People that have never heard of Jesus

Summary:
Jesus’ death is the solution to our problem, but not everyone gets to hear about the solution.  Know that God will confront everyone about their imperfection and everyone needs to acknowledge they are imperfect and seek His mercy.  Abraham, Moses, Rahab and David never heard about Jesus, but they trusted God and will be in Heaven.  Jesus provided the path, but faith that God is loving, holy and merciful is the heart issue.

A little more:
A very common question is about people that never actually hear about Jesus or the Bible.  This is a very honest question because there are many people that have never heard about Jesus.  This is true for everyone that died before Jesus lived and also since then in many parts of the world.

There are two important principles here.  1) What do we think about God.  Is He loving, holy and merciful, and 2) Do we acknowledge are not.

God doesn’t go into detail about how He handles those that have never heard because 1) Those that have access to His truths don’t have an excuse about the important decision, and 2) We need to understand that those that never hear about Jesus will be handled by a loving, holy and wise God that has already shown us how He handled Abraham, Moses, Rahab and David.

The pygmy in the jungle of Africa that really thinks about it will realize that he is not perfect.  He needs to come to the point where he looks up to Heaven and says to himself something like, “God, I am not perfect.  Please accept me as I am.  Not because I am perfect, but because you have mercy on the imperfect.”  That is relying on God and not our ‘good deeds’.  This opportunity has been there throughout all of history.

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Bible references:

  • Romans 1:19-20 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
  • Romans 2:14-15 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them