Can a person be saved through general revelation?

Every soul of man has always had, has now, and always shall have while upon earth, sufficient light to guide him to God; but of that light no man left to himself has ever made any saving use; he has always sinned against it, for the light has always been hated. All who are saved owe their salvation to the sovereign operation of God. Men may find fault with the ways of God, and that because of their innate enmity against Him, as well as their want of understanding, but we may be perfectly sure that He will be justified when He speaks, and clear when He is judged by His creatures (Pa. 51:4).

C.C. — All men have a testimony from God. They may not have heard the gospel preached, but they are not without a testimony from God. In the darkness of heathenism, a man who bows to that testimony he has, will not God hear that man?

I could understand some one here tonight saying, “If this be so, what about the poor benighted heathen?” I can only say that I do not think God ever left Himself without witness. We are told He does good, gives rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and fills men’s hearts with food and gladness; and that He gives to all life and breath and all things; and all this that if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, for He is not far from any one of us (Acts 17). He does not tell us that any poor heathen ever, like a blind man groping about in the dark, did feel after God, but He lets us know, that if this did not take place, it was only on account of the inveterate enmity of the human heart to God; for by the abundant expression of His goodness He was enticing him to do so. Man naturally thinks God is hard, austere and exacting, but even by His providence He convicts all of the wickedness and wilfulness of these thoughts. He is kind to the unthankful and to the unholy.

But to return to the consideration of human responsibility, it is plain that the acquisition of the knowledge of good and evil — in a word, the acquisition of conscience — necessarily forms the basis of man's condition as a responsible being subsequent to that fact. He knows good and evil now, and is therefore responsible on the principle of conscience, or moral discernment, which is in him as possessed of that knowledge, even when he has no direct word or revelation from God about himself or his path. In fact we are taught in Romans 1 - 2, that the former is in itself a sufficient guide to the consciousness of having to do with God, and of what is morally suited or unsuited to Him, for those who have not any further revelation from Him, but who are honest and sincere in the desire to own Him, as being themselves properly subject to Him. Romans 2:5-16 makes it plain that, as regards God's judgment of such men (and those whom we call the "heathen" come within the range of this scripture), that principle becomes the measure of responsibility in their case; and although, in view of what the Cross has revealed of man's natural heart and will, we may seriously question whether there are any who actually meet the demands of God's righteous judgment on this ground, yet we may see from Acts 10:2, 30 to end, and specially from verses 34, 35, how He is wont to deal with any who may be found truly devout before Him, even while outside the range of His revelation.

p503 [J B Rurkin - probably Purkin, see this letter and other references to JBP in the Bible Treasury.] MY DEAR BROTHER, - The doctrine you refer to is widely spread enough. Zwingli held it: all the Wesleyans hold it and most of the national professors of Christianity. But it is founded on a want of depth and truth in the foundations, denying that we are all lost. The best answer is the very plain statements in the Epistle to the Romans, though these are confirmed by many others. But there is always a want of conviction of sin in these cases: man is not lost, not dead in trespasses and sins, and that is, I am not; for if I have deserved condemnation, it is no difficulty to think we all have. Hence grace, sin, the Lord's death, all lose their import and value and the real way of meeting it morally is to deal with the conscience of the individual. 'So to live that he might be saved' at once shews ignorance of the ways of God in grace - in fact of the gospel, as regards Christ's work. 'Right convictions and good practice' is not gospel. Is he born again? Acts 17:27 does not say a word of the Spirit's acting, and Acts 10:35 says simply that he who is such and such is accepted; it was merely that blessing was not confined to the Jews, as is evident if the passage be read. Romans 2:7, etc., which is the strongest passage, supposes the truth of glory and resurrection known. If I found a Gentile so walking, he is as much saved as a Jew. But it is declared that every mouth is stopped, and all the world guilty before God, that "there is none righteous, no, not one." The condemnation of the heathen is (Rom. 1:18 - 3:19) put upon a ground which negatives the idea of such an universal operation of the Spirit. They are, says the apostle, without excuse, on the double ground of having given up glorifying God when they knew Him, and the testimony of creation adding conscience: a reasoning perfectly futile, and without sense, if there was the other ground of condemnation, namely, that they have resisted the Holy Ghost. They that "have sinned without law shall also perish without law." "The carnal mind is enmity against God," in me, as well as in any other one of the nations. People confound the ground of responsibility with sovereign grace in saving. Genesis 6:3 refers merely to the patience of God in Noah's time.

"Right convictions and good practice" is not gospel. Is he born again? Acts 17:27 does not say a word of the Spirit's acting, and chapter 10:35 says simply that he who is such-and-such is accepted. It was merely that blessing was not confined to the Jews, as is evident if the passage be read. Romans 2:7, etc., which is the strongest passage, supposes the truth of glory and resurrection known. If I found a Gentile so walking, he is as much saved as a Jew. But it is declared that every mouth is stopped and all the world guilty before God, that there is none righteous, no, not one. The condemnation of the heathen is (Rom. 1:18; chap. 3:19) put upon a ground which negatives the idea of such a universal operation of the Spirit. They are, says the apostle, without excuse, on the double ground of having given up glorifying God when they knew Him, and testimony of creation, adding conscience: a reasoning perfectly futile, and without sense, if there was the other ground of condemnation, namely, that they have resisted the Holy Ghost. They that have sinned without law perish without law. The carnal mind is enmity against God, in me, as well as in any other one of the nations. People confound the ground of responsibility with sovereign grace in saving. Genesis 6 refers merely to the patience of God in Noah's time.

But in Romans 2:12-16 we have a very plain statement made by the Apostle referring to this very question. He says, "As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law … in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." The Gentiles sinned "without law," the law was never given to them. They shall be judged by the light given by creation, natural conscience, and the goodness of God manifested in His providence. They shall perish: they have been altogether unfaithful to the light vouchsafed to them. The Jews to whom the law was given shall be judged by it. Christians are not supposed to come into judgment. If they were truly that which they are by profession they would not come into judgment, for in Christ the believer is already justified from all things. Still because of the unfaithfulness of those favoured with such abundant light, the time has already come when judgment must begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).

But in Romans 2:12-16 we have a very plain statement made by the Apostle referring to this very question. He says, “As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. … in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” The Gentiles sinned “without law,” the law was never given to them. They shall be judged by the light given by creation, natural conscience, and the goodness of God manifested in His providence. They shall perish: they have been altogether unfaithful to the light vouchsafed to them. The Jews to whom the law was given shall be judged by it. Christians are not supposed to come into judgment. If they were truly that which they are by profession they would not come into judgment, for in Christ the believer is already justified from all things. Still because of the unfaithfulness of those favoured with such abundant light, the time has already come when judgment must begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).

The Coming Judgment. — Now this judgment will be of men, not of cities, not of countries, not of nations, not of races. Jews and Gentiles, or rather Greeks, as the apostle wrote, will alike be involved in it, for God will render to every man according to his deeds, be he a Christian, a Jew, or a Greek. Hence follows a statement of the immutable principles of divine justice. To those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and immortality (or rather incorruption), God will give eternal life. Here Christians come in. For the contentious, or factious, who obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath, indignation, tribulation and anguish, whether he be Jew or Greek; but glory, honour, and peace to every one that works good; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For there is no respect of persons with God (2:7-11). Privileges, then, such as the Jew enjoyed in this life will stand no one in stead in mitigation of divine punishment. Yet the creature's responsibility will be taken into account by the Judge of all the earth. "For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the (or, under) law, shall be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified" (12-13). God will have reality; man's life, his walk, and not merely his profession, will be taken into account. Moreover, there was no need to be under the law to be a doer of it. A word this was, and an important one for the Jew, calculated to arouse in him a real sense of his responsibility, and to dispel, like the bursting of a bubble, that foolish pride which puffed him up. Amongst the ranks of the Gentiles (here be it remarked the apostle reverts to the general term, which included barbarians) doers of the law might be found, as amongst the ranks of the Jews there were but too many who could only be classed as hearers of it. For the law was an expression of God's mind for His creatures. Hence a Gentile who had never heard it, never having been put under it, might show its works written in his heart, his conscience and thoughts being kept in proper exercise within him. Such an one would be justified, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to Paul's Gospel.

This alone explains the unique criterion by which “the righteous” were marked off from their unbelieving fellows. It was His grace that blessed those who received these glad tidings, and now they hear of their blessed portion from the lips of the King. They were as amazed to learn His estimate of their faith working by love, as the hardened were to meet their awful end. We have no reason to believe that either the sheep or the goats ever heard the full gospel of God such as was preached by the Christian witnesses, or that the converted Jews knew it as we do. We must leave room for the sovereign ways of God, dealing variously in His wisdom with the future as with the past. But for every sinful person there must be faith for eternal life, and faith is from a report and the report through God's Word. Thus only can any fallen person be brought into living relation with Him. The measure has differed greatly at different times, as it will, but the principle is the same. This of course applies only to those who hear.