Earthquakes on Santorini and a mass shooting in Sweden

Over the years, it has been my privilege to lead numerous study tours in the “footsteps of Paul,” traveling through Turkey, Greece, and Italy as we followed the famed apostle’s ministry. Since our cruise ships typically stopped at the tourist island of Santorini, I’ve visited the picturesque island several times. I would go back tomorrow if I could.

Or perhaps not.

Frequent earthquakes have been rattling the volcanic island in recent days, perhaps a precursor to a significantly larger quake to come. People are fleeing in droves; I know of no one doing the reverse.

The only reason I can imagine for traveling to Santorini these days would be if I alone knew that a massive earthquake was coming and had to go to the island personally to warn residents to flee before it was too late. In that case, no excuse would be sufficient to explain inaction.

In other news, Sweden experienced the worst mass shooting in its history this week. A gunman opened fire at an adult education center in the city of Örebro, killing at least ten people. Again, the only reason I can think of for going to that education center just prior to the shooting would be to warn the residents to flee. And no excuses would sufficiently explain inaction.

We can repeat the same observation with any tragedy in the news, from Hamas’s horrific invasion of October 7 to the January 29 collision of an American Airlines jet with a Black Hawk helicopter, 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and so on. In each case, it would make no sense to risk going to the scene just prior to the tragedy unless we somehow knew beforehand that it was about to occur and could persuade people to avoid becoming its victims.

In that case, the courage and character we would demonstrate by risking ourselves for others would illustrate Maya Angelou’s observation: “The effect you have on others’ lives is the highest expression of your own.”

Why, then, are we not more willing to risk sharing the gospel with the people we know who are in imminent peril of eternity in hell?

“No one comes to the Father except through me”

It cannot be that we don’t care about their eternal souls. Or that we do not know enough to at least share John 3:16 and the basic facts of the gospel with them. Or that we don’t know people who are not followers of Jesus.

We know that Jesus said of himself, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). We remember his warning, “Whoever believes in [Christ] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

The “book of life” records all those who have trusted in Christ as their Lord (cf. Philippians 4:3). However, at the final judgment, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).

And so we know that everyone we know needs to know Christ personally in order to have eternal life (John 3:16).

But our culture could not disagree more emphatically.

“The warm embrace of a loving God”

President Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast again this year. Among his remarks, he mourned the victims of the American Airlines and Black Hawk helicopter collision: “As one nation, we take solace in the knowledge that their journey ended not in the cold waters of the Potomac, but in the warm embrace of a loving God.”

President Reagan similarly assured America after the 1986 Challenger disaster that the shuttle crew “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

I understand and appreciate the role of the US president as “consoler in chief.” However, unless they were certain that every victim of these tragedies had trusted in Christ as their Savior, such assurance reflects the theological universalism we’re discussing today.

It is a very comforting thought to believe that everyone goes to heaven, regardless of their trust in Jesus. We might even explain our Savior’s death on the cross as purchasing our salvation whether we know it or not, a gift akin to Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine that benefits us even if we don’t know Salk’s story.

But as we have seen, the Bible very clearly teaches otherwise. It’s not that God does not want everyone to be with him in his heaven. To the contrary, he is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The problem is that we must, in fact, “reach repentance.”

The Lord created us with free will so we could choose to love him and others. He will not violate this free will, standing instead at the door of our hearts and knocking until we give him entrance (Revelation 3:20). He will therefore not force us to accept his gift of salvation. He can save anyone who wishes to be saved, but he will save only those who wish to be saved.

C. S. Lewis was tragically right:

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.”

“The happiest thing in this world”

So, let me ask you: Are you praying by name for the lost people you know? Are you then seeking to be the answer to your prayers by sharing Christ with them?

If not, why not?

Charles Spurgeon assured us, “To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in this world.”

How happy will you be today?