My Dear Brother,
I have lately felt somewhat perplexed how to answer the following statements, and should be glad if you will kindly tell me how scripture meets this serious question. It has been said, “God is love. He does not leave the poor heathen without divine aid in their darkness. Though the Holy Ghost may not be in them as an indwelling Spirit, yet, as external, He deals with the conscience of every human being; in the case of a heathen aiding him towards right convictions and good practice, and helping him so to live that he may be saved, and this, though he may never have heard the name of Christ, and knows not the true God in Christ. Such texts as Acts 17:27; 10:3527That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: (Acts 17:27)
35But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (Acts 10:35); Rom. 2:77To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: (Romans 2:7); Gen. 6:33And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3), corroborate this view.”
Ever, my dear Brother,
Affectionately yours in Christ,
J. B. P.
My Dear Brother,
The doctrine you refer to is widely spread enough. Zwingle held it, all the Wesleyans hold it, and most of the national professors of Christianity. But it is founded on a want of depth and truth in the foundations, denying that we are all lost. The best answer is the very plain statements in the Epistle to the Romans, though these are confirmed by many others. But there is always a want of conviction of sin in these cases; man is not lost, not dead in trespasses and sins, and that is, I am not; for if I have deserved condemnation, it is no difficulty to think we all have. Hence grace, sin, the Lord's death, all lose their import and value; and the real way of meeting it morally is to deal with the conscience of the individual. “So to live that be might be saved” at once shows ignorance of the ways of God in grace—in fact of the gospel—as regards Christ's work.
“Right convictions and good practice” is not gospel. Is he born again? Acts 17:2727That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: (Acts 17:27) does not say a word of the Spirit's acting, and chapter 10:35 says simply that he who is such and such is accepted. It was merely that blessing was not confined to the Jews, as is evident if the passage be read. Rom. 2:77To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: (Romans 2:7), &c., which is the strongest passage, supposes the truth of glory and resurrection known. If I found a Gentile so walking, he is as much saved as a Jew. But it is declared that every mouth is stopped, and all the world guilty before God, that there is none righteous, no, not one. The condemnation of the heathen is (Rom. 1:1818For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (Romans 1:18)- iii. 19) put upon a ground which negatives the idea of such a universal operation of the Spirit. They are, says the apostle, without excuse, on the double ground of having given up glorifying God when they knew Him, and testimony of creation, adding conscience: a reasoning perfectly futile, and without sense, if there was the other ground of condemnation, namely, that they have resisted the Holy Ghost. They that have sinned without law perish without law. The carnal mind is enmity against God, in me, as well as in any other one of the nations. People confound the ground of responsibility with sovereign grace in saving. Gen. 6:33And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3) refers merely to the patience of God in Noah's time.
Men are not saved by grace, if they are as thus stated; because, as the Spirit works alike on all (or the argument is nothing worth), the whole of salvation depends on man's acceptance of and acting on it. As I said at the beginning, our whole state, as scripture puts it, is denied. (See 2 Cor. 5:1414For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: (2 Corinthians 5:14), where the apostle draws the conclusion from grace. Compare Eph. 2:55Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) (Ephesians 2:5).) I do not believe the Gentiles more lost than I was myself. But there is no name given under heaven whereby we can he saved but the name of Jesus Christ. Rom. 10:13, 1513For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)
15And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (Romans 10:15) is positive as to the means. Judgment and condemnation is according to the means we have. What brings, by sovereign goodness, salvation to the lost is another thing. But, as I said, does he think himself lost? That is the real question. The source of thousands of opinions is the want of this, of conscience being before God; where it is not, the mind can have a thousand thoughts, all alike to no purpose. But I must close.
Your affectionate Brother in Christ,
J. N. D.