Earlier this week Justin Taylor posted a 2008 interview of Pastor Tim
Keller by Martin Bashir at Columbia University. The interview was
spring-boarded by his then-newly released book, The Reason for God.
During the interview, which was designed to ask the hardest questions
about Christianity, Bashir asked Keller about the eternal destiny of
those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ. You can watch part of his
answer in this video, with the relevant portion being from about 13:20 to about 15:10. I’ve also transcribed that portion below:
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Bashir: So where does that leave the millions of Muslims, Sikhs and Jews? Are they sadly and completely deluded?
Keller: People who never heard about Jesus, or never really got a hearing about Jesus…
Bashir: I’m not talking about them, because some
of those people have heard (about Jesus). I’m talking about the
millions of Muslims, Sikhs and Jews who have heard about Jesus. Where
does your thesis leave them?
Keller: Where they are right now, it means that if
there’s never any change, they don’t get Jesus. If he is who he says he
is, then, long term, they don’t have God. If on the other hand…all I can
always say about this is God gives me, even as a minister with the
Scripture, a lot of information on a need-to-know basis. And a
need-to-know basis means, “Here’s all I can tell you: unless you get
Jesus Christ who created you to start with, unless you are reunited with
him sometime, there is no eternal future of thriving.” It just makes
sense. Again, I’m trying to go back to this idea that, that, if he is
who he says he is, you’ve got to have him. If right now a person doesn’t
have him, he or she needs to get him. If they die and they’ve never, if they die and they don’t have Jesus Christ, I don’t know. Keep Reading...
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