Does God Still Save the Lost Through Visions?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the podcast on this Friday morning
00:00:06.660 | as we close out the week
00:00:07.760 | and we're about to close out the year too
00:00:09.680 | here in our final weeks of 2022.
00:00:13.080 | We're closing out the year with something
00:00:14.520 | we've never done before on the podcast.
00:00:16.100 | We're gonna introduce you to some of our key
00:00:18.920 | international partners.
00:00:20.300 | Desiring God's books and articles,
00:00:23.720 | even this podcast get translated into dozens of languages
00:00:27.860 | around the world.
00:00:30.460 | And to do it, we need help, lots of help.
00:00:33.600 | And that's what we have.
00:00:34.720 | And so today we get to hear what God is doing
00:00:37.720 | in the French speaking world
00:00:39.100 | through our friend Daniel Henderson.
00:00:41.920 | Stay tuned for that at the end of today's episode.
00:00:45.200 | And as you can imagine, Pastor John,
00:00:46.560 | based on what I just said,
00:00:47.680 | we are big believers in international missions
00:00:50.640 | and reaching the globally lost,
00:00:52.800 | which leads to today's question from Michael
00:00:55.760 | who lives in Arrington, Tennessee.
00:00:58.540 | Michael writes this, "Hello, Pastor John.
00:01:01.240 | I've heard Orthodox preachers say in the past
00:01:03.560 | that God could reveal the gospel to a native tribesman
00:01:08.060 | who has never been witnessed to by another human.
00:01:11.720 | Do you believe this is true?
00:01:13.860 | Can we have any hope that God occasionally revealed
00:01:16.740 | the gospel to a particular person supernaturally
00:01:20.660 | without any human witnessing,
00:01:23.100 | say to an unreached Native American
00:01:25.480 | or to a Jewish prisoner of war in World War II?"
00:01:29.500 | And however you answer this question,
00:01:31.740 | how should we think about Paul's conversion by vision
00:01:35.380 | in Galatians 1:12?
00:01:37.380 | - Let's start where Michael's question ends.
00:01:41.260 | He wonders about how the apostle Paul's conversion
00:01:46.260 | came about in relationship to how conversion comes about
00:01:50.300 | today through the preaching of the gospel
00:01:52.820 | or perhaps by other means through direct revelation, say,
00:01:57.820 | or through dreams.
00:01:59.220 | And it is a very perceptive and relevant question
00:02:03.300 | because Paul stresses in Galatians
00:02:05.300 | that his own transforming encounter with the risen Christ
00:02:10.300 | was not dependent on any human being,
00:02:13.820 | but came by direct revelation.
00:02:16.500 | In fact, his entire argument for his apostleship
00:02:21.440 | in the first two chapters of Galatians
00:02:23.860 | hangs on that very fact.
00:02:26.060 | Here's what he says in chapter one, verse 11 and 12.
00:02:29.300 | "I would have you know, brothers,
00:02:31.180 | that the gospel that was preached by me
00:02:33.700 | is not man's gospel.
00:02:35.660 | I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it,
00:02:40.660 | but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."
00:02:46.640 | And then to underline the point
00:02:49.060 | of being dependent on no one except the risen Christ,
00:02:53.080 | he says in verses 15 through 17,
00:02:56.440 | "When he who had set me apart before I was born
00:03:00.760 | and who called me by his grace
00:03:02.320 | was pleased to reveal his son to me
00:03:05.400 | in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles,
00:03:07.920 | I did not immediately consult with anyone,
00:03:11.480 | nor did I go up to Jerusalem
00:03:14.720 | to those who were apostles before me,
00:03:16.500 | but I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus."
00:03:21.500 | So the point of Paul's argument
00:03:25.760 | is that his unique apostolic authority
00:03:32.000 | over against ordinary Christians in the early church
00:03:37.100 | is based on his unique way of encountering Christ
00:03:42.000 | and being called into the ministry.
00:03:44.800 | So it would be wrong to use Paul's unique experience
00:03:49.800 | to say that's how other people around the world
00:03:53.520 | can come to Christ.
00:03:55.840 | Paul's point is just the opposite.
00:03:58.360 | My dependence on no other humans
00:04:01.940 | is the warrant for my apostleship,
00:04:05.300 | not a model for evangelism.
00:04:07.960 | If others could come to Christ this way,
00:04:11.080 | my argument would lose its force.
00:04:14.600 | So that's my answer to the last part of Michael's question.
00:04:18.360 | Paul's experience is not a model
00:04:22.080 | for how people can come to Christ without human input.
00:04:26.160 | So what about the first part of Michael's question,
00:04:28.460 | which is even more important?
00:04:30.760 | Can a person be saved who has never been witnessed to,
00:04:35.760 | preached to by another human?
00:04:40.440 | This is a hugely important question,
00:04:43.680 | especially for people involved in world missions.
00:04:47.460 | Does God save people who have never heard the gospel
00:04:52.140 | through a human witness?
00:04:54.520 | Does he, for example, give them dreams
00:04:57.640 | of all they need to know about Christ to be saved?
00:05:00.580 | This is so important that in my book on missions,
00:05:03.560 | "Let the Nations Be Glad,"
00:05:05.400 | there's a whole long, long chapter about this issue.
00:05:09.800 | And we thought it was so crucial
00:05:12.640 | that His Desire and God and the publisher
00:05:14.800 | thought it was so crucial that we published a small book
00:05:19.160 | from that chapter called "Jesus, the Only Way to God,"
00:05:22.760 | subtitle, "Must You Hear the Gospel to Be Saved?"
00:05:27.640 | So I can only mention a few pointers here,
00:05:29.560 | but there's more out there to read if you want to follow up.
00:05:34.280 | My answer is no.
00:05:37.400 | God does not save people today
00:05:39.440 | apart from hearing the gospel of Jesus.
00:05:42.320 | And the reason is that God's purpose
00:05:45.000 | ever since the incarnation of Christ as the God-man
00:05:49.800 | is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen,
00:05:54.200 | is to be the conscious focus of all saving faith
00:05:59.200 | everywhere in the world, among all the peoples of the world.
00:06:03.760 | For example, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:21,
00:06:06.560 | "Since in the wisdom of God,
00:06:09.040 | the world did not know God through wisdom,
00:06:14.040 | it pleased God through the folly of what we preach
00:06:19.240 | to save those who believe."
00:06:22.560 | It was the wisdom of God that decreed
00:06:26.120 | that people would not come to know Him
00:06:29.040 | except through the preaching of Jesus.
00:06:31.880 | The incarnate, crucified, risen Son of God
00:06:36.280 | is so gloriously pivotal in God's purposes
00:06:41.160 | for the revelation of Himself in history
00:06:43.480 | that all saving faith orients on this Christ,
00:06:47.960 | and particularly as He is preached in the gospel.
00:06:53.460 | Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.
00:06:58.200 | No one comes to the Father except through me," John 14:6.
00:07:05.080 | The apostles proclaim that very truth
00:07:07.600 | in these words in Acts 4.12.
00:07:10.000 | There is salvation in no one else,
00:07:13.760 | for there is no other name under heaven
00:07:17.440 | given among men by which we must be saved.
00:07:20.620 | And then Paul put the finest point on it
00:07:22.840 | by arguing that this saving name
00:07:26.920 | must be preached and heard and believed
00:07:32.640 | for people to be saved.
00:07:34.560 | Here's Romans 10.13-17.
00:07:38.600 | Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord,
00:07:42.960 | the Lord Jesus, will be saved.
00:07:46.120 | How then will they call on Him whom they have not believed?
00:07:51.120 | How shall they believe in Him
00:07:54.800 | of whom they have never heard?
00:07:56.900 | And how shall they hear without someone preaching?
00:08:02.520 | And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
00:08:05.520 | So faith comes from hearing
00:08:09.240 | and hearing through the word of Christ."
00:08:12.600 | In other words, I don't think the Bible gives us
00:08:18.780 | any encouragement at all
00:08:22.920 | to believe that a person can come to saving faith
00:08:27.280 | without hearing the gospel.
00:08:31.400 | This is why world missions and personal evangelism
00:08:36.320 | are so utterly crucial.
00:08:38.860 | If we ask about the role of dreams and visions,
00:08:44.160 | say on the mission field,
00:08:46.360 | the guidance that the New Testament gives us
00:08:49.200 | is the story of Cornelius, the Roman centurion
00:08:52.660 | who got a vision of an angel speaking to him
00:08:55.880 | that resulted in his conversion to Christianity.
00:08:59.600 | But Peter explains how this vision led to his salvation.
00:09:04.600 | Here's what Peter says about that transaction
00:09:10.280 | in Acts 11:13-14.
00:09:14.840 | Peter said, "Cornelius told us
00:09:19.000 | how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say,
00:09:25.240 | send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter.
00:09:29.800 | He will declare to you a message
00:09:32.960 | by which you will be saved,
00:09:37.240 | you and all your household."
00:09:39.080 | The vision from the angel was not the saving message.
00:09:46.080 | The vision connected him with Peter
00:09:51.680 | who preached the saving message about Jesus.
00:09:55.760 | If God uses dreams or visions,
00:10:00.140 | I think biblically that's the way he's going to use them.
00:10:06.120 | So my conclusion is that God has mercifully provided
00:10:11.360 | a way of salvation through the glorious gospel of Christ.
00:10:16.260 | And he says to us, to missionary goers
00:10:20.600 | and to senders in the words of Acts 26, 17,
00:10:25.600 | the risen Christ now talking to Paul
00:10:28.800 | and really to all of us who care about bringing people
00:10:32.080 | out of darkness into light, he says,
00:10:35.620 | "I am sending you, you, you human being,
00:10:40.620 | I am sending you to open their eyes
00:10:43.960 | so that they may turn from darkness to light
00:10:46.500 | and from the power of Satan to God,
00:10:49.080 | that they may receive forgiveness of sins
00:10:52.360 | and a place among all those
00:10:54.240 | who are sanctified by faith in me."
00:10:56.880 | So God uses people, speaking people,
00:11:01.400 | acting people, loving people,
00:11:03.320 | God uses people to save people.
00:11:07.560 | Let's be about that.
00:11:09.120 | - Amen, Pastor John.
00:11:10.120 | And speaking of being speaking people,
00:11:13.040 | ministry is about words, lots of words,
00:11:15.680 | words preached, words published, words podcasted,
00:11:20.000 | and of course, words translated.
00:11:22.440 | And to that end, we have a team of friends
00:11:24.160 | who labor to make Desiring God resources accessible
00:11:26.560 | to non-English speakers,
00:11:28.600 | and one of them is Daniel Henderson.
00:11:31.440 | Daniel pours out his life
00:11:32.880 | to serve the French-speaking world,
00:11:35.200 | and we asked him for a ministry update.
00:11:37.620 | Here he is.
00:11:39.040 | - My name is Daniel Henderson,
00:11:40.460 | and I'm from Chewinigan, Quebec.
00:11:42.400 | I'm serving with a ministry called Pouglie-Castron Chrétien,
00:11:45.160 | and we exist to equip the church with resources in French
00:11:49.440 | to make disciples, to train leaders,
00:11:51.960 | and to share the gospel.
00:11:53.360 | Desiring God is one of the first ministries
00:11:55.780 | that comes to mind for our ministry
00:11:57.920 | when we're looking for biblical content
00:12:00.000 | that doesn't apologize for what the Bible teaches.
00:12:02.960 | We've translated 15 to 20 books.
00:12:06.080 | We've translated over 200 Ask Pastor Johns.
00:12:09.720 | We've translated 365 Solid Joy episodes.
00:12:13.440 | We've done one conference in person in Paris,
00:12:16.840 | and we've done one online conference
00:12:18.560 | with John Piper during COVID.
00:12:20.480 | One of the reasons I love working with Desiring God
00:12:23.400 | is because it's not just about projects.
00:12:25.400 | It's about seeing us and our team grow
00:12:27.960 | as disciples of Jesus Christ.
00:12:29.480 | It's about seeing our love for Christ increased.
00:12:31.660 | It's about seeing these projects actually have an impact
00:12:35.920 | in the French-speaking world.
00:12:37.760 | Our partnership with Desiring God
00:12:39.640 | has been our own personal discipleship.
00:12:42.480 | It's been our own growing in Christ,
00:12:44.680 | seeing our love for Christ be increased.
00:12:47.800 | But it's also been Desiring God connecting us
00:12:50.600 | with all the other international partners
00:12:52.640 | and positioning us in the global community of the church.
00:12:55.860 | So we're not just a French publisher working on our own,
00:12:58.880 | but we're working alongside a Portuguese partner,
00:13:01.600 | a South African partner, a German partner,
00:13:04.040 | an Egyptian partner.
00:13:05.320 | There's not other ministries doing that.
00:13:08.280 | That's a unique thing that Desiring God is doing,
00:13:11.120 | bringing us all together.
00:13:13.080 | It's not just handing out projects.
00:13:15.800 | You know, it's not just, "Hey guys,
00:13:17.280 | we're excited about this book.
00:13:18.440 | Can you translate it?"
00:13:20.080 | It's creating a community of international publishers
00:13:23.760 | that are working together,
00:13:24.960 | that are also keeping each other accountable,
00:13:27.360 | bearing another's burden, praying for one another.
00:13:29.880 | It's more than just the product.
00:13:32.240 | And Desiring God brings us all together
00:13:35.040 | and gives us a bigger picture
00:13:36.280 | of what God's doing in the world.
00:13:37.760 | And ultimately, that helps us to glorify God
00:13:40.880 | with greater passion.
00:13:42.840 | - Amazing testimony.
00:13:44.160 | Thank you, Daniel, for your tireless and selfless labors.
00:13:47.080 | And if you're listening right now
00:13:48.720 | and you are a ministry partner with us at Desiring God,
00:13:51.980 | you're making Daniel's work possible.
00:13:54.860 | You are, you.
00:13:56.120 | I'm pointing at my microphone, you.
00:13:58.280 | You listening right now, thank you for your partnership.
00:14:01.320 | And if you're not yet a partner
00:14:02.960 | and you want to join in what's happening
00:14:05.340 | through Desiring God in the English-speaking world
00:14:07.760 | and its overflow into Daniel's work
00:14:10.280 | to reach the French-speaking world,
00:14:12.560 | you can join us right now
00:14:14.640 | by becoming a monthly ministry partner.
00:14:17.840 | So much of our financial support
00:14:19.920 | comes from friends of ours who give, on average,
00:14:23.280 | $30 a month to support all of our work.
00:14:27.620 | To set up monthly giving, go to give.desiringgod.org.
00:14:32.620 | That's give.desiringgod.org.
00:14:36.640 | It's hugely appreciated as you make it possible
00:14:40.040 | for us to expand our work even further in the years ahead.
00:14:44.080 | So thank you.
00:14:45.660 | We'll see you on Monday.
00:14:46.860 | (upbeat music)
00:14:49.440 | (upbeat music)
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