If someone has never heard about Jesus in his entire life, will he still go to hell?

On the last day of class this year, I held and open Q&A session, and asked the students to write down and hand in their questions. I was only able to address two or three of them, so I am going to answer each one in turn here.

In short, yes.

You might be thinking, “But that’s not fair! How can God hold someone accountable for that which he never knew?” (John 9:41)

I get it--it does seem patently unfair from our perspective. But our perspective is tainted by our limited knowledge, not to mention our sinful nature, both of which team up to essentially ruin our ability to perceive the situation clearly--we need to look at things through God’s eyes (Romans 11:33).

God is perfectly just. If a man has never heard of Jesus, God is not going to condemn him for that (John 9:41). But a lack of knowledge of Jesus does not absolve him for rejecting or violating that which he does know.

Look at Romans 1:18-22. There we see that God has revealed to all His eternal power and divine nature, and thus His existence, through nature. He has also given us a conscience through which we can discern between right and wrong (Romans 2:15). Nature and conscience are necessary, but not sufficient, for salvation--they cannot save, but they can condemn us. So, when men reject the “light” of conscience, and the “light” of general revelation (nature), God is under no obligation to give us more light.

So, when someone who has never heard the gospel stands before God, His question won’t be “What did you do with my Son Jesus?” but rather it will be “What did you do with the conscience I put within you and the evidence of my existence and my divine nature from creation?” Just as there are differing levels of reward in heaven, there are also differing degrees of torment experienced in hell (Matthew 11:20-24; 13:10-13), and those who reject Christ after hearing the gospel will absolutely have a worse time than those who never heard.

Dan KreftJune 12, 2018