Eternal Destiny of the Unevangelized

As people hear and are exposed to the Gospel and as the Spirit opens their minds so that they see the heart of God as revealed in Jesus Christ; naturally the question arises: What about those who have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ? They live this life without Him, must they spend eternity apart from Him because no one took the time to properly explain the gospel to them?

This question arises out of two truths taught by all Evangelical Christians: Namely God's universal love and that God has a particular plan for accomplishing this salvation. Repeatedly through Scripture we see that God loves all, but is determined to accomplish what He set out to do. This dynamic has lead to a debate within Evangelicalism over the eternal destiny of the unevangelized. Theological discussions of this sort are healthy, because as evangelicals, we must stop clinging to theology, and start clinging to the Gospel. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the Gospel. As Martin Luther proclaimed, Crux sola est nostra theologia Therefore the answer to this question is not found in human reasoning, or in theological theories, but in what God reveals about Himself, specifically in the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.

First and foremost, Jesus Christ is the only Way to eternal life. Long before Christ was incarnated, God had made it known that He alone was the only Savior (Isaiah 43:11). In John 14:6, Christ declares Himself to be the only way of access to the Father. There is no access to God with out mediation, and there is only "One Mediator between God and men and that is the man Jesus Christ."(1 Timothy 2:5).  He [Christ] introduces and presents the person and services of his people to his Father, and gives them acceptance with Him.

Therefore all ideas of pluralism must be abandoned. Pluralism is the view that holds that Jesus is only one of many saviors throughout the different religions of the world. This idea has been rejected by mainstream Christianity, because it regards Christ as not unique. God always refers to a sin moment in time when takes away sin (Zechariah 3:9) and only God's Arm brings salvation (Isaiah 51:5); and Jesus Christ is that Arm (John 12:38). Only the Word incarnate could be Savior of the world.

Since Scripture testifies that there is only one Savior, Jesus Christ the Only Begotten of the Father (John 1:18); it must be assumed (and all evangelical Christians would agree) that He is ontologically necessary for the salvation of the world(1 Corinthians 15:17; Romans 5:10; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 2:2). That is all are saved through Christ, but do all have to know about Christ? At first glance it may seem obvious that to have faith in Christ, you must know about Jesus, but one must take into account the Old Testament saints. They were saved through Christ, but did they know all the facts about their redemption? It is at this point that evangelical Christians can be split in to two different camps, exclusivism and inclusivism.

Exclusivists hold that Jesus is the only Savior for all humanity, and that it is not possible for anyone to be saved apart from explicit knowledge of Christ and the Gospel. But therein lies a problem, how can God "desire all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4) if some people never get the opportunity to hear the Gospel and thus can not be saved. To fix this logical problem in exclusivism, there are three views that have been espoused from Scripture.

The first view is called the "Restrictivist View". Restrictivist theologians teach that all men are judged by what they know, thus the unevangelized are judged by what they should have known from creation (Romans 1:18-22). R.C. Sproul says that "if a person in a remote area has never heard of Christ, he will not be punished for that. What he will be punished for is the rejection of the Father of whom he has heard [through creation] and for the disobedience the law written on his heart"

It appears if this view is to be consistent, that there is no salvation for a child (born to unsaved parents) who dies in infancy, no salvation for people who died before missionaries could reach them, no salvation for those oppressed by a cruel tyrant, and no salvation for the mentally handicapped. In response to an objection of unfairness and cruelty, many restrictivists echo Paul's statement "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'"(Romans 9:20). God knows what's best for us, He knows the great work he is accomplishing, so He is not unfair, He is good (Matthew 20:13-15).

Some exclusivists believe that one way or another, all who have a heart to believe will be given an opportunity. This group properly observes that in Scripture, God holds out His hands to a rebellious people (Romans 10:21), that He wants all men to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), and that He is the "rewarder of those who diligently seek him" (Hebrew 11:6). Also throughout Scripture people are brought to the knowledge of the Truth by supernatural experience. Some New Testament examples are Paul the Apostle (Acts 9), the Ethiopian eunuch who was seeking truth (Acts 8), and Cornelius who also was trying to be faithful to God (Acts 10). This view is largely an Arminian stand point, because from the stand point of Calvinism, this is just God working out His elective purposes. Since in Calvinism God will not fail to save those who he has chosen, one could be a restrictivist and still hold to this as a way that God seeks out His elect.

Another view point that exclusivists esponged from Scripture is the idea of postmortem evangelism. Again, this idea springs from the fact that the theme of Scripture is that the Creator loves and cherishes His creation and does not want any to perish (2 Peter 3:9). Not only that, but Christ has defeated death that held the human race hostage since the fall.(Hebrews 2:14; 1 Peter 3:18-20). Death is not the dividing line for the love of God. For there is no death that except that which ends in resurrection (Daniel 12:2). Furthermore, even Christ tells Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed". Is Thomas any less an apostle because he had to see in order to believe? Certainly not, Jesus just refers to those who believe without seeing as "blessed".

Some may argue that Hebrews 9:27 rules out any possibility of postmortem conversion, but, when taken in it's context, Hebrews 9:27 declares no such thing. In fact Paul in comparing "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" with "Christ was sacrificed [died] once to take away the sins of many people [judge sin]"; he leaves no doubt what he is speaking about. "As man dies but once, Christ was offered but once, or he suffered and died but once...".  Paul is speaking to the completeness and effectiveness of Christ's sacrifice.

Postmortem salvation stops just short of being "inclusive", because it demands that someone not only must be saved through Christ, but they must know that they are being saved through Christ. Though inclusive and exclusive views believe much the same things about God and Christ being the only way to salvation, they part ways in the exclusivities assumption that a person must explicitly know about and believe in Jesus. All people are saved through Christ, whether or not they know it.

The Bible declares that at no time has God left Himself without a witness. (Acts 14:17). Scripture also teaches that God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself, because He loves us and does not want to see anyone perish (2 Corinthians 5:19-20; 2 Peter 3:9). Thus, He has provided a witness for the entire world. (Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 10:18). Paul says that the Gentiles have the law of God written on their hearts and their consciences condemn them.(Romans 2:14-16). Wesley says, "What is vulgarly termed natural conscience, pointing out at least the general lines of good and evil. And this light [who is Christ], would shine more and more to the perfect day".

Hebrews 11 speaks of the faith of those who died before receiving the promise of Christ. They didn't know Christ, but they believed the promises of God. In the same chapter the testimony of Scripture reveals that without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and reward those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6). Though the Cross of Christ is absolutely necessary for humanity to know (and fully understand God), God clearly rewards those who are seeking after Him. Simply put, this view sees God as applying the finished worked of Jesus Christ to all who have the heart to receive it.

Though all four of these evangelical views are backed with Scripture, there is speculation in all of them. So lets look at what Scripture says on this:

First, as all evangelicals agree, God's love in universal (Psalm 145:9). In fact the Bible declares that God himself is Love (1 John 4:16), and Love is the proper name for the Holy Spirit of God. Scripture also declares that the God we worship is just (Isaiah 30:18, Psalm 45:6). Sometimes as men we can warp what justice is, but Scripture declares what the justice of God is: to show mercy and compassion (Zechariah 7:9).

Second, in Christ we see God's true nature. Jesus Christ, the very Word of God, on a rescue mission, from the womb of a virgin, is born to reveal Himself, and conquer death and bring life. God demonstrates in Christ that He is willing to do anything to restore mankind. How great the Father's love for us.

The life, death and resurrection of Christ demonstrates God's true Love ( 1 John 4:10), and also his true justice (Luke 4:18). In Christ, we see a God who pursues us by His love, one who wants to comfort and protect all he has made, even those who reject Him. (Matthew 23:37). Even forgiving those who kill the very Word of God (Luke 23:34).

The salvation of God is a relationship with a person, not an act.(Psalm 35:3; Luke 1:77) Salvation is already established through Jesus Christ. God has married us to Himself in Christ, He will never divorce mankind (Isaiah 50:1). Our sin separates us and sells us in to slavery (Isaiah 50:1). But Christ came to conquer sin and death. We are united with Christ, in faith, we either affirm the reality or we deny it. Therefore whatever happens in the end, it will not be because of the deficiency in the motive, mind or effectiveness of what Christ did on our behalf. Even outright rejection of Christ can be forgiven (Matthew 12:32), but rejection of the love of God (which is the Holy Spirit), can not be forgiven.

So what about those who never heard? Or what about those who have rejected a "gospel" message the represented a false Christ? They are all included in Christ, God loves and died to free them all from the tyranny of Satan. (Colossians 2:15;2 Timothy 2:26; 1 Corinthians 15:22-25). God, the owner of the vineyard, is restoring His vineyard by planting the True Vine. The mystery is not how the unevangelized will be saved, the mystery is that there will be people, who know the truth and will reject Love for all of eternity. But even to those, God has promised that the gates of the Holy City will never be shut (Rev 21:25).