Does God still save the lost through visions?
Paul stresses in Galatians that his transforming encounter with the risen Christ was not dependent on any human being but came by direct revelation. In fact, his entire argument for his apostleship in the first two chapters of Galatians hangs on that very fact.
Paul’s Unique Conversion
Here’s what he says in Galatians 1:11–12:
I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
And then, to underline the point of being dependent on no one except the risen Christ, he says in Galatians 1:15–17,
When he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. Still, I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
So the point of Paul’s argument is that his unique apostolic authority over ordinary Christians in the early church is based on his unique way of encountering Christ and being called into the ministry.
It would be wrong to use Paul’s unique experience to say that’s how other people worldwide can come to Christ. Paul’s point is the opposite: “My dependence on no other humans is the warrant for my apostleship, not a model for evangelism. My argument would lose its force if others could come to Christ this way.” So that’s my answer to the last part of Michael’s question. Paul’s experience is not a model for how people can come to Christ without human input.
Saved Apart from Preaching?
So what about the first part of Michael’s question (which is even more important)? Can a person be saved who has never been witnessed or preached to by another human? This is a hugely important question, especially for people involved in world missions. Does God save people who have never heard the gospel through a human witness? Does he, for example, give them dreams of all they need to know about Christ to be saved?
This is so important that in my book on missions, Let the Nations be Glad!, there’s a long chapter about this issue. We — Desiring God and the publisher — thought we needed to publish a small book from that chapter called Jesus: The Only Way to God; Must You Hear the Gospel to Be Saved? So I can only mention a few pointers here, but there’s more to read if you want to follow up.
“God does not save people today apart from hearing the gospel of Jesus.”
My answer is no, God does not save people today apart from hearing the gospel of Jesus. And the reason is that God’s purpose ever since the incarnation of Christ as the God-man is that the Son of God — Jesus Christ, crucified and risen — is to be the conscious focus of all saving faith everywhere in the world, among all the people of the world.
Faith Comes from Hearing
For example, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:21, “Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” The wisdom of God decreed that people would not come to know him except through the preaching of Jesus. The incarnate, crucified, risen Son of God is so gloriously pivotal in God’s purposes for the revelation of himself in history that all saving faith orients on this Christ, particularly as he is preached in the gospel. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
“It was the wisdom of God that decreed that people would not come to know him except through the preaching of Jesus.”
The apostles proclaimed that very truth in Acts 4:12: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” And then Paul put the finest point on it by arguing that this saving name must be preached, heard, and believed for people to be saved. Here’s Romans 10:
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [Jesus] will be saved. How, then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? . . . So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:13–15, 17)
In other words, I don’t think the Bible encourages us to believe that a person can come to save faith without hearing the gospel. This is why world missions and personal evangelism are so utterly crucial.
Purpose of Visions
If we ask about the role of dreams and visions, say on the mission field, the New Testament's guidance is the story of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, who got a vision of an angel speaking to him that resulted in his conversion to Christianity. But Peter explains how this vision led to his salvation. Here’s what Peter says about that transaction in Acts 11:13–14: Peter said,
[Cornelius] told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.”
The vision from the angel was not the saving message. The vision connected him with Peter, who preached the saving message about Jesus. If God uses dreams or visions, I think, biblically, that’s how he will use them.
I Am Sending You
So my conclusion is that God has mercifully provided a way of salvation through the glorious gospel of Christ. And he says to us, to missionary goers and senders, in the words of Acts 26:17, the risen Christ now talking to Paul (and really to all of us who care about bringing people out of darkness into light),
I am sending you [you, human being] to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26:17–18)
God uses people — speaking people, acting people, loving people — to save people. Let’s be about that.
John Piper
