Subtitle: One can live a life and die without ever hearing the word "Jesus."

Excerpt: One can live a life and die without ever hearing the word "Jesus."

Author: Jeff Hilles

The question of those who never heard of the saving grace of the Lord through the sacrifice of His Son is one of the roadblocks to those who understandably reject a Biblical Christian worldview.

From a Reader:

“In Indonesia, the Togutil people of North Maluku, who live in remote jungles and have limited contact with the outside world, and probably never heard the name Jesus. So, what about them? It’s all so bewildering. Where do these people stand? If they worship other things, are they going to be ok?”

My Response:

Jake, there is something called general revelation (a belief, based on the world around us, that there is a Creator) and special revelation (that Jesus is the Son of God who paid the price for our sins and that we need to worship Him as Savior and Lord). Most Christian theologians do not see general revelation as salvific (saving) … only special revelation will result in Heaven at death.

To your question … the issue is foreknowledge vs. determination … Did God know who would be saved and place them in an environment where they would hear the gospel message and be saved? Or does God choose who is saved by divine intervention? Two other words often used to describe these differences are “predestination” vs. “free will.”

In either case, the sad reality for the Biblical Christian is that many will live their whole life and never have the opportunity to hear special revelation (i.e., the saving grace of Jesus) in their life. That is a hard fact to accept and one that requires faith, hope, and trust that there is a reason why a loving God would not simply save everyone (universalism). This and many other questions I honestly can’t answer.

Here is a recent post of mine that lists some hard (from a human perspective) questions for God.