“The best laid plans of mice and men … . ” is an apropos quote to kick off this month’s blog.  I was slated to do some extra-curricular training with Team STS and the Christ Community Church Missionary Response Team (MRT), but the class was cancelled.  Nevertheless, I prepared the lesson and so in the interest of my incredibly tight schedule I am electing to post my second installment on Post-Mortem Evangelization (PME) rather than write a separate blog.

The PDF file below of the class handout addresses five important questions in response to the common LDS claim that to deny those who die without hearing the Gospel an opportunity to be evangelized would be unfair, unjust and unloving of God.  These questions are as follows:

1. What is the necessary condition in the NT for salvation?
2. Are we condemned only AFTER we reject Christ?
3. What revelation have we ALL received that renders us culpable and condemned before God?
4. To whom has God obligated Himself to send the special revelation of the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ?
5. What should be the ultimate standard of God’s justice if, as the Bible declares, our hearts are deceitful?
   

It is important to note that my answers to these questions squarely hinge on the premise that Post-Mortem Evangelization is unbiblical—see my January 2009 blog– PME (1).  When the lot of those who die never hearing the Gospel is thrown into “the interpretive mix,” objective biblical exegetes must stand fast on this premise in the face of the tremendous tug on our heart strings to capitulate to the LDS view.

I am indebted to Dr. Norman Geisler and Dr. Ronald Nash—two highly-respected evangelical theologians and Christian philosophers—for introducing me some years ago to the concepts of general vs. special revelation and the fallacious reasoning behind our being condemned only AFTER we reject Christ, respectively.

Charis kai eirene (Grace and peace), Mike

A Biblical Perspective on Post-Mortem Evangelization (2)

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