Question:  Dear Greg,

            Do you have any scriptures on God judging those people who have never heard of Jesus Christ?  John is inspired to write that God said “if you thirst I will give you water.”

            I just can’t believe that a loving God would forget about most of his created beings.

            Thank you,

            Frank

Answer:  Dear Frank,

            There are no direct passages that speak of God condemning those who have never “heard of” Jesus Christ.  There are passages about those who reject Christ, who refuse to accept him.  Your question seems to be about those who do not seem to fall within what we would generally consider Christians—what is their fate?  Will God condemn people because they seem to have been born at the wrong time and/or in the wrong place (as Christianity was not prevalent where and when they lived)?

            We can talk all day until--as they say in some parts of the world--the cows come home.  There are passages in the Bible that support different conclusions to this question.  Perhaps a better question might be the basis of what God judges upon (and this is not necessarily the same as the gift of salvation that he gives, by grace, through faith).

            In Romans chapter 1, Paul seems to hold pagans accountable for their behavior even though it could be argued they did not know about God’s law that was given only to the Jews.  The argument that Paul advances is popularly called “natural law”.  Natural law is the idea that God created a sense of right and wrong within all human beings.  Some believe that this is part of what it means to be created “in the image of God”.

            There is evidence to support Paul’s view.  Anthropologists and historians have noted that virtually all cultures and societies that have ever existed on earth have had certain common moral virtues that were expected of citizens.  Lying, murder, theft, adultery (even if the culture agreed that multiple wives were allowed it was adultery if someone had one more wife than the accepted quota or number).

            What does this mean?  One conclusion could be that all humans have been born with a basic idea of what is right and wrong, and that God will hold responsible those who are permissive, libertine and immoral—outside of that basic code.

            But you probably want to know more.  Exactly who will be held responsible?  When?  How?  Is adherence to a moral code enough for salvation (of course we know from the New Testament that law keeping has no direct relationship with salvation).  Answers to all of these specifics about the fate of those who do not “seem” to us to be Christians—we don’t know.

            We don’t know all of the specifics about God’s plan of salvation, and in my experience it’s best not to speculate about what God has not revealed to us.  Chances are we will get it wrong.  It is possible to proof-text—to string some biblical passages together to prove what we have already concluded or what someone has already told us.  But such a practice is abusing the Bible.  There are many things about the after-life and of the age to come that we do not know.  God does—thank God!

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht