The Fate of the Heathen

Will God condemn an innocent heathen simply because he never heard about Christ? What about religious people who don’t know about Christ and call their god by a different name?

No matter who you are, religious, heathen or not, there will come a day when you will have to stand before God and be judged.

However, God is a fair judge (Rom. 2:2-16). He has also equipped us with all we need to find him. God can speak to us through internal ( Ecc. 3:11) and external revelation (Rom. 1:19-25). He has given man a knowledge of sin in their lives, no matter who they are (1 Tim. 4:2).

God also provides man with a solution or a vacuum that needs to be filled by Him (Jer. 29:13). There is no limit to the ways that God can use to bring about this process of finding Him. God will judge, but he will be fair.

What happened to people before the coming of Christ?

Even though Christ was still in the future, God saw it before the foundation of the world. Not bound by time, the Lord applied the benefits of the death of Christ to all who called upon God for salvation.

The means of salvation has always been faith, not works. The Old Testament clearly teaches that man is sinful and in need of God’s grace (Is. 59:2; 64:6; Ps 6:1,2; 51:1-13).

What about infants and those who are mentally incapable of understanding the Gospel?

Christ’s teaching n Matthew 18:3-14; 19:14 points in this direction.

King David, after the loss of the infant born out of his adultery with Bathsheba, said, “But now he had died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me (2 Sam. 12:23).

Though David sinned, he knew the child would be with God, and he anticipated seeing him again.

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