What attracted me to this book initially was the back cover summary saying "In our shrinking, pluralistic world, the belief that Jesus is the only way of salvation is increasingly called arrogant and even hateful. In the face of this criticism, many shrink back from affirming the global necessity of knowing and believing in Jesus". This really issued a challenge to be me because so often, when I encounter people who do not believe in or know Jesus, I will be concerned that the topic of my Christianity will come up before its due time and then they will be afraid of me and not want to be friends with me anymore. I know how wrong this is and that I should be like a race horse in the starting gate with my excited anticipation of presenting the Gospel. Part of my timidness is exactly as stated - that I will be perceived as "arrogant" in my belief that I have found 'the meaning of life' and 'the true path to joy and contentment'. My generation has been so ingrained with the concept of adopting post-modernism as the only way to truly show someone that you love them. We must move out of this mind-set that is causing unprecedented levels of depression, divorce and discontent in our day and age. How he managed to pack the answer to this question into 123 small pages is beyond me!!
Back to Dr. Piper's book...
In the introduction, he presents "what is at stake in surrendering the universal necessity of believing on Jesus in order to be saved" (p. 9). We must not lose the concept of knowing and believing the Bible. "If we are cut loose from the anchor of God's Word, we will not be free. We will be slaves of personal passions and popular trends" (p. 10). We must not lose our desire for people in other religions to come to salvation in Christ. "All who call upon the name of Jesus will be saved, but they cannot call on the One they have not heard, and they cannot hear without a preacher" (p. 12) (John 14:6; Romans 10:13-14). We must not lose the realization that our own souls are at stake. "If we embrace a limitation on the universal necessity of the gospel to be heard and believed, we will begin to lose the gospel, and with it our own souls...you cannot diminish the gospel without being diminished yourself" (p. 13). As the Westminster Shorter Catechism so perfectly states, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever". Keeping that in mind, we must preach the Gospel because "God opens the eyes of the blind when his spokesmen portray Jesus Christ. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the world - to glorify Jesus (John 16:14)" (p. 15).
To answer the question of the title of the book, Dr. Piper believes that we must make three enquiries:
Question #1: Will anyone experience eternal conscious torment under God's wrath?
Question #2: Is the work of Christ necessary for salvation?
Question #3: Is conscious faith in Christ necessary for salvation?
Question #1 - It's so difficult for me to even conceive of putting fingers to keyboard on this subject. What a loaded topic! Even if what I'm typing here is someone else's words, I must admit that I am in agreement with him. To say that I believe in hell and all that it entails feels like offering to stand in front of a firing squad, just because I can.
Dr. Piper gets right to the heart of the matter by saying "finite vastness and horror are designed to make infinite vastness and holiness more clear" (p. 31) and "the horror of hell - its torments and its eternity - is designed to make clear the infinite value of God's glory and the moral horror of idolatry" (p. 32). His purpose for the remainder of the chapter is to present Scripture that supports this position. He breaks down the Greek meaning of the original text which helps tremendously to sharpen the vision of what hell truly is.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12 cf. Luke 3:17)
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28 cf. Luke 12:4-5)
And these will go away in eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matthew 25:46)
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name" (Revelation 14:11)
...they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)
He offers many more Scriptures as well as presents arguments throughout against annihilationism. If we truly look to the Word for this answer, we cannot escape what it so clearly says - "hell is a dreadful reality" (p. 48). "The essential thing is that degrees of blameworthiness come not from how long you offend dignity, but from how high the dignity is that you offend" (p. 50).
The answer to the second question reveals whether there is another way to be saved besides the work of Christ. Dr. Piper proves very succinctly that the unequivocal answer is "No". "The crucial point here is the universality of the work of Christ in regard to all humanity" (p. 54).
The work of Christ in the obedience of the cross is pictured as the divine answer to the plight of the whole human race. It is not presented as one way among many to remedy the condemnation that happened to all humans through Adam. The obedience of one man, Christ Jesus, is God's answer to the fallenness of the whole human race. (p. 54)Revelation 5:9 states "for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation" (italics mine), which shows us that God's intention was for Jesus to be the Saviour for all people in every part of the world. Acts 4:12 could not be more clear on this subject - "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved". The reason Dr. Piper wants us to understand this so clearly is that the foundation of mission work is this very concept.
Whew, okay, that is only the first half of the book. My brain is actually hurting a little (well maybe more than a little) so I'm going to end this post here and write about the latter half of the book down the road. Maybe next time I'll tackle something much less controversial, like parenting. Ya, right!!
Praying that you are gleaning......
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free - John 8:32
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth - John 17:17
I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins - Acts 26:17-18
Heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him - 2 Chronicles 2:6
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. - Deuteronomy 29:29
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.' - Romans 3:9-12
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