belief — Blog — Glenn E. Pearson

How often have you heard this one?

“You’re telling me that only Christians go to heaven? What about someone who was brought up in a different faith or people from remote areas who never even heard of Jesus? How is it fair for God to condemn them to hell?”

This may be the single most common objection to biblical Christianity. How do you respond to that?

First, let me outline a tried-and-true, solid answer, and then I’ll extend that argument a bit.

The first thing to recognize is that God is absolutely righteous (i.e., fair) in his judgment (Acts 17:31). Next, Paul deals with the exclusivity question in Romans 1. He begins by explaining that no one who rejects God’s existence can accuse him of being unfair because God’s invisible attributes,

namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him (Romans 1:19-20).

In other words, absolutely everyone should know that God exists.

Tony Evans takes this thought process to the next step when he explains that

God will judge people according to the light they have. Thus, those who sinned without the law (Romans 2:12) . . . will be judged according to the law that is written on their hearts” (The Tony Evans Bible Commentary, p. 1119).

Or putting it another way, people won’t be held accountable for something they don’t know about. Essentially, this is an argument from the lesser to the greater. Let me explain.

For the sake of discussion, let me arbitrarily suggest there may be eight or nine “levels” of belief involved in becoming a Christian. (There may be fewer or more.) The first step might be acknowledging there is some kind of god. The second might be that this god has a personality (as opposed to being a vague “force”). The third point might be that this god created us. And so on. The final step is acknowledging my personal sin that can only be dealt with by Jesus’ sacrificial death on my behalf and committing my life to him.

Here’s why this is an argument from the lesser to the greater. The thoughts are getting more and more specific. If someone denies the very existence of God (a pretty “mild” belief), there is no way they will surrender to Christ’s lordship (a very demanding one). This means that even if someone has never heard of Jesus, they can be held accountable for having “rejected him” (Step 8) if they deny that God even exists in the first place (Step 1).

This is a well-known line of reasoning and can be quite effective. My addition to this thought pattern is to push it to its logical conclusion. If someone rejects the Christian message as “unfair” to people who have never heard or were brought up in a different faith, they are rejecting Paul’s teaching in Acts 17:31 and denying God’s fairness. “I would never condemn someone for not responding to something they never even heard of.” But stop for a minute. They are implicitly claiming that their sense of fairness is greater than God’s. Do you really think it’s wise to go there?

This may be one of those “slow burn” thoughts that someone has to mull over for a while before they recognize how presumptuous it is. Although I have only shared this logic with a few people, I have yet to have someone be willing to admit that they consider themselves to be more fair than God is.

What do you think? Does this argument fly?