WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE WHO DIED AND HAVEN’T HEARD ABOUT OUR LORD?
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from the Afrikaans Version: Wat word van mense wat nog nooit van ons here gehoor het nie, wat sterf?
Translator: Lynda Botha
Someone wrote to me and in this letter the following reasoning came forth:
"If you have never heard of Jesus, how can you go to hell for eternity? It's not that person's fault that he has never heard of Jesus Gospel. "
This is how I personally see this matter and understand it within my own heart:
At first glance, it looks and sounds to be a very good argument, until you remember because of man’s sinful nature that it is written in the Word of God:
ROM 3:10-12
10 “As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous – not even one.”
11 “No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God.”
12 “All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
You see –
Because of the Fall, people don’t want anything to do with the true God. You will read a few times in this letter in one form or another that people want to have a god but not the one true God. People are looking for a god that will fit in with what they expect from a god. That is not what I said – as you have read, this is what our Lord tells us in His Word. All those people you speak about, is because of their sinful nature, against God. Just as you and I were against God before our repentance even though we would like to soft-soap it.
Amplified Bible:
ROM 3:11
“There is none who understands there is none who seeks for God.”
ROM 3:12 “All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
They looked for a god that suited them –
While the true God is there all the time waiting to be found.
PSM 19:1-3
For the choir director: A Psalm of David.
1 “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display His craftsmanship.”
2 “Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known.”
3 “They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.”
ROM 1:20 “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
So, therefore, Jesus also said on an occasion:
MAT 12:30 “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.”
Humankind, because of their nature, drowned themselves in sin – they see with spiritual deadness and do not like the God they observed then reject God or they design a god that is acceptable to all their whims and fancies.
Just look at all the religions and their gods of the past and what you see today around you.
To bring it closer to home – just look at how the Gospel of Jesus are weakened by certain denominations today. They want to make all homosexual lifestyles and living together part of the gospel of Jesus – this excludes the people who already made this part of Jesus' gospel according to them.
According to most of these Christians, abortions are long ago accepted by Jesus and therefore also consider homosexual lifestyles and living together not a sin in the eyes of Jesus.
Then of course I haven’t even mentioned all the wrong doings I’ve seen. For me, as I look at the gospel of some Christians, they preach the gospel of ‘a jesus’ and not the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, no.
ROM 1:21 “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.”
ROM 1:22 “Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.”
The true followers of Jesus Christ are the least caught off-guard with all these false gospels, because our Lord has foretold in His Word that this would happen:
2 TIM 4:3-5
3 “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.”
4 “They will reject the truth and chase after myths.”
5 “But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, (Every true Christian is a disciple of Jesus Christ and is an evangelist of His Gospel – your life must reflect Jesus) and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.”
Our Lord looked at humankind, His highest creation, which He created in His image. The humankind who engulfed themselves in sin by their selfish ways. The humankind of whom our Lord wrote in His Word. That because of their sinful nature, that there was not one who searched for God.
ROM 3:11 “There is none who understands there is none who seeks for God.”
God saw humankind, His highest creation which were created in His image for who He loved so much that He sent His Son to save humankind.
JHN 3:16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
JHN 3:17 “For God sent his Son into the world not sent to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Now the question for many, as you have seen above:
What about so many people who have never heard of Jesus, many of which, measured by human standards, are not just good people, but good religious people?
The Word teaches me very clearly that a good-hearted person or his religion and yes, even his good-hearted religiousness cannot save him.
I share with you an example in the Word of God, namely Cornelius. You can read it. It starts there in Acts 10:
ACTS 10:1 “In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian Regiment.”
ACTS 10:2 “He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God.”
If you go on and read a little more, you will see what effort our Lord has gone through, so that the Gospel of Jesus could reach him, so that he and his family could repent themselves even though he was devoted and a God-fearing man. He and his family repented themselves and they became no longer just devoted and God-fearing, but they became part of the kingdom of Jesus.
You see – people’s nature, as I showed you from the Bible, is not to seek the true God but to rather seek a god that can adapt to his own whims and fancies. However, if there are someone somewhere like Cornelius, who really and sincerely seek the true God after Jesus offered Himself on Golgotha for our sins, God will ensure that the Gospel of Jesus get to him. Even if He must send an angel to him, like in the case of Cornelius:
ACTS 10:3 “One afternoon about three o’clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. “Cornelius!” the angel said.”
And at the same time, He had a conversation with Peter on a roof, in another town:
ACTS 11: 7-9
7 “And I heard a voice say, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them!”
8 “No, Lord,” I replied. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.”
9 “But the voice from heaven spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”
Yes, for those who seek Him, our Lord will ensure that they will always find Him. Even if He must send a man in a dream to an Evangelist:
ACTS 16:9 “That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”
Now there are people who argue that our Lord will send people automatically to heaven, who lived a moral life who had never heard about our Lord. But nowhere in Scripture is there something to support this view.
On the contrary, if this should be the case, the most dangerous thing I can do then, is to take the Gospel to people who have never heard about our Lord and lives a moral life.
Now, for a moment, I'm going to argue like a fool:
I must rather keep the Gospel away from moral people because then they can go to Heaven. Because if I bring the Gospel to them and there are some of them who do not want to repent themselves then I have kept them out of heaven to be condemned to hell.
JHN 3:18 “He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Ultimately, however, as I understand it, we ought not to wonder whether the people who haven’t heard about Jesus go to Heaven. We must do our best to help as many of them as possible to come to Jesus Christ, so that they can spend their eternity in heaven.
Our Lord has done everything through His Son, to get all people in Heaven with Him.
JHN 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Just like He used Peter and Paul, so He wants to use you and me to bring anyone who is looking for Jesus to Him. In this first example I’m going to give out of the Word of God – comes out of the mouth of Jesus Himself – telling us that there is only one way to get to God:
JHN 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
There really is no other way:
ACTS 4:12 “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
You and I should not wonder if they are going to heaven or not. We should rather take action and live out the order that was given to us, so they can hear the Gospel:
MAT 28:19 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
MAT 28:20 “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
You and I are the Peter and Paul who you have read about here above.
I leave you with the following from the Word of God, so you can think prayerfully about how you can be part of bringing the Gospel to those people who have never heard of Jesus.
ROM 10:14 “But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?”
Greetings,
Sakkie