Good News for All

How does God judge those who have not heard about Jesus, especially the ones who never had a chance to hear of him? Do they go to heaven or to hell?

The question is based on the idea that in order to escape condemnation (and therefore hell as punishment for sin) one must believe in Jesus and express that belief in some form of action (baptism) and/or words (a statement of repentance and confession of faith, however informal). The basis for this idea is certain verses of the New Testament:

• John 3:18 " he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of [Jesus]"
• Mark 16:16 "whoever believes and is baptized will be saved ..."
• Acts 4:12 " in none other [than Jesus] is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved"
• John 14:6 "I [Jesus] am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"
• Romans 3:22 "righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe"
• Romans 10:13-15 "'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'"

The general import of these verses has led many Christian believers to assert that only those who have prayed a sinner's prayer and confessed Jesus Christ as their saviour can be saved, with an added stipulation that baptism may also be required.

Was Salvation Possible Before Jesus?

People in Old Testament times never heard that Jesus is the Messiah, the one and only Saviour of mankind. He had not yet been born. So Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Samuel, David, Elijah and a lot of other people in the Bible, did not know what we know today about Jesus, his crucifixion and resurrection. They were not baptised. They did not recite any of our creeds or subscribe to our statements of belief. Yet they were key figures, people God commended rather than condemned. What is their status in light of these verses?

Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, so something presumably happened to get them into heaven despite their ignorance, and lack of baptism or confession of faith. Hebrews 11:39,40 explains it this way, "These [Old Testament believers] were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." They had faith in God. They demonstrated that faith in their daily living, and they died hoping for a better future without fully knowing or understanding what that might be.

Classic Conversion

The typical features of a salvation experience are:

• awareness of sin and uncleanness before God
• desire to be cleansed of sin and forgiven
• faith in God to provide that forgiveness and cleansing
• a transforming change of heart and reformed way of life

These are features that were present in the experience of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6) when he saw God in a vision. He felt and expressed his uncleanness, he experienced cleansing and change, he responded in faith to the call, and his life was changed. These features were also resent in the experience of Saul, the first king of Israel (1 Samuel 10:1-9), in which the Spirit of God comes on Saul and he is changed into another man. There is no definitive mention of sin consciousness and forgiveness but verse 21 of the previous chapter shows Saul's humility, and Samuel promises a private, intimate, heartfelt chat, and afterward Saul is so filled with the Spirit of God that he prophesies. The story has many parallels with the conversion experience stories of modern day Christian believers.

Some prominent Bible teachers have claimed that until the Messianic blood was shed no one could be saved. In a sense that is true, since salvation is built upon the foundation of the death and resurrection of the Saviour, Jesus of Nazareth. I can use credit to buy fuel, food or furniture based on my promise to pay in the future. Is God not sufficiently credit-worthy to issue forgiveness to those who believed him for it, however imperfectly, based on his promised intent to somehow make good in the future? Romans 3:25, 26 hints at God issuing the forbearance of forgiveness prior to the death of Jesus, so it seems his reputation for keeping his word may have been adequate to the task. It seems clear that the many great men and women of faith who died in hope of the redemption to come shared much the same experience of salvation as we do today, though perhaps with less information and understanding.

What About Gentiles?

If believers in ancient Israel could know salvation, why might those of other times and lands not also have a like experience? What of Naaman, the Syrian leper of 2 Kings 5, who declares he will worship only the God of Israel that healed him (verses 17-19). Or Enoch, who walked with God before the time of Abraham, or Noah, the only faithful believer of his time? There were many in Israel who believed God, such as Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, Elizabeth and Zechariah. Many people who heard Jesus, or heard of him from his followers, were ready to embrace him as Messiah and Saviour. On his missionary journeys Paul kept encountering people ready to hear his good news and commit their allegiance to the Messiah he declared, both Jews in the synagogues and Gentiles in the market place. Of course, others whose hearts were not prepared but hardened, refused to believe. Among the multitudes are many who seek to know God, however imperfectly, and rejoice to recieve the gospel message. There are also those who had given up or who were not seeking, but on hearing of Jesus are eager to turn to him in repentance. This seems to also mirror the experience of modern era missionaries to unreached people.

Two Mistakes

I think our question exposes two errors in thought. The first is its rather academic nature. For followers of Christ there should ideally be no people in our orbit who have not heard of Jesus, because it is our job to tell them. Hence, it is not our business to deal with this issue in practice. It is really a question belonging to unbelievers trying to justify an objection to scripture, and the best answer is probably in the words of Abraham, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" (Genesis 18:22-33) Leave it to God and trust him to figure it out.

The second error in thought is implying that the main issue of the gospel is heaven or hell. Not that the issue is unimportant, but the true worth of the gospel is the power to live eternal life, which is not the same thing. We tend to think of eternal life as life that goes on forever, without a time limit defined by death: a matter of quantity. Jesus expressed it as a matter of quality: "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God ...". (John 17:3) The quantity is incidental. An ongoing and intimate relationship with the everlasting God must be everlasting in extent, but it is the quality that counts.

Conclusion

What drove Jewish thought was covenant with God, knowing him, doing his will, having a life aligned with him and living it out in fellowship with him. They tried to express this through a way of life in keeping the law of Moses. As Paul laments (Romans 7), he failed of attaining satisfaction in this regard, but Christ has instead made it possible to live in communion with God through the Spirit (Romans 8). The gospel is not primarily about heaven and hell, but about being released from sin to live in daily communion with God. Who would not want that? Anything less is missing the whole point.