Can we save people from Hell?
8 min read
Many preachers today have made us guilt-oriented when it comes to evangelism. We often hear preachers say, "If you don't share Christ with someone, their blood is on your hands." This type of preaching accuses us, telling us that it is our fault if someone goes to Hell.
Preachers twist and misuse a passage from the book of Ezekiel to get this message across. They hope that this message will motivate people to evangelize others. However, most of the time it just ends up creating feelings of guilt, fear, pressure, shame, and condemnation in believers.
If we talk to someone about Jesus, we worry that we didn't do it "good enough." If we don't take advantage of every opportunity to talk about Jesus with others, we feel like condemned failures. It's not even our fault that we feel this way. It's the result of bad preaching that we've received.
One of the worst feelings in the world is thinking that a person whom you failed to witness to is now in Hell, and that it's all your fault. To think that you're responsible for someone's eternal torment in Hell is such a heavy burden of guilt to live with. However, is all of this even true? Are we really to blame?
Using Ezekiel's words out of context
Ezekiel 3:18-19 is the passage that preachers often use out of context when it comes to evangelism. What does this passage really mean? Let's take a closer look.
God had appointed Ezekiel as a watchman for the house of Israel (Ezekiel 3:16-17). A watchman was one who alerted the city of coming danger. He stood upon the city wall or upon a watchtower to watch for incoming threats. If the watchman failed to sound the alarm about an incoming threat, the entire city could have been destroyed.
As a watchman, Ezekiel's job was to warn Israel of any impending danger. The nation of Israel was in serious trouble because it had come under God's judgment. Israel's survival depended on how well they would obey the words of Ezekiel. Chapters 4 to 24 of Ezekiel are all about Ezekiel's cry of alarm. The goal of Ezekiel's cry of alarm was to give the people an opportunity to reinforce their defences and to seek protection.
The context of the third chapter of Ezekiel is the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem that Ezekiel prophesied. The death that is mentioned in Ezekiel 3:18-19 is a physical death, not a spiritual death. A wicked person that refused to heed God's warning through Ezekiel would incur physical death.
Ezekiel was given the responsibility to also warn the righteous people and not just the wicked people.
As Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army approached the city, any righteous person who departed from the path of righteousness was in danger of physical death. Anyone breaking God's commandments risked incurring physical consequences of their sin, namely physical death.
Ezekiel's warnings were specific revelations that God gave him for his people. Ezekiel was made mute by God until God gave him the specific message that he had to speak. Ezekiel could only speak when God told him to speak. When Ezekiel's muteness was removed, he spoke God's prophecies (Ezekiel 3:26-27).
This temporary muteness from God remained with Ezekiel until the fall of Jerusalem. All the prophecies that God gave Ezekiel to speak were confirmed (Ezekiel 33:21-22). Ezekiel's muteness was then removed.
If Ezekiel had refused to speak God's message to the people, he would have been guilty of murder. This is the true meaning of, "his blood I will require at your hand." Ezekiel would have been held accountable by God for refusing to warn the people. Without that warning, they would have been killed.
If Ezekiel warned them but they rejected his warning, Ezekiel still "delivered his soul." This does not refer to eternal salvation. It simply means that Ezekiel delivered himself from any responsibility of the coming judgment upon Israel and the death of many.
Can this be applied to evangelism?
The blood had nothing to do with spiritual death, but physical death. The "blood on your hands" warning cannot be applied to evangelism. The Babylonian army no longer exists and it is not coming upon anyone today to execute God's judgment.
God does not summon us today to warn people of their physical death like God did with Ezekiel. The death we speak of to unbelievers is a spiritual death and an eternal separation from God. Also, God does not make us mute today, until it is time for us to speak. We are not Ezekiel.
As believers, we are not expected to be watchmen over the entire world. That would be too big of a burden to bear for us. However, if we always stay mute and never mention Jesus at all to others, it could mean a loss of a reward on the day when we meet our Savior, but it won't mean that God will charge us with murder.
Is it our fault if someone goes to hell?
God is in complete control over all things. God is sovereign, and God's sovereignty extends as far as the salvation of each individual.
What we need to realize is that the blood of unbelievers is not on our hands because God is in control. It is God, not us, who foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies individuals.
Unbelievers cannot come to God unless God Himself draws them. If they come to Christ, it is because God has drawn them. Jesus dealt with the ignorance and spiritual blindness of His own Jewish people who rejected Him. Jesus recognized their inability to remove their own spiritual blindness. Jesus said:
We should take sharing the gospel with others seriously because God desires to spread the good news through us. However, if we do fail at doing so, it's not ultimately our fault if an unbeliever goes to Hell.
Each person's eternal destiny is in God's hands. In the end, we cannot choose Christ for someone else, even though we love them and wish we could. It comes down to God's work upon their heart and their individual choice.
Conclusion
Using Ezekiel 3:18-19 for evangelism is misusing Scripture and spreading a false teaching. In that passage, God was speaking to Ezekiel about his responsibility as a watchman to the nation of Israel. God was not speaking about our responsibility today. Just because a passage seems like it can be applied to evangelism, it doesn't mean it should.
God's sovereignty over the salvation of each person leaves the results in God's hands, not ours. You can have peace in Christ knowing that there is no "blood on your hands". The blood of Christ has saved us from all condemnation.