Never Heard Of Jesus? Never Heard Of Jesus?
- John 14:6: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
While it may be a stretch, I am going to guess that you are one of the many who has had the opportunity hear of the good news of Jesus Christ. However, as we move into the third millennium A.D., there are still many people, tribes, and language groups who truly have never heard of the saving grace of God made available through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. One of the most troubling questions for those discussing God and his gift of salvation to us through Jesus Christ is the question of "What about those who have not heard of the name of Jesus Christ?". If Jesus is the only way to God, and if there are people that have never heard of Jesus Christ, then how could a just and fair God condemn those who never had a chance to hear Jesus' name? Well, as we serve a God who has a true desire for us to be reconciled to him, we can see that based on his word to us as represented in the Bible that he will reveal himself to everyone in a manner he finds acceptable and that through his revelation all will have a chance to accept or reject him based on their response to his revelation. Provided below for your individual study on this topic are seven considerations concerning God's plan of salvation for mankind as well as the scriptural basis for these considerations. I trust they will be as beneficial to you as they were to me in understanding this challenging topic.
Additionally, for those of us who have been made aware of the good news of Jesus Christ, we can find God's guidance to us on how to be saved in the Bible. I would challenge us to study for ourselves what God says about this good news - because how we respond to it will be the biggest decision we will ever make. To learn more about what God has said on this topic, click here.
Considering Salvation For Those Who Have Not Heard The Name Of Jesus
1. God's judgments are true and just.
2. God will reveal himself to everyone.
3. The degree in which God has revealed himself to a person appears to be the degree in which he will judge that person concerning salvation.
4. How one responds to God's revelation (accepting or rejecting*, believing or not believing) determines whether they have eternal life or do not have eternal life.
5. Those who seek righteousness will find it.
6. All people everywhere are called and commanded to believe.
7. All believers are called to proclaim the good news of salvation to all creation.
* The Bible does not appear to teach that God will judge a person for rejecting Jesus Christ if he has not heard of Jesus Christ. In fact it appears the Bible teaches clearly that God's judgment is based on a person's response to the truth he has received.
Scriptural Basis For Salvation Considerations For Those Who Have Not Heard The Name Of Jesus
Genesis 18:25: Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
Joel 2:32: And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.
Isaiah 52:7: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Isaiah 53:1: Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Isaiah 54:13: All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace.
Matthew 5:6: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Mark 4:24-25: "Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."
Mark 16:15-16: He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Luke 10:16: He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."
Luke 12:47-48: "That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
John 3:14-18: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
John 3:36: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
John 6:44-45: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
John 8:24: I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins."
John 12:48: There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.
John 14:6: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Acts 4:12: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Acts 17:22-31: Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he 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. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
Romans 1:18-21: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Romans 1:29-35: They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 2:6-11: God "will give to each person according to what he has done." To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.
Romans 2:14-15: Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.
Romans 10:13-17: ...for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:4:8: Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
2 Thessalonians 1:5-12: All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Revelation 16:7: And I heard the altar respond: "Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments."
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