Last week, I identified the evangelical hell doctrine (EHD): “All people who believe that Jesus died for their sins and was resurrected and accept this sacrifice will go to heaven, and all people who don’t believe and accept it will go to a place of eternal, conscious, torment.” The next few weeks, I am going to introduce good reasons to believe that this doctrine is simply not Scriptural.
I’ll start with this teaching of Jesus: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:14-16, ESV)
So there is an original flock. If you are a Christian in my tradition, you believe with me that this flock is made up of those who believe and accept the Gospel. But who are the members of the 'other' fold? I have heard speculation that these people may be the Jews, or at least some of the Jews. The Mormons claim that Jesus is talking about them, while still others say that this group must be those who live in unreached, remote parts of the world.
Perhaps one of these answers is right, perhaps all are, and perhaps none is. Perhaps there are two people in the other fold, perhaps there are billions. But here is an important thing to notice: Jesus does not tell us or even indicate who these ‘others’ may be. So for a reason unknown to us, Jesus felt that it was important to indicate that there were ‘others,’ but he also felt it unimportant to tell us who those ‘others’ may be.
But while it is impossible to be clear on the specifics, we do know some general things about the other flock. First, they were not members of the original fold. And, since the members of the original fold are those who believe and accept the Gospel, these ‘others’ must be people either who do not believe the Gospel (and hence do not accept the Gospel), or do not accept the Gospel (even though they believe it).
Second, these ‘others’ have exactly the same destiny as the original flock, for the two flocks will become ‘one flock’ in the end.
Third, although the other flock may not know or accept Jesus now, they “will listen to [Jesus’] voice.” Jesus is here continuing his metaphor of himself as the shepherd and us as sheep, for a shepherd’s voice is very intimate for the sheep. In fact (at least, this used to be true in ancient cultures), if a shepherd died, the herd of sheep that he was in charge of would be slaughtered. This is because the sheep recognize only one voice, and in the absence of that shepherd with whom they have been familiar their whole lives, there is no hope of getting the sheep to do anything. What this image suggests are people without a real, explicit recognition of the Gospel who nevertheless recognize Jesus’ voice (whatever that may mean non-metaphorically).
It is important to recognize that this verse alone shows that the second part of the EHD is false, because John 10:16 explicitly states that there are some who do not believe/accept to Gospel who will share a destiny with the original fold.
