WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT ETERNAL DESTINY
Let us leave the speculative wanderings of Dr. Fackre and turn to the teachings of Jesus. Wise students of Scripture know that a proper approach to the parables of Jesus is to distinguish between the main point of the parable and secondary points that sometimes may simply provide helpful background. Jesus’ parable about the rich fool in Luke 12:16–21, for example, is a warning against greed. The rich man kept building bigger and bigger barns until he finally thought he could rest on his stored wealth; but God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you” (v. 20). Jesus then made clear the essential message of the parable: “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” Let us not be too quick to close our Bibles, however; it is not irrelevant that Jesus added the point that the rich fool’s eternal destiny was sealed when he died.
Jesus taught the same thing in His parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19–31. We read that Lazarus died, and “the rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side” (vv. 22–23). I am well aware that the primary message of this parable warns against using our resources in this life improperly; but, I note again, the fixed destiny of the two men in Jesus’ story is not irrelevant to Jesus’ teaching. In these and other teachings of Jesus that we will examine shortly, He repeatedly taught that physical death seals our eternal destiny.
Other teachings relevant to the issue before us appear in Matthew 7. Jesus issued a warning about false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing (vv. 15–20) and concluded by saying, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (v. 19). The emphasis, once again, is on what occurs during an earthly lifetime. In verses 21–23, Jesus spoke of those who will come to Him at the judgment, saying, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” (v. 22). Jesus reports that He will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (v. 23). Once again, postmortem judgment is based on premortem conditions. The point likewise appears in verses 24–27, Jesus’ well-known story of the two men who built their respective houses, one on rock and the other on sand. Some decisions in this life have eternal consequences.
We do well also to study Jesus’ parables in Matthew 13. Explaining the parable of the weeds (vv. 24–30, 36–43), Jesus states, “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil” (vv. 40–41). The sin and evil referred to here must pertain to things done prior to one’s death. There are no qualifications in this or other passages; there are no hints of exceptions arising from events after death. A similar point appears in Matthew 24:41–46.
In Revelation 20:11–15, John recorded a vision of the judgment before the great white throne, where “the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books” (v. 12). The clear message again is that judgment is based on our earthly lives.
In these passages and others, I contend, one simple point stands out: physical death marks the boundary of human opportunity. Anyone who wishes to argue that Jesus and the authors of the New Testament believed otherwise must shoulder the burden of proof. Given the serious implications of a belief in postmortem salvation for evangelism and missions, the total silence of Scripture regarding opportunities after death should convince us that this idea is wrong; moreover, the theological arguments offered by Fackre and others are highly suspect.
AN INTERESTING SOURCE OUTSIDE SCRIPTURE
The early Christian writing known as 2 Clement is not part of the New Testament; nonetheless, it reflects the thinking of Christians during the church’s first century. Second Clement 8.3 states that “after we have gone out of the world, no further power of confessing or repenting will there belong to us.”[sup]8[/sup] It is possible that this assertion became necessary because some may have raised the prospect of salvation after death as the first century drew to a close. I also suggest that comments as clear as 2 Clement 8.3 do not appear in the New Testament because they simply were not needed among the members of a community whose every action recognized that physical death marked the boundary of human opportunity to be saved.
HEBREWS 9:27
Let us not forget Hebrews 9:27 as well: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” Many proponents of PME claim that this verse is the only New Testament text that even comes close to declaring death as the boundary of human opportunity. Even if it is the only explicit passage, we have just examined several other New Testament passages about divine judgment that presuppose this fact. It is clear from this verse, nonetheless, that the judgment of each human reflects that person’s standing with God at the moment of death.
THE BURDEN OF PROOF
With few exceptions, evangelicals believe that after the death and resurrection of Jesus, explicit personal faith in Jesus Christ before death is a necessary condition for salvation. John Sanders and Clark Pinnock (my two representatives of inclusivism) and Gabriel Fackre (my representative of postmortem salvation) speak for the still small number of people within evangelicalism who dispute this understanding of the Christian gospel. Sanders and Pinnock would have us think that what all or most of us have regarded as bedrock on many issues is simply wrong; and Fackre, who wants us to think that physical death is not the end of a human’s opportunity for salvation, is asking us to make a remarkable shift. The seriousness of such claims advanced by these men surely will result in their assuming the burden of proof for their positions, and this burden thus far has not been met. Their arguments, rather, have proven to be logically inconsistent and lacking in biblical support.
I am not suggesting that large numbers of Christians cannot be wrong about some commonly accepted interpretation of Scripture. In fact, I think this is the case with regard to some widely held beliefs about the second coming of Christ. Such beliefs, however, seldom touch any matter so central to the Christian faith as the scope of salvation. It is one thing to disagree over the timing of the second coming in relation to the tribulation and the millennium; it is quite another to discover that we have been mistaken about the meaning of such essential passages as Romans 10:9–10 and John 3:17–18. Sanders, Pinnock, and Fackre, nevertheless, are asking Christians today to reshuffle the deck and commit themselves to a totally new understanding of who and how God saves. I believe, as my articles in this series make clear, their work marks a major break with Christianity’s historic stance on these issues and poses a serious threat to the future work of the church.
Let us leave the speculative wanderings of Dr. Fackre and turn to the teachings of Jesus. Wise students of Scripture know that a proper approach to the parables of Jesus is to distinguish between the main point of the parable and secondary points that sometimes may simply provide helpful background. Jesus’ parable about the rich fool in Luke 12:16–21, for example, is a warning against greed. The rich man kept building bigger and bigger barns until he finally thought he could rest on his stored wealth; but God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you” (v. 20). Jesus then made clear the essential message of the parable: “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” Let us not be too quick to close our Bibles, however; it is not irrelevant that Jesus added the point that the rich fool’s eternal destiny was sealed when he died.
Jesus taught the same thing in His parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19–31. We read that Lazarus died, and “the rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side” (vv. 22–23). I am well aware that the primary message of this parable warns against using our resources in this life improperly; but, I note again, the fixed destiny of the two men in Jesus’ story is not irrelevant to Jesus’ teaching. In these and other teachings of Jesus that we will examine shortly, He repeatedly taught that physical death seals our eternal destiny.
Other teachings relevant to the issue before us appear in Matthew 7. Jesus issued a warning about false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing (vv. 15–20) and concluded by saying, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (v. 19). The emphasis, once again, is on what occurs during an earthly lifetime. In verses 21–23, Jesus spoke of those who will come to Him at the judgment, saying, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” (v. 22). Jesus reports that He will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (v. 23). Once again, postmortem judgment is based on premortem conditions. The point likewise appears in verses 24–27, Jesus’ well-known story of the two men who built their respective houses, one on rock and the other on sand. Some decisions in this life have eternal consequences.
We do well also to study Jesus’ parables in Matthew 13. Explaining the parable of the weeds (vv. 24–30, 36–43), Jesus states, “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil” (vv. 40–41). The sin and evil referred to here must pertain to things done prior to one’s death. There are no qualifications in this or other passages; there are no hints of exceptions arising from events after death. A similar point appears in Matthew 24:41–46.
In Revelation 20:11–15, John recorded a vision of the judgment before the great white throne, where “the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books” (v. 12). The clear message again is that judgment is based on our earthly lives.
In these passages and others, I contend, one simple point stands out: physical death marks the boundary of human opportunity. Anyone who wishes to argue that Jesus and the authors of the New Testament believed otherwise must shoulder the burden of proof. Given the serious implications of a belief in postmortem salvation for evangelism and missions, the total silence of Scripture regarding opportunities after death should convince us that this idea is wrong; moreover, the theological arguments offered by Fackre and others are highly suspect.
AN INTERESTING SOURCE OUTSIDE SCRIPTURE
The early Christian writing known as 2 Clement is not part of the New Testament; nonetheless, it reflects the thinking of Christians during the church’s first century. Second Clement 8.3 states that “after we have gone out of the world, no further power of confessing or repenting will there belong to us.”[sup]8[/sup] It is possible that this assertion became necessary because some may have raised the prospect of salvation after death as the first century drew to a close. I also suggest that comments as clear as 2 Clement 8.3 do not appear in the New Testament because they simply were not needed among the members of a community whose every action recognized that physical death marked the boundary of human opportunity to be saved.
HEBREWS 9:27
Let us not forget Hebrews 9:27 as well: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” Many proponents of PME claim that this verse is the only New Testament text that even comes close to declaring death as the boundary of human opportunity. Even if it is the only explicit passage, we have just examined several other New Testament passages about divine judgment that presuppose this fact. It is clear from this verse, nonetheless, that the judgment of each human reflects that person’s standing with God at the moment of death.
THE BURDEN OF PROOF
With few exceptions, evangelicals believe that after the death and resurrection of Jesus, explicit personal faith in Jesus Christ before death is a necessary condition for salvation. John Sanders and Clark Pinnock (my two representatives of inclusivism) and Gabriel Fackre (my representative of postmortem salvation) speak for the still small number of people within evangelicalism who dispute this understanding of the Christian gospel. Sanders and Pinnock would have us think that what all or most of us have regarded as bedrock on many issues is simply wrong; and Fackre, who wants us to think that physical death is not the end of a human’s opportunity for salvation, is asking us to make a remarkable shift. The seriousness of such claims advanced by these men surely will result in their assuming the burden of proof for their positions, and this burden thus far has not been met. Their arguments, rather, have proven to be logically inconsistent and lacking in biblical support.
I am not suggesting that large numbers of Christians cannot be wrong about some commonly accepted interpretation of Scripture. In fact, I think this is the case with regard to some widely held beliefs about the second coming of Christ. Such beliefs, however, seldom touch any matter so central to the Christian faith as the scope of salvation. It is one thing to disagree over the timing of the second coming in relation to the tribulation and the millennium; it is quite another to discover that we have been mistaken about the meaning of such essential passages as Romans 10:9–10 and John 3:17–18. Sanders, Pinnock, and Fackre, nevertheless, are asking Christians today to reshuffle the deck and commit themselves to a totally new understanding of who and how God saves. I believe, as my articles in this series make clear, their work marks a major break with Christianity’s historic stance on these issues and poses a serious threat to the future work of the church.
