I had a BLAST with our live Q&A at Life Church today. We let everyone text-in anonymous questions and attempted to answer as many as we could live on stage.
Wow, lots of great, honest questions. I love that we have a church that not only welcomes questions and doubts, but also provides an unfiltered, live avenue to wrestle through them as a community of faith.
We ran out of time to get to every question, so I thought I would answer the rest here on the blog! These are not meant to be exhaustive answers, just answers that give you enough to point you in the right direction.
Q: If children who are not baptized die, will they go to heaven?
A: Baptism doesn't get you into heaven; Jesus does. Baptism is a symbol of our faith but not the object of our faith. Jesus is the One who rescues and saves, not baptism. Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward faith. In the Bible, we see many examples of people who pass into eternity to be with Jesus without having been baptized. King David's infant son dies without having been baptized, but he knows he will see him again in heaven. On the Cross, a thief turns to Christ and dies without having been baptized, yet is received into Paradise.
Q: Where do people who have never heard the gospel go when they die?
A: Jesus explains in Luke chapter 16 there are only two domains in the afterlife: Paradise and Hades. Romans 1:16 explains that the gospel "is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes." Later in Romans we are told that faith and salvation come from hearing the Good News that Jesus rescues. So if you haven't heard the gospel, you are still in need of salvation.
That said, God doesn't just leave us in the dark. He reveals Himself to humanity through the light of creation and the light of conscience (scholars call this "general revelation") so that "people are without excuse" (Romans 1:20). If you see God in nature or feel God's weight in your heart, you are experiencing general revelation. If this leads you to pursue God - BOOM! - you will find Him!
Q: If someone is already in hell is there a chance of getting to heaven?
A: Sadly, no. Jesus explains this in Luke chapter 16.
Q: What is the difference between fathers, pastors, reverends, etc?
A: The only thing they have in common is that none of these titles is found in the Bible! That doesn't make them wrong, just that the terms came later in church history.
"Father" is the term for a Catholic priest. Being protestants, we're not excited about this term. Neither was Jesus. "Pastor" is a translation for the term "undershepherd" found in 1 Peter 5. It is synonymous with "elder" and "bishop" in the New Testament. At Life Church, we're cool with this term. "Reverend" is a title given to a pastor who has been ordained. At the end of the day, we're not hyper about titles at Life Church. We are respectful toward our leaders and leaders at other churches, but honestly, if someone's going around with the title "Bishop" on their business card, I'm going to be snickering at them.
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