Secrets from Beyond The Grave

Also referenced are the scripture passages that speak of Christ's descent into the heart of the earth to preach the gospel there. Proponents include church fathers such as Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John of Damascus. Many nineteenth- and twentieth-century theologians and commentators teach this as well; they include John Lange, Herbert Luckock, Thomas Field, and George Lindbeck, among others. 7. The unevangelized are saved or lost on the basis of their commitment to God. Proponents teach that, even though salvation is through the work of Jesus, salvation can be received through general revelation and recognition of God's providential work throughout history. They teach that while Christ's sacrifice on the cross was necessary for salvation, explicit knowledge of what Christ has done is not necessary for salvation. Thus it is possible for the unevangelized to be saved without having knowledge of Christ or the exact nature of His gift to humanity. There are many well-known proponents of this belief. They include Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, Matthew Henry, John Wesley, A.H. Strong, and C.S. Lewis. Perhaps you were unaware that scholars throughout church history have sought so diligently to answer the question, "What happens to those who die without hearing the gospel?" Dr. Blowers's paper does an excellent job of summarizing the various beliefs, the scriptures used to back up their beliefs, and how each belief impacts evangelization and missions' work. Since his article is available on the Internet, you can go to the link and read it in its entirety. You might be encouraged to do your own research on this topic.8 From Jack Harris Jack Harris, president of Global Messengers in Fenton, Missouri, is an international missionary. He contributed the following for this section of the book. Men of all religions around the world, and those who have no religious background, all search for the Creator in some form. There is something within each person that eventually causes that person to make a quest to find out who put him on Earth and how he can communicate with the person responsible for all things. In many civilizations and cultures, god worship takes on many forms, ranging from ritualistic dances to human sacrifices, and even offering infants to a particular god. It was Solomon who wrote: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end" (Eccles. 3:11). When God set eternity in the hearts of men, He put a deep expectation and sense of eternity and of what the future holds. It is like each man has a compulsion to know about God. When Ecclesiastes says, "He made everything beautiful in its time," it tells us that God put in man the ability to see His beautiful creation, and that places within mankind a desire for what may be unknown to him at the present but causes him to search for eternal things. Eventually men realize there must be more to life than what they now see. This eternal feeling is especially strong when a person is about to pass from this life. In my travels around the world, I have visited and lived in several cultures. In India, the Hindus believe there are many gods, even millions of them, and that somehow they all lead to one God. Even though Malaysia is primarily an Islamic nation, my family lived in a Buddhist community. As we learned about their culture and religious beliefs, we found that when men in