About Those Who Never Heard

Recently I watched a YouTube video titled "What About People Who NEVER Heard About Jesus?" (Tough Question Answered!) (See here). There were several people involved in this short video and made comments on the question, but bible teacher John Lennox was the main person being asked to give his answer to the question. Basically, Lennox and others took the position that people who never heard of Christ, and therefore did not believe in him, could and would be saved anyway, provided they lived up to the light they had apart from the gospel or word of God. 

Lennox said that people could not be condemned for not believing in Christ if they never heard of Christ. Well, that is true. People who never heard of the bible or the gospel are not condemned for not believing it but they are condemned for their sins. Of course, as I have written about before, heathen people are responsible to seek God, and that the gospel message could have been available to them had they sought it out. For instance, the Zodiac tells the message of the gospel and most heathen peoples had the Zodiac and could, if studied, bring one to a knowledge of Christ and the redemption story. 

Lennox said that the only people who could be condemned for not believing in Christ are they who have heard about Christ, so the heathen cannot be condemned for not believing in Christ. At this point, one of the questioners asked "then why preach the gospel to the heathen?" (paraphrase) Lennox responded by saying "because the Lord commanded it to be done." However, this answer is insufficient. I would have asked Lennox - "why did the Lord command it to be preached to such heathens?" Answer: so that they could be saved, which shows that the heathen are lost without the gospel. But, though this is the scriptural answer, Lennox and those of his ilk do not want to affirm it. 

This was certainly the case with Dr. Leighton Flowers, former Calvinist who now sees it as his mission to fight Calvinism (predestination and determinism). He taught that heathen can be saved apart from the gospel. They could be saved by simply believing in the light of general revelation, a belief the bible condemns as does our Baptist forefathers. See my posting "Couldn't Answer A Simple Question" (See here). Also, see my posting "R.B.C. Howell on Hardshellism" (See here) wherein Howell shows that the first Hardshells of the Two Seed faction suggested the heathen did not need the gospel to be saved. 

The idea that many people have lived and died without ever hearing the gospel or about Christ and were condemned to Hell for not having faith is difficult for Arminians to deal with. Why? Because they think this would make God unfair. They think that he owes all a chance to be saved and that if he does not provide them all with an opportunity then he cannot justly condemn them. That, however, is false reasoning and is not biblically based. Other Arminians or Missionary Baptists do not go this far however. They believe, as I do, that the heathen are lost without the gospel. I recall a banner in one such Baptist church that said "Untold Millions Dying Untold." That was the teaching of Howell, one of the first presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention. In his debates with the Hardshells he affirmed that the heathen could not be saved without hearing the gospel. 

Hardshells have historically won converts to their cult by appealing to Arminians who thought the heathen could be saved apart from hearing and believing the gospel. They agreed with them in saying that the heathen did not need to hear the gospel to be saved. 

In fact, it can be argued that the heathen are better off without hearing the gospel. Hearing the gospel increases the heathen's guilt and makes it harder for them to be saved. 

It is a similar difficulty we see in regard to infant salvation. If all who die in infancy are saved, then one could insure the salvation of people by killing them in infancy. That is logical.

In conclusion, I say that if the heathen may be saved by believing the general revelation of nature or creation, then preaching the gospel for their salvation is unnecessary. If they never hear of Christ, then they cannot be condemned for not believing in Christ, therefore it would be better for them not to hear it.