Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep byname and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. John 10:1-6
I am a conditionalist in regards to final punishment, believing that there is only one way of salvation- through faith in Jesus Christ! Those who do not obey the Gospel will be destroyed after the Judgment. This refers to reprobates who hear and understand but deny the Gospel.
“The verdict of Scripture respecting man left to himself is also the verdict of science; we are without hope in the world, beings truly lost. ‘A single word sums up the situation: it is awful.’ [2 Louis Ruchet, La Science et le christianisme, p. 218; Paris, 1872.] But what a light shines suddenly in the night of the tomb just ready to close upon us! It is Jesus Christ, our light and our life. God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. The incarnation of the Word unites a divine essence with our perishable nature. Along with our flesh, the Son of God adopts our interests and responsibilities. Representative of penitent humanity, priest and victim, Jesus offers with His blood the painful pledge of our repentance, and the requisite propitiation for the sins of the world. His death is a sanction of the moral law; it proclaims and expiates our guilt. God in Christ reconciles the world to Himself. He suffers for and with His guilty creatures. The cross becomes the instrument of the reconciliation.
By repentance, love and faith we become united to the Saviour; we follow Him to Calvary. Joined to Him by all the powers of our soul, we are morally crucified with Him, baptized with His baptism. Grafted into Him, we become one plant with Him, the members of a body of which He is the head. We die and we rise again spiritually with Jesus, and His immortal life becomes our own. He that believeth on the Son receives the principle of a new life; he has passed from the beginning of death to a beginning of that new life. The apostle John tells us fifty times over that Jesus is the only source of imperishable life, that the transmission of this life is the very object of the incarnation. Twice the evangelist declares that this glorious and necessary teaching is the purpose of his book. That life is holy, happy, full, glorious; but first and foremost it is specifically life, in the proper and radical meaning of the word; it is "the state of animated beings, so long as they have in them the principle of sensation and movement," and in speaking of man, his existence with the display of his various faculties. Jesus calls Himself the bread of life; we need to drink His blood. He is the vine-stock of which we are the branches. These images clearly signify that the spirit of Jesus penetrating our spirit communicates to it an element of immortality.
It was the Serpent who said: ‘Ye shall not surely die.’ Jesus, on the contrary, exclaims with a sigh: 'How narrow is the gate and straitened the way that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it!' but ‘broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby.’ Life eternal is a promise, a favour, a prize offered to the believer who will lay hold of it, and who, by patience in well-doing, seeks for glory, honour, and incorruption. The resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee of this promise. If Jesus had not risen again, a rough common-sense might say with the materialists: ‘After death all is dead; let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die!’ But because Jesus lives we also shall live. The body dies: that is our share of expiation; the Spirit still lives, and the body will be born anew and transfigured. We shall not suffer the second death; our names inscribed in the register of the celestial city will never be blotted out.” (“The Problem of Immortality” (1892) by E. Petavel, Chapter 5, IX. Profession of faith drawn from the whole body of biblical writings)
But what of those unable to understand or those who never heard the Gospel in their lives? There are some obscure Bible verses:
Mark 4:36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.
John 10:6 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one Shepherd.
Exodus 18:25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
Revelation 2:26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations— 27 ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels."
“First, they [believers] will be given authority over the nations. We recall the words of Psalm 2:8-9: ‘Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.’ Jesus has been given authority to rule over the nations (Rev 12:5; 19:15; cf. Matt 28:18; Rev 12:10) To the church in Thyatira, He gave the promise that the day is coming when the faithful and loyal remnant will share in the authority of Jesus; they will rule with Him (cf. Rev 1:6; 3:21). The fulfillment of this promise given in Psalm2 is realized in Revelation 20-22, when God’s people are on the throne and rule with Jesus in the heavenly places. A second promise is given: 'And I will give him the morning star.' Jesus calls Himself ‘the Bright and Morning Star.’ (Rev 22:16) … this reminds us of Balaam’s prophecy: ‘.. a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult.’ (Num 24:17) As Barclay points out, ‘the promise of the morning star is the promise of Christ Himself.’ Not only will the conquerors be with Christ and rule with Him, but they will have a special close relationship with Him; they will never lose Him and will be with Him forever.” (Ranko Stefanovic)
Surely some will be destroyed (Revelation 2:27b) but perhaps Jesus will have pity on others. If Christians rule over the nations, over whom will they rule?
“God, with whom there is no respect of persons, will have pity upon the heathen and the ignorant, as he has had pity upon us. Believers are a chosen band, not a caste. The God of Jews and non-Jews is also the God of the baptized and the non-baptized, of the initiated and the non-initiated. The supreme judge will show himself just; he will ask little of those who have received little. Those for whom it would have been better never to have been born will be the exceptions. They must have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit of God to lose all chance of salvation; that is the only unpardonable sin. The chastisements will be in exact proportion to the gravity of the offences; and the gravity of the offences is in proportion to the gifts entrusted to each person. For those who have not been able to hear or to understand the divine message, a further announcement is in reserve. The first-fruits, of which we form part, will be followed by an abundant harvest. It is written that in the future paradise there will be a tree of which the leaves will be for the healing of the nations.The nations are all those of human race to whom God has not yet been made known.” (“The Problem of Immortality” (1892) by E. Petavel, Chapter 5, IX. Profession of faith drawn from the whole body of biblical writings)
As king David showed kindness to Mephibosheth of Saul’s house in 2 Samuel 9, perhaps King of kings Jesus will show mercy to other bands in the day of Judgment. And they will have a place at the King’s table. We ought to at least hope so. But we are not the Judge nor King. So let us redouble efforts to make the Jesus of the Scrriptures known to a dying world.
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