The man on the island.

Once upon a time, I went to chapel. The guest speaker had shared a little anecdote and asked a question. "There is a man on an island in the middle of the Atlantic. He has never heard of God or Jesus, let alone the gospel. Let's say he were to die of natural causes. Would he wake up in heaven?" Half of the people in the room answered "yes" and the other half answered "no". How could there be such a split answer if every Christian reads the same Bible, believes in the same God, and accepts the same gospel? The speaker continued on with the anecdote. "Now here is a different scenario. The man is on the island. Billy Graham sails to the island, gets on land, and shares the gospel with the man. The obstinate man says 'No thank you. I don't want to follow this Jesus guy.' Billy Graham had did what he could, but the man just refused to believe him with every fiber of his being. So Billy sailed away. The man died of natural causes. Now would he wake up in heaven?" Everyone answered "no" in unison.

The guest speaker continued on with his sermon. He went on to answer the first question. Would the man on the island wake up in heaven? The guest speaker answered "no" and backed it up with Scripture. He made the following points about the man on the island:

1. The man must know that God exists because He reveals Himself through creation.         (Romans 1:19, Psalm 14:1, Psalms 19:1)
2. We know that he is a sinner because "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  (Romans 1:21, Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3:23)
3. He is accountable for his sin. (Romans 6:23, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10, Isaiah 53:6)
4. He can be saved from his sins and given eternal life with Jesus.                                                     (John 14:1-6, Romans 10:13, Romans 3:20-24, Acts 4:12, 1 Timothy 2:5, John 3:16)
5. This causes us to be urgent with the gospel. (Romans 10:14-15, Acts 21:13, Philippians 1:21)

I am not necessarily disagreeing with the speaker's points. BUT, I whole-heartily disagree with how he answered the first question. I believe that he misused these points and took the verses (which I have listed) out of context. He used them to falsely say that the man on the island, in the first scenario, would not have a chance at waking up in heaven. This is where I believe he needs to rethink his answer because he sounds like a dumb dumb. Consider this: We do not choose the circumstances we are born into and God is just.

Every person is born into this world and every person must face death. This is a true fact of life. No one chooses where they are born, who their parents are, whether they are born into wealth or poverty, or the culture that surrounds their existence. The man on the island was meant to represent the unreached people groups of the world. The unreached people groups are the people who have never heard the gospel before. There are 6,505 of these groups in the world. It's one thing to be accountable for hearing it and rejecting it, as was the case with the second scenario in the anecdote. You were given a choice, and you decided your own fate. But for the person who never even had the chance to hear it. Never had the chance to accept it or reject it. THAT was not their decision. They did not choose to be born on that island any more than I chose to be born here in America. They did not choose to live a life of ignorance not knowing what their heart was missing any more than I chose to hear the gospel that I accepted because I knew what my heart had been longing for. This man on the island, these unreached people, cannot be condemned to eternal damnation solely because they were born into the most unfortunate circumstances of not being able to choose their own fate or where they would want to spend eternity.

This speaker had some major audacity to try and speak for God when he said that the man on the island would not wake up in heaven. God is just. He does not judge by human standards. I don't believe that God would eternally damn these people for their ignorance any more than he would eternally damn an innocent baby. Although Jesus is in fact the only way to heaven, the man on the island must be held accountable in a different way.  After all, anyone who reads the Bible should know about God's temperament. They should know that God is merciful. He loves us, ALL of His creation. Not just the people who were blessed to hear and accept the gospel. He loves those lost unreached people just as much as He loves us. I am not denouncing the importance of missions. These people should be given a choice, and that is where the vitality of missions comes in.

You, too, will try and answer whether or not the man on the island will wake up in heaven. Just remember this: he did not choose the be born into ignorance, and God is just.