Fate of Unevangelized

Volume Four—Chapter Twelve THE FATE OF THE UNEVANGELIZED

#Evangelical View

What about those who die never having heard of Jesus? For this vexing question, historic Christian orthodoxy provides a variety of answers. Blomberg writes:

Probably the best known [and most commonly believed] is the restrictive position: All who die apart from conscious acceptance of Christ are lost forever because God through “general revelation” (the witness of nature, design in the universe, conscience, and moral accountability, etc.) has not left [any man without a potential source of] testimony (Acts 14:17). Unsaved humanity freely rebels against that witness and therefore bears accountability for its sins (Romans 1:18-32) (HWD, 170-171).

Blomberg describes another school of thought less commonly accepted among Evangelicals:

A second common answer to the question, which is less restrictive, is based on Romans 2:14-16 [“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience . . .”]. Some Christians have proposed that God judges those who have not heard the gospel on the basis of ‘the light’ (i.e., knowledge or spiritual illumination) that they have received. They suggest that there may be some who do not try to save themselves by good works but trust in the grace of God to the extent that they know God and are accepted by him (HWD, 171).

This passage in Romans suggests some individuals, even if they are not aware of Jesus Christ and his gospel, are naturally inclined to obey that law. This obedience will write itself into their hearts in the form of spiritual illumination. God may judge these who have not heard the gospel on the basis of this spiritual inclination. If they cry out to God and cast themselves on his mercy, he may accept them.

Blomberg describes yet another view found among some few Evangelicals:

Still others, particularly in the Arminian camp (which stresses God’s advance knowledge of all things more than his predestination of individuals), argue that God will deal with people on the basis of divine awareness of how they would have responded had they heard the gospel (HWD, 171-72).

Finally Blomberg summarizes what Evangelicals do not believe concerning salvation of the unevangelized:

Generally rejected as unbiblical, however, are theories that have people receiving an opportunity for salvation after death or that have God eventually saving everyone. The latter position is known as universalism and often appeals to Philippians 2:10-11: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” But opposing Evangelicals would point out that this passage is a partial quotation of Isaiah 45:23, and Isaiah goes on to declare that “all who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame” (Isaiah 45:24) (HWD, 172).

The general agreement among most Evangelicals is that those who die without confessing Christ—including those who have never even heard of Christ or his gospel— will abide in hell for all eternity. Blomberg summarizes: “Evangelicals see death as the irreversible point in time at which our eternal destiny is fixed” (Ibid., 170).

Commenting on the LDS belief in a probationary spirit world, Owen and Mosser write:

We acknowledge an emotional motive to believe such a doctrine. It makes us feel better both about the lost and about God’s fairness. However, such a belief is a departure from the very clear teaching of the New Testament and is a serious error in one’s soteriology. It devalues the importance of this life as a time to choose whether or not one will serve the Lord and lessens the seriousness of not choosing correctly (see Matthew 7:13-14) (FRB, 73).

We LDS may point to 1 Peter 3:19-20 as evidence for postmortem salvation. This passage describes Christ, following his death on the cross, preaching “to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah.” Evangelicals suggest that the Greek word for spirits in this passage is more likely used to refer to “angelic or demonic spirits” and not human spirits. We are also inclined to use 1 Peter 4:6: “For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” Evangelicals claim that this verse refers to the preaching the dead received on earth before their death. We also use the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as biblical support for the doctrine of a probationary post-mortal spirit world (Luke 16:19-26). The reader will recall that this passage describes the rich man’s finding himself in hell following his death. He sees, afar off, the beggar Lazarus, who had also died. Lazarus is with Abraham in paradise. The rich man cries out to Abraham, begging him to send Lazarus to relieve his suffering. Abraham was unable, as an unbridgeable gulf separated the rich man from Abraham and Lazarus. Owen and Mosser draw an opposite conclusion from this passage:

This verse makes the perspicuous [clear or lucid] point that once one dies he cannot change the fate he determined for himself in this life. First, it would simply be unfair; the principle of reaping what you sow would be broken (roughly the point of Luke 16:25). Second, Abraham recognizes a great chasm between the abode of the righteous and the unrighteous. This chasm is of such a nature that it cannot be crossed. It cannot be crossed by the righteous who might wish to alleviate the suffering of the unrighteous, nor can it be crossed by the wicked who wish to leave their torments and be with Abraham. There simply is no bridge over the chasm (FRB, 77).

Owen and Mosser conclude: “This life is the one opportunity to repent of sins. A second chance is not given after this life” (Ibid., 78).

#LDS View

Let us briefly review the LDS view of the transition between death and the immediate hereafter (the world of spirits). At death there occurs a partial judgment wherein all are judged by an all-knowing Savior, and each individual receives either a state of paradise (in which the recipient is sealed up to eternal life in the celestial heaven) or a state of “prison” where he will continue to work out his salvation.1 Those in the state of paradise include those who accepted the fulness of Christ’s gospel on earth and persisted in their obedience or those who would have fully accepted the gospel had they had sufficient opportunity (D&C 137:5-9). Those in the state of “prison” are those who, in the Lord’s unerring judgment, would not be happy eternally in the celestial heaven but are better suited to a lesser degree of glory. All of the spirits (both those in the state of paradise and those in “prison”) remain together in the spirit world awaiting their resurrection and the pronouncement of their final judgment. The paradisiacal spirits will labor to provide succor and preaching to those still working out the details of their salvation. For those in prison, their “second estate” probationary trial continues.

The spirit world provides to all an opportunity to eventually accept Christ and his gospel and repent of their sins. All except a relative few will do so and receive a degree of glory where they will be eternally most comfortable. These few will steadfastly refuse to accept Christ and his redeeming gospel. They will remain “filthy still” (D&C 88:35) and be cast into outer darkness with Satan and his angels.

Evangelicals believe that the judgment at death is the final judgment. We do not. Those not judged worthy of paradise are not relegated to hell forever, but will have continuing opportunities to repent and earn a place in a glorious kingdom—either the terrestrial or telestial. Their existence in the spirit world is rightly referred to as “hell” because of the necessity of a timely denying and overcoming of their natural selves, repenting, and accepting Christ. This agonizing process is indeed, for each participant, a temporary hell. The will not suffer in any punitive or arbitrary way. They will only suffer the edifying pain of having to overcome their own natural selves and in order to qualify for a resurrection to eternal glory. The only true eternal hell will be experienced only by the unfortunate and recalcitrant “few.”

It seems clear that we would not substantially differ with that minority of Evangelicals who feel the Lord will judge, even the unevangelized who have not heard of Christ, based on their hearts. However, we feel that abandoning to eternal hell all who have not confessed Christ on earth, according to the procedure set out by the Protestants, is an illogical and unconscionable absurdity.

We are not forced to choose between accepting Christ on earth and living in hell forever. The “restrictive position” described by Blomberg above is the result of Evangelicals’ failure to understand the doctrine of the spirit world which follows this mortal phase.

The full truth of the afterlife provides an explanation for our absolute requirement for baptism and confirmation prior to the resurrection. These ordinances for the dead may be performed by proxies here on earth while the beneficiaries of those ordinances wait in the spirit world.

Paulsen and Potter respond to Owen and Mosser’s notion that our view of a probationary spirit world is merely emotionally attractive:

Owen and Mosser recognize what they call “the emotive attractiveness” of the doctrine. However, this is clearly to understate its attractiveness. This doctrine is not just attractive because it satisfies some emotional desire. Rather it is attractive because it solves a theological dilemma that would remain unresolved otherwise. Supposedly God is perfectly just. Moreover, salvation is acquired only through knowledge of the gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost). However, many people have died without the chance to hear about the gospel, much less the ability to respond to it. Relatively speaking, that portion of the world throughout history that has heard the gospel is small. These ignorant people will not be saved. It is not just for someone to punish people for failure to respond to something to which they never had the chance to respond. So, since God punishes these ignorant people, he is not just. Something must give. Postmortem salvation in LDS theology claims that every person will have an equal chance to respond to the gospel in this life or the next. Justice is preserved. So, the attractiveness of the doctrine is much more than emotive, it is logical.

Of course, the mere fact that a theological doctrine resolves a dilemma is not reason to think that it is true (unless, perhaps, there is no other resolution). But LDS theology is not committed to such a doctrine on the basis of reason alone. Surely modern revelation is the source of this doctrine. Robinson attempts to show that the doctrine has basis in ancient revelation. And a growing number of non-LDS Christians (including Evangelicals) are beginning to reach the same conclusion (see Stephen T. Davis, “Universalism, Hell, and the Father of the Ignorant,” Modern Theology 6, 173-86; Gabriel Fackre, “Divine Perseverance,” in What About Those Who Have Never Heard, ed. John Sanders, 71-106). But even if it doesn’t (as Owen and Mosser presumably believe), it is not contradicted by ancient revelation, and so we Latter-day Saints can (and should) interpret ancient revelation in light of modern revelation. So even if ancient scripture is most naturally interpreted so as to say nothing about postmortem salvation (contra Robinson), this assumption should not move us since as Latter-day Saints we are not committed to the claim that ancient scripture contains everything essential to salvation (FRB, 259-

260).

Owen and Mosser argue that John 5:25-29; 1 Peter 3:18-19; and 1 Peter 4:6 do not support Latter-day Saint teaching that there is hope for the unevangelized dead (FRB, 73-76). For the interested reader, there is a rather extensive recent LDS literature on these passages.2

Regarding Owen and Mosser’s interpretation of the parable of the rich man (Dives), Lazarus, and Abraham (Luke 16:19-26), Latter-day Saints argue that there is a real sense in which the chasm between paradise of the spirit world and the spirit prison could not be crossed at the time Dives found himself there. However, following Christ’s visit to the postmortal spirit world, that chasm was bridged. We cite various biblical passages in support of this interpretation (Isaiah 24:22; 49:9; Luke 4:18; and John 5:25).

Owen and Mosser cite two passages from the Book of Mormon which they feel are incompatible with our doctrine of postmortal repentance and salvation. Let us consider each individually:

1. Alma 12:24: “And we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead.” There is no question that “the space granted” is this mortal life. So it might seem that it is only this life during which we can repent. But the passage only says that this life is a space granted for repentance and not necessarily the only space.

2. Alma 34:32-33: “For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.” This does seem to imply that if we don’t repent in this life then we never will. Thus, Owen and Mosser conclude there is no postmortem salvation. But the next verse explains why we will not repent in the next life if we do not in this one: “Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world” (Alma 34:34). Our mortal dispositions are difficult to overcome. Those who have knowingly chosen evil will enter the next life without having undergone any magical transformation and will be the same evilly inclined, Satan-dominated souls they were when they died. It says nothing about the good and humble people of other faiths, or of no faith at all, who lived as best they could according to the light and truth they possessed. It does not say there will be no opportunity to repent in the next life.

1 For further discussion of this partial judgment, see “The Partial Judgment” in volume 2, chapter 13, The Spirit World.

2 See Daniel C. Peterson, “Skin Deep,” review of Die Mormonen: Sekte oder neue Kirche Jesu Christi? by Rudiger Hauth, FARMS Review of Books volume 9, number 2 (1997): 99-146 (the relevant pages are 131-39); John A. Tvedtnes, “The Dead Shall Hear the Voice,” review of “Does the Bible Teach Salvation for the Dead? A Survey of the Evidence, Part I,” by Luke P. Wilson, and “Did Jesus Establish Baptism for the Dead?” by Luke P. Wilson, FARMS Review of Books volume 10, number 2 (1998), 184- 99; Matthew Roper, “Salvation for the Dead: A Response to Luke Wilson,” in

Proceedings of the First Annual Mormon Apologetics Symposium (Felton, California: Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 1999), 187-204; John W. Welch, review of “Corinthian Religion and Baptism for the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29),” Insights from Archaeology and Anthropology, by Richard E. DeMaris, FARMS Review of Books volume 8, number 2 [1996], 43-46; and John A. Tvedtnes, “Baptism for the Dead in Early Christianity,” in Donald W. Parry and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., The Temple in Time and Eternity (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1999), 55-78.