When Disaster Strikes, Who Can Be Saved? One Christian View

The recent tsunami in Southeast Asia, and the ensuing enormous loss of life, have raised again the perennial questions of where God is in the midst of disaster, and what happens to those who lose their lives without the opportunity to hear the Gospel.  These are legitimate questions for Christians to wrestle with, because on the surface, such disasters seem to challenge the  goodness of God.  

The Christian is not called to be a fatalist and assume that whatever happens is `the will of God', especially not when something is so at odds with the revealed character of God as a God of love.  What instead we are promised is that "God works all things together for good for those who love God" (Romans 8:28).  This does not mean that everything that happens is good, but rather that God has the power to bring good out of even disastrous situations.  

What should we think about the issue of salvation and those who die through natural disasters?   John 3:16 says God loves the world--not merely believers, but the world.  A fundamental Christian principle is that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world but rather to save the world through Him (Jn. 3:17). The intentions of God are for good, and not for harm, as is reflected in his salvation plan worked out through Jesus.  Jesus did not just come to gather or save the elect, he came to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), which includes all of us.  Jesus deliberately gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:5).

This same verse also reminds us that there is but one saving mediator between God and us, namely Jesus. There may be truth in many differing religious sources, but the New Testament is clear about the means of salvation--Jesus is indeed the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him (Jn. 13:6). In Acts 4:11 Peter puts it this way: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved." 

All can be saved, and God desires it to be so. But God has provided only one means through which one can be saved.

What then are we Christians to think about those who die without hearing the Gospel?  Are they automatically lost simply because they have not heard the Good News?   Theologians have wrestled with this question for centuries, and equally sincere Christian thinkers have come to different conclusions about this matter.  I can only share my conclusions from spending my adult life studying the Greek New Testament.

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