What about People Who Have Never Heard about Jesus?

I met Natasha in southern Russia in 1995. Russia was recovering from seventy years of Communist rule. She had just graduated from university with a degree in English language and literature.

Is There a God? 

When I met Natasha, she was a new believer in Jesus. Her story raised a challenging question that troubles me even today. I can’t forget it. 

Natasha grew up in Russia during the harshness of the Communist regime. She had never once heard the name of Jesus, not even as a curse word, until near the end of her university years. 

Natasha’s childhood education was shaped by scientific atheism in a Marxist system. Her elementary school years were marked by the ruthless indoctrination for which Communist educators were famous. Natasha had an inquiring mind which often got her into trouble at school. She seemed always to be asking the wrong questions. 

One day on the way to school, she was suddenly overwhelmed by the beauty of nature around her; southern Russia is a beautiful place. At school, she had been taught all of creation was the result of chance, but as she walked to school, a question popped into her mind, “All this beauty in nature around me could not have just happened as the teacher tells us.” The thought triggered another idea, “There must at least be some Power, someone or something that triggered the evolutionary process.” 

As she walked along, a voice whispered a dangerous answer to the questions inside her head, “Such beauty could not have just happened. Maybe there is a God!” 

There is No God 

When she arrived at school, young Natasha couldn’t contain herself. Not knowing any better, she blurted out to the teacher, “Is there a God?” The teacher’s face instantly filled with shock and fear. “You must never ask such a question,” she quickly replied. 

But Natasha’s naiveté pushed her to expand on the question, “But, Respected Teacher, the forests were so beautiful this morning! Did God make them?” 

Her teacher flew into a rage and announced Natasha would remain after class to write lines, punishment for such an outrageous and unscientific question. After her classmates had left, Natasha stood at the chalkboard, tears running down her cheeks as she wrote one thousand times, “There is no God!” 

Several days later, as she walked home from school, the leaves were turning a brilliant gold and red as winter approached. Natasha was once again overcome with a naïve sense Someone must have created the beautiful forests along the pathway that led to her home. 

I know it could not have just happened! she told herself. But how? She remembered the line she had written one thousand times on the chalkboard― there is no God! 

Arriving home to the dark little apartment where she lived with her family, she felt like the dangerous thoughts tumbling around in her head would make it explode. She was overcome by an inexplicable sense of something she couldn’t explain. Not understanding what was happening, Natasha fell to her knees in the living room, lifted her hands above her head and cried loudly, “O God, if there is a God, please show me who you are!” 

Ten years passed! Natasha graduated from high school and entered the Kuban State University of Krasnodar. This was during the era of perestroika.¹ As the Communist regime fell apart, people experienced freedom of thought and religion for the first time. It was a period of unprecedented openness to new ideas. Foreigners flooded the universities in her city, telling everyone about Jesus. 

One day a friend invited her to a Bible study. Nowhere in her English language and literature program had Natasha heard about the book her friend mentioned, the Bible. Intrigued, she went to an English study group with her friend to discuss this unknown book. In the first study, she heard the answer to her childhood question, “Is there a God?” She learned there is a God, and what is more, God has a Son, whose name is Jesus. God loved her so much that He sent Jesus to die and pay the penalty for her sins. Almost immediately, Natasha opened her heart to Jesus and became a committed follower. 

A Troubling Question 

Natasha’s story raised a troubling question in my mind. I couldn’t get rid of the image of a young girl on her knees in her dark living room, hands raised above her head, speaking to Someone her teacher said did not exist. 

The words she cried out, “God, if there is a God, please show me who you are!” haunted me. What if Natasha hadn’t lived long enough to hear about Jesus? What if, for some reason, Natasha had died the night she cried out to God, never having heard of Jesus, never knowing the answer to her question? 

I wondered where she would have gone after she died. I certainly believed in heaven. I didn’t want to believe in hell, but I did. Everywhere I went in those days in Russia, a country finally wide open to the Good News about Jesus, I met young Russians who had grown up during the Soviet era, and most had never before heard of Jesus. What is the eternal future of people who still have never heard about Him? 

Two years later, I was back in Canada. Every chance I got to speak in church, I told Natasha’s story, ending with the little girl kneeling in her dingy living room in southern Russia, hands raised, crying out, “O God, if there is a God, please show me who you are.” 

I would invite listeners to help me think about the question troubling me if Natasha had died that night, would she have gone to heaven? It always started good discussions about whether people who have never heard about Jesus are lost. It was and still is a complex question that raises many other related questions. 

What Does it Mean to Be Lost? 

What does it mean to be lost? I remember once getting separated from my hiking buddies in the mountains. Totally disoriented, I didn’t know whether to go right or left at a fork in the path. Night was falling, and I was filled with panic. My solution was to find and follow the river; eventually, I’d find a road and some people. But which way was the river? I knew the sun sets in the west, but it was so overcast the sun wasn’t visible. I was lost, far away from anyone who could show me the way. It was a terrifying feeling to know I was lost. 

Are People Who Have Never Heard about Jesus Lost? 

When I ask if people who have never heard about Jesus are “lost,” I am asking if they are separated from God. Are they saved? The question raises a ton of other questions. If they aren’t followers of Jesus, will they spend eternity apart from God when they die? Statistics tell us that 2.3 billion people in the world call themselves Christian.² This means only one-third of all the people in the world have some understanding of who Jesus is.³ And at least one-third of all the people in the world don’t have easy access to knowing Jesus because there is no one near who can tell them. They live in a place or a culture or language group with no evangelizing church among them. Unless someone goes into their group from the outside, they have no way of knowing Jesus. We who care about lost people talk about people who’ve never heard about Jesus as unreached people groups (UPGs for short.)⁴

Is knowing about or even just acknowledging there is a God enough to save a person from judgment when they die? The question I’m really asking is, what does a person have to know to be saved? 

How Much Does a Person Have to Know to Be Saved? 

Natasha moved toward belief in God’s existence by looking at nature. The Apostle Paul believed that God’s existence and power are clearly revealed to everyone through creation. In Romans 1:19-20, he writes the basic reality of God is pretty plain. “. . . what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities―his eternal power and divine nature―have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” 

The question is whether what is revealed about God through nature (theologians call that general revelation)⁵ is enough to save a person from spiritual death and eternal judgment. Romans 2:14-16 goes even further in saying the requirements of God’s law are written in the heart of every person. Each one’s innate moral judgment or conscience tells them what God requires of them. Paul says, 

When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences. (MSG⁶) 

Paul suggests that just as Gentiles cannot be saved by keeping the Jewish law, neither are Gentiles saved by the general knowledge they get about God from creation. Using circumcision as the example, Paul said to Jews who put great stock in having been circumcised,⁷ proving they had kept all the Jewish laws, all people live under the power of sin: 

Circumcision, the surgical ritual that marks you as a Jew, is great if you live in accord with God’s law. But if you don’t, it’s worse than not being circumcised. The reverse is also true. The uncircumcised who keep God’s ways are as good as the circumcised – in fact, better. Better to keep God’s law uncircumcised than break it circumcised. Don’t you see: it’s not the cut of a knife that makes you a Jew. You become a Jew by who you are. It’s the mark of God on your heart, not a knife on your skin, that makes you a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics. (Romans 2:25-29, MSG, emphasis in original) 

Paul’s conclusion is all human beings, Jew and Gentile, are lost. No oneis righteous, not one of us. No one seems to understand the truth. He says so clearly, “Doing what the law prescribes will not make anyone right in the eyes of God... You see, all have sinned, and all their futile attempts to reach God in His glory fail. Yet they are now saved and set right by His free gift of grace through the redemption available only in Jesus the Anointed” (Romans 3:20, 23-24, VOICE⁸). 

When I think about Natasha, I draw hope from the reality of how, to someone who responds obediently to what God reveals of Himself in nature, God will send more light, often through a human messenger. This is pretty special. In fact, the revelation brought by the messenger is what we call special revelation,⁹ which includes everything God has revealed about Himself through Christ and the Scriptures. Of course, God’s supreme Messenger or special revelation was His Son, Jesus, who came as a human being to show us who God is. That’s why John 3:16-17 (MSG) says: 

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. 

Do People Have to Know about Jesus? 

It seems from these verses that what God shows of Himself in nature isn’t what saves someone from the death sentence mentioned in these verses. People have to know about Jesus. John says by believing in Him, anyone can have “a whole and lasting life.” God sent Jesus to reveal His love. It’s comforting to me to see how God sent an American who was enthusiastic about the Gospel to students at the Kuban State University of Krasnodar, a messenger who could explain who Jesus is to people like Natasha who were lost. She introduced students to the Bible, which clearly reveals to its readers who Jesus is. No wonder theologians use the words special revelation when they refer to the message Jesus brought when He came to earth and also to God’s Word, the Bible. 

If seeing God in creation isn’t enough, what do people need to know and understand about God to be saved from eternal death? They must know God has a Son. Simply put, people must know about Jesus. The solution to the lost condition of people who have never heard about Jesus is a person who God sends, a person Paul says has “beautiful feet,” because he goes to tell lost people about Jesus. Paul says: 

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14-15). 

Is Jesus the Only Way? 

A friend of mine thinks some Christians are narrow-minded, especially those who believe salvation is found only in Jesus. She isn’t happy that people like me think believing in God (or a god) is insufficient. My response to this friend is Truth is narrow. We don’t consider it to be mathematical prejudice or narrow-mindedness to claim four plus four equals eight rather than ten or twelve or twenty. It’s a matter of truth. This is why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). These are His own words. So, whether it seems narrow or not, Jesus is clearly the only way to God. Truth is narrow. 

That’s Not Fair! 

One Sunday night, I told Natasha’s story to a youth group. The junior high youth had joined the high school group to hear me speak. The younger teens were restless. I was sure they didn’t hear much of what the missionary said. The promise of pizza after the Bible study motivated them to sit reasonably quiet for thirty minutes. One of the youngest, about thirteen, sitting in the front row with a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes, squirmed uncomfortably the whole time. He was right in front of me, but I was sure he didn’t hear or understand a word I said, much less care about it. 

I finished Natasha’s story with the usual, provocative question, “Here’s my question for you guys! If Natasha had died that night after she called out to God to reveal himself to her, where would she have spent eternity?” I asked the students to discuss the question in small groups and report to the group in fifteen minutes with Scripture to support their answers. 

When the students gathered to report back to the large group, we heard different perspectives on the fate of Natasha, who had never heard about Jesus at the time she cried out to God. They even raised new questions, such as was she saved or unsaved? Do only saved people go to heaven? As I always am, they were troubled how through no fault of her own, Natasha had never heard about Jesus! 

Some students used Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” to consider Natasha’s destiny had she died. They suggested because she had never called on Jesus, the Lord, to save her, she wouldn’t have gone to heaven. Others believed she would have gone to heaven because she responded to the light of nature that God had shown her. Another group was quite sure because God is good and knows every heart, He would not have condemned her to hell. 

I admitted it was a challenging and troubling question. Sitting in the back row, the pastor cringed when I grinned and suggested they be sure to ask their pastor how he would answer the question. It’s a difficult one! 

Three Views on Those Who Have Never Heard about Jesus 

Traditionally there have been three approaches to answering this difficult question. One view, which people call the “exclusivist view,” states without apology Jesus is the only Saviour of the world. Those who hold this view say to be saved, a person must believe in God’s special revelation of Himself in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which is pretty exclusive! 

In contrast, the “inclusivist view” agrees Jesus is the only Saviour of the world but argues a person does not have to hear the Gospel¹⁰ to be saved. In other words, if anyone is saved, it is because of the death of Jesus. Not everyone will hear the Gospel, but those who respond in faith to the revelation they do have will be saved. Inclusivists believe salvation is only in Christ, but knowledge of Christ’s work is not necessary for salvation. John Sanders, an inclusivist, says, “people might receive the gift of salvation without knowing the giver or the precise nature of the gift.”¹¹

A third view, called “pluralism,” says all paths are valid, and all lead to God. This view opens the door to believing people who faithfully follow world religions other than Christianity can be saved.¹² 

Because I always stick close to Scripture when trying to answer such questions,¹³ my head has always led me towards the exclusivist view (see below). But in today’s culture, some say the term “exclusivist” sounds so culturally insensitive, narrow-minded, intolerant, and dogmatic, all being words the culture around doesn’t want to hear. When I discuss this complex issue with people, I often lose my audience before they even engage with me because my answer sounds rather “exclusive.” I keep referring them back to God’s Word, the Scriptures. 

The issue raises so many troubling questions. The biggest question for me is whether there is any basis to hope those who do not hear about Jesus in this life will be saved. There are at least nine different ways people who call themselves Christians have answered this question. These responses fall along a spectrum. At one end of the continuum is the position people must hear the Gospel and trust Christ to be saved.¹⁴ At the other end is pluralism, saying all major religions are equally valid, and Christ and Christianity aren’t unique.¹⁵ 

Is There Any Basis to Hope Those Who Don’t Hear about Jesus in This Life Will Be Saved? 

As I talked with the teenagers during the night, I explained my answer to the question heading this paragraph is “No.” This means I hold to the exclusivist view. I believe, with the coming of Jesus Christ, the focus of faith was narrowed to one man. He was the fulfillment of all the sacrifices and prophecies in the Old Testament. Whether a person lived before Jesus’ death or after, all saving faith points in trust to what Jesus did for us on the Cross. Our faith looks to His death for the sins of all time. 

A Story from Acts Chapter 4 

I told the group a story from Acts 4, which helps determine what one must know to be saved. Peter and John healed a beggar known to everyone, raising suspicion among religious leaders. This gave Peter an opportunity to preach a fine message to the Jewish crowd, telling them it was by the name of Jesus Christ that he and John had healed the disabled man. 

As Peter preached, he clearly told the crowd the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection. He announced the Good News of how Jesus had died to forgive the sins of each one of them, but he made it clear they had to repent and believe (Acts 3:19). Over and over, Peter and John referred to the power of Jesus’ name. They spoke of having faith in His name (verse 16). Imagine, five thousand people believed in Jesus afterwards! 

Even though Peter and John spent the night in prison because of their message, they continued the next day to speak about Jesus, who had died and risen from the dead just a few months earlier. Peter again told the crowd there was something about the very name of Jesus, which brings about salvation for anyone who believes in His name. Referring to Jesus, Peter told them, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to [people] by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, emphasis added). 

Peter had just told thousands of religious-minded listeners the story of Jesus. He reminded them of their Jewish history and explained how in Jesus Christ, all of salvation history was narrowed down to one Person. He pointed to Jesus when he said salvation could be “found in no one else.” If I were to say a person can be saved without believing in Jesus, it would mean Jesus didn’t need to die after all. It would suggest there was some other way. It would make a mockery of Jesus’ death. 

I reminded the youth during Natasha’s childhood that she had never heard the name of Jesus, not once! Through the beauty of creation (general revelation), the existence and even the power of God had become crystal clear to her. Creation had prompted her to think about God and cry out to Him to reveal Himself to her. But it’s hard to ignore the decisive words Peter used to finish his message, the words in Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to [people] by which we must be saved.” 

That’s Not Fair! 

I said to the students sitting in front of me, “Natasha had not yet believed in Jesus–how could she? She’d never heard about Him. So, she was not saved. If I understand Acts 4:12, Natasha would not have gone to heaven because she wasn’t saved, and as I understand heaven, it’s only for saved people. To be saved, you must believe in Jesus.” The room fell quiet. 

Suddenly, the young boy in the front row, who I’d assumed hadn’t been listening to a word I’d said all evening, rose to his feet, pulled his baseball cap off his head, and yelled in a loud and angry voice, “That’s not fair!” He sat down and lowered his head into his hands. 

The room became instantly quiet. All eyes were on me. I said three short sentences into the silence, “You are right!! It’s not fair! That is why I am a missionary!” 

There Must Be a Gospel Messenger 

My exclusivist view, rooted in Scripture, leads me to say salvation is found only in the work of Jesus. I believe God uses general revelation (God revealed in creation) as one step toward salvation, and it often serves as a preparation for the Gospel.¹⁶ A person might see God in creation, but there must still be a gospel messenger who points them to God’s Son, Jesus, who died for them. I say this because I believe the Gospel is the only means of salvation. For this reason, I call myself a “gospel exclusivist.¹⁷

This is why the Church must focus its best efforts on evangelism and missions. God’s “ordinary” way of bringing people to faith in Jesus is by sending the Gospel, usually carried by a messenger to those who have never heard of Him. Seeing God in creation is not enough. This is why I’m an international worker! 

Some “exclusivists” believe, as I do, that the Church should focus on sending messengers. They also recognize, as I do, how God might choose to send a special revelation to someone who has never heard the Good News, using an “extraordinary” means. God works in supernatural ways. The Holy Spirit might choose to use a direct revelation from God, a dream, a vision, a miracle, or an angel bringing a gospel message to someone who has never heard the Good News. 

I remind myself every day the customary way by which sinners come to know and love God is through a messenger bringing the Good News of what Jesus did in dying for them. So, when I pray for unreached people groups, I always pray God will raise up many in the next generation who will go as messengers. But I’m glad sometimes God uses extraordinary ways to bring the message of Jesus to lost people.¹⁸ 

Is it Just for God to Send People Who Have Never Heard the Gospel to Hell? 

As I work through the spectrum of nine different responses to the sobering question, “Is there any basis for hope those who do not hear about Jesus in this life will be saved?” I see some responders trying, optimistically, to find hope of salvation apart from the Gospel. They ask the sincere question, “Is it just or fair for God to send people to hell who have never heard the Gospel?” They want to widen the doorway of hope to include other ways to salvation. 

Inclusivists, which is what we call such people, charge exclusivists like me with unfairness and injustice. Like the young boy in the youth group, they cry out, “It’s not fair!” How could it be fair and just for those who have not heard the Gospel, which is necessary for salvation, to be lost forever? There are two faulty assumptions behind their accusation that “It’s not fair!”¹⁹ 

Condemned Because We Are Sinners 

The first mistaken assumption is people are condemned because they have rejected the Gospel. But remember, the people we’re talking about haven’t even heard the Gospel, so they haven’t rejected it. The Bible is completely clear; condemnation isn’t based on rejecting the Gospel but on the fact we are sinners. 

Romans 5:18 says, “So here is the result: one man’s sin [Adam] brought condemnation and punishment for all people” (VOICE, emphasis in original). Paul also says God’s wrath is revealed against anyone (Jews and Gentiles alike) who rejects God’s truth as revealed through creation (Romans 1:18-25). In Romans, Paul argues that just as everyone has an innate knowledge of God, rebellion is also innate. Rebellion is the basis of our guilt.²⁰

Natasha’s condemnation was because she was a sinner, not because she rejected (or had never heard) the Gospel. Natasha cried out to God. She wasn’t rebelling against Him, but she was still guilty before Him. Whenever I thought about this, as I pondered the fairness of God against which the young boy protested, I took hope for people like Natasha who turn to God and cry out, based on the light of general revelation. 

Natasha needed Jesus to save her from sin. God could have used extraordinary means (a dream or vision or an angelic messenger) to communicate the Gospel. But freedom to evangelize came to Russia, and with freedom came a messenger who told her about Jesus. 

A Confusion of Justice and Mercy 

The second mistaken assumption behind the assertion of unfairness is our tendency to confuse justice and mercy. Yes, it is just and fair for God to punish those who are guilty because they are sinners.²¹ God wasn’t obliged to provide salvation for guilty sinners, but it is merciful and gracious that He did so. As Morgan and Peterson say, “. . . because of his grace and mercy (in a way consistent with his justice), God made atonement for our sins through Christ’s death and resurrection. And in grace and mercy, God sends good news to the guilty so they can repent and trust Christ.”²²

The question, “Is it fair that God punishes those who have never heard the Gospel?” must be answered with a “yes.” We ask, “Is it fair that millions will never hear the Gospel? My stomach writhes as I respond, “No, it is not.” This was actually the issue against which the young boy in the youth group protested. He was angry because, without a messenger, Natasha was lost, as are millions today. I don’t question the justice of God’s punishment of the guilty, but I am troubled that the news of God’s mercy has reached so few. It isn’t fair! 

All of us stand condemned before a holy God, deserving His anger. In this, God is fair. However, perhaps there is greater condemnation for those who live in places in Christianized, developed countries with centuries of Christian history and access to the Bible. Maybe we bear more condemnation than those in areas where the reach of the Gospel is limited. Why? Because we know about Jesus but keep that Good News to ourselves. 

Perhaps We Are the Problem 

The greatest mystery to me isn’t the character of God (His love, His justice or His mercy) or the destiny of lost people. The greatest mystery is why we, who have God’s Word and could share the story of Jesus with people who are lost, don’t go to people who have not heard. 

Robertson McQuilkan, who went to Japan to tell lost Japanese about Jesus, asks us why we who know Jesus are busy doing other things, maybe even very good things, but aren’t going ourselves or sending others until every single person now alive has heard about Jesus.²³ The problem isn’t with God’s character but with our obedience to the last command of Jesus, “Therefore go and make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). 

This is an excerpt from the book, On Mission Volume 5. Download your free copy today.

1. Perestroika (meaning “restructuring”) was a political movement of reformation within the Communist Party in the Soviet Union during the late 1980s and 90s. It is widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (“openness”) policy reform. He introduced a series of political and economic reforms he thought would kickstart the stagnant economy of the Soviet Union. Instead, his reforms led to the disintegration of Communism as it had been known in the Soviet Union during the seventy years since the Russian Revolution.
2. The label “Christian” can be confusing. People who call themselves Christians may be Christian in name only, perhaps church attendee or people who simply hold to some form of cultural or denominational Christianity without understanding who Jesus is. Most sources suggest that roughly 31% of the world is “Christian.” 
3. There are about 7.9 billion people in the world. (2022) https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ 
4. An Unreached People Group is a group that currently has little access to the Gospel. They are hidden, not in the sense that they are invisible, but in the sense that there is no way, given current conditions, that they can hear the Gospel in their own language in a way that makes sense to them. (A. Scott Moreau, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee. Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey. 2nd Edition. 2015 Grand Rapids, MI. Baker Academic, p. 18).
5. Theologians speak of general and special revelation. General revelation refers to general truths that can be known about God as revealed through nature. Special revelation is how God has chosen to reveal Himself through miraculous means, the ultimate form of special revelation being the person of Jesus Christ. Another form of special revelation by God, of primary importance, is His Word, the Bible. Special revelation also includes dreams, visions and physical appearances of God. 
6. The Message (MSG). Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.  
7. The special meaning of circumcision for the people of Israel is found in Genesis 17 and was imposed on Abraham and his descendants as a token of covenant membership in God’s people.
8. The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. 
9. See footnote 6. 
10. There are many good definitions of the Gospel. For simplicity, I give one from Scripture: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He rose on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
11. Sanders, John. No Other Name: An Investigation into the Destiny of the Unevangelized. Grand Rapids, MI. Eerdmans. 1992, pp. 216.  
12. A very fine book that gives a great summary of these three views and an excellent response to inclusivism is the book edited by Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson called Faith Comes by Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008.  
13. The Scripture is God’s authoritative Word. I hold as a belief that which agrees with what God has revealed in His Word.  
14. James Borland, “A Theologian Looks at the Gospel and World Religions,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 33 (March 1990): 3-11.  
15. Morgan and Peterson, p. 36.
16. John Piper. Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1993. P. 151-159.  
17. I am using the labels developed in Morgan and Peterson’s book, p. 26.
18. People who believe God sometimes uses special revelations of Himself beyond Christ and the Scriptures might be called “special revelation exclusivists.” See Morgan and Peterson, p. 28,29 for a more complete explanation.  
19. Morgan and Peterson, pages 241-243 give an excellent, succinct response to the question, “Is it just for God to send people to hell who have never heard of Jesus?” My discussion is based on their response.  
20. William Edgar writes a chapter in Morgan and Peterson called Exclusivism: Unjust or Just.
21. Morgan and Peterson, p. 242.  
22. Morgan and Peterson, p. 242.
23. Robertson McQuilkan. The Great Omission: A Biblical Basis for World Evangelism. Waynesboro, GA. Authentic Media. 2002. P. 52.