“If people who live in foreign countries have not heard the gospel or about Jesus, then how can God judge them and send them to hell?”
This is a very common question and most people give Romans 1:20 as the answer and leave it at that. But this is not enough.
Romans 1:20 20For 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.
Yikes! That’s not enough information would you agree? I mean how can you know about God and Jesus, and their plan of salvation, our need for repentance etc. from looking at trees and nature? At best, we can know that there is a Creator because man did not create the natural beauty and wonders of the world. Even a genius could not connect a bunch of trees with Jesus and the plan of salvation. It would hardly seem fair that they would be damned because they couldn’t glean the gospel message from His creation.
Romans gives a partial answer but there’s more…
Romans 10: 14-17
14How, 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? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
16But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
“Faith comes from hearing.” The gospel must be preached in order for people to hear it and so started the great commission. The Lord doesn’t want to leave anything to chance. He wants to give everyone an opportunity to hear the gospel truth and accept it before He judges them. Observing creation itself cannot provide this – we must be told.
And just for good measure….
Matthew 24:14
14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Jesus will not come UNTIL EVERYONE has heard the gospel. So there won’t be a soul on the planet who will be judged unjustly because they didn’t have access to the gospel. Everyone will have heard it and when that happens, the end (judgment) will come.
So that question has a false assumption that there will be people who have not heard the gospel, but we see from scriptures that this is not true. The Lord loves us, and wants to redeem as many people as He can and He gives everyone a fair chance by NOT coming until they’ve heard it.
Boldly Proclaiming Christ 
Matthew 24:14 – gospel being preached in the whole world does imply that everyone will hear it I’m afraid.
Revelation 20:13 – “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.”
Doesn’t Romans 1:20 and Revelation 20:13 lead you to believe that those who do have not heard the gospel will be judged according to what they have done?
Think about it, people who died pre-Christ would not have heard the gospel and even at Jesus’ era there is no way the apostles would have been able to evangelize to, say, the Aztecs right?
The verse in revelation is speaking of the deeds that were done in the flesh. Both believers and non-believers will be judged on works but the non-believers will also be judged on their sin. The verse in Romans is just a statement of fact. His divine qualities etc. are visible, and obvious, so that we have no excuse. Another excuse that will be used is that non-believers have prophecied in His name and done many miracles. (Matt 7:22) Those prior to Christ have been saved the same way we are which is by faith. There is no change. Abraham had faith in God when he was about to sacrifice his son Isaac for example. The OT saints looked forward to Messiah’s coming as it was written in the Torah. They “heard” the gospel in essence in their oral teachings at home, in the synagogue’s, and from the writings. They believed the writings and were expecting a conquering King to come but instead Christ came as a lamb and not how they envisioned which is why many people didn’t believe that Jesus was the fulfillment of those prophecies. So they knew about Him from the writings before He came. I hope I explained this well.
Enlarge that global photo! These are pictures of actual people from language groups from all over the world. The mission agency that took those photos has over 5000 missionaries around the world sharing the gospel in places most would not be willing to go. This agency and other Great Commission partners work with nationals and volunteers around the world to make sure every nation, tribe, and tongue will have heard the gospel and be represented around the throne of God. When the task is done, the end will come. The question that remains is “will the money run out due to our current economic situation and hinder the task at hand?” All mission organizations are feeling the squeeze and are having to cut back in creative ways. It will affect how many lives could have heard the gospel. Can we be creative too in order to financially support the work God has called His missionaries to do?
The people in the Old Testament saw Christ through the types and shadows of the Torah. The life of Moses was a major picture of Jesus as was Joseph. Snapshots of Jesus were seen in the judges, kings (especially David, Solomon, and even Absalom), and prophets of Israel (like Samson and Jonah). The Levitical sacrifices indicate that some will be purified, plucked from the fire, and given robes of righteousness while the wicked will be burned in the lake of fire. The dietary laws teach there are the clean and the unclean (including abominations) — that’s not just the food you eat but people’s spiritual condition. Even the feasts of the Lord are a plan of God’s redemption.
Israel was to live according to the law in such a way that it would draw the nations to God (Deut. 4:6-8). Commerce was a way of life and many would know and hear about the children of Israel. The nations should be without excuse.
The people in the Old Testament may not have understood all the types and shadows but they knew what God expected of them and they were waiting for Jesus to crush the serpent’s head since the time of Adam and Eve.
1 Cor.3:13-15 indicates each man’s work will be tested by fire. Some will be rewarded, some will only escape with their lives, and many will perish in the flames.
We may not understand every detail of God’s word but God is just and if we don’t think so we can take that up with Him on judgment day…but I think we’d be too scared to do so…
Sharing the gospel is of the greatest importance. The sad truth is, most people today are gospel ingnorant. Most so-called believers have accepted and share a watered down version, that is a far cry from the first century, apostolic, and Hebraic original. Sad to say, most so-called believers do not even share what little they do know, let alone obey the call to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-21).
Thank you for this post. I have a teaching series on this for anyone interested:
In His Love!
Hey thanks for the encouraging message.
I would however like to know what would happen to those who never heard the Word and died? How would God judge them? For example, a child in Africa (or even an adult) who never heard the Word and died due to disease or starvation?
I ask this as it came up in a conversation with both Christians and Non-Christians, however I feel that the Christians may have given a wrong answer :S
People go to hell because they love their sin.
Hello!
I would like to comment. I hope you found my information helpful!
I would like to compare what Torah teaches about forgiveness vs. the NT-teachings that you outline above.
[To differentiate,] Did you know that the historical Jewish Mashiakh called Y’hoshua, from Nazareth, was a Torah-observant Jew and so was his followers called the Netzarim?
This is what the Mashiakh – Messiah – must have taught about ‘salvation’ – if he was a legitimate prophet according to D’varim [Deuteronomy] 13:1-6:
As stipulated in Devarim [“Deuteronomy”] 6:4-9,11:13-21 one is required to keep all of the directives of Torâh′ to one’s utmost—viz., “with all one’s heart, psyche and might [lit. “very”]“—”for the purpose of extending your days and the days of your children… like the days of the heavens above the earth” (i.e., eternal life). According to the Tan’’kh -Yekhezeqeil [“Ezekiel”] chapter 18 et.al – the Creator confer His atonement in His loving kindness to those and only those turning away from their Torah-transgressions and (re)turning to non-selectively Torah-observance including mishpat. Everyone has transgressed the Torah and its possible to obtain forgiveness from the Creator in His loving kindness when living in the above way. The Creator has promised this in His Bible – which is in Hebrew – and He doesn’t lie.
Thus, the way of ‘salvation’ in NT contradicts Torah and what the Mashiakh taught. Thus, it will not lead to eternal life. It is only an emotional filled experience that doesn’t describe a real encounter with the Creator. I am a former Christian and understand that after having studied Torah in Hebrew according to etymology.
Doing your utmost to follow the directives of Torah will lead you into an immensly meaningful relationsship with the Creator.
Anders Branderud
You forgot to read the next verse of Romans 10. In verse 18 says “But I ask: Did they not hear of coarse they did:”… and it goes on. When we read Gods word we need to read it all and not take what we want to hear and ignore the rest. Do we need to share the gospel. Absolutely. But don’t think that God is not capable if we miss someone. He can reveal Himself to whoever, however He wants. That is why He is in charge and not us.
Tank you for all the great comments here is my answer. The great comission was given to Jesus diciples matthews 28, to go to all the world, Jews and gentiles of which was the worlds population.
In the upper room where the Holy Spirit of God decended there were devout men from every nation under the sun Acts 2 once the Holy Ghost fell on them the message went with them. in the book of colossians chapter 1:23 states please read for your self the gospel was preached to every creature under Heaven that would mean everyone. looking at the conditions of the world, we can see there have been abreak down of the evangelism Spirit from one generation of Believer to the next. SO THIS GOSPEL HAS BEEN PREACHED ALL OVER THE WORLD. IT IS THE BELIEVERS RESPONSIBILITY TO SHARE WHAT A LOVING SAVIOR THEY HAVE FOUND. PS NOT ONLY TO TELL THEM BUT TO BE A EXAMPLE TO THEM . JESUS LIVING IN US , AS HE SAID WE ARE THE LIGHT IN THIS WORLD, IF WE BY NOT BEING THE CHANGED PEOPLE WE ARE BY NOT DOING OUR PART AS BEST WE CAN AND THE DICIPLES OUR FORE FATHERS DID. WELL IT’S NOT TOO LATE JESUS HAVE NOT RETURNED AS OF 1/11.2013 SO WE STILL HAVE A CHANCE TO TELL SOMEONE ABOUT JESUS SOMEONE TOLD US WE OWE IT TO THE NEXT PERSON. IT’S ALL ABOUT SHARING IF THE ANSWER IS NO, IF THE LIGHT AND LOVEOF jESUS IS SHINING IN YOU. YOU HAVE DONE YOUR PART. GOD BLESS ALL, SISTER IF YOU ARE IN JESUS CHRIST.
Thank you, Gloria, for stopping by. And yes, Col 1:23 states that the gospel had been preached to the world. So are you saying that the requirement has been fulfilled? This subject can get complicated depending on how you approach it. I saw a few documentaries about tribes who have not been exposed to “civilized” society at all. Some of them have a sense that there is a “higher” being than themselves and some live according to their own reasoning which is scary and oppressive to women. I know they haven’t “heard” the gospel but we do send missionaries all over the world who learn their language and some tell them the gospel. I don’t have all the answers because I’m still learning. But what I DO know is that God will judge rightly. No one can claim “foul play.” Whatever His ruling, we will all know that He is just. Blessings 🙂
Our bodies are “the world”. Individuals chosen. All the world is all of one individuals being and life experiences that makr them who they are. Where in the bible does it say physical death is our last chance to hear the gospel, which is the power of God to save all nations of the earth?
It sound alike you subscribe to universalism which is not scriptural. The bible is filled with verses about eternal fire, judgment, death eternal – I don’t have to list them. But you should provide verses that claim that there is redemption after physical death. You won’t find any.
And yes, God has power to anything He wants, but he won’t save nations that hate and reject Him. That’s the whole purpose of hell. Because they reject Him, then their sins remain and therefore their debt must be paid. (and the wages of sin is death)