What+About+Those+Who+Have+Never+Heard+About+Jesus?

What About the Fate of Those Who Never Heard the Gospel?

The fact of the matter is that if Christianity is true and all other religions false, then the clear implication is that multi billions of non-believing Christian people throughout the span of humanities existence, past to present, are doomed to an eternal hell. However, to some skeptics, atheists and pluralist such a thing is unconscionable. But what is their reasoning for believing that it is unconscionable? They must be thinking consciously or sub-consciously one or more of the following:


 * A loving God would not send people to hell
 * A loving God would not or should not send people to a place of infinite punishment for sins committed during a limited earthly existence
 * A loving God would not send people to hell because they were uninformed or misinformed about Christ

Let us look at each one of these objections in more detail.

A loving God would not send people to hell. I actually could not agree more with this assertion, and the Word of God also agrees. A loving God does not send people to hell, people send themselves to hell! The Bible states that “The Lord is not…willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). With these two scriptures, which are not the only ones, we know that God desires all to be saved but does not force us to believe in Him and His truth – that is the Truth found through the uniqueness of His salvation plan made possible through His Son Jesus Christ. God gives us evidences and truths, but He will not force those evidences and truths upon us to force us to become saved. As C.S. Lewis put it “He cannot ravish. He can only woo.”

A loving God would not or should not send people to a place of infinite punishment for sins committed during a limited earthly existence. This is a case of “the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.” Some people may concede that God does and should punish sins but they will argue as to why the punishment for such sins should be eternal – shouldn’t people just pay for their crime and, like jail, eventually get out? Why the eternal suffering for sins committed in our life which is but a vapor? Such questions have led some Christians to compromise Christian doctrine and begin teaching that eventually all people will be saved or that hell is a form of annihilationism (that is the spirits of sinners do not stay in hell forever, they eventually burn up, or are annihilated by fire), Seventh Day Adventists believe this. For our purposes, there is no room for compromise – Christians must espouse what is truth regardless of how good or bad it may sound. With that, it is important to note that the Bible declares that hell is an everlasting punishment, not a form of annihilationism: //Matthew 25:41 and 46// states, “Then He will say to those at His left hand, Begone from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!...Then they will go away into eternal punishment, but those who are just and upright and in right standing with God into eternal life.” //2 Thessalonians 1:8-9// also declares that the Lord will:

//“deal out retribution (chastisement and vengeance) upon those who do not know or perceive or become acquainted with God, and [upon those] who ignore and refuse to obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ…[and] such people will pay the penalty and suffer the punishment of everlasting ruin (destruction and perdition) and eternal exclusion and banishment from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” //

Scripture plainly shows that punishment for sin is eternal. However we still can address the argument that the “punishment doesn’t fit the crime” with two other major points.

__//(1) It is possible that people continue to stay in a perpetual state of sinning in hell and thus accumulate to themselves infinite punishment.//__ Let me explain. The objection that infinite punishment does not fit finite crimes confuses every sin we commit with all the sins we commit. We can agree that an individual finite sin only deserves a finite punishment, a sin such as stealing or lying. However, if a person commits an infinite number of sins, then should not the punishment be infinite? Of course we know we can not commit an infinite number of sins on this earth but what about the afterlife?[1] In hell, people are not simply intensely weeping for the sins they committed, the Word says they are “weeping and gnashing there teeth” //(Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30; Luke 13:28)//. Weeping is the sorrowful painful anguish of knowing they are eternally separated from God, however the word “gnashing,” in the original Greek is brygmos (which means: extreme anguish and snarling, growling, in a sense biting). This does not sound like sorrow or repentance but seething hatred. I believe we can deduce that the object of peoples “snarling and growling” in hell will be God. People in hell are “gnashing” their teeth out against God in an unrepentant, seething loathsomeness. Such a point can be greatly enforced when we look at the people in the Book of Revelation who refuse to cry out in repentance in the face of God’s plagues. The Scripture says:

//“…men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory…and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great” (Revelation 16:8-11, 21) //

Similarly to the people suffering due to the plagues on earth, people in hell, regardless of the pain and suffering, can be seen as “weeping and gnashing” their teeth not simply because of their situation but also directing their anguish against God in a blasphemous manner. I believe we can presume that the pain, “the scorch of great heat,” will be much greater in hell than on earth, therefore I ask, “If people on earth are going through torment and anguish and rather than repent curse God, why should we assume such people would act any different in the afterlife where their torment and pain will be much greater?” I can not think why they would act any different.

If this is the case, that people continually deny God and “snarl and growl” at Him infinitely (which can be deduced from Scripture), then it is possible that they accrue to themselves infinite punishment, for they are continually denying a reliance and necessity on God, they are continually blaspheming against Him. With that, to a degree, hell can be seen as “self-perpetuating.”

<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">As long as point (1) is even possible, and I believe it is, we can conclude that “the punishment fits the crime” – God is just and wholly good in distributing out His judgments.

<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Before going on, I digress for a moment to say that one may argue that the rich man from //Luke 16:19-26// was repentant and not “snarling” against God. However it never states that he is repentant, it merely states that, “…he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have pity and mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame;” this is not a cry of repentance but of remorse for now he is receiving his “just desserts” for his sins on earth. In short, the farthest we can go with this incident is that the rich man was remorseful, not repentant. Even in his state of despair the rich man never acknowledges his need for God but instead simply asks Abraham to have Lazarus give him a menial drop of water to wet his parched pallet.

<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">On another note pertaining to the parable in Luke 16, we must be careful not to build Christian doctrine around Jesus’ parables. Jesus’ parables are simply stories with lessons or important points to be learned – such as love thy neighbor as thy self. We should not conclude that they are meant to establish important Christian doctrines such as the Doctrine of Hell. It would be the same thing as building our entire Christian faith around dozens of analogies rather than hard doctrinal teaching.

<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__//(2) People ultimately go to hell for the ultimate infinite sin of rejecting God.//__ Plain and simple, people do not go to hell for the succession of “little finite sins” they commit. The sins of adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lying, stealing, killing are not what ultimately keeps us from heaven – for Jesus Christ made the way possible for us to overcome these sins through His redemptive power through His blood! Those finite sins are simply the outward or inward disposition that one has denied Christ’s power in their life – if we accept Christ and live like Christ we will not perform such acts, we will stay in accordance to His will and His lifestyle and thus not be rejecting God, which is the ultimate infinite sin.

<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">What ultimately sends people to hell is the ultimate, infinitely punishable sin of rejecting the Holy Spirit’s wooing to have a relationship with God, which can only be achieved through accepting Jesus Christ and Savior. This is the “unpardonable sin” Jesus refers to in //Mark 3:29// when He states, “…he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.” Again in //Luke 12:10// Jesus states, “anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.” What is Jesus meaning here? Jesus is plainly saying that people who continually reject the Holy Spirit (Who’s job is to woo people to God by wooing them to accept the power of Jesus Christ which is able to save them) will not be forgiven but will be subject to eternal, or infinite, condemnation. Therefore, people are doomed to a realm of infinite punishment because they enacted the infinite sin of rejecting infinite relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The crime fits the punishment. You want no God in this life, you get no God in the afterlife. In short, “hell is the logical outcome of a mindset to live life apart from God.”[2]

<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">A loving God would not send people to hell because they were uninformed or misinformed about Christ. <span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Some will argue that in backwater countries where the Gospel has not been preached, such people should not be sent to hell because they have not heard about Christ. The fact is that the Bible teaches that people will be held account for the amount of revelation they hold pertaining to God.

//<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God's power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.” //

<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“For God's [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative. For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them. For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves]. And by them the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God were exchanged for and represented by images, resembling mortal man and birds and beasts and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin], because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it).” Romans 1:16-25 (AMPL)//

//<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The God Who produced and formed the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade shrines. Neither is He served by human hands, as though He lacked anything, for it is He Himself Who gives life and breath and all things to all [people]. And He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes), so that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring. Acts 17:24-28 (AMPL) //

<span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[1] Information comes from: Moreland, J.P and William Lane Craig. __//Philosophical Foundations For A Christian Worldview//__. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003). Pgs 619-620 <span style="color: #454978; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[2] Information comes from: Copan, Paul. //“Why Would a Good God Send People to an Everlasting Hell?”// __//The Apologetics Study Bible//__. ed. Ted Cabal et. al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007) Pgs 1484-1485