No 6

(What about those who never heard?)

In door-to-door evangelism, we encounter people who have legitimate questions about how God reveals Himself and to whom. Some of these questions are  : « What about the Pygmies in darkest Africa? » or «What about people who are totally isolated in Communist countries like China? » or « How about tribes in the Amazon jungle? ». All these people, they say, have never heard of Jesus; so how can God send them to eternal damnation? The answers to these questions are difficult to comprehend and, or to explain but we have a just God and He reveals Himself to those who truly seek Him out. There are examples of this in the Bible and we will look at two of them. But first let’s look a verse that Paul wrote to the Romans after he explained to them that God’s wrath against the unrighteous will be revealed. « For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse » (Romans 1 :20). In the book of Acts there are two people who diligently seeked God and He faithfully revealed Himself to them. One is an Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 :26-40 and the other is a Roman centurian, Cornelius in Acts 10. God saw the hearts of these two people and sent someone to tell them the good news of Jesus Christ; they are, in order : Philip and Peter. Now let’s look at an example that is not in the Bible but has the same pattern and the same outcome. Once, a missionary made his way in the jungles of Africa in search of a certain tribe to which he wanted to share the gospel. After many days of walking through dangerous terrain, he finally made it to this isolated tribe who, oddly enough were friendly to the gospel message. During the presentation, the chief stood up and said emphatically, « that’s the God of the blue flower ». As it turns out, the chief was walking through the jungle a few weeks prior to the missionary’s visit and had come across a beautiful blue flower; probably an orchid. The chief had said to himself : « I would like to meet the God who made that flower ». The missionary listened attentively to his story and of course used it to help the other members of the tribe understand the message of the gospel. The whole tribe came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. This story is another example of how God can revreal Himself to those who seek Him and maybe there is someone in your proximity who has said these very same words and is just waiting to hear the Gospel.