WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE IGNORANT OF THE GOSPEL?

 

There are many people in the world who have never heard the New Testament Gospel or have not heard it in an understandable form. Since the New Testament indicates that no one can come to the Father except through the Son (John 14.6), what happens to such people? The Bible indicates that the Creator is a God of unconditional love, yet we are told that He is also a God of perfect justice, requiring Him to judge sin (Deuteronomy 32.4).

How will He deal with such an apparent dilemma? On the one hand, the Bible indicates that He desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2.4), yet the same New Testament also teaches that He has provided a very specific way to come to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the facts are that many people are ignorant of that way, so they do not have the understanding to accept or reject it.

It would appear on the surface that the issue defies a logical solution. On the one hand God has unconditional love, but on the other hand he has uncompromising justice. Furthermore, the Bible declares that God is not partial or arbitrary in His judgements (Romans 2.11), suggesting that He must have a solution for this problem that will stand all tests of equity.

We are warned from the following text that no one will escape God's Judgement, regardless of their level of knowledge of His Word.

Romans 2:11-16
11 For there is no partiality with God. 
12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law 
13(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; 
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

One commentator summarizes this text in the following way.

This passage may shed some light upon the eternal destiny of those who have never heard the Gospel. How will God deal with such people in the day of Judgement? These verses seem to indicate that He will observe their actions just as He will observe the actions of those who knew the Law, and those who have heard the Gospel, and that He will judge all accordingly. 

Then, does not obedience to this internal standard nullify the principle of salvation by faith? No. Faith is essential for those who obey the internal standard and for those who obey the Law or the Gospel. But how much richer and fuller is our knowledge of God as revealed through his Son!
(The Wycliffe Bible Commentary)

These comments provide assurance that the Almighty Creator of the Universe has ample evidence contained within our very conscience to judge each and everyone of us, and that His Judgement will be impartial.

Since God's Judgement will be certain and fair, it remains only to reflect on just how ones knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ fits into this result.

  1. We could suppose that God will judge all alike on the above basis, independent of whether or not they have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

Over 80% of the world is non-Christian, so such a view might initially seem "impartial", however a closer inspection reveals that it suffers from at least two serious problems. 

  1. At the very least, it suggests that God really has no Plan at all for eternal life, for if He did He would certainly prefer one Plan over the others, and His love would logically cause Him to reveal that Plan to the world.

  2. At the very most, it suggests that Jesus Christ's role as the Savior of the world is really non-essential, thereby denying all of the unambiguous statements made in the New Testament declaring the imperative of our belief in His death on the cross for the sins of mankind. 

  1. We could take the opposing view by supposing that God's condition for eternal life is strictly only through faith in His Son.

Arguments favoring this view generally gravitate toward one or more of the following tenants:

  1. God is sovereign, and in that capacity may choose whomsoever He will to show mercy or Judgement.

  2. Man is in a depraved, fallen state since Adam, living in a state of rebellion against God, and repeatedly rejecting what God has revealed. We all deserve Hell, but God has mercifully provided His perfect way to save us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

  3. People don't end up in Hell because of what they haven't heard, but rather because of their failure to act responsibly on what God has already revealed to them.

While all these statements are Biblically correct, they are still troublesome because of what they do not say. The truth that we are all deserving of Hell does not negate the fact that there are entire people groups in the world who have never heard the Gospel, and those prohibitions tend to run along ethnic, national, or religious lines. If God is truly impartial as the Scripture declares, why is the proclamation of the Gospel so disparate among these people groups? In fact, if the above supposition is correct, does this not place the eternal destiny of these people partly in the hands of other sinful men (and remove it from God's hands) whose responsibility it is to somehow deliver the Gospel to them?

  1. We could suppose that God's condition for eternal life in Heaven is strictly only through faith in His Son, but His conditions for eternal life in general may be more encompassing. 

We are hesitant to face this possibility because it appears to provide an alternative for eternal life apart from Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, the commentator quoted above implies essentially the same thing.

Since Christ is the supreme revelation of God, and since the New Testament is the record that confronts men with Christ, other methods of divine revelation are seen to be only fragmentary. --- Nevertheless, these are divinely chosen channels the existence and function of which Paul invites his readers to consider seriously.
(The Wycliffe Bible Commentary)

Moreover, it is possible to identify at least one people group in Scripture that confirms the reality of this supposition. 

The Old Testament people of Nineveh had no knowledge of God's Covenant with Israel, of the Law, nor of Jesus Christ, but they heard the prophet Jonah's message of impending Judgement, repented and were spared.

(Jonah 3)
3:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 
2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." 
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 
4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" 
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 
6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 
9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 
10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. 
NKJV

Moreover, Jesus Christ in the New Testament made it clear that their decision carried not only temporal, but also eternal blessings.

(Matthew 12:39-41)
39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 
41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
NKJV

Such provisions for eternal life apart from faith in Jesus Christ in no way provides an alternative way to Heaven, because Heaven is a perfect place and only those who are made perfect may go there. The Bible describes the initial requirement in preparation for Heaven to be the "New Birth" (John 3.3-8). Since that spiritual birth is a gift from God, and since it is based solely on one's faith in Jesus Christ, it becomes God's initial action to transform a person to that perfection ultimately required for entrance into Heaven. Consequently, those who are granted entrance into Heaven must go through the Son strictly and solely on the basis of faith.

However, the Bible also speaks of an earthly inheritance during the period of the Millennium. According to this view, the Millennium defines a span a time beginning after the completion of the Church Age and continuing until God creates a "new heaven and new earth" at some future time (Revelation 21.1). It is clear from a literal reading of numerous Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments that Israel will become God's centerpiece during that period, and that many Gentiles will also be present on earth.

(Zechariah 14:1-4, 16)
1Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. 
2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 
3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. 
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. 

Zechariah 14:16
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
NKJV

While we are not told just who these Gentiles will be, accounts like those of the Ninevites who genuinely repented, suggest that some of them could be such people who are ultimately found to have eternal life through the period of the Millennium, though not in Heaven.

Topic: What about people ignorant of the Gospel?
Name: Lois
B1: Submit
Date: September 23, 2000
Time: 06:46 PM

Comments:

I've thought about this and would like more information.

Topic: What about people ignorant of the Gospel?
Name: Judy
B1: Submit
Date: April 02, 2001
Time: 07:33 PM

Comments:

Where did I read that? I have always believed that God, knowing the innermost thoughts and feelings of our hearts, and the actions by which we conduct ourselves would judge us accordingly...I see God as a very merciful loving God, one who would not punish the ignorant as long as their hearts were in the right place...Wow, this is certainly thought provoking!

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