EKLI - Life, together

Ways Christians See It

What about those who never hear?

Romans 1:18-20, Romans 2:12-16, Acts 4:12, 1 Timothy 2:3-6

Billions of people have lived and died without hearing the name of Jesus. Some lived before he was born. Some lived on continents no missionary reached for another thousand years. Some died as infants. The question is not academic and never has been, and it presses hardest on people who have lost someone.

Scripture pulls in more than one direction here, which is why the question stays open. Peter says there is no other name by which we must be saved. Paul says God desires all people to be saved. Paul also says the who do not have the law show its work written on their hearts. Nobody gets to quote one of those and call it settled.

Where everyone agrees

Everyone here holds that Christ is the only Saviour and that no one is saved apart from his work. Nobody here thinks sincerity in any religion is sufficient, and nobody here thinks God is unjust. The disagreement is about how the benefit of Christ's work reaches someone who never heard his name.

Hearing and believing are required

Salvation comes through conscious faith in Christ. Without the message there is no faith, which is why the mission is urgent.

What it claims

Paul's argument in Romans 10 is a chain, and he means it as one. How can they call on him they have not believed in, how can they believe in him they have not heard, how can they hear without a preacher. He is not musing. He is explaining why someone must be sent. The general revelation in Romans 1 is real, and Paul's point about it is that it leaves people without excuse, not that it saves them. Softening this is not kindness. It removes the reason the church exists.

Who holds it

The historic majority position across most of Protestantism, and the assumption behind the modern missionary movement.

The texts it stands on

  • Romans 10:13-15 The chain from calling to believing to hearing to being sent
  • Acts 4:12 No other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved
  • Romans 1:20 General revelation leaves people without excuse, which is a verdict rather than a door
  • John 14:6 No one comes to the Father except through me

Strongest case

It reads Romans 10 as an argument rather than as rhetoric, and it takes the exclusive statements at full strength without qualification. It also has the clearest account of why missionary work is urgent, and history suggests that account is what actually motivates people to go.

Hardest question

It appears to make salvation depend on the accident of geography and birth date. A person in twelfth-century Japan had no more opportunity than a stone. And it struggles to explain how Old Testament believers were saved, since they did not know the name either, which suggests conscious knowledge of Jesus cannot be the strict requirement.

How it answers that

On the Old Testament, this view answers that those believers responded to the revelation actually given to them, which pointed forward to Christ, and that is not a general principle covering people who received no such revelation. On geography, it makes two replies. First, no one is condemned for not hearing; people are condemned for sin, and not hearing means not receiving the remedy. Second, God is not obliged to save anyone, so the question of fairness is being asked backwards. Its defenders add that they take the implication seriously enough to have spent two centuries getting on boats.

Holding the map

Watch what each position is protecting, because that is usually the real disagreement. Restrictivism protects the urgency of mission. Inclusivism protects the justice of God. The postmortem view protects both by adding a scene. Reticence protects the limits of what we were told.

It is worth saying plainly that the tone of this argument matters more than most. It is usually being conducted, somewhere in the room, in front of someone who has buried a person they loved.

EKLI serves Christians across traditions. On questions where churches differ we explain how each one sees it and leave the deciding to you.

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