Articles
The Oft Asked Questions
It is not unusual, when talking to someone about their salvation, for two questions to be asked. One is, “What about the thief on the cross?” Second, “What about the person who believes but is killed before they are baptized? Are they lost?”
My stock answers to those questions has been, “Whatever Jesus did with the thief, He did. You are not the thief. So what has the thief got to do with you?” Then, “Whatever God does with the person who is killed before he is baptized is God’s business. I am not God. I will not play God. He will do what is right and merciful.”
Thinking about that, because of a recent conversation, two things dawned on me.
First, have you ever noticed that on the day of Pentecost the question that was never asked is, “What about the thief?” No, they asked, “What we must do to be saved.” They were convinced that they were lost. Peter told them how to be saved.
Further, have you ever noticed that in Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch did not ask Phillip to explain to him why he needed to be baptized? After all, the thief was saved on the cross. Also, the Eunuch did not ask Phillip, “What about those who died before they were baptized? Are they saved?” The eunuch asked, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”
Again the jailor did not ask Paul and Silas, “What about those people who died on the way to the baptistery, were they saved? Why do I need to be baptized?”
Another question that is often a corollary is, “What about those Aborigines who never have heard the gospel? Will they be lost?” Notice Cornelius did not ask that. He did not ask about the Gentile who never heard about the gospel. No, he and his household were baptized.
In no case of the story of people being converted were they concerned about the thief on the cross. Neither were they concerned about the one who died before he was baptized. Nor were they concerned about those who had never heard the gospel. So why do people use these three today to justify themselves? I don’t know that I can adequately explain why people think the way they think.
The question I ask is, “What does the Lord tell me to do?”
Rickie
