Kelvin O johnson@_OKJ__
Proper Christian dilemma.
Kelvin: Pastor, according to the Bible, people are saved by accepting Jesus into their hearts, right?
David Oyedepo: Yes. Salvation comes through Christ alone.
Kelvin: Then I have a question. What happened to all the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Africa before European colonization? Entire civilizations existed for centuries without ever hearing about Jesus.
Oyedepo: God is merciful, kelvin.
Kelvin: But were they saved or not?
Oyedepo: The Bible says Christ is the only way to the Father.
Kelvin: Exactly. So were the Aztecs, Maya, Inca, and countless native tribes in Africa condemned simply because nobody reached them with the gospel of Jesus?
Oyedepo: We cannot fully understand the mysteries of God’s judgment.
Kelvin: But surely there are only two possibilities.
Oyedepo: Go on.
Kelvin: Either people who never heard of Jesus can still be saved…
Oyedepo: God may judge people according to how well they lived their lives, their works … or light available to them
Kelvin: Okay, but if that’s true, then Christianity becomes unnecessary for salvation.
Oyedepo: How do you mean?
Kelvin: Because if isolated people can be saved without hearing about Jesus, then humanity doesn’t actually need Christianity. We could simply live our lives and be judged by our actions and conscience…just like those indigenous people supposedly would be.
Oyedepo: Evangelism is still important.
Kelvin: But not necessary for salvation in that case. If people can reach heaven without Christianity, then Christianity is irrelevant as a requirement for salvation.
Oyedepo: Hmm.
Kelvin: But the other option is worse.
Oyedepo: Which is?
Kelvin: That people who never heard the gospel are automatically condemned.
Oyedepo: but The wages of sin is death.
Kelvin: But they never rejected Jesus. They were simply born in the wrong place and time. They were ignorant through no fault of their own.
Oyedepo: God’s ways are higher than ours.
Kelvin: Then that would mean Christianity describes a being willing to punish billions of people eternally for circumstances completely outside their control. It could even be argued that evangelizing to people is more likely to take them to hell than heaven since if they could live their lives without learning about Christianity and still make heaven , learning about the gospel but rejecting it because they were not convinced would take them to hell regardless of how they lived their life. Which makes evangelism a net negative for salvation.
Oyedepo: …
Kelvin: So either people can be saved without Christianity…. making Christianity irrelevant for salvation…or they cannot, which makes the Christian system evil because innocent ignorance becomes grounds for eternal punishment.
Oyedepo: Kelvin…
Kelvin: Either Christianity is unnecessary, or it is morally monstrous.
Oyedepo: We will be praying for you.
