Cedarville Magazine, Spring/Summer 2016

The Exclusivity of the Gospel WeBelieve in by Jon Wood the Exclusivity of the Gospel WeBelieve in There is a reality about the world that troubles me deeply. Of the 7.2 billion people on the planet, more than three billion are “unreached.” The unreached are peoples around the world who do not have access to the knowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that they may place their faith in Him and repent from their sin. These unreached exist within tribes or ethnic “groups” who share a common culture and language. There are nearly 10,000 people groups around the globe, with more than 4,000 unreached, according to joshuaproject.net/global_statistics. With this inmind, evangelical leader John Stott once quipped, “We must be Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.” Yet, God’s concern for the lost among the nations is set within a single context: His redemptive plan of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. There are not many roads leading to eternal life, but only one way, one truth, and one life. A question often raised in this discussion centers on the proverbial “Average Joe,” living in a distant land and dying without hearing about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that makes salvation possible through faith in His name. What happens to Average Joe, and on a much larger scale, the three 10 | Cedarville Magazine