Is God Just and Fair to Condemn Those Who Have Never Heard the Gospel?
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If there are over 8 billion people on the world, and only part of those people do not ever get a chance to hear the word of God, see or have access to a Bible, do they automatically go to hell? How is that just and fair if they had no chance to hear His word?
No, they do not automatically go to hell. There will be many innocent babies, non-responsible people, and young children who will not be lost because they died having never committed a sin. No one “automatically goes to hell.” That’s the answer to the first part of this question. God does not condemn the innocent. The second part of the question is concerned with those who have sinned but have never heard the word of God. Let’s discuss that now.
One of the assumptions in this question is that somehow God owes the world a chance to be saved or God is not a just and fair God. That is not the case. Every person is born into this world innocent. What happens after that is that people grow into adults and choose to commit sin. It is one’s own sins that brings him into a state of condemnation. Isaiah 59:1-2 says, “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” So, if a person is not saved, it is not God’s fault. The fault lies solely upon the person himself who committed the sin. This includes people who have never heard the gospel. This is completely and totally fair. How? Because God exonerates the innocent and punishes the guilty. That’s justice, and that is fair. Psalm 7:11 says, “God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day.” If God were to somehow decide not to punish the wicked, He would not be fair; that would not be just. It is manifestly unjust to permit the wicked to go unpunished. It is also unjust and not fair to punish someone who is innocent. God will not do this either. Abraham knew this when he asked God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah. He asked, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” He then says, “Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:23, 25). God, who is the Judge of all the earth, always does what is right!
Ezekiel 18:4-18 discusses the guilt of the wicked and the exoneration of the innocent. Read what is said here. First, God makes it clear that “all souls are mine.” God owns everything, and He has a right to do with it what He wills. However, God is going to be just and fair with everyone. He is not going to punish someone who is innocent and reward someone who is guilty. The person who sins is the person who is going to be held guilty, not the person who doesn’t sin. So, God is fair (period).
Now, God is also gracious because He has extended the gospel to everyone through His Son Jesus. He did not have to do that, but He wanted to do that. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Also, 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” In fact, God wants everyone to be saved. First Timothy 2:3-4says, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God’s graciousness demonstrates that He is imminently fair. There is no way that God cannot be fair when He has offered mankind a way out of the sins that they have committed. Fairness is just the opposite of grace. We should not mistake the two.
Having said that, God is not going to save someone outside of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Peter said, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Second Thessalonians 1:8-9 says that Jesus Christ will take “vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” This will be fair and just. If anyone is saved, it will be because God was gracious and merciful.
So, to answer the question, yes, it is fair for those who have never heard the gospel to be lost and punished for their sins. That is the definition of fairness and justice: the guilty are punished for their sins and the innocent are not. However, God is not only just and fair, He is also gracious and merciful, and He has made a way for us to escape His justice and fairness through the gospel. Therefore, if someone does not hear and obey the gospel, it does not mean that God has not been just or fair. God can only be gracious and merciful for saving those who will be saved. He will never be unfair for condemning those who have committed sin and wickedness.