obligates Himself to provide more revelation to them<\/a>, so that they receive enough revelation from God to either accept the offer of eternal life by faith alone, or to reject such an offer.<\/p>\nThis then helps us understand what may be going on to people today who have never heard about Jesus.<\/p>\n
What About Those Who Never Hear the Gospel?<\/h2>\n So what about those who have never heard? Again, I believe that if they respond to the revelation they have received, God has obligated Himself to make sure they receive more revelation, until they get to the point where they have enough revelation to receive eternal life.<\/p>\n
Note that this level of revelation might be different for different people of different ages and of different mental capacities.<\/p>\n
Note as well that my proposal here says nothing about children who die before they are old enough to understand the Gospel, nor does it say anything about people who are mentally handicapped who can never understand much of anything about the Gospel. Those are related, but different, questions.<\/p>\n
How does God make such revelation available to others?<\/h2>\n There are a variety of ways in which God can provide further revelation to those who respond to the revelation they have. Some of these forms of revelation are even mentioned in Scripture.<\/p>\n
If a missionary is available, God could send a missionary. If a missionary is not available, God could send angels to teach these people, or through the Holy Spirit moving like wind upon the earth, God could simply whisper more revelation to those who are responding to the truth they have received. Then, of course, there are dreams and visions. We often hear reports even today of people who have dreams and visions about Jesus who may have never heard of Him before.<\/p>\n
Bottom Line on Those Who Have Never Heard<\/h2>\n I fully admit that some of what I have written above is speculative. The Bible is relatively silent about the eternal destiny of those who have never heard. While some people say that all those who have never heard receive eternal life (universalism), I cannot accept this idea.<\/p>\n
Others teach a form of Christian reincarnation so that before a person’s eternal life is finally determined, they get to live a life in which they have the opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel. I reject that view as well.<\/p>\n
Then there are some who say that God, in His infinite foreknowledge, looks into the possible futures of a person’s life to see what that person would have <\/em>done if they had heard <\/em>the Gospel. This view sounds a bit like that Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report” where people are condemned for crimes they haven’t yet committed.<\/p>\nSome say that God gives people who die without hearing the Gospel an opportunity after death to hear and believe it. This has a bit of merit from Scripture (depending on how you understand Abraham’s bosom in Luke 16:19-31, and the statement in 1 Peter 3:19 about how Jesus preached to the spirits in prison), but again, this view is highly speculative.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is this: We don’t know for sure exactly what happens to those who have never heard the Gospel.<\/p>\n
But we do know that God is loving, kind, merciful, gracious, and resourceful.<\/p>\n
Based on what I know of God, I don’t think it is within the character or nature of God to separate anyone from Him eternally simply because they were unlucky enough to live in an area that didn’t have a Bible. The Bible serves God’s purposes; God does not serve the Bible.<\/strong> God’s work in the world is not limited only to where the Bible is available.<\/p>\nUltimately and finally, we can do nothing more than depend on the grace of God, that He will do what is right.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat do you think? Weigh in below with your own perspective on what happens to people who have never heard the Gospel.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An age-old question is, “What about those who have never heard the gospel?” To answer, it is helpful to ask what happened to those who lived prior to Jesus. How did Jewish people receive eternal life? How did people in other parts of the world receive eternal life? The bottom line answer, however, is that we must rely on the grace of God to do what is right. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1747,1246,1640,1242,1225,1227,1269,1824,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-34173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-bible-and-theology-questions","8":"tag-eternal-life","9":"tag-faith","10":"tag-gospel","11":"tag-grace","12":"tag-jesus","13":"tag-law","14":"tag-never-heard-the-gospel","15":"tag-theology-salvation","16":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n
What about those who have never heard the Gospel?<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n