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What about those who have never heard the Gospel?
Published: 20 May 2017 (GMT+10)
Charles S. United States, writes:
It is my understanding that everyone will have an opportunity to accept or reject Christ. I am sure that down through history and even today there are people who have never had that opportunity. People in some obscure tribe who may have never even knew who Christ was. Young children and babies who had no understanding of who Christ is. My question is what happens to those people? Will they, at some future time be given the opportunity to accept or reject Christ? Will they again be born to live again as humans to have that opportunity to accept or reject Christ. I understand that once we die we no longer have that chance to accept or reject Christ. Thank you for allowing me to ask this question. I look forward to your answer.
Lita Cosner, CMI-US, responds:
Dear Charles,
Thanks for writing in. Scripture says, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). This indicates that we all only have one life in which to respond to the Gospel. As I’ve said before, while the Bible doesn’t tell us everything we’d like to know about salvation, it tells us everything we need to know. With that in mind, here are a few principles which help us to think through this difficult issue.
We are all born in rebellion against God
Scripture teaches that we do not enter the world as morally neutral entities, but we are sinful from our very conception (Psalm 51:5). One of my colleagues points out that any parent of small children sees this in action! You don’t have to teach your little boy to be selfish with his toys or pull his sister’s hair, these sinful behaviors come naturally.
This sinfulness is not so much what we do, as who we are. We sin because we’re sinners. We were born that way, because our parents were born that way, all the way back to the children of Adam and Eve, who were the only human beings not born in sin, but they became sinful (of course, Jesus was without sin. Jesus is also God).
Because God is good, He must judge sin. And even on a human level, we can think of horrendous crimes for which we would demand judgment. God sees all sin like that. God is perfectly righteous so He must judge perfectly—every sin must receive a proportional judgment.
Nature gives enough revelation to condemn but not to save
Romans 1 tells us clearly that we should be able to tell from nature that God is the Creator and some basic things about His power and divine nature. The revelation that is present in nature is called “general revelation”. That should cause us to worship him and be thankful, but instead people decide to rebel against the Creator and engage in various forms of idolatry. This sets off a cascade of sinful consequences which are both the results of logically prior sins, and sins which deserve judgment in and of themselves.
While the revelation in nature is sufficient to condemn people, it is not sufficient to save, for at least two reasons. First, the revelation in nature is corrupted by sin’s effects on the world, meaning that the revelation is not as clear as it would have been when God originally created. Second, sin has affected our minds, meaning that our ability to perceive the revelation from nature as we should is affected.
God did not owe salvation to anyone
When a portion of the angels fell alongside Satan, God did not offer any of them a chance at redemption. They will all be judged and condemned on the last day and sentenced to an eternity in Hell (they are not the jailers in Hell; they are prisoners), and God is perfectly just to do so. In the same way, God does not owe salvation to anyone. Yet God wanted to demonstrate both His justice and His mercy, so He set in place the plan of salvation through Christ.
Does God have to reveal this plan to everyone? Well, if we establish that God doesn’t owe anybody salvation, we can’t turn around and say that if He saves, everybody must know how He does, especially since these people are already sinners who rebel against the revelation in nature that they have.
Yet when Scripture speaks of God’s saving work, its vastness is what is emphasized, and His great generosity. In Heaven there will be a vast multitude of people from every people and nation. The scope of salvation is vast.
The correct response to the Gospel is evangelism
There are two reasons why someone might wonder about those who have never heard. One is the type of person who wants to find flaws in the way God has chosen to offer salvation to mankind. The other is the type of person who is genuinely concerned that there are people who have never heard about the wondrous news of salvation through Christ.
This of course is why Jesus commanded Christians to spread the Gospel. If you’re concerned about people alive today having never heard the Gospel, the correct response is to support a missionary, or maybe go and be a missionary yourself. Yes, there are people in the past who lived and died without ever hearing the Gospel. The Bible suggests they will be judged according to the amount of revelation they had (Luke 12:47–48), and we can trust that the Judge of the earth will do right (Genesis 18:25).
What about infants and the mentally handicapped?
Others ask about what happens to babies, the mentally handicapped, and others who never reached a point where they were able to understand the Gospel and accept or reject God’s offer of salvation. This is a difficult question. One part of the answer is that the Gospel message is for those who are able to understand it. If God wants to have mercy on babies and the mentally handicapped, then that is certainly His prerogative. The only way they could be saved is through the death of Christ, and if He wants to do that, He is able to. Theologians from practically every soteriological viewpoint affirm this.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
When we realize the vastness of the sin problem, that only the death of the Son of God could provide atonement, our response should be amazement, gratitude, and worship because God has provided such a costly payment to save us. And then we should go out and tell others. Paul expresses the urgency of the call to evangelism:
“… because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord 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? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”(Romans 10:9–17).
I think my colleague Dr Jonathan Sarfati lays out the biblical statement on this issue in his article on death and suffering:
- People go to hell because they have sinned against the infinitely holy God, as explained above, not because ‘they haven’t heard’.
- Romans 1:18–28 points out that some truth about God is obvious (in the heart) from creation, so that all people are ‘without excuse’.
- Romans 2:14–16 says that people also have a conscience, and don’t even live up to their own standards, let alone God’s.
- Romans 10:9–13 explains the only way out: belief in Jesus as YHWH (aka Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord), who died for our sins.
- Thus Romans 10:14–18 explains the urgency of getting this message to everyone, so they will have a chance to hear.
Evangelism from a creation foundation
When we understand the Bible’s big story of creation, fall, and restoration, we have a good foundation for evangelizing those who have never heard. Paul used creation evangelism in Lystra (Acts 14:8–18) and Athens (Acts 17:16–34), two Greek cities that had little to no knowledge of the God of the Bible. Explaining that God is our Creator who provides everything we have, and that we need to be in a right relationship with Him, and God has provided a way for reconciliation through Christ is an important theme in Scripture.
So when we think about those who have never heard, our response should not be to wonder what God is doing about that, but what are we doing about that? And then we trust God with the results, including with the people who for whatever reason never heard.
Readers’ comments
So even if you have not heard of Jesus, your conscious will be judged or excused by Jesus.
As Paul mentions that "all Asia" turned away (2.Tim 1:15) and as the Israelites were told to teach the things of God to their children continuously, we understand that parents have a great responsibility.
It is a natural consequence that Christian parents will usually have Christian children, or Muslim parents will have Muslim children. What we teach them, sticks with them. So if an ancestor somewhere decided to reject the Gospel, this would have had consequences for his descendants, possibly centuries down the line of history.
This does not fully explain whether this is "fair" of God but since this is how the world we inhabit works (both for better and for worse), it at least explains why the world is in the state it is in.
"He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NASB
I believe that this is one of Satan's greatest deceptions, to think that God "will make a way for those who have never heard" this blinds people to the urgency in reaching out to the lost.
Thank you for an informative biblical article.
A native boy was born in the year 400 AD near present day Kitchener. As he grew, the elders taught him of the Creator (Great Spirit) and he rejoiced in the Creator and his world. He followed his tribe's laws but died early in the year 410. A good kid. Of course, he never heard of Christ and we absolutely accept that no man enters Heaven without Jesus. So our native boy is condemned to an eternity of torture? Wait. In Zech 9:11 and 1 Pe 3:19 there are ideas of God/Jesus freeing/preaching to human prisoners. Now given that eternity is timeless, we may safely assume that Jesus, in those 3 days of preaching (preaching what?...about his sin sacrifice of course), was encountering every human that ever lived or died who was sensitive to the Lord. The ones who rejected the Creator in their lifetime wouldn't be in this holding place, only the ones sensitive to God. Wouldn't it make sense to have our little native boy, sensitive to God and his presence during his time on earth, to hear about Jesus, accept him and be welcomed into Heaven?
God is fair. Since Jesus is the only key to an eternity with himself then it stands to reason that everyone must have a chance at salvation. Otherwise, God is sending people to an eternity of suffering without giving them a fair chance at Jesus. I do not believe that is possible.
So I think John B from Oz might be on to something. If my thinking is incorrect; then that native boy unjustly was sent to Hell forever. I am 100% certain that will not be the case. I believe in a just and loving Lord who saves people like that native boy. So to recap, after Jesus' death, in the holding place beyond the tomb, Jesus preached to humans who loved God in their lifetimes.
I look forward to your answer. Sorry for the wordiness of this.
Your statement, "Otherwise, God is sending people to an eternity of suffering without giving them a fair chance at Jesus" is actually really revealing. First, whatever suffering people experience in Hell will be the entirely just sentence for sin on earth. God will ensure justice, and the person suffering will know that his suffering is just. Second, God did not owe anyone salvation, so how could He owe everyone a chance at salvation? I can't find a verse for that.
I am so concerned about this because first, it shows the urgency of missions. Of course we want everyone to hear about Jesus! So if we know of someplace in the world that is unreached, do we say, "Oh well, I guess they'll get a chance after they die," or do we pray for missions to reach them and help to whatever extent we are able to do so?
Regarding John B.'s comment, my reply shows how he is misinterpreting that verse in 1 Peter by completely ignoring the context in which Peter makes that statement.
Kind regards,
George Morgan
Thanks Lita, I always enjoy reading your articles. God bless
So many people are concerned about the fate of the person who dies without hearing of Jesus and try to work around the grim fate of such a person. (And note the concern can only be hypothetical, because they are spoken of as a nebulous idea, instead of real people in desperate need of the truth.) Why aren't more people concerned with going with the Gospel so that they don't die without hearing!
I also think this scripture helps to understand better as well:
Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
John 9:35-41
God bless
Kind regards,
Elmarie
Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork." This message is available to all people, everywhere, throughout history.
Assuming that this message is taken on board, then seeking out the Creator and His Gospel would be an obvious next step.
Romans 1:18ff says much the same thing about creation, together with the consequences of denying the Creator.
However, the great deception is to negate this message from God, and substitute another explanation, so that people do not even see the obvious: that our world must have a Creator. Evolution not merely substitutes for God but replaces God with nothing. The real tragedy is that many people have heard of God and His Saviour, but choose evolution in spite of this knowledge, preferring the lie to the truth.
In Romans 2:14-16, we read
"14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them 16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." NKJV
God judges perfectly, even those who have not heard of the Law or the Gospel of Christ, because of what is written on their hearts.
There is no need to worry about those who have not heard, rather worry about those who have heard and then turn to the deception of evolution.
Glod bless you and God bless this ministry.
It is important to realize that the person before Christ was still saved through Christ's sacrifice.
a) as in Revelation, after the first life, those not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire
b) yet Revelation does not ever directly speak to whether there may be life after the lake of fire for first life unbelievers
c) 1 Tim 4:10 states that Christ is the savior of all, especially of those who believe--this verse accords with the idea that, although first life unbelievers will suffer (for an unspecified length) in the lake of fire, we will all be saved eventually
If someone simply (and fully) held te belief that unbelievers will be judged (at all) in the lake of fire, that would be plenty of motivation for true evangelism. Judging from American Christianity, though, a belief in eternal conscious torment tends to do little but lead believers down the road of apathy towards hell...and disbelief in general. Who would like a God who would punish someone forever.
I would be interested in reading an article that examines the Greek word aionios (on which unending punishment hangs) from CMI.
There are unfortunately professing Christians who are apathetic about missions. But I would suggest that is because we are insufficiently focused on the eternal realities at stake.
Are any of these three propositions correct?
1. The question isn’t whether this or that revelation of God is sufficient to save or not, but how we response to the revelation God has given us. God told Abraham he was going to have a son. Abraham believed what God said and that belief was counted to him as righteousness. Regardless of the revelation of God we have, do we believe what we have? All people everywhere throughout all time have had general revelation in their face every moment of every day. However not everyone has had, or has special revelation. Today people can hear the full revelation of Christ in the Gospel. Do they believe God or not? If they do, it’s counted to them for righteousness, just as it was for Abraham. Say someone only has the testimony of general revelation. Do they believe this revelation from God, or not? If they do, why should this not be counted to them as righteousness, just as it was for Abraham?
2. General revelation is not corrupt, because it's a revelation of God. Nor is it unclear. God’s judgement of the created order has not substantially affected the clarity of general revelation.
3. Nor has sin affected our minds such that we can’t perceive general revelation as we should. The revelation is clear. People have no excuse. The issue is human beings are rebels against God and in general do not want to believe the clear revelation, either general or special.
2. General revelation is what is knowable about God through nature. Because nature is fallen, and thus a distorted version of what God created, without special revelation (Scripture) we would not know what to make of venemous reptiles, 'bad design', thorns, death, and so on.
3. Sin certainly affects the human mind. The revelation is clear, and people have no excuse, but sin has dulled the ability of the human mind to perceive general revelation.
If Christ could forgive on the cross those who killed him could he not forgive an ignorant baby or a person ignorant of the gospel? It is up to God though. Who are we to say what he would do?
I believe that when our Lord Jesus was dead for three days, that may have been the time when He preached the Gospel to those who have died, throughout all of time, never having heard the Gospel in their lifetime. (Some things of God are difficult to understand in this age) I also believe that our Father Yaweh, Who is Love, would not create people to live in sin, to face an eternal punishment for that sin, with no chance of redemption because they had never heard of the Gospel & the Lord Jesus. I don’t believe I am ‘creating’ God as I would have Him be: I know my Father & Brother through the Scriptures & the Holy Spirit. I write with the utmost respect. I pray Yaweh’s blessings over all of you at CMI & your families.
I also do not believe that God created people to sin and die. However, due to the Fall of Adam, that is the reality we all live in, and we can only be saved by trusting in Jesus for salvation. No one goes to Hell because they did not have a chance to believe—if someone is condemned, they are condemned for their sins, and they are judged in light of the revelation they had access to.
And to reiterate the article’s point—this should spur us on all the more to share the Gospel.
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