What About People Who Have Never Heard Of Jesus…?
Great question! When you ask good questions it shows that you are really listening and interacting with God—that’s one of the main ways we grow closer to Him! 🙂
It is a VERY GOOD SIGN that you are concerned about people who live in remote sections of the world who may not have heard about Jesus.
That shows that you care about/love them, and loving others is the second greatest commandment (the first greatest is to love God!). Our love for all other people, Jesus says, is what will show the world that we belong to Him/are His followers (John 13:35 The Message).
So here are some thoughts on this important topic:
- God Wants EVERYONE In Heaven!!! This is God’s desire, so He leans leans leans towards forgiveness always (but we have a role to play too)! (Ezekiel 18:23 NLT);\
- God Is Delaying the Return of Jesus So More and More People Can Be Saved/Forgiven! (2 Peter 3:9 NLT);
- This Is Why Jesus Commands His Followers To Tell Others About Him!—So if you are concerned about people who haven’t heard about Jesus, that’s awesome! Now what will you do about it? 🙂 (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV1984)(Romans 10:10-18 NIV1984);
- About 80% of the people of the world have heard about Jesus (and Christians are working hard everyday to reach the other 20%, often through much suffering and even loss of life!); click HERE for some interesting statistics.
- God Guarantees Us That If We Truly Seek Him We Will Find Him!—So those who are not in heaven someday didn’t really look for Him, didn’t really care to find Him, didn’t really want to give up control of their lives to Him (Jeremiah 29:11-14 The Message);
- “No Excuses on Judgment Day. Even for those in the most remote places on earth, the Bible is clear that at the end of time no one will have an excuse for not trusting in Jesus’ forgiveness (please click HERE for Romans 1:18-25 NLT and HERE for Jeremiah 35:15 NIV). God can and will take even the smallest/weakest/most fragile seed of faith in Him and grow it into the tallest/mightiest of trees, but only if we let Him, only if we respond to His great love for us and are willing to get up from the throne of our lives and allow His Son Jesus to sit there forever” (quoted from the article “No Excuses”–please click HERE).
- God Doesn’t NEED Us To Help Others Say Yes To Jesus!
- God uses humans: 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 The Message;
- God also works on His own: 2 Chronicles 16:9a NIV1984); (John 6:43 The Message);
- God uses miracles: Acts 9:1-19 NIV1984
- God makes holy connections between people: Acts 8:26-40 NIV1984
- We Have A Role To Play—Saying Yes To Jesus! So if someone dies without saying yes to Jesus because they never heard about Him, my personal guess is that God knows if they would have said yes to Him if they had heard. (Matthew 23:37 NLT; John 1:12-13 NIV1984; Revelation 3:20 NLT; Deuteronomy 30:11-20 NIV1984);
- Someday Every Person Will Bow Before Jesus (but that doesn’t mean all will go to heaven; some will bow joyfully/excitedly to see their Savior, some will do so angrily. God looks at our hearts and our actions to determine if we really love Him) (Romans 14:11 NIV1984; Philippians 2:9-10 NIV1984); (James 2:19 NIV1984);
- What More Can God Do To Offer Forgiveness To Humans? God the Father sacrificed His only Son to a brutal & humiliating death on the Cross. Those who are not in heaven someday will not be able to blame God (or Christians!) and complain that He didn’t give them a chance (Romans 5:8 NIV1984; 1 Peter 3:18 NLT; Romans 1:18-23 NIV 1984).
I hope this is helpful, my friends. I know it’s a heavy topic and a long response.
But soak in these Biblical verses,
ask God to help you understand His answer to your questions,
talk about this with other Christians whom you trust,
and keep loving Jesus and obeying Him!
We’re all in this together…