Will those who never heard the gospel be judged based on moral knowledge of good and evil they inherited from Adam and Eve?
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I’ve been grappling with a major theological question: Is it fair and just for people who died without ever hearing the gospel to be raised, judged, and condemned to hell, especially since some might have believed if they had the chance to hear it?
Paul says in Romans 10:17, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," which suggests that faith is impossible without first hearing the gospel. This raises a significant issue about what happens to those who never had that opportunity. I’d like a general overview of how different Christian viewpoints address this dilemma.
This seems to leave us with two possibilities: either these individuals will be raised back to life and given an opportunity to accept Jesus, or they will be judged based on an inherent, objective knowledge of good and evil that’s built into everyone’s consciousness from Adam and Eve.
However, Hebrews 9:27 appears to challenge the first option, stating, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment," implying that all people—whether they heard the gospel or not—face judgment after a single life, with no second chance.
Consider the people of Nineveh as an example. They didn’t have the same knowledge of God as the Jews did—with the ark of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, the tabernacle, and so on—yet this didn’t exempt them from judgment based on their actions. That’s why God sent Jonah to warn them.
It seems God ensured the Ninevites heard Jonah’s message before executing judgment, even forcing Jonah to go by sending the whale to swallow him. Does this imply that those who never heard the gospel will instead be judged based on the innate knowledge of good and evil inherited from Adam and Eve, since they never heard about Jesus?
This also highlights that a sense of right and wrong seems to be intuitively present in everyone, passed down from our first parents through birth.
I am asking for an overview of various denominations on this topic.
Asked by So Few Against So Many
(4829 rep)
Mar 4, 2025, 09:49 AM
Last activity: Mar 14, 2025, 12:33 AM
Last activity: Mar 14, 2025, 12:33 AM