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This is one of the more vexing questions that Christians encounter (or ask themselves): if Jesus is the only way through which we’re made right with God, what does that mean for people who never hear about him? It’s one thing to hear the Gospel and choose to reject it; but what about somebody who never had a chance to hear, let alone reject, the message of Jesus?

Christians have taken many different approaches to this question. I’ll highlight responses from two different online ministries below. Do you agree with either (or both) of them?

Uplook Ministries answers the question by arguing that God works in people’s hearts in many more ways than just through overt preaching of the Gospel. They conclude:

God has promised us that, if we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). He is not eager for anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). “For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:12-13). We do not know how God is dealing with people in lands yet unreached by the gospel, but from Scripture we can see that He will never condemn anyone unjustly, but will be faithful to reveal Himself to anyone who looks for His salvation.

We also know that John saw in heaven “…a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10). Not only every nation but every tribe will be represented in heaven.

Notice that they all sing the same song. We are not saying that sincere Muslims or Hindus, trusting in their religion, will make it to heaven. There is only one Saviour, and everyone in heaven will be there through the salvation provided by God’s Lamb, the Lord Jesus.

Read the full answer at Uplook Ministries.

The Faith Facts ministry answers the question:

…the Bible also teaches that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2)! And it implies that whoever seeks after God earnestly will find him (Deuteronomy 4:29; Psalm 86:5; Proverbs 8:17; Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 7:7-8). God is fair as well as just. We are confident, for example, that the Old Testament patriarchs who lived by faith before Jesus’ earthly ministry, are in heaven. So certainly some people have gotten to heaven without knowing Jesus in the personal way that the New Testament speaks of. Ultimately only God can judge as only He knows the individual’s heart. We hold out hope that for those who have not heard but have not rejected God, those have been misinformed, or those who are unable to understand (children, mentally ill, etc) may be pardoned by a just God.

Certainly, the Bible does not teach “universalism.” Universalism is the idea that everyone gets to heaven.

The Bible clearly teaches that the only certain way to heaven is through Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). We are confident that God will not hold anyone accountable for any knowledge he did not receive. At the same time, the Bible emphatically states that Christ is the only sure way to salvation. Anyone who has heard of the saving grace of Jesus, and rejects it, would be thumbing his nose at God (John 3:36).

Read the full answer at Faith Facts website.

Do these answers satisfy you?

Share your thoughts!

Evangelism—sharing our faith in Jesus with people who don’t know the Gospel—is at the core of the Christian faith. There exist countless ministries, organizations, and publications aimed at introducing people to the Gospel, or at encouraging individual Christians to do so. Yet it’s my impression that the idea of witnessing to others is a daunting one for most Christians.

Do you actively and consciously share your faith with others? What part does witnessing play in your everyday spiritual life? And what does your witness usually look like—is it a traditional verbal presentation of the basics points of your faith? Do you try to witness with actions but not words? Something in between?

How often do you share your faith with others, and how do you tend to do so?

Share your thoughts!

Today’s devotional comes from A Slice of Infinity, a daily series by noted Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. Drawing on an unusual experience from a visit to a communist country, Ravi shows that powerful witnessing can take place when we simply model for others what prayer and worship look like:

A few years ago, two or three of my colleagues and I were in a country dominated for decades by Marxism. Before we began our meetings, we were invited to a dinner hosted by some common friends, all of whom were skeptics and, for all practical purposes, atheists. The evening was full of questions, posed principally by a notable theoretical physicist in the country. There were also others who represented different elements of power within that society. As the night wore on, we got the feeling that the questions had gone on long enough and that we were possibly going in circles.

I asked if we could have a word of prayer with them, for them, and for the country before we bade them good-bye. There was a silence of consternation, an obvious hesitancy, and then one said, “Of course.” We did just that—we prayed. In this large dining room of historic import to them, with all the memories of secular power plastered within those walls, the prayer brought a sobering silence that we were all in the presence of someone greater than us. When we finished, every eye was moist and nothing was said. They hugged us and thanked us, with emotion written all over their faces. The next day when we met them, one of them said to me, “We did not go back to our rooms last night till it was early morning. In fact, I stayed in my hotel lobby most of the night talking further. Then I went back to my room and gave my life to Jesus Christ.”

I firmly believe that it was the prayer that gave them a hint of the taste of what worship is all about. Their hearts had never experienced it.

Over the years I have discovered that praying with people can sometimes do more for them than preaching to them. Prayer draws the heart away from one’s own dependence to leaning on the sovereign God. The burden is often lifted instantly. Prayer is only one aspect of worship, but one that is greatly neglected in the face of people who would be shocked to hear what prayer sounds like when the one praying knows how to touch the heart of God. To a person in need, pat answers don’t change the mind; prayer does.

Read the complete devotional at Ravi Zacharias’ website.

Pointing people to God doesn’t always mean handing out tracts, preaching to them, or outwitting them in an apologetics debate—sometimes it’s as simple as showing them what worship means in your own life.

When some people evangelize, they do so with tracts. Tracts, for those that don’t know, are short Gospel presentations in a little booklet. They usually have some sort of eye-catching cover or are centered around a particular theme. Every single one that I’ve seen includes a “Sinner’s Prayer” that the reader can read aloud in order to become a Christian.

We’ve probably all heard stories of well-meaning Christians leaving tracts as tips at restaurants, or giving children tracts instead of candy during Halloween. And if you’ve spent any time in a major city, you’ve probably seen a tract or two “left” in a bathroom. I’d have to imagine that most of these tract distribution methods are ineffective (I’m willing to be proven wrong). However, a tract in the hands of someone who can explain what it means seems like it has potential to me.

What about you, do you think that Tracts are an effective evangelism tools?

Share your thoughts!

The Digital Evangelism blog has a post up today about understanding followers of Islam. The Christian witness to Muslims is complicated these days by a huge array of challenges—political and cultural as much as theological—but Christians can be more effective in sharing their faith if they take the time to understand exactly what Muslims believe and what is important to them.

Of the various articles linked to in that blog post, I found this one about understanding “shame-based” cultures the most interesting. It illustrates how important it is to consider local culture and beliefs when presenting the Gospel—in this case, the importance of ritual cleanliness in Muslim culture—and how failing to respect non-Western cultural values can sometimes put additional roadblocks in between Muslims and the Gospel message. And it also challenges us to consider whether we can’t learn something from the Islamic emphasis on ritual purity and defilement; the essay’s author, Bruce Thomas, suggests that those concepts aren’t as foreign to a Christian worldview as you might think.

It’s an interesting set of articles for anyone interested in cross-cultural evangelism.

Today, a couple of quick updates from the COMIX35 ministry! COMIX35 is a Christian comics ministry that publishes and distributes evangelistic comics around the world. They also do a lot to identify and recruit promising comic artists from within the Christian community.

They’ve got updates on two comics contests that they’re running:

• They’ve launched the Christian Comics Competition for U.S. Prison Inmates as a way of identifying talented Christian artists in the US prison system. The first phase of the competition asks prison chaplains to recommend inmates who “exhibit exceptional talent in the areas of drawing and storytelling.” The three candidates who make it to the end of the contest will help produce a short comic for inmates and at-risk youth.
• The deadline for the Manga Messiah video competition has been extended to March 4 to give all “amateur and professional video producers, YouTubers, and GodTubers around the world” a chance to get their entries in. The competition webpage has full details on the contest, as well as free music tracks you can use with your video.

Take a look at these contests, and while you’re there, get to know COMIX35’s unique comics evangelism ministry!

Arab World Ministries has a new website! For over 120 years, AWM has worked to bring the light of the Gospel to Muslims in North Africa, the Middle East, and major cities in Europe and North America. If you don’t know this unique outreach, now’s a good chance to check out their new site and learn about their ministry.

Here are a few noteworthy sections of the new site:

• Ministry opportunities, both long- and short-term, in Jordan, Morocco, London, and other locations around the world. Find out how you can get involved.
• The history of AWM—and how a worldwide ministry began after a heartbreaking encounter in Algeria in 1881.
• AWM Media has been broadcasting Christ-centered television and radio programs to the Arab world for decades. Their new media programs like Maarifa continue this legacy.

Take a few minutes to get to know AWM and the amazing work they’re doing in the Muslim world.

What comes first—evangelism or discipleship? It’s commonly thought that discipleship is a one-time process that Christians must go through after they’ve accepted Christ but before they start sharing the Gospel with others. Is discipleship like taking a class in school—you do your homework, graduate, and are then free to move on to the “real” Christian life?

In an article at Lausanne World Pulse, Kumar Abraham argues that this approach isn’t necessarily the best (or most Biblical) way to understand discipleship. Rather than seeing evangelism and discipleship as two separate activities, we should consider them two closely integrated facets of the Christian life:

But which comes first—evangelism or discipleship? Some argue that without doing evangelism, discipleship is impossible. Some say it is only a disciple of Christ who can evangelise. Others may ask why we should even separate the two. [...]

The Bible teaches the integration of evangelism and discipleship. “We proclaim (announcing the gospel publicly) him, admonishing (warn believers) and teaching (the word) everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ” (Colossians 1:28). While evangelizing, we disciple; while discipling new believers, we encourage them to share the gospel.

There are many more articles about discipleship and evangelism in the World Pulse archives.

For Christians, summer and autumn make up a long gap between the major holidays that dot the church’s calendar. But for Muslims, this is an important time of year: we’re right in the middle of Ramadan, a month-long period of fasting and prayer. Arab World Ministries describes Ramadan more specifically:

The fourth pillar [of the Islamic faith] is the fasting, or the “Saum”, during the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, the month of Ramadan. Muslims go by the lunar calendar, and so Ramadan moves every year. From sunrise to sunset, Muslims do not eat or drink. Smoking, sexual contact, swearing and anger are forbidden. The faithful are encouraged to use the month of fasting to draw closer to God, and to renew their spiritual strength.

Why should Christians take the time to learn about Muslim holidays or other elements of the Muslim faith? Because understanding what Muslims do (and don’t) believe is critical if we want to introduce them to the Gospel message. The Ramadan period is as good a time as any to learn a bit more about Islam and its tenets, and to that end a number of resources from the Gospel.com community can help:

• Questions About Islam: an incredible repository of information about Islam; answers dozens of commonly-asked questions Christians ask about Islam.
• What Muslims Believe: a quick rundown of the basic teachings of Islam.
• Respecting Muslims While Sharing Christ: on the challenge of respecting and loving our Muslim neighbors rather than just trying to “convert” them.
• What should our attitude as Christians be toward Ramadan? Should Christians emulate Ramadan within their own faith?
• What struggles do Christians of Muslim background face during Ramadan? Should converts from Islam to Christianity observe Ramadan—and what types of pressure do they face to do so?

Ministries like Arab World Ministries, Lausanne World Pulse, and People of the Book all have excellent information about Islam and the importance of understanding and reaching out to Muslims. Take advantage of the Ramadan period to educate yourself about Islam, and consider ways you can pray for or minister to Muslims!

[The accompanying image is an old map of the city of Mecca.]

What’s going on with XXX Church? Now you can keep up with the people and personalities behind their ministry by watching their weekly video podcast at xxxchurch.tv. The first episode is online, and follows the XXX Church team as they head out to set up a ministry presence in—where else?—Sin City:

You can subscribe to xxxchurch.tv though iTunes or RSS, and you can become a fan on Facebook.