In The Master's Service

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THEIR SOUND WENT INTO ALL THE EARTH

It is asserted by some that all the elect will embrace the gospel. (Very few of them really believe this, for as soon as one brings up the case of stillborn infants they begin to crawfish quickly.) This idea is closely related to the Missionary view that all the saved must hear the gospel in order to be saved. It differs only in that it says that all who are saved (or all who are saved who are of age - after they "adjust" their views to deal with the infant problem) will hear and believe the gospel. It still amounts to the proposition that there is no salvation apart from the preached gospel. That is the key: they assert (at least until they are pressed on the matter) that gospel belief will accompany salvation sooner or later.

One of the places the Missionaries use to support their view that the gospel is necessary to salvation is the 10th Chapter of Romans. They note that "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (automatically assuming that "saved" means "regenerated"). Then they continue: "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe on him in whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" (vs. 14-15). They conclude from this that gospel faith must be exercised in order to procure salvation.

If the reader of Romans Chapter 10 would continue to the next verse, he would find an interesting quotation: "But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." Paul is here quoting from the 19th Psalm, where it is rendered, "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." Of whom is David speaking when he says, "their words?" Look at the preceding three verses: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." David tells us that the heavens, the earth and the movement of the planets all testify as to the existence and the glory of the wonderful Creator of heaven and earth. He calls their testimony "words" and "speech." Paul said in his sermon at Lystra, "Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17).

Missionaries (of whatever stripe) say that there is no salvation apart from the "words" of the Bible, or the "speech" of the preacher, or the "testimony" of those who witness of their faith, and assume that no faith other than gospel faith can be evidence of salvation. (The Arminian Missionaries would reason that it is the cause of salvation.) They fail to recognize any sort of belief other than gospel belief, nor any testimony as an object of the belief of a regenerated person other than gospel testimony. That may have been what Paul assumed some might reason from the series of questions that he had asked in Romans Ten, for notice how he begins verse 18: "But I say." "Others might say otherwise or might conclude otherwise, but I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily." They have all heard. How have they heard? By what means have they heard? "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto all the ends of the world." Whose sound and whose words? David had already told us. David said nothing of a preacher, whose voice is limited, but speaks of a type of testimony of which he could say, "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." That cannot be said of the gospel, but it can be said of the glory of God revealed in His creation. God, in His great goodness, has revealed somewhat of Himself even to those of His children who have not had opportunity to rejoice in gospel truth.

We want to be very clear: we are not contending that a bare belief in a higher power is in itself an evidence of spiritual life. That is a ridiculous idea, for if it were true, then Cain and the wicked Jews in John Chapter 8 - and the devil himself - would be in heaven. What we are saying is that a regenerated man may give evidence of his condition by a reverent adoration of his Creator upon the basis of the light he has. He may worship in the fear of God with the light he has, though it be very little. The same exhibition of God's power and wisdom that leaves all men without an excuse also gives a wonderful testimony to those regenerated but ignorant individuals who worship their Maker, though in a high degree of ignorance.