Lost forever, or are they?

Late one night several years ago, my late wife Trixie and I were talking when we heard a deep guttural scream and a thud like a drum thrown down.

“What was that?” she asked apprehensively. “It sounded terrible.” She felt something sinister must have happened.

Not being as emotionally sensitive, I responded, “Oh, it may just be some youngsters in the street shouting.”

“No, it was more like a car crashing.”

As it remained quiet afterwards we left it at that. Around five in the morning there was an urgent knock on our door. It was Pastor Strydom who rented one of the flats in the building through me as the local letting agent.

“Eben come urgently. Somebody has fallen down off the building.”Looking down from the passage on the first floor, I saw the pulp of a woman lying distorted on the tarmac. We went down and Pastor Strydom covered the body with a blanket. I noticed it was a young girl of about 18. I climbed up the fire escape from landing to landing until I got to the ninth floor. There I found a jacket and a note.

“I hate love. Love only brings hurt.”

The Pastor had some commitments so I stayed around waiting for the police. A son of one of the tenants on the ninth floor came to me as I went back up the fire escape.“Did you know the girl?” I asked.

“Yes, she was the girlfriend of a friend of mine. Around twelve, after a little party we had, he took her back home on his motorbike. He broke up with her then and left. Somehow she came back to our building. I think she must have walked all the way.”

Her demise was due to a disappointment in a relationship and she probably felt, like so many teenagers, that she could not live without the guy. It is usually the girl who is most compromised in the intimacy of a love relationship.

About six months later as we sat in our lounge, yet another tragedy played out. This time it was a young man who had failed his Matric, and dreading what his parents might say, he felt a total failure. He too, jumped from the top, and I saw his body hit the ground and bounce up and down like a rag doll.

One of my fellow board members, a concerned fellow Christian who had tried to prevent him taking his life, was inconsolable.

“Oh Eben, I should have done more to help him. I failed him, and now he’s dead, and his blood is upon my head.”

I took her to Pastor Stydom’s wife, who I felt should be able to deal with the woman’s distress.“Maybe he is not lost,” ventured Sister Strydom. “Perhaps he repented and accepted Christ as he fell.”

“What kind of consolation is that?” my mind screamed at me. This woman had to see a psychologist, and even then it took some time for her to get emotionally straightened out.

A Helpless God

Does the salvation of an individual depend on whether we human beings can persuade someone to repent in the nick of time? Is God so helpless that he relies on us to prevent tragedy?

Our God says he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He says he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his ways and live (Ezekiel 18:23). Jesus said that when he is lifted up, He will draw everyone to himself (John 12:32 emphasis mine).

Revelation 20:11-13 shows the dead, “small and great” standing before the great white throne, being judged according to what they had done “as recorded in the books,” but nothing is said here of condemnation. In addition, the Book of Life was opened. Could this perhaps be to make new entries – not to “throw the book” at those before the throne? If some people in the last judgment turn to Christ in faith when they learn for the first time what Jesus has done for them, would he turn them away?

These Scriptures do not paint a picture of a ruthless, vengeful God, throwing vast hordes of created humanity into a lake of fire. Rather, they bring to mind another picture seen by the prophet Ezekiel, speaking of God’s chosen people, Israel. In chapter 37 we read of Ezekiel’s encounter with a vision of the helpless dead of past generations.

In the vision these people say, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” God says to them: “O my people, I am going to open up your graves and bring you up from them.

I will bring you back to the land of Israel… I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.”
In his letter to the Romans, Paul says unequivocally, “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). A few verses later, he says “For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.” (verse 32)

Reorient our thinking

Regarding the last judgment, the late Reformed theologian, Shirley C. Guthrie suggested we would perhaps do well to reorient our thinking about this crisis event. “The first thought that comes to Christians when they think about the end of history ought not be anxious or vindictive speculation about who will be “in” and go “up,” and who will be “out” and go down.” It ought to be the thankful and joyful thought that we may confidently look forward to the time when the will of the world’s Creator, Reconciler, Saviour, and Renewer will prevail once and for all — when justice will triumph over injustice, love over hatred and greed, peace over hostility, humanity over inhumanity, the kingdom of God over the powers of darkness. The last judgement will come, not against but for the good of the world… That is the good news, not just for Christians, but for everyone!1”

We can be confident that God is true to his word when he says “he wants everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Although his ways and times may often be invisible to us, we nonetheless trust him to love the humans he has made. He will not allow anyone to slip through the cracks, but will give everyone a chance to choose life – eternal life.

And those two desperate young people who couldn’t take any more of this cruel, evil world and plunged to their deaths? Jesus died for them too. They too have a Saviour who will “wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Universalism

God’s desire that all should be saved, and his grace made available to all humanity should not be confused with the doctrine of universalism which teaches that all will be saved anyway, regardless of what  a person believes,  how he  lives or what he does.

Contrary to universalism, the Bible teaches that there is salvation only in Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has done everything necessary for every human to be saved, but all who remain hostile to God remain unsaved by their own choice.   

1. Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, Revised Edition (Westminster/John Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky, 1994) p. 387