetic fallacy. A genetic fallacy is where an individual criticizes a belief based on the way it arose, usually the cultural setting, and uses this as a basis for rejecting the idea. However, many exlucists, including myself, do not believe in exclusivism because of cultural upbringing, but because of the testimony of the Bible. 

Some important points on exclusivism must be made. Firstly, God does not send anyone to hell. People themselves choose to reject God’s revelation and choose to be apart from Him. One particularly interesting view of hell is the idea of purposefully moving away from God for eternity. In this view, people who are in hell want to be in hell, because it is furthest from God. They hate God. So far as they continue to hate God, they will stay in hell. However, hell only makes their hatred stronger, and so they stay in eternal punishment forever. 

Punishment in hell is equal to the crime. This is a fearful thing to say, knowing full-well each and every peron, including myself, is deserving of eternal punishment. The punishment of hell seems too harsh. Even to myself, I find myself wishing the punishment for sins was different. In my corrupted view of morality, I would rather believe in universalism, annihilationism, or a temporary hell. However, I know my view of punishment is not what it should be. I do not understand the enormous gravity of sin, and this is clear based on the revelation of God of an eternal hell. Hell is eternal because the punishment for sin is eternal. 

Another thing to note is that technically, nobody goes to hell for sin, except the sin of unbelief. People are on the route to hell due to sin, but the only reason they actually arrive is because of their unbelief in God. In this sense, hell is the easiest thing in the world to avoid, yet many choose to not avoid it. 

God judges people based on the revelation given to them. This means some people, who may not epistemologically know Christ, could have a relationship with God. God could save them due to the sacrifice of Christ, even if they do not consciously know His Name. However, there is little optimism many people would be like this.

To develop this idea a bit further, there are both general and special revelation in the world, from the beginning of time. General revelation is given to everyone. These include the elements of the beginning of the universe which anyone could reason from to conclude there is a God. Special revelation is given to certain individuals. However, there is also another type of revelation, which is a sort of observational revelation. I would argue the two types of special revelation, interpreted and uninterpreted, can be two different types of revelation. For example, consider ancient Egyptians in the time when Israelites were slaves. An Egyptian could observe a miracle without inspired theological explanation (that which followed after as the miracles were recorded in Scripture with inspired commentary). One can observe observational revelation, which does not have the same kind of universality of general revelation, and without the inspired commentary of God or the biblical authors. 

Why did God not create a world where all people were saved? In a world with free will, this is not practically possible. There is no way to “make” someone believe the gospel. People have the free will to believe it or not. This brings a great relief to evangelists and missionaries, which I hope to be, since the conversion of souls is not the responsibility of the evangelist or missionary. It is the Spirit’s responsibility. The responsibility of the one speaking about Jesus is to faithfully speak about Him. The Spirit will do His work and convert souls. 

One last important note is that no one will be lost due to accident. In other words, everyone knows and rejects or accepts God. There is no one who needed more information. All people are without excuse. This is a very scary thought, and brings enormous urgency to the proclamation of the gospel. For me personally, this is a huge motivation for spreading the gospel through word and deed in my life, and in future vocational ministry.