Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Will God Judge People for Being Born Muslim?

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Will God Judge People for Being Born Muslim? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Well, we start the week with a weighty question. Will God judge a
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  person for being born into a Muslim family in nation? A very real question
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  for global listeners, like one young woman who sent us today's question had a
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  little Pastor John. I love listening to episodes I've asked Questor John. They
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  are helping me grow in the faith. Keep pressing on. My story is
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  a long one, but I'll keep it short. I was born into a
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  Muslim family in an Islamic country in North Africa. I still live here.
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  Unlike my family, I became a Christian and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior
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  and treasure. My question for you is this, will my unbelieving family go
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  to Hell? They don't know anything about the good News of Jesus Christ,
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  and I can't tell them about him because they will not listen. They call
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  me crazy, and it's not safe to tell anybody in my country. You
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  may get killed for that. Leaving Islam to become a Christian is illegal here.
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  So will my family go to Hell because they're Muslim? And how is
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  that their fault since they were born that way? And will God judge me
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  for not sharing the Gospel with them? And if all things go by God's
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  plan. Does that mean it was meant for them to be Muslims? Or
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  is this by chance? What should I do? I know God is just,
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  but I am deeply worried for my family. Thank you. I hear
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  six questions, which is overwhelming. Yeah. One will my unbelieving family go
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  to hell? Two? Will my family go to hell because they're Muslim?
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  Three? Is it their faults since they were born Muslim? Four? Will
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  God judge me for not sharing the Gospel with them? Five? Is their
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  Muslim situation God's purpose? Or by chance? Six? Should I do?
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  And we have ten minutes? Oh? Lord? So, at the risk
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  of oversimplification, I will try to say something biblical and hope helpful about each
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  of those questions. Number one, will my unbelieving family go to hell?
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  Jesus said, whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does not
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  obey the Sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on
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  him. Peter put it like this, Acts four twelve. There is salvation
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  and no one else but Jesus, For there's no other name under Heaven given
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  among men by which we must be saved. Paul put it like this,
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  he said in Second Thessalonians one eight, Christ will return in flaming fire,
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  inflicting vengeance on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.
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  There is a principle in the Bible that human beings will be punished by God
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  in accord with the knowledge that they have access to. We see this in
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  Romans one nineteen to twenty. What can be known about God is plain to
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  them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely,
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  his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived in the things
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  that have been made so, and that word so is really crucial because it
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  shows the ground of accountability. So they are without excuse. His argument is
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  that everybody has sufficient knowledge to be held accountable to respond with worship and trust
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  toward God, but nobody does. We're all such sinners that we suppress truth
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  apart from the saving work of the Holy Spirit in the hearing of the Gospel
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  of Jesus. Number two, will my family go to Hell because they're Muslim?
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  Since for millions of people, the word Muslim encompasses so much that is
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  cultural and political and ethnic, I think a proper way to answer that question
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  is to say this, to the degree that the word Muslim signifies the rejection
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  of Jesus Christ as the eternal son of God, crucified for sinners, raised
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  from the dead, To that degree will the word Muslim imply lostness. People
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  who reject Christ's offer of himself as God's crucified sacrifice and substitute for sinners as
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  a way to be reconciled with God will go to hell. Number three,
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  is it their fault since they were born Muslim? Nobody is born Muslim or
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  Hindu or Christian. We are born sinners. We have a corrupt nature that,
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  without salvation and transformation through Christ, is in rebellion against God. We
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  become Muslim, we become Christian, We become Hindu Buddhist by the truth or
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  error that our hearts embrace or reject as we grow up at the final judgment
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  day, God will not say to anybody you perish because you were born Muslim,
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  nor will he say you are say because you were born Christian. We
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  will give an account of how we have responded to the truth of God as
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  we have access to it. Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for sinners is
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  the Way, the Truth and the Life Number four Will God judge me for
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  not sharing the gospel with them? The reason this question is difficult not only
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  for this woman in her situation, but all of us in all of our
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  situations, is that there are always more people that we could talk to about
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  Jesus. We can talk to people instead of sleeping, stay up another hour,
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  get up another hour early. We can talk to people instead of eating,
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  skipping meals. We can talk to people instead of reading a book at
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  night. Love wants to share the gospel. Faith trusts Jesus for the power
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  to share the gospel. But the path of love and the path of faith
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  have limits. What are they? God said through Ezekiel. If the watchman
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  sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people
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  are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them,
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  that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require
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  at the watchman's hand who didn't blow the trumpet? Ezekiel thirty three six.
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  So there is a kind of lovelessness, a kind of indifference to people's lostness,
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  that will receive God's judgment. But who we should talk to and how
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  many times we should talk to and how many of them we should talk to
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  is a matter of genuine love and God's guidance. Number five, is there
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  Muslim situation, God's purpose or by chance? At this point, I think
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  it's fair to say that Muslims and I believe the same thing, or at
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  least similar things. Namely, nothing happens by chance. Muslims believe that I
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  believe that there's no such thing as chance, given the sovereignty of God,
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  not ultimately from our human perspective, given the limits of what we can see.
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  There are coincidences and flukes and random acts and accidents and luck. But
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  in relation to God, nothing is by chance. If, Asians one to
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  eleven, God works all things according to the counsel of His will all things.
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  Finally, Number six, what should I do? The apostle Paul prayed
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  the way he did in Philippians one nine to eleven, I think precisely because
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  of some of the ambiguities that this woman lives with, and in some measure
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  we all live with. He didn't just pray that we would be loving people.
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  He did pray that taught that, but also that our love would have
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  a spirit given discernment and insight to know how to love, how love should
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  act. Here's what he prays, and this is what I think you should
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  do. So what should I do? I think you should pray this earnestly
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  and expect God to answer it for you. I pray that your love may
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  abound more and more. So you pray God help my love for my family
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  to abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that I may
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  prove what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of
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  Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the
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  glory and praise of God. That's the only way that I know how to
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  walk in such difficult situations with a heart of obedience and peace. Muslims and
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  Christians agree on one point that nothing happens by chance. And when it comes
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  to this point of similarity, maybe you want more on this. Pastor John
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  gave us more on this when he shared with us coming off of his three
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  week trip to the Middle East in twenty thirteen, and how on that trip
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  he saw God's sovereignty in a new light as it came face to face with
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  the claims of Islam. There's one stark contrast between Muslims and Christians on sovereignty,
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  and one I found so fascinating that it inspired me to write a whole
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  chapter in the new Ask Pastor John book. Note especially the first two pages
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  of that chapter, pages three fifty five and three fifty six, and you'll
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  see what I mean and what Pastor John learned on that trip. Thank you,
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  Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today. If you have a
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  question to ask Pastor John, email me ask Pastor John at desiring Good dot
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  org. Well, God is eager to work for you. He wants to
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  work for you, and we're about to read that very point in our Bible
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  reading as we come to Second Chronicles sixteen nine. We read it Thursday,
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  and we'll meditate on it Thursday when Pastor John and I are back A'MTONI rank
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  you will see you next time