As a missionary and church leader, the topic of what happens to people who die without ever hearing the Gospel comes up frequently. The following few posts contain an unpublished article I wrote on this issue some time back after devoting serious time and effort to studying this issue. When I need to refresh my memory on the relevant Bible verses and arguments, this article is still what I turn to as a starting point. Please feel free to ask questions or challenge any of my Biblical interpretation, reasoning or conclusions.
What happens when a person dies? Every human alive who is mentally able to consider such a question has pondered the answer. In a world where the concept of a “global village” is increasingly becoming a reality, an individual can choose from any one of a multiplicity of answers to this “big question.” In fact, a growing number of people would answer by rejecting the need to decide on one answer to the question.
Christians who believe in the God of the Bible answer that a person will either face judgment after death in hell or experience reward and blessing in heaven. Who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? Evangelical Christians also agree, against pluralism, that heaven will be occupied only by those who have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, through faith.
What is the fate of the unevangelized who do not have the opportunity to hear of Christ? Is salvation possible for this incredibly large group of people? Is it possible to be saved apart from knowledge of Christ and conscious saving faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Christ? Among professing evangelicals, there are different answers offered to this question.
Among evangelical believers, there are two main answers given to this all-important question.[1] The first is widely known as inclusivism. Leading defenders of an inclusivist perspective, in past and present generations, include Justin Martyr, John Wesley, C.S. Lewis, Clark Pinnock, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and John Sanders.[2] Inclusivists answer “yes” to the question concerning the possibility of salvation apart from explicit faith in Christ. In the formulation of an argument for this position, there are several key tenets.
First, almost every inclusivist places emphasis upon the scriptural truth that God desires the salvation of all humans. Key texts cited in support of this truth are 2 Pet 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance,” and 2 Tim 2:4 which speaks of God “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”[3] Sanders speaks of the “theological axiom” of “God’s universal salvific will” and identifies this truth as a “control belief” which guides inclusivist reflection on the issue at hand.[4] The truth of God’s universal salvific will leads inclusivists to deduce that God must, therefore, make salvation accessible to all humans.
The second “control belief” of inclusivism is the affirmation by all evangelicals of the finality and particularity of Jesus Christ.[5] No person can be saved apart from the atoning work of Christ. A familiar text which supports this notion is John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”
After inclusivists decide that salvation is universally accessible and affirm the particularity and finality of Christ, they then conclude that salvation by Christ must be possible for the unevangelized. To suggest that salvation is not possible for those who have never heard is either to require a radical change in the definition of God’s desire that all be saved or to deny the sovereignty of God. Neither alternative is acceptable for inclusivists.
Discussion then turns to the question of how this salvation is possible. Inclusivists claim that salvation for the unevangelized comes through “implicit faith” which might be described as a response to the light of general revelation which they have. As Pinnock states, “According to the Bible, people are saved by faith, not by the content of their theology.”[6] Support for this concept involves assertion that general revelation can provide substantive and even saving truth. Also, appeal is made to the numerous examples in Scripture of people who were saved apart from explicit faith in Christ. Among these believers are Old Testament saints like David, “holy pagans” like Melchizedek, and “God fearers” like Cornelius.[7] In the words of Augustus H. Strong, the unevangelized may “be saved by casting themselves as helpless sinners upon God’s plan of mercy, dimly shadowed forth in nature and providence.”[8]
[1] Pluralism is not an evangelical option. Postmortem evangelism is held by evangelicals, but will not be dealt with in this paper.
[2] John Sanders, ed., What About Those Who Have Never Heard? (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 20.
[3] Unless otherwise cited, all scripture quotations come from the New American Standard Bible.
[4] John Sanders, No Other Name: An Investigation into the Destiny of the Unevangelized (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 25,32. See also, Clark Pinnock, A Wideness in God’s Mercy: The finality of Jesus Christ in a World of Religions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 18.
[5] Sanders, ed., What About Those Who Have Never Heard?, 10.
[6] Pinnock, A Wideness in God’s Mercy, 157.
[7] For OT believers, see Millard Erickson, “Hope for Those Who Haven’t Heard? Yes, but…”, Evangelical Missions Quarterly 11, no. 2 (April 1975) : 125; Sanders, No Other Name, 224-228. For holy pagans, see Pinnock, A Wideness in God’s Mercy, 94-95. For God fearers see Sanders, ed., What About Those Who Have Never Heard?, 39-41.
[8] Augustus H. Strong, Systematic Theology, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Erdmans, 1952), 646.
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