“Here is another thing that used to puzzle me. Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is that God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him.”
Show answerC. S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillian Publishing, 1952, pp. 64-65)
But the Bible says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:14-18). These verses say that those who believe on Jesus will not perish or be condemned but will have everlasting life. They also say that those who do not believe are condemned. Obviously, those who have not heard of Jesus and know of Him cannot believe on Jesus. So, a prerequisite to being saved is hearing about, knowing, and believing on Jesus.
By his own words, C. S. Lewis exposed himself as someone who rejected the plain teaching of the Bible on the central and essential issue of salvation through belief in Jesus Christ alone. To Lewis, the Bible’s plan of salvation was “frightfully unfair.”
Copyright © 2010 Peter Ditzel
