How Do We View the Disobedient?
We realize that this is a difficult question, one that we would rather just close our eyes to and our ears to and imagine that it doesn’t exist. Actually, in the present day and for many decades in the past, we have devolved into a sort of inclusivism in which most people think that others, in other religions, can receive eternal life and will go to be with God at death.
See especially: “Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life” (https://www.pewforum.org/2008/12/18/many-americans-say-other-faiths-can-lead-to-eternal-life/)
At this time, we won’t be discussing this issue at length, but we’ll only be dealing with the following question: Can one who disobeys God go to heaven? We realize that there are aspects of this question that should be clarified if we would seek an answer. First, is there a difference between known sin and unknown sin? Further is there a difference between deliberate sin and sin that is not deliberate? Also, we suppose that the person we are imagining has repented of his sins; otherwise, we must also ask, What about the person who doesn’t know to repent of the sin and what about one who does know about the sin and refuses to repent? Many other aspects could be cited but you can see that there are many things that should be considered in our answer—if we would be complete.
We must admit that we are not God. God alone is God and He knows how He views this issue. And He knows what He will do in the Judgment. Thus, we gladly allow God to make the judgments. We can only “judge” things according to the “light” that has been given. We must judge, “but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Furthermore, it is inevitable that we will view people with some degree of truth that we may have. In fact, when it comes to a lot of spiritual issues, we can only determine the truth by going to the words of Christ or the words of God (cf. John 17:17).
So the question or one of the questions would be, “Can one who disobeys God go to heaven?” In order to answer this with a very brief comment, we might ask, can one fail to obey a very important command of the Lord Jesus and still be saved? Let’s just refer to one command of the Lord that nearly everyone has heard or quoted. I refer to Mark 16:16—which is part of the so-called “Great Commission.” We’ll not discuss the question of whether this was in the original manuscript of Mark or not. For our purpose here, we’ll assume that this actually is inspired Scripture.
The passage of Scripture to which we have referred above says, “”He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16). We know that some people bring in a discussion of the last half of this verse, but we’ll merely concentrate on the first half. Thus, the command by the Lord says, “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved.” This is part of Christ’s parting words to His apostles, thus it is very, very important (actually, all of His words are important!). As we can see, this is a very simple and straightforward command. It can be believed and it can be disbelieved. It can be obeyed and it can be disobeyed.
We know what “believed” means here. It refers to someone who believes the message about Jesus Christ. Obviously, if we wanted to, we could discuss fully what this Greek word for believe means. Instead, let’s assume that you and I both know what “believed” means. Further, the verse refers to one who is “baptized.” Many may not know what this term means. Most Greek scholars and translators (the New Testament was originally written in Greek) state that this term means “to immerse, to submerge, to overwhelm, or to dip.” Without going into a word study of this term, we’ll assume that you and I both know that “baptize” means to immerse or to submerge. Then we come to the English word, “saved.” Jesus here surely is referring to one who is “saved” from death, from condemnation, from hell. The last word of the verse uses “condemned” so the salvation must refer to one who is saved from condemnation.
When we put all of this together, we see that Jesus our Lord is saying, “One who has believed (trusted, placed his faith in Christ) and has been immersed or submerged (in water) will be “saved” from death, hell, and condemnation. This seems quite plain and at least some of our readers will agree to this.
However, we also know that some readers from various religious backgrounds will reject what we have written above—even though it seems very simple and straightforward. For example, inclusivists who insist on accepting everyone who claims to be a Christian (and sometimes many others from other religions) will not agree to this exclusivist presentation. They would mainly do this because they refuse to accept the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture that is quite plain on salvation from sin and death (see 2 Timothy 3:15-17). But it is quite plain to those who believe the Lord Jesus.
Secondly, the verse above from the Bible also says that those who respond to the message of Christ must “believe.” Obviously, as we pointed out earlier, this means that one must believe that the message about Christ is factual and then must place his or her trust in God and Christ as the Son of God, as Savior, and as Lord.
Third, this “believer” must also be baptized. As we pointed out earlier, baptism is generally agreed by Greek scholars to mean one must be immersed, dipped, or plunged into the water and then brought back again. Obviously, in another passage, this means that one must identify himself or herself with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (see Romans 6:3-5 and 1 Corinthians 15:1ff).
Fourth, the result of this response is that the person is “saved” or rescued from death, hell, and condemnation. This is what the Bible refers to as “salvation.”
Although we think that most of our readers will agree that this looks very simple and easily accepted, we also know that millions—actually hundreds of millions—of professing “Christians” don’t see it this way. They reject it. They are willing to disobey it. They disbelieve it. And they insist that others also turn away from this passage, however plain it may be.
Just briefly here, let’s comment on the fact that vast numbers of people who claim to be “Christians” are willing to disobey our beloved Lord in these matters. Who might they be?
First, who doesn’t believe that people are condemned and in need of our Lord’s words here? Earlier we mentioned that inclusivists would reject our Lord’s words (those who accept all people as saved and in a right relationship with God). Thus, they don’t need to obey the Lord about these matters.
Second, we know that some are not able to “believe” the message that we are to proclaim to all creatures in the world (Mark 16:15). For one, baby baptizers or infant baptizers would reject this (which would not truly be baptizers since only a believer can be baptized). Yet there are hundreds of millions of people who profess to be Christians who do not follow Jesus’ words here about believing and then being baptized. This would include nearly all Roman Catholics, the Coptics of Egypt, the Orthodox of the Middle East, and many Protestants, such as Episcopalians, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and many others also baptize babies in addition to “baptizing” adults who have the capacity to believe. (Obviously, an infant cannot believe—although some confessional Lutherans would claim otherwise.)
Third, it should be obvious to all the readers that vast numbers of professing “Christians” have never been truly “baptized” (since the term literally means “immerse,” “dip,” or “submerge). Either they have not read their Bibles, thus do not know about baptism. Or they simply refuse to be truly baptized (immersed). We thus know that there are many hundreds of millions (and additional millions for the past 1800 years) who have not been baptized. Either their pastors, their ministers, or their priests do not baptize them or perhaps some even refuse to do what they know is pleasing to God. We refer here to baby-baptizers such as the Catholics, the Orthodox, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Anglicans, the Lutherans, and many others. Additionally, there are some who claim to “baptize” believers who have never actually been baptized (immersed), such as Mennonites, Presbyterians, and others.
Finally, we realize that many people who claim to be Christians know little at all about salvation. Yet Jesus said that those who respond in the way we have discussed are to be “saved” even if people either deny this or refuse to acknowledge this or don’t know about this. There are millions of people who profess Christianity who will say that they know nothing about being saved! This term is foreign to them. They probably think that it is for the “other person” but they wouldn’t think of being “saved” in any way. They just accept what their parents or spiritual leaders might say and do.
We began this discussion by asking whether one who disobeys God can go to be with God and have eternal life (some would say that this refers to going to “heaven”). Is it possible for one to deny that they are subject to the great commission for they think that hundreds of millions of others are already saved? Or is it possible for one to deny the nature of or the need for saving faith or belief? Or is it possible for one to deny any semblance of immersion in baptism? Or is it possible for one to deny any need of salvation? We know that all of this is possible. Many either deny what Jesus said, or refuse to accept what Jesus said, or disobey what Jesus said. As we asked at the beginning, can one disobey the Lord Jesus and still have eternal life?
At this time, we will not even answer this question directly. Surely many of our readers already know the answer. Whoever you are, we do hope that you will go to our website and ask your questions in various forms into the Search feature. We have many, many articles dealing with different aspects of this subject and we think that your inquiry will be answered.
But let’s ask you, personally, this question: Do you really think that you or others can actually disobey God and still hope to have eternal life with the Lord? Remember what Jesus said: “He who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” John 3:36b).
One additional thought: Other than what God has revealed in His Word, we really don’t know how God would answer this question. There may be something that we don’t know or can’t understand. We are only working with the content of what Jesus our Lord (the Son of God) has revealed. Thus, what do you think? Can you or anyone else refuse to obey the Lord and still be saved?
This is an important issue and it deserves to be discussed and answered. We are all going to stand before God (2 Corinthians 5:10), thus now is the time to check this out and find the answer to this very important matter. Do so today!
–Richard Hollerman
Our Website: www.Truediscipleship.com