What about those who never heard the gospel?

[Pilgrim]

Many times people will ask "What about those who never heard the gospel, is God just in sending them to hell?" I believe Cornelius in Acts 10 has the answer to that question. For those who are interseted you can hear the answers here http://www.nlbchapel.org/Audio.htm 

We can learn much about the gospel of God in Acts 10 and truly see that God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9

Pilgrim

[Chaplain Bob]

You might also check out Romans 1:18-20.  It seems to indicate that those who come to know God through His creation will be saved without hearing the Gospel.  But remember, they too are saved only because of the sacrifice of Jesus.  "...no one comes to the Father except by me..."

[Shammu]

The Bible says, they will have a chance hear of Christ.

And before you ask........... If the yet unreached people of the world are not lost, why did Jesus tell His disciples to “proclaim His name to all the nations (Luke 24:47), “to Go, and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19), and to be witnesses “even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:? Why did He tell them to tell others if that knowledge would only condemn most of them? Then it would actually be best if they didn’t hear.

Did Christ mislead His disciples? Was Paul misguided to go throughout Asia Minor and Europe? No, the reason Christ sent them, the reason they went and the reason why many should go today is because Christ is the only way to be saved.

2 Timothy 4:17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the [Gospel] message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was delivered out of the jaws of the lion.

The Bible is clear that God in His providence has placed each and every single individual in a time and place so that they would have ample opportunity to seek him:

Acts 17:27 "From one man God made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live, God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us,"

Men and women are not sentenced to hell based upon whether or not they have heard of Jesus Christ.  Rather, they are justly and fittingly condemned based upon the fact that they are sinners. Indeed, they are sinners who have failed to act responsibly on what God has already revealed to them -- whether through the light of creation (Romans 1), through the light of conscience (Romans 2), or through the light of Christ (Romans 3).  If people respond to whatever light they do have, then God will send them the light of the gospel.  Because no one has been kept in the dark about God's existence, we're all accountable directly to Him (Luke 12:47-48).

Here is the donkey that talked Numbers 22:28-30

And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? 
And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. 
And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.

See if God can make a donkey tlaked, can't he not make a way to reach those people in the distant land.  He can use anything he wants... missionaries or others.

It is a choice, of now hearing the word of Christ  now, or in tribulation.

[dp]

If hearing The Gospel of Jesus Christ is required for Salvation, which I believe It is (Rom.10:13-14), then those who died in Old Testament times, and as infants before having their chance to hear, still must be accounted for. And they will be, as God said He is no respecter of persons, and desires that none should perish (2 Pet.3:9; Matt.18:14).

We as Christians need to be able to answer this question, because it's one that non-believing atheists ask a lot. And if we say everyone that was ever born in the flesh has heard The Gospel and had a chance to believe or not believe, then we go against God's written Word about the time before our Lord Jesus came to die on the cross, a time when The Gospel was not yet open to the 'nations' (also see Rom.16:25-26; Colossians 1:25-27; Ephesians 1:9-10 and Ephesians 3). Many of old Israel knew through God's prophets, (Heb.11; Gal.3), but the majority of the Gentiles didn't know yet, and many of them died before Christ's first coming. A lot of the non-believers know that, and that's why they ask this type of question. And there is simple but hard Scripture proof in answer to it, though too many Churches don't care to go that deep in The Word.

In Christ Jesus,
dp

[lightsavour]

 My first point would be that the people in the Old Testament are indeed judged by Jesus even though he was not yet here in the world in the flesh. The truth is that the angel of the Lord (when referring to God himself, and not a lesser angel in the Old Testament) was VERY MUCH JESUS! Jesus Christ is our Creator as well as our Lord and Saviour, if He was not omnipotent himself then his sacrifice on the cross would be fruitless, and he would not have been able to come back from the Hell he faced for all of us in thise 3 long, dark and lonely hours. So in regards to the Old Testament writers and theyre inspiration from God to write the word, they were already in contact with the Saviour, and that is why Jesus is the word. As a man amongst men he limited his glory, and that meant directing all glory to God, which is completely righteous and correct. But what it means is that the Saviour was on the earth in Spirit from the beginning of time... and He still is.

 I wont be the least surprised to find people who the world refers to as "savages" in present iscolation, or past, to be in heaven, and to have actually received great individual blessings and sightings of angels when they believed under those circumstances.

 In regards to children who are not yet at the "age of understanding" there is King Solomon (i believe it was Solomon) who had a son that was taken from him. And he said that he would see him again. That is how most people get peace about the children who are taken before any understanding or responsibility has sunk in. They will be in heaven most certaintly. And this should give parents peace who for some reason or another are afraid to have children at any time because of the Lords coming. Our God is never wrong in his times, and there will be an innumerable throng saved in the time of tribulation.

 Also, in regards to people who WILL be in hell that might try to claim they never heard the clear Gospel (and perhaps are alive right now), are most definately responsible souls already. This ownership of Christians to see that God is the one who has blessed ALL men, the sinners like the righteous, is really the lifeblood of the Gospel. We could all just sit back and say that Truth and Knowledge will allow God to take care of saving those who will be saved. But if everyone had done this, then truthfully following the bible back to the first moments after Jesus was resurrected and seen, we would have no gospel to tell, because the Holy Spirit would not have really been inside those who had believed, and thus History would have forgotten Jesus immediately just based on what He taught beforehand.

 So we can be sure that all men and women in any country that furthers knowledge and can consciously consider theyre soul and God, has become responsible towards God based on God being true, and the Holy Word of God being the only good thing for anyone to know. However, we can also be sure that God's only purpose for Christians to live out theyre time, rather than immediately be resurrected upon faith, is the furtherance of the Gospel.

 The simple fact that we can ask this question about those who do not know the Gospel is the Holy Spirit inside us acknowledging that there are souls we each know personally that we wish to see saved. Souls whom we probably all feel we have failed in our presentation and testimony of the Gospel and its power. So the Holy Spirit is taking care of any soul who will get saved already, but our individual questioning about justice is in fact the Holy Spirit in us taking ownership of some of the Gospel telling responsibility.

 We should also be aware that the Holy Spirit can use a Gospel Tract, a positive song/hymn/movie/natural experiance, a "hello", and an infinite amount of ways to reach the lost. To me that is what makes me consider perhaps those who seem to chant that "the end is nigh" have in fact lost touch with what the Holy Spirit's full purpose is. The Holy Spirit in us wants to tell the good news, not to keep ranting about the end (which if you ask me is just Christian pride, seeing as no one knows if the Lord will come in a minute from now, or 5000 years from now.) The imminent end has been such for 2000 years, and it will always be throughout time, but the only way to be prepared is the GOODNEWS, and thus to me the Holy Spirit would have us be happy lights, not ominous ones.

lights out 

[Soldier4Christ]

The verse you are tinking of in regards to a child dying was the son of David .....

2Sa 12:23  But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

We are told that God does not punish a child before they reach an age at which they would have knowledge between good and evil.


Deu 1:39  Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

We are also told that God will not refuse children.

Mar 10:14  But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

This is another reason that we know that it is God's grace that saves us and not that of works, because even children that have not had a chance to do any kind of works are received by Him:

Rom 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

[nChrist]

The verse you are tinking of in regards to a child dying was the son of David .....

2Sa 12:23  But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

We are told that God does not punish a child before they reach an age at which they would have knowledge between good and evil.


Deu 1:39  Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

We are also told that God will not refuse children.

Mar 10:14  But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

This is another reason that we know that it is God's grace that saves us and not that of works, because even children that have not had a chance to do any kind of works are received by Him:

Rom 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Pastor Roger,

I had to quote the entire post again just so that I can say:

AMEN!!

Love In Christ,
Tom

2 Corinthians 5:5-8 NASB  Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord -- for we walk by faith, not by sight -- we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

[lightsavour]

 Yeah those are the verses Roger.
Amen

[dp]

That would appear to cover infants and little children that didn't have the chance to know the difference between good and evil, but what about the adults that died in their sins of the nations in OT times that didn't hear? Per Paul's Epistles, The Gospel was not yet preached to them in OT times, but was only given as oracles to Israel.

1 Pet 3:18-20
18   For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19   By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20   Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
(KJV)

Verse 18 is very specific with, "...being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:" which continues the subject with, "By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison;".

That is not meant in the fleshy sense. Christ literally went to those souls who had died in their sins and were in Satan's prison, preached The Gospel to them and led many of them out. The OT prophets spoke of that event (see Isaiah 24:21-22; Isaiah 42:6-7; Zechariah 9:11).

1 Pet 4:6   For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
(KJV)

The apostle Paul said it was his hope there will be both a resurrection of the 'just' and the 'unjust' (Acts 24:15). His hope in that was that more would be saved later, after flesh death. In 1 Cor.5, that believer who was having intercourse with his own mother was put to death, in hopes that his 'spirit' might be saved in the Day of The Lord Jesus (i.e., Christ's future thousand years reign).

1 Cor 5:4-5
4   In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5   To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
(KJV)

Many love to steer around those Scripture examples because it goes against the particular liberal creeds of men's traditions taught them. No matter what those creeds teach, per God's Word there will be some saved during Christ's future thousand years on earth. Simply because a "first resurrection" is mentioned in Rev.20 that automatically points to at least one more resurrection into Christ Jesus later. That 1 Corinthians 5:5 verse points directly to that (and the number 5 is a Biblical number symbol for God's Grace).

Paul's deeper teaching in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection is too often missed because of man's creeds. Within that Paul explained we all shall put on a Heavenly image body, but not all will have the soul condition of "immortality" unto Christ. The Greek word for "mortal" in 1 Cor.15:53-54 means 'liable to die', and that's talking about the soul state some will still be in after the 'change' at Christ's second coming on the "last trump".

dp