There is a legitimate question that many (saved and unsaved) have asked over history and the question is this: Can a Righteous and Just God send a person to hell who has never heard about Jesus, doesn't know about Jesus, or anything about the Gospel? In other words, would it be "fair" of God to do that to a person? A secondary question could then be, if God wouldn't send people to hell for not knowing Jesus, then is there another way? Jesus Himself answers this in John 14:6 "I Am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by me." Now, if anyone was able to come to the Father and make it to heaven another way, then that would make Jesus Christ a liar. If Jesus Christ is a liar then not only is He not that person's savoir He is not my savior because a liar is no one's savior. The Apostles reiterated this in Acts 4:12"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." If Jesus Christ is not the only way, He is none of the way.
It is a tough question to answer and fortunately I don't have to answer it. The Apostle Paul has already answered the question for us in the first chapter of Romans. The scripture reference is Romans 1:16-28
"16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it (The Gospel)is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that due penalty for their error which was fitting. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not proper."
The Apostle Paul does not pull any punches here. He discusses 4 factors that answer this tough question. For easier memory, let's allow each point to start with the letter "R".
Factor #1 is the Revelation Factor. What is the Revelation factor? All people have some light. Picture in your mind the end of time that is known as the Great White Throne Judgment. The heathes or unsaved stands before God and says to God "But God, we never heard the Gospel, we didn't know how to be saved. We didn't even know we needed to be saved. We are innocent by reason of ignorance." Much like in a courtroom God calls His prosectuting attorney, Paul, and Paul calls 2 witnesses to testify against them to prove that they are guilty. The first witness is creation. Look back at Romans 1:19-20 "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse "
If there is a creation, you have to have a creator. If there is a finely made piano, someone had to make it. The Bible says in Psalm 14:1 "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." After creation makes it's case, Paul calls his second witness and that is conscious. Look closely at verse 19. "manifest IN them".. this is conscience. "God has showed it UNTO them... this is creation.
Fast forward to Romans 2:14-15 "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves. Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another."
Therefore, all people have these 2 witnesses.. the outward objective witness called creation and the inward subjective witness called conscience.
So Factor # 1, The Revelation Factor and that is that all people have at least some light. Look at John 1:9 " That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world." The light being referred to here is Christ. So the bottom line is... ignorance of Christ is no excuse. It doesn't say they have all light, just some.. enough to convict them. Think of the Ethiopian Unich in Acts that was seeking God. God saw this and divinely arranged to have Phillip sent to him to reveal Christ to him. If anyone seeks God, God will show Himself to them. John 7:17 says "If anyone will do his will, they shall know of the doctrine."
Factor # 2, The Refusal Factor. This means light refused increases darkness. Look in verses 21-22 "21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools."
When someone hears truth they must act on it. They can not put it in their back pocket and say "that's very interesting, I'll spend it some day if I need it." If someone disregards or refuses the light, they will regress into more darkness than they had before. Look at Proverbs 29:1 "He, that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." The opposite of light and truth is not error, it is sin. Why does someone refuse the light? It is not because of an intellectual problem, it is because of a heart problem. The idea of Godly things makes them uncomfortable because if they admit that there is a God, then they will have to change their way of thinking and their lifestyle. On one hand their lifestyle is unrighteousness, but on the other hand creation and conscience tells them that there is a God. That puts them in a quandry. Their lifestyle says that if they admit there is a God that they are going to have to change the way they live. They can't seem to find God the way a thief can't seem to find a policeman. So when they uncomfortably turn away from the light, they move deeper into darkness. Look at Matthew 25:29 "For unto every one that has shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that has not shall be taken away even that which he has."
Notice when someone continually refuses the light, God will turn them over to the darkness that they love so much. Look back at Romans 1:26 "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections... and again in verse 28 ".. God gave them over to a reprobate mind." Look also at Matthew 13:15 Jesus says "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." Notice, God did not close their eyes... they did it to themselves through their heart being hardened. Again, another powerful verse is in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 "10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Wait.. read verse 11 again!!! I thought it was Satan that sent delusions but not so.. it says God will send them strong delusions. Why? so that they should believe a lie. God sends delusion so they will believe a lie. Why? So they may be condemened or damned. Why would God do that? keep reading "... who believed not the truth but had pleasure in their unrighteousness." They had the truth, they heard the truth but they willing turned from the truth because they wanted their sin too much. God says "ok, if you want your sin, you got it, but the baggage that comes with that sin is delusion, believing a lie and damnation."
Let's look at a practical example of how this works. Suppose a man comes to church for the first time in a long time and he happens to come on the Sunday when the preacher speaks on giving. He then storms out of the church and says "I am never going back to church. All they EVER talk about is money." He doesn't investigate to see if the things discussed are biblical, he just storms off. His greed gets the better of him. His problem is not between truth and error, but truth and greed and he chooses his greed. A few weeks later, he is sitting at home on a Sunday Morning, he's got the TV on, a carton of cancer sticks and a six pack of embalming fluid by his side when he hears a knock at the door. It is two of Jehovah's false witnesses. They say to him, "we are here to tell you there is no hell." He smiles and says, "come in." And they proceed to tell him this lie and he believes their lie. He's damned and destined for the very hell he says he doesn't believe in. Why??? Because he believed not the truth when he heard it and had pleasure in his unrighteousness.
All people have some light. This is the Revelation Factor. Light refused increases more darkness. This is the Refusal Factor.
Factor # 3 is the Reception Factor. The reception factor is this... light obeyed increases light. It is the polar opposite of the Refusal factor of light rejected increasing darkness. Look back to Romans 1:16-17 "16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. The Revelation factor is God gives you truth, you believe that truth, God gives you more truth. For example, a man through creation and conscious believes there is a God and God speaks to him and reveals more truth to him. The Ethiopian Unich was like that. He believed what he was reading in the prophet Isaiah but just needed to get more truth. He was living up to the light he had been shown to that point. Since he believed what he read, God sent more truth through the person of Phillip. He was going from "faith to faith." God will get His word to anyone, anywhere if they seek him. In Acts 10, a Gentile named Cornelius was seeking and God sent Peter to his house even though the law said a jew was not to enter the house of a Gentile. Why did God arrange this? Look in verses 3-4 "3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." Cornelius was seeking God through prayer and his prayer was answered. God sent Peter to tell Cornelius how he and his house could be saved.
This is also a lesson to us that are saved. The reason some of us do not understand certain parts of the Bible, quite frankly, is we are not being obedient to the parts we do understand. Why should God show us any more in His Word until we obey what He has already showed us. We must live up to the Light we do have before God will give us any more light.
For example, some have accepted Christ as their savior but have never presented themselves for believers baptism. They say they have a $50 hairdo they don't want to mess up. Then one night they are reading a scripture and can't figure out why they can't understand it. I am not trying to be harsh here, just real. Some of us need a good spiritual "enema" to get the crap of the world out of us. Here is a piece of advice.. if you want to understand more of the Bible, obey the parts you do understand, then you will understand more of those parts you don't understand. Understand? Go back to John 7:17 "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."
Factor #4 is the Reckoning Factor. God is not primarily going to judge us by the sin we commit, but by the Light we reject. Look at Romans 2:5,11-13 "5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; "For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law." What these verses are saying is we who have been exposed to more light are going to be held more accountable than those who have never heard the Gospel and have had little light. An example in scripture is Luke 12:48 "But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."
It is going to be bad enough for the heathen in deepest, darkest Africa to die and go to Hell, but it is going to be infinitely worse for those of us in this country who have had so much light it is blinding to close their spirtual eyes and ears to it, die and go to Hell. Many in America are ego maniacs thinking they are too good to be Damned but they will be in for a rude awakening come judgment day. Matthew 10:14 "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet." Much like Creation and Conscience will be used as a testimony to condemn the heathen who never heard, the dust from a soul winner's shoes will be used as a testimony for those who openly and willfully reject the Light. Those who fall into the dust shaking category are just storing up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath. Much like how the saved store up for themselves treasure in Heaven, the lost who know better are storing up for themselves wrath upon wrath and it will not be pleasant for them at all.
Matthew 11:24 "But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you."
So to sum it all up... there is NO excuse for anyone on the face of the earth to pardon them from God's judgment if they have not trusted Jesus Christ as their savior. Creation and Conscience lead people (who want to) to seek God's Light and once they do, God will give more Light. If they choose not to, God will turn them over to their sin for destruction and damnation. This all may sound like too much "fire and brimstone" talk but quite frankly, this country needs this kind of talk to wake people up out of their sleep and free them from the wrath to come. I have ABSOLUTELY no pity for anyone in America who dies and goes to Hell because everyone who has lived here has had more opportunity for Light than anywhere else in the world, but they willingly love the darkness instead of the Light. It is a self imposed damnation.
Is God Righteous, is God Just? You better believe it. And, like Paul, I am not ashamed of the Gospel. In our churches today we need more Gospel preaching and less entertaining. I'd rather scare someone into Heaven by telling them of the consequences of their darkness than entertain and lull them into Hell.
The Revelation Factor, the Refusal Factor, the Reception Factor and the Reckoning Factor. Something to think about.
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