If you’re in ministry long enough, you will eventually get questions about people who never hear the gospel and therefore end up going to hell. Because I spent decades in youth ministry, I heard that question pretty regularly. There are theologians who will tell you exactly how that works. I’m not one of them. As a matter of fact, many of them don’t agree with each other. What I would initially tell a young person—or anyone who asked me that question today—is, “I’m not sure exactly. It is not up to me who gets in and who doesn’t. But what I do know for sure is that you have now heard and are without excuse.” As for the deeper question, Solomon spends much of this chapter reminding us that wisdom has made her voice clearly heard. I personally find a great deal of comfort in the passage in Romans where Paul writes that what can be known about God has been clearly seen through His handiwork. I firmly believe, much to the chagrin of some of my Calvinist friends, that everyone is given the opportunity to see, know, and respond to God’s invitation to enter a relationship with Him. Even today, as awful as social media can often be, God has found some incredibly creative ways for His followers to use it to spread His truth. When one of my grandsons was seven years old, he went to his father and said, “I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead.” His father asked him where he had heard that, and he replied, “On TikTok.” To this day, I have no idea who that TikToker was, but my goodness, I am so grateful for him. Today, when you hear His voice, listen. #BeTheEdge
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20 NIV
