Do Non-Believers Who Never Knew About God Go To Hell?

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Hi,

Before I answer this, I really have to wonder why everyone always brings in the extremes when asking about what God would do to a certain type of person: Rapists, murderers, pedophiles, Hitler…it’s like somebody has to do something really bad to go to Hell. But what people don’t seem to realize is that EVERYBODY is bound for Hell, regardless of how good or bad they are in this lifetime.

See, Jesus said in John 3:18 that “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him, but anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” That’s why when we accept and follow Jesus Christ, it’s known as being “saved” (well, one of the reasons). That’s also why we can say that God doesn’t send anybody to hell, because we send ourselves there by rejecting Christ, who happens to be our own means of salvation. So by rejecting Christ, you’re actually sending yourself to Hell.

Now, some people say that there’s an age of consent, or something, like how the Jews have Bar Mitzvah set for an age where the child has to decide to take on the responsibilities of the Law for him/herself. Now, however nice that would be, the Bible and everything about original sin reject this possibility. In fact, this original sin, the stench we’re born with, is what separates us from God in the first place (even if somebody does good all their lives, and why “good people” won’t go to Heaven if they don’t know Christ).

So to look at your example again, will the kid who’s tortured and killed go to Hell, even if he never knew about Christ? The answer is “yes”, for it’s Christ that one needs to not go to Hell.

Now, usually, the next response from you would be to tell me that’s not fair and that God can’t be a just God if He allows that to happen. But you have to understand, Jesus commanded His people (His disciples, who passed on the command to others who had accepted and followed the Messiah) to share about Him to people of every nation of the earth. So if you know Christ, and know a child who doesn’t know Christ, then they’re tortured and killed without knowing Christ, then that’s actually kinda on you, because you were given the command to share, but you didn’t. I mean, you won’t go to hell now because you didn’t share with somebody about Jesus, but do you understand what I mean in terms of the urgency of getting this message about Jesus out now?

It’s sort of like that question about the missionary who goes to an uncharted island and witnesses to the natives there. The chief asked, “so if I never knew about sin and Christ, then I wouldn’t ever know I was a sinner, or that I need to be saved. So wasn’t I better off not knowing?” And the answer to that is “no”, because, as I mentioned above, everybody’s hell-bound. There’s only 1 way to be saved from Hell and that’s through Christ (though there’s more to knowing and following Him than acquiring Him as “fire insurance”). But nobody has any reason to know the urgency of repenting of their sins and accepting Christ if they don’t know they need Him.