Nov. 20, 2009 | By Gary D. Myers
NEW ORLEANS - The gospel is only good news to those who hear, International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin said.
Rankin went on to say that the gospel will be "bad news" to those who never hear.
Speaking during New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's Global Mission Week Nov. 5, Rankin urged his listeners to heed Jesus' command to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. At the end of the service, he challenged students to respond to God's mission call.
"God is using global events to turn the hearts of people to a search for spiritual answers that only Jesus can provide," Rankin said. "We have never seen such an accelerating time of harvest. Yet in the midst of what God is doing in our world, there remain vast pockets of lostness."
Rankin compared the IMB's efforts to spread the gospel throughout the world to working a jigsaw puzzle. Reaching people in these pockets of lostness, he said, is like searching for a missing puzzle piece.
"God is attempting to complete a puzzle from every nation and language and peoples across the world that will become the finished picture of His Kingdom," Rankin said. "Many of those pieces of the puzzle are still missing."
As Rankin recently traveled in one of these areas where the gospel has yet to take root, his thoughts drifted the day the people of this area will stand before God's throne of judgment. On that day, those who did not hear the gospel in this life will learn that Jesus is the only way, he said. The thought weighed heavy on Rankin's heart and mind.
"That's going to be bad news for those who never had a chance to know it," Rankin said. "There is no other standard. Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation."
Rankin said the word "gospel" literally means "good news."
"And for us, it is good news," Rankin said. "It is good news that we who are unable to be saved and redeemed by our own works of righteous, can be redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ who died and paid the penalty of sins for us. What better news is there than the grace of God that has provided redemption for those of us who believe?"
Rankin noted a tendency among Christians to believe the lost will be given a second chance to believe in Jesus. But, this is not the teaching of scripture.
"They are going to be sorely disillusioned to find there is no second chance," Rankin said. "The opportunity that God gives us is in this life."
Rankin pointed to Paul's words in Romans 10:13. Those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved Rankin said.
"How can they call on Him of whom they have not heard believed and how can they believe on Him of whom they have not heard?" Rankin said.
The responsibility to share the good news of the gospel, Rankin said, falls on all believers.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 that the gospel will be preached in the whole world and to every nation before He returns, Rankin said.
"God has allowed us to live in a generation when that prophecy is being fulfilled and the gospel is penetrating every nation," Rankin said. "But that doesn't mean they will all be saved."
According the Rankin some Christians equate those who have not heard with children under "the age of accountability." They believe a loving God would not condemn the unevangelized.
"God doesn't condemn them," Rankin said. "They are condemned by their sin. For the Bible says ‘there is none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death.'"
Rankin also warned against a type of practical universalism that silences the gospel. If God did not hold the unevangelized accountable for their sin, why would believers share their faith, Rankin wondered? But silence is not a biblical option. The pages of scripture command believers to go throughout the world preaching the gospel and making disciples, Rankin said.
Rankin urged members of the chapel audience follow the command to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel message. He expressed the urgency of the situation by sharing a famous quote by theologian Carl F.H. Henry -- "The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time."
Before Rankin spoke, NOBTS President Chuck Kelley commended him for his 40 years of mission service with the International Mission Board. Rankin, who has served as IMB President for 17 years, will retire in July 2010. Kelley said Rankin's time at the IMB helm has been marked by a passionate commitment to make Jesus known throughout the world.
The message capped off Global Missions Week - the seminary's annual, week-long emphasis on international missions - in which students were encouraged to consider a call to international missions. Philip Pinckard, mission professor and director of the Global Mission Center at NOBTS, was pleased with the week's outcome.
"The Lord's hand was certainly evident in the chapel worship and through each one who proclaimed God's Word," Pinckard said. "Students engaged actively with the missionaries in the breakout sessions on such topics as training church planters, storying the gospel, and the ministry of wives on the field."
"I was encouraged by the interest and participation of students," he continued.
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