What about Those Who Have

Never Heard?Romans 1:18-32

Basis of the Question

1. A great and final judgment is coming in which huge numbers will be eternally separated from God (Luke 12:4-5)

2. Jesus Christ came to save; according to His own words, He is the only Savior (John 14:6)

Basis of the Question

3. Explicit knowledge of Jesus and faith in Him is the only way one can have eternal life.

Romans 10:9-10

Statement 1 People are not condemned for not

hearing, they are condemned for rejecting the light they have

Sometimes people say: “How can God condemn people who have never heard of Jesus?”

Statement 1 When they make such a statement they are

making a Wrong Assumption

They are assuming God sends people to hell on the basis that they have never heard and that this is not fair

God does not send people to hell because they have never heard of Jesus

Statement 1 People who have not heard do go into

eternal separation from God but it is not based upon the fact that they are ignorant of Jesus (that they have not heard of Jesus)

God sends them into eternal separation (Hell) because they reject the light they do have.

Romans 1:18-20 People know about God and no one can

claim ignorance

The Bible says that they either SUPPRESS or CORRUPT the knowledge they have

Romans 1:18-20 They SUPPRESS it by their wickedness

They suppress it by steadfastly holding to their sin

The rebellion or resistance reveals they are aware of a standard

Romans 1:18-20 God has made it plain to them (v.19)

Romans 2:15 - Every culture has laws that grow out of this knowledge of God.

Romans 1:18-20 Paul says they also CORRUPT the

knowledge they have

vv. 21-23

People follow their own speculations and create their own systems of religion to resist God

Romans 1:18-20 Romans 1:20 - they are WITHOUT

EXCUSE

So people are condemned for rejecting the light they have, not because they have never heard of Jesus.

One Important Point The world is arranged in such a way that all

people have knowledge of God to the point that they should want to seek after Him

Acts 17:26-27

Statement 2 If a person who has never heard the gospel

begins earnestly to seek God, He will give them enough of the gospel to be saved.

God is calling out a people for Himself from every tribe and tongue (Revelation 7:9)

Statement 2 Cornelius, in Acts, was not saved and he

did not have knowledge of the gospel

God is at work in his heart

He is responding to the light he has been given (Acts 10:2, 4, 22)

Statement 2 Yet, he is not saved at this point (11:14)

God moved Peter to overcome racial and cultural barriers to get him to Cornelius with the gospel (10:25-28, 37 ff)

Statement 3 Jesus’ Command To Go Completes the

Teaching

Five times in the New Testament we have the record of His final words

His word to them and to us are to GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL

Statement 3 If God doesn’t send people to hell who

have never heard, then this command of Jesus would make no sense

The best thing we could do would be to not tell people about Him

Statement 3 But to do that would be to disobey Jesus

Jesus knew that those who had not heard of Him and what He had done were lost

They were lost because they had rejected the light they already had

Statement 3 The gospel was going to be the means of

God in His mercy still calling to Himself a people from every tribe and tongue even though man on the whole had spurned and rejected Him.

Statement 3 Doesn’t this mean that most people will go

to hell?

What about Revelation 7:9 - too numerous to count?

Statement 3 Jesus told us not to speculate

Luke 13:22-27

He said make sure you are seeking to enter yourself

Statement 3 Even where people hear, most still reject

God

Matthew 7:13-14

Is that true of you?

Statement 3 The Bible teaches that those who have

more light are more responsible

Luke 10:13-15

The multitude too large to count is a symbolic way of speaking of a very large number

Statement 3 There will be multitudes as well drawn from

infants, children, and mentally incapacitated who are covered by the blood of Christ.